I made it back to the yard from NM Friday afternoon just in time to get my DOT physical done at the clinic. I'm all legal once again with a shiny new medical card good for two more years. While I can't see very well close up, I need glasses to read small print, my distance vision is even better than I thought. I scored 20/15 on that. Not too shabby I guess.
I spent Friday night down at the little bar at the bottom of the hill from the yard having a few brews and shooting the bull with the boss and the guys in dispatch. We played some dice (I lost twice and had to buy those rounds), had a few laughs, and generally had a pretty good time. It was snowing like Hell there in WI and was cold. The inside of a tavern seemed like the perfect place to be while the Albino Brain Chiggers swarmed outside.
Saturday morning I ran the military truck from NM on up to the factory and dropped it off there and then beat it back down to the yard again. The roads really sucked going up but by the time I head back the highway department had done a pretty good job of clearing them off.
I then loaded up and secured a snow broom truck and broom and am delivering them at the Oklahoma City airport tomorrow. Not a bad load really but I did experience one major problem while trying to hook to the trailer. It's a double drop RGN (a lowboy to the layman). When we drop these trailers they sit right down on the ground. We normally put a 4x4 timber underneath them so they sit a bit higher and make it easier to get under them. Some dumbass had dropped this one right on the ground. Or rather on the snow.
Because of the heavy load on the trailer and the lack of traction due to the snow I was unable to get my tractor underneath the trailer to attach to it. I was pretty pissed as it was simply too wet and cold to be screwing around with this. I got a couple of the guys to bring the big forklifts over and pick up the trailer enough for me to get under it. One of the guys said he knew who had dropped it and that person would be getting a nice ass chewing for his laziness.
I spent last night at the Iowa 80 truckstop in Walcott, IA. It's the "world's biggest truckstop" with parking for 800 trucks and a very impressive complex of shopping, truck chrome, clothing, and food. Nice place. And of course there's a bar right across there street.
I went over to the bar with the honest intention of just having a couple of cold ones, knitting for a little while, and then hitting the sack. Well, one thing led to another, several ladies were fascinated by my knitting, and the next thing I knew it was closing time. Ah well, ya only live once ya know. It was a good time.
I am now sitting about 4 hours North of Oklahoma City. The delivery time at the airport is 1:00 PM tomorrow so that gives me plenty of time to get there. I'll need the extra time as I am having to stop every couple of hours and add coolant to the radiator. The stupid head is leaking again. It was just replaced last year and has gone South once again. Damn trucks are always a pain in the ass.
The truck will be going into the engine shop in Milwaukee when I get back up there. They'll probably have to replace the head gasket if not the head itself. I'm hoping it'll just be a one day job as I hate to move from one truck to another. That's always a real hassle. It's as bad as moving from one house to another.
Hopefully it'll be a quick repair as I plan to head for home after this. Last time I mailed my house payment and the damn postal service took two fracking weeks to get it there from WI. That's just absurd and I'll be paying a late charge now. I want to head home and pay it in person. Screw the post office, they're getting worse every year.