Old Resolutions for a New Year

Actually I make the same two resolutions every year, and usually fail at them miserably, usually within the first week. They are:
1. to live a more healthy life, loosing some weight while I'm at it
and
2. to spend more time reading my Bible, praying, and maybe even get to church on occasion even though this life style doesn't really cator to that idea

Wednesday, after delivering in Fullerton, CA which is south of LA, we headed for Yuma, AZ where we would be loading on Friday. Wow, a whole day and a half to go 200 miles. Hmmm...needless to say, we took our time. So we relaxed our way into the new year. No rush, no pressure, just chillin. We drove about 120 miles to Coachella where we stopped to get the truck washed. It was in bad need of it after its little mis-hap before Christmas. I don't think you heard of that one. We had stopped to have the oil changed somewhere on our way north. I was driving, and it was about....well I don't remember but it was the middle of the night and Malcolm was sleeping and I went through the Idaho weigh station. Pulling out of the station, an alarm went off and the check engine light came on and since it had done this for about 2 seconds earlier (which I had written off as an electrical problem cause I didn't want to wake up Malcolm) I decided that I'd better look into it, which meant Malcolm needed to get up and get out in the cold to check the engine for me. Turns out the cap to the oil had blown off due to being stripped out and the pressure of heated oil and all, and the dip stick was DRY! I'd blown out about 3-4 gallons of oil. Oops!
So needless to say, with oil blown out down the side of the truck, and the dirt they spread on the roads when they are icy, we were NASTY! So we stopped to get the truck washed in Coachella. And drove another 15 miles and decided we didn't really feel like driving more, so we stopped and this puny little truck stop in the middle of the California dessert that just happened to have a Starbucks in their parking lot! So New Years morning we started 2009 off right with Malcolm's traditional Vanilla Latte and I had a Gingersnap Latte. And I forgot to ask for skim milk. So much for resolution #1.
After that we finished our trip to Yuma. Upon our arrival we slid into the parking lot at PetSmart. I had packed my usual amount of doggy food for our 4-5 day trip. But Dale, one of our dispatchers, had called the previous day and asked how we felt about taking this load on into Canada. More on my feeling about that later. Obviously, 4-5 days of dog food wasn't going to get it, especially since my girls had already finished about 1/2 my supply in less than 2 days. Hmm....someone must be growing. So I decided Ella needed some socializing and took her in the store with me. She was very alert, but overall did well. And she got LOTS of cooing over by one particular lady who just went on and on about how beautiful she was and how wonderful her coloring was and so on. It just makes you feel so good when someone goes on like that about one of your kids. Carlie Jean had come in with us also for some much needed socializing. Carlie thinks everyone is out to get her and is terrified of everything strange. So she sat in the buggy seat and shook like a leaf the whole time. But I was proud of her. She didnt' growl and bark, and even let the people who were captivated with Ella pet her some, though with cation. After that we let the girls play some in the parking lot, and relaxed. Then we walked over to Famous Daves and had BBQ chicken and rib tips for New Years Eve dinner. I know...we didn't follow tradition. See its traditional, at least in my family and it must be a southern thing, to have black eyed peas and collard greens on New Years Day. Something to do with money and good fortune, but I can't remember exactly what they represent. Sorry, but they just don't serve black eyed peas and collard greens in very many places west of Mississippi! So we settled for BBQ chicken and baked beans. We did get some sweet tea though and that was nice and refreshing!
We spent the night in the PetSmart parking lot and then, this morning, we were the first customers at yet another Starbucks, where I ordered a tall Caramel Machioto in honor of my sister as its her favorite drink. Faliure on resolution #1 again. Oh well...it was good though!
Now we're sitting here at Advanced Cooling waiting for them to open so we can make our first pickup of the day. We have five of them.
Turns out loads are kind of scarce, so instead of having us drop this in Billings and then sit, they want us to take it on into Canada. This load goes to Calgary in Alberta. There is still a chance that they will have us switch with another driver at the border. That might be easiest because of the dogs, and Malcolm has a hand gun in here because some places are kind of sketchy if you know what I mean, and also because...Oh I forgot that part of our trip down! I'll have to do a post on that for tomorrow. Anyway, Malcolm has lost his medical card, which basically means we'll get shut down if anyone asks for it and chances are they'll ask for it at the border. And its reportedly harder to get back into the US than to get into Canada. I can just see us trying to come home and them asking for his medical card and there we are...temporary residents of Canada till further notice. I don't think so!
So that's our new year, and my resolutions which I have thus far failed at miserably! Wow...I can tell 2009 is going to be so different from all the previous years. I sure wish I had more self-discipline!
Hope you all had a great 2008 and a better 2009. I'm going to go write up the medical card story, and then go play with my girls. Ella is needing her mommy.

PS: The blog post below this one was posted today also. I just wanted to get up to date so I posted two so I could be current.