Whew, is it hot in here??

Or is it just 90 degree's?? Good lord, I was hoping Summer would be over by now. *wipes sweat from forehead* Well, I better get used to it, especially if it's gonna be hot in New Orleans this weekend. We have 4 cars going there, but since the government don't work weekends, we have to sit. And wait. We unloaded with a great friend & fellow driver today, Charlie, and he's quite familiar with the area. Him & his boyfriend visit the French Quarter when in that area, and he suggested going. (He has to sit in Dallas & wait for a load. Wish he could come with us!) I'm gonna look it up online & do some searching, but he told us where we can park the truck.. which places to visit.. best places to eat.. to drink.. Thank god it's not Mardi Gras time, because I hate crowds.. lol. Hopefully, I remember the camera.

Ho, hum...

What a long day it's been. We're just sitting here in Los Angeles.. Waiting. Sweating. We're at least 3rd in line for a load, and they'll be closing in an hour. In a bit, we'll go park in the street til they open tomorrow. We're technically in Compton, but at least it's the business district. It's safer here than at the truck stops in Ontario, believe it or not.

There could be some MAJORLY awesome news on the horizon, but I'm not gonna jinx it by mentioning it. Just keep everything crossed for us! Ok, you twisted my arm. Damn you! We *may* be getting a dedicated East Coast run. What is it that NJ says... \(*.*)/ LOL! I think that's it! :) Instead of trecking back & forth coast to coast to all corners of the United States, we might get, what Mike calls, a milk run. How hauling cars involves cows, is boyond me. But anyhoo's.. our ports will include Edison, NJ, Baltimore, Maryland and Portsmouth, Va. Maybe a Charleston, SC thrown in for good measure. I hope, as on the way there, there's 2 places that sell my apperently unattainable peach cider. I WILL get me some of that one of these trips! God, that just sounds so mouth-watering. On the downside, I will no longer be going to Quartzsite, AZ where I get all my stone chips & bracelet supplies. But the possiblity of being home every weekend outweighs that by a ton! They have the best sales there (in Quartzsite) in Feburary, but the majority of the vendors start flocking in around November. Do you blame them? Do YOU want to be in the desert in the summer?? Me neither. Lol! Quartzsite is at the 17 mile marker on I-10, for anyone interested. We go to the side that Pilot is on. High Jolly Road, I believe is the name of the street. We park in their parking lot, and the shopping 'strip' is right directly across the street. Mike gives me $$$, sends me away, and takes a nap. LOL! He knows... :)~ Bless him...

Wow, I think we are the only ones here. Earlier, there were 5 of us, an Alaplex, and a United Road here. Good for them if they went & got a spot at the truck stop - probably hooking up to Idle Air.. with air conditioning. And a TV. We have every complete season of Two & a Half Men, so who needs TV? LOL!

Well, I have one last shot at a bathroom & running water until tomorrow, so I'm gonna go take full advantage of that. Maybe I'll try to make something tonight with the Artista clay I haven't opened yet. Just gotta make sure I have a ziplock ready for it. Man, I don't wanna open the door. I just know my skin's gonna melt off. Not to mention the dog will carry on & wake Mike up.

Well.. nature calls!

Hittin' The Bottle

Don't I wish. After this past week & a half, I sure need one. Or 3. Dozen. But anyhoo's..

After listening to my new air dry Darwi clay screaming my name, I finally took it out of the package & played with it. More like fondled. On a scale of 1 to 10, I'd rate it as an 8 1/2. I had high expectations of this clay, and they were pretty much met, head on. When I first took it out of the package, it was not only moist, but it was wet. I subliminally rolled my eyes as I took a chunk in my hands & saw them turn chalk white. 'Great, I was hoping this wouldn't be as messy..' I thought. But much to my suprise & sheer delight, that's all the messier it got. Just one thin layer of residue. Yay! But what would I make? I've been saving this root beer bottle for just such an occasion. I didn't have anything specific in mind when I started to cover it, but I knew it was gonna be awesome. Or so I thought. One of the things that I didn't care for with this clay, is that I had one hell of a time trying to blend the seams together. Sounds impossible - a clay that wont blend with itself?? I figured I just need to try longer next time, and a lady suggested I use a tool with teeth on it to 'rough it up' a bit before blending - and I will. At first, I was disappointed that I couldn't get the bottle seamlessly smooth. Then I thought, well, this is my first time & I need to experiment. So I marched forward. Getting it as smooth as I could, I started to smell smoke. Then a tiny creaking hum was heard, far in the distance. Yes, my gears were starting to turn! The idea of a grape wine bottle presented itself, and I went for it. I had brought my chalk with me to color the clays before creating, as it only comes in white. Picking the darkest purple I had, a-scraping I did go. Dabbing my finger in the chalk dust, I carefully rubbed it upon the bottle. 'Ohh! That's purdy.. lets do it again!!' So little by little, I covered the bottle with purple chalk dust. Sadly, when I went over the cracks from where the clay butted together without blending, it REALLY stood out. *sighs* But I thought, oh well. Maybe if I get it damp, it'll blend in the crack & you wont see it. So, I spritzed it with water. Well, OMG! THAT was a mess! I had purple drippings all over everything in the bunk! Quickly rubbing it to stop the purple rain, it took on an entire different look. I cocked my head like a dog who was just told it was time for a snack. Mamma like. And when Mike said "Wow, that looks pretty cool!" - I knew it was a keeper. He also thought I put the cracks in it on purpose. Lol. Yeah.. lets say I did.

Then it was time for the grapes. I scraped some lime green chalk into some clay, blended thoroughly & made a bunch of balls. I stuck them on.. grapishly.. and they just didn't look right. Too big. So I took them all off, cut them in half, and stuck them on again. Ahh, that's better.

It was set aside to dry. A bit later, I checked on it. It was looking good. I picked it up to show Mike - and my balls fell off. Not all of them, but enough. Back to the drawing board. My thought, was that even though I made sure my balls were nice and wet & sticky, the chalk I had rubbed on didn't let them adhere. So... I popped the rest of my balls off, and rubbed off the chalk in my grapishly pattern.

Now.. with my white hurricane bottle, I continue. I wasn't perfectly happy with the grapes, either. "You should have done the grapes like the bottle.. rubbed the color on top." Well, allrighty, then. Purposely making them a bit dry, I made a new batch of balls. And a small container of slip to use as extra 'glue'. I put some slip down, and placed my grapes accordingly.

After about an hour, I *very carefully* rubbed some of the lime green chalk dust on them, barely touching them. Annnnnd, they came off. WTF?!? Being a tad beyond frustrated, I somehow resisted the urge to throw it out the window. Inhaling deeply, I picked my balls back up & placed them back on the bottle where they belonged. If my dad would have been sitting beside me, he would have been saying "TRACY!! TRACY!?! I see that 'want to' in your eyes!!" As in, wanting to slam it against a wall. He knows that look well.. lol. *blushes inoccently* =^)~ Anyhoo's.. I knew now that no matter what I did, my grapes were gonna have a mind of their own. Out comes the glue. After I knew the grapes were dry, I glued them down like there was no tomorrow. They aint goin' NOWHERE. Then I needed vines. Grapes don't grow in mid-air, ya know. Well, they do, actually. I squeezed out some ropes with my extruder & I let them lie. Lye? Lay? Whatever. You get my drift.

The stem went on first, then the vines. I did with them, what I did with the rest - rubbed the color on top. Not very satisfied with how they, in particular, turned out. But I think I can touch them up with some watered down brown paint. It was hard to get in the crack with my finger. Oh shut up, you know what I mean. These were also glued down, needless to say. I couldn't wipe off the purple chalk where the vines were going to lay, because I didn't know. They told *me* where they were going to be. It still needs leaves, but I didn't know how to make them. After we left for another trip, and me leaving the bottle at home, I remembered I have a grape leaf mold. D'oh! But anyways... the last 2 pics here show the side view. You can see where the clay didn't go together smooth, but made it look 'aged' instead. Alot of the horizontal cracks were solely caused by me covering glass with air dry clay. And maybe stroking it too hard. That's a habit of mine. Not a bad habit, just a habit.

Well, I hope you enjoyed my journey into Darwi-dom. Now, thanks to a very sweet woman on my AirDryClay list, ((ASTRID)) I now have yet another 2 clays to try out in the truck. Hearty clay, and Artista. Today, I already opened the Hearty because I'm trying to make it into the Apple Challenge on PolyClayPlay.. due at midnight tonight. I'll try to update everyone interested on that, later. But I can't post pictures until the challenge is over, as Trish likes to torment us like that. :)

Talk to you guys later!

The vintage 1970 Impala

Here's some pics of the car I mentioned earlier
this month. We delivered it to the port in Baltimore. A gem, it's so not. It looks okay on the outside, doesn't it..? One look on the inside, and it's an entirely different story. I also included a picture of the chain steering wheel, which also shows the removable dash. Lovely. We took these pics just in case the owner comes back & tries to say we ruined his car, and demands that we replace it. Um, no. I really, really really don't think so. But we got screwed that way before, so now we get proof of everything.

Testing, Testing..

Just trying to put a picture in *with* a post... lemme see here...

Is he there? Did it show up?? Not sure what size it will end up being, but the close up may be a bit decieving. His head is the shape, and size, of a lightbulb.

Okay, I'm gonna go play POGO now, since we have signal in this rest area in Kentucky! Later taters!

Trace

Happy Labor Day!

To all of you who are home today.. having a picnic.. having a relaxing day off work.. with loved ones.. with running water & a flushing toilet.. I sincerely hope you are having a great day! Us? We just hit a bird. He first slammed into the idler on our head rack. Then bounced to the cross bar between the deck. As if he wasn't dizzy enough by this point, he made a very loud *THUD* as he tumbled towards the windshield, football-style. Beaks up! (Ace Ventura reference) You know how those crows in the Windex commercial fly into the clean window, their little wings spread out straight, their face flat against the glass, cartoon style? That's what it looked like. Upon further inspection, I found a single feather woven, somehow, through 2 links of the chain he hit on the way to the windshield. Services will be held tomorrow at noon.

East Coast Bound

"We've got a long way to go, and a short time to get there...." And we are actually ahead of schedule! By about 5 minutes, but hey, we'll take it. On our way to Portsmouth, VA, Baltimore, MD, then Edison, NJ. And for the first time in about 2 years, we have our next load BEFORE we are empty! GO figure!! I think it's gonna be pretty cool, though. We're going to a place we've never been to before - a submarine base! WOO HOO! =^D No, we are not hauling submarines.. but how freakin cool would *that* be?? LOL! Still cars. Hopefully, none like the one we have on now. OMFG. It's a black 1970 Impala. It grossed out our rear axel, for sure! It was made before plastic was invented, apperently.. lol. No way we could have put that monster in the belly. It's wider than a full sized pickup. Here's more about this gem; both back windows are non operational, and down an inch or 2.. they wont budge. If it rains, oh well! As the guy from the port was bringing it to us to inspect & load, the steering wheel came off in his hands. They had to snitch a few screws from the inside molding to put it back on, so they could drive it the rest of the way to our truck. The steering wheel, btw, is a giant chain, about 6 inches wide. I've *got* to get a picture of that. The door panels are hanging on by god knows what at the top, probably Hubba Bubba, and they flap back & forth when you move the door. The rest of the inside is another story all together. But hey, the dude has spiffy hubcaps. Gotta have your priorities.

After we pick up our subs, er.. cars, we are heading home for a restart, then heading out to Sandy Eggo. Our company is sending out 9 trucks for this 'base move', and we do NOT wanna be last in line for a load back outta there. Or 3rd or 4th, for that matter. Needless to say, we wont be home any longer than nesecc.. nessecc.. any more than we have to. Will stop over my mom & dad's house, or course. Need to stop in at Ben Franklins to grab some balls & see my friend Shannon, who I use to work with there. Gonna try to grab a few supplies I need to work on my air dry clay for here in the truck. When I say balls, I mean styrofoam balls. You sick puppies.

Ya know, I almost deleted this whole blog, because I don't feel I write enough in it, or have anything interesting to say when I do. You'd think by sitting on my ass all day I'd have all the time in the world. It's not that simple. Having signal is the biggest challenge. Catching up with email is another. Oh, how I long for the days of my Outlook Express..... *blissful sighs*

Oh! The race is on today.. gotta get Mike to check on it when his show is over. Not sure what he's listening to - I don't pay attention. Sam Spade, I think. Not even sure where they are this week. GO RYAN!!! =^D God, that man can just... nevermind. :P

Til next time, kidlin's!