Change Is Hard

…but change is certain.

Author Archives: dawnkinster


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Update on truck safety legislation

We received an update email from the Truck Safety Coalition.  Part of it is below.  I wanted you to know what is going on since you’ve supported me through this roller coaster that is safety legislation.

 

“As you know, on Thursday June 19, the Senate began consideration of the FY 2015 Transportation Housing and Urban Development (THUD) Appropriations bill as part of a package of three appropriations bills.  Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), filed an amendment to the THUD bill which would protect the Hours of Service (HOS) rules governing rest periods and the amount of hours truck drivers may work each week. Joining Senator Booker in cosponsoring the amendment were Senators John D. Rockefeller (D-WV), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Charles Schumer (D-NY), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Edward J. Markey (D-MA), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Sherrod C. Brown (D-OH), Richard J. Durbin (D-IL), Mazie K. Hirono (D-HI), Brian E. Schatz (D-HI), and Chris S. Murphy (D-CT).

 

Senator Booker’s Amendment was introduced as a response to the language inserted into the bill at committee markup (Collins Amendment) which would increase the truck driver weekly work week to over 80 hours while a study was performed on the HOS restart provisions.  The Booker Amendment would strip the Collins Amendment of its language to suspend the restart provisions, and prevent an increase in truck driver work hours, while preserving the study.

 

We have now learned that the THUD bill has been pulled from the Senate floor indefinitely due to unrelated issues on other legislation, and we need your support to ensure that when the THUD bill returns, if a vote is held, the Booker Amendment will have enough support to pass.  It will likely be a very close vote.  In addition, Senator Blunt (R-MO) has indicated that he may offer an amendment, identical to the Collins amendment, to the Senate Commerce Committee’s piece of the surface transportation authorization bill.  Right now, we are unsure when the Commerce bill will come up for vote.  But, as you can see, this dangerous anti-safety language will not be going away, and it is imperative that we keep the issue of truck driver fatigue in the media and public eye.”

 

This delay adds another wrinkle in the fight for safety.  It’s difficult to keep our issue in front of the Senators for an extended time and the trucking interests have deep pockets and will be in the Senators’ ears constantly.   I’ll keep you updated when I hear more.  Meanwhile, if your Senator is listed above having cosponsored the Booker bill, please take a moment to call him or her and let them know you appreciate them trying to save lives on our roads.

And thank you very much for your support.

 


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Active retirement

A few weeks ago, while driving north for the Great Camping Adventure with Katie, I noticed a car.  We passed each other a few times.  It was the same make and model and even color as my car.  But that’s not what made me notice it.  What was special about the car was this:

Adventure mobile

Adventure mobile

Perched on the top were two kayaks, on the back hung two bicycles.  It seemed to epitomize the kind of retirement I hope my husband and I have.  The kind where you explore and enjoy and especially stay active.

I glanced at the couple in the car once when they passed me.  Seemed to be people pretty much like myself.  I wished them well and forgot about them.  Until I pulled into a fast food drive through line and saw the car parked next door at another fast food restaurant.  So once I got my taco I swung over there, parked, walked over and snapped the picture.  Turning I realized the couple was sitting at an outdoor table looking alarmed.

So I walked over to them, smiling, and told them I wanted to be them when I grew up.  Old enough to be retired, young enough to enjoy it and off on adventures every weekend with your life partner.    She smiled, pointed at her companion and said “Him?  We just met a few months ago!”    Then we all had a good laugh.

But in my heart I still hope I get to have that kind of retirement.  The kind with two kayaks on the roof, two bikes on the back, two voices laughing in the front seats.

Happy trails everyone.

Follow the road.

Follow the road.


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WordPress Photo Challenge: Between

Finding Shakespeare.

Finding Shakespeare between these hills.

During a recent warm summer evening, as dusk settled among the hills and along the Huron River, Shakespeare walked.  And I was lucky enough to witness it all.  The University of Michigan presented “Shakespeare in the Arb 2014, As You Like It,” an outdoor interpretation where characters run through meadows and down hillsides sorting out their love and angst in front of a few hundred enthralled peasants — us.

The audience moves between scenes.

The audience moves between scenes.

Rather than changing the set on stage between each scene the whole production, along with the audience, moved to beautiful new locations within the Arboretum.

 

Contemplating his next move.

Contemplating his next move.

And, as the audience moved through the woods or across expanses of meadow carrying their chairs and blankets we often came across characters from the play or were entertained by magical music that floated across the tops of the trees.

Discussing strategy.

Discussing strategy.

 

I hope you enjoy these photos of the action between scenes.

Musical joy.

Musical joy between scenes.

For more entries to this week’s WordPress Photo Challenge:  Between, click on the link above, or check out a few of my favorites, here, here, here and here.  Or here.

I hope you enjoyed my evening with Shakespeare.  I know I did!

 

Onward.

Onward.


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Update on Hours of Service debate

The debate continues on the floor of the Senate.  As you know there is a Transportation Spending Bill that will be voted on soon, and attached to this bill are many amendments.  One of those is the Collins amendment that would roll back safety provisions of a rule issue by the Department of Transportation just last summer.  The Collins amendment was worked out in a subcommittee without benefit of public comment or any scientific study, brokered by the trucking industry.  Yesterday the Booker (Senator, Democrat, NJ) amendment was introduced on the floor.  You can hear Sen Booker’s passionate introduction here.  It is sixteen minutes, so I understand if you don’t watch it all.  What struck me is his common sense, and how he understands that this is a complicated issue.  That a rule that took years to research, held six public comment periods, heard from 100’s of thousands of stakeholders, used the science of experts, should not be rolled back without study in a private subcommittee unseen by anyone.  Here’s a short article that talks about the introduction of the Booker amendment.

I’m told the debate over the Booker amendment has been tabled and will continue Monday.  I don’t know when the actual vote will happen.  Please let your Senators know that you support the Booker amendment.  And if your Senator is cosponsoring the amendment,   New Jersey Democrat Robert Menendez, West Virginia’s Jay Rockefeller, Connecticut’s Richard Blumenthal, New York Sens. Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, Massachusetts Sens. Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren, California’s Dianne Feinstein and Ohio’s Sherrod Brown, please please call them and say thank you.   They will appreciate your support.   I believe there were others as well, Senator Booker lists them at the beginning of his speech.

And in case you missed it on YouTube,  here’s Whoopi Goldberg’s reaction to this issue.

 


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Karma’s photo challenge: Whimsy

Whimsy on a summer evening…. time to sit out in the soft evening light enjoying a glass of wine and the heady scent of old fashioned roses.

Table for two really small people.

Table for two.

Care to join me?  Oh wait!  It looks like I already have some visitors stopping by!

We are thirst!

We are thirsty!

Looks like I’m going to need a bigger bottle!

Check out other entries in Karma’s whimsical photo challenge.    Everybody needs a bit of whimsy don’t you think?  And what better time than summer to look around and find some.  There’s still time for you to share a photo of something whimsical in your life.

Join the fun!  You never know what you’ll find until you look.

Smells nice..

Smells nice..

 

 

 

 


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Safety update. And turtles

Who you lookin at?

Who you lookin at?

Today was a busy day as volunteers, including some of you, made phone calls to Senators in Washington, asking them to consider safety before profits  —  to strike down the Collins Amendment that would gut the Hours of Service Rule just instituted last summer, and to watch out for amendments that would prohibit any attempt at raising trucking company’s  minimum liability insurance requirements.  And as the day went on some Senators stood up and voiced concern over trucking regulations.  In particular there is now another amendment, the Booker-Menendez Amendment  (both are Democratic Senators out of New Jersey) that would strike down  the dangerous part of the Collins amendment; the part that would cause the hours truckers are allowed to work to increase back to 82 a week.  The Booker-Menedez  Amendment would allow a study of the ‘unintended effects of two consecutive nights off’ for drivers who work 70 hours or more a week but would not make changes in the rule until after that study was complete.  Seems like a good compromise to me.    I called my Senators again late this afternoon and asked them to cosponsor that amendment.  We’ll see.

I’ll keep you posted.  I truly appreciate all your support, in all its different manifestations, from calls to writing, to hugs, to concern.  It’s all important.  And the more you talk about it with friends the better chance we have of making our politicians understand the importance of not letting profits compromise safety.

Scoping the lay of the land.

Scoping the lay of the land.

Meanwhile.  I came home to find a Blanding Turtle (no I didn’t know the name, but a friend on Facebook did!) in my driveway.  You know those things can move pretty fast when they want to.  By the time I got inside and hooked the dog up for a walk to the mailbox it was nowhere to be seen.    But I knew where it was, under some shrubs along the edge of the driveway.  Because Katie wanted to go over there really bad.  But I wouldn’t let her and we high tailed it back inside.  Almost instantly I noticed it had moved up to the garage and was looking around.  I think she’s trying to decide where to lay eggs.  I watched and took pictures through a tiny bit of beveled glass in the front door.

She walked all the way up the driveway, along the garage door, then back past the front porch and under the car.  Who knows where she went after that, but there’s a lot of garden for her to choose from.  Katie and I went out on the deck to watch and listen to the birds.  I fell asleep until the frogs began to sing.  It would be a good night to camp out but sheer exhaustion precludes me from lugging the tent out and setting it up.  Plus tomorrow is another day.

I hope Capital Hill sees fit to make the right decisions tomorrow.  I hope they aren’t like my wandering turtle, just exploring and looking and ending up headed right back where they came from.  Or hiding under a metaphoric car.

Wandering off to look for better places.

Wandering off to look for better places.

I’ll let you know.  For tonight I’m pulling my head into my shell and getting some shuteye.

Katie says night too.

But Mama, I don't want to go to bed yet!

But Mama, I don’t want to go to bed yet!

 


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We need your help NOW. Please. For safety.

For those of you wanting to help make our highways safer, the time is now! 

We have learned that the THUD bill in the Senate (THUD stands for Transportation Housing Urban Development) will go to the floor for a vote Tuesday.  Between now and Tuesday we need to make a lot of noise.  We need to get their attention.  We need you to contact your two Senators, (you can find the names and contact information for them here) at their Washington office.  There are two amendments that we need to push back for safety’s sake.

The first is the Collins amendment that would roll back the required restart rest periods for drivers.   I talked about this in a previous post.  This restart rest period happens when a driver gets to 70 hours in 8 days or 60 hours in 7 days.  The rest period mandates 34 hours off and  has to include two consecutive early morning periods between 1 and 5 a.m.  That’s the part that the Collins amendment wants to withdraw and ‘study’ though there were a great number of studies done before the rule was instituted last summer.

Tell your Senator’s office that  you don’t want tired truckers on the roads you share.  Tell them 4000 people die and 100,000 are injured every year in crashes with commercial trucks.  Tell them you’ve heard and seen too many stories about people stopped in traffic who were run over because the truck drivers were too tired to notice what was in front of them.  Tell them you have a friend whose father was killed in just that way.  Tell them they should leave the rule alone for the safety of all of us, including the truck drivers.  Tell them to oppose the Collins amendment.

We also know that an amendment will be introduced that is similar to the Daines amendment that narrowly passed in the House last week.  We don’t know yet who will introduce the amendment Monday but it will be trying to block any increase in the minimum insurance coverage required on truck carriers.

Remind your Senators that minimum levels of insurance for trucks is currently at $750,000 and has not been increased in over 30 years.  Remind them that families who suffer terrible losses and injuries should not have to carry the financial burden of these crashes.  Tragic crashes with multiple injuries and deaths happen every week and  the truck company’s liability insurance has to cover everyone that was injured; in multiple injury crashes all the families have to share the insurance carried.   $750,000 is not enough to cover the medical bills for even one person’s traumatic injuries.  If the truck company can not afford insurance to cover their very real risk and responsibilities, then they can not afford to be in the business.  Please ask your Senators to oppose any amendment that blocks any increase in minimum insurance requirement.

I know if you’re not actively involved in politics, and goodness knows I never was before all this, that it can be intimidating to contact a Senator’s office.  You see them on TV.  They often look imposing.  You’re not sure you understand the issue fully.  You’re afraid of being confronted.  Relax.  There are very nice people that answer the phone, and they want to hear what the people in their districts think about issues.    Ask to speak to their Transportation Expert.  You might get him or her, or you might end up in voice mail.  Either way, express your opposition to these amendments to the THUD bill.  If you have to leave that message with the initial person who answered the phone that’s OK too, that’s what they’re there for.  It’s just important that your opinion is heard.  If you are planning on writing your Senator about this issue, please do so today or early Monday so there is time for the office to gather the information.  If you’re calling, please do so Monday so that the Senator has time to receive your opinion before the vote on Tuesday.   All Senators provide phone numbers for their Washington office and their district office as well as an email contact in their webpages, and you’ll find their webpages at the link at the very beginning of this post.

I find it ironic that I’m desperately asking for help on Father’s Day, a day I’m trying to ignore.  But I remind myself that Dad would be the first in line to voice his opposition to these amendments if he could.  As would so many others taken too soon by a tired trucker.  They don’t have a voice except through us.  Every single family that has been through this wants to make a difference.  But we can’t do it alone.  We need all of you.

This is how I choose to celebrate and honor my Dad on Father’s Day.

I hope you join me.

 

Happy Father's Dad Daddy.

Happy Father’s Dad Daddy.

 


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The grand camping adventure

Katie here.   Mama says she’s had a very long and emotional week and she’s exhausted and too tired, she says, to write a blog about our camping adventure last weekend.  But I know that many of you are waiting impatiently to read all about it, so I have taken over the blog!  It should be my blog anyway if you ask me; I can not imagine what would be more interesting or more important than yours truly.  I am, of course, the center of the universe.

Ahem.

Mama took last Friday off so that we could go way up north and set up camp for a two night stay at a luxury state park.  I thought it was luxury anyway, as mama gave me my regular big pillow and then two of hers just so I could see out the little vent in the front of the tent any time I thought I heard something.  I like to know what’s going on.  That way I don’t have to bark at stuff.  And I don’t get yelled at.  It works out.

My princess bed.

My princess bed.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.  Our drive up north took about 4 hours and I was an incredibly wonderful traveler!  Mama put my crate on the back seat and I could see her all the time which made me very happy.  Plus she stopped at all these wonderful rest stop places that had really cool smells.  I never wanted to get back in the car after I did my job, so mama let me walk around for awhile.

Vacations are like that you know, no reason to rush.  Right?  The best rest stop was the one only a couple of miles from the exit for the state park.  It had this little path going back into the woods from the dog run area and it was so green and wonderful in there!  Except for the mosquitoes.    And the fact that mama put her foot into a gopher hole and fell and hurt her hand.  But other than that it was all fun!

We're up north now!

We’re up north now!

Mama says she knows she’s ‘up north’ when she starts to see the ferns on the forest floor along the freeway.  They make her smile.  And when my mama smiles, I smile too.  It’s sort of contagious.  You’ll notice I smiled a lot on this trip.

We got to our campsite a little early but that was OK, it gave us time to set up camp and blow up mama’s bed without annoying anyone with the noisy pump.  Then we walked around the campground.  It was pretty empty that first afternoon.  In fact, all weekend I bet the campground wasn’t half full, which worked out fine for us!  We had a cozy site tucked back into the woods which would have been really cool.  Did I mention mosquitoes?

Friday evening we tried to go do one of the hikes that are in the park, through old pine trees, and we got about 100 feet in and had to race out of there.  We were getting eaten alive and mama was wearing bug spray!  Mama says I looked like a bug cloud in the shape of a sheltie.  There were several short hikes we would have liked to do during the weekend but the bugs were ferocious.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Luckily mama had plans Saturday for us to go over to Elk Rapids, a town about an hour west of where we were staying, to visit her blogger friend Gerry who gave us a tour of the town.  We saw old houses and churches and we walked through town and let people admire me.  I even got to go inside a store because the owner  thought I was beautiful.  What can I say?   I get that a lot.  This is a bridge over to the library in town, isn’t it cool?

The princess goes to the library.

The princess goes to the library.

We went down to the beach too, and watched a bunch of guys in a big canoe replicate an historical landing.   I wasn’t sure what was going on, but I knew I was hot, so I took my mama over to the river to get a drink.

 

Ah.....

Ah…..

This was a big deal for me as I don’t generally get my feet wet and I never drink out of a river.  It’s just not something a princess does.  But you gotta do what you gotta do…right?

Then we went to a park that a lot of beautiful and interesting sculpture in it.  I liked it because there was shade on most of it, except those that were out on the beach.  It was all interesting and I got to sniff a lot of new stuff!

Shade and color is good.

Shade and color is good.

Then we went to Gerry’s house and I got to meet her duo…Cowboy and Sadie.  I didn’t like that my mama kept saying how adorable Cowboy was and what beautiful eyes Sadie had.  She’s my mama and I want her all to myself.  Plus I had a hard time keeping track of them, they were so fast and there were two of them and only one of me.  So I got up on my mama’s lap while she and Gerry sat and talked a little bit.  Mama was really glad she got to meet Gerry and the gang.  I liked Gerry a lot but I’m not so sure about those furry ones…maybe next time I won’t be so nervous about the whole thing.

The duo.

The duo.

I slept all the way back to camp, and when we got there we escaped into the tent where I slept some more.  All this traveling wears a girl out!

Zzzzzzz.....

Zzzzzzz…..

Sunday morning we did a little walking around the campground and then mama piled everything into the car as fast as she could to get us away from the mosquitoes.  I really didn’t want to go home.

Where did my pillow go mama!?

Where did my pillow go mama!?

I stood in our empty camp site a long time until she made me get in the car.  But then I slept a lot on the way home.

And where did my tent go?!!

And where did my tent go?!!

 

Once I made it into my house I was the old Katie girl — full out barking for a long time just letting my mama know I had a good time and thanking her for taking me with her on the big camping adventure.  I was a really really good girl.  I didn’t bark once on the trip up or the trip back.  I slept all night both nights, though I did get my mama up by 5:30 every morning.  But then we went back to bed for a bit.  I sat around the camp while she was working on stuff and didn’t whine, and when she asked me to do something I did it right away.  Sometimes.

Can we go again soon mama?

Can we go again soon mama?

Yep, I’m hoping my mama makes reservations for us at another campground soon!  Maybe one that doesn’t have so many mosquitoes though.  This is way more fun than sleeping in the back yard and I can’t wait to go again!  Mama failed two nights at making a campfire, she blames the wood.  I think she needs more practice.  What do you think?

Where should we go next?

Me and my mama.

Me and my mama.