It's Friday, albeit the fact that it's almost over.
It's been raining on and off throughout the week.  My flowering plants are going crazy with new blooms for all the water.  Honeysuckles have orange blooms all over them and - ummm - lol I can't remember the name of the other one - are also well abloom.  The only ones that aren't producing are the vines, which, when they feel like it, put out hundreds of beautiful yellow blooms.

It rained most of the day today.  Which, when driving a semi in heavy traffic, isn't really all that fun.  Not because of the rain itself, but because of the effect it has on other drivers on the road who are already not paying enough attention to the driving task at hand.

Noteworthy is the totally trashed pickup truck on the freeway.  I was on a transition ramp from one freeway to another.  I saw near the end of a median that has plants and landscaping rocks a decided scraping of tires.  Looking up, I saw it.  A pickup had slid across that dirt area, onto the next freeway, across 4 lanes and slammed against the concrete, rebar-reinforced median wall. The front end of that pickup trust was TRASHED.  This was coming off a steep turn and I surmised that he was going too fast coupled with wet roads.  There were no other vehicles involved.

Or other accidents I saw today. I try hard to stay out of accidents.  It isn't a matter of right and wrong - well that guy was at fault and I was in the right.  Who cares. Accidents cause a lot of problems if nothing else.  For a truck driver, employers don't want to have to deal with accidents that you are involved with, regardless of who is at fault. Accidents happen, definitely, I just try my best to avoid them even if people are driving completely stupid.

I was at one of our better contractor's sites today and I was speaking to one of the foremen.  In recent times, his eyes have turned red and are always red when I see him.

They are working 6 or 7 days a week - depending on the whims of the corporation that is paying for the construction of the new plant.  Their schedules are changed weekly.  This week, they are working through Sunday and have Monday off.  They have been subjected to this for about a year now.  I haven't bothered to tell them the life of an OTR truck driver and the relentless, grueling hours they spend on the road.  I did that for years.  I know what it's like - long before the CDL license and extreme rules - in driving well over hours and spending 7 days a week for months on the road.

Instead, I sympathized with them. They are away from their families alot and when they are home, they are tired, worn out and can't spend quality time with their children and spouses.  Oh, I said them, them being foremen that I frequently encounter at this particular jobsite who are getting burned out, yet know that the economy sucks and this is their only life-line right now. The foreman I was talking to today is abused by his company.  This I know for a fact.  Yet, he isn't going to say anything to them about it because he is making good money and he knows the prospects for an unemployed construction worker in the Phoenix area right now.

Regardless of what Obama, Michelle or Clinton had to say in their speeches, the economy is tanking and a LOT of people are out of work. A LOT of people have given up looking for jobs.  A LOT of people are on food stamps.  Well, that's all political, I didn't vote for Obama the fist time around and I will definitely not be voting for him this time. I'll write in Donald Duck before I vote for a man that made as many promises as he did in 2008 that have yet to be delivered.

Well, that man walked away from the conversation shaking his head at his plight.  This particular foreman hates to be told (not asked) to work on a  Sunday.  I would too, if it was an on-going thing. If it happened once in a great while, I wouldn't care that much.  In fact, I was called by my company on a Sunday night, at 9:00 pm, JUST as I was about to go to sleep.  Get to the shop, get the truck, drive to Tucson, get the pipe, bring it back to a site in Chandler.  It was after 8:00 am the next morning before I left work and went home to go to sleep.  I actually enjoyed that trip, it was a challenge and a change of pace.

In fact, I wouldn't mind being sent across the country on some wild trip to pick up something that for some reason can't be delivered any other way.  Lol, probably not  going to happen.  I don't miss the days of endless OTR driving, but a road trip here and there would be nice.

Nothing going on this weekend besides the normal.  Church, mostly.  I had thoughts of going up to the mountains, but, the situation with my mother constrains that.  It isn't a hopeless cause, but there is a at lease some chance that I will end up moving that trailer off of that property and back to my driveway.  Actually, a pretty good chance unless my mother is going to offer something different than what she has already said.  I wish I could afford monthly payments on a property up in the mountains somewhere, but I have enough as it is.

Well, it's just about my bedtime, even if a Friday.

ben