Got a pot of water on, and coffee.... New flavor though. Toffee.... English Toffee, that is.
Can you match that with your tea?

Good to know, COVID hasn't gotten you. I sincerely hope you and yours are all well.

Arrrrrrh! settle down now me Mate's... lets not start another Brew War!
Garrrrrrrrh... Narrrrrrh Narrrrrh! .... Harrrrrrh Harrrrrh!

Brace yourself Windy.... and I hope your chair has arm rests.... Wot has had a come to Jesus moment, and now drinks coffee over tea.
........... Wot?

I say..... old bean.... yes Java .... Covfefe ........... He told me right out of the blue, and my face hit the waste basket, as my jaw dropped.

FREDOG!! ... no need to worry about me, yer SAFE.

Howdy old pard! So glad you stopped by to say hello! I often think about you and was hoping you are doing good.
Got ahold of our friend Robertt, and was hoping he would stop by too! He just went through covid and finally is coming out of it, but it was tough.
I hope when he feels better he comes by too.

I have Twilights first novel "Book 1 of The Krypteia Conspiracy: Hade's Gambit" sits on my shelf, and every time I see it, I'm reminded of him.... almost daily.
He is the only one here who has very good reason to worry about me. Long as my unnatural insane obsession with Shania continues, I simply don't have the time to chase him.

I should be spanked with a small wooden paddle.

Having been in the industry for 20+ years now on the other side of the wall, I can tell you that no one has seen anything like what we are dealing with today. It wasn't so much COVID itself that did it, although I'm sure there were some permanent losses because of it. However, it was our government's response to it. That extra unemployment bonus drove a lot of drivers out of the industry. Hard to argue with a guy that says he's getting $1500 to $1800+ per week from the government to do nothing, so why work?

Pay has skyrocketed and even that's not enough to draw drivers in. $.60 CPM is low now. Lots of companies are over $.70 CPM for regional company driver runs; more for long haul. Local company runs that used to pay $40K to $50K a year are paying upwards of $80K or better. Regional and OTR; many are well over $100K. O/O's on pct. pay are grossing $500K or better a year. The old guard is retiring and the new guard...well, they're not much of a guard. Companies are desperate. I was at a conference a couple weeks ago and at that point, there were almost 8 loads available PER truck in North America. And that's not including all the cargo ships sitting off the ports everywhere because of the lack of crane operators and longshoreman. This is literally the time to build retirements in the industry, especially if you have or can get your own truck; problem is, the younger generation doesn't see that.

So Windy, right now the industry is in shambles. Personally, I think the only thing that is going to ultimately save it is automated fleets, reducing most driving to local LTL. But that'll be past my expiration date.

I saw an article about Shania's latest concert. She was looking mighty fine.

You are doing fantastic Windy!
If I get to your neck of the woods, I'd race you, if we can do that 100, 10 yards at a time, and take a little breather.

I'm still a little frisky... I'm sure I could chase after Shania like a Mt. Gorilla on all fours, and pounding my chest for attention, if she refuses to look my way.
But outside of that, I try not to get out of a chair too fast.

I don't know how William Shatner at age 90, was able to ride a rocket into space today! God Bless him, eh?
What about George Takei? Well, I'm sure he was Up for it. They just didn't think he would ride the rocket from inside.

I'm the happy owner of Streetglide myself, my son finished his stint in the Marines and bought a house 4 miles from us. he has VTX1300, so I have somebody to ride with, also have a 5 year old Grandson who is lot of fun

forgot to tell you guys, Golf Hobo passed a while back.. he had a lot of medical issues

Thanks for remembering Hobo!
He died on my birthday, so I'm going to have to ask him next time I see him, if it was something I said?

We were close friends, and I wept at the news, and learned it from you, through a post you made here. I was just about to email him at that time, and I miss him a lot, to this day.

We were kinda the odd couple here. I was the unkempt obnoxious but smarter one. He would only disagree with the last part.
I think I called him every name in the book over the years, but I think more good names than bad. Oddly I don't remember many of the bad names,
but when I see him again, I'm sure it will all come back to me.