Observations and Experiences

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[b[My Experiences and Observations So Far

From when I arrived in the United States I have been continually blown away at how many really big people there are. Luckily I haven't had to sit next to any of them on a plane. Honestly they are huge. Everywhere I look when I'm eating at a restaurant or looking at the people in their cars I see people who have a hard time even walking. Seeing them in a restaurant puts me off eating most of the menu and definitely not keen on eating desert.
The people in this country are eating themselves to death. More people are overweight than thin. The tragedy is that the kids are also in the same situation. No I don't think I will take photos of this or maybe I will. Hmmmm

The size of the cars is enormous. Energy conservation is for other people. Everyday I see one car for one person. No one walks anywhere. In fact there are no footpaths so it is actually dangerous to walk anywhere. I got out of my truck to take a phot a couple of days ago and realised that everyone was in a vehicle. When we are working there is no one standing around, every one is either in a truck, a ute or pickup, a chopper or on a tractor. Each of us is in an air conditioned cell with radio telephone contact so if you leave your "cell" I leave my cab I have no idea what is happenning around me.

These people will drive 200m to a restaurant or the supermarket in preference to walking.

I've discovered Walmart! Mate!!!! I was in line the other day and in front of me was a lady buying stuff for a kids birthday. Everything I could see had sugar in it except the candles. I was gob smacked when the lady asked about buying some sand. The attendant responded by asking her if she wanted plain sand or could choose between 3 types of coloured sand, blue, green or pink. Yup, things are different here.

Bought a pair of jeans the other day for $11.50.

For the life of me I still can't get North sorted. Yes the sun rises in the East and sets in the West. That bit is easy but the sun arcs to the South NOT the North as it does in the Southern Hemisphere. When it cloudy and I have no shadows to go by I'm stuffed. Solution, buy a bloody compass! I still think that the compass back to front!

The cars. Well all I can see are large V8 pickups. The Dodge Ram is about the size of most utes or as they say pick ups. Japanese cars are the second or third or forth car. I hear the rumbling sound of V8s everywhere, mind you I never hear the other models because they are drowned out by the V8s.
One car per one person because they don't walk. To be fair everything is too far away. Everything is so spread out.
These people are crying out because petrol prices are increasing to $3.50/gallon ($80cents/litre). New Zealanders are currently paying say $2.20/litre ($9.90/gal). The trucks get 5miles/gal of deisel and these pick ups get around 30 miles/gal. I filled my truck the other day at a petrol station and kept the receipt, $380.00.

Finally the roads are straight and the horizon is flat. As Forrest Gumps said "And that's all I have to say about that."

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Photos

harvesting at Sunset
The chaff comes out of the chute at 180mi/hour. It takes about 6 minutes to fill my truck which about 35,000lb of grass.

The Pit
Apparently these are quite small!

The Chopper
This one only has 1 engine. The bigger ones have 2 . Total horse power is 650 for the small ones and 1050 for the double engine choppers. They have controls for Africa. One control is a metal detector which shuts down everything if a piece of metal over 1/2 inch long is picked up. So far we have pulled out a builders tape measure, a wrratah standard, fencing wire, tools, and steel bars.

Shifting Dirt
My first job where me and my truck were getting acquainted

Comments

[Barbara]

Yep! Yes siree, it's definitely America!
I can imagine the culture shock! Ian always used to say that the Americans were the biggest consumers the world had ever seen in the BIGGEST sense of the word! They burn fuel like it's never going to run out and that's just the beginning. It's a weird and wonderful place alright. Hope you and P22 are getting along just fine. Give her(?) and pat and tell she's lovely and you will be fine ... Best regards Barbara.