What You Have To Look Forward To

Typical truckstop

Storybook cottage

Typical truckstop restroom

I is so stinkin' smart! I figured out how to get the little memory card thingy out of the camera and into the computer and now the pictures are all in IPhoto, which is, without a doubt, the coolest thing since sliced bread! It knows the date each picture was taken and puts all pictures from a particular date into an "Event", which can then be titled. It also has this way cool face-recognition feature, which allows you to click on a face in a picture, type in the person's name, and then it searches for that same face in other photos and arranges them by "Face".  I even created a nifty little slideshow of pics from my brother's birthday last April, with music and borders, etc...Don't tell him, I want to surprise him by emailing it to him, I just have to figure out how!

Anyway, when I conceived this blog, this is what I envisioned: being able to share pics with you from our travels. My intellect just had to catch up with my imagination!

There's been another setback in our little adventure. Mr. Trucker seems to be in a cycle of going further and further away from where I am, and now it looks like I will be here ANOTHER week without him. The more time I spend with his Mom & Dad (remember, their place is just up the trail from our "cottage"), the more concerned he becomes that I might be taking over his place in their affections. Last Sunday he called me on my cellphone and asked me if I was at OUR place or at his Mom & Dad's. When I answered the latter, he said, and I quote: "Are you taking over my spot?" So now I rub it in every chance I get. Like yesterday, when I accompanied my in-laws on a trip to Green Bay. I texted Mr. Trucker: "Goin' to GB with your Mom & Dad. They're getting me a pony!". But instead of becoming jealous, he just responded with "As long as it's not a cat!"

Did I ever mention that Mr. Trucker doesn't like cats? A few years after we married, my step-dog, Dusty, had to be put down; and after a sufficient period of mourning (like a couple of days, tops),  I said to Mr.  Trucker "Now I can get a cat". He said "you're not serious are you?", to which I replied "of course I'm serious, why wouldn't I be?". And then came the kicker. He said, and I quote, "If I'd known you wanted a cat, I never would have married you!". Can you even believe that?

Jasper

It took me several more years to actually get the cat. My oldest daughter, Sissy, is highly allergic to cats and it didn't seem right to kick her out of the house just so that I could have one, particularly as she was only around 7 or 8 at the time. I'm just kidding about that. I never once considered kicking her out, at least not just because of the allergies...     

She's nearly 25 now and has lived out on her own since she was 18. Everytime I brought up the cat thing after she moved out, she would make sure to rub it in about how she could never come visit me if I had a cat. After 5 or 6 years of her making excuses about how she was too busy to come over for a visit, I finally decided to get a cat after all, and then whenever Stacie DID come over, she always called him "Stupid Cat".

We got Jasper on New Year's Day of 2010. By "we" I mean my youngest daughter, Sassy (who was living at home at the time) and I.  Mr. Trucker was out on the road when we brought Jasper home from the Humane Society, but he came home quite unexpectedly later that same day, so we hid the cat in Sassy's bedroom while she went to work. Mr. Trucker sat right on the other side of the bedroom door and couldn't hear the cat mewing, nor did he appear to notice my agitation.  In fact, he didn't suspect anything until the cat launched itself at the door and Mr. Trucker jumped to his feet, hollering: "What the heck is going on here"?  He was less than thrilled with me for a short time, but eventually got used to Jasper, who would  come running when he whistled and prostrate himself on Mr. Trucker's side of our bed, waiting to be hand-fed a treat, which he knew Mr. Trucker kept on the nightstand just for him. 

When I announced that I was going out over the road with Mr. Trucker, my girlfriend Claudia asked if we were taking Jasper with us. I said "are you daft?" Not that I would mind having my sweet, soft, furry, purring kitty with us, but keeping a poopy litter box in the same closet-sized space that we sleep and eat in is not my idea of either good hygiene or enjoyment. Sassy took Jasper with her when she moved to Minneapolis last month, along with Donovan, the new kitten she added to the family in July. 

Donovan

Donovan came to us right about the time the FIFA World Cup was on TV, so he was  named for, you guessed it, Landon Donovan.  Anyway, Sassy took Jasper & Donovan when she left for Minneapolis and moved into a house that already had a resident cat, an 18 year old  named Shiraz, whom Sassy is responsible for watching in return for reduced rent. Shortly after moving in, she brought home a stray cat she found by the side of the road one night, who is now named Gypsy. Mr. Trucker and I are concerned that Sassy is going to morph into one of those old ladies you read about in the news whose body is discovered in a house filled with cat feces and 127 cats!

Someday, when we come off the road for good and have built our little dream cottage, I plan to keep at least one cat again. Mr. Trucker doesn't know this yet, and possibly he won't be thrilled, but oh well...that's what keeps life interesting, isn't it?

Here's a sample of another sight you may have to look forward to as I blog from the road:  

This is an actual photo I took from the window of Mr. Trucker's Freightliner in May. Pretty fun, eh? I believe it was a carnival ride going by on another truck in the passing lane.

 Another great sight:

Mr. Trucker posing with his rig in a small town in Pennsylvania whose name I've already forgotten. Note how close he got his truck to the tree branch...he couldn't do that again if he tried. It wasn't actually touching, although you certainly can't tell that in the picture. Note also Mr. Trucker's Tilley hat, he's inordinately proud of that thing and it will no doubt feature a lot in our photos.

I leave you today with a happy thought about tolerance and co-existing:

Jasper

This is Jasper asleep, blissfully unaware that we would ever do anything so cruel as bringing another cat into his domain. I already showed you a picture of the adorable little Donovan. Jasper was most displeased when Donovan first arrived and would hiss and attack him relentlessly. Sassy wanted to keep them separated but I told her we had to let them get used to each other. Before long, this was a regular sight: 

Watching those darn chipmunks!

And then came the day we knew all would be well: