Woodchuck Wisdom

Meritt wrote: I wish there was a little stuffed Meritt to go with you and see all these fabulous sights. Sigh. And then Squirrel wrote: I vote we start traveling with a coffee bean in honor of Meritt. I vote for a Starbucks Christmas Blend bean or a Mexican Double Dark from Trader Joes. Either one will fit the profile perfectly.Or we can try and find a Martha Stewart doll?I'll leave it up to WC. And then I wrote: Or we can try and find a Martha Stewart doll with a coffee bean... I'm in. Everyone start looking for one now and I'm thinking that after a year or so, we can send it to here with with pictures of where she has been. I need help on this one. Everyone start looking today and please help me find what we need to cheer up Meritt.

Very large fountain in the main part of downtown Idaho Falls, and the water is still running. Squirrel ready to work at anytime...ya right.... I'm not driving! I thought that you were driving? What do you mean that you have 50 miles of road closed due to weather? I don't care that you have 4 trucks messed up on the road, I just want to go home. And might I point out that at this point I was slowing down to 55 mph. Now this is more like it.

Click Here I'm singing the song from the one hit wonders....The Squirrels.

A Woodchuck and a Squirrel drove through this.... And this.... Please note the two...that's two snow plows.. And did I mention this???? I-84 was closed today and we had to find a new route around the accidents to reach our final destination. We had to slow down due to the cows on the road. And last but not least.....

3 Days 1500 miles plus miscellaneous mileage around town Starbucks every 300 miles or more as needed Snow and Ice...we have it all... must see two customers and fill as time allows Wahooo! And my trusty steed is dirty.....

The old Woodchuck and Squirrel are getting back on the road Monday. Pleased be warned and stay off the road in you are in Oregon or Idaho.......

I don't normally do these type of things, but here goes. Four jobs you have had in your life: 1. Western Regional Trainer-Towing Products 2. NAPA Auto Parts, independent owner 3. Jaguar, Saab, Rolls Royce, Bentley, Parts sales 4. Semi-Truck driver 4.1. Bouncer at an Irish Pub Four movies you would watch over and over: 1. Anything Monty Python or Mel Brooks 2. Mad Max 3. Animal House 4. The Outlaw Jose Wales Four places you have lived: 1. LA, California 2. Auburn, WA. 3. Wilsonville, OR. 4. Tigard, OR. Four TV shows you love to watch: 1. Buffy the Vampire Slayer 2. Star Trek 3. Farscape 4. Benny Hill Four places you have been on vacation: 1. Rogue 2. Illinois 3. Snake 4. The White Salmon Four websites I visit daily: 1. http://www.memorylaneclassiccars.com/ 2. http://www.automobilemag.com/ 3. http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/h/d/hi/1/en/home 4. http://www.pubcrawler.com/Template/index.cfm 4.1. And TR, WH and Meritt. Can't forget friends. Four of my favorite foods: 1.Bread 2.Shrimp ...

The World Domination Summit has reach a conclusion. Please await your orders from your glorious leader. As you can see, the summit was guarded by the Royal Penguin Guard.

A free Herring or Walnut to who ever can guess my location.

create your own visited states map or check out these Google Hacks. And from what I see of my travels for 2008, I should add 7 more to the list of states I've been too. And to think that only four short years ago, the number of states that I had been to was only five.

When everyone talks about the holidays and how wonderful life is. They try to be nice to their neighbor, smile, toast their friends and in general are decent folk. Why can't we do this all year? I'm the same grumpy little Woodchuck 365 days a year, except for leap year where I'm nice for one day. I belive that Jethro Tull said it best in the most true Christmas Song every written. Once in royal davids city stood a lonely cattle shed, Where a mother held her baby. Youd do well to remember the things he later said. When youre stuffing yourselves at the christmas parties, youll just laugh when I tell you to take a running jump. Youre missing the point Im sure does not need making That christmas spirit is not what you drink.!!! So how can you laugh when your own mothers hungry, And how can you smile when the reasons for smiling are wrong? And if I just messed up your thoughtless pleasures,Remember, if you wish, this is just a christmas song....

It seems that being sick is just not an option. When the customer was called on Monday to let him know that I would not be there on Tuesday due to illness, the response was..."he has to be here, I've got four customers coming, he has to be here.".....Let's send Rogue Squirrel in my place? It's only a 15 hour drive and Squirrel likes to drive, OK, not as much as I do. And more important here is that I've no ideal where I'm going with this rant! Let's hear it for Mama Squirrel that will be giving us the newest member to the Rogue Nation, a very cute little Squirrelette sometime in late March or early April. YAAAA Mama Squirrel!!!!.. oh, and you too RS. Now I remember, you can't be sick with this company. It was much more of an issue in my head. So, let me roll around in self pity and we will move on. And Squirrel, please remember that if you little girl grows up the way you want her too, she will be kicking you ass by the time she is 12 or so.........

Coming to Kentucky in late fall of 2007. It seems that I have been called to appear before the Almighty Hamster at a Summit involving Rum and Tequila.

For those who are about to Travel....... We fall on the floor and laugh at you....... It seems that my flight from Calgary, AB. that was going to leave the airport on Friday at 1pm, was in fact destine to never happen. What was in fact destin to happen was that I got to spend another night in Calgary and depart at 7:30am on Saturday. The bright side of this, and yes there is a bright side, is that I did not have to spend the night without my luggage. It seems that if the plane does not leave the gate, it's hard for them to loose it. Good to know. So, how would you answerer this question from the US Boarder agents? I show you leaving the country on Friday and not returning, care to explain this??? That's what I said..... So to recap, I got to come back through the US customs process twice. Can I have a gold star now please? It also seems that Starbucks is giving Timmy's a run for the coffee in Canada now....go Starbucks.

I survived SEMA again. Six long days. Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) I'm like a kid in a candy store at the SEMA show, and this year I did not get any time to walk around...nope....nothing.......can you say hostile work environment? Details later

I received my luggage on Thursday at 5:30AM. Then taught my topics on Thursday all day, went to dinner, arrived at the hotel at midnight. I then got back up at 3AM to get on the airport shuttle at 3:30AM so that I could be at the airport by 4AM to get on the airplane by 5:30AM to depart at 6AM. Next week I'm off to Sacramento, CA.

Portland to Montreal, sounds simple. I was going to be in Montreal by 5:10pm with my luggage and life is good. WRONG. Portland to St. Paul to Montreal. What really happened: Portland to St. Paul to Detroit to Montreal. I arrived in Montreal at 1am. Let's recap the flight of my luggage: Portland to St. Paul to who the hell knows where. lost, gone, missing, not with me anymore, "D" all of the above. So, now I sit in Three Rivers in the same cloths I flew out in on Tuesday. I did shower. I think that I might do the training session in a speedo on Thursday. I need to learn how to use "carry on" type of flying. Pictures to follow.

Where you just sit back and life is good.

I'm sitting here wondering what happens to "Time". I've started this post about dozen or so times in the last three weeks to no avail. The projects at work are getting longer and less fun to do. And my schedule is no longer my own to create. I'm at the whim of DA 1 or is that DA 2...anywhoo, and he is making sure that I don't have time to do my job. But, wait...does anyone really know what my job is? I sure don't as it keeps changing every time I check email. Old Job: I was working in the Western Region of the company which meant that I covered 15 western states and 1/2 of Canada. I was a technical resource for the District Sales force that worked in the Western Region. I did installs of our product and worked with the technicians in the field to overcome any problems. I solved issues and worked with customers to make them happy. I control my schedule to work with customers and District Sales Managers. New Job: I now travel the whole US and Canada. I'm...

Let us just take a little look at the last few weeks, shall we? I spent a few days in sunny and very hot (but it's a dry heat) Arizona. And I'm on one of the largest tour attractions in the US and what do I take pictures of???? Why a new Aston Martin of course, what else would you expect? And then there was this little road with all of these turns and very steep. I think it was in San Fransisco somewhere. My little black steed was as playful as a kitty that just could not wait to pounce on the fun. However I must admit that some of the people taking pictures were just a bit put out when I kept cutting the rear loose to make the turns. The tyres sound really good spinning on the brick. Oh the fun of it all.