Well today I found out when I am going back to work.  I will be in Dallas Saturday November 26th and in class for orientation on Sunday the 27th.  Because of the amount of time I have been off work I am required to go through a rehire process.  This means that I won't be driving again until the first of December or later.   I won't be making any money for three months.   I hope that I can pass the physical, but since the company Doctor is not someone that I trust I doubt it seriously.  I have several jobs I could go to, and will be working somewhere.   I had hoped to volunteer at the Mills County Senior center until the Wednesday before Thanksgiving but that is not to be.  Short story is the new cook wants differrent help.  That is as far as I will go with that.  I will use the extra time I have  to get ready to go back to work.

Last week there was a visitor from "theultimategiftoflife.com".  Her name was Judy Whaley.  She told us that even though 80% of Americans support organ donation, only about 60% are signed up to do so.  The ultimate gift of life foundation is a 501c3 non profit organization whose mission is to raise awareness about organ donation and to register new organ donors.  Organ donors can save 8 lives and retore sight to 2 people.  

After Judy talked to the group I asked her a few questions.  One was about restrictions to donation.  There are very few.  Example I and my children cannot donate blood because we were in Germany in the 90's and most of our meat came from Europe, and we may  have been exposed to Mad Cow disease.  This doesn't mean we cannot donate our organs, also folks that are H.I.V. positive can donate because there are many with H.I.V. that need replacement organs.  If you have any further questions Judy's email address is:

judy@theultimategiftoflife.com.  Her phone number is 575-430-3671.   She gave a great talk and many many people who think that their organs might not suitable for donation but wish to be organ donors should email her.  Also anyone that has signed up for organ donation should let their family know it.  I am signed up as an organ donor, and have been since 1972 when I got my first license.

Well that is it for today, I have to go fill my truck up for the trip to Dallas tomorrow, and get some groceries for the next two weeks.   Then next Saturday I go back to work.  I hope that I can maintain my diet while in class, and when I get back to work.

Once again any and all comments are appreciated, I do moderate them.

Thanks

Dave Talley

Known as Bounce to some.

this is a challenge coin I carry at all times. I received it from a great friend Dan Farren also know as Gallupe  the road guard from Run for the Wall.  My readers should look at rftw.us.  You will like it there.

Recap for the week

 This week was pretty good.  I had a phone appointment with the VA about my treatment.  It went very well.  My numbers are very good.  I am switching to a primary care doctor in Goldthwaite TX.  I am hoping to be back at work before Christmas.  I will be changing from direct insulin shots to a pill that almost does the same thing but slower.  The technician that I talked to said I should start testing my sugar every other day and at different times of day.   That will take some getting used to.

Yesterday I went to a luncheon for Veterans day with Dean and Tish.  It was enjoyable, lots of good people there, several of the folks from the Senior Center are Veterans, and the director is the Widow of a Veteran.   Also for the first time I was at a Veterans event and not everyone was if leathers.  The Goldthwaite Lions Club did great, the student council of the Middle School served lunch and when the roll was called they delivered carnations to all the Veterans, and Widows of Veterans.  I have not done many of these, but I enjoyed it and if able will do it again.

One of the presenters was there to promote a book she wrote called "Lest we Forget". It is about people from Mills County that lost their lives during WWII.  There were about 43 of them, and one was a Woman flyer who died in North Africa.  The reason that the book was written is that one young man who died was forgotten about when the county built a memorial to those who fell during World War II.  The book is $25 and I believe I am going to buy it.  All the proceeds go to the museum in town (Unless you buy it on Amazon, then they only get $11).  But since I am here I will buy it at the museum.   I will report on the book here after I read it.

Theses are a few pictures that I took with my phone at lunch

This is the photographer who took pictures of everyone that got a carnation.

These are Dean and my carnations.  He got a red one, I got a white one because they did it alphabetically by last names, and H and T are just far enough apart that we got one of each color.

So it has been a good week, I am getting healthier, and really want to go back to work.  If I can't drive, I will try to get a position that I can do from home, and of course I will need to actually find a place to live at that point, status here is just temporary.

Thanks for reading.   Comments are encouraged.  I do still moderate them, but all will be posted.   I am working on an interview that I did on Wednesday with a lady that came to the Senior Center to talk about organ donation.   I have notes, and pictures but that will be a seperate post.

Thank you for taking the time to read my thoughts and story

Dave  (Bounce) Talley

Tomorrow is Veterans Day

 America has generally forgotten the meaning of this day.  On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month the "War to end all Wars" ended.   November eleventh is set aside here and in Europe as a special day to commemerate the end of World War One.   

World War One was fought with machine guns, large machine guns.  The casualty rate was listed at over 40 million. There were 20 Million deaths and 21 million wounded. The total number of deaths includes 9.7 million military personnel and about 10 million civilians.  (Information found on Google).

Of course these numbers do not include the mental injuries, Post Traumatic Distress was not really considered a wound in the 1900 to 1920 time frame, but there were many many men women and children that suffered from that malady too.

I am a verteran, of what you wonder?  The cold war, Operation Desert Storm and the start of anti terrorism.   Unfotunatly, 9/11/2001 was not the first terrorist attack either in Europe, or the United Stated, or the Orient.   Many of the people that I trained with over the years died in either accidents preparing to fight terrorists, or in actual terror attacks.

When Desert Storm happened I was not allowed to deploy because I had Permanent Change of Station (PCS) orders.   My Unit deployed and I stayed behind.   After I moved to my new Unit, I deployed to Turkey for Operation Provide Comfort.  This was really part two of Desert Storm.  Incerlick Turkery was considered a combat zone.  (Initially the military pulled all the dependents out of the base. After the Iraqi's surrendered the dependents were brought back. But it was still considered a combat zone.)

I spent almost ten months here.  It was really only a 45 day tour, but because the base I was at Bittburg AFB Germany, was slated to be closed I was left in Turkey as a continuity person for deployed security personnel.

While there we were shot at at least once.  This was not an attack, but poachers that were using hot reloaded ammo.  We could see them on Thermal Imaging.  We actually watched local police catch and litterally beat down several teen age poachers.

The point of all of the above is to explain the following thoughts.

I never know what to say when someone thanks me for my service.  I enlisted because I needed a job and my wife at the time was pregnant.  The Air Force wanted me, they offered me a great job that paid four times what I was earning to start.   I missed my daughter being born (I was there for my son and second daughter, but I was in Technical School in San Antonio in May of 78 when my oldest was born) and because of that wonderful job I was deployed a lot of the time that my children were growing up.

So when folks thank me for my service I thank them for the compliment, but what I really want to say is "It was a job like any other.  I both hated it and loved it."   I am not any sort of a hero.  I have many friends that are actually heros. Two of them have the Congressional Medal of Honor.  Those guys are heros, they were actually in war.   My brother Bob (aka Bob the Computer Guy and if you know anyone in Colorado Springs that needs their computer repaired they should call him) was in Vietnam and many other hostile events, he is a hero. Me I just had a well paying job and attended college.  I actually have a degree in Industrial Security and about sixty hours of paralegal studies. With all that I drive a truck for a living.  But I would do it all over again if I had to.

So to all the folks I know that have served thank you for your service, to those that have enlisted since 2001 realize you are welcomed home and appreciated by this country.  If anyone gives you a hard time about your service find either a guy like me, a cold war vet, or a guy like my younger brother, a Vietnam vet and let us explain to those folks that the only reason they have the right to protest or tell you  that you are evil, is friends of yours, you and friends of ours sacraficed their lives, and body parts to make sure that this is a free country.  Don't get me wrong. People have a right to protest, we all veterans worked hard to insure those rights, but having the right to do something doesn't automatically make you right.   Let us old guys take care of your light work and you guys just enjoy your lives.  

Bounce is done for today.  More tomorrow with pictures of the Veterans day Luncheon and more pictures from the Senior Center.

Life in the slow lane about to come to an end. Work calls

 For the last three months I have been on short term disability.  I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes about 13 September.  I have been doing a lot but not what I want to do.  In truth I want to go fishing, but 50% pay just covers some of the bills.  I am not sure what I am going to do.  I don't know that I will be cleared to go back to work.  I have lost weight, gotten my blood sugar under control, my blood pressure is way down.  If I can lose another 20 pounds I may be off blood pressure medicine all together.

What I have been doing since the first part of October is volunteerring at the Mills County senior center in Goldthwaite TX.   I help cook  (Full disclosure I can cook, and I enjoy it, but I am not a cook.  I have helped cut things up.  I know that involves using sharp objects, but I did it carefully and I still have all ten fingers and toes.  <that last part is for my son.  A few years ago I cut my finger so bad using an exacto knife I needed stitches, so every time he hears that I am using sharp things he tells me to "Step away from the razor blade old man">.)

This time washing dishes, and helping cook and serving food to the seniors, and many of them are thirty years older than I am so I am honoring my Mother by being very polite and respectful to them.   They like to have fun too, so it has been a very enjoyable time.  I try really hard to not talk like a truck driver.

 Folks getting ready to eat lunch

Laura's amazing banana pudding

Laura and Ann on Ann's last day before retirement.

Me, Lynn and Ann in kitchen

Desert being served  (apple cobbler and ice cream)

Laura and Lynn

Laura and Lynn preparing deserts

MS Billie chatting with seniors before lunchd

Above are pictures taken by me and others during the last two weeks.   Some of them are in other posts.  These folks here are awesome.   They seem to enjoy the work I do and talking with me.  I thought I was going to go completely nuts while not working.  I did for the first week or so, now I have a great reason to get up, make my bed, and get to work.   I am really not sure what will happen at the end of the month.  If I do not go back to work at Stevens, then I don't.   I love working there, and I would like to keep working there. The Covid-19 pandemic sort of eliminated some of my chance to move into an office job there, but I plan to send an email to the  Vice President of driver relations and see if I can work with new drivers.  I do this a lot anyway becasue I give my phone number to Grad drivers any time I am on the Dallas Yard.   Many call me or text or email me for help.  I gladly give it to them.   True story, when I started we did not have cell phones, and email was available but hard to use on the road.  I literally quit every week for six or seven months.  Sometimes I quit every day.  If I would have had the communication devices I have now I probably would not have been with Stevens for 24 years.

Ok here are some pics from today

Laura is a volunteeer here at the Senior Center

She was showing me her red apron, and yes she voted.  She makes awesome deserts, and she is a nurse too (a very knowledgeable and good nurse).

Well this was pretty long. Thank you for taking the time to read it. Hope everyone enjoys the pictures.   I have comments set up so that I moderate them.  But please feel free to enter them.  I will post any and all comments, just some of my freinds write like they talk and they talk like soldiers and truckers, so I have to moderate comments.

Thanks, I will be posting a lot more.  I will keep everyone up to date on my work status too,

Dave Taley

aka Bounce

,

 I really miss good old Clyde the motorcycle.   He and I have been to a lot of places together,   In the good old days I used to write things that he saw too.   Sometimes that was a little goofy.   The good news is that I plan to go get him and Big Red soon.   Along with my clothes and some furniture.   I have a trailer that   I can load the bikes onto, and as soon as I can get it registered licensed and insured, sometime around the 8th of November, I am going to go get that stuff.   I have to pay for the work done to Clyde, and storage for both bikes but I will have that money too.   I want to give Clyde to my son, because I can't ride two bikes.  But I might have to give him Big Red instead.  Both are paid for, so it is just a matter of me deciding which one I want to ride.

I wrote the above last week and this week I am registering the trailer, but I may not be going to Wisconsin until the end of March.   Will contact Troy my mechanic and let him know.  I have to go back to work.

Friday

 Today started late. I left my wallet at home and had to turn around and drive back for it.  It was raining really hard too.  That part is pretty good, the ranch needs the rain.  Will check the gauge later and post amount tomorrow, but I will bet we got almost an inch this morning.  The only problem is that it rains hard and fast, this can cause floods.  It would be nice if it rained steady for a few hours and soaked everything deep, but it just seems to rain hard for a bit and not soak the ground and then it runs off.

I am again writing this in the Mills County Community Center.  I am still volunteering here and it is still fun.  In a month I hope that I can go back to work.  I miss driving a lot.  I did not realize how much I enjoyed it until I couldn't do it.  I have driven in all forty eight continuous states, and several (I think 5, but it could be more or less) provinces in Canada.  I haven't been to Canada since a little before the 9-11 attack, but I really do not miss going up there.  It is a little easier to do now, but I do not have a passport. Funny thing is you do not need one to get into Canada, but you do to get back into the states.  Driving is not difficult, but it can be hard on a person.  Being alone is sometimes okay, and sometimes not okay.  Since being on this short term disability I have talked more to many folks than I ever did in the truck.  I enjoy the company, but also look forward to getting back to the solitude of solo truck driving.   The work here is enjoyable and rewarding, but it doesn't pay the rent.  I will probably continue to volunteer here, just not all the time.   If I go back to truck driving I will be out for 9 or 10 weeks, then home for 5 to 7 days.  On the days that I am home I will volunteer here.   Billie, and Ann and Laura are fun to work with and talk too.  

Laura is a Nurse, and she checks peoples blood pressure and oxygen levels every day if they want her to do that.  She keeps a record of it and can tell you what it was and how consistent it is.  This is a good deal.

This is a picture of Laura today explaining about how she takes blood pressure readings and what they mean.  Laura is the one standing up.   She is pretty cool.  Today she told me about what she went through with Covid-19.  It almost killed her.  I for one am glad it didn't get her.   She is pretty smart and has worked as a nurse for a long time, she is good at it. She has invited me to come watch her get re-baptized this Sunday, I just may go.

• 

These are pictures of the early voting area set up in the Community Center.  I have been watching it all week, and I voted on Monday.  This area has been pretty busy all week.   It is great to see that so many folks are voting.  It is also fun to realize that Goldthwaite is a small town where everyone knows everyone.  They are all friendly with each other.     Neighbors help each other all the time.  

Well that is pretty much it for today.  I will be taking a few pictures and will add them before I post this today.  But it is time for lunch and I have work to do.

Final thought, now that I have a trailer I will be going to Wisconsin  to pick up Clyde and Big Red.  Not sure when, might be before I go back to work, or possibly in the Spring, weather will be the issue there.

Thanks again for reading and I will moderate but all comments get posted here.

Thursday Lunch crowd.

Lynn and Laura setting up deserts

and Clowning for the camera in the kitchen.

This picture and next picture were taken before they knew the camera was there.  They work really hard to make everything taste and look good for our diners.

Folks chatting and waiting for lunch.

 I am again at the Mills County Community Center.  I am a volunteer here, but I enjoy the folks here too.  This week is early voting week and that means no fun stuff happening.  Bingo has been postponed for a while and so has chair areobics.  But  lunch still happens every day.   Yesterday was a Thanksgiving meal with Sweet Potatoes and stuffing, and Chicken breasts instead of Turkey, but it was great food.   We fed 40  folks in the Community Center, and another 20 or so meals were delivered.   Pecan pie and Ice Cream for desert.

I was a little busy so I didn't get any pictures yesterday.  There will be pictures from the DID ranch in the second half of this post.   I will get some pictures of the folks that come to lunch today and tomorrow and will post those. I really enjoy this place, it makes my time off work bearable.  I do get to wash a lot of dishes, mostly pots and pans.  There is a dishwasher for plates, silverware, cups and glasses.  Everything gets pre washed though.  Preperation is a lot of work, setting up the Meals on Wheels meals is a lot of work, but there are about 4 or 5 of us volunteers so it goes pretty fast.  I am typing this part of the post during the break between packing cold stuff (desserts, milk and salads today) and boxing hot stuff.  That is almost ready to happen.  Time to go wash my hands.  

Well all the meals are prepared and I got some pictures too.  Lynn and Laura dishing out Ice Cream and clowning for the camera, and the others are of folks waiting for lunch to get ready.

We fed about 60 folks today counting the meals for wheels folks.  Lots of work and fun too.

This is the results of the work on the deserts for today. Apple Cobbler and Ice Cream

Now for a few pics from the Ranch this week.  Eyore the Donkey likes me, and so do Ziggy and Getta (pronounced like it is spelled)  and for the same reason.

Thanks to everyone that has read these posts this week.  More than a hundred views.  Comments are welcomed especially if you have suggestions for things I should talk about.  

Thursday and Friday

 Well I hope everyone liked the pictures.  I am currently sitting in the Mills Counnty community center getting ready to put together the meals on wheels lunches.  This is fun to do and a lot of work.  There is also a lunch here too.   At the time I started this (which was yesterday) It was Charlie's birthday and Bingo day combined.   Two of the Ladies told Charlie that they were going to sing "Happy Birthday" to him backwards.  They did. I was going to video that but only got a picture.  Full disclosure, they stood backwards in front of Charlie and sang Happy Birthday, so they were singing it backwards.

You would think that as many posts as I have made on here I would remember how to add photos.   Believe it or not I had to google how to do it and then still couldn't figure it out.   

After singing Happy Birthday to Charlie we played Bingo.  Now I know that I said I was a volunteer here, but yesterday and today I brought along my friend Dean's son Lynn to help.   He is a great worker, and the ladies here have asked him to fill out an application.  He has.   Hoping he gets the job, it will be good for him and the community center.  The lady that is the cook wants to retire and just come in for lunch once in a while.

This is a picture of Lynn (probably spelled wrong)  He is a hard worker and a good guy. Extremly smart.  He is home brewing wine and some of it is amazingly good.

That is about it for today.  Thank you to the four folks following this blog.  Please feel free to comment and give me suggestions of things to write about.   I am living in Lometa Texas and the Community Center is in Goldthwait Texas.   I plan to explore some of the sights here, and there are quite a few.  I also want to go up to Hico Texas.  There is a small Billy the Kid museum there.   Brushy Bill Roberts died there.  He claimed to be Billy the Kid in 1950. The Govenor of New Mexico refused to acknowledge him, even though he had a lot of evidence and witnesses to back him up.  I think they just wanted that little story to stay dead.

Thanks  again

How I am spending my time while on a forced vacation

 This post is going to be mostly photos.  This is a picture of me in front of the Beast 2.0/.  I had a lifted 2001 F250 pickup with a 7.3 Diesel engine, but I sold it to a friend who wanted it for a project for his son.  A pack rat had eaten through the wiring harness, but Beast now runs and is getting a lot of loving care.  I bought a 2011 F250 that was gas powered and nice for running around in but did not have the towing capacity that I needed, when the opportunity to buy this F350 diesel pick up  came up, I sold the "Tin Lizzy" and am putting the proceeds of that towards paying off the Beast 2.0.   If you know me you'll know that I give my inanimate objects pet names.   Clyde the motorcycle was actually the first vehicle that I did this with.  But the new bike has a name too.  Although I do not have much time with it, I have been using big Red to describe it to me.   Once I get it to Texas and and ride it a little it may get a new name.  Right now I am thinking it is a she, but you never know.   Beast, Tin Lizzy and Beast 2.0 are all female vehicles, bikes are different, and Clyde liked the name Clyde from the first time I used it.  So for now it is  big Red.

Now for some more pictures.   I started working at the Mills county community center as a volunteer a few weeks ago.  I really enjoy it.  I help assemble the Meals on Wheels lunches that they send out, and wash pots and pans for the cook.   Since I am off work until the end of November this gives me something to get up and do.   They serve lunch and I help do that, then I wash dishes and then head home for my lunch.  I have changed my diet a lot, picture shows it too.  I have lost about 50 pounds since January.

Here are a few pictures from the community center. The first one is Billie with the plant that the folks who come for lunch got her for the work she did fixing food the week that Anne, the cook was on vacation.

The rest are of the folks that gave it to her and the community center.   It is a beautiful facility and nice to visit and to work in. 

The next pictures are of a porch that my friend Dean, and I (I didn't do much but hold tools and watch to make sure that the saw and welder sparks didn't start a fire) are putting together at another friend named Chuck's house.  It was quite the project and the framing is all box steel.  The boards are composite wood.

Dean had to notch almost every board because of the panels on the outside of the house.  I will take a few more pics today and add them to it.  There are 46 20 foot boards going into the floor, and it is coming out well, and it will outlast probably the rest of the house, and definitely me or Dean.

Well that is just some of the things I have been doing while not working.  It isn't much, and I am getting a form of cabin fever, but I am relaxing, and getting my blood sugar under control, and continuing to eat regularly and well.   Tish has made several meals, she calls them "Dave" friendly.  Meaning that diabetics can eat them without messing up their sugar.  I am still under a doctors care, and still taking insulin shots.   I hope to be done with that soon so that I can go back to work. The last series of pictures are of food that I have cooked for myself.  I am learning to use an air fryer and intend to take that and a small refrigerator along with the micro wave on the truck.   The air fryer uses 1700 watts but I think the invertor in the truck will handle that load.

This is a picture of the liners that I use, makes it a snap to clean up.

I got them off Amazon and I will post a link later.  Going to do a whole entry about air frying my food I think

Chicken legs and pepper, mushrooms and onions it was as tasty as it looks.

Last picture is of the air fryer basket after using the liners.  no cleaning required.