I was on the freeway going to work the other day.  It was still dark.  Some traffic, but no heavy.  A Highway Patrol cruiser gets onto the freeway from an on ramp.  I'm in a crowd of 10 or more vehicles spread out in 3 lanes.  He makes his " move" and gets directly behind my vehicle!

Admittedly my speedometer doesn't work - it's not high on the priority list of things to fix considering how much money they want to fix it - but I figured sticking at the same speed as everyone else around me should be good.  I have absolutely no idea what attracted that officer to get behind my car in the manner that he did.  Perhaps I was just being paranoid - I have a commercial driver's license and any kind of ticket is not something that's going to help my career out, doesn't matter if I'm driving my personal vehicle or a company's commercial vehicle, anything will count against my record.

Well, there was nothing wrong with the car, all the lights work and the registration is current along with current insurance.  So, I just waited for a while to see what was going to happen.  At some point, he finally got around from behind me and sped off.  I have no clue, but it made me really nervous.  Another month and a half - if I can just stay out of the way of commercial enforcement for another month and a half and not get any warnings or tickets, I will be given the Safe Driver Award again and it's now 2 weeks pay every time I get it.

The company is, however, not going to get us a new truck.  I dunno.  Trucks get older = more potential problems = potential warnings = trouble.

Well whatever.  Nothing I can do about it.  Whoever ordered the truck I am driving - delivered to us new almost 8 years ago - didn't apparently much care for "optional" things, things that I consider elemental to a truck and for it's driver.  The thing doesn't even have air horns.  It is missing most gauges - pyrometer; differential temp gauges; oil temp gauges; load application gauge: things I like to be able to see in a truck to make sure temps aren't heating up to critical levels.  It has idiot lights, instead, and of course, as most idiot lights go, they only come on AFTER a problem is already a done deal and nothing you can do about it.  It has a cheap, junk-plastic beverage holder that I quit using shortly after we got it - it dumps your drink onto the floor as soon as you hit a bump.  On and on.  I have put up with it for this long, but I am not really willing to continue to put up with a piece of junk forever.  We keep it maintained, but that's it.  No upgrades, nothing is ever approved except for repairs.  If I want something on it, I would have to pay for it myself.  The stereo in it is a cheap piece of junk with extremely tinny sound speakers.  You spend as much time in a truck as I spend in that one, you want at least a few things to be a bit better than cheap, tinsel-coated junk.

Well, off of that subject.  I can't do anything about Obama, but I pray that some of his agenda is stopped at the pass.  Obamacare is apparently a done deal, yet I am reading more and more news stories about companies planning on cutting back hours and now a couple of companies that are going to do flat-out layoffs.  And then restaurants that are declaring they are going to pass the expense onto the customers.

But the situation with Israel and Gaza is far more interesting and potentially even scary.  Well, if I were living in either land it would definitely be a bit scary, I would think, with the threat of bombs landing all around you at any time.  But what's interesting - wrong word - ummm - why can't I think of the right word here? lol - anyway is that what is it, Iran and Egypt being allies of Hamas? What kind of regional chaos could this escalate into?  And then the statements now coming from Iraq, of all places, backing Hamas/Gaza.  Yup, it is definitely something I am watching on a lot of different news fronts.

Caleb is still on his 7 day fast.  Monday he ends it.  I"m not worried - at all - it's a fast unto the Lord, not some thing used to lose weight.  I've done it a hundred times.  I'm more interested to find out what - if anything - he might see or hear in the spirit realm during or after going through it.

I took the dogs to Kiwanis Park early this morning.  It was cool out and we went on a brisk walk.  I tried to stay away from people but they went out of their way to stop me and ask questions about the dogs.  Duke was getting upset, too, lol.  He wanted to walk, darn-it, not stand around listening to "his" human talking.  Although I could have gone on much longer than we actually did - Prince's hip problem/bum leg/whatever you wanna call it started kicking in.  He was lightly dragging his foot and I didn't want to prolong that, so we went home.  There's not much I can do for him excepting taking him for "extended" walks as one vet suggests, though I won't go beyond what he can handle - and giving him the glucosamine pills.  He wasn't wincing in pain, though, he just couldn't keep that one hind leg from having his foot drag on the ground.  I won't be giving up on that dog until it becomes an issue to the point he can't get around or if he's in pain all the time.  I am not looking forward to having yet another dog being put down after having to have had put down 2 in the last 14 months or so.  It's not fun, Prince is a great dog and I hope I can get another year or two out of him if at all possible.  He's 8-1/2, which is into the end of the life expectancy of a Great Dane.  Yup, sucks, big dogs, shorter life span.

I'm done.  It's Saturday night, I don't really do much on weekend nights cause' - I almost always go to bed as early on these nights as I do on weeknights.  Thanksgiving week en-queue.  Meaning 4 days off.  Work through Wednesday and then take off after work with Caleb down to Sierra Vista where a hotel room is already reserved and paid for for us.  Yup, that's my dad : )  I'm trying to figure out how to enjoy being around a certain element of his wife's sons, one of which, well anyway.  I already went through this once and at Thanksgiving.  I'll just go with a good attitude and deal with it as it comes, I guess.  Or just ignore the man altogether if he really gets obnoxious.  I for some reason had the date confused in my mind about the church's Thanksgiving meal.  I thought they were doing it today, but it's actually tomorrow afternoon. So, church in the morning, come home and get some stuff done around the house and then church dinner with whosoever shows up (invites have been handed out to the community all over the place).

G'nite.

ben