Eddie Lobster On The Brain, Listening Skills Disengaged Friday

I'm only realizing it as I write this, but today is Friday. All day, I've been thinking it was Tuesday. And I even said that very thing to Ed and he didn't correct me (HUGE clue that he wasn't listening to me).

We were up in Bangor, Maine yesterday and today headed over to Old Town, Maine to pick up a load we're taking down to Texas. I knew we'd be heading down I-95, so I mentioned to Ed that we should have dinner at Robert’s Maine Grill in Kittery, a place we've been before and really liked. We couldn't remember the parking situation because the last time we were here, we were in a rental car. I kept saying, "Well, it shouldn't be too bad, it's Tuesday." and "It's not tourist season anymore, it shouldn't be crowded, and besides it's Tuesday." and "Since it's Tuesday, I can't imagine they'll be that busy. Let's just drive by and see if we can find a place to park." He just kept saying "Okay."

It doesn't actually matter what day it was (although it does explain why the restaurant was busy) because we were going to have seafood. New England seafood. Choosing from the menu wasn't too difficult since I knew what I wanted. We both had a crispy salad wedge with delicious blue cheese dressing, I ordered the scallops and Ed ordered the one and a half pound lobster. Everything was perfect; fresh vegetables, fluffy rice pilaf, baked scallops with just the right amount of butter and breadcrumbs and Ed's sweet, sweet lobster.

For dessert Ed had the Chocolate Encore Cake and I had the Lime and Coconut Cheesecake. It was the most delicious piece of cheesecake I'd ever eaten - instead of the traditional graham cracker crust, the crust on the bottom was made from toasted coconut! With a light lime glaze on top and a slight citrusy flavor in the creamy cheesecake body, I was transported to heaven.

The restaurant parking lot couldn't accommodate our truck, but Kittery is known for it's many outlets and we found a nice spot tucked away behind a row of stores just a short walk across the street. I'm really glad we had time to stop and enjoy a relaxing dinner. And quite frankly, I don't care that Ed didn't correct me on what day it was; as long as he was listening when I mentioned the name of the restaurant.

Robert's is a good time no matter what day you're there!

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1 YEAR AGO: Privacy Issues
2 YEARS AGO: It’s Crazy That I’m Crazy For Keanu
3 YEARS AGO: Gifts That Keep On Giving
4 YEARS AGO: Classic Las Vegas
5 YEARS AGO: Off With Their Heads!

Eddie Peep Show Friday

Eddie peeks into the sleeper from up front in the cab.


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1 YEAR AGO: Some Like It Hot
2 YEARS AGO: The Desert Blooms With Irritants
3 YEARS AGO: Squeeze Me?
4 YEARS AGO: Relationship Deal Breakers

Eddie As Fisherman Friday

I wanted Ed to try on this wool coat and cap because I just knew he'd exude that Maine fisherman look and I wanted a picture of it. Boy, was I right!

This is the last known picture of Ed in his beard. I've been at him for months to shave it and he kept saying he didn't want to, that he wanted it to get longer. Longer? Like ZZ Top longer?? But no matter how much I begged and pleaded, he wouldn't do it.

Then...we got a call for a load. And wouldn't you know it, one of the requirements for taking this load (since it was going to a power plant) was to have a clean shaven face; their safety department required all people to be able to fit a mask snugly to their face, against their skin. Having a beard wouldn't make that possible, so Ed had to shave it.

Bwah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha... <--- My evil laugh. So he shaved most of it off, leaving just a little goatee. He is now once again SUPER cute, instead of just regular cute.


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1 YEAR AGO: Birds And Barbells On Muscle Beach
2 YEARS AGO: A Girl On The Shores Of Cozumel
3 YEARS AGO: I’m Not Exactly Sure What You’re Proposing Here
4 YEARS AGO: The Blizzard Of 2006

Eddie Palm Sketch Friday

Seems like it's time for another Palm Sketch post. This one is perfect because it's an exact depiction of Eddie while sleeping. Eyes closed, all serene and stuff. The only difference between this picture and the actual Eddie, is the beard. Why? Because he recently shaved it.

This is the last known sketch of him with facial hair. I tried to do a current one, but I had a really hard time replicating the razor stubble.

Back to the drawing board.

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1 YEAR AGO: Moabulous
2 YEARS AGO: Ready To Draw The Future
3 YEARS AGO: Red Fish, Blue Fish. One Fish, Two Fish.
4 YEARS AGO: Beautiful Enough To Lick

Eddie It's Not Even Halloween Yet Friday

Don't even ask. I think it had something to do with my nephews and a dare.

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1 YEAR AGO: Not So Different, Are We?
2 YEARS AGO: Quite Uneducated, If You Ask Me
3 YEARS AGO: Sometimes Identity Theft Can SAVE You Money
4 YEARS AGO: Mina In Fifty Years

Ed Getting Jiggy Among The Sunflowers Friday

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1 YEAR AGO: The Bridge To Everywhere
2 YEARS AGO: Scared Into Anorexia
3 YEARS AGO: A Good Hot Cup Is Desperately Needed
4 YEARS AGO: Am I The Only One Who Noticed This??

Eddie Goes Waaaay South Friday

Eddie contemplating the swim to Cuba. Key West, Florida.


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1 YEAR AGO: Port Of Long Beach
2 YEARS AGO: Layers Of History
3 YEARS AGO: Would I Be Cheesy If I Said I Wanted To Drive THIS Rig??
4 YEARS AGO: Paper Glow

Eddie Smiles With The Pasties Girl Friday

Eddie in Key West, Florida posing with the girl selling pasties. He didn't want to do it and I had to pay the girl a dollar (what a deal!) for her to pose with him, but it was worth it.

He's always very resistant to stuff like this, but that smile tells me he's really not that opposed to doing it; no matter what he says.


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1 YEAR AGO: Who Needs A Man When You Have A Kindle??
2 YEARS AGO: Phone Calls And Fellatio
3 YEARS AGO: Color Ring
4 YEARS AGO: We Go All Out!

Eddie Watching Boats And Waiting For Brisket Friday

Eddie sitting in Turtle Kraals restaurant in Key West, checking out the boats in the marina while waiting on his BBQ brisket sandwich to be served.

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1 YEAR AGO: It’s Probably Best To Not Piss Off The Devil
2 YEARS AGO: Reminders For Morons
3 YEARS AGO: Feasting With Saints And Sinners
4 YEARS AGO: We Live In The Signpost Forest

Eddie Dumps It Friday

I complain about everything. Absolutely EV-ER-REE-THING. Eddie, on the other hand, doesn't complain about anything. I even try to get him pissed off about stuff every once in a while to see if he has it in him. He doesn't. He just has a good attitude no matter what he's doing.

This picture is Exhibit A; big smile with arms raised in the air exhibiting joy. He looks happy, right? You know what he's doing?

He's dumping our porta-potty.

Just entertaining the thought of having do that would put me into a "Why do I have to do everything??" complaint tailspin. Yet he does it all the time without uttering a word.

How can I not love a guy who not only loves me, but loves my poop as well?

OK, I know he doesn't love the poop....but you get the point!


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1 YEAR AGO: Vicki Goes Hollywood
2 YEARS AGO: Market Flora
3 YEARS AGO: Now Where The Hell Did She Park My Truck???
4 YEARS AGO: Channeling Angelina Jolie

Eddie The Cicada Whisperer Friday

Eddie came rushing into the truck one night, "Give me your camera! Quick!" I handed it to him and watched him go out the back door without a word. You'll have to turn up the volume so you don't miss the best part, but this is what he came back with:

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1 YEAR AGO: Hurricane Equality
2 YEARS AGO: If You’re Going To Rescue Me, Bring Sandwiches
3 YEARS AGO: Me And My Man
4 YEARS AGO: Maybe We Should Sell Our Truck And Buy An Airboat

Eddie Embraces The Rules Friday

Ed hanging out (or loitering, if you will) on the Mystic River Bridge in Mystic, Connecticut.


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1 YEAR AGO: They Have A MAGAZINE???
2 YEARS AGO: Planting The Sun
3 YEARS AGO: Training Day
4 YEARS AGO: Cannonball Run

Eddie Hauls Laundry The White Trash Way Friday

Here you will see Eddie with our cart full of laundry at a very brightly lit 24-hour laundromat in Corpus Christi, Texas. Because we couldn't fit the truck in the small laundromat parking lot, we had to park across the street at the Lowe's. And because we had two huge, military seabag sized laundry bags full of laundry to do, Ed hauled it all across the street in one of their shopping carts.

You can imagine how "Queen of White Trash" I felt while I held the door open for him as he wheeled the cart in. The place was a bazillion degrees, so I was not looking forward to doing all that laundry, but since I was wearing the last decent outfit I had, there was no choice.

I loaded five machines and got everything started so I could read my book. Twenty minutes later, the washing machines cycled off. Well, except for one. The digital display said "11", indicating it had eleven minutes left to the cycle. I wondered why that one hadn't finished since they all went in at the same time, but I figure I must have miscalculated and started to put the clothes from the other machines into the dryers. After I unloaded the four machines, I went back to get the other clothes.

The machine was still stuck on 11 and I watched as the water poured in, cycled once to the right, paused, then cycled back to the left. I jiggled the handle, pressed all the buttons, and kicked it, but it didn't move. It just kept rinsing and spinning.

There was an emergency number on the wall to call, but it didn't have the area code listed, so I asked someone in the laundromat. He gave me a number, but it had too many digits. I gave him a puzzled look and then he corrected himself, saying "Oops. That's the zip code. The area code is 613". So I pounched in the number and left a message for "Matt", the guy whose voicemail I got. "Hi. I'm sitting at your laundromat on Williams in Corpus and my clothes are stuck in one of your machines. The rinse cycle has been on for forty minutes now and the digital display hasn't moved. I can't stop it and I can't get the door open. Please call me back at xxx.xxx.xxxx. Thank you."

I waited and waited but never got a call back. I texted Ed, who was in the truck, to come back over because he had to help me get my clothes out of the machine. I had a feeling the guy gave me the wrong area code, and since I hadn't gotten a call back yet, I asked Ed to give me the correct one. He texted back, "361". Great. So the first time, I called some guy to tell him I was sitting in his laundromat watching my trapped clothes spin around in the washing machine. Which okay, is a mistake, but geez, you'd think the guy would at least have called me back to tell me I had the wrong number. Especially since I told him I was sitting there waiting for his call.

I then dialed the correct number and got an answering service who took my information and told me the owner would be over to help me out. So I sat and waited. The guy finally showed up and cut the power to the machine, resetting it so it would go back on and finish the cycle. At this point, my clothes had been rinsing for over an hour. In all of my life, I've never had my clothes get trapped in a washing machine. Guess I can't say that anymore.

As we were folding the clothes and finishing up, Ed and I laughed about the message I left for "Matt" about me sitting in his laundromat, watching my spinning clothes that were being held hostage by his machine. It was very late when we did our laundry, so undoubtebly I woke someone up; I'm sure he was looking at his phone thinking, who the hell is calling me at this hour? I almost called him back when he hadn't responded but you know when you get that feeling that someone gave you the wrong information, so you double check it? Glad I did. I could have left two stupid messages.

Only later when I was able to get on the computer to look it up, did I find out that the area code I called belonged to someone in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

Looks like that makes my little blunder international. Pretty funny, eh?


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1 YEAR AGO: Sun Setting Over Lake Pontchartrain
2 YEARS AGO: Sanchez. Pedro Sanchez.
3 YEARS AGO: Remembering Those In Heaven
4 YEARS AGO: The Line Of Gold Thread

Eddie Enters A Copper Mine Friday

Today we picked up a load at a copper mine in Arizona. The first thing you do when you arrive is pull onto the scale and go into the guard shack to check in. I always stay in the truck while Ed checks in, but a few minutes after he was in the building, I see a woman in a hard hat waving at me, motioning for me to come in also.

So I get myself together and get out of the truck to see what they want. I hate getting out of the truck for shit like this. Once we were inside, the first thing they did was weigh the truck. A savvy driver will already know what the weight of their truck is empty, with 1/4 tank of fuel and with the two drivers in it. Shippers, especially copper and steel manufacturers, are notorious for trying to overload your truck, so you must pay attention.

But this facility was weighing our truck without the drivers in it. Um, hello....is the truck going to drive itself?? Depending on what the two people weigh, you can easily add over 500 pounds to your weight just by getting in the truck to drive away. This is why you need to pay attention, because if you drive off that property and you are overweight, it's your fault.

We tried to explain to them that the weight would be different with both of us in the truck but were told it was their "Standard Operating Procedure". Big surprise. It didn't really matter though, since Ed knows what he's doing and won't let the forklift operator load any more than we can handle. FYI copper mine: we won't be one of the trucks leaving your facility overloaded.

After they weighed us, we found out we had to watch a safety video. I said, "But I won't be getting out of the truck." Ed has had to watch videos like this before at other locatons, but I've never been required to since I don't leave the truck. Didn't matter. I still had to watch the video. A fifteen minute video. I was told that everyone entering the property does; even the food delivery guys.

They had all sorts of rules and safety procedures to follow, the first one being our mode of dress. No flip-flops, no shorts, no hair blowing in the breeze. When Ed first walked into the office, the guard said to him "You look like you're going to the beach." Ed was wearing his signature button down shirt, shorts and flip-flops; I take full credit for the flip flops. But here at the copper mine, shorts and flippies are not suitable, so we had to change.

For me, this was a horror of all horrors. I had to put on long pants and closed-toe shoes in the summertime???? God help us all. I don't even know where my long pants are. Ed knows the drill because he does this all the time, so he just whipped out his coveralls, slipped into his neon yellow safety vest, threw on his steel-toed boots and fished out his hard hat. If they thought I was going to mess up my hair with a hard hat, they had another thing coming. Good Lord. I reluctantly put on jeans and sneakers, got myself a beverage and a snack for the show and Eddie and I made our way back to the guard shack.

We watched the movie and chuckled all the way through. It was obviously made for people with no common sense. In it, they mentioned some of the following:

1. "Don't enter an area while blasting is in progress." Really? Ya think?
2. "Yield to large vehicles as they have many blind spots and don't always see you." Well, I think if you saw something like this barreling in your direction, you'd be inclined to stop and let it pass.
3. "Report any snakes or vermin you see in the area you're working in." Again, really?? You're in the desert. Should I report every snake, scorpion, kangaroo rat and lizard I see? Do you think they're going to stay at that location so you can come back and catch them? Help me out here; I don't understand the significance of reporting indiginous desert creatures.
4. "Do not enter areas marked Do Not Enter or Restricted Area." Um, if you can read, wouldn't you already know that "do not enter" means not to enter?

After the video, I had to get a loaner hard hat since I didn't have one. It was actually kind of nice, being bright white and brand new and all; not that I was planning on wearing it or anything, because as I already noted, I won't be getting out of the truck. And if perchance, I am in the truck and a gigantic crane crushes it, I don't think a hard hat is going to do me much good. So yeah, I don't think I'll be wearing it.

We left the office and headed into the mine area to get loaded. The forklift operator was new and initially loaded us with too much weight. Ed explained we absolutely could not take all of it and because she couldn't figure out how to work out the weight and couldn't split the copper bundles, had to take an entire stack off. This worked in our favor, causing us be considerably under gross. I guess that's what happens when math isn't your strong point.

All in all, we got in and out of there in a fairly reasonable amount of time. We even left with a gift. Ed mentioned that he liked their hard hat so much and inquired as to whether he could buy it. The woman in the guard shack made a phone call and got permission to give it to us.

Eddie was so happy, he agreed to let me take a picture of him modeling his new PPE (personal protective equipment). Isn't he so safe looking?


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1 YEAR AGO: Oshkosh B’Gosh
2 YEARS AGO: Queen Of The 21st Century
3 YEARS AGO: Sketchbook
4 YEARS AGO: A Queen’s Life

Eddie Brings A Guest Friday

WHO is that fabulous girl with Eddie???? Why it's ME, of course! As you have probably noticed, I'm usually behind the camera, not in front of it.

As Ed recently put it, "We have all these pictures of me in Washington, DC, me in Seattle, me on the beach, me in NYC...people don't even believe I have a girlfriend!"

So for this shot, Ed set up his tri-pod and captured both of us at the White Sands National Monument in New Mexico. As a bonus, he also got a picture of the truck in the background. See that smile on his face? He was giddy just being able to stand next to me in the same shot. And now he has a photo to carry in his wallet!

And I'm off the hook for at least another year.


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1 YEAR AGO: The Things We Do For Love
2 YEARS AGO: A Million Comedians Out Of Work And I’m Lucky Enough To Live With One
3 YEARS AGO: Ah, The Primitive Beauty Of The Desert
4 YEARS AGO: The Perfect Storm

Fiesta Ed Friday

Eddie is ready for summer by the pool; the hat, the ice tea pitcher and the blow up palm tree.

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1 YEAR AGO: Crotchety Old Woman
2 YEARS AGO: One Side Of A Coin
3 YEARS AGO: Why Oh Why
4 YEARS AGO: Sign Of The Times

Eddie Beach Feet Friday

No, he didn't get that tan line by wearing a thong on his foot....it's from the Crocs I finally convinced him to buy. But this is how he spent most of last week...feet up, with the beach nearby.

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1 YEAR AGO: Panoramic
2 YEARS AGO: My New Motto
3 YEARS AGO: Fake It Till You Make It
4 YEARS AGO: Feria Colour Strands

Eddie Captures A Sunset Friday

Eddie taking pictures on South Padre Island, Texas.


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1 YEAR AGO: Pelicans Enjoying Their Rule Of The Lake
2 YEARS AGO: Bigfoot
3 YEARS AGO: There Is A Reason People Try To Repress Certain Childhood Memories
4 YEARS AGO: Painted Ladies

Eddie In The Creepy Sailor Mask Friday

Eddie found this mask at the Philipsburg Manor gift shop in Sleepy Hollow, New York. I was looking at all the beautiful things in the shop, wanting to buy it all, when like a five year old he kept calling my name wanting me to turn around.

Finally I did and what I saw was him in that creepy mask. We left the shop empty handed and I realized I never have to have kids with Ed around.

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1 YEAR AGO: No Wonder Sailors Came Up With A Special Knot
2 YEARS AGO: Bridge To The Gate Of Heaven
3 YEARS AGO: Summer Staples
4 YEARS AGO: Sorry, no post from 5/29/05

Eddie So Hot He's Cookin' Like Guy Fieri Friday

I think this might just be one of my favorite Ed pictures yet. He looks like Guy Fieri, the host of the Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives show on the Food Network.

We found this hat at Wall Drug in South Dakota. The color of the hair matched Ed's color perfectly and the higlighted tips look so natural. The "hair" was attached to the hat, so you put it on in one piece. The color of the hair matched Ed's so perfectly and the highlighted tips looked so natural. If his hair weren't Little-Orphan-Annie-curly, I would convince him to tip it, spike it and wear it like this for a while.

I think he looks really cute and it's way better than his Bob Ross impression. I don't even know how he's the same guy, it's such a difference!


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1 YEAR AGO: Maybe She Should Hold Off On Pet Ownership
2 YEARS AGO: It Must Be A Sign
3 YEARS AGO: Keeping Time With His Ticker
4 YEARS AGO: Yo! Yo! Yo!