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other dog

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Blog Entries posted by other dog

  1. other dog

    Gone Again

    By other dog,

    It's about time to leave for Avon,Ohio. Could've left yesterday,but I got up at 4am to go to Chesapeake to unload,went by Kyanite Mining on the way back to load,and got back to the shop to get fuel at 4:45. I'd already ran about 450 miles or so and put in a pretty long day,so I just parked at the truckstop and came home since I only had a couple more hours available to work. I don't usually do that,but I was tired all day yesterday for some reason,probably because I went to bed about 8 o'clock Sunday night so I could get up early. I woke up figuring it was time to go but it was only 12:01am so I went back to sleep,only to wake up at 1am,2am,3am then 4 when I got up,as tired as if I'd never been to bed at all.I should have left Sunday evening and went on to Chesapeake but I didn't want to leave on Easter Sunday. Maybe I can make it all the way to Avon today.
  2. other dog

    Some Random Photos

    By other dog,

    Florida pictures-here's that palm tree I promised, and from snowy Ohio to all the green trees and grass in Florida,one week later. Oh,and one bikini...on a billboard.
    And a new straw hat-bought it on e-bay. And A train loaded down with containers full of American products in the heartland of America,just south of Norwalk,Ohio-oh...China?..never mind then.
    Sometimes I have a tendency to post the same picture more than once-I should either write them down as I go,or quit drinking.Guess i'll start writing them down.
  3. other dog
    ...so,after I went to Cranberry,Pa. and back to Lynchburg I went to Fremont,Oh. Last time I was there was during the great blizzard,this time it was water everywhere,rain,rain,and more rain. Lot of the fields looked like small lakes.Too bad we couldn't get some of that rain around here,we need it.
    Brought another load of steel from Pittsburgh to Lynchburg,and was hoping i'd be done for the week,but I had to go back to that jobsite in the mud by the river in Point Marion,Pa. I should have some more pictures later today,after I go to the film developing place.Had to go to Butler,Pa.and loaded at AK Steel going to Chesapeake,Va.to unload Monday. Not much time off at all for the Easter weekend,which really made me...well,let's just say somewhat grouchy.Probably a good thing though,today I paid the electricity bill,phone bill,Visa card,Directv,and pickup payments. Plus an eye drop prescription,the film developing,gas,Wal-Mart,..who knows what else.
    Never did get the dump valve on the trailer and would have had a tough time at Point Marion,with the hole,and the fence,and the dog-leg,but there's a button on top of the valve that you can push to dump the air. It's spring loaded and pops right back out when you let go,but I solved that by finding a stick and cutting it the right length with my pocket knife to wedge up under the trailer floor and hold the button down. Backed in easier than last time,and they didn't even have to get the dozer to pull me out this time.
    These are more bigger better pictures from the Point Marion jobsite,showing how you had to back-up straight towards the tree,then cut the trailer over towards the crane,(to the right in the picture) with the fence and the hole to deal with.When I left I crossed the bridge,which was built in 1927. Had my eyes closed all the way across... must've made it...
  4. other dog

    The Usual...

    By other dog,

    Went to Best Buy yesterday and bought a camcorder-since I got a tax refund, I figured i'd try to do my part to help stimulate the economy. If everybody keeps hearing on the news how bad the economy is,after a while they believe it,and then it is. Anyway,the salesman recomended that I get an extended life battery for it because the battery that came with it was only good for about 45 minutes. So after I fully charged it this morning,just like the instructions said,I tried to put it in and it was the wrong battery.Pretty much par for the course for me-nothing ever seems to work right,I don't understand why i'm basically pretty happy,maybe there's something wrong with me,I don't know. So I called Best Buy,they said they didn't have the right battery in stock,and it cost $100. $100?!!-I told them i'd bring the other one back and take my refund and take my chances with the 45 minute one that came with the camera!
    And I stopped at the wide spot where I lost my cap-no sign of it.Looked up and down the ditch,in the median,in the woods-it's like it just disappeared!
    On the lighter side-I called no clue joe when I was on the way back from Florida the other day-told him I stopped in Candor,N.C. at a little fuel stop and got a piece of chicken to eat and it had enough grease on it to deep fry a porpoise...or several spotted owls...true story.
  5. other dog
    Got the pipe unloaded in Cranberry Township without too much problem. Biggest problem was that somewhere between Cranberry and Pittsburgh my trailer dump valve quit working. Pittsburgh is one of the least truck-friendly places I know of anyway and I ran over every curb in town...well,most of 'em it seemed like. That can be very hard on tires. I checked the fuses and the wires going to the dump valve where they have a tendency to break off and didn't find any obvious problem,so i'll have them check it at the shop today. They're almost like real mechanics,and I ain't much of a truck driver so I need my dump valve. Gotta run up to Handy in Lynchburg now and unload the load I dropped there last night.
  6. other dog

    More E-bay

    By other dog,

    Got to looking around on e-bay last night and saw a Mack bulldog belt buckle.I liked it,and the top bid was like $8.99 or something so I bid on it too. The top bid kept climbing and I kept bidding 'til I was up to $29.99 I think,then I went to bed.I was hoping I got outbid because that was more than I wanted to pay,but you know how easy it is to get carried away at an auction. Anyway I checked this morning and was glad to see that I had been outbid,but I was astonished to see that the winning bid was $89.99!
    I must be off to Cranberry Township,Pa. now with a load of pipe.
  8. other dog

    Florida

    By other dog,

    I made the trip to Florida and back,but i'd rather have gone to Romulous,Michigan or somewhere. It's too hot down there,and my AC wasn't working. I've always heard you should run the AC periodically in the winter,but I never did. Guess I should have,it worked fine when I turned it off last fall. It was a sweltering 80 degrees in Boca Raton Tuesday evening. Didn't get there 'til about 2 o'clock,because I didn't get away from Lynchburg until 3:00 Monday. I had 8 skids of sheets, 4 pallets of racks, and 1 machine. Made it down to exit 7 in Ga. Monday night and stopped at the little fuel stop and went to bed. Next morning I fueled up,because I figured fuel would be higher in Fl, got my book right,and went on to Boca Raton. I had to load lumber in Brooklet,Ga. Wednesday so I made it back up to exit 7 in Ga. and went to bed-almost 700 miles round trip,all but 14 miles in Florida.
    Like last time I saw:
    0 armadillos
    0 alligators
    1 girl in a bikini,but she was on a billboard
    ...but I did see lots of palm trees,and have pictures to prove it!
    Worst part though was right after I left the shop Monday-my trailer was in Lynchburg,and I had to go to the bank so I just bobtailed. When I pulled into 460 I thought I saw something in the mirror at the end of the driveway that looked like diesel fuel,and pulled over to make sure my fuel tank tops were tight. They were, but when I walked back around the front of the truck a tanker went by and blew my hat off. I looked in front of the truck...nothing.Looked underneath it,in the woods,in the median-no sign of it. I'm not concerned about the hat,it was just a black "Cat" cap,but it had my little bulldog pin on it with the bulldog wearing an "Aussie" hat. I bought that pin at the Winchester antique truck show year before last. I might stop there tomorrow at that little pull off and look again-I would like to find the bulldog. He's wearing a red hat if you happen to spot him.I bought a new cap at the fuel stop,and i've probably got dozens of them here-you should always carry a spare! I'm off today,unloaded the lumber in Moneta this morning, and i've got an appointment at the eye doctor tomorrow,but we didn't have anything today anyway,so... how do you like my new hat?
  9. other dog

    Florida Bound

    By other dog,

    I must be off-Jeff just called,and i'm still sitting at home drinking coffee. He said when I get around to going to Lynchburg to unload the load I dropped Friday night they're gonna reload me there for Boca Raton,Florida so i'd better get going. I'll try to take a picture of a palm tree,everybody's probably tired of snow pictures.
    OK, here's some snow pictures to look at until I get the palm tree developed-
  10. other dog

    Distress...

    By other dog,

    I found out my scanner was not compatible with windows vista,you could only get a driver for windows 98,nothing after that,and the primax website said they weren't gonna make any more drivers available for any later versions,so I figured I was just SOL. Since i'd been wanting a scanner because I take all of my road pictures with a 35mm,I bought a printer/scanner/copier at Wal-Mart today. Only thing is when I installed the program and gave it a try I lost all of my pictures that used to be in HP photosmart. And I had like 300 pictures...now i've got 35. I used to click on photosmart,view library-total pictures 300 or what ever,now it says total pictures 35. I mean ALL of my pictures were there...now I got 35...what's up with that?!! Where'd they go?..
    It had all of my truck show pictures,all my webcam pictures,all of the digital pictures-every picture I had! Oh well,no sense crying over lost pictures-though that was my first thought-most of them are on The Diesel Gypsy's site,some are on webshots,a lot of them are on BMT,some on Kodak easyshare,some are on disc...and the rest are just gone evidently.."gone like a freight train,gone like yesterday,gone like a soldier in the civil war ,bang bang,gone like a '59 cadillac,like all the good things that ain't never coming back,she's gone ... Montgomery-Gentry
    Had some pictures at Wal-Mart too,Jobyna dropped the film off there Friday.She had it in the one hour developing envelope already,but there was no one at the counter.When they paged the photo "technician" she came over and took it out of the envelope and put it in the 4 day envelope,I guess because she was too lazy to develop it then. When we went to pick it up yesterday they said it would be in Tuesday. I was disappointed and Jobyna was HOT!
  11. other dog
    After my long, grueling, all uphill 20 mile hike home-I meant to say 2 mile flat as a board walk,hit the wrong key-I went to Carter Cat the next morning and picked the truck up.Ran great. Went on to Petersburg and loaded a load of steel going to Nazareth,Pa. After I unloaded Wednesday morning I had to go to Sparrows Point to load coils back to Lynchburg.I was outside tarping when I heard the phone ringing-it was Jeff. He just wanted to let me know they had a load of kyanite going to Fremont,Oh. and he was going to save it for me. Perhaps to make up for going to Nazareth. Nazareth is a good load,but since I had to go to Baltimore,and everybody knows how I hate running northeast,and I do like going to Fremont...except I listen to WLW in Cincinnati on XM a lot and I already knew they were calling for the biggest snowfall this winter,starting Friday morning. And all day Friday...and Friday night...and Saturday. They said they were expecting a foot or more,and I figured it might be worse up around Fremont,which is a little bit east of Toledo. So when I got to the shop Thursday morning I asked my usual question-"is this for Friday delivery,or Monday delivery?" The usual answer is "it's for whenever you get there delivery",but Todd said "we never put off 'til Monday what we can do on Friday". Yeah,right...but since they had already held the load for me for a day we thought they might be getting low in material,so I was off like a herd of turtles (Old Bill).
    When I unloaded and left there about 8:30 yesterday morning it wasn't snowing and I had to go all the way to Pittsburgh to reload,so I thought I might get lucky and miss it altogether-the Pittsburgh weather channel called for snow and rain with a high of 38 degrees. It was 26 in Fremont. I took 20 east to Monroeville,got some fuel,then to Norwalk and back down 250 to 224,turned to the east and still no sn-what's that up ahead? Oh...snow. And more snow. Couple of miles and the road was covered. It was covered all the way to Lodi,where I got on the interstate. Which was covered except for two tracks in the right lane. I was going to go down 14 to 51 into Pa. then take 60 down to Pittsburgh but I stayed on I-76 to Youngstown and went rt. 11 to 14,thinking the big road would be better. 14 probably wasn't much worse because all this way I only saw 2 salt trucks and one of them was parked on a ramp on 76. The trailer was completely covered in snow and ice,I couldn't even see the marker lights,but traffic was proceding fairly well,just slowly. The only accidents I saw were on the westbound side. A little bit after I crossed into Pa. there was some rain in the snow and about halfway down rt. 60 the snow just quit like you turned a switch off and the road was just wet the rest of the way-all rain and 38 degrees when I got to Galv-tech,most of the snow gone off the truck and trailer and what wasn't melted and fell off in the floor when I was loading.I chained and tarped inside,but there were no more trucks there anyway. Left there around 3 o'clock and got to Lynchburg about 11 last night,and the temperature never got below freezing again all the way home.
    Now i'm glad I went of course because I'll have Sunday off. You shouldn't have to work on Sunday anyway,but it's a truckdriver's life to have to do it I guess. Always was one of the worst parts of the job. Especially in summer when you're going up the road on Sunday afternoon and at every house you pass everybody's in the back yard cooking on the grill and drinking a cold beer and listening to the race and enjoying their weekend. And you're going to Cleveland or somewhere....
  12. other dog
    Man,what an adventure I had today! Last week was pretty routine,went to Triadelphia with a load of piling,Galv-tech back to Lynchburg,then I took a van load of kyanite to Orchard Park,and brought a load of hay back from Edinboro,Pa. to Altavista for Stacy Compton,the race car driver. (ok,that part wasn't so routine) He drives in the Craftsman truck series this year. I had 580 bales in the 53' van.Hay is scarce around here because of the drought.
    So I left Sunday going back to Point Marion,Pa. with another load of piling.I told Todd Friday I didn't want to go back up there because the job site was such a mess.He said this was going to the other side of the bridge,across the river from where we unloaded before,so I said "OK,maybe it'll be better"...WRONG! When I got there this morning,after running rt.119 out of Morgantown which is crooked as a dog's leg,I saw the crane sitting there and said "that doesn't look bad at all". Then they told me they parked the crane there over the weekend in case it flooded.When they walked the crane back down over the bank right to the edge of the river-actually on a platform of crossties on a pile of rip-rap in the river-it didn't look so easy anymore. No wonder they moved it in case the river got up. I had to back down straight to where the crane was at first,then cut the trailer over to the left...or right,depending on how you look at it. The problem was a great big hole they had dug on my left and the chain link fence on my right,so I had very little room to turn the cab. I had to pull up and back up several times,working the trailer over a little at a time. I finally got backed into position and unloaded,and of course the bank was so steep they had to pull me back up it with a bulldozer. I took a couple of pictures,but they're not developed yet.
    When I left there I had to go to Galv-tech in Pittsburgh.I was going to take 88 up to 21,but I didn't think I could make the turn onto the bridge when I came out of the job site,so I figured i'd just go up 119 to Uniontown and then 51 north. And I thought the first part of 119 was crooked! I kept hearing the dump truck drivers that are all over the area saying "southbound at the wall" or "northbound at the wall" and had no idea what they were talking about. I found out pretty quick though-a little ways out of town I got to this curve to the right with a big concrete wall on my right,and it took every bit of the road for me to get around it-if i'd have met anybody in it somebody was going to have to back-up.
    Got to Galv-tech and was the only truck there,got loaded pretty quick and was going down rt. 40 somewhere between Uniontown and Keysers Ridge when the engine light came on and I lost most of my power and my engine brake was doing little or nothing. I struggled onward to Keysers Ridge truck stop and pulled in and checked the fault code-intake valve actuator malfunction. Jeff said to try to make it in and take it to Cat in Lynchburg,so I did. Only took about an hour longer than normal,got passed by everybody on the highway. When I dropped the load of coils in Lynchburg I tried to phone home so Jobyna could pick me up at Carter Cat.The phone rang,and rang,and rang-no answer,not even the answering machine. Billy-Bob was at Handy tarping his load when I dropped the trailer and offered to give me a ride,so I got him to pick me up at the Cat place and he brought me over to the store two miles from here,over on 699.He could turn around there easily and go back to 29 and continue on to Duluth,Ga. I walked the two miles home. In the dark. By myself. Only one dog came after me and he turned out to be friendly,even walked with me for a couple hundred yards. When I was about a quarter of a mile from home my phone rang-it was Jobyna. She said the phone hadn't rang all day and didn't have a dial tone.I told her I walked all the way from Lynchburg.
    My investigation found that the phone line was pulled part of the way out of the wall plug.The line goes behind other dog's (that would be the beagle,not me) bed and aparently he had gotten tangled up in it and pulled it loose. That's all right,I needed the excercise anyway.
  13. other dog

    A B-61

    By other dog,

    I went to Appomattox to see Jeff and Teresa today.Took the back roads and stopped to look at a B-model i'd seen a long time ago.It was sitting in a field near a row of trailers,back off the road a quarter of a mile or so. All you could see was the back of the cab,but I could tell it was a B-model Mack. I said I was going to stop someday,and today was the day. An elderly lady came to the door when I knocked and she said I was welcome to look it over.I asked if it was for sale,and she said " it probably is ". You could tell it's been there a while,and I didn't examine it real-real close but it looked pretty solid. I was impressed when I looked inside,it looked better than I would have expected from the outside.It's a B-61 with a quadruplex,I don't know what year.I'm gonna post the pictures in my album,and if anybody wants me to check into it further i'll be glad to . I told the nice lady that I couldn't afford to pay attention when she said it was probably for sale,but someone else might be interested. Oh,I also saw a White Compact in a field,and A Transtar International grain truck in another field,so I stopped and took pictures of them too. Good day to be outstanding in a field I guess.
    Yes Paul,a tandem like this,in these colors would look good with your name on it.
  14. other dog

    Big Jim-myth Buster?

    By other dog,

    We were talking about rt.250 a while back,the section between Fairmont and Moundsville,WV in particular,so Big Jim gave it a try and survived with no problems. He researched the trip well in advance too. I had told him about my trip across there in '80,and that I said at the time I wouldn't go back across it bob-tailing.And I told him what Bollweevil said,and what the man at Triadelphia had said. None of that scared Big Jim. He called the police departments in Littleton and Cameron,and they said the tight turns that used to be there had been done away with. Good thing-I just don't think you could make those turns as long as we are today.He was driving a Freightliner Columbia long wheelbase tractor with a 53' spread axle flatbed loaded with 47,000 lbs-overall length 77 1/2 feet. According to the Va. DOT I'm 70' overall with the Peterbilt and a 48' trailer. He said the worst part was the curve coming up out of Moundsville,and there was a hard turn onto a bridge somewhere farther down the line that took the whole road to make. Well,almost the whole road-he got over to the left as far as he could and he said he had about 2 feet to spare when he got onto the bridge.
    Actually we were both thinking about going that way to Triadelphia Tuesday.I was several hours ahead of him,and when I went through Moorefield,WV Tuesday night-actually Wednesday morning it was about 10 degrees and clear. I was climbing the big mountain on rt.42 before you get to Mt. Storm when a pickup came up behind me and I could see snow blowing in the road in his headlights.It was so fine I hadn't even noticed it before,but as I neared the top it was no problem to see it.It was coming down hard and the wind was blowing it across in front of me,covering the road in places. Rt. 50 was pretty much covered,as was rt.560 up to Oakland,Md. Rt. 219 north was well salted so instead of taking 42 on to Friendsville I stayed on 219 up to Keysers Ridge and went to bed. No way I was going to try 250 in those conditions,so I went on across 68 to 79 north to 70 west to Triadelphia. Then I went on up 250 in Ohio to I-77 to pick up a load of brick in Sugarcreek going to Norfolk,Va. Still snowing all the way,but I had no problems until I got back to the usual trouble spot,which is I-64 from Beckley to the Va. line. For the second time this winter the road was closed after I got across Sandstone mountain because of accidents,so I pulled off on the ramp at the Dawson exit and took a nap. That's me-when the going gets tough I go to bed. I got up and went on to Norfolk and unloaded Thursday just after noon,then back to Petersburg and loaded another load of piling for Triadelphia to unload Monday.
    Back to Big Jim- I called him and told him i'd run into a lot of snow,and when he got to the mountain before Mt. Storm-I don't know the name of it,it might be Mt.Storm mountain.It's a big one,4 miles with a 10 percent grade,has a bunch of those huge wind turbines on top- he couldn't even get up the mountain.He met 2 salt trucks at the bottom and they told him to wait until they came back then follow them up. He did,but in the meantime another truck came off of rt.93 and turned and started up the mountain,not knowing about the salt trucks. So when they came back,Jim fell in behind them and they started up and they soon caught the other truck,struggling to make it up. By the time he finally got up the mountain and got to Triadelphia it was too late to get unloaded. He unloaded the next morning and reloaded steel for Roanoke.He had an appointment time to unload at 12:30 the next day,so since he had plenty of time he came back down 250,thus proving that it can be done. Why anyone would want to though is a different story. But I can't say I won't do it again-Big Jim did. Besides,if it gets too tough I can probably find a wide spot somewhere to take a nap.
  15. other dog

    More Youtube

    By other dog,

    it's way past my bedtime,but i'm waiting on another youtube video to download.It's really crappy,but I have to go through a long process to do it.Maybe i'll get a camcorder with my tax refund to help stimulate the economy.If I don't go to jail forever that is-I did my own taxes online,for the first time ever.Used Turbotax,and it wasn't too bad.If I don't end up in jail...I shouldn't,I followed the instructions step-by-step so I should be ok.
    Anyway,I had to put a tape in the vcr and play it,pick out the parts I wanted and tape them on another little camcorder that uses a small tape,a little bigger than a cassette,then play that back through the vcr and record it with my digital camera,then transfer that to the pc and download it to youtube. The original tapes are old,from the mid '90s when I had the mudbogger.I could get them all put on dvd's,just never have. So by the time I do all that they end up looking pretty bad by the time they get to youtube. If I get a new camcorder i'm gonna try more bigger better mixer shots,maybe a drive by even-if I can find a good used tommy gun. ( I am joking )
  16. other dog

    Haircut

    By other dog,

    what did I do?! I didn't know I had such a big fat head!..guess I won't be needing my comb for a while-oh well,I had to much stuff to carry around anyway
  17. other dog

    I'm Back...

    By other dog,

    Got the truck back from Cat Tuesday and took a load of black iron pipe- already loaded for me and sitting at the shop- to Conway,Pa, a little north of Ambridge on rt. 65. The load was a little lighter than usual,only 41,000+ lbs,but I could tell the truck was pulling better than it ever had. I made it past the first rest area in Pa. on I-79, the one just across the state line where they set up scales and DOT checks sometimes,but as soon as the " scales and DOT " motivation to keep going was over,I started to get sleepy so when I made it 3/4 of a mile past the rest area I pulled onto the ramp at exit 7 and went to bed.I still had about 70 miles to go probably. Next morning the phone woke me up at 6:30-it was Neal at headquarters. "Moonshiner,you at the jobsite yet?" "Uh...not quite,why?" "The other driver called and said he couldn't get up the hill because of the ice and he's waiting on a salt truck,so just hang tight 'til I call 'ya back". "Okie-doke-see ya". So I decided it was time to get up and go to work.The thermometer on the truck,which is pretty accurate,said it was 39 degrees so I wasn't too worried about ice,though it was raining pretty good. By the time I got up to Washington,Pa. it was down to 35 degrees,still good,but there was some snow mixed with the rain. When I got up to rt.279 it was 31 degrees and no sign of rain in the snow that was coming down. When I exited off 79 onto rt. 65 north,the road was completely covered. I made it up to Ambridge and went over to Oneal steel,where we deliver to regularly,and parked in their lot. Did all my paperwork and was contemplating calling headquarters when Neal called and said everything was clear,and I could go on in. When I left Oneal all I had to do was get back on 65 north and go a mile or 2,then make a right on 11th. st. The right was a hard turn,Billy Bob had already told me that because when he went there the week before he didn't see it in time to swing out,so he had to go past it and turn around and come back and make a left.What he didn't mention was the hill.I swung out,dumped my air,made the turn all right,then went a little ways and started climbing. The street had a 7 1/2 or 10 ton weight limit on it,so trucks weren't supposed to be on it anyway,but you gotta get to the jobsite and that's how the directions said to go. The hill was probably 12 or 14 percent,it wasn't marked because as I said trucks weren't supposed to be on it in the first place. Then there was a sharp curve to the left which took the whole road to make,but I didn't meet anyone in it. The next curve was a 15 mph to the right,and I met a pickup and a car in it. The car happened to be a policeman.The pickup didn't even slow down so I had to run the trailer wheels over the curb and out through the grass,or whatever was under the snow-the hill was so steep I didn't want to have to stop. At least the policeman stopped until I made it around the bend. I could see why the first truck couldn't get up it. That sucker was so steep a light shower of rain would make it hard to get up. When I was unloading it was down to 24 degrees.
    Left there and went to IDS in Macedonia,home of the lovely Rachel and-I don't know the other girl's name,the one with the shoulder length blonde hair and cutest face you've ever seen. I don't pay any attention to them anyway,i'm strictly binness . And they're happily married,I got a jealous girlfriend,i'm old enough-how did I get on this subject anyway? I loaded at IDS and went to Roanoke.Several trucks were already there waiting to unload,one of which had been there since 8 o'clock the night before. So I called headquarters and told them the situation,and ended up taking the load to a warehouse in Roanoke to unload it. By the time I got unloaded over there all the other trucks ( different carrier ) that had been at Metalsa were there too. Hope they weren't mad at me,but I had nothing to do with it,I just do what they tell me.
    Went to Concord and fueled and had a choice of a two stop load of lumber,New Castle and Grove City Pa, or kyanite going to Conneaut,Oh. Both pretty good loads,but I went to Conneaut. Big Jim took the lumber the next day,which put him by the house for the weekend too,since he lives in Reynoldsville. Then I went down to Macedonia again and loaded another Roanoke which I delivered this morning,then back to the shop in Concord and home,which put me right here right now.
    I missed the Super Bowl,but I should get to see the Daytona 500 anyway.
  18. other dog

    Monday...still At Home

    By other dog,

    Monday evening,still at home.Been on the phone with the insurance company about the shingles the wind blew off the roof yesterday.My policy is $500 deductible-I think I can fix it myself.
    Truck's still in the shop-I've been whining-complaining I mean,I've been complaining to Jeff that the truck just did not pull like it should.When Cat turned it up from a 475 to a 550 it still ran the same. We wanted to get it by Ashland,Va. and put it on the dyno but just couldn't seem to be in the area at the right time.So today we took it to Carter Cat in Lynchburg so they could check the fuel pressure anyway.The pressure was fine,but one of the turbos was missing some fins,and some kind of adjusting screw under the valve covers was missing,so that might be what took out the missing fins.I new something was wrong because it started making that sound in the turbo,like when a hose is bad,and I had about 5 lbs. less boost than I used to. But the turbo trouble isn't altogether the cause of the low power because it had no power before the turbo ever started making the noise. The missing screw could have something to do with it though.I talked to Jeff on the phone and he didn't know what the screw was for,just that they said it was missing. They're gonna have to put a turbo on it,but it should be ready tomorrow sometime.
  19. other dog
    OK, enough of the nonsense,it's time to be serious. I've got a 'chicken on a can' cooking in the smoker oven too,always tender,juicy,and most delicious! Very easy to make too.
    I had to start this all over just now-it's very windy here and the power went off just for a couple of seconds,long enough to shut the computer off so I lost everything and had to restart it and start all over again. A big deal when you type with one finger.
    I left Sunday going to Fremont,Oh. When I unloaded there Monday morning the parking lot was covered with a thick layer of ice so slick you could barely stand up.It was extra slick because it was warming up rapidly and was wet on top. 38% slicker than if it wasn't wet. ( I just make this stuff up,no scientific facts here...well,once in a while there might be,'ya never know! ) It was a major operation to get in the proper unloading position. Troy the unloader man said "well maybe the weather will be better when you come back".
    Then I went all the way to Sharon,Pa. to reload coils for Handy in Lynchburg.Unloaded there Tuesday morning,then by the shop for fuel,and on to Dillwyn to load for Fremont,Oh. When I unloaded there Wednesday morning it was pouring rain. Rt. 250 was completely covered before I got to Ashland,Oh. but i drove through OK. I told Troy after I was unloaded "maybe the weather will be better next time i'm here". Then I went all the way to Sharon,Pa. to load coils for Handy in Lynchburg.Wonder what happened to I.D.S. in Macedonia,where we loaded the coils for Metalsa in Roanoke. A great place to load,never took long,all the guys were friendly there-something you don't see much anymore,and the lovely Rachel in the office with the big b-b...big eyes.
    So after I unloaded in Lynchburg Thursday I went to the shop and fueled,and sure enough there was A Brook Park (Cleveland) Oh. load waiting for me. Don't get to go by the house,don't even get to sit down,before you gotta go again.I've already ran two Fremonts-I told Todd "I'll take this Brook Park and deliver it Monday". He said " if you don't want that I've got a Parkersburg at Ed's". Great-Parkersburg sounds much better on Thursday than Cleveland. So I went to Moneta,load the lumber,go to Parkersburg,and when I get unloaded Friday morning I have to go all the way to Brookfield,Oh. to load back-coils for Metalsa. I might as well have took the Brook Park in the first place! That's the way it's been since Christmas,every weekend I either don't get home 'til Saturday or have to leave on Sunday. But as Joe says the bills never stop,so I can't either-not for long anyway. Unloaded in Roanoke Saturday morning,so at least i'm off until Monday now...though it's already Sunday afternoon.
    By the way,pretty catchy title too,don't 'ya think?
  20. other dog
    pictures showing what I looked like yesterday,today,and what i'll probably look like tomorrow,Lord willing.
    actually,that's me on Saturday,then Sunday ready to go to work,and me about 1979 or '80. Now THAT'S some hair! (and about 40 less pounds!)
    Yeah,talk about changing-here's the 79 or 80 and half today... an old gray haired geezer. But i'm OK with that.
  21. other dog

    Me

    By other dog,

    just in case anybody was wondering,this is me,right now-what?..nobody was wondering?.. so,nobody cares where I go or what I do,or what I look like?..well,never mind then,i'll just be here-it relaxes me
  22. other dog
    ...well,it's different from "Saturday" anyway. It's someone else's turn to use that anyhow.
    I took a load of piling to Point Marion, Pa. Monday. It's on rt.88 just across the Pa. line a little ways from W.V.,near Morgantown. Yeah,one of THOSE jobsites-you had to pull down there,back down a hill to the crane right on the riverbank,then since there was ankle-deep mud everywhere they had to pull you out with another truck after you got unloaded,then you had to back up another hill and onto the bridge while they stopped traffic for you to get out. I had to go from there to Macedonia to load,so I went up rt.88 north to rt.21,then west on 21 into West Virginia. 21 is a pretty good road across there. It runs into 250 and I took 250 to Moundsville,then rt.2 north to the interstate. First time i'd been on that part of rt.250 in years-about 27 or 28 in fact. I saw the "Thelma and Louise" turn I mentioned before was a 15 mph curve and the grade was 11%. The curve has been widened since then,i'm pretty sure. And I don't think the guardrail was there. And I know the trees weren't up over the guardrail then because it just looked like open spaces ahead when you were coming up to the curve,and the road just looked like it ended,right there. And I think it was at least a 20% grade then...and I don't think it was paved ( now i'm kidding ) I took a picture of the curve with my 35mm I keep in the truck,but haven't got it developed yet.Hope to do that today and get the picture on here.I don't have my scanner hooked up,but I can take a picture of the picture with the webcam.
    After that journey I went to Triadelphia,W.V. with a load of beams. Delivered to the West Virginia department of highways shop. After I got unloaded I asked the guy that signed the bills if they ever went down rt.250,like from Moundsville to Fairmont. "Oh yeah,all the time" he said."They didn't send you that way did they? If they did,boy you got *%#@ed! That's not a good way to go in a car,much less a tractor and trailer...'course we go on lot's of worse roads than that,-"(he liked to talk,wish I'd had longer to chat with him) . I said "oh no,I didn't come that way-I went across there in 1980 or '81 and said I wouldn't go back across there bobtailing- I was just wondering if it was still bad and those tight turns were still in Cameron and Littleton,turns I could barely make with a short wheelbase cabover Mack with a 42' trailer". He said one town,Cameron I think,had changed things and he wasn't sure about the other.I only remembered the one town,and don't even remember the name of it,but like Bollweevil said it took all the room that was there to make that turn. I came into town going south,and to stay on rt.250 I had to make a left turn right in town and the road (street) was narrow,pole on every corner it seemed,cars parked on all sides it seems. He said " well ,you must remember the hard right turn onto the bridge at the bottom of the mountain,that was a hard turn to make,a 90 dgree right onto a narrow bridge at the bottom of about a 2 or 2 and a half mile downgrade-lot of trucks wrecked right there.Lot of truck drivers got killed on that road-looks like a short cut on the map,or their dispatchers would send them that way". No,I didn't remember that turn onto the bridge at all.The two things that stuck with me was the curve coming out of Moundsville and that left turn in that town. I mean '80 or '81-that's 27 or 28 years ago any way you look at it,and it's hard for me to remember what I did last week sometimes.The road atlas shows 250 as a designated truck route today, but unless something's changed I just don't think I could get across there if I wanted to now,driving a 42' long Peterbilt pulling a 48' spread axle trailer.
    These pictures (pretty bad-I really need to hook my scanner back up,but I usually use the digital camera ) show the curve going north on rt.250 heading towards Moundsville,the 11% 1 mile sign,Moundsville down below after the sharp curve,and a load of the coils I load at I.D.S. in Macedonia,Oh. all the time for Roanoke,Va.
    As with the steepness of a hill,the pictures don't really show how steeply the road drops away to the left in the pictures-I was going to take a picture of the septic tank truck in front of me after he went around the curve to show it,but he pulled over right in the curve and stopped,so I went around him.
    I did look at this spot on Google Earth and it shows everthing very well,especially if you rotate it around until you're looking at it from the north,then tilt it towards you-awesome!
  23. other dog
    if everything works here,these are a couple of hills that a truck driver can appreciate as being very,very,steep and the pictures show it. The Kenworth is the original one used in the "Moving On" tv series. So,what's that got to do with 36 degree banking? Bristol has 36 degree banking in the turns,and that's steep too...Besides,Paul was getting annoyed that I was taking all the good blog entry titles, a.k.a. whatever day of the week it was. It gets harder and harder to come up with a new and catchy title all the time you know.
    And another thing-I've been known to criticise drivers who graduate from "truck driving school" and hit the road already having forgotten more than myself or most everybody else has ever known about driving on this blog,and today when I was anylizing my new "Wheels of Time" I came across the article about Joe Becker. This entire issue is about drivers and companies who recieved golden achievement awards,with 50 or more years in the trucking industry. Joe Becker is 79 and still trucking. In the mid 70's he started a truck driving school in Minnesota.He offered a 6 month, 1,200 hour course for interstate drivers and a 4 month 900 hour course for intrastate drivers. You had to log 5,000 miles with an instructor to graduate,but I guarantee you those drivers knew what they were doing when they hit the road. He eventually closed down his training school when others offered shorter courses. I know they say there's a driver shortage,but the "new breed" attitude of these guys coming out now is something else.Not all,but a lot of drivers are so hateful and arrogant-nothing like the commaradorie-oh forget it,i'll never be able to spell comaraderie-that there used to be. Where drivers used to be quick to help each other,now they're quick to cuss each other out for the least little thing. Unreal...what happened?
  24. other dog

    Saturday Again

    By other dog,

    Made the trip to Nazareth,Pa. I passed right by the Nazareth Speedway going in,never seen that before. I drove the truck to Rockingham,N.C. to races a couple of times,and stopped and looked at the race tracks in Daytona,Talledega, and Darlington,and have passed by Bristol,Dover,North Wilkesboro,Atlanta,Michigan, maybe a couple more. Used to go to Charlotte,Richmond,and Martinsville every year,but it just got so expensive,and the traffic got so bad,and the cops in N.C. got so hateful I quit going. Nazareth looked kind of grown over,even for the off-season. I don't know if they still have races there or not,it might have gone the way of North Wilkesboro and Rockingham. I know they didn't have cup races there anyway,but didn't they run Busch races there at one time? I don't remember what kind of races they have there.
    Anyway, back in the real world I went down to Baltimore from Nazareth and loaded coils at Worthington Steel for Metalsa in Roanoke-the truck frame plant.Then over to Moneta and picked up treated lumber going to Fairmont,W.V. It rained in West Virginia Tuesday night. It was about 38-40 degrees went I went to bed.But Wednesday morning in Fairmont it was well below freezing,and the parking lot at 84 Lumber was like a skating rink,completely glazed over with a sheet of ice. I couldn't get turned around and backed in the gate 'til about 10 or 10:30 I think it was.When I finally got unloaded I had to go to Pittsburgh to load,so I just stayed on U.S.rt. 19 North thru town until I got back to I-79 at Morgantown. I saw several old trucks going that way,some old Autocars,and one place where you could look down below you and see lots of old iron,including at least one H-model in the woods. The road through there is narrow anyway,and there's no place to pull over and look,or take pictures,but i'd like to.I wish I could take a picture of every old truck I see. Kinda makes ya wonder just what might still be found parked in the woods to rust across the country,and forgotten.
    But,back to the real world,it's work,work,work.I loaded in Pittsburgh for Franklin,Va. It was an N.B.Handy load,but it went straight to the customer.Should have been on a straight truck,their yard was so tiny. When I got that off Thursday morning I went to Dillwyn and picked up a load of Kyanite going to Orville,Oh.It was bright and sunny when I left the shop,but by the time I got to Lewisburg,W.V. it was snowing so hard you couldn't see. I was pretty much out of the snow by the time I got to Charleston,but it was about 2 degrees in Orville Friday morning.Folding tarps is about like trying to fold a piece of plywood when it's that cold. Then over to Macedonia to reload coils at I.D.S. for Metalsa in Roanoke. Unloaded there this morning,and got home around lunch time. I see I got a "Wheels of Time" and a "Double Clutch" this week,so it's time to check them out now. Hmm...used to be that would be the first thing I checked out,wonder what's up with that?
  25. other dog

    More Jeff's Jokes

    By other dog,

    I was in the office Friday and a driver named Joe came in. He had a load going to Syracuse,N.Y. but he had no name for the customer and no delivery address on the bills. He said " how am I supposed to find this place in Syracuse,i've got no information". Jeff was sitting there and never hesitated a second and said " just pull up in Syracuse and blow the horn,somebody'll come get you-that's what I would do". I thought it was hilarious,but I don't think Joe got it. He just said "well Syracuse is a big place" and went on out the door.

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