Some history

I think most of you know about this but some I am sure do not. The easiest way to describe my occupation is to simply say I am a logger. This picture is from a job I did in Ardmore, TN. It is a large red oak in a 16 acre swamp. I cut it around the second week of July 2008. It was incredibly hot that day. This tree is actually not that big compared to many others. I will try to dig up some pics of trees I cut that were over 7 feet across the stump. Most folks have no idea that these trees are all over the place here. Oh well, sorry tree huggers, y'all know what to do! So I am a logger. That really is the bulk of what I do but not nearly what I have done or can do. So here is a scratch on the surface of my life. I grew up on a farm basically. Before I turned 6 years old we did live on a military base so I barely have a claim to that life. My father retired from the USMC back in 1978. We left Camp Pendleton with four of us kids still living at home and a six horse trailer full of horses and other stuff. The Oceanside area of CA is very arid. There is lots of gritty soil and dry grass. I suppose it is good for something but I don't know what. lol When we got to TN on August 5th 1978 we unloaded the horses. You should have seen how they went nuts. They had never seen such green pastures and foliage galore. They ran and ran and then ran some more. When they got done with that they turned around and pranced for a good long while. That day I learned what a happy horse looked like. California must be like prison camp to them.

So here we were, suddenly becoming farmers. Not that we didn't know anything about horses, just that we kept them at the stables in CA. It's a lot different than actually doing all the farm related work. I can't say what it might be like farming in CA but I can tell you that it didn't take long to both dread and to appreciate this style of existence. Our farm which, I still live on, is about five miles from the nearest store and about 25 miles from the nearest town of any size. In my opinion we aren't far enough out in the boonies. City folks are always getting on my nerves out here. Trouble is that it is getting worse every passing year. They dump animals and trash out here. They pay WAY too much for the land and then still try to act like they know anything more than the nearest stump. The punk kids come out to take a swipe at being country. They fail miserably with loud exhaust and booming stereos. Then they go into the neighbors hay fields and tear them up slinging mud during the rainy winters. What a bunch of government educated morons. Anyways, I learned early about digging fence post holes and breaking the ever present rocks up in the hole to make it deeper. I remember the first time I ever saw a bush hog sling a rock. Damn that hurt. I had no clue what was coming through the high grass like a bullet. Wouldn't have mattered because I didn't have time to do anything about it. It took me a few minutes to get myself together after that.

Back when I was a teen there wasn't much way to make any cash. I worked on neighbors farms. The work varied from building and mending fences to worming animals or running equipment. Eventually I followed my brothers into the woods to cut firewood. Turned out to be the one thing I could make real cash at and get a heck of a workout at the same time. I bought my first car by cutting firewood. It was a 1965 Buick Wildcat convertible. What a sweet ride it was. Oh well, maybe one day I will restore it. When I win the lottery like everything else. I did manage to do other jobs. My first job working for someone else as a regular employee was teaching dance. Crazy huh? I answered an ad looking for ballroom dance instructors. They said they would train me so off I went working most early evenings at a dance studio. Was funny because I would dress in a suit, drive an old truck loaded with firewood to town, teach a few hours, and then go deliver firewood. I dunno, it just worked. I continued to teach dance here and there for a few years after that but by now it has been too long. I also worked in a small kiddy park with rides etc, drove a limo a little bit, worked in purchasing for an electronics contractor, and various other manufacturing jobs. I tried quite a few different types of work but through it all I still cut firewood. With my desire to be my own boss, and all the time I spent in the woods it was a natural gravitation to become a timber harvester. There are a lot of reasons I continue to do it even though there really isn't much money in it. There are many more reasons to quit but all of those reasons do not add up to the reasons I'd quit most anything else. It is never the job really, it's the people. Seeing how a rather large percentage of the population sucks, I am happy to be out there, mostly alone with the trees, animals, bugs etc. We all have a clear understanding of each other! lol People flip flop and back stab whereas all these other environmental factors are ever dependable. Except maybe the weather. It can suck too! I have just generally explained some of my perspective. There is a lot of other things that happened along the way. I am sure I will fill in the blanks over time. I plan on sharing some events from our own funny farm back in the day. You'll love it, trust me.

Still headed home

So we headed east on hwy 50. I knew I’d have a mountain or two to climb. I also thought there was a good chance I would run into some snow. What I hadn’t figured on was about to make itself known. There is a little town in Nevada called Austin. It sits on the side of a mountain, literally. I remember going up the main drag through town in a fairly steep climb. It was the middle of the night so I was not sure of the totality of the climb. Leaving town the road narrowed back to two lanes and then a sharp left and a very steep climb came right after. We all know how the mountain roads twist around and change elevation. As I was beginning to wonder if the mountain had a top to it I could see some stars low to the horizon on my right, looking east. I thought maybe that next curve would get me over the top. It would have right then except I heard a grinding noise, followed by a high pitched whine, and closed out with a loud clunking sound, all coming from my 15 turn-around transmission. The truck came to a pretty quick stop and I realized that this mountain was no place to be on a Friday night before a big snow storm knowing that every possible place that could help was closed and would not likely be open until Monday.
Like many of us do in a situation like that, I found God again. I am ashamed to say it but I should have been calling on Him all day, every day. So I prayed a good bit worried for my son and my family that would wonder what happened. All day I had no signal to speak of since I left I-80 in the morning. Sitting up there with the snow coming down, at 11pm or so, I picked up a faint signal that came and went on my phone. I decided to start calling around by first using information to get numbers of big truck dealers. Dealers generally have a 24 hr road service that can get you going. Even though I just knew I would not be going, I gave it a try. I actually talked to a couple dealer service people but no one could do anything about me because all the big tow trucks were already out due to the storm and it would be at least morning. I kept praying as an hour passed making calls. Then I manage to get in touch with an outfit that could come get me and a place that would work on the truck too. When I added up the total cost of getting towed and rebuilding the transmission I was looking at a minimum of $9,000. That is nuts! My heart sank deep down. Another hour passed by. I just laid it in God’s lap as best I could. Then I felt He wanted me to try the transmission again. So as I already done many times, I moved the five position stick into each gear and finally the 4th position engaged! Then I thought about the three ranges of low, medium, and high for a total of 15 speeds. So if it works in fourth low, then it might work in mid and high. Scared to take it out of gear once I got it in, I eased off the clutch. Slowly the truck started shaking around having a hard time getting going on the steep incline with a heavy load and a bad gear to start out with, but IT WORKED. OMG I teared up a bit thanking God for this little miracle. With about 2,000 miles to go I figured if He willed me to go in the 5mph gear all the way I would. I topped the mountain and started off the other side crawling along slow as anything. On the way down I passed a couple wrecks on the twisted two lane covered in ice and snow. From there, the snow just got worse for hundreds of miles. Right before I got to the bottom of the mountain I decided to try going to mid range and that worked. As I gained up to about 15mph I decided to go into high and it worked too. I hit the little straight away going 65mph! I was so thankful that this happened. It meant that if I could keep going that I might get back to the land of milk and honey in a couple days! It wasn’t long that I could go so fast. The next mountain to climb was a few miles off and I would repeat getting into low and going back to high at the bottom of the other side many times.
Eventually I got to the town of Ely NV, pronounced e-lee, with snow everywhere and a little truck stop with food and showers. I was extremely tired but didn’t care. We had to get cleaned up and get something to eat first. After that I slept real good for a few hours. All of these things went on throughout the night an my son was almost clueless that there was any trouble. It is amazing how much children believe in their dads and we just take it for granted.
I will start from here in the next post, hopefully in a few days.

Goldstrike headed home

When I got back into the part of the world with cell signal I immediately started calling all the agents and brokers I knew that could help me find a load home. I had thrown some feelers out on my way over but there is a problem with getting a load to go when you haven't gotten the one you're carrying off yet. I have been caught in the situation and everyone gets upset. Anyhow, I had no luck up to that point as northern NV is pretty empty and not too much manufacturing is going on so loads are scarce for people not from the area. The locals get all the loads going out though one slips through now and then and a lucky flatbedder heads out. So we get back to the truck stop there in Carlin on I-80 and I feverishly make calls knowing that no load meant we were going to be stuck there all weekend at least. Truck stops typically have what we call load boards. It is a tv monitor with all loads available including for what type of truck, the origin, destination, weight, broker, phone number, and sometimes the pay rate. I spent hours monitoring the monitor like an anxious stock broker. Eventually one popped up for Memphis, TN. A full heavy load to be picked up some 250 miles away. It's a long ways to deadhead (go empty) but it was my only chance so I made the call and set it up. We were going to pick up magnesium oxide. It sounds dangerous but I think it is a main ingredient in Tums or some other ant-acids.
We headed farther west on I-80 to a town called Battle Mountain. There wasn’t much there but it sure did have a monster of a mountain hovering over it. What an impressive sight! My son still talks about it two years later. At Battle Mountain we headed south on NV hwy 305. That highway is a pretty long stretch of nothingness with long views as the ground in front of us mostly sloped downwards and the sky opened for miles to either side before being abruptly shortened by the distant mountains. Along this road were occasional old military vehicles just sitting by the road with various weapon systems on them. I doubt seriously the missiles and guns on the trucks were any count but still an odd sight to see having not entered a military base (that I know of). Somewhere along the way there is this rest stop that consisted of a gravel turn off, a trash can, and a concrete slab style open air building about the size of an average living room. There were two bathrooms inside and no indication of what gender was to use which. So I went in one and Charles went in the other. I saw what looked like a fancy bucket sitting in one corner and nothing more. There was probably enough room in that “restroom” to place 50 buckets just like it in there. I eased over to the plastic structure coming out of the floor and peered down. I figured that this would be one of those environmentally conscious outhouse style jobs except there was no fancy bulletin with scientific explanations of what those freaks are going to do with my deposits. Then it occurred to me that they had no water anywhere close and this is the way it has to be done. At that moment I hear a rather loud voice call out to me, “hey dad, is this the toilet? This is gross! I can see a big pile about 10 feet down.” I chuckled to myself a little bit and yelled into the abyss, “yes son, that is the toilet, try not to plug it up.” He gave a chuckle in return and said, “at least there is some tp.” When we got back in the truck I sure was happy I kept a box of baby wipes with me. I tears me up not to have soap and water in the facilities.
The next turn was onto US highway 50. There was a sign proudly proclaiming it as “The Loneliest Road”. I am sure there is little argument over it. The town of Austin, NV was just to our left but we headed right into nothingness again. Somewhere on that strip of two lane travel was another interesting sight. Here it was in the middle of winter, in the middle of nowhere, in a place where even the stalwart cotton woods refused to grow was a tree covered in a strange foliage right by the road. I slowed down to a crawl and we creped by in disbelief at the big cotton wood tree covered in pairs of shoes. It wasn’t the craziest thing I’d ever seen but it ranked high in the weird category. All this stuff I am telling you about you can read about through various internet resources and you should. So onward to the next turn off a good ways away.
When we got to NV highway 361 that only went left (south), there was a sign welcoming us to “Middlegate Junction”. Okay I thought, so I wonder what we’re going to see. When we made the left, there was this little saloon looking building on the right with a big lot to pull into, so being a couple hours along after the last stop, we pulled in to see if there was any business being done. No cars or even a wisp of sound other that the wind sliding around the dried up thistles. Even though I have been in rodeos and roped a horse or two, I never felt closer to being a cowboy than exactly right then. I imagined the spurs on my boots as I walked up to the wood planked awning. I grabbed the door and it opened with ease, I looked inside and there was a lady standing behind a bar. There was also a couple tables, drink coolers and convenience items on shelves. She welcomed me in so I turned back to Charles who was waiting in the truck and motioned for him to c’mon. It was actually a decent little place. Before long a couple other folks came in that looked like the real deal desert dwellers. She asked if we were hungry as if she could see it in our eyes. In a few minutes we were sitting at one of the creaking tables enjoying bacon cheeseburgers. Those were probably some of the best burgers we’d ever had.
After introducing ourselves to the others we paid the bill and headed to the city of Gabbs where the magnesium oxide mine is. I guess it was nearly an hour, give or take, to the mine. We could see the city 30 or 40 minutes before we got there. I had compared it to being in a plane on approach for a long time. We finally got there and had to climb a steep incline up to the mine which was on the side of a mountain. It took a long time to get loaded because other trucks were there too, but it took even longer to cover the load in a tarp. After running the jakes (engine brakes) all the way down the steep grade we went back up 361 for a long slow rise back up to Middlegate Junction. By the time we got on our way it was pretty late and hours had passed. I needed fuel for the truck and the little Middle Gate Junction store had an old diesel pump just for folks like me. When we got back there were a couple cars there but a bunch of people. The place was sort of hopping. I went in to grab a couple sodas for the road and pay for fuel which was quite high. On my way out I there was a guy and a gal that were drunk and wanted to go with us back east. After getting a short story from them on what they knew about my area I finally got away.
Remember the snow storm that shut Denver down the week before Christmas of 2006? Well I found out it was about to start as I turned back on US Highway 50. I knew for sure that I-80 would be shut down so I had to figure out what to do. Going back south to I-40 was bad for several reasons on top of being several hundred miles out of the way. I called my father who grew up around 50 and asked him if it was a good road. He assured me it was a good road but there would be a couple mountains to climb. It also would cut my miles going east a good number as well as help dodge the storm. Well, even after everything that was about to happen, I still say it was the best choice.

It gets a bit crazy after this.

Carly's Birthday

As of yesterday, 01/21/09, my only little girl turned 10 years old. Unbelievable how time flies. I just wanted to share a little story about her which I have shared numerous times in the past.

I have 5 boys and only one girl, Carly, who just turned 10. I do think the next loaf in the oven is a girl though, too. This girl is very petite and is a natural, almost ethereal beauty. She cannot hide her feelings and moreover she is sure that you know what is on her mind and heart. She and her brothers are very talented and athletic. They are involved in numerous arts and sports. This girl is torn between doing her best and taking time to help others. Sometimes she does both in one swing. She is anything but simple but she is absolutely true.

When Carly was about 2 years old she was potty trained during the day but was not ready for a whole night without a diaper. At bed time, reading stories to a girl that loves to hear them is no way to get her to sleep, maybe yourself but not her. She would figure out ways to get one of us to stay with her. If the door was open she would simply get out of bed and come in our room or get into things in the kitchen. So we started closing her door. Not to be out done, she would take off her diaper and shove it under the door to make one of us go in there and stay with her. One night we fixed it so she could not easily remove her diaper. She cried and cried. I thought she would cry herself to sleep but it went on for a long while. Feeling bad about it I went in there and laid down on her twin sized bed. This made her quite happy and she crawled around the bed a few minutes like she was running laps. The room was lit by a small night light. Suddenly it occurred to me that little girls love secrets. So I told her I had a little secret I wanted to tell her. She stopped, crawled real lightly over and put her right ear to my mouth. I whispered "I love you". She gave a little sigh, then laid down right in front of me and pulled my left arm over her chest holding it with both of hers. A few seconds passed and the silence was broken when she flung her right hand up in the air and said, "that's no secret!". I love that girl.

In the future I'll share more funny things this girl has done.

I'm Edumicated

Well folks, it finally happened. I finally have a degree. I went to school online at Colorado Technical University. The program is BS/BA -PM being a degree in Project Management. I guess I'm happy, I dunno. Big deal I guess. I don't feel more educated. Sure was expensive. It was supposed to take two years but took three instead. That isn't CTU's fault, although, they do have a few doozies for professors which did speed up my burnout. Nothing like getting a know it all professor, who you know hasn't really accomplished much to progress the world, who could actually be fighting progress, tries to fail you because they don't like the way you word things or take extreme exception to your APA referencing. It happens along whatever road you take. Seems like morons have taken over now anyways, and they are partying. Another reason it took so long was the fact that I went OTR (over the road) for a year or so. That made it impossible to get assignments done at times because I ended up with no way to get online at least a couple times a week. Some professors worked with me, some didn't. That killed my GPA too. By the time I got off the road I was burned out to a crisp. You can look at my grades and tell when the breaking point hit. So there it is, I graduated. If y'all love me, send me some $ for my graduation gift! lol

Goldstrike 3

That morning it was a bit cold but livable because the air was so dry. My son Charles and I made our way into the truck stop and met a few locals while grabbing a biscuit and juice. When I asked about the where-abouts of the mine, I was filled with information by a small crowd that worked in the mine. From the truck stop we headed up highway 766 to the Barrick Goldstrike goldmine. The road going up had nice back drops but a few times on the 20 or so mile trip there were really neat formations you drive through or past with all sorts of colors in the rocks. As beautiful as it is here in Tennessee I have to say I could use a little more of that landscape from time to time. After accidentally turning into a sliver mine that looks much the same at the gate we finally got to the turnoff going to the mine. With mountains and cliffs all around the pavement ended and this really wide dirt/mud road appeared. There was lots of ruts, bumps, and ice in the road and there were signs cautioning everyone to the monster Eucs (Euclid) that also used that road. Euc is a term used to describe those giant dump trucks used in mining operations. Euclid was the original maker of such trucks so no matter the make, Cat, Komatsu, Hitachi, Terex, etc they are all referred to as “Eucs”. I suppose it was 15 or so miles of this road around the mountains before we actually got to the mine.

As I got to the gate there were many other trucks sitting around, some coming in and others going. Most times I get very specific direction about what to do or who to talk to before I enter such a place but this time there were none. There was even more mud and ice as this little area was churned up by trucks turning in, out, and around the gate. I tuned the cb to the channel they use and listen for a few moments and trucks arrived. The truckers would call out who they were, the company on the side of the truck, the company that brokered the load, what they were hauling and where it was from. Sometimes they called out more info than that. Then the gate controller would either tell them to wait or lift the gate and off they’d go. I finally decided to give it a shot. After going through my info there was silence. I pulled up to the gate and suddenly the gate went up and off I went. I had no idea exactly where in the mine I was going except that it had to be a maintenance or parts area because I was hauling cone crusher parts. As I drove the road suddenly switched sides. In many big mines all the roads are opposite of our public roads. Someone told me why but I cannot for the life of me remember what he said but it did make sense. As I drove looking for some sign of an appropriate building I kept seeing the white ¾ ton trucks running around with tall poles an orange flags hanging on them. I figured they were just tooling around handling business and had the flags up so the euc drivers wouldn’t run slap over’em. Eventually I found my way around to the edge of the monster mining pit. It must have been 2 miles across and a mile deep. There must have been more pits because big eucs where coming from all directions loaded to the gills with silverish looking stones. To my left was the pit and to my right was a set of building that looked important with a mountain and hauls roads behind it. I did not see an entrance until I got to an intersection. At that time a huge euc pulls up to the stop. I realized that the hood of the big truck I was driving would fit under the bumper of that dump truck. I saw a little blond headed gal poke her head out from the cab 40 or so feet up and she was trying to tell me something. It appeared she was motioning for me to either get the hell out of the way or for me to turn next to her and go into an entrance into that group of buildings. So I turned right and immediately right again into that area. I had to lock the differentials on the truck to actually get through the mud. I got the feeling I was not even supposed to be in that area. As I passed the euc I looked out my window and could only see the bottom of the hub of the front axle where you might check the hub oil level. That was somewhat of a humbling experience. After I got into what turned out to be the was plant area, which also had the maintenance area I was looking for next to it, I saw several people moving around on foot and in pickups. I asked several of them where the crusher parts needed to go but it seemed no one had a clue. I could have hit the building with a rock from there. Anyways I noticed a small sign over a open door and I saw someone go in. I went in and realized I was exactly where I needed to be. There was a manager and another man going over some plan and I spoke up trying to confirm my assertion. The guy acted a little bit busy so I waited. Then all the sudden he whips around in his chair and says, “How did you find me?” I thought for a second and could only jokingly say I followed my nose….I guess…... Then he asked me again and I shrugged my shoulders and explained a bit about my trip inside the mine. Then he said “You aren’t supposed to be here!” uh….what? “You are supposed to have an escort truck bring you in. Did you go into the guard shack out front?” I said “No. I pulled up gave my info and they opened the gate. So in I went and here I am.” He flipped back around in his chair and made a call. The conversation sounded a little bit stressed. The he gets off the phone and tells me to go back to the truck to wait and they would unload me in a minute. So I go un-strap the load and eventually a forklift shows up to move the heavy wooden boxes. While that was happening one of those white pickups pulls up with an important looking guy waving me over. He rolls the window down with a big smile on his face and says “get in the truck”. So going against my judgment I eased around and sat in the passenger seat. He asked me to go over the details of my foray into the mine. He said, “ I have been here for 18 years and never once has our security been compromised. There have been attempts but no one has gotten through and here you just mosey in here like Mr. Magoo and cause a panic.” I said, “Really?” He then said, “Here’s the deal. You were never here. When you get unloaded, you are to follow me out. You will not go back through the gate, you will go around it. When you pass the gate just go and don’t look back. Is that understood?” I said, “You bet man, and I am so sorry about the trouble, I just did what it looked like everyone else was.” I got my paper work signed and off we went. After getting back to the gate he waved me on and I trucked it out of there and never checked up. I got Charles out of the sleeper and related what happened as we made our way back to civilization (phone signal) and I attempted to find a load home. And being a Friday in the middle of nowhere NV, the odds of doing so were really, really not in my favor.

The trip home is even more of a story so keep checking for it.

Oh boy!....or Girl??

Well folks, for all of you who don't know, yet still care, we're having ANOTHER child! This makes number 7! For those of you who are thinking..." Do they know what causes it?" I say, Yes we do. We're obviously very good at it. Thanks! Are you interested in lessons? LOL JUST KIDDING! Anyways, I am so proud of my lovely wife. She works so hard to keep our world going 'round. I am so proud of my kids too. They are so mature about it. They even want to get in on the name and how they are looking forward to this new life. How did I get to this point in life? We are actually around the poverty line but we have riches that no money can buy. Man, I don't know much, but I know I'm blessed.

I have a whole lot of thoughts to share about children, family and what it all means. I will do that before too long.

Isaac's Birthday

Today is my fourth child's sixth birthday. How could I do justice talking about him to you all? What a wonderful kid he is. He is so full of life and love that folks just adore him from the moment they meet him. I wonder why that is. Maybe its his handsome little self, his good character, or maybe its his heart being right on his sleeve. Maybe its his commitment to being a part of the fun even when others leave no room for him. Of course, it might just be his world famous booty dance that rises to the surface within moments of some funky music hitting his eardrums. Whatever it is, you can bet his whole heart is behind the scenes, bleeding through for all to see.

One thing that gets everyone that tangles with him is his tenacity and that feeling of holding on to a motorized cinder block. The boy has severe problems when it comes to hiding his muscles. Lots of comments have been made over his few years on earth about what a little man he is. That's my boy! Ya know, His name is actually Robert Isaac. He is named after my father Robert Matthew. You can certainly see the similarities in their faces, especially when they smile. Something tells me that he will end up much like his grandfather too. I hope so. I wish I could up load a pic of him right now. Maybe after this weekend I will.

As far as I know, we are going to be watching some kids this weekend. Among them is a kid that can do wonders with a blog. I am kinda depending on that to help me make this thing much better. After that I will hopefully have a little menu where you can go look at thoughts under general headings such as "Wacky World" or "Favorite Sayings" etc.

Before I am done I just want to say thank You, Lord for my son Isaac. Thank You for blessing my family with an original kind of child. I pray that all this energy and hope that overflows from him becomes a light for others to find their way home. May The Lord bless Isaac as He has blessed us by entrusting us to guide him.

Happy New Year

Well, oh well. Too bad that isn't all I have to say! I hope 2009 begins better that 2008 ended and so far it has. December was a hell of a month and I meant that in a bad way. Christmas was good and seeing family was good too but all that freaking rain just killed any chance of having a payday in December. The weather wasn't all that kept me out of work though. We finished one job and were preparing to move to the next job. Business as usual it would seem but this time the money dried up and nothing could be done but pray. The man that I was to sign a contract with ended up in the hospital near death and I wasn't about to bother him until he made it clear he was ready to proceed. Every time he set a time for us to get together to work things out, he ended up in the hospital again. It really is sad. He wants to be sure his wife is taken care of so he gave her power of attorney. Once we got that done the rain just worsened. We FINALLY got to work yesterday, December 31 and got a second day in today, the first day of the year. Looking forward to tomorrow.

Other bad news is the van is having problems. Nothing like being stuck on the interstate at 2am new years day. The man upstairs was looking out for us again. My brother just so happened to be right where I could get him on the line and he came to get the family while I waited on a tow. Our other van....aka the magic school bus, is still in the shop because all the king's men can't get the thing going again. It has a brand new engine in it because at about 110k miles it the old one went down. Right before it went down a deer tried to dive through the drivers door as I was carrying the family to town. Am I rhyming? Anyways, among other problems the thing will be almost totally reworked lacking only a little interior work. I want to turn it into the yellow submarine but the boss lady won't let me. Imagine.....I big ole yellow 15 passenger Chevy with yellow window tint that has little portholes in it. I was going to get one of the little boat propellers, or impellers, on the hitch and try to find a small para scope that works. finish it off with some bluish stickers to make it appear as though it has just surfaced. Wouldn't that be cool? Maybe I can get out of debt by the end of '09 and then I'll just do it! LOL shhhhhh......

That's it! My New Years Resolution is to be a poor as I possibly can! Seeing how I, and probably you, can't keep a resolution all year it could mean I'll slip up and have money for a change. Wouldn't that be nice?

Y'all take care now! Ya hear?

-DCW