HELLO my name is james a. Houston i was born in the midwestern town of richmound,ind. in 1960 ,the last of the baby bomber's .my mom barbra from Richmound and my dad tom from paduka,ky. i cant realy tell you about ind. because we moved to florida when i was 9 year's old . my dad was wanting to move to some were warmer and picked florida to go . we moved to were i call home Apopka ,fl. it's in central fl. i growed up in the rock springs community just north of town . it was a beautiful place to grow up in . it had big oak's and clear spring's every were you went . At that time town's were far apart and you never worryied about even locking your doors are if you broke down we knew every body and every body knew us. We had a good foot ball team the fighting blue darters ,we were champions. School's were big on f.f.a. because agraculture was are way of liveing then. Are crop's was citrus ,orange county. Apopka was the name of a seminole indan chef . I never thought i would ever want to leve their tell a man had his dream come to reality named Walt Disney . it did not take long for are life's to change . a movement to get orlando on the map,they forced ag out for tourism . I was to be the class of 79 but i turned 18 the start of my senior year in high school and the navy had a good deal and the job market was poor at that time so i signed up . i was over weight and had passed all my entry test but i had to louse 75 lbs. to go in, i did a dumb thing i fasted for two week's only drinking water and exersizeing hard i stared to develupe anirexia my mom begain to worriey and so i stoped but my body was rejecting food i had to use tiny sprimp's to eat littel peice's at a time tell food would stay down. i lost 30 lbs. and my recuter gave me a waver to go on in. my brother was a CB and that's what i wanted to do to but the EO rate was full so i settaled for builder. My dad was a carpenter and i fit right in to that job .i had wanted to drive truck's from my teen year's and hoped i could change later but didnot . I finished my education in long beach ,ms while waiting on school in gulfport,ms .at the time i signed up the millitary was changeing wanting to build a active reserve force and down size active duty personel so after a year and a half of active duty i was back home in Apopka,fl. when i came home most of my friend's were gone and a few that i knew was still their but life was differant than i was use to . i went to work building home's and forgot about trucking and thought maybe in my later year's maybe doing that but i loved building thing's and after 10 year's i could build a home from ground up and do pluming and eleictical to but big money forced us out and orlando was so over populated it was hard to get to work at rush hour and the cost of liveing got high. when i traveled to ms. for training i saw a reminder of a time when time's were good in north florida a friend's dad moved up to that part and leased a horse farm and it had house's on it that needed fixing up so i packed all my things and moved up their. i only had one problem job's were very hard to find and building was neil but i found work at at saw mill in ga. were i worked for ten year's they had a trucking part and thought maybe i could try getting in trucking though them but it was not easy to do being a union operated mill with littel turn over . in the CB's i learned how to operate large equipment and found myself doing that at the mill . I meet some pepole their in valdosta ,ga. were i worked and made some good friend's but tragity struck and one of my friend's came down with terminal cancer and thing's at the mill had changed to a dead end job and when he asked me to help him well i just quit my job and did that he was a good man and loved pepole and his family and was allways helping me so i was  glad to do it. his son was a good friend as well and was starting a towing service and let me drive a tow truck while i helped his dad and it just so happen that their was long haul's in that some time's and i fell in love with the road .after his passing i went home to just think about what i wanted to dew and my ant offered to help pay for me to get my C.D.L. well i toke her up on her offer but i was sure i could drive from my previces exsperience from the CB'S and at the mill i did a littel trailer spoting ,well i got a book and pased my writen test perfect and got all my indorsement's i thuoght with that i could get a job ,boy was i wrong ! . I found out that without driver school nobody will hire you because of insureance requirement's and exsperance . I had a good M.V.R. and i knew a log truck owner operater who had lost his driver prevlage's and needed a driver and could hire me. I loved loging it was fun but it dont pay as good as over the road so i did it for 2 year's to git that exsperiance and still had trouble giting on the road then i found a company that had log/chip/flat bed truck's and had dac reporting and logbook's and i worked for them 2 year's well i tried tanker's next and liked it but are contract fell though hauling water and i finaly got what i wanted over the road flat bed and ive been doing that now for 6 year's and love it !!! you may wounder how i got the handel dogman ,well my freind that i drove the tow truck gave me that one day when i helped save some puppies that had parvo and he said you are the dogman and it's been with me from that day . i raised dog's and breeded them for my love of hog hunting and vet's cost money so i learned everthing i could when i used them to save money . i love dog's and have had bulldog's,pit's,basset hound's, my last was a chuwowa i named her bamby she looked like a littel deer.I love all kind's of music rock,pop,country ,jazz,chistian,clean rap and love helping pepole that need it ,my friend jackey(lip's) showed me that helping can be rewording if you give from the hart ! cancer is a vishas thing . my life has not been perfect but all and all it's been good because i have a angel up their who watch's over me and has saved me many time's over and has gave me that answer for my diet and im not afraid or worried i trust him with all my hart and beleve in him my lord jesus chirst and when my time is up and the road end's  i have a way to go home waiting on me their dogman