Caution do not scare the GROUCH!

Some of you that read this may realize that I train folks to drive big trucks. Those that do not will now. Last week quite by accident I found a new training technique. I had a student from New York City, and he was pretty nervous about driving my truck because it has a 13 speed transmission. I tried everything I could to make him more comfortable. Nothing seemed to work.

I use post-it notes to write the route out so that students stay on the right roads when I go into the sleeper. (I do not sleep much back there, but when I go back there students seem to relax.) I went back there with this guy and he woke me up suddenly. I got up grouchy. He did not say anything about it but I was a little bothered by it. I apologized to him for being grouchy, but then told him that I had been asleep. He seemed surprised. Then he asked if he had scared me. I told him no, he would not like me very much if he had scared me. We had a good laugh about this. Then I wrote on a post it note "CAUTION !!!! DO NOT SCARE THE GROUCH!!!!!", I put this note behind the route, and did not say anything to him about it.

Then next day we we leaving a parking lot and a car almost hit us. He stopped and controlled the situation well. Afterwords he asked me if he had scared me. I then showed him the note, and told him no but he should stop trying to scare me. We laughed but he was much more relaxed after that. So it worked.



As an aside I am planning on doing the entire Run For The Wall this year. More on that later

Old Friends Found

Some of my readers may remember my account (some what enhanced in my favor) of the battles on the Spangdahlem Speedway between me and Speedy. Well I may have some videos of these events to share soon, that is if Speedy can figure out how to get them on a DVD from the original dusty VHS format that they are currently on. If he does then I have to figure out how to post them here, which I will do. Speedy and I were actually only rivals on the track, we got along pretty well. He currently races shift carts in Louisiana, and I am sure that he is doing very well there. He is and was an excellent tactical driver, I on the other hand was just plain lucky and I mostly just ran into things and other cars and got really lucky that I ever finished a race. The ones that I finished ahead of Speedy were few and far between, but I enjoyed them even when I lost to him.

So any way the purpose of this post is that I have found a couple of old Friends in the last couple of months, and I am really looking forward to meeting with them again and maybe even watching Speedy race a little bit.


Short update on the Old Marine,
He is at home and doing better. He is not 100% yet but he is doing better.


Bounce

The Old Marine is getting better

My Dad, AKA The Old Marine, is doing better. He actually expects to head home Monday. He still has a feeding tube in his stomach, and may need a visit every now and then from a home care nurse, but he is walking without a walker, and rehab therapy is going well. The VA rehab that he wanted to go to is full, and has a waiting list, so he will be going home. To everyone that prayed for his speedy recovery thanks, it worked.

He is not 100 % yet but at around 85% and getting stronger, and sassier every day.


Bounce

This one is just for fun

Some of my followers already know that I am a truck driver and that I train new drivers. I thought I would post this story on one of my students, the names will not be posted, but nicknames will be. Here goes the story of Weed Hopper:

A few weeks ago I got a new student sent to me. I met him in Council Bluffs Iowa, and he needed to drive to the North East and North West and he needed to get at least two mountains. These are all required before my company allows a new driver to move on to the next phase of training. This guy was pretty cool to train. He was in construction in Florida, and Georgia, and when the construction jobs dried up he decided to make one last career change and become a truck driver. He gave himself the nick name "Weed Hopper" because he kept saying "Yes my Trainer" when I would correct things he was doing wrong. When I asked him why he said it like that he said he had always been a fan of the T.V. show "Kung Fu" and thought that since grass hopper was already taken he would be a "Weed Hopper". Pretty funny if you think about it. So I started calling him Weed Hopper. We were swapping trailers with another trainer and his student, and Weed Hopper was checking the new trailer out, and really embarrassed the other trainer when he found an expired registration and a flat tire on the trailer we were picking up. Normally I would have had to tell these guys that I was not going to take this trailer, but the load got me to Home, and from previous posts you should know that my Dad is in the hospital, so I took the trailer. We called in the flat tire, and moved across the street to await a tire guy to come out and fix the tire. Two guys showed up, and they has said it would take about an hour for them to get there, they were there in 10 minutes, and watching them change that tire was amazing. Normally this takes almost half an hour, but these two guys went at it like they were a NASCAR pit crew, and were done in about 10 minutes after they arrived. Weed Hopper was just amazed at how fast this was done, and when he commented on how fast they were, the one guy said, yeah I gotta get to Rugby practice, or it would have taken longer.
Later Weed Hopper said, "That guy wanted to go to Rugby practice pretty bad didn't he?"
My response was "Yeah and it takes leather balls to play rugby, so he must really like the pain." We laughed about this for about three days. Weed Hopper has moved on to the next phase of training, and will be a successful driver, which is the goal of the training program, and I will never worry about having a flat in Cedar Falls IA cause the Good Year guys there doe a great job.

Old Marine getting better and on the move

Well here is another update on the Old Marine...He has moved out of the Madison VA hospital and is back in Milwaukee. He is in a Rehabilitation facility trying to get well enough to head home. But he still has some tubes sticking into him. He is hoping that he can be home in 14 days, but if not he will be signing up for VA Rehab in Milwaukee. He is doing better, but does not like the low fat low cal low salt diet he is on. He will get used to it, but you know how Marines. He wants what he wants and he will get it somehow I am sure. Thanks again to all the well wishers from Run For The Wall that have sent out prayers to him and for him. He really appreciates his extended family, and he even remembers a few folks by name, and mentions them every now and then. He is getting a little stronger every day and is working hard to get better.

Bounce

The Old Marine gets his waffle

Wow, I guess some one is following this. First let me apologize for not updating my Dad's status sooner. I received a comment requesting an update from some one. I have been a little busy in the last four days, went from Indiana to Indiana by way of New York State and Wells Nevada.

Here goes the update. As of this morning about 07:30 CST he was doing well. He has been walking, he still has a stomach tube, a chest tube, a liver tube and an IV, but he is not attached to the Christmas tree any longer which means he is free to walk as much as he can (He won't admit it but my Uncle Ed said he has probably walked more in the last three weeks than in the last three years.
He sent my Sister to the Slop Shop for more Pogey Bait (direct translation for the Non Marines Grocery store for some stuff he was not supposed to have, in this case Twinkies, I got him a Hershey Bar last week). He is eating regular food and pretty much anything he wants right now. He sounds a lot better on the phone, and I should be able to see him by the end of the week. I am headed to Dallas for business, then home for the weekend I hope.
When I talked to him this morning he was eating a waffle, no strawberries or whipped cream, but plenty of syrup and oleo (margarine for the younger folks).

I think he will get better, he still has some problems, pain from stomach incision and pneumonia, and they think he has a hernia (considering that they opened him up a second time and pulled his insides out to inspect I do not think he should have a hernia, but what do I know, I am just a truck driver and a concerned son.)

He will be in Madison for a few more days yet. Docs are discussing sending him to Milwaukee, but not sure if it will be the VA or the rehab center he has picked out.
Thanks again to all of you that have been praying for him. He also has mentioned more than once that he is thankful to all his Run Buds cause he knows those guys are praying for him and thinking about him.
OK anonymous, that is all I know for now. Except his room mate is headed home for therapy and that he is hoping he at least gets another Marine, cause those Air Force guys are cantankerous. His word not mine, wait was he talking about me?

Bounce

Clyde is Ready to Roll, now that summer is over

Clyde to Bounce,
Get him Better he rides me better than you do.



Oil changed valves adjusted ready to ride, and now summer is over, but I will be ready for May, question is will bounce be ready

Clyde

Update on the Old Marine

Today my Dad was moved out of intensive care and into a regular room. He is still receiving great care, and visits from the Marines, The VFW, the Moose Lodge, and several others. This makes it a lot easier on him since he is over 100 miles from home. He has also been walking around which is great cause Saturday he could not get his left leg to move at all.

Thanks to everyone that has prayed for his speedy recovery. Please do not stop, he lived a rock star lifestyle for years, and it is catching up with him. But he is doing better.

Bounce

Not as Lean, Not as Mean but Still a Marine

This post has been rattling around in my head since last Thursday morning. I just have not had the time, or even the desire to put the words out there. I received a voice mail from my younger Brother, that my Dad (Step Father, but he is my Dad) was in the hospital in Madison Wisconsin. I was of course on the road and about 600 miles away from him. I waited until a reasonable hour and started calling to find out what was up. Turns out my Dad, the Old Marine, who is not as lean, nor as mean but still a Marine, has landed in the Madison VA hospital. He was pretty sick, but it seems that he is still a fighting machine because he is getting better. He spent about seven days in intensive care, but should be moving to a regular room today. He is recovering, and I pray that I am half as tough as he is when I am 60. I will be updating how the Old Marine ( a nickname given to him while participating three times on Run For The Wall) is doing here as he progresses. Thanks to all his friends and mine for all the good words, and prayers.
Note to self do not fall asleep on any more hospital waiting room floors, they are hard and cold. Do get a blanket from the nice intensive care nurse (They keep them in a heater and they are soooooooo warm)
You may notice by the above note that I had a long weekend, but I am back on the road now, will be trying to get back and see my Dad and Mom and the rest of my Family a little more. After all I discovered that a person cannot work all the time no matter what the situation is, things can be replaced, family cannot.

Bounce

Another friend gone

I have a friend that passed away on Tuesday. His name was Tom Locket. I knew him as Tracker a road guard for Run For The Wall. He was a quiet guy and quite a guy at the same time. The only time I had more than a passing hello from him was a few years ago when I screwed up on the run. The pack was heading into Jefferson Barracks, and it was taking longer than normal to get turned around. We had well over 400 bikes to park and those of us that had been there before knew to be patient and be ready to move into the parking area. There were about twenty new folks in the pack ahead of me and they thought were were done. None of them had radios on their bikes, and they were shutting down and getting off their bikes. We still had almost 100 bikes on the freeway at this point. I had room and I was going to pull out of line and go up and inform them to be ready to move fast cause we still had a way to go before we got off the bikes. Just as I was thinking of doing this bone head move, Tom and Walrus came along, and if I had moved out they would have crashed into me. Later Tom told me to be patient and not make one bone head move worse by doing something that was not my job. He was right, he and Walrus were and are road guards and moving the pack is their job. Thanks Tom, you will be missed. Tom's Funeral is today, in Arkansas. I am in Tennessee so I won't be there, but I will say a prayer for Tom's family and all my friends that remain. I am better for having known Tom.

Bounce