As much as I despise insurance companies I went ahead a signed up for health insurance through my company. I figure worse case I can use them for the routine crap they normally don't cause a fuss about and if I need something they want to be pricks about I can just do it on my own like I always have.
The economy is getting tighter and I came to the conclusion that perhaps the insurance thing might be a good idea if things get worse or I do develop some serious illness. I'm not too concerned about the little stuff, but something really major could wipe me out again.
What the hell, if I decide I don't like it or it gets to be too much of a pain in the ass I can always cancel it and go back to doing what I've always done.
The past day or so has been a real pain. After delivering the military truck up in Oshkosh Wednesday I stopped by the yard to drop off my paperwork and find out what dispatch had planned for me. They wanted me to go down to Milwaukee and pick up a tow away job. Basically a tow away is something that has it's own wheels and doesn't need to be loaded on a trailer.
In this case the thing is a batch plant which is basically a mobile concrete factory. It's fracking huge. 12 feet six inches wide, 13 feet nine inches tall, and abouot 80 feet long. Like I said, huge. I really hate these long loads as they make getting around corners a real bitch.
When I got there to pick the thing up yesterday my damn fifth wheel wouldn't lock on the king pin. The king pin is a heavy steel pin under a trailer that locks into the fifth wheel allowing it to be pulled. The fifth wheel just wouldn't lock. WTF? It was working fine earlier.
After screwing around for an hour trying to get it to work I gave up and went back to our shop to have them fix it. Turned out it was a bent connecting rod inside the fifth wheel. No clue how that could get bent, but it did.
I went back this morning and picked up this monster load. I got about 2 hours down the road and stopped for fuel. While fueling I walked around to inspect everything, as is my habit, and found that the thing had two flat tires. They were just fine when I picked it up. I killed a couple of hours waiting for the tire shop to send out a service truck to replace the two bad tires.
From what I could see it looked like I had run over a piece of metal somewhere and the tires got cut. It was probably while trying to wiggle my way around the corners to get out of Milwaukee. Even taking up the entire intersection I still had to run over the curbs to make the turns. Real pain in the ass. Probably ran over what was left of an old street sign post or something, who knows?
Ah well, it's always something. At least I'll get to go home for a few days. Once I deliver this monster in Miami I'll just bobtail home and after that I'll bobtail back to the yard unless they just happen to do the unlikely and find another towaway heading that direction. I kinda doubt they will.
