Post Election Thoughts

Well the election is over and the results could not be worse. Our muzzie leader PBO got re-elected which shows how strong his voodoo mojo is. Hope you libs enjoyed the cool-aid because all of us are doomed.

As PBO continues "forward" toward his socialist nirvana I will NOT:

  - carry a prayer rug, stick my butt in the air, and face east
  - use the term "Commrade" as a formal greeting
  - learn to "goose step" in formation
  - build an shrine to honor or praise PBO
 
I will:

  - start researching "how to be an ex-patriot" in earnest
  - explore various foreign countries for possible places to escape to
 

There will be more postings once my rage and disappointment calms down a bit!

Present status..

Well I've been with Averitt Express for 6 weeks now, Getting the hang of their system. Quickly discovered that being based in Milwaukee (their far northern outpost) isn't to my advantage as this isn't their strongest freight lane. During August I was home every weekend (mighty nice), got in a lot of fishing with my buddy Craig. Main draw back to that scenario is I only had time to load out and back. Two loads a week doesn't do much for the income, sooooo I have switched to "home every other" which gives dispatch more choices as to what loads I can handle. I did suggest a weekly load to Dallas and back, but appearantly that's not going to happen.

I did get pretty much settled into my new truck, a 2012 Freightliner Cascadia, It's not like the Volvo 780 I was driving. But it also doesn't come with the expenses (truck payment, fuel, maintenance, etc) so I can't complain. My revenue per mile has increased dramatically, now to get those miles per week up!

Another 6 weeks and the benefits package kicks in. THAT will take a worrysome load off of my sholders. I hope we can stay healthy at least until then..

Looks like 2 more weekends at the lake, then it'll be time to winterize the campers and get buttoned up for the season.

Well, a big change in underway. On Monday I let my "employer" know that I was done as a lease operator. I explained the financial reasons for getting out of my current situation. They in turn showed me all kinds of bonus programs, incentives, and reasons to stay on with Swift as a company driver. They didn't take my message as final, but rather gave me a few days to think about it. Today's "final decision" day!

What they fail to see is that my rate of pay with my new employer isn't based on some "if this, then that" program, but rather a straight up rate per mile that is above the Swift offering with all the bonus programs added in. The problem with their incentives is that so many factors have to be "just perfect" in order to gain any financial bonus. One little detail gone wrong can and will derail the "BIG BUCKS" that Swift toutes. If I were a younger man I might be enticed by the "chance" to earn bonus bucks, but I'd rather count on a sure thing.

Oh, I have been hired by Averitt Express to run a regional truck based out of Milwaukee. As I understand it I'll drive 2300 -2500 miles a week, be home every weekend, and have benefits after 90 days. After the first year I'll have a paid vacation (what's that like?).  They run primarily southeast (FL, GA, LA, MS, etc) with NO NYC, Canada,  or Rockie Mountains. I may still get to see Texas and New Mexico as they have a terninals in El Paso and Alb.

I'm excited by the adventure of starting with Averitt and eagerly await my travel plans for the orientation in Cookeville, TN.

More later on..

M

Got fantastic news this week!

And as soon as everything settles down I'll post about it. Until then there are too many things that could go wrong and screw up the results.
L8R

Now that the Wisconsin recall election is settled (Walker wins!!) the next big thing on the horizon is the pending announcement by the Supreme Court regarding Obamacare. I truely hope they toss out the enter law as unconstitutional. This president is mettling in things he has no authority to mess with and ignoring his duties as outlined in the constitution. He's supposed to be an expert on this and even lectured about it, but for some reason doesn't see himself as subject to the duties and limitations spelled out in the document. Didn't he swear to uphold the constitution? Or did he have his fingers crossed when he was coronated as King of the USA?

L8R
M

Sneaky, sneaky, sneaky

Did you know PBO is quietly setting the wheels in motion for 6 UN treaties that will cripple the USA, bypass Congress, and force all future presidents to comply? I  heard about this "end-run" on Sirius XM Radio's Patriot channel. Dick Morris published a book detailing this sneaky attach on our liberties. Title of the book, aptly named, is "Screwed". The fact that Mr Morris had time to write & publish a book about this tells me that this isn't an impulse move but rather a carefully planned out polictical maneuver for PBO to get what he wants regardless of public opinion. I plan to check this out more closely.

Time to start the search for a "safe" country to be an ex-patriot in.. Belize is looking pretty good..

L8R
M

Magic Wand Pt3

Having a magic wand isn't all roses if you think about it. It's like "Sim City" which I attempted to play once, got frustrated, and hit the lil red X. But if you ignore the "butterfly effect" and just start waving away you can have a imaginary ball.

Example: One wave of the wand and term limits are in place for ALL elected poisitions from the top down to the lowest official. There goes the career politician who has 20-30-40 years gaming the system. Now he/she has this unbelievable pension, free health care for life, and can go lobbying for BIG bucks. Hmmmm. Maybe I should have done that years ago... But I digress... In steps a fresh face with no polictical connections, no baggage from prior "deals",  plenty of good intentions, and no expectations of another term in office so there's no pressure to do the "politically savy" thing by cloaking one's position with "spin". Instead our "one term & out" official can concentrate on get things done. He/she won't have to learn the "ropes" as there aren't any because that vanished with the "wave".

While it is true that really good officials (a rare find) would be gone in one term, so would the inept goober that managed to win an election. So, unlike a bad tattoo, we're not stuck with a bad decision. We, the citizens who pay for this gov't, could actually have a say in what goes on, what laws/rules are made or deleted, what departments/progrms are in place. Wouldn't that be a refreshing change of pace? Kinda like what our founders had in mind. Following the Constitution as it was written/amended.

Ah, well that leads to Magic Wand (MW) part 4.....

L8R
M

More Magic Wand thoughts

People that operate their personal (and/or business) expenses on a budget normally try to keep expenses at or below the budgeted amount. Once you get into a gov't position that whole notion changes and now the budget amount is a target. You (the gov't employee) run your normal expenses throughout the alloted time frame. But, unlike the real world, as you draw near the "year end" spending will be increased so that all budgeted funds are expended by the end date. Was this a lesson in Economics that I missed?

My magic wand would eliminate that whole mind set. People would actually try to conserve money instead of blowing it all. Perhaps an incentive could be offered for coming "under budget". Considering the size of our gov't and the amount of money that gushes thru there, this little change could save a lot of taxpayer dollars..

Once again there will be massive amounts of wailing and nashing of teeth as changes like is are never welcomed with open arms and warm smiles..

More to come,

L8R
M

Magic Wand..

With no intent of putting my hypothetical Magic Wand changes in some sort of order I can randomly add to my "list" as thoughts surface..

First change: Eliminate base line budgeting on all levels of gov't. Where in the real world did that concept come from? On a regular basis each and every recipient of gov't funds will be required to reapply for gov't (our) money. No rubber stamp wink & a nod approvals. No "grandfather" passes. No automatic renewals.

Can you imagine the amount of wailing & nashing of teeth this would create? For far too long it's been standard practice to just add to the outflowing  budget with no regard to the source (taxpayers).

Hmmmm. Maybe I could dream up some great sounding cause or program that didn't actually do anything, cost only 5-10 million a year, and was perpetual in nature. Something so low on the radar screen that it attracted no attention. Then I'll need to find a gov't sponsor that would attach a simple amendment to a popular piece of legislation and get my program included on the endless gravytrain known as baseline budgeting. I'd be set for life, so would my family for generations to come!

On second thought I wouldn't delete baseline budgeting (see prior paragraph). Ok, new direction for my imangination.. :-)

L8R
M

If I had a magic political wand...

what would I do? There's so much wrong with what's going on, not just in the USA but world wide. With such great power (my magic wand, remember?) comes awesome responsibility. There may be unintended consequences, a domino effect, or major uprisings from the changes I might make.

Guess I'd better give this some deep thought before I list what's on my wishlist.

Any thoughts or suggestions are welcome.

L8R
M

It appears that a blog reader can comment on my published diatribes, but so far hasn't. Guess I'll have to make my posts more interesting.

Bumper Sticker idea:

Just Say NO
To PBHO in 2012

L8R
M

Twitter seems so confusing to me! All those @_____ symbols make no sense. Wonder of there's a Twitter class on line?

What to do..what to do...

Hmmm. Decisions, decisions, decisions... I have discovered 2 trucking companies that are hiring.

The first outfit runs Wisconsin and the surrounding states. Advantage: NO east coast, NO winter mountains. Drivers are home every weekend! Disadvantage (maybe): LTL loads meaning multi-stop trips. The pay is based on a % of the line haul. How do I know what I'm earning prior to seeing my settlement check? Is there enough freight to earn a decent living?

The second outfit runs all 48 states (not so good, see previous advantage) but they do pay $0.34 off the hub. Advantages: paid for every mile traveled. Disadvantage: long trips = less home time.

Both companies have newer (but not fancy) equipment and refrigerated trailers. They both use paper logs which I'm accustomed to and have a computer log program that'll impress the heck out of their log department. Both back haul (or if need be deadhead) their trucks home for another trip outbound.

My third option is to switch back to a company truck with my present carrier. Advantage to option #3: familiar with company and procedures. Disadvantage: they pay book miles which are usually 8-10% short of actual miles traveled. That may not sound like much but when I apply that shortage to 150,000 annual miles (for example), that's a lot of driving for NOTHING.

I realize that every company is in business for themselves. Everything they do is for their benefit and betterment. Trucks and drivers are just disposable assets used to reach their objective (profit). Same can be said for just about any other business entity. The days of employees being treated like they're worth something are long gone. Or are there isolated companies that still treasure their workers?

I'm not totally unhappy with my present work situation, but I worry that NOT have health insurance could be a major financial problem if something serious happened. So the benefits package is almost more important than the pay program or the method of operation. I plan to further explore these options and hopefully make the correct decision soon, as I'm not getting any younger.

Retire by 65!
L8R
M

PS: How  do I get rid of the backgrond stuff?

First Ever Blog Posting

I hope this blogging thingy is easier to understand than Twitter which seems to be loaded with abbreviations and some kind of code. Plus Twitter has a character limit per Tweet. I wonder if my grandkids can show me how that works! Here it appears that I can just ramble on until I have actually completed a thought or subject.

Years ago I tried the chat rooms where numerous people were all "talking" at once. So confusing! By the time I typed a reply to someone's statement, the conversasion had moved on or totally switched subjects. I didn't catch on and eventually abandoned the whole scene in frustration. Same for instant messages. Now that I have my EVO  I have been known to text a time or two..

Any tips or tricks to make this adventure work ______er would be greatly appreciated.

Looking foward to another weekend at the ranch. Lots to do.. Get the camper recommissioned for summer, cut grass, clean the truck, and best of all..be with my Sweety.

That's all for now boy & girls..
L8R