today has been a day that can only be described as friday the 13th. really weird.
today, i had 2 stops to make in the johnson city area and take them to paris landing state park. no big deal, just a long day.
as i have aged, at times, i get very emotional. their is a song by michael english called "the prodigal son". i have grown very attached to this song and today i listened to it over and over for almost 2 hours. there is a story here i will not dive into, but when i hear it, how i long for one more moment with my dad. so much i want to tell him, about how right he was and how dumb i was for thinking i new better on everything.
anyway, later into my trip, the john denver song, "poems, prayers and promises" played and lots more emotions came back. i can't cry and drive. it's not professional!!!
i always prayed to God to just let me live long enough to see my children accept christ and be baptized. that was all i needed then he could bring me home. well, they have, and i am still here. driving up I24 into clarksville, i decide to call my mom. i am in paris, tn. and my nephew lives here. he only met my brother, his father, one time and that was by accident. i always felt like he got the short end of the deal never knowing his father. dirty laundry will not get cleaned here.
anyway, my mom has his phone numbers and i really had a strong leading to visit him while i was here. my mom did not answer so i left a message on her answering machine something like this,"mom, sorry to bother you. i am on my way to paris and i need jonathan's phone numbers. i want to call him and try to visit. love you mom". simple enough, right. well, not too long after that, i lost cell phone coverage. as i am driving along, listening to john denver, i could not help but praise God for the wonderful life he has blessed me with. 4 wonderful children. loved and been loved by some good women (and bad). finally found a job i love. where i live, gotta give him credit for that. it is awesome. my health is good, i have some wonderful friends. seen some things along the way that both touched me and humbled me. today, most everywhere i looked, i could see the hand of God. oh, and i am happier right now than i ever have been in my life. if it all ended now, i would be so selfish to complain. hold all these thoughts.
i get to the hotel, drop my passengers off, and go to my hotel. i am staying in another hotel about 15 miles away. i still have no phone service.
anyway, i get checked into my hotel, and when i get my laptop out, plug in my laptop, and call my youngest 2. no answer so i call their mom. she does not recognize the number calling but answers anyway. i said "hey, just checking on isaac and grace and make sure they have this number". she starts asking me about the tree, how bad was i hurt, was everybody else ok, where i was, and on and on!! of course my reponse was, huh?
my mom, bless her heart, is 84 and lives alone. when she listened to the message, she "heard" me say, "i have hit a tree, i am hurt, everybody else is ok" and that is all she heard.
well, she starts calling me back, doesn't get me for about 2-3 hours. she calls the neighbors. they all come over. they know i am pinned in the bus, after hitting a tree, and i am calling to tell my mom bye. they all start calling. she calls my ex's house, leaves 2 frantic messages (which the kids hear and freak out cause dad is probably dead). they both call my office, the owner answers, and hears frantic calls from 2 different women. he gets online, tracks my bus by gps, and it is sitting still with the engine running. he calls my cell, no answer. he activates the drive cam, and he can tell i am where i am supposed to be, but not on the bus. weirdly, i am sitting with a big tree in front of my bus. he calls the park rangers, police, and has an apb put out on me!!! so, now not only am i dead, or dying, but i am wanted by the police. in the meantime, while all of this is going on, i am driving, listening to "poems, prayers, and promises". kinda creepy, huh?
no, this is not a spoof. it really happened. i have the witnesses to support all of this.
until next time...
Friday, November 13, 2009
Friday, November 6, 2009
kicking myself all night
today i had the pleasure of picking up the university of memphis football team at the airport. kinda ironic based on my last post about "you can't make this stuff up" because when we do sports team pickups, we drive thru secure gates right on the tarmac right under the plane!!!
anyway, when we got there, we pulled up beside a navy trainer (a T4?) and i wanted to take some pics. my camera is always in my backpack but i have been taking a lot of pics at home posting most on facebook. it was not there. so, i used my phone. i don't care how good the phone, phone pics suck, at best. shot several pics, kicked myself in the butt.
we had a police escort to their hotel. police escorts are very cool. you don't slow down, they are usually high speed, and exciting to say the least. a pic would have been nice. kicked self in butt, again.
after the hotel, we got another escort to neyland stadium. not only TO neyland stadium, we parked UNDER neyland stadium. very cool. kicked myself again. once unloaded, we reset our buses (sorry, there were 3 of us). soon, i realized not only were we under the stadium, we were at field level. a 50 yard walk and i was standing in the south end zone!!! very cool. kicked myself again. walked around the field, looking UP at the seats. very cool. kicked myself again. they finished their workout and another police escort back to their hotel. during these escorts, we don't stop. traffic is stopped for us at all intersections. i have been in dozens of them and it never gets old. i just wish i had my camera. and, my butt hurts.
after some down time, we ate and drove them to a movie. while sitting there waiting i pulled out my laptop. when i opened my computer bag, guess what i found?
i am still kicking myself. hard!!!
until next time... yes, i put my camera back in my backpack where it should have been to begin with!!!
anyway, when we got there, we pulled up beside a navy trainer (a T4?) and i wanted to take some pics. my camera is always in my backpack but i have been taking a lot of pics at home posting most on facebook. it was not there. so, i used my phone. i don't care how good the phone, phone pics suck, at best. shot several pics, kicked myself in the butt.
we had a police escort to their hotel. police escorts are very cool. you don't slow down, they are usually high speed, and exciting to say the least. a pic would have been nice. kicked self in butt, again.
after the hotel, we got another escort to neyland stadium. not only TO neyland stadium, we parked UNDER neyland stadium. very cool. kicked myself again. once unloaded, we reset our buses (sorry, there were 3 of us). soon, i realized not only were we under the stadium, we were at field level. a 50 yard walk and i was standing in the south end zone!!! very cool. kicked myself again. walked around the field, looking UP at the seats. very cool. kicked myself again. they finished their workout and another police escort back to their hotel. during these escorts, we don't stop. traffic is stopped for us at all intersections. i have been in dozens of them and it never gets old. i just wish i had my camera. and, my butt hurts.
after some down time, we ate and drove them to a movie. while sitting there waiting i pulled out my laptop. when i opened my computer bag, guess what i found?
i am still kicking myself. hard!!!
until next time... yes, i put my camera back in my backpack where it should have been to begin with!!!
Thursday, November 5, 2009
another episode of "you can't make this stuff up"
yesterday i took a group on a tour of some installations in oak ridge. hold that thought for a moment.
when i got back to my office yesterday after a local trip, my boss told me he was pulling me off of a trip he had me set up to do.
it was a simple trip-a local high school track team going to nashville for a meet, an overnight (i was looking forward to because it meant i might spend time with my daughter) and then back home saturday. simple enough. i have made dozens of them.
when he told me, i asked why. he told me i was no longer qualified. thinking a pink slip was coming, i asked why. he told me that the knox county school system now requires all bus drivers be fingerprinted, a background check (another) a new photo id and a drug test (another). i had to laugh.
we, as a company and me personally, are approved department of defense contractors. i have had the high honor and privilege of transporting troops all over from fort polk, la to quantico va. i have been on many military bases and in some restricted areas. as i said, i am qualified. the group i drove to oak ridge, went to y-12, ornl and several other very sensitive areas. if you cross the wrong line, their orders are literally "shoot to kill". i even drove up to the building where our nations supply of uranium is stored. when we got there, i had to surrender my camera, my cellphone and my pepper spray. and yes, another background check. i don't know if when a background check is done, all other inquiries show up like a credit report. if it did, it had to have been several pages long. of course, i passed.
it hit me when greg said i was no longer qualified how ironic it was that i can go on military installations, see where the u.s. government stores its uranium, but i am not "qualified" to drive a high school track team.
like i said, you can't make this stuff up!!!
until next time...
when i got back to my office yesterday after a local trip, my boss told me he was pulling me off of a trip he had me set up to do.
it was a simple trip-a local high school track team going to nashville for a meet, an overnight (i was looking forward to because it meant i might spend time with my daughter) and then back home saturday. simple enough. i have made dozens of them.
when he told me, i asked why. he told me i was no longer qualified. thinking a pink slip was coming, i asked why. he told me that the knox county school system now requires all bus drivers be fingerprinted, a background check (another) a new photo id and a drug test (another). i had to laugh.
we, as a company and me personally, are approved department of defense contractors. i have had the high honor and privilege of transporting troops all over from fort polk, la to quantico va. i have been on many military bases and in some restricted areas. as i said, i am qualified. the group i drove to oak ridge, went to y-12, ornl and several other very sensitive areas. if you cross the wrong line, their orders are literally "shoot to kill". i even drove up to the building where our nations supply of uranium is stored. when we got there, i had to surrender my camera, my cellphone and my pepper spray. and yes, another background check. i don't know if when a background check is done, all other inquiries show up like a credit report. if it did, it had to have been several pages long. of course, i passed.
it hit me when greg said i was no longer qualified how ironic it was that i can go on military installations, see where the u.s. government stores its uranium, but i am not "qualified" to drive a high school track team.
like i said, you can't make this stuff up!!!
until next time...
yes, i am back
what an incredible summer it has been. i have found myself in a dilemna. being off for 10 months gave me a lot of time to post regularly. after coming back to work in april, i have been on the run quite a lot.
baseball is over and i am having withdrawals. the smokies made it to the southern league championships and we lost to jacksonville. being 2nd was hard to swallow but was, nevertheless, an amazing accomplishment. getting to know a new group of players was fun and seeing them develop as they did was impressive. at the same time, seeing the guys i have driven in years past playing for the cubs, well, it was easy to swell up with pride. some went on to other teams in the majors, but those in the cubs organization was especially fulfilling.
meeting ryne sandberg was an amazing experience for me. driving him was more than any kid could dream for. but i can't forget the other staff members who are coaching with him, well, i have a special memory of them as well.
most of all, it is the people i get to meet in the ballparks. normal, everyday people from blue collar workers to white collar executives, all brought together by the love of a game. returning to the parks and seeing them, shaking hands, hugging most is a time in my life i cherish. several i have the pleasure of keeping in contact with. my life is a very fulfilled one.
this season, we ended up driving about 20,000 miles. most trips were 6 day trips with weird hours and some wild times. even getting to know the people in the host hotels and then going back to catch up with them was a wonderful experience. i can tell you more about getting around in jacksonville or mobile or several other cities than i can getting around knoxville.
when i was getting back into the swing of coming back to work, i got addicted to facebook and have spent most of my life writing there. i love to write and it filled a gap, but being here fills a huge void. most of my life for the past several years is on here and it is time to get back to regular posting here.
i have other things to post so i am not going to dump it all here. i don't know if i will be driving the smokies next year. our contract is up and i don't know if we will get it or not. i hope i do get one more year. rumor has it sandberg is coming back and i would be a fool not to step back into the dream. ryne and his wife margaret are wonderful people and i would be honored to be their driver one more time.
until next time...
baseball is over and i am having withdrawals. the smokies made it to the southern league championships and we lost to jacksonville. being 2nd was hard to swallow but was, nevertheless, an amazing accomplishment. getting to know a new group of players was fun and seeing them develop as they did was impressive. at the same time, seeing the guys i have driven in years past playing for the cubs, well, it was easy to swell up with pride. some went on to other teams in the majors, but those in the cubs organization was especially fulfilling.
meeting ryne sandberg was an amazing experience for me. driving him was more than any kid could dream for. but i can't forget the other staff members who are coaching with him, well, i have a special memory of them as well.
most of all, it is the people i get to meet in the ballparks. normal, everyday people from blue collar workers to white collar executives, all brought together by the love of a game. returning to the parks and seeing them, shaking hands, hugging most is a time in my life i cherish. several i have the pleasure of keeping in contact with. my life is a very fulfilled one.
this season, we ended up driving about 20,000 miles. most trips were 6 day trips with weird hours and some wild times. even getting to know the people in the host hotels and then going back to catch up with them was a wonderful experience. i can tell you more about getting around in jacksonville or mobile or several other cities than i can getting around knoxville.
when i was getting back into the swing of coming back to work, i got addicted to facebook and have spent most of my life writing there. i love to write and it filled a gap, but being here fills a huge void. most of my life for the past several years is on here and it is time to get back to regular posting here.
i have other things to post so i am not going to dump it all here. i don't know if i will be driving the smokies next year. our contract is up and i don't know if we will get it or not. i hope i do get one more year. rumor has it sandberg is coming back and i would be a fool not to step back into the dream. ryne and his wife margaret are wonderful people and i would be honored to be their driver one more time.
until next time...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)