Heavy, man.

Hurried through a pre-trip inspection on the trailer. I figured I had time to get it to the customer with about half an hour to spare, if I got a quick enough start,

As I quickly checked the tires and brake shoes, I noticed the tandems were slid back a little. Not unusual--if the load was heavy enough, the driver who brought it up from Florida would've had to move the wheels to even out the weights. Or else the load before that had to be balanced, and this driver hadn't bothered to set them back. I've been seeing a lot of that lately.

Finished hooking up and swung around to the gate. There I got the Bill of Lading and started on my paperwork.

Hmm. Less than 14,000 pounds. One of these trucks can (legally) pull more than 45,000. My company doesn't expect weight-balancing problems before 37,000 or so (read: if I want to scale a load that light, I can pay for it myself). 14,000 is nothing.

Lazy driver, I decided. After all, leaving the tandems slid back doesn't HURT a light load. Makes it hard to take a tight corner, but this trip was pretty much all Interstate.

So I was lazy too. I was in a hurry, after all.

Eighty miles down the road was a weigh station. There always is. Good thing I was light--they're often backed up, and I was short on time, but this state uses PrePass(tm) to pre-screen us. Wouldn't even slow me down--

The PrePass transponder flashed red. Huh?

Pulled into the weigh station, wondering. Fortunately there wasn't a backup. Slowly I rolled over the scale, under a watchful official eye. No signal to stop, so I went on.

Sometimes they'll stop you just because...

The only other weigh station I passed was closed. So I got the rest of the way with only roadwork to slow me down. The truck seemed too be working pretty hard on the hills, though. Have to talk to the shop, I thought.

Got to the customer and handed over the paperwork. The guard did his business and gave me signed copies of the Bills of Lading.

Bills. Two of them.

One I'd already seen. The other described another 30,000 pounds.

A 44,000 pound load needs to be scaled. Fortunately, the previous driver had done that. At least I presume so. And my truck must've been about the same weight. But that's not the way to bet.

I would have scaled again. If I'd read the paperwork right, that is.

Good thing I was in too much of a hurry to "fix" the tandems, no? Sometimes I'm luckier than I deserve...

Odds and ends

(A few snippets from the 27th. Having a notepad in the phone has made a difference, all right.)

NCIS is distracting. (Big surprising insight there.)
***
Walking to the mall (mostly for the exercise. Really.) Cut a corner to save some steps. Almost tried to find a store entrance in the back. That seemed to be the right place to go in--next to the loading dock.

I've been driving too long.
***
(earlier)
Got a call from HQ asking how far I was from I-80. Said I might be needed for a repower. Since I was pulling into a weigh station at that precise moment, he said he'd call me back.

Since it seemed important, I started looking for a place to stop and look at the map. Saw a likely spot and pulled off.

Then saw the sign: "TRACTOR TRAILERS PROHIBITED. All others welcome."

Fortunately, there was a pull-off across the road. Unfortunately, it was full of "oversized load" rigs and their escort vehicles. Room to pull off, but not to turn around,

So I went on. Ten miles or so on a mountain-top two-lane to the next entrance ramp (fortunately, said mountain-top two-lane ran parallel to the Interstate).

Turns out I was a hundred miles or more from the repower location. And the guy never did call me back...

As I was saying...

Sitting in a fancy steakhouse. Fancy for me, anyhow.

(Between that sentence and this one, I had a nice steak with a salad bar and a baked sweet potato. Seemed rude to interrupt...)

If the steakhouse in question were anywhere but in the middle of Pedro's South of the Border, the biggest and most shameless tourist trap I've ever seen, I might feel a tad underdressed. As it is I figure they're used to it. (Their roof is a sombrero, for Pete's sake!)

This is not the usual way to end a day, believe me. But it was a very long and fairly frustrating one. And when it was over, here the place was. And I'll have to get up DARNED early in the morning, and I was in a mood.

Excuses complete. Now on to the next set.

Some of you may have noticed a gap between this post and the last one. Like, about eight months worth? If I was embarrassed before...

The reasons are many and varied, and a few have some validity. The original one involved about three MONTHS when it seemed every post would have started, "Well, the truck broke down again..." Never anything disastrous, and I was never out of action more than a day or two, but it kind of set a mood.

And I didn't really feel like dumping my moods on you. Between the three (!) trucks and their problems and the Company's clever ways of "making things better," I had a few. And maybe some aspects of my wife's death finally caught up with me, too--I don't know. No matter. Because one of the other reasons was a GOOD thing.
Business started to pick up. I don't know if we're in some kind of recovery or not, but I can say some people are shipping stuff. Enough to keep ME busy, anyway.

If you go back far enough in this blog, you'll find me saying if I have time to write, I'm not making any money. I still ain't rich, but one symptom of prosperity is definitely with me. Time is scarce, and the time time I have tends to come in scattered bits. Don't fire up the laptop, son--they'll be calling in a minute.

So I let the blog slide. A long way. Sorry.

Still don't have time. But the truck's running, more or less. And my mood's a bit better, I think. And I've got this fancy new phone I can type on! I don't have to wait for Microsoft to decide it's a nice day, anymore!

So we'll try again. The look may change--posting from a phone is bound to be different. And I won't always be this wordy with a phone keyboard. But we'll see what happens.

Tomorrow. I've gotta be up at 0400. G'nite.