Longhaul

Just a cute little short story to start the weekend. Hope you enjoy. Princess Celestia is inexplicably in your bed. Princess Celestia Is In Your Bed.mp3

Hello, fellow adult male! I wouldn't worry about it so much, this is a very welcoming community. I enjoy my time here and the interactions I have with the others, and I hope you will too!

I'm kinda frustrated, because I need to remove some equipment from a truck we're getting rid of and it's not going well. At least it doesn't need to be done right away so I have time to figure it out.

I've never really counted, actually... I do try to give them out when I see something that I like or that I can relate to.

This memory goes back a ways, so bear with me... I was working security and my assignment was to patrol an empty textile mill in a small town. It was Christmas Eve, and not long after midnight I was doing my rounds and decided to do a roofline check (we had access to the roof but checking it was optional). I opened the door and stepped out, and from there the entire town was laid out below, Christmas lights twinkling on some of the houses, light snow on the ground, the peaceful stillness of the cold night ... I have never experienced anything quite like that since.

Mostly minor injuries, some slips getting out of the truck on wet or icy days, strained muscles from cranking up a trailer that had its landing gear down too far with a heavy load on it, the worst one was when I wrenched my back while pulling a pallet and the pallet jack decided it wasn't going to move any more. That one laid me up for a couple of days.

Pretty much all of them. I despised going to school because of the harassment and verbal (and sometimes physical) assaults I had to face. I would skip school whenever I was able to , but I still managed to pull my grades together enough to graduate.

About 95% of my shopping is done online, including groceries. The other 5% is my occasional trip to Sam's Club. I shop online because I don't much like crowds, and the stores around here are packed, especially on the weekends.

Feeling pretty relieved that the weekend is approaching because this week, with the exception of a couple of bright spots, has been a true mountain of ... bleah.

Oh my, another few months, another blog entry. It’s like it’s becoming a habit or something. I sit and think about what I want to write about and then immediately scrap the idea because no one really cares (so says my mind). The big thing I wanted to talk about is my return to the world of management, through a series of events that even had me scratching my head trying to figure out exactly what in the blue blazes was going on and how did I get to this point again? In 2020 I was tasked with running one of our smaller terminals in south central Texas. I had some basic training from the manager I was working with at the time, he showed me a few things, and when I went down and met with the outgoing manager, I learned the basic day-to-day operation. No, it wasn’t perfect, there were still a lot of gaps in my knowledge, yet I was able to fill them and do a halfway decent job. The guys had respect for me and things went smoothly for a while. And then along came a gentleman who was tasked with doing a linehaul route but would also serve as my backup should I need to take a day or two off. Fine with me, I figured. And then I started hearing the stories from the others. Stories about how he should have had my job but was one week too late to apply for it. How he could do a better job than I could. I put up with this for over two years, when after a particularly bad day, and I suspect after a few libations being consumed, he decided to go over my head, and over my boss’s head, to complain to the head of the company. At that point, I had had enough. I went to my boss and essentially said, if he wants my job that bad, give it to him and I’ll go do linehaul. And that’s what I did. Did he do an adequate job? Possibly so. I only stepped in to cover when he was out, and I still heard all the workplace talk. How he kept slagging me, saying I wasn’t doing a good enough job. Then, the complaints started about dealing with the upper management. I think he finally saw what I had to put up with and it really opened his eyes. Didn’t do much for his attitude, unfortunately. Meanwhile, I was still driving, even though it caused me physical pain each night when I went out. Yes, agony to the point I was contemplating a different line of work. But I hung in, swallowed my pride (and a bunch of analgesics) and soldiered on. June 2nd was just another Monday, or so I thought. I woke up early in the afternoon as I commonly did, and saw that my phone had been blowing up. Message from the manager, asking if I could go I because “I think I’m done” with the company. Another text, from the big boss, that simply said “Call me.” Not a good sign. I called big boss back immediately and he filled me I on the situation. I, in turn, filled him in on the text manager sent me and the reason I went to linehaul in the first place a couple of years ago, and that put the final nails in the coffin for manager dude. I was told the manager job was mine if I wanted it, I accepted it, and here we are almost a month later. It's weird to have people tell me they’re happy I’m back in charge again, but if they’re happy with it, so am I. I’m in a better place mentally, plus I know the job as opposed to the first time around, so I think I can handle the stress better. I’m still trying to get into a rhythm as far as balancing home and work, but that will come in time. I’m trying to be more active on sites such as this one, with my involvement in the Golden Oak Library Revival club (which you should totally check out) and just popping up randomly in different threads. I think that’ll do it for this update, and if I have more to say another time, I’ll post it here. I wish you all the best, and I’m always up for a chat if you’re so inclined.

Preschool is generally for kids below kindergarten age. When I grew up it was also called nursery school, and the age range was between 3 and 5 years old.

If I can listen to it for free to see if I'll like it, I'll do that, and if in fact I do like it, I'll buy it.

Procrastinating finishing getting ready to go to work by browsing the forums.

My all time favorite:

40,938 as of this posting. That's a big increase in the last two years since I posted here.

As way of a second sample of my reading voice, I'm going to do this story I've enjoyed. It's a cute little story and I hope you enjoy it too. Celestia decides that Big Mac's barn is an excellent place to sneak off to, to take naps on her days off. Big Mac decides that Celestia is a welcome guest. Neither Princess nor farmer ever speak to one another, but the silence sings between them. Let the Silence Sing Prologue.mp3

So, you want to hear me read a favorite story of yours but don't quite know how to ask me to do so? Well, worry no more! This is the place where you can suggest a story for me to read, and I'll even give you a mention as the requester when I record it! How sweet a deal is that? My main rule is that the story has to be friendly to the guidelines of the site. Bear in mind that not every story will be chosen. I will read the story first to see if it fits the 'forum friendly' rules that have been established, and if it's something that can be recorded in a timely fashion. Any multi-chapter stories will be done as a weekly series until the story is completed. You can post your suggestions in this thread, or you can DM me if you feel more comfortable that way. Looking forward to your suggestions!

I have my own little nook here in the library, and I would love to read a story for you if you would like. Many of you don't know what I sound like, so to fix that I have recorded a reading of a story I wrote a while back (seven years ago, to be precise), and I hope you do enjoy it: Princess Luna has a dilemma. Every night, the same pony asks the same thing: protection and guidance during the night. Curious as to why this pony asks her for assistance, she decides to pay this unsuspecting pony a visit to get to the bottom of this. Lighting The Dark Path.mp3

I'm always open to suggestions! And thanks for the kind words, it means a lot to me.

Hmm, this looks interesting. I know I'd be interested in doing some readings of whatever people would like to hear me read.

In the middle of the night it feeds In the middle of the night it eats you Everybody knows Everywhere I go I can never run and I cannot hide I'm done Crying over someone like you I'm done Crying, hope you're feeling it too now I'm done

There was a point when I really didn't care too much about my health, and let whatever was going to happen, happen. I've changed, mostly I didn't figure on being alive for so long, and I will say it's a challenge now to try to maintain good health.

My mother and that side of the family are all in Connecticut. On my father's side, they're up in Maine and part of Canada as far as I know. Me, I'm in south central Texas.