I got into St. George, UT Sunday afternoon and it was 105 degrees. Won't be cutting back on my idling time that day. I delivered the first of 4 drops in St. George on Monday morning. I was carrying vinyl siding. When I first started carrying these loads out of Ennis, TX they were all loaded on the floor and it would sometimes take up to 8 hours to get unloaded. Now about 50% of the loads are on long 10' pallets that can be pulled off pretty quickly.
After unloading I drove up near Orem, UT and spent the night and I had 3 drops beginning Tuesday morning. Orem, West Jordan and Ogden. I had all 3 drops off in 4 hours. I was then offered a load going to Riverside, CA, and they then took it back about 5 min later. I guess they realized that my truck was not a California truck. California keeps passing laws about clean idling trucks and APU's (auxiliary power units, a small generator that runs on diesel and cools and heats your cab. It only uses a fraction of the fuel that idling your truck does). No one can keep up with them. You buy a rig all outfitted out so it will be legal in California, and 2 years later they change the law and make what you just spent $120,000 on obsolete. My company went out and started putting the APU's on all their trucks back in 2007, and within a year California said they weren't good enough and started fining trucks that were using them for cooling their cabs in the 100+ deg heat. Now the newer trucks have a battery system, but those will go dead in 8 to 10 hours and you have to idle the truck 3 hrs to recharge the batteries. Can't win.
They gave me a load from Ogden going to a drop in Parker, CO and final drop in Colorado Springs, CO. Would hope to see David when get in there, but being a work day and I deliver at 8:45 am, I will most likely be unloaded and on way to pick up another load before noon. Same thing happened last week when I went in to Springfield, MO where Merna lives. No time to stop long. Do better if can visit when I am passing through a town than when I deliver to one. We don't wait for the next load to come along very often.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Update
Been a little busy over last two weeks. I got home and had nothing but doctor appointments. I had to travel to Houston on Tuesday to have a CAT Scan of my ear. I had one last year and discovered the ear canal on my right ear had started closing up again. The doctor wanted another this year to compare the pictures.
Had a visit to my family doctor on Wednesday, hadn't seen him since last year and he figured I better show up before he rewrote my prescriptions again. Then back to Houston on Thursday to see the ENT. He was pleased in the fact that the pictures were the same as last year, so it wasn't any worse. Still don't hear very good out of it though. Nothing much to be done, going through that surgery again would not be much fun.
I spent rest of the day Thursday and most of Friday trying to install Windows 7 on the home computer to upgrade it from Vista. It upgraded fine and did some installs on new drivers. Had 31 updates from Windows that downloaded. Then shut it down and went to bed Thursday night. Got up Friday morning and computer wouldn't boot up at all. Just sat there and beeped at me. Got on line chat with HP tech and after a bit he told me the Windows 7 needed minimum of 1 GB RAM to boot properly. So off to town to get a 2 GB RAM to stick in the computer. Plugged it in and still didn't work. I had to go back to work so like the sucker I am, let Pat call Geek Squad to come out and get it started. They said on the phone would be $130 to come out and get it going. He came out on the following Wednesday and since I had pulled out the 2 GB RAM with the intention of taking it back, he stuck it in the computer, started it up and then informed Pat that since he had installed hardware it would be another $20 charge on top of the $130. So tax and all he got $160 left and the computer froze up. Every time Pat turned it on it froze up again. Got Pat to call Microsoft and they ran through a custom install, lost the programs but got it started up. Complained to Best Buy and Pat got a $20 gift card since no one informed us they were going to charge extra for the 2 second installation of the RAM chip until after he installed it. Then I spent a couple of hours on the phone with Pat last night talking her through reinstalling anti virus and a driver for the printer and now, finally, the computer is up and running with Windows 7 on it. For all I spent upgrading it, I could have added $100 and bought a new tower that had Windows 7 already on it.
I left out on Saturday going back to work. Got a load out of Tyler going to Knoxville, TN and got to stop by and visit Mom at Charlie's. Got fed.
Delivered on Monday and they surprised me by sending me all the way to Kennesaw, GA to pick up a load to deliver Tuesday night to a grocery warehouse in Brookhaven, MS. I made it to Meridian that Monday evening with the load. I got up early and drove on over to Brookhaven. I did not deliver until 11pm Tuesday night so I had to set all day. Another one of those time where I lay down in the afternoon and try to nap before a late night delivery. Never works and didn't work that day either. It took them saps until 5:30 am to get me unloaded.
They sent me over to Monticello, MS about 20 miles away to pick up a load at Georgia Pacific going to Springfield, MO. I drove up to Harrison, AR in the northwestern corner before shutting down for the night. I was up 38 hours before finally getting some sleep. Don't like doing that, but since I can't take naps in the daytime, it happens every time I get a late night delivery.
I delivered the load in Springfield the next morning and was sent up to Meta, MO to pick up a load of dog food going to Tractor Supply warehouse in Waco, TX. Meta, MO is just south of Jefferson City, MO and there is no easy way to get there in a truck. Forty miles of very narrow curvy Missouri roads.
I delivered the load in Waco Friday afternoon and then got a real good load. I was sent over to Ennis, TX to pick up a load of vinyl siding going to Utah with 4 drops. The first on in St. George, UT. This is at the very southern tip of Utah and I had to drive over to Flagstaff, AZ and north on US-89 up to Page, AZ where I crossed over Lake Powell. Beautiful area that I had never seen before. Not much green, but a lot of red and grey rock. This is the heart of the Navajo Nation. There are roadside stands every 10 miles or so where they sell their wares.
Taking a lot of pictures, which I do more of when I see new things. Will post these in a few days.
Had a visit to my family doctor on Wednesday, hadn't seen him since last year and he figured I better show up before he rewrote my prescriptions again. Then back to Houston on Thursday to see the ENT. He was pleased in the fact that the pictures were the same as last year, so it wasn't any worse. Still don't hear very good out of it though. Nothing much to be done, going through that surgery again would not be much fun.
I spent rest of the day Thursday and most of Friday trying to install Windows 7 on the home computer to upgrade it from Vista. It upgraded fine and did some installs on new drivers. Had 31 updates from Windows that downloaded. Then shut it down and went to bed Thursday night. Got up Friday morning and computer wouldn't boot up at all. Just sat there and beeped at me. Got on line chat with HP tech and after a bit he told me the Windows 7 needed minimum of 1 GB RAM to boot properly. So off to town to get a 2 GB RAM to stick in the computer. Plugged it in and still didn't work. I had to go back to work so like the sucker I am, let Pat call Geek Squad to come out and get it started. They said on the phone would be $130 to come out and get it going. He came out on the following Wednesday and since I had pulled out the 2 GB RAM with the intention of taking it back, he stuck it in the computer, started it up and then informed Pat that since he had installed hardware it would be another $20 charge on top of the $130. So tax and all he got $160 left and the computer froze up. Every time Pat turned it on it froze up again. Got Pat to call Microsoft and they ran through a custom install, lost the programs but got it started up. Complained to Best Buy and Pat got a $20 gift card since no one informed us they were going to charge extra for the 2 second installation of the RAM chip until after he installed it. Then I spent a couple of hours on the phone with Pat last night talking her through reinstalling anti virus and a driver for the printer and now, finally, the computer is up and running with Windows 7 on it. For all I spent upgrading it, I could have added $100 and bought a new tower that had Windows 7 already on it.
I left out on Saturday going back to work. Got a load out of Tyler going to Knoxville, TN and got to stop by and visit Mom at Charlie's. Got fed.
Delivered on Monday and they surprised me by sending me all the way to Kennesaw, GA to pick up a load to deliver Tuesday night to a grocery warehouse in Brookhaven, MS. I made it to Meridian that Monday evening with the load. I got up early and drove on over to Brookhaven. I did not deliver until 11pm Tuesday night so I had to set all day. Another one of those time where I lay down in the afternoon and try to nap before a late night delivery. Never works and didn't work that day either. It took them saps until 5:30 am to get me unloaded.
They sent me over to Monticello, MS about 20 miles away to pick up a load at Georgia Pacific going to Springfield, MO. I drove up to Harrison, AR in the northwestern corner before shutting down for the night. I was up 38 hours before finally getting some sleep. Don't like doing that, but since I can't take naps in the daytime, it happens every time I get a late night delivery.
I delivered the load in Springfield the next morning and was sent up to Meta, MO to pick up a load of dog food going to Tractor Supply warehouse in Waco, TX. Meta, MO is just south of Jefferson City, MO and there is no easy way to get there in a truck. Forty miles of very narrow curvy Missouri roads.
I delivered the load in Waco Friday afternoon and then got a real good load. I was sent over to Ennis, TX to pick up a load of vinyl siding going to Utah with 4 drops. The first on in St. George, UT. This is at the very southern tip of Utah and I had to drive over to Flagstaff, AZ and north on US-89 up to Page, AZ where I crossed over Lake Powell. Beautiful area that I had never seen before. Not much green, but a lot of red and grey rock. This is the heart of the Navajo Nation. There are roadside stands every 10 miles or so where they sell their wares.
Taking a lot of pictures, which I do more of when I see new things. Will post these in a few days.
Monday, August 9, 2010
Something to Ponder
THE ANT AND THE GRASSHOPPER
This one is a little different… Two Different Versions... Two Different Morals!
OLD VERSION
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.
The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.
Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.
MORAL OF THE OLD STORY:
Be responsible for yourself!
MODERN VERSION
The ant works hard in the withering heat and the rain all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant
is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.
Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while he is cold and starving.
CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN, and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled
with food. America is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?
Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper and everybody cries when they sing, 'It's Not Easy Being Green...'
ACORN stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house where the news stations film the group singing, “We shall overcome.” Then Rev. Jeremiah Wright has the group kneel down to pray for the grasshopper's sake.
President Obama condemns the ant and blames President Bush, President Reagan, Christopher Columbus, and the Pope for the grasshopper's plight.
Nancy Pelosi & Harry Reid exclaim in an interview with Larry King that the ant
has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and both call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair share.
Finally, the EEOC drafts the Economic Equity & Anti-Grasshopper Act retroactive to the beginning of the summer. The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the Government Green Czar
and given to the grasshopper.
The story ends as we see the grasshopper and his free-loading friends finishing up the last bits of the ant’s food while the government house he is in, which, as you recall, just happens to be the ant's old house, crumbles around them because the grasshopper doesn't maintain it.
The ant has disappeared in the snow, never to be seen again. The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident, and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the ramshackle, once prosperous and peaceful, neighborhood.
The entire Nation collapses bringing the rest of the free world with it.
MORAL OF THE STORY:
Be careful how you vote in 2010.
This one is a little different… Two Different Versions... Two Different Morals!
OLD VERSION
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.
The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.
Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.
MORAL OF THE OLD STORY:
Be responsible for yourself!
MODERN VERSION
The ant works hard in the withering heat and the rain all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant
is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.
Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while he is cold and starving.
CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN, and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled
with food. America is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?
Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper and everybody cries when they sing, 'It's Not Easy Being Green...'
ACORN stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house where the news stations film the group singing, “We shall overcome.” Then Rev. Jeremiah Wright has the group kneel down to pray for the grasshopper's sake.
President Obama condemns the ant and blames President Bush, President Reagan, Christopher Columbus, and the Pope for the grasshopper's plight.
Nancy Pelosi & Harry Reid exclaim in an interview with Larry King that the ant
has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and both call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair share.
Finally, the EEOC drafts the Economic Equity & Anti-Grasshopper Act retroactive to the beginning of the summer. The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the Government Green Czar
and given to the grasshopper.
The story ends as we see the grasshopper and his free-loading friends finishing up the last bits of the ant’s food while the government house he is in, which, as you recall, just happens to be the ant's old house, crumbles around them because the grasshopper doesn't maintain it.
The ant has disappeared in the snow, never to be seen again. The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident, and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the ramshackle, once prosperous and peaceful, neighborhood.
The entire Nation collapses bringing the rest of the free world with it.
MORAL OF THE STORY:
Be careful how you vote in 2010.
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