Ziggystyles's Articles
April 17, 2008 by Ziggystyles
Well a couple of weeks ago, Marcie and I were at a bookstore and since Im not much of a reader (danged attention span, Im lucky enough to get these blog threads out, lol), I started browsing the store and came across a book on cat breeds. 

Im not totally knowledgable in the world of cats, especially their breeds.  Cleo is a big poofy cat...which I always just tossed into the domestic longhair breed.  She is in that, but more specifically I found a section on the longhairs ...
March 3, 2008 by Ziggystyles
Hi all,

About a month ago, i talked to a coworker about my daily drive back home.  After I deliver my freight, the way my route is set up, I basically do a Uturn and circle back 220 miles home.  I mentioned how boring it was and how XM is getting old...to a point. 

He mentioned downloading some podcasts, something I hadn't thought of before.  So now Im using Marcies MP3 player and use Itunes to download them.

So here is what I have so far:

*A sermon from Joel Oste...
February 25, 2008 by Ziggystyles
Sunday is one of my days off (as well as Monday) and really is the only day Marcie and I get to spend together.  This morning we decided to go out and just get out of the apartment and putz around. 

We went to a local restaurant that she has been to previously, but I havent, to get some breakfast.  I got some homemade chicken fried steak and eggs and lemme tell ya, it was a lot of steak.  Or whatever they make it with...hamburger or whatever.  It was interesting to sa...
January 23, 2008 by Ziggystyles
Today one of my many...superiors came to see me today. Mind you, Im quite a bit away from the offices and the shipping dock, I never see my boss or anybody else, only communicate via messages or the phone.

This morning on my drive as I was going towards my first stops, I found out that I was to meet him later on in the day at another stop. We met up and he helped me unload my freight and we talked about various things...questions and concerns that I had and such.

Turns out that since...
January 7, 2008 by Ziggystyles
Im trying to think when this last happened. I think it was after Turkey Day and my load was light, tonight its not even funny. Well maybe, depending on your sense of humor.

As I've mentioned before, my freight is brought to me each night from Denver; from there I take it and make stops along the way going into Utah. I ran late last night and got back this morning. Then I got a call a while ago from the driver who brings me my load and he told me he was actually in town and would be waiti...
January 1, 2008 by Ziggystyles
Argh, Im going to pos this even if it kills me. Driving me nuts. I don't know how many versions of this I have made, only to close them, shut the browswer on accident...argh. And fooey and all that.

Well I havent posted a thing since I started my new job basically. As a quick wrap up, I did training in CA, then training on the road in CO before going to Denver to take some more tests. I went back and forth between home and Denver for a week or two as I was doing my testing, then we t...
November 23, 2007 by Ziggystyles
The other day when I wrote my Garbage can turkey thread, I didn't go into the history of it.

Last year when we lived in Central WY, my wife and I had our first chance to make our own Turkey Day Dinner. Being the Italian that I am, I made the turkey. I didn't really know how to make it since I never have made one before, but being an Alton Brown fan, I followed one of his recipes which called for using a brine and vegetable stock solution, something I had never done before either.

I p...
November 22, 2007 by Ziggystyles
Last year, I can't remember if I wrote a blog or not about it; but I made a Thanksgiving Turkey for Marcie and I. Last Turkey day was the first since we got married. Before that, we had thanksgiving at her family's or when we lived in Vegas for a year, we had a make-shift buffett in San Diego.

Last year, I followed an idea from Alton Brown (chef on Food Network). I like his shows and he really does a great job explaining things. So much so that my brother has even given me a cookbook (or...
November 7, 2007 by Ziggystyles
Well yesterday was officially, I think, my last day of training with the company. After my training in CO, I was given a rental car a couple weeks ago and sent home. Then I went down to Denver to get some more training and take some final company tests last week. Took the company car home for the weekend and then headed back down Monday to take the CDL test up in Cheyenne on Tuesday.

The test wasn't bad at all. He had me do a pre-trip of the engine area, the coupling section, and the ins...
October 27, 2007 by Ziggystyles
Well I just finished training with the company I was hired on to. I trained in the MTNs of CO for about four days, leaning a bunch more than I thought I would. Im doing very well with slow speed manuvering as well as backing up in tight spots. Still need to improve, but thats always a goal to improve on something. I was scheduled to come home today, but I was doing well enough that he sent me home for the weekend. Then on Tuesday I will go to Denver where I will take a final drive test (an...
October 18, 2007 by Ziggystyles
Tomorrow is my graduation, per se from trucking school. Over the last few days, we spent more time in the simulators and the trucks and I've greatly improved with shifting and such although I still have a bit to go...but thats to be expected. The last two weeks have been very intense...lots of studying, lots of homework and groupwork and stuff. I've done well on the tests and the final...got a 94% on the final today and then passed (just a pass fail thing) my drive test which consisted of a v...
October 11, 2007 by Ziggystyles
Well, yesterday and today were the same pretty much. Yesterday I started the day by sleeping in because of a schedule issue we had. Then I went in for lunch and then headed out to the simulators. They are pretty interesting. About 90 grand each...screens in front and around you, plus all the gauges you regularly have on a truck. We did a few simulations with weather, obstacles, unexpected things...etc. Then we went outside and went over the pre-trip inspection.

For those of you who do...
October 10, 2007 by Ziggystyles
Today, we finally got to get in the truck and head off on the road. We had some time in the simulators yesterday getting used to the shifting. Our school even has rather large textbooks that accompany their training course so we have lots of homework to do each night, but thats ok.

Unfortunately, they had to cram 3 students to one trainer, something which will be brought down to 2-1 fairly quickly. But either way, I was able to get in 3 hours of training. I think its good not just to dr...
October 7, 2007 by Ziggystyles
Well I haven't written much lately (not that I do anyways) because I was getting ready to go to a truck driving school with the company I signed on for. They put me on a bus and that was heck just dealing with the ticket. The first ticket was for the wrong town as my departure. I went and called, and got no help. Greyhound actually told me that if I tried to get a ticket from my town to the destination in CA, I would have a 24 hour layover there. HOWEVER, if I started on the trip 100 miles ...
October 2, 2007 by Ziggystyles
I feel bad for my recruiter.
Over the past two weeks, I have been going back and forth with my recruiter with the company I signed up with and she has been doing a great job of getting things squared away for me. She has helped tremendously with getting things resolves as well as getting back to me quickly to let me know how things are progressing.

One issue arose last Wednesday or so. I got a phone call saying a ticket of mine from NV was cleared in NV, but MN was still reporting...