Kingman, Arizona.

We stopped to have our steer tire replaced. It had disintigrated since Beaumont and was really beginng to affect the handling of the truck. Also had the alternator belts replaced (we lost one not long after leaving Texas).

We're both irritated with B&L right now. We tried to get in touch with them to see what they wanted us to do with the old tire (trade it in, keep it, etc.), but none of the three numbers we have for them are working. So we had to wing it (as usual). We did the best we could, and if B&L doesn't like it, well, we should be able to get in touch with them. I can't be certain at this point, but this may have made up our minds for us in regard to going back to U.S. Xpress.

Well, it's late and I should crash. Going to get up in the morning and head for OKC to get that inspection.

Maybe I should mention that I've been thinking about writing an essay titled “Why I'm not a Republican.” Since this whole mess with the election recounts started, I've received all manner of filth from my Republican friends and family. Angry, hate-filled jabs at Democrats and pretty much anyone else who disagrees with them. I mean, beside the Religious Right issue, one has to wonder how people can send out stories and articles about God and faith while simultaneously sending out fanatical rhetoric about those Godless Democrats. I mean, I can't count hoe many hateful jokes I've gotten about Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Al Gore, and pretty much every other Democrat of note. How can these people dare to call themselves Christians and inundate me with stories about God and Christians struggling to do the right then, while saying such terrible, spiteful things about people?

Hypocrites.

I've watched and listened to the Republicans and the Democrats for a long time. And while I would not consider myself affiliated with either party, I can't help but notice that it's the Republicans who seem to have a mob mentality. After all, Clinton was constantly attacked throughout his Presidency with his admission that he smoked marijuana when he was in college, but somehow it's all right that George W. Bush was an alcoholic and a cocaine-sniffing party boy. Why is it wrong to hold Bush to the same standards that the Republicans held Clinton to?

One has to wonder how different the outcome of the election might have been if Al Gore had been willing to play politics as dirty as the Republicans do.

Obviously, this irks me. It also irks me that I've been reminded that there are plenty of Republican Pagans running around. That's a subject for another essay entitled “What Were You Thinking?” It'll address the question of how Pagans could vote for an evangelical Christian with ties to the Religious Right, who has officially said that witchcraft in general, and Wicca specifically, is not a religion. Don't they know that it's been the Republicans all along who have put forth nearly every piece of legislation that has scared the hell out of the Pagan community?

Makes you just want to shake people. Shake them out of their daze.