Tuesday, October 30, 2007

capitals and capitols

Zack has been trying to teach me how to use capital letters. this is very hard for me, since i am so small and the keyboard is so big. usually i can only reach a few of the letters while i'm pressing on the shift button. I can easily reach QAZWSXCD and POLKMNJ. the j and the d are hard to reach. g and h are very very hard but I will try. h'es also teaching me when to use them. he said that capital letters go at the beginning of a sentence and at the beginning of someone's name. Also for I and for names of places. but only the first letter. Like: Mississippi. (I like that word.)

I think I will be very strong when can write properly. but I will probably take a while to get there.

oh, and i learned that "capital" can mean lots of things. it can mean the top of a column (which is a pillar). or it can mean a lot of money used to start something like a business or buying a house or big projects like that. it also means the city where the government is. i learned that every state we pass through has a city that is it's 'capital'.. but then i also learned that there's a word 'capitol'.. it sounds the same as capital, but it's different. A capitol is the building where the government meets. So every state capital has a capitol building.

linda's birthday

today was linda's birthday.
zack and sarah surprised her with a card and white chocolate. she likes white chocolate.
people here like to celebrate birthdays every year. i wonder if the whole world celebrates birthdays.. llamas don't. at least my family didn't. but maybe i haven't had a birthday yet. i wonder how old i am?
hm..... (that's what sarah always says: hmm....)

we just picked up our load in las vegas and we're heading to greensboro, north carolina.

when zack and sarah went inside to find a bathroom, the security guard said to zack, ' a husband-wife team.. can she drive that truck?' zack said, 'yeah!' and the guard asked if he had to say that. when he saw that they were happy, he asked how long they'd been married. sarah said he sounded 'cynical'.. which i think means that he wasn't very nice about it. she felt sorry for him. zack said he was a pessimist with control issues.

after that they walked out to the truck. sarah got in first, only to find an old man on their bed with his computer!!! it wasn't their truck!!!

they laughed all the way back to our truck and told us about it (linda had moved our truck while they were inside).

Monday, October 29, 2007

m-w.com

my new favorite website is www.m-w.com. it's a dictionary. and i've been learning so many words!!
first, i see words that i don't recognize.. usually these are on signs along the road. then i type them into the 'search' space on m-w.com, then i learn what the word means! i can even find out how to pronunce it and where it came from. it's so cool.

i learned the difference between canyon and ravine:


ra·vine
Pronunciation:
\rə-ˈvēn\
Function:
noun
Etymology:
French, from Middle French, rapine, rush, from Latin rapina rapine
Date:
circa 1772
: a small narrow steep-sided valley that is larger than a gully and smaller than a canyon and that is usually worn by running water

can·yon
Variant(s):
also ca·ñon \ˈkan-yən\
Function:
noun
Etymology:
American Spanish cañón, probably alteration of obsolete Spanish callón, augmentative of calle street, from Latin callis footpath
Date:
1834
1 : a deep narrow valley with steep sides and often with a stream flowing through it 2 : something resembling a canyon

see?? there's almost no difference. a ravine is a small canyon.
english is fascinating.

a deer

zack hit a deer the other day. i think we were in massachusetts. i got sick when it happened. i was sitting on the dashboard, so i saw it coming. it was terrible. he couldn't help it, though. it was already dead. he said he didn't want to hit it with his steer tires, but there were cars next to him. so he just barely avoided it. but it got very messy under the trailer. he wouldn't let me come with him to check. when he came back he told us that it had torn our trailer air lines (that means that the trailer brakes locked up). so we had to wait for someone to come help us. an officer came by and asked them some questions about the deer. i went to the sleeper. i didn't really want to be in front anymore. sarah wasn't feeling well, so she was in bed. so i snuggled with her for a while and fell asleep. i didn't have any bad dreams.

utah

i've been trying to post some pictures for the last few days, and it isn't working. i am very sorry, because we have some really good pictures.

we are in utah now. we got here yesterday and spent the night at a truck stop. yesterday afternoon our friend ben (the one i showed you pictures of before) came to visit us! he is going to be a trucker too. his company rented a car for him to drive from portland to salt lake city, so he was able to stop by and see us on his way to orientation. he took zack and sarah to walmart to get some things we needed. it was fun to see him.

now we're on our way to nevada.

we sure do drive a lot. i remember when i first met zack and sarah and we lived in their apartment. we didn't drive nearly so much. and they had a much bigger bed to sleep on. and they had a shower in their house. things were very different then.

i heard them talking about how much they miss grendel's and stumptown coffee. sarah said she misses going to peet's coffee with jenna. and spinach. they both miss spinach. sarah used to make spinach salads with avocados and apples and strawberries and gorgonzola cheese. (she had to tell me how to spell that.)

they both like driving, though. and they're looking forward to having their own truck and making it like home.

sarah's been sick for a couple days. she's been sneezing. so linda's been driving parts of her shift so she can get rest. she's feeling a lot better now.

i'll keep trying to post the pictures.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

rhode island

i forgot to tell you last time that we're in rhode island. zack is driving.
sarah drove ten hours yesterday. from ohio to conneticut. we all got to see new york city at night. the 'skyline' which is all the buildings against the sky. then we drove through the 'bronx'..
before that, we drove through pennsylvania. it was very pretty. there were hills and trees and rivers and lots of bridges. sarah said it was especially pretty because it is autumn. she told me that the leaves on the trees will be green in the spring.

we are almost in massachusetts. that is where we will drop off our freight.

trucker conversations

for a couple nights now, linda, sarah and zack have been talking a lot about Jesus and about their lives. they all love Jesus.
i've heard that a lot of people don't know who Jesus is, and that a lot of people know who he is and don't love him.
even though zack calls me a 'not quite animal', i'm still sort of an animal, and we all know who Jesus is. i guess we're born with it. i mean, we know that he's God and that he's going to show us all what we were all meant to be, and make us really beautiful, like we used to be, and he's going to make his relationship with people all better.. 'cause it's pretty messed up right now. i mean.. he already came.. and he did all that work already.. he's just waiting for the right time to show us.
listening to zack and sarah and linda talking.. you can just tell that he loves them a lot. Jesus, i mean. and i think he helps them love each other.
linda was talking about guilt last night. and that since God has forgiven her, she doesn't feel guilty anymore. and i was watching sarah and i saw her smile, and then she frowned, and i could tell she was thinking about that. and i think she tends to carry guilt around with her. zack said something about how people, especially some christians, try to 'pay God back' for his forgiveness by carrying guilt and feeling very very bad about themselves. and i think he and sarah do that more than linda does. and i think that's pretty stupid. i think they should stop that. sarah agreed with zack that it's very arrogant for them to try to 'pay God back'..
arrogance is pride. not the kind of pride that makes you happy for someone, but the kind of pride that makes you think you are better than someone. or less needy than someone.

i heard that the conversations truckers have are full of bad words and that i probably shouldn't listen to them too much. but i don't agree. i think that truckers have good conversations.

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

My relationship with Zack. Part 1

Last night Zack and I had our first talk. It didn't go so well.

He had just woken up in the back of the truck, on the sleeper bed, when he saw me looking at him. I was perched in my post in the corner of the bag with my head poked out so I could see him.

"stop looking at me" he said.

I told him I couldn't help it because Sarah had put me this way, and I couldn't currently move.

"right...what are those legs for?" he asked...mocking me.

I was about to responde with a scathing attack on all of Zack's less desireable features when Zack launched off into a discussion (monologue really...) about Calvinism.

"you see puffball..." he began, "your saying you 'can't help it', is like me saying that all of my actions are predestined before all eternity, and therefore God won't hold me responsible for them. If that is the case, then what if I 'can't help' but throw you out of the window because you won't stop loking at me?"

I responded that God says both that we are predestined, but also that we have to do right things.

Zack responded by calling me an "inanimate creature" and a "not quite animal", subject even more so to his dominion and rule than an animal is. I don't know what any of that means, but I know he isn't completely serious about what he says.

The reason I know this is because sometimes, when no one else is looking...Zack feeds me peanuts and soda pop.

Zack asked me once again to stop looking at him. And I told him he'd have to unstick me from the zipper of the bag and turn me around. So he did. But then he stuffed me down into the bottom of the bag. It's ok, I found some fish crackers to munch on, and he had his iPod down there...and so I listened to it for like 7 hours and then the battery died and you know what? The next morning Zack was like "huh, the battery's dead...weird"...and I was like "Sucker!"

To be continued...

the mississippi river

a couple hours ago we crossed over the mississippi river.
sarah drove from oklahoma city to st. louis. zack drove about 600 miles this morning. from new mexico to.. i don't remember. i fell asleep in texas. (by the way, i was not bigger in texas. i was still very little..)

i am very tired.. maybe i will sleep a little bit.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

the sun

they were right!!! the grey in the sky WAS the sun coming up!
and, i googled the sun and, it is a big fiery ball of gas.

i have so much to learn.

we're almost to texas.

they tell me that everything is big in texas.
maybe i'll be big in texas......

the enchanted state

we are in new mexico. it is flat. and dark.
but the sky at the edge of the world is getting a little greyish blue.
sarah says that that is the sun coming up. but i think the sun is very different than that.
zack says the sun is a fiery ball of gas millions of miles away.
but i don't believe him either. i can't even see things two miles away.
except in new mexico.

Monday, October 22, 2007

this weekend

we are in arizona now. a place called 'flagstaff'. it's dark, so i can't really see what it looks like, but sarah told me it's very pretty here. she has some friends who used to live here and she remembers visiting them. they took her and her brother david to the 'grand canyon'.. i've never seen a canyon. zack and sarah said we'll probably get to see it in the daytime someday.

on friday we dropped a load in tracy. it's near a place called stockton. sarah's grandma lived there when sarah was growing up. so did her aunt carolyn and uncle bob. i haven't met them yet. sarah lived there for a year when she was 13.

after we dropped our freight we had lunch and waited for sarah's cousin to pick us up at the terminal.
we stayed with marty and butch that night. marty is carolyn's daughter.
they had such a good time catching up and telling stories.
marty and butch have three dogs and one cat, two horses and a few birds. and a big rose garden. sarah said it reminds her of her aunt carolyn's roses.

that night zack got sick. he didn't sleep at all and spent a lot of time in the bathroom. i don't know what he was doing in there, but it didn't sound comfortable. sarah didn't sleep much either.
neither did i.

in the morning we picked up more cousins, bill and paula, and drove to the funeral. i had to stay in the car, but i heard that it was a very tearful gathering. lots of people came to give respect to keith and love to alice and their kids and grandkids. two friends spoke. and keith's son and grandson. they all loved him very very much. i wish i had been able to meet him.

zack hadn't really slept in 48 hours, so he had to leave during the service and lay down on a couch. they couldn't find him for a while. sarah was very happy when her cousin butch found him!

there was a reception afterward. sarah said that it was at the same place keith and alice had had their 50th anniversary party at. that was 5 years ago. sarah cried a lot that day. especially when she saw alice. at the reception alice grabbed sarah and proudly introduced her as her 'trucker niece'.. she got a real kick out of it. everybody did. sarah is not a very big person.

after the reception sarah's cousin carrie drove us to sarah's dad's house. all of sarah's brothers and sisters were able to be at the funeral. peter had to leave from there to fly on a plane back to his home in indiana. (sarah said we'll see indiana soon.) they all got to eat lunch together after church on sunday. sarah was very happy to be able to spend time with everyone. so was zack.

i didn't get to meet everyone. just papa (sarah's dad), dave and debbie's family, liz and chris' family, and sharon and ahsh's family. i like them a lot.

zack is driving now.

massachusetts!

today we're leaving from l.a. to go to massachusetts!! i don't know where that is, but linda said it's 3000 miles and we'll get there on thursday. zack and sarah seem very excited. we probably won't be able to take many pictures, but they told me we'll go through all these states many times in the future.

Friday, October 19, 2007

driving

it is 4:24am. zack is driving a big truck. we're in central california.
yesterday sarah drove 300 miles. (she says: if you we're on the 5 from 2pm to 8pm between l.a. and the 152, you passed us on the highway!)

it's very bumpy in here.

sarah and zack have the bottom bunk and linda has the top bunk. i sleep in sarah's bag.

linda is really nice. she did their drive tests on monday and they all really liked each other, so they requested to train together. sarah says she's kind of a free-spirited bohemian trucker girl. i don't know what bohemian means, but linda has done a lot of things and lived a lot of places.

sarah's uncle died on monday. sarah's been crying a lot this week. zack called linda the other day and asked if it was possible for sarah to go to the funeral tomorrow. linda is the nicest person on earth and let them go. so we're delivering a couple loads in the 'bay area' and sarah's cousin is going to let us stay with her family. i've never met the rest of the family. it's a sad time to meet them, but i'm excited to. sarah loves them a lot. she's told zack lots of stories, and sometimes when i hear them i laugh really hard. sometimes i cry. mainly this week.

it's dark outside. the only vehicles i see on the road are trucks.

yesterday sarah said that she was really happy that she got to drive through l.a. and santa clarita on her first trip. it was like driving through her hometown. and even though there was lots of traffic, she did really well and didn't get scared.

on wednesday liz and her kids came to visit us at the hotel where we had orientation. i was a little scared, since there are four kids and the oldest one is not even five years old! they have LOTS of energy. so i watched from sarah's pocket. charles is the oldest, and when he saw sarah coming he ran really fast toward us and gave her a big hug. then becca, the next oldest, came running and gave her a big hug and a flower. hannah was sick, so she came a little slower. she cuddled with us for a lot of the afternoon. they played in the pool and played in the room and ran around the lawns and ate pizza and drank 'chai' and juice at 'starbucks'.

sarah was very very happy to see them.

now it is 4:46 in the morning. the sign says that we are 88 miles from san francisco.

i'm going to go back to sleep..

Monday, October 15, 2007

day two of orientation..

zack and sarah had physical exams and drive tests today. they both passed.

sarah said:
if there's anything i do know about the trucking industry, it's that regardless of what's written, in reality it will be more or less, longer or shorter, but certainly not what is written.

i don't know exactly what that means..

wednesday or thursday we find out if we are officially hired. (right now we are "pre-hires"..)

we're going to go eat celebratory pizza.

Sunday, October 14, 2007

a collision..

- by sarah

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/10/14/tunnel.fire.ap/index.html#cnnSTCText

this is very sobering. 28 big rigs literally crashed and burned this weekend. three people died. two truckers and one boy.

zack and i boarded a greyhound bus on friday night at eleven. that's when the first two rigs collided. 20 hours later we were stuck in the traffic that the collision caused. just five miles from where i used to live. i've driven that truck tunnel dozen of times. and i probably will a few more dozen.. most likely in a semi.

we're at orientation now. it's sunday afternoon and they've put us up in a little hotel in claremont, california. we'll be here till thursday. every morning from 8-noon we have paperwork and drive tests and physical exams and more paperwork. on thursday we'll be assigned to a trainer and hit the road for forty days.

we are excited to get started. and sober. and wondering what life will be like in a week....

Saturday, October 13, 2007

sleep?

we did not sleep at all last night.

first, we went to zack's parents' house to eat dinner and say goodbye and then they took us to the "greyhound station".. josh and gabe helped carry all of our luggage in. we have a lot of luggage.

then we waited for the bus. i didn't know what it would be like. sarah told me it was kind of like a car, only a lot bigger. about the size of the trucks we'll be driving.

the bus was enormous.

i tried to sleep all night, but it was not very comfortable. zack and sarah had pillows, but they were not comfortable either. they took turns laying on each others' shoulders. but they didn't sleep much.
sarah woke me up from a little snooze in northern california. the sun wasn't up yet, but the sky was just light enough to see the silhouette of a mountain. she said it was mount shasta. it was very beautiful.

there was a baby crying for much of the night. he couldn't get comfortable either.
i felt sorry for him. and his mother. she tried to make him more comfortable. and it worked sometimes.
she looked very tired.

we are in the "central valley" now.
this is me looking out the window.

Monday, October 8, 2007

hired

zack and sarah have been hired by covenant transport company!
we'll be taking a greyhound bus down to l.a. this weekend for orientation. then we'll all go with a trainer out on the road for forty days.
we're all so excited. zack and sarah are packing up the last of our things and saying goodbye to their friends.

a new adventure.......l