Wow, I can't believe I haven't posted for a week.  This past week has been one of working through the nights - it seems I don't get called for a run until the late hours of the night, then they keep me out until early to late the next morning.  Then I come back to my apartment and try to get some sleep with all the noise of the neighbors (more on that later.)  It's all good, but it takes some getting used to.

Let me share a few scattered thoughts:

This is my favorite SUV that we have.  When you spend hours a day driving, you tend to build preferences.  It's very comfortable, has a great sound system, sun roof, and pretty fun to take 4-wheeling.  It also doesn't have a million miles on it like some of the vans in our fleet.  It's not so fun at the gas pump though - a couple times I have come close to 100 clams to fill it up.

When a run is assigned to a driver, he can choose whatever van/SUV is available.  I always take the nicest ones available because it is a better image for the company and I just like driving nicer cars.  We have some that have logged more than 100K miles and they are beat up and smelly.  A lot like a sophomore classmate of mine at Borah High School.

Speaking of not-so-nice cars, here's our van that the guy used to wail on the tanker truck a few weeks back, going to the boneyard.  It will make a nice bunch of Pepsi cans.  Or whatever.

These last 2 weeks have been plagued with car incidents.  One person hit a cow with this one:

She tagged it with the front left corner, spinning the animal around and getting hit again in the left rear quarter panel.  Livestock are not good about wearing their reflective safety vests, so we drivers have to be alert.  Two other drivers hit deer, but with less damage to the cars.

Here's something you don't see everyday - Amtrak being pulled by another engine.  Amtrak is classified as a "Z" train, meaning that it has the highest priority of all trains that run on the main track.  In fact, twice in a normal day, all trains will be stopped for about 90 minutes so that Amtrak can pass unhindered.

However, when Amtrak engines go bad, it's bad press for Government Choo-choo's so they will often send a lone locomotive to follow Amtrak in case it needs to be rescued, like what happened on Monday.  When Amtrak needs a push, everything around gets stopped and schedules are all turned upside down.  Also, when trains don't move, we don't get called to drive.  So I've been poaching runs outside of my regular board schedule to get more hours.  I don't think I have to explain that more hours equal more pay.

Speaking of getting paid, here's a place I might apply - looks like it might be the Minot branch of a Boulder company:

Notice the vintage green VW Beetle parked in front.  The car had a "Woodstock" sticker on it, but you can't see it from here.  Charming place inside.  I'm pretty sure to qualify to work here, I would need to shave my head, roll around in the street for a while, and get a stud in my tongue.

While there is a whole lot of nothing here, there is one thing that they do have - beautiful sunsets.  Here's a picture I got but it really didn't turn out too well.  You could see the rays of the sun shining down just like in the movies when they show God in the heavens.  I was on my way home from Epping ND and just had to stop to enjoy it for a bit:

We discovered something interesting about the neighbor to the north of us.  He likes to get in barroom brawls.  The houses here don't offer much sound privacy - even sounds from house to house seem much closer.  When their dog barks, it sounds like we have a dog.  When he yells at his wife, it sounds like the people upstairs are yelling.  Well, the other night, he was working in his carport about 3:30am and some guys pull up in a truck and jump out and start pounding this guy.  The commotion woke up my roommate Devon the Magnificent (he's also a champion cage fighter) and he went out to break up the fight.  He took his cell phone and had 911 on the line when he approached.  A couple of guys were going to turn on Devon, and he told them it would be biggest mistake they ever made.  Anyway.... the police came and the guys took off with the police in-chase.  I, of course, was driving choo-choo fixers and missed the whole thing.  In fact, it was mere minutes of the police screaming off that I drove off and collapsed into bed.  Devon filled me in the next day.

I'll finish today's post with something fun.  Here's to living with roommates - again.  (For some reason, Blogger wouldn't let me upload the video so here's the youtube link to it:

http://youtu.be/8A6FedhPMdk

When I first heard this go off, I leapt out of bed thinking the boiler in the laundry room (next to mine) was going to explode...