New Year

I know, long time no see. No way I can fill in everything since last post.

Computer went out on me after the last post. I had a hard drive ordered and when I got home for Thanksgiving I was able to install it. Also upgraded to Windows 7 and like that a lot better. Seems to be running a lot faster now, thank goodness. Was getting to be a real pain.

On the third of December the company brought me in to the Lincoln, NE terminal to turn in my truck. I had 498,000 miles on it. They didn't have any new ones there so I was given a rental car. I had to clean out the old truck, including scrubbing it down to save me $125 from paying the company to do it. I left out Friday night the 3rd headed to Columbus, OH in the car to get my new truck at the terminal there. Well, the office there forgot to leave out the permit book so I could go on to work. Had to wait until Monday to get the permits and go back to work. Monday was the 6th, my birthday, and a new truck.

It has a lot of bells and whistles on it. It has more insulation which makes it a lot easier to stay warm, the bunk heating and cooling is battery operated, meaning I don't have to idle the truck to stay warm or cool. There are 2 sets of batteries, one for the main system and the second set for the bunk. I have been in -5 degree temperatures and the batteries run the heater all night long and stay plenty warm with it on low fan. The heater is sort of a diesel fired unit, I guess sort of like the electric batteries work the fan and fire the diesel and it warms up, or something like that. They call it a SmartStart...smartfart...or something.

It has two sets of curtains that run on tracks. First one runs around inside the windows, then I have large insulated curtains that close off the bunk from the cab. Amazing difference in the morning when you pull back the insulated curtains to start up the truck...ooohh baby, it's cold outside!!

The seats are swivel, where you can swivel them to the side. The one on the passenger side won't swivel more than about 10 degrees because they mounted the qualcom bracket on the side of the seat. What a waste of money. The driver seat can only swivel 90 degrees if I get up slide it all the way up, then swivel it about 45 degrees until it hits the seat belt bracket and misses the curtains behind the seat, then have to slide the seat all the way back so it will barely squeeze it around the side of the belt bracket. Have to set there quite awhile to make it worthwhile, but the seat is really comfortable and floats. Truck is so tight that have to really slam the door to get it to shut or crack the window first. Never had a class 8 truck that tight inside before with no air leaks.

Anyway, it is a nice truck and about to learn how every thing works. Tried to get the info from the mechanics, but they knew less than I did.

Had a vacation over Christmas and tore out the bathroom. Worked hard pretty much every day except Christmas Day. Got the walls insualted, 2 new insulated windows installed, the shower out and back in, toilet back in, new subfloor down and tiled. Still a lot to do, but not enough time as usual.

Back to work and ended up picking up a load New Year's Eve going from St. Louis to Las Vegas, NV. I had to run I-70 all the way across, and that meant going over Vail in Colorado. I had to really push to be able to get to Denver with enough hours to get across the mountains and out near Grand Junction. Once heading up the mountain from Denver it is 140 miles before you can find a place to park a truck. Plus had to get there Saturday afternoon with enough time to get over that afternoon while there was no chain restriction going over Vail pass. I just barely made it, the restriction went up a few hours after I got over.

Well, here I set in Las Vegas, snug as a bug in a rug. At least it is around freezing. Coming out of Grand Junction, CO this morning at 5 am it was -20 coming into Utah. Thought I had made a wrong turn and ended up in Canada.