C.J. Galaway's Blog, page 6

Gamer Life

I am a gamer, always have been and always will be. From the first time I saw a video game I was in love. The lights, sounds, and actions are all exciting and addicting.

Before we continue, I am an old school gamer. In order to play when I was a kid you had to go to an arcade. Kids today have it easy with the gaming systems and online game play. Nothing will ever beat standing next to your friends and trash talking while waiting your turn to play.

My games of choice are shooter, fighter, and driving based. Though like all others of my generation I had a love/hate relationship with Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man.

Then I saw this little beauty and I was in love all over again. This is Hogan's Alley and the gun was chained to the game. Controllers are wireless now but these, ah these were fun.

The shooter game evolved over the years. I found a new love, called Area 51, which proved very difficult to beat. But I fed it a lot of quarters in the attempt.
Then the shooter game changed for me when I saw this one.
Silent Scope is my new all time favorite. I will own one.
Now I have a Playstation 2 and 3 and working on 4. They all will be in use and are connected to my TV right now. My current addiction is Godfather The Don's Edition for the PS3. In addition to that I play an online MMORPG game on which I met my wife. Perhaps you've heard of it.

Many of my friends play as do my wife and I and I have made many new amazing friends I hope to meet in real life one day. 
I say gaming reduces stress among many other things. What say you?

My Fur Babies

Let me introduce you to the loves of my life, my fur babies. I am blesses, along with my beautiful wife, to be the mom to two dogs and three cats. I know some of you think of them as merely pets. But like so many others out there, they are the apple of my eye.


This is Hannah. She is the eldest of out little tribe at eleven. My wife rescued from a horrible living environment when she was just a year old. So when she and I started dating I had to earn the Empress stamp of approval, which fortunately for me I got. This photo shows her with her Turtle.


Next is Pandora, she is the only non rescue of the group. A friend had kittens that needed a home and I told her to bring all of them, that the right one will find me. Of the three she brought over only one paid any attention to me. She is three now, and my baby. This is her asleep in my lap.

Then comes Rizzo. Ah, Rizzo. My wife is an over the road truck driver and found this delightful little bundle romping in and around a Prime truck she had parked beside at a warehouse she was delivering to. One look at that beautiful face when she texted me a photo (this one) and my only reply was bring her home. She is two.

Meet Katie she is a Shih-Tzu Poodle mix a friend rescued, but could not keep. So she called and asked if we had room for one more. I passed the photo on to my wife and we agreed to take her in, to my friends delight who is now a beloved Auntie. We think Katie is three.

All right, two cats and two dogs, seems like a perfect balance so to speak. And it was for a while.

Then around Christmas time along comes Anastasia.
She belonged to another friend who was visiting family nearby for the holidays. We agreed to baby sit because her aunt wouldn't let her bring the kitten. She is still here and we wouldn't have it any other way. I'm guessing she is seven months old.

Well there you have it, my furry family. I'd love to hear about yours.

Exercise Good, Extra Fries Bad

Well last week I decided to get serious about becoming healthy and losing weight. I have always heard the pros and cons about jogging, but it can't be all bad or so many people wouldn't do it.

Let me be brutally honest though; the only time I ran was if someone was chasing me. I'm not kidding.

Then a friend of mine suggested the Couch to 5K Program. It gets you ready to run a 5K in nine weeks by starting out slow and building your distance from there.

So far I have survived one week and it isn't as bad as I thought it would be.

Only time will tell though.

I Just Want To Play Drums

As I said in my earlier blog I love music. I know I'll never become a professional nor do I want to be. I only want to have fun and do something other than make noise.

That being said, I have always been fascinated by these beauties.





However when I started school, it was the belief that girls could not carry a drum so they were encouraged to play other instruments. Thankfully in more modern times this has changed. and bands are blessed with the talent of female drummers.
For those of you fascinated by statistics, here's a list of the ten best female drummers of all time.
http://greenlabel.com/sound/the-10-be...
Me, I've always been a fan of this lady.

For those of you who may not know, this is Sheila E. Prince protegee and an amazing drummer. (I'm a child of the eighties).
One day I will take lessons, but for now I just wanna bang the drums!!

Corvettes My dream car and I mean a classic one not this modern thing

When you say the name corvette there are many images that spring to mind. The body style has changed from the fifties, like this beauty below.



To the curvier styles from the seventies like this beauty.
Today this is what a corvette looks like, beautiful but not the sleek, sexy beast it once was.

For me there is but one beautiful Corvette, and that is the 1968 Corvette.


Nothing would make me happier than to find one of these and restore it to her full glorious beauty if the numbers match. But if they don't, then maybe a little fun will be in order. I've always wanted a car the deepest shade of purple with everything else all blacked out. 
What is your dream car and what would yo do with it if given the chance?

Bass...it's only four strings but more complex to learn

I have always been in love with music. As a small girl I would get excited when my Uncle Art came to visit from Georgia because that meant music. My Uncle Carl would come over in the evenings and my mom would get her Gibson Songbird out and her and her brothers would sit around drink beer and play music. It was mostly country but I still would sit enchanted as they played. Now don't think current country this was in the seventies so we're talking old school country music like Kitty Wells, Loretta Lynn...I'm sure you get the picture.

It fascinated me to see people play without sheet music and just play riffs and make things up.

Then one day while looking through a record bin at the local Goodwill I found this record.


Jaco Pastorius was a bass player and so much more. He was the man who revolutionized how the bass was played--and how bassists are seen forever. I fell in love with those rich, low, tones and the way they made me feel.

Many years would pass before I would try to learn to play, but I am giving it my very best.

This is the color I would love to have a bass.

Alternative Forms of Energy and Me

I've always been, or have tried to be, as eco-friendly as possible. In today's times it seems to be all the rage to reduce the footprint we leave behind, which is a wonderful thing to strive for.

Solar panels like these are popping up all over the country which is wonderful.



Then you have wind farms like this one all over the southwest.












I'm in the process of learning all I can about these. Here are a few sites for you to check out as well.

http://www.altenergy.org


http://www.conserve-energy-future.com...

The Madcap Adventures of A Writer and Her Trucker Part Nine

Time is a valuable and fleeting thing. It's the one hing no one can buy any more of...no matter who you are or your position in life.

Take truck drivers as an example. He or she spends six to twelve weeks away from home at a time to do a job that receives little or no thanks from the rest of humanity; yet we would indeed be lost without the sacrifice those individuals make o bring the items we need o the stores for us to purchase them.

Most people work and are able to return home on a nightly basis to see their family and friends. To have meals, watch TV, or decide to go somewhere on the spur of he moment. For a ruck driver this time is planned out to the minute.

Let's look at a trucker's calendar in terms of weeks, shall we? There are 52 weeks in the year, so if the trucker is out for seven weeks at a time as an example then spends one week at home. So the driver is home roughly six to seven weeks out of the year. That means forty six to forty five weeks away from family and friends; not sleeping next to their spouse. It's a large chunk of time when you think of it that way...for both the driver and their spouse.

Interesting to look at the numbers like that, isn't it?

The Madcap Advenures of A Writer and Her Trucker Part Eight

Hurry up and wait is one of those phrases most people associate with the military. The running joke is they make their people hurry as fast as they can from point A to point B only to wait around for heir next set of orders.

That also applies to the trucking industry as well; a point I'm quickly realizing is more like a way of life.

You have x amount of hours to reach the pick-up location and don't you dare be late. If you're lucky it is what is called a drop and hook. You drop the trailer you brought in, hook up to a pre-loaded trailer and roll to the delivery location. If you're not so lucky it is a live unload. Then the fun begins...
You are either old to pull into a numbered load and wait to be loaded or you pull into a parking area and wait for a door to become available.

Either way the fun begins.

Depending on he type of load this waiting process can take hours up to days (one or two at the most) but wait you do. Thanks to the new trucking regulations your time ticks away while you wait. Which leads to the net fun part of this dilemma; either you have enough hours left to roll to a safe location or you sit for ten hours until your time resets for the new day's work to begin.

Some people think all a truck driver does is hold a steering wheel?

Now let's talk repairs to either the ruck or trailer. Same concept except you are at a truck stop or one of your company's terminals waiting for the repairs to be made. These locations are a bit more comfortable, but still time ticks away never to be regained.

Either prospect isn't fun and requires the driver to be able to adjust their route to reflect the time available to deliver he load on time and safely while keeping an eye out for traffic and people who don't seem to care about their safety or the fact that the driver is delivering the goods that people have come to take for granted are readily available on the shelves of whatever store they walk into.

Still think all a truck driver does is hold a steering wheel all day?

The Madcap Adventures of A Writer and Her Trucker Part Seven

It has been fun spending time with my lovely wife and seeing the country. The downsides are odd eating hours, cramped sleeping space (to get an idea what I mean try sleeping on the couch with your other half and see how long you last) and a diet to rival that of a teenager's. It's usually stuff that is quick, fast, and cheap versus semi-healthy, slow, and expensive.

However there are ways of eating healthy while on the road. Fresh fruit, plenty of water, and other types of healthy snacks. Skipping the soft drinks with their ton of sugar is also another way to help.

Exercise is another rough thing. Some of the truck stops are adding fitness rooms, but not nearly enough of hem do so. And as a woman walking around the parking lot is out in certain areas of the country. It's sad that a woman in a truck stop has to be twice as cautious as a man simply because she is female. I strictly follow Gibbs' rule number 9 for those of you who watch NCIS. If you don't, it is never go anywhere without a knife. It is a practical tool in the world of trucking, and a necessary self-defense measure.

So be safe out there whether you are a professional driver or simply out to see the sights.