Blogging to commence soon!!!!

Finally!!!! I have a way to blog on the road thanks to Sunshine and my birthday gift!!!

Tree

Cornerstone

Christ alone, Cornerstone
Weak made strong, in the Savior's love
Through the storm
He is Lord, Lord of All

 We have to stand on Jesus, make him our foundation of everything in our lives. Through darkness, through storms, through the broken pieces, through the uncertainty, through the doubt.... If we don't change the way we live, our actions, take the steps to put him first in our lives....we will remain broken, we will remain in pieces, we will remain in turmoil with the storm....instead of standing in his peace and joy in the midst of the storm, regardless of our brokenness.

He does not give up on us...Jesus does not give up on us. We are the ones who don't stand on his word, in his word, by his word. Our lives should show him that we love him and trust him.  This requires us to change our words, change our actions, change our friends, change our perspective on life, be determined that even when uncomfortable....you speak truth, live truth, speak his word, have his word buried in our heart and flowing over. 

 We compromise so much to make ourselves feel comfortable. We compromise so much to make others feel comfortable. Instead we should be living a life built on and around Christ, our cornerstone. 

Winds of Adversity

This is paraphrased from a book that I am reading called How to Let God Solve Your Problems by Charles Stanley. I picked it up one day at a truck stop and read the first chapter. I needed this message and I know others in my life that does as well, so I paraphrased it here. Winds of Adversity The winds of adversity blow strong. They also. Low in every direction. They do not discriminate between rich or poor, weak or strong. Though many people try desperately to avoid difficulty and hardship, sooner or later adversity will strike our lives. This is be abuse no one is exempt from sorrow, heartache, disappointment, and even sudden tragedy. When the storm hits, it can cause a multitude of problems: fear, anxiety, and anger. It can tempt us to doubt God's goodness and to feel as though the very foundation of our lives will crumble beneath us. In the aftermath of any storm, He is the only one we can turn to for encouragement. We search through the debris of their lives looking for signs of hope and anything still connected to the life they knew before the storm. Even if everything has changed, God remains the same (Hebrews 13:8). He is our eternal anchor in stormy, difficult times (Hebrews 6:19). And he promised never to forsake us (Hebrews 13:5). We must trust God with our circumstances. He not only will help solve whatever problem you facing, but he will restore all that has been lost in the process. The restoration may come in a different way. But, it will come, and you will be able to sense God's good was in the process. In Dueteronomy 30:1-3, it says, "so it shall be when all of these things have come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you call them in mind... And you return to the lord your god and OBEY him with all your heart and soul...the. The lord God will restore you." the lord is the one who provides strength and courage we need to go forward by faith, trusting Him with our future even when the sun does not appear for many days and months. And it is in times of extreme difficulty that He develops our character and strengthens us spiritually, while helping us to grow deeper in our faith in him. We have a sure hope for what seems hopeless and a savior who comforts us in our times of heartache (2 Corinthians 1:3-4). We will face difficult times. Some will be short storms other times will be hurricanes that last months. But, God is with us. When you face adversity, ask God to help you understand his will and purpose for the difficulty. He may not tell you all that you santo know. But over time, you will find that he gives you exactly what you need at the right time. One of the surest ways to experience Gods hope is to read his word. Gods unconditional love and restoration is woven throughout the bible. God loves you with an unconditional everlasting love. Be relentless in your faith because God promised to deliver you from heartache and sorrow.

29 vs 31

OH MY!  This is sooo funny and absolutely true.

Conclusions I Am Making: Changing Often

Too many hours on the road alone leaves you with plenty of time to draw conclusions.  Here are a few:

1.    I want to get a new tattoo.

2.    I want some blue or purple streaks in my hair.

3.    I need a place of my own where I have a full kitchen to be able to cook and have people over.

4.    I need to file for bankruptcy.  

5.    I loved more and the relationship was more in my eyes.

6.    I forced him to be that "serious" with me.  

7.    I should have just kept our relationship as close friends open to benefits.  

8.    I don't really believe 5-8.

9.    I need to be more involved with outreaches and volunteer opportunities.

10.  If by 33 I am still single....I have a few guys that I'm going to ask for sperm donations from to start my own family.  

11.  I need to read more...and stop just buying the books.

12.  I need to blog and journal more.  Not good just pushing things back down when stuff bubbles to the surface.  Need to get the thoughts out.

13.  I need to get back to being serious about my weight loss.  Working the Chris Powell plan.

14.  I'm tired. 

15.  I wonder if...no wouldn't be possible.

16.  Events and Adventures...looking into that.

17.  I am going to the Virgin Islands in May.

18.  Going rafting down the colorado river through the canyons this summer.

More I'm sure to come.  More I'm sure that will change.

Hard Reality

Why live life if we can't live it and do what we want? This was a question asked to me from a sincere broken hearted place by a friend. I couldn't imagine being in their shoes during this difficult period of their life...even when this circumstance affects me greatly personally and because it's a close friend. But when i was proposed this question I didn't have a good answer. All I had to say was... The way we want to live out lives is not always what's best for us. Dumb answer in the context of the circumstances. But, in all truth and honesty...it's the best answer. So many ways I can go with this: God has destined a life for us, he knows best, he requires us to live a righteous life without sin (which is impossible by the way but we should do our best and thank God for his grace and Jesus that covers us when we mess up). But, what answer i think is more appropriate is this: that even though when we are faced with life situations where we begin to think that life is pointless...we have to remember that there are so many beautiful things that outweigh what we are going through in the moment. We have to focus not on our pain of the moment, but remember that life has so many gifts and joys. we may not be experiencing them now. But, life will get better. And while we are in the midst of this horrible painful time in our lives, we have to hold on to our faith and trust that God is in control. Regardless. Period. And when we get to the other side of the heartache that we are going through...we can trust that we can look back and see how God was walking with us and sometimes carrying us through that time. We will see that he never left us and will be able to see the bigger picture and the way that it turned out was far better then what we could have ever imagined in the moment of the heartache, pain, turmoil.

:)

So far, so good?

I have had people ask me why I haven't posted about my new job. To tell you the truth, I have been too tired. When I do get home from work I want to do only one of two things, sleep or spend time with a special someone. I have laundry piling up all over the place, my house is DIRTY, my DVR is full to the brim, mail/bills are mounting high on my desk, food is rotting in the fridge.....get the point. Last
thing I do is turn on the computer. However, it has been an adventure.

Before I can tell you some of my experiences there are some things that need to teach my non trucker savvy friends. First, I drive for a company that mostly transports freight via pups....or doubles.....or wiggle wagons. They look like this:




In the middle of the two trailers is what is called a dolly....or jiff.....or jifflox. They are extremely heavy and weigh several hundred pounds. Here are a few pictures of what it looks like.







When I get to work, the first thing that I do after getting my bills for my load is to find a jiff. I pick up my tractor and go find a dolly. I have to attach it to the tractor as such:






This requires me to back the tractor up to the dolly, get out and manually move and attach the dolly. Did I mention that they are several hundred pounds and very difficult to steer and move around. Now, the next part is a bit tricky. I have to back up the dolly to the trailer that is going to be my rear trailer, the lightest one. The problem is that the wheel base is so short between the back axel of the tractor and the axel on the jiff. Therefore, it turns on a dime and is very quick to jack knife making it "fun" to back it up in line with the king pin on the front underneath side of the trailer.

Next, I go and hook up my heaviest loaded trailer to my tractor's fifth wheel. Once that is done I back that trailer up inline with the jiffy and back trailer, make sure it's in line, hook the jiff to back of the front trailer that is already connected to the tractor, get back into the tractor and back every thing together till the jiff's fifth wheel locks onto the king pin of the back trailer. Then, lastly, hook all the air brakes and stuff together.

Here's some videos for you showing how much "fun" it is:

Hooking Up Doubles (Doesn't show the hardest part of backing up the dolly to the back trailer, I wish it magically appeared already aligned)


How To Use A Dolly Converter:


Now, you've learned the basics.

When I started at Old Dominion I had to do four weeks training. I already blogged about some of my training. There were many mishaps....like coming to a full stop in an interchange going up a steep 360 degree ramp, hooking the trailers in the wrong order (lightest first, instead of heaviest.....causes back trailer to fishhook.), repeatedly stalling, grinding gears, knocking the gas hose out and flooding the fuel bay with liquid gold, being side swiped by a truck towing a camper and knocking my mirrors....having to try to fix my mirrors hanging out the window while maintaining speed while in four lane traffic and having to cut people off while making another quick highway change. I'm sure there were plenty more stories to tell. However, my favorite would be on one of my last Saturdays.

That morning I was particularly tired. The night before I had a "fight" or long winded discussion when I got off work the previous night. By the time I returned home, it was close to 2 in the morning. That was a long and emotionally tiring day. The next morning at work, I hooked up the dolly and went to find my back trailer. I found the one I was looking for and whipped the tractor and dolly around to begin lining it up for the hook up. I stopped the tractor and started to shift to reverse.

Shane, my trainer, spoke up, "Sonya, how much sleep did you get last night?"

"Not much, why?"

Shane gave out a little laugh, "cause look at what you about to do. You're on the wrong side of the trailer."

I stared back at my mirrors. "Oh shit," I let out in a low exasperated puff. I had the dolly all prepared to shimmy right up to the wrong end where the doors were. There's definitely not a king pin to hook the fifth wheel of the dolly there.

I have had quite a few mishaps. I know that my guardian angel has been working overtime since I have started working. Here's a few tales of things that have happened.

I left out Sunday night to head out for a Gainesville, Florida turn. (A turn means I go somewhere and meet another driver at a halfway point, swap trailers and come back to Atlanta the same shift. A bag run means that I drive to a destination and have to spend the night in a hotel and come back to Atlanta the next day or go to another destination the next day.) I couldn't find my trailers.  I was riding up and down the lot looking. These two team drivers stopped me and asked if I was lost.  Turns out, the dispatcher already had my trailers hooked up for me in the front.  There went a good 30 minutes.  :)  Same trip, I ran over two medians and my fuel card wasn't working.

I have dropped two trailers on two different occasions.  No, not like dropping them as in dropping off trailers....I mean dropping them as forgetting to put down the legs and I pull out from underneath the trailers and KABOOM....they drop to the ground.  Luckily, on both occasions they were empty trailers.  I've learned to ignore all conversation until I put down the legs.  :)

I have been ran over by a converter dolly which ran down hill at me.  It took three of us to push it back up to the trailer.  Luckily, I wasn't at a terminal by myself.

I have missed the king pin pushing the dolly into my back trailer and had it jump the fifth wheel.... again, I was lucky that it was an empty trailer so I could crank the trailer up high by myself and not have to go tell on myself.  

I have had tons of adventures.  I don't think I have gone on a trip, yet, that I didn't have things go wrong or me mess up.  It is a stressful job, a tiresome job... but, I am thankful I have a job.  I need to keep this blog better updated because some of the stories are hilarious if I remember to blog about them....now all the details of all my screw ups are all mushed together.

Anyways, I barely get on the computer when I am home.  Too tired and want to spend my time doing other productive things.  I'll try to keep this more updated. :)