More Alumni

Here is another set of twins (Mary and Cherie) who sang in my choir when I taught in Indiana. Second Pic is me directing a rehearsal and the last is one of the choir performing.
I also sang with Randy, John and Bob in a quartet and a duet with Randy but I didn't get clear pics, sorry guys. Of course Jimmy organized the whole thing and did a wonderful job.

Back Home Again, In Indiana

October 12 and 13 Sandra and I went to Indiana Academy and participated in the Alumni Weekend. I directed the Alumni Choir and sang in the afternoon program. In this first pic you can see part of the alumni choir. In the second you can see Dr. Sharon and me at the organ I
installed in 1973 with several students and my dad.

In the third pic is Pastor Jack Nail (the pastor who performed our marriage ceremony 39 years ago) and Me and Sandra. Third pic is of Dr. Sharon and her twin, Sherman who were in my choir
from 1972 to 1974.

I'm Hot Stuff!

That's right, I am hot stuff. I found out a couple of weeks ago when we went into a nuclear plant to pick up some radio active freight to take across the country. When I went through the scanners to gain access to the plant, they picked up radiation in my body! Turns out that in June I had a nuclear stress test. To do the test they inject some (minute amount) radioactive material into the blood stream the night before the stress test, take you to this large machine which takes multiple pictures of the circulatory system. Then in the morning they inject some more of the fluid and let you walk on the treadmill until you can't go another step. Then, once again you go to the machine and have more pictures taken. Then they can compare the pictures to see if your arteries are functioning properly.

Evidently it takes quite a while for the very minute amount of radiation which gets into the circulatory system to dissapate because the scanner at the neuclear plant picked it up. If I had gone in to the plant the computer (scanner) would not have let me out! They could have done a complete body work up on me and then entered the results in the computer and then let me in (the computer would know that I had the radiation before I entered) and then I could get back out. But that would have taken several hours beyond the usual four hours it takes to get in. So guess what. . . Sandra was elected to drive into the plant and pick up the freight while I waited four hours in the waiting room until she came back out. That was quite an event since she had never gone inside before! She did a fine job - everyone said so.

Protective Gear

This past week we were very busy. Just before we came home we had a hazmat load (hazardous material). At the delivery, we had to put on protective gear, including helmets, goggles and long sleves over our arms. We thought we looked like space creatures!

Here we are in our truck. Sandra is in the top picture and I am in the bottom picture.

Truck Driver Appreciation Day

This week starts "Truck Driver Appreciation Week" in the USA. So today we went to our headquarters in Ohio where we were treated to a nice lunch (we had a vegie burger sadwich), received some interesting trinkets and participated in some games, raffels and contests. It was a lot of fun to mingle with other drivers, see their trucks and learn about our business from some who have more experience. There must have been about 20 trucks who showed up for the event. We were in Buffalo and decided to go down for some fun.In the next posts you will see some more details of the day.

Contests

At the cookout there were several activities and raffels. Here several contractors presented their trucks in the "Pride and Polish" contest. The first truck here won 1st place. Sandra and I did not enter the "Pride and Polish" but we did enter the "Water Baloon Throwing Contest." We did pretty good. We got up to about 30 feet apart and then when I threw the baloon to Sandra, it bounced out of her hands and went splat. But Sandra DID enter the "Bubble Gum Blowing" contest. There were two groups of bubble blowers and the winner of each group had to compete to win the Grand Prize. In the following posts, you can see how that turned out.

First Round Winners

What's this? Sandra's bubble just poped but she won for the froup on the right. With obvious determination, the winner of the group on the left looks at Sandra with determination, because now they have to compete for the grand prize!

The Challenge

There were two groups of "Bubble Blowers." The woman in the middle won the first group and Sandra (on the right) won the second group. The woman on the left points in amusement at the two winners who are in a serious challenge!

Grandma Gets The Prize

Sandra received a $25 gift certificate to "Cracker Barrel" for
winning the "Bubble Gum Blowing" contest !!! What Talent!

Blasted

1. Our truck got blasted. . . sand blasted, that is. Last two weeks I have been refinishing the back end of the truck. My friends, Ronnie and Ron came and sand blasted the liftgate and the underneath frame from the wheels back.











2. Here the sand blasting is done and the bottom panel of the big door has been painted white. But you can see that the lettering has aged a lot. So, I removed the letters and sanded the back door then repainted it.












3. All done. Except we have to go and have new letters placed on the back door.

Minneapolis Bridge

What a surprising tragedy. Makes us wary of any bridge we have to cross.

We're waiting for another dispatch. We arrived in Minneapolis, MN last night a couple of hours after the I35W bridge collapsed. We were on I-35W but got off at I-494 and went around the west of the cities. This morning we went over to the Denny's near the truck stop. Our grand kids call it the Shiney place. That's a good description.
We were shocked to think that the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis just plain fell in with 50 some cars and trucks on it during rush hour. I guess a lot of interstate bridges are getting older and may need attention.

Underground Dock

I had to back into a dock between two limestone pillars. The ceiling, floor (road), walls and pillars were all just carved out of the limestone. Every day they do one blast, then cart out the rocks by big dump trucks. It is fairly primitive and rather dark down there! The old rail road tracks they used years ago to haul out the rocks are still there and we had to drive over them a few times as we winded our way in and out. We get to see some interesting things.

Underground Office

Here is the under ground office where I went in to arrange to pick up our load

On the way out of the mine

This is what we saw as we came out of the mine after loading our truck. We took the freight to PA and now are stopped for the week-end.

Spooooky

This week we went from Canton, OH to Petaluma, CA then from LA to St. Louis. Then we were sent to Quincy,IL. When we arrived at the address where we were to pick up some freight here is what we saw! I found a phone there in the middle between the two holes and called our contact. She said just go ahead and drive into the tunnel about three blocks and there is a place to park the truck. Then come into the office. So, Sandra and I slowly drove into the right tunnel. Wow! It was dark and we had to turn on the headlights.

This is an active mine which goes several miles back into this mountain. Back inside there are businesses which have made warehouses in the mine. There are streets and parking lots. But it is a little spooky because there are no posts holding up the ceiling. Pillars are carved in the rock that are about 20-30 feet in diameter. The roads go around the pillars. I'll posts a few more pictures so you can get a little better feel of the place.

Halfway step

Here is a better close-up of our new halfway step. Sandra's legs are short and the origional steps are to high for her.

Blurry is gone!

The blurry pictures were the result of a smudge on the lense of the camera (probably from
someones finger). Anyway, were waiting for a load and this is where we spend a lot of time
when waiting. From Montana to Ohio in the same week - what a ride.

Waiting for work

It is a little hard to see but Sandra is using our new halfway step we installed so she can more easily climb up into the truck. We are in Ohio waiting for another shippment dispatch.

Here's another blurry picture (sorry again). This is Sandra's sister Amy on the right. On her right is Jessica then Lloyd and finally Nathan on the far left. We had a great time visiting and eating a carefully though out low carb meal (delicious). Lloyd and I both need to watch our diets. I guess we all need to learn all we can about healthful eating.
Since March this year, Sandra and I have seen my brothers Jack and Kevin (Lenn). We have seen all of Sandra's siblings-Jim, Glenda, Becky, Nancy, Amy, and Debbie, and we have seen both our daughters, Doreen, (and Steve) Shelly (and Randy) and all five of our grand children. Calvin, Carlie, Joelle, Colby and Natalie. WHAT A BLESSING.