This Week's Musings

After spending 24 hours on the road, I thought I would take a little time to share just some of the things which ran through my mind. That much time on the road tends to give a certain perspective on things.

Red Dawn Over Baltimore

There was an absolute gorgeous dawn in Baltimore today. I had an overnight run to Richmond and caught the dawn on the way back.

A Lazy Sunday Afternoon

Here it is a Sunday afternoon, the sun is shining, the grass is brown, which is way better than white, and the ice that never came is almost gone. All and all it is been a nice quiet, mild winter. Life is good, mostly.

The winter of our discontent

Ahh winter, I sure do love it. Not really. I am sick of the cold, I am sick of the snow and I am sick of having to trudge outside to bring in wood to keep the stove going so we don't freeze our butts off. But other than that things are good here at the little house on the lake. And then there is spending time behind the dirty windshield of the tow truck in a snow storm, nothing like it.

One with dog

You know how there are moments in your life that are scary? I don't mean like "Oh God, I'm going to die scary, but more like "Oh God, I've turned into my parents scary." Yesterday as I was sitting here in the little house by the lake I had one of those scary moments. It was when I realized that I could actually understand my dog.

"You gonna give me some of that?"

A true confession

I have to admit, I may be the only person in New England who didn't watch the "GAME" last night, although depending on your point of view it wasn't much of one as the Patriot's pretty much demolished the Jets. You see I've never been one of those sports guys (or gals) who lives and dies by what the local sports team does.

Writing, Life and Buttons the Wonder dog

I suppose I've been slacking with this blog lately, but mostly it is just a matter of time. Just don't seem to have as much of it anymore. For awhile I was able to do lots of writing at work, but it seems the powers that be have decided they don't want me to be online. So instead, now I spend my time between calls sitting around with the other drivers bitching about things.

I'm still here

I hate it when work interferes with my personal life. It seems someone ratted me out and I no longer have access to the internet where I work. So now instead of blessing you all with my insightful prose and pontifications I get to sit around and do nothing.

The sound of fall is all around

It's Saturday here at the little house on the lake, and the next two months is always my favorite time here. The boats are quieter, the smell of gasoline fumes fades away and a certain peace descends upon the neighborhood. Well almost.

Sounds fishy to me

Just sitting here at the little house on the lake with my little dog on the lake waiting for my little woman on the lake to get home. You can tell it's the last week of summer vacation as the lake is busy today. Don't tell anyone, but fall is my favorite time here because it gets nice and quiet. The boats, for the most part get put away, the jets skis  get mothballed until next year and a certain peacefulness descends upon the lake.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T or Lack Thereof

An interesting thing happened on the way to the forum today. Okay, it wasn't actually the forum it was Dunkin Donuts. As I drove into the lot with my little red truck I parked in the handicap spot. when I realized this, I backed out and moved to a regular spot. There was another person in the lot who looked at me like I was crazy.  Now certainly I have received those looks before so I am used to them but it bothered me this person seemed so surprised I would do the right thing.

Hot, Hot, Hot

Another hot day behind the old Dirty Windshield yesterday and when the A/C in the truck doesn't work it makes for such an enjoyable day. That's why I am not behind the dirty windshield today, instead I am in front of the dirty computer screen at the little house on the lake. I think I am suffering from a mild case of heat exhaustion, don't I look pale and dehydrated to you?

One of the great mysteries of life

Here I am sitting by the lake reflecting on the meaning of life. Ok, not really, I am reflecting on much more important things than that. After all, if there is one thing I have learned in my life it's that you will never understand, nor figure out life and its meaning.

What's Done is Done

You know from my last few posts, I have been somewhat nostalgic lately, thinking about days gone by. That always happens to me around any holiday, especially Independence Day, because I remember the cook-outs, the times with family and friends, etc. Sometimes I guess I can get a little down, but certainly not as much as I used to. And every time a holiday passes, I always think “There goes another year” and wonder how many are left.


There is an interesting phenomenon in our family, it can best be described as the “Never let no wrong, whether real or perceived, be forgotten” axiom. We have a habit of holding grudges for a long, long time. I suppose this may be true for a lot of families, I don’t know, but I do know it seems to be prevalent in mine. You would think that the pain from something which happened thirty or forty years ago would eventually fade, but nope, not with us. And I admit, I can be just as guilty as anyone else; of course in my case my anger is certainly justified.

You see about 53 years ago, my family decided we would all spend the day at the lake. In those days the original camp was split between all the brothers and one sister, each getting it for two weeks each year. These were also the days of close families, we lived in one house, my Uncle and Aunt lived next door, my other Uncle and Aunt lived across the street and I think there were some other relatives around somewhere as well. Back to my missive. So everyone piled in the two cars and off they went to the lake. I say they, because your writer was left behind, tied to the porch, left for the squirrels and chip munks which plied the neighborhood.

Of course it wasn’t until sometime later my mother realized I was still there and she made my father turn the old 53 Chevy around to retrieve me. Now of course my mother and father always claimed that I was never in any danger and I wasn’t harmed, but I know this is not true. There are many emotional scars which I have carried for sometime. The worst part is they weren’t going to tell me. But then that’s just me I guess. There are other wrongs which are still brought up when the family gets together, which seemed to be quite serious at the time, a wedding gift here, a snub at a family function, a misplaced kitchen utensil, normal, functional families would have forgotten these things long ago. But not us.

But now, as I have aged and gotten wiser, I realize these things are not important. They are but mere oil drips on the highway of life, and other than the shear entertainment value, aren’t worth still stressing over. After all, what is important is family and friends. The good times, the love shared, and not whether so and so was seated next to someone else at a wedding, or whether Aunt Mary spent more on a gift than Aunt Flo. The day will come, and sooner than any of us would like to think when we will be all alone. Our friends and families will be gone, we will have nothing but the memories left. Shouldn’t we be left with good ones? Shouldn’t we let bygones be bygones and bury the hatchet and move on?

Well, of course I always keep my hatchet with me just in case I’m tied up and left for the squirrels again.

Nowhere to go

While on my way to work this morning in my little red pick-up, which, by the way has an even dirtier windshield than my tow truck, I was struck by the fact that everyone always seems to be in such a hurry. The funny thing is, it seems people are always more in a hurry to get to work than they are to get home from work. Why do you think that is?

Is it house trained?

So I was thinking about my dog the other day. Actually I was thinking about how a dog is alot like having a kid. You have to watch them and make sure they don't get into too much trouble. You need to teach them right from wrong, when to talk and when to be quiet. And of course you need to feed them once in awhile.

A Slow Friday

Not a tough day behind the dirty windshield today. I did one tow this morning. Seems the gentleman thought his car was overheating so he parked it on the side of the big road and hopped over the guardrail to walk to a nearby garage. I wonder if he was concerned at all when the fire trucks passed him to put the fire out. The one in his car that is. Sometimes people just make me wonder.

Daily Dirt

It was a hot day behind the dirty windshield today. I do small equipment moves for one of our customers and this usually takes me around the city of Worcester, MA. This is where I spent my day today.

Worcester isn’t a bad place. Sure it’s got its problems, just like every other city, but if you take the time to really look at some of the buildings in the city you will see they are really quite ornate and well built. Even the three deckers have potential, there are ornate carvings on them, these were all made by hand, when houses were built to last. But then all cities have these, at least here in New England. But there is one thing that Worcester has more of than any other city and even most towns in Massachusetts and that is:

Going, Going, ......

I read this blog post by Thom Ring "Help Not Wanted", from over on Roadside Online, and he got me thinking about things which used to be that are no longer. I mentioned a few of them in the comment section on his blog. And then this got me to thinking about why we no longer see these things. Now, not that I ever dwell in the past but... ok, I don't dwell in the past I pretty much spend all my time there...but I do get kind of nostalgic at times thinking of "way back then".

Dog Blog

It was a long day behind the dirty windshield today and I am really beat so on the way home I stopped and bought some new software called "Naturally Barking" and I am going to let my dog Buttons write todays post. Just remember the opinions expressed in this post are those of the dog and not the human.

I don't understand these humans. They have been living with me for two years now and I am finally getting them trained., especially the one with the furry face. I just don't understand while he has all this fur on his face but none on the top of his head. If I didn't have fur on my head I would be pretty cold. But who knows.