Well, I’m down to 203. That makes 18 pounds so far. I’m shooting for 180, maybe 175, so we’ll see how that goes.

I may have found someone capable of running part of the route – the part that I usually end up getting done late, if at all. That should help with the sleep deprivation thing.

Plans are still fomenting regarding the campaign. I’m still working on getting some shorts (shorts? sheesh – I meant shirts!) set up for purchase – no profit line, just whatever the cost plus shipping to you is is what you will pay. I won’t see a red cent.

That’s all for now – gotta go take a nap before it gets too late.

Thank you for stopping by, God bless you all, Wear Red on Fridays, and write in Cary Cartter for President in 2008!

Tag: Write in Cary Cartter for President in 2008

This blog has suddenly centered itself. It didn’t do it last week (or whenever I was last posting) but it is now.

Does anyone have a clue as to what could be causing this?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you for stopping by, God bless you all, Wear Red on Fridays, and write in Cary Cartter for President in 2008!

Tag: Write in Cary Cartter for President in 2008

Hey, have you missed me?

I’ve not been very active here on the blog – and I apologize. Getting used to a different schedule is, at best, difficult.

Let me catch up to speed here:

First, I’m down to 205. Yes, 205. From 221 about three weeks ago. It’s called reducing caloric intake, increasing activity, and screwing up your sleep/snack schedule.

Imus – you are an idiot. You weren’t that good of a show host, and buddy, if anyone has a face for radio, you’re it.

Rutgers Ladies ball team: I applaud you for standing up to Imus’ idiocy. Really, laughing at his attempt at humor and referring to him as an idiot would have been better. Please, don’t become professional victims over this. The last thing any of you should accept is to be introduced as a member of the group that Imus insulted. You all have accomplished so much more with your lives, don’t allow this event to define your college career. Or limit your future.

Veterans of a certain age may have never heard the words “thank you for your service” or even “welcome home.” I know that, being at the tale end of that era, it is heartwarming to hear them. It is even more heartwarming to hear them from a young vet freshly returned from the sandboxes. Even better is for a member of a certain group to apologize for calling those in uniform “baby killers” – and you never saw the guy before.

Virginia Tech will feel the hurt from this mess for quite some time. I’m going to ask some hard questions here. Why was the scumbag allowed to continue shooting? Was no one else on that campus armed? All those intelligent people, and none of them thought to exercise their second amendment right? Why do the majority of the newspapers list 32 victims, but the New York Times insists on counting the scumbag as one of the victims, as in “33 Dead”? Early reports had the scumbag lining up the victims and executing them – has the liberal infusion of education gone that far? “Class, today we learn how to appease an aggressor…”

My thoughts and prayers are with those who were hurt or are hurting from this attack. But come on, a little gun control (no, not that kind – gun control means keeping your groups tight) would have solved this before his first attempt at reloading. Or a mass rush. He wouldn’t have stood a chance if the students had just ganged up on him. Yes, there would have been injuries, possibly deaths, but not 32 if he had been overrun after the first shots were fired. And, please – using the e-mail system to warn everyone? Like I’ve even checked my e-mail in the last couple of days – whatever happened to the old fashioned loudspeakers and warning sirens? Oh, yeah – too “coldwar”-ish, and to avoid offending, they were removed, right?

Pssh.

I’m still running a write in campaign for President. My plan (provided I find a helper for my route) is to ask my supporters to do a mass posting on a designated day of the week. This will be my “mass mailing”, and in it I will be asking for more supporters to join in getting my name in front of the people of this country. The legal citizens, who have voting privileges, that is – I don’t need or want or wish to pander to the illegal invader voter base (yes, that was a jab at you, Hillary), I want the fine members of We the People to vote for me. Or at least mention me often enough that the Career Politicians (ptew!) realize that We the People are tired of them catering to everyone but the ones who they are supposed to be representing…

Thank you for stopping by, God bless you all, Wear Red on Fridays, and write in Cary Cartter for President in 2008!

Tag: Write in Cary Cartter for President in 2008

As regular readers of this irregular blog may know, I recently started a new career path. I am an independent contractor, delivering bulk volumes of newspapers to retail outlets and also to news racks. This takes place between 2300 and 0600 hours, at least in theory.

The main publication is a statewide newspaper, with sections specifically printed for the different towns and cities in Arizona. The plant I pick up the bundles from also loads out to Yuma, Flagstaff, Tucson, and other areas.

Within the Phoenix metropolitan area, there are many zip codes. Each zip code, because of the density of the population here, is basically a retail route. The routes are grouped in zones. The zones that are further out from the loading dock are loaded first. My two routes (they used to be one, then they got split, then they got recombined, now they are split again – it’s complicated) are about five miles from the dock, each route is in a different zone, so I have two load schedules to watch and I am usually one of the last ones to load. Monday and Tuesday mornings are first come first served, so I get in line early so I can get home early.

The two routes take me about five hours to run. One of them is a two hour route, the other is two and a half hours. If I leave the dock no later than 0100 hours, then (this is where theory is proved wrong night after night) I can complete both routes by 0600. Otherwise, I need someone to run the shorter route in order to have both completed on time. Mondays and Tuesdays I can run the route myself; the rest of the week I’ve been finishing between 0700 and 0730 hours due to the late load times.

I pull a 4×8 utility trailer with my Infinity QX4. The trailer is rated at one ton. I push that limit every day.

Things I have learned this week:
1. Certain people think it’s a crime to pull a utility trailer with a “luxury” SUV. I keep telling them that it’s just a fancy Pathfinder.
2. I can get two route runs out of a tank of gas. Gas prices have been climbing all week. Ouch.
3. Before 0600 hours, or sunrise, whichever occurs first, certain traffic rules do not apply.
4. Like full stops.
5. And right on red after a full stop.
6. And Stop signs, No Left Turn signs, and those pesky “Speed Limit” signs.
7. And what exactly does “Exit Only” mean, when the drop box is right there?
8. Speed rules.
9. There is a difference between “speed” meaning velocity of travel and “speed” meaning efficiency of movement. Guess which one matters most when you have two hours to complete three hours of work?
10. Red lights are at least five times longer at 0230 than they are at 0800, and green lights are diametrically shorter.
11. Explaining the type of vehicle you have to the new lady guard working a graveyard shift since I’m retired and really haven’t had anything to do since my dear husband departed and just sitting around the house will kill you faster than anything especially of you don’t have family close by because my husband, God rest his soul, insisted that retiring to Arizona was a wonderful idea, since the weather was always pleasant and we both enjoyed golf so much and there are so many courses here to choose from; what kind of truck is that? An Infinity? I’ve never heard of that before my husband used to drive over the road in a Mack, have you ever heard of those and he would take me along sometimes and we would travel the country I would have to take vacation time to do that since my job at the county courthouse was pretty strict about taking time off on a regular basis to avoid burnout you know that will kill you faster than anything if you don’t take some time off to relax once in a while and what model is it? A QX4? I’ve never heard of that either but you know what it looks just like the Pathfinder our oldest grandson just bought, used of course, no sense spending that much money on something that won’t be worth half as much as soon as you drive it off the lot you know what I mean? it seems they entered the wrong information on your entry sheet is your license number ______? Yes, you see, they have it down as something else entirely here I swear it seems like no one takes pride in what they do any more. My husband was very proud of the fact that he never once had an accident in his Mack, not even a fender bender takes forever.

Number six probably surprises a lot of you, especially considering how adamant I am about speed limits during commutes and driving long distances. OK, just commuting time. When your stops are clustered about a mile apart, it takes f o r e v e r to get to the next one. Ten over takes some of the anxiety out of whether or not you’ll ever get there.

Things I have known, but have been refreshed this week:
1. Trailers pull easier with a little more weight in front of the axle.
2. Unloading a trailer unevenly is worse than loading it wrong in the first place – loading shows the problems when you pull away from the dock, unloading unevenly increases problems exponentially over time.
3. Backing a trailer with a shorter hitch-to-axle length than the tow vehicle’s wheelbase is touchy – one wrong move and the trailer gets crossed up very quickly.
4. Knives are sharp. Especially twine knives, which are worn like a ring on your cutting hand, and are handy to have when stocking store shelves. However, the non-cutting index finger needs to stay out of the way.
5. Sleep deprivation can produce auditory and visual hallucinations.
6. Policemen have NO sense of humor at 0430.
7. Getting adjusted to a night shift schedule makes sleeping interesting – the sleep you do get never lasts long enough.

Well, that about sums up why I haven’t written in so long. What’s up with you all?

Thank you for stopping by, God bless you all, Wear Red on Fridays, and write in Cary Cartter for President in 2008!

Tag: Write in Cary Cartter for President in 2008

I got a notification from the Spanish Sweepstakes Lottery today. Seems I won! Isn’t that great? Only problem is, I never entered it, and I make it a habit not to reply to announcements that I won something when I don’t enter.

It’s drizzling again this morning. My neighbor is a little worried – she wanted to have a garage sale today, and it’s the kind of rain that settles in and goes on and on …

I figured out how to have the last word in any conversation: “Yes, Dear.”

Tomorrow NASCAR debuts the Car of Tomorrow at Bristol. Not the best track to showcase this innovation of safety and parity. Bristol’s the kind of track where you bring a tank, and hope no one else brought anything stronger. Beatin’ and bangin’ and rubbin’ paint – that place is rough. I love watching it. It’s like swimming in a jacuzzi with a dozen sharks.

An article in yesterday’s paper talked about Proposition 100 here in Arizona. The gist of it is that if a person who is in this country illegally commits a crime, then the court may not set bail or bond. One case in particular has caught the eye of some legislators recently – a female, illegally in this country, drove through a red light while under the influence and t-boned the car of a citizen. The citizen was killed. The invader, under questioning by the police at the scene, admitted to being too drunk to drive. She also told the police officers that the ID she offered was purchased, along with a Social Security number, so she could work in the states. The police officers notified ICE, and they confirmed the information.

Naturally, the judge set bond. Bond was met. I don’t know if the location of the invader is known.

The Department of Homeland Security had to bear down on the judge in order to get the bond revoked. This happened the same day some legislators talked about introducing laws that would remove judges that ignored Prop 100. The Chief Justice of the State Supreme Court assured the lawmakers that prop 100 was being followed, when all conditions were met. The CJ assured the lawmakers that during a recent 15 day audit period, there were 44 instances where the criminals did not qualify for bond or bail due to Proposition 100.

Great. On average, three illegal invaders per day are being arraigned in court. How many haven’t been arrested each day? I think I just figured out what jobs these illegals are doing that Americans aren’t – robbery, murder, assault, rape, and driving drunk! Not that there aren’t American citizens doing the same thing, but if national lawmakers continue to use that excuse while passing amnesty legislation, then they deserve to be removed from office also.

All together now, towards Washington D.C.: “Stop the invasion of this country by foreign nationals!”

Thank you for stopping by, God bless you all, Wear Red on Fridays, and write in Cary Cartter for President in 2008!

Tag: Write in Cary Cartter for President in 2008