I am now on my way to Baltimore after a rather annoying delay at the shipper. I was told that there would be three of us picking up at 7:00am. I was there on time and when I rolled through the gate I saw that there was only one other truck sitting there. It was a driver I know and have run with in the past and after I parked my rig I got out to talk with him. We shot the crap for a while while waiting for the folks working for the shipper to get around to loading the fire truck ...
This evening finds me in Greencastle, PA. I hauled eight elevator cages from a factory in Wisconsin to a wind farm under construction on a mountain top in Middle-Of-Nowhere, PA. The original plan had been to deliver the cages first thing this morning and then come down here this afternoon to pick up some crane parts for a customer back in Wisconsin. That plan was tossed out the window as I wound up blowing half the day at the wind farm. A piece of advice, if you need to get in and out in ...
I went over to the motel bar for a couple of cold ones. While I was there a couple of 20-something guys came in and ordered beers. I noticed a couple of 20-something girls out by the pool. They looked pretty attractive. I nudged the guy next to me, one of the 20-somethings who had come in earlier and pointed to the girls by the pool. He said that one was his sister and the other was his cousin. Ah. I asked him which one was his sister and he said it was the tall blond. The other was a shor...
This morning I went over to Denny's for breakfast. They have a special deal where you get a free Grand Slam breakfast if it is your birthday. Hey, if it's free it's for me. This evening I went over to the motel bar for a few brews. It was a pleasant time. I chatted with a few people, including a guy who is running a mountain bike race tomorrow, as well as a couple of less than ugly young ladies. All in all, it was ok. Yesterday I went over to Tampa and bought myself a birthday present. I p...
Mathematically, it is highly probable that other intelligent species exist in the universe. Many stars, and thus their possible solar systems, are far older than our own. This suggests, on a purely mathematical and logical basis, that there could well be intelligent lifeforms far older than our own in the universe. Perhaps even millions of years older. I have been watching some documentaries about UFOs and crop circles. OK, I know, many people, myself included, are highly skeptical of such th...
I got myself a load back down to Florida so that I could renew my commercial driver's license, which expires a week from tomorrow. Without it I can't earn a living in my chosen profession. I got to the DMV office, stood in line for about 90 minutes, finally got to the "check in" lady and was informed that due to Federal regulations which went into effect the first of the year I needed to provide a whole slew of documents. One of the documents is a certified copy of my birth certificate. Th...
In a recent blog post concerning a trade show in Virginia I happened to mention my customer by name. I didn't think anything of it at the time but as this customer is a defense contractor they have computer people scouring the web for any sort of references to their company. News to me, but it really shouldn't have been as I as an old computer geek myself. I got a call from the head of dispatch about an email the company had received from the customer concerning my blog post. I w...
Tonight finds me in Lebanon, IN. I am on my way to Jacksonville, FL with an over weight load. As usual, Indiana was slow in getting the permit out so I am not as far along as I would like to be, but such is the nature of trucking. I will likely be spending a little down time in Florida as my driver's license expires later this month and I will be visiting the wonderfully inefficient DMV to renew it. Can't make a living without it. After I parked in the truck stop here tonight I ac...
I had a very close call today. As I was driving my rig up I-294 in Illinois just relaxing and enjoying the day I suddenly heard tires screeching on pavement. I looked to my left and saw a car totally out of control and doing 360 degree spins on the highway and heading right for me. I hit the brakes and watched the car spin in front of my truck. I thought it would keep going right out of my path as I was braking but at the last second it came right back in front of me. There was no way in hell...
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After getting my truck out of the repair shop in MN on Thursday morning I headed over to western WI to pick up a combine at a small farm. It was raining hard and I knew it wasn't going to be a lot of fun. I had recently purchased a Frogg Toggs rain suit at a Cabela's store. This was the first time I had worn it in a rain storm. If you are considering buying a rain suit do not buy this one! The rain soaked right through it as if it weren't even there. It was a total waste of money. The old ...
Last week I delivered a fire truck to a factory location in Bradenton, FL. From there it will eventually make it's way to the Bahamas. After that I hauled an oil truck up to Newnan, GA and from there I went over to Anniston, AL and picked up some propane fuel systems which are used on propane powered garbage trucks. After picking up the propane systems it was late in the day and working out in the sun all day had sapped me so I checked into a nearby motel. Next to the motel was a Mexican rest...
PipesMagazine.com has a section that has photos of pipe smoking women. Wow.