AWOL Blogger

First all, I have to apologize to my loyal readers for the complete and utter lack of blog production in recent weeks. I have certainly not lost the desire to post what I feel into the blogosphere. But real life has taken hold.

A couple of years ago, I retired from the US Air Force. It was time to retire. I had been at my last assignment for six years. I loved the duty that I was doing. I was the senior enlisted leader (not an officer) for a unit that had more than 70 young men and women assigned. There is nothing more rewarding than leading these people. I watched several young people become leaders in their own right. Whether it was through my mentorship or not is, at best, arguable.

I had worked my entire career to get to that point and had a hard time letting go. But letting go I had to do. There were others, some much more capable than I, waiting in the wings.

But I retired into an Obama economy. As such, finding work was a difficult journey. I was eventually able to land a job at hardware store, but it was barely more than minimum wage and was only part time. As a family with a mortgage and two teenage boys my retirement income (about a third of my active duty pay) plus the retail income just wasn’t enough.

So I used my education benefits and attended truck-driving school. I attended school full time, plus worked the retail job in the evenings. Yet I continued to blog as best I could. Shortly after graduation and receiving my commercial driver’s license, I started work at a large trucking company based nearby. So out on the road I went as a trainee with a mentor. Gone two to three days at a time (others are gone for weeks) with just enough home time to come home, say hi to the wife and kids, then to bed, only to repeat the cycle once again.

My mentor was great. He showed me the ropes of driving and a lot of what I need to know to survive on the road.

Next week I hit the road on my own as my training (with a second trainer now) is nearly complete.

I will be driving what is called “Heavy Haul.” What is that you might ask? You know those trucks that you see going up hills at 20 miles per hour and downhill not much faster? These trucks also have a third axle behind the cab and the trailer probably has three or four axles. That is heavy haul. Those trucks are carrying 45,000 to 70,000 pounds.

Well, because of the heavy demands on my time driving and so forth there just hasn’t been enough time to really get down and do the research necessary to make my blog tick. Oh, I still follow the news and read all the sites, but formulating my posts and digging deeper into the story has been hard, if not impossible, to accomplish.

I cannot promise that now my training is almost complete that I will be better at updating my blog, but I might give it a try. There is so much going on right now, that it has been hard to not post my comments and opinions. But there are only so many hours in a day and days in a week.

If you have been someone who stops by on occasion but haven’t become a “follower” not might be the time. If you sign up to become a follower you will know when I make my infrequent posts.

For those who were stopping by frequently, thanks so much for hanging with me all this time. And for those who dropped me a personal note asking if things were OK with me, thank you so much.