http://www.busdriverjim.com
One normally thinks of a pipeline as a series of underground pipes attached together for the purpose of transporting stuff. In this case it’s a colorful line along a cool pipe. I took this shot today at my base, along with a few others, which I’ll post upcoming…
Ah, the trickle down effect of unintended consequences. Local man gets DUI, loses drivers license and racks up 60 hours of community service. The guy lives out in the sticks so he has to use public transportation to fulfill his service at a local business that opens at 0700. Do you see where this is headed?
I have a very structured morning. I get up at 0500, drink my coffee, check my mail and read the news, until 0600. Steph gets up and we spend the next hour taking care of business, letting Piper in and out, eating and showering. We both leave the house at 0710 and arrive at our jobs at 0720.
Now, back to the story. Yep, guess who now gets to pick up the good old boy out in the dark sticks at 0630 three days a week! That means I have to leave the house at 0545 to make that happen, and needless to say, I don’t do it in my pajamas.
My nice little structured morning is now totally out of whack. So much so, that I haven’t even figured it out yet. Oh well, enough whining… Wait, the kicker! He’s a senior so he rides for free :-)
The wagon guy and his old lady were toolin around town today, for no apparent reason other than they could. Usually they have a load of kids on board and I’ve always related to the guy in that regard.
Today I photographed them passing the Community Center and later on I pulled in for gas at the Exxon and they were also there, fueling up. Actually, just the old lady was fueling up with a soda from the store. No petrol required for this ride…
The Valentines Day spin has begun again and is racing full speed toward Saturday. Steph and I have a wonderful romantic event planned for this weekend, we’re driving to the Walmart in Rexburg where I’m going to buy her an electric blanket for her new full size bed that she’s currently enjoying in the spare bedroom.
I’m not sure if we’re going to do the card share here at Broulims or at Walmart. What’s that you ask? It’s a tradition that we’ve developed over the years where we each pick a sappy card off the rack, hand them to each other and then put them back once they’re read and we thank each other profusely for the sentiment.
This is also the first Valentine’s in a long time that no gifts were assembled for my kids. Steph offered but after getting maybe two kid’s thanking me for the Christmas $2 uncirculated bills I gave out, why bother…
It’s a sunny Sunday today, with the temperature at 45°. Not bad for the middle of winter, and the yard snow is melting fast. Hey, I can see the rocks! Spring Fever is trying to take hold of my body but I’m not letting it, yet.
So, I’ll just get back to my stew…
Meanwhile, Piper’s finding some space.
And neighbors are riding around…
I’ve been deep into some esoteric mapping code lately. It keeps my brain occupied, which is good, since driving does not. The physical act of driving is an autonomic skill where I get into a mode of total awareness of my surroundings as I progress through the sludge of life until my day ends.
Programming, on the other hand, is a vibrant skill requiring my brain to create solutions to new challenges that I create! My current obsession is to allow the user, i.e. you, to create a Google spreadsheet with places, and then plot them on an interactive map where you can update them, edit them or delete them, in real time.
You’ll be able to add any fields you like to the spreadsheet such as description, address, website or whatever and the program will incorporate that into editable entities on the map. The only required columns are a name for the place and the lat/lng fields, which are automatically maintained.
The map itself is open source, no Google map here! Stay tuned and I will offer up some examples shortly. For instance, Steph would like to create a spreadsheet of all of Suburban Propane’s customer tanks around the valley with statistics about each tank. It then becomes both a database and a routing tool for Dusty, the delivery driver.
Don’t you just love people that feel that they’re entitled to four parking spots at the local grocery while traveling through a small hick town? I was intrigued to discover the owners of this rig and I waited long enough to spot them.
I have to say that the dad shook his head and frowned at his parking job when they returned, so I’ll give them a break, and not make any Colorado pot jokes…
The photo does make you wonder about the family dynamics going on here…
1530 is a busy time at the only stoplight in Driggs. I try to beat the school busses, but usually fail. I know this particular bus, it heads West down 75 South just after leaving downtown and I’m very familiar with that road. The dirt pretty much sums it up!
I hate it when the moose around here have better teeth than me, or Steph. It’s even more humiliating since we share the same Dentist.
This is how I make my living. Driving in the snow, sometimes alone more than not, providing transport to folks who cannot drive themselves. Hop on board for a minute…
I wasn’t going to discuss this here, but it’s been eating away at me for days. I’m talking about The Call that took a Super Bowl victory away from the players and the fans.
I became a Seahawk fan when I moved to the Seattle area in the early nineties and remained one after moving here. Throughout this season I’ve watched every game I could and jumped out of my chair and yelled my approval many times.
I’ve got this thing figured out and I’m really disgusted. I think a decision was made by the Seahawks management early on that if their crotch-grabbing, media shy running back was in a position to win the game in the red zone, they would defer to a slant pass. Wilson would be the MVP, with no controversy.
So how disgusted am I? I’m now no longer a Seahawk fan. If I decide to ever watch another football game again I guess I’ll figure out who to root for when that happens. It’s really sad actually, I’m running out of institutions to believe in…
Last Friday one of my kids showed me a note she was taking home, asking for a donation of any spare yarn the parents might have laying around. Apparently a project they’re working on needed lots of yarn.
Well, I live with a yarn person, that being one who buys yarn at craft stores, yard sales and yarn store going out of business sales. You might say Steph is a yarn hoarder collector. I knew she could throw together a donation and sure enough I had a huge bag of quality yarn to drop off at the school this morning.
When I pulled up this afternoon I was wondering if a teacher would wander out and give me a thanks. Nope, all I got was this:-)
