Been a long time since last post...duh, 1 1/2 years. I have been at home since June 2012 with a torn rotator cuff. Happened over time on the truck with it first occuring in June 2011. It became very bad when hurt it again while in Columbus, OH. The company had a terminal in Columbus and they sent me to a company doctor at a clinic. I had to stay in the truck on the yard almost a week going to the doctor until I finally said this is bull and told them I needed to go home instead of living in the truck 1000 miles away. Well company would only pay for a bus ticket, and that left all my gear on the truck sitting in Columbus. I had to rent a car at my expense to get home and drive the distance with a bum shoulder.
When I first hurt the shoulder I was in Seattle, WA. I'm glad I didn't try to go to a doctor up there the year before. That would have been a long drive home. Cost me $900 for the trip home from Columbus.
Everything had to be OK'd before each step taken by the claims adjuster. So it was see someone, get a referral, wait 1 to 2 weeks, do next step, get referral then wait 1 to 2 weeks. I was home 2 months before I got the surgery on the shoulder. Glad the pain wasn't excruciating. That came after the surgery. I never went through such pain. They did a nerve block before the surgery, when it wore off 12 hours later gremlins began banging on my shoulder with a chisel and hammer. I was on a morphine drip that I could push every 6 minutes. Didn't work at all to ease the pain. Very bad night...
Finally got home that evening and began 3 weeks of wearing a sling with a large pad that held my arm out from my chest. Also began a month of no sleep. I have been averaging 2 to 3 hours sleep every night. My rehab has finally been OK'd and now start that the end of the week.
After 84 days on FMLA with the company I was "voluntary resigned" from the company I worked for. Didn't like that too much. Now I am unemployed until I am able to pass a DOT physical. That will take anywhere from 3 to 6 months by what I read on it. This will be a long road.
Monday, September 10, 2012
Saturday, April 16, 2011
2 month post
My how time flies. Was having problems with posting my pictures on the Picasa viewer since I changed out hard drive and upgraded and kind of got my goat. I had worked resizing the pictures to post here since the originals are huge and take up space, and the things wouldn't transfer from my computer to the viewer. Hacked me off after all that work, so let it slide. Still have a lot of pictures to post, but haven't wanted to spend all that time to redo everything. I'm sure it is something I haven't done right, couldn't possibly be the computer's fault.
Winter is about over, still cool here in the north east. I'm in Erie, PA today and will leave here about 2pm to drive over to Liverpool, NY for a delivery at a grocery warehouse at 8pm tonight. Woke up to high (44 mph) winds this morning with gusts to 60. Had to chase down my cap once. I had my cap on and my hood up over my head and tied under my chin. When I got down out of the truck my hood turned into a parachute and cap went byebye. Almost hanged me. Got the cap about 100' feet away, a wonder it didn't go further. Tucked the hood away and just held on to the cap. Dry the rain off once I get inside.
The winter for me was not as bad as last year's. Bad enough though. Seems to be shaping up to a very harsh summer too. I wonder what they blamed weather extremes on before they had names like LaNina...Pinta and Santa Maria.
Will try to get back into a routine here. Just writing to myself anyway it seems, haven't heard one person ask where my blog went. I guess that makes it a public diary of a non interesting job. But remember, you won't see or touch a single man made object that didn't come to you by truck.
Winter is about over, still cool here in the north east. I'm in Erie, PA today and will leave here about 2pm to drive over to Liverpool, NY for a delivery at a grocery warehouse at 8pm tonight. Woke up to high (44 mph) winds this morning with gusts to 60. Had to chase down my cap once. I had my cap on and my hood up over my head and tied under my chin. When I got down out of the truck my hood turned into a parachute and cap went byebye. Almost hanged me. Got the cap about 100' feet away, a wonder it didn't go further. Tucked the hood away and just held on to the cap. Dry the rain off once I get inside.
The winter for me was not as bad as last year's. Bad enough though. Seems to be shaping up to a very harsh summer too. I wonder what they blamed weather extremes on before they had names like LaNina...Pinta and Santa Maria.
Will try to get back into a routine here. Just writing to myself anyway it seems, haven't heard one person ask where my blog went. I guess that makes it a public diary of a non interesting job. But remember, you won't see or touch a single man made object that didn't come to you by truck.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Feb. 2011
Guess I'm going to a monthly blog now. I get out here lately and it is just running all the time and just don't remember to update this any. No sense in going into all that have done in a month's time.
I just came out of El Paso toing to De Kalb, IL. I am in Santa Rosa, NM for the day and will leave around midnight when I pick up some hours and head on to Illinois. I picked up the load going to El Paso out of Lindstrom, MN last Friday. That morning I was in Black River Falls, WI, and it was -15 degrees. Clear skies though and no wind. The wind is what makes it unbearable. By that afternoon it was up to 30 degrees in Minneapolis, and going to get a little warmer each day over the next week.
By the time I get up to northern Illinois they are supposed to have a few rain showers, that is a lot nicer than seeing more snow. I am hoping we will see a gradual warm up now and that the Artic blasts are subsiding. That one storm after another is grueling.
I have some pictures to upload, but the Picaso picture viewer is screwed up for some reason. I haven't gotten it to work right since putting in the new hard drive and upgrading to Windows 7. Keep working on it and try to get them on here soon. I have pictures from back last October.
I just came out of El Paso toing to De Kalb, IL. I am in Santa Rosa, NM for the day and will leave around midnight when I pick up some hours and head on to Illinois. I picked up the load going to El Paso out of Lindstrom, MN last Friday. That morning I was in Black River Falls, WI, and it was -15 degrees. Clear skies though and no wind. The wind is what makes it unbearable. By that afternoon it was up to 30 degrees in Minneapolis, and going to get a little warmer each day over the next week.
By the time I get up to northern Illinois they are supposed to have a few rain showers, that is a lot nicer than seeing more snow. I am hoping we will see a gradual warm up now and that the Artic blasts are subsiding. That one storm after another is grueling.
I have some pictures to upload, but the Picaso picture viewer is screwed up for some reason. I haven't gotten it to work right since putting in the new hard drive and upgrading to Windows 7. Keep working on it and try to get them on here soon. I have pictures from back last October.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Missing Appointments
One of the nono's in the industry.
After the delivery in Dayton, TX I went into Houston and picked up a load of Budweiser Beer from Anheuser-Busch. It was going to the distributor in Little Rock, AR and needed to deliver the next day, Monday, before 2 pm. Not really a problem, I had plenty of time. Just so happened, a really bad snow storm clobbered northeast Texas and Arkansas that evening.
I ran into it in Jefferson, TX between Marshall and Texarkana. Nothing but really slick ice. It took 2 hours to travel approximately 50 miles. I pulled into a weigh station in Queen City, TX south of Texarkana at 10 pm and just went to bed. I figured I would be off my 10 hour break at 8 am, and be able to deliver the next day before 2 pm. Gave me 6 hours to go 170 miles. Next morning it was just snowy slush by time got off break, the curve ball I got was I had a flat on the trailer. I called breakdown and they went through 6 tire companies before they found one that would come out, and that wasn't until around 12:30pm.
I made sure dispatch knew I could not make the appointment and why. This absolved me of being guilty of a missed or late appointment. Not late if valid reason and you make sure dispatch knows what is going on...all the time...called COMMUNICATION. This is something that dispatch only uses one way. I don't get this in return. They figure my needing information is not necessary. Like...do you have any loads? how long you want me to sit here double parked waiting for you to tell me something? can I move somewhere else? HEY YOU STILL UP THERE? All communication being done with the Qualcom satellite system and not on the phone, and them never answering a question, you wonder sometimes.
Got to a truck stop around 5 pm that evening, about 36 miles from the customer. Seems I-30 in Arkansas was nothing but ice. Traffic was at a stand still and there were about 10 trucks for every 1 auto on the road. Once I found a parking place in the very rear of the truck stop, I went in and ate. Place was so crowded it took 1 1/2 hours to get back to my truck. They had closed the interstate and trucks had flowed into the place and you couldn't move. All the aisles and spots were filled.
The next morning I lucked out and got out a back way after some trucks beside me took that path out. It was a little dirt road that went out through a pasture to the service road. There was still ice on the road but I made it to the customer in a little over a hour. There were seven trucks there ahead of me waiting to unload too. Seems they were closed on Monday because "they" couldn't get to work.
It took 6 hours to get unloaded and then went over to Stuttgart, AR and picked up a load to Hannibal, MO, no problems with the roads by then. From Hannibal I picked up a load later that night out of the same plant going to a grocery warehouse on the west side of Minneapolis, MN. Then at 1 am the next morning I traveled out about 100 miles west of Minneapolis to pick up a load in Sleepy Eye, MN (who names these towns) going to Green Bay, WI on Friday. Next morning picked up a load down the street from where I delivered going to Galesburg, MI. Then into Battle Creek, MI 14 miles away to pick up some rolls of paper going to LaPorte, IN 115 miles away and delivered that afternoon.
They deadheaded me from the northeast corner of Indiana all the way to Indianapolis to pick up a load sitting on the yard there going to Pacific, MO and I got over within 60 miles of St Louis, MO that evening. Was another load of rolled paper.
After that load was delivered the next morning, I was sent to our drop yard in East St. Louis, IL to wait for a driver bringing in a load to be delivered in Madison, WI the next morning at 4 am. He was bringing up the load from Tulsa, OK. Well, the information I got was he would be there at around noon and was asked if I could get the load there on time. I asked if the customer had overnight parking and they said yes. The reason for that is there are no truck stops in Madison, if I could get into the customer that evening before I ran out of hours for the day I would be there for ontime delivery the next morning.
I had until 9 pm that night to get there, if I got the load by noon I would not have a problem making it. That took in to account the following.: it was 360 miles and I could in normal conditions make the trip in 6 1/4 hours driving. I needed 1/4 hr. to fuel, and there was a snow storm brewing from northwest Illinois on into Madison. To be safe, I needed 7 1/2 to 8 hours to make the customer. If the driver got there at noon I would need 1/2 hour to swap out and had about 1/2 hour left to play with.
This is what I took into account when dispatch asked if I could cover the load. At 1 pm the driver had not showed. I sent 2 messages to dispatch beginning at 1:15 pm that we were going to have trouble if he didn't show. Finally they told me he should be there about 2 pm. I told them right then I could not make it on time. He showed up right at 2 pm and they offered me the load. I again told them it wasn't possible for me to get there on time. I was going to be forced to take a 10 hour break before I got to the customer because he was late. Leaving at 2:30pm I would have 6 1/2 hours to make the customer. In dry conditions I might have tried it, knowing the weather I told them no way. I KNOW how long it takes me to get somewhere, I KNOW about adding a little time to take care of the unknown. When dispatch asks me for an ETA, I take all of this into consideration and add another 1/2 hour to it. This driver's estimate of arrival was off 2 hours on a 7 hour trip. It cost them an on time delivery. The driver told me when I asked him, "I wasn't that far off". Dumb..s!!
For me, I got another load of Bud out of St Louis that night. It was supposed to be ready at 9pm, wasn't ready until 2am. That was ok, because it gave me time to get my 10 hr break in while waiting and got detention time to boot. I delivered that load in Batavia, OH with a 2 pallet drop in N. Vernon, IN. According to the load information I was to drop the Indiana pallets on Wednesday and the rest of the load in Batavia on Thursday morning. The Batavia customer called dispatch wanting to know if could get the load to them the same day, and dispatch asked me. The customer closed at 3:30 pm. With good conditions, I figured I could probably be there at 2 pm. I told dispatch 3 pm. It gave me time to play with and didn't raise expectations. Made it there at 2 pm, everybody happy.
To end up they gave me a load out of Keebler on the east side of Cincinnati that was supposed to be preloaded and ready to go to deliver to Montgomery, AL. It wasn't. They load the trailers at their plant and bring them to a drop lot where we are waiting on them. They told me at the drop lot it wasn't even scheduled to load until 7 pm. It was currently 3 pm. My load info told me it could be picked up from midnight until 7 pm that day. More detention and I'm in the sack. I am currently in Montgomery and delivery appointment is at 2 pm today.
After the delivery in Dayton, TX I went into Houston and picked up a load of Budweiser Beer from Anheuser-Busch. It was going to the distributor in Little Rock, AR and needed to deliver the next day, Monday, before 2 pm. Not really a problem, I had plenty of time. Just so happened, a really bad snow storm clobbered northeast Texas and Arkansas that evening.
I ran into it in Jefferson, TX between Marshall and Texarkana. Nothing but really slick ice. It took 2 hours to travel approximately 50 miles. I pulled into a weigh station in Queen City, TX south of Texarkana at 10 pm and just went to bed. I figured I would be off my 10 hour break at 8 am, and be able to deliver the next day before 2 pm. Gave me 6 hours to go 170 miles. Next morning it was just snowy slush by time got off break, the curve ball I got was I had a flat on the trailer. I called breakdown and they went through 6 tire companies before they found one that would come out, and that wasn't until around 12:30pm.
I made sure dispatch knew I could not make the appointment and why. This absolved me of being guilty of a missed or late appointment. Not late if valid reason and you make sure dispatch knows what is going on...all the time...called COMMUNICATION. This is something that dispatch only uses one way. I don't get this in return. They figure my needing information is not necessary. Like...do you have any loads? how long you want me to sit here double parked waiting for you to tell me something? can I move somewhere else? HEY YOU STILL UP THERE? All communication being done with the Qualcom satellite system and not on the phone, and them never answering a question, you wonder sometimes.
Got to a truck stop around 5 pm that evening, about 36 miles from the customer. Seems I-30 in Arkansas was nothing but ice. Traffic was at a stand still and there were about 10 trucks for every 1 auto on the road. Once I found a parking place in the very rear of the truck stop, I went in and ate. Place was so crowded it took 1 1/2 hours to get back to my truck. They had closed the interstate and trucks had flowed into the place and you couldn't move. All the aisles and spots were filled.
The next morning I lucked out and got out a back way after some trucks beside me took that path out. It was a little dirt road that went out through a pasture to the service road. There was still ice on the road but I made it to the customer in a little over a hour. There were seven trucks there ahead of me waiting to unload too. Seems they were closed on Monday because "they" couldn't get to work.
It took 6 hours to get unloaded and then went over to Stuttgart, AR and picked up a load to Hannibal, MO, no problems with the roads by then. From Hannibal I picked up a load later that night out of the same plant going to a grocery warehouse on the west side of Minneapolis, MN. Then at 1 am the next morning I traveled out about 100 miles west of Minneapolis to pick up a load in Sleepy Eye, MN (who names these towns) going to Green Bay, WI on Friday. Next morning picked up a load down the street from where I delivered going to Galesburg, MI. Then into Battle Creek, MI 14 miles away to pick up some rolls of paper going to LaPorte, IN 115 miles away and delivered that afternoon.
They deadheaded me from the northeast corner of Indiana all the way to Indianapolis to pick up a load sitting on the yard there going to Pacific, MO and I got over within 60 miles of St Louis, MO that evening. Was another load of rolled paper.
After that load was delivered the next morning, I was sent to our drop yard in East St. Louis, IL to wait for a driver bringing in a load to be delivered in Madison, WI the next morning at 4 am. He was bringing up the load from Tulsa, OK. Well, the information I got was he would be there at around noon and was asked if I could get the load there on time. I asked if the customer had overnight parking and they said yes. The reason for that is there are no truck stops in Madison, if I could get into the customer that evening before I ran out of hours for the day I would be there for ontime delivery the next morning.
I had until 9 pm that night to get there, if I got the load by noon I would not have a problem making it. That took in to account the following.: it was 360 miles and I could in normal conditions make the trip in 6 1/4 hours driving. I needed 1/4 hr. to fuel, and there was a snow storm brewing from northwest Illinois on into Madison. To be safe, I needed 7 1/2 to 8 hours to make the customer. If the driver got there at noon I would need 1/2 hour to swap out and had about 1/2 hour left to play with.
This is what I took into account when dispatch asked if I could cover the load. At 1 pm the driver had not showed. I sent 2 messages to dispatch beginning at 1:15 pm that we were going to have trouble if he didn't show. Finally they told me he should be there about 2 pm. I told them right then I could not make it on time. He showed up right at 2 pm and they offered me the load. I again told them it wasn't possible for me to get there on time. I was going to be forced to take a 10 hour break before I got to the customer because he was late. Leaving at 2:30pm I would have 6 1/2 hours to make the customer. In dry conditions I might have tried it, knowing the weather I told them no way. I KNOW how long it takes me to get somewhere, I KNOW about adding a little time to take care of the unknown. When dispatch asks me for an ETA, I take all of this into consideration and add another 1/2 hour to it. This driver's estimate of arrival was off 2 hours on a 7 hour trip. It cost them an on time delivery. The driver told me when I asked him, "I wasn't that far off". Dumb..s!!
For me, I got another load of Bud out of St Louis that night. It was supposed to be ready at 9pm, wasn't ready until 2am. That was ok, because it gave me time to get my 10 hr break in while waiting and got detention time to boot. I delivered that load in Batavia, OH with a 2 pallet drop in N. Vernon, IN. According to the load information I was to drop the Indiana pallets on Wednesday and the rest of the load in Batavia on Thursday morning. The Batavia customer called dispatch wanting to know if could get the load to them the same day, and dispatch asked me. The customer closed at 3:30 pm. With good conditions, I figured I could probably be there at 2 pm. I told dispatch 3 pm. It gave me time to play with and didn't raise expectations. Made it there at 2 pm, everybody happy.
To end up they gave me a load out of Keebler on the east side of Cincinnati that was supposed to be preloaded and ready to go to deliver to Montgomery, AL. It wasn't. They load the trailers at their plant and bring them to a drop lot where we are waiting on them. They told me at the drop lot it wasn't even scheduled to load until 7 pm. It was currently 3 pm. My load info told me it could be picked up from midnight until 7 pm that day. More detention and I'm in the sack. I am currently in Montgomery and delivery appointment is at 2 pm today.
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Another Sunday
Made it through another week. Went from Las Vegas up to Salt Lake City. Had a Wednesday delivery and got in there noon Tuesday so I went by the terminal in North Salt Lake to see if they would work on the battery problem on the truck.
I had let Kansas City shop work on it 3 days after I got the new truck. They went in and checked and charged the batteries and found no problem. They were going to put me in the Freightliner shop the next day but they had a 3 day wait to get in. I had to run with it.
I thought they would put me into Freightliner there in Salt Lake since that was the plan before, but no. They did the exact same thing they did in KC, checked the batteries. After 6 more hours waiting they had just changed out the batteries and pronounced it fixed. I spent the night on the yard and .... no it didn't.
What was happening was the truck has 2 sets of 4 batteries. The primary set runs the truck and all the plug ins and lights inside. After sitting for 2 hours at night they were shutting down as the truck went into preservation mode to keep the batteries from running completely out. It does that when the voltage reading on the batteries get to below 12 volts. The bunk heater and one or 2 lights inside the bunk run off the secondary set of batteries and they were working just fine. Which is good since I have been in very cold temperatures, but my fridge wouldn't work more than 2 hours once parked, I couldn't idle truck because it won't idle more than 39 minutes to keep the fridge working, plus I couldn't work on computer or watch tv because the outlets were shutting off. Once I idle the truck everything would work for a hour or 2 and off again. Biggest problem, to keep the fridge working overnight I have to get up and restart the truck every hour or two. Couldn't get much sleep that way, so wasn't keeping anything in there that would ruin.
Next morning I went in and told the shop it didn't work, it was a new crew, I went and delivered the load and then returned for them to work on it again. This time I got a mechanic that knew what he was doing. He found a solenoid that was supposed to control which batteries to charge. It was set to charge the secondary instead of the primary set first. Now works fine. All in getting someone who knows what they are doing.
Today I am in Baytown, TX and deliver just after noon at a Sams Club DC in Dayton. Nice and warm 60 degrees yesterday, now a high of 38 today and 20 mph winds. I guess the stuff followed me from Utah!!
I had let Kansas City shop work on it 3 days after I got the new truck. They went in and checked and charged the batteries and found no problem. They were going to put me in the Freightliner shop the next day but they had a 3 day wait to get in. I had to run with it.
I thought they would put me into Freightliner there in Salt Lake since that was the plan before, but no. They did the exact same thing they did in KC, checked the batteries. After 6 more hours waiting they had just changed out the batteries and pronounced it fixed. I spent the night on the yard and .... no it didn't.
What was happening was the truck has 2 sets of 4 batteries. The primary set runs the truck and all the plug ins and lights inside. After sitting for 2 hours at night they were shutting down as the truck went into preservation mode to keep the batteries from running completely out. It does that when the voltage reading on the batteries get to below 12 volts. The bunk heater and one or 2 lights inside the bunk run off the secondary set of batteries and they were working just fine. Which is good since I have been in very cold temperatures, but my fridge wouldn't work more than 2 hours once parked, I couldn't idle truck because it won't idle more than 39 minutes to keep the fridge working, plus I couldn't work on computer or watch tv because the outlets were shutting off. Once I idle the truck everything would work for a hour or 2 and off again. Biggest problem, to keep the fridge working overnight I have to get up and restart the truck every hour or two. Couldn't get much sleep that way, so wasn't keeping anything in there that would ruin.
Next morning I went in and told the shop it didn't work, it was a new crew, I went and delivered the load and then returned for them to work on it again. This time I got a mechanic that knew what he was doing. He found a solenoid that was supposed to control which batteries to charge. It was set to charge the secondary instead of the primary set first. Now works fine. All in getting someone who knows what they are doing.
Today I am in Baytown, TX and deliver just after noon at a Sams Club DC in Dayton. Nice and warm 60 degrees yesterday, now a high of 38 today and 20 mph winds. I guess the stuff followed me from Utah!!
Sunday, January 2, 2011
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.
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.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
This week
This is getting hard to keep up with when I'm running so hard. Working 12 to 14 hours every day 7 days a week, usually when I shut down I don't really do much. Been sitting awhile today and catching up on some TV shows on my computer. Glad they starting streaming the shows on their station web sites. Since they came up with all digital signals I haven't been able to pick up anything with my TV. Sitting in a parking lot, every vehicle that passes cuts the signal even when you have a strong one. And strong ones are hard to get. Time before last when I was home I took the TV out all together. I just use my computer to watch the shows on there that I like. Not that many of them anyway.
NCIS, Chuck, CSI NY, Bones, Blue Bloods, Hawaii Five-0, Human Target (when it starts up again), Burn Notice on USA is good. That is about it with a few sitcoms like Two and a Half Men thrown in. Middle on ABC is also a good one. At least on the computer when I am shut down I can catch up with them when ever I have the time. They keep them on the site usually for about 3 to 4 weeks after the original air date. Now, as long as my computer holds up. If I get in an area that has a weak signal then I won't be watching anything. Has to be a good strong 3G signal to work.
That is my idle time. Don't really do much surfing on the internet anymore unless trying to find some information. Use Google Earth a lot to view customers that I am going into, especially if it is for the first time. That is a big big help.
After NC I went to Valdosta, GA with a load, then from there over to Austin, TX. Out to Uvalde, TX for the first time and picked up a load of deer corn going to a Walmart DC in south Louisana. Then picked up load from Georgia Pacific going to Georgia Pacific in Palatka, FL. Then a load out of GP there going to New Albany, MS. I was offered a load to Omaha, NE which I really wanted because it was good miles, but I did not have enough hours to deliver it legally, so had to turn it down. Don't get offered 1400 mile loads often.
Picked up a load near Tupelo, MS this afternoon and going up near Indianapolis, IN to deliver tomorrow. Having to wait until 2 am to head that way to build some hours. Have just enough to make it up there tomorrow around noon then will have to sit until Wednesday to move again.
NCIS, Chuck, CSI NY, Bones, Blue Bloods, Hawaii Five-0, Human Target (when it starts up again), Burn Notice on USA is good. That is about it with a few sitcoms like Two and a Half Men thrown in. Middle on ABC is also a good one. At least on the computer when I am shut down I can catch up with them when ever I have the time. They keep them on the site usually for about 3 to 4 weeks after the original air date. Now, as long as my computer holds up. If I get in an area that has a weak signal then I won't be watching anything. Has to be a good strong 3G signal to work.
That is my idle time. Don't really do much surfing on the internet anymore unless trying to find some information. Use Google Earth a lot to view customers that I am going into, especially if it is for the first time. That is a big big help.
After NC I went to Valdosta, GA with a load, then from there over to Austin, TX. Out to Uvalde, TX for the first time and picked up a load of deer corn going to a Walmart DC in south Louisana. Then picked up load from Georgia Pacific going to Georgia Pacific in Palatka, FL. Then a load out of GP there going to New Albany, MS. I was offered a load to Omaha, NE which I really wanted because it was good miles, but I did not have enough hours to deliver it legally, so had to turn it down. Don't get offered 1400 mile loads often.
Picked up a load near Tupelo, MS this afternoon and going up near Indianapolis, IN to deliver tomorrow. Having to wait until 2 am to head that way to build some hours. Have just enough to make it up there tomorrow around noon then will have to sit until Wednesday to move again.
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