Whew! What a long day. The day didn't exactly go as I had planned, but when do they ever? Instead of putting the truck in the shop first thing this morning dispatch asked me to run down to Milwaukee and pick up "a couple of things" headed for upstate NY first. Well, ok, I grabbed a trailer and headed on down there. The "couple of things" turned out to be a whole load of snow plow blades and hitches. Ack! Those things are a lot of work to strap down to the deck. I was already tired and it w...

I didn't set my alarm last night, choosing instead to just sleep until I was finished sleeping. I got up about 7:00 this morning and wandered into the truckstop for my morning coffee. It's cold out there this morning and the coffee is especially nice on a morning like this. My truck is due for routine servicing and I'll be heading up to the yard shortly to have that taken care of. The air conditioner on the generator isn't cooling very well so I'll have them check that while it's in there....

I always did think that Tigger charactor seemed a bit unstable. He's flouncy, bouncy, full of vim and vigour and loves to leap in your lap, or so the song says. But Winnie the Pooh's Tigger has landed in trouble at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida - he stands accused of hitting a child while posing for a photo. Jerry Monaco of New Hampshire was filming his son Jerry Jnr as he posed with Tigger at the Orlando theme park. But what he saw through the viewfinder was Tiger deliveri...

I'm sitting here in my truck watching a movie and knitting. It started raining a while ago, just a light rain and I pretty much noted it and continued my knitting and movie watching. I glanced up at the window a few moments ago and saw that the rain has changed over to snow. Yuck! It's coming down pretty good, but I think the ground is probably too warm for it to accumulate. At least I hope that's the case. I dropped off the truck I was hauling earlier this afternoon, made my way to the...

I'm just North of Indianapolis. I stopped here yesterday afternoon to fuel up, shower, and visit the little bar next door to unwind a bit. I had a pretty good time at the bar. I haven't been here in a few weeks, but the bartender recognized me and he seemed genuinely happy to see me. I was the only customer for a little while so we had a chance to shoot the shit for a bit before things started getting busy. There were a number of drivers there as well as the usual assortment of locals. I had ...

The scarf I am knitting as my first progress is becoming a story told in yarn. The first several inches of the scarf show a lot of mistakes and uneven stitches. As one moves along it's length the mistakes become fewer and the stitches become more even. Last night I knitted a few more inches onto the scarf while sitting in my truck watching a DVD. These rows actually look good. The stitches are even and the ribbing lines up the way it's supposed to do. The old axiom "practice makes perfect"...

Atlanta was a nightmare to get through today. There was a line of severe weather pass through; very heavy rain and high winds. In Atlanta a few sprinkles on the windshields tends to cause major traffic problems, but this storm created chaos of near biblical proportions. There were crashes all over the place, shutting down the highways. There were crashes at the crash sites as the original crashes were being cleaned up. There were crashes across the highway from the crashes as people hit th...

I've been watching a DVD and knitting while relaxing in my truck. The scarf is actually coming along although it does have some (read a lot) flaws. But I can't expect perfection in a first attempted project. I am still very slow, but getting a little bit faster. The scarf is 8" wide and is now 11" long. Only another 29" to go.

I got the skid loader picked up in Tampa this morning. What a pain that turned out to be. I hope this isn't an indication of a trend for the coming year. I detached the front deck of the trailer and backed it to their dock so the skid loader could be driven onto it. No problem, that part went easy, When I went to reattach the front deck I noticed a problem as the deck slammed against the front of the lower deck instead of sliding up onto it and mating with the slots. Hmmm, not good. I got ...

LMAO. I'm watching some stupid sitcom or other, I have no idea what it's name might be, but one of the characters has a TiVo and is going nuts because he has been trying to show it off to his dates and the shows it has been recording are the types of shows typically associated with gay men. Yeah, it plays to stereotypes and all of that, I didn't write the show ok? But it's funny as hell. I can just imagine the types of shows the stupid thing would record for me. I don't watch much tv anywa...

I made my pick up in Ft Lauderdale today. It was quite the adventure. I picked up a truck. That's normally quite easy. Just detach and then drive it right on. Unfortunately this truck doesn't have a power divider lock-out switch. What this does is lock the differential so that power is applied to all four axle ends equally instead of transferring more power to the wheel that is turning the fastest which is the normal way a differential works. Without this lock-out, as soon as the front drive ...

Ok, silly title. I am parked for the night in a truckstop in Southern Florida. After having something to eat and getting online for a few minutes I broke out my knitting and put on some tunes via XM Radio. As I was knitting I realized something: I have come to accept the fact that I am learning a new skill and craft in knitting and as such my work is not going to be perfect. And that's ok. I've learned how to spot most of the mistakes I am making before I make them and thus prevent t...

I was just totaling up the miles for today and somewhere between Vero Beach, FL and Coconut Creek, FL I turned the one million miles mark for my trucking career to date. That's a landmark mileage for a trucker. When I first started trucking I couldn't even imagine running a million miles. It seemed like something so far out into the future as to be impossible. Now I have passed that one million miles mark. No wonder I'm so damned tired..

I made it to my second and final stop this afternoon the same time as the crane. He pulled in as I pulled up. I set my brakes in the street and walked over to see what the game plane would look like. The crane operator and I introduced ourselves and met with the engineer in charge of the job. The place was a new office building and the generator was the last detail to be finished. And the place was in no way shape or form designed for large trucks. Not by a long shot. The crane got into po...

I left this house this morning on my way down to the Miami area to deliver these two generators. The first stop is scheduled for 1:00 PM and the second one has a crane set up for 3:00 PM.. I spoke with dispatch when I stopped here at Vero Beach for breakfast and they already have me planned on some stuff so I shouldn't have to wait around for them to find me another load. Last week we talked about me picking something up in Tampa. If that's the case and I'm picking up there tomorrow I'll j...