Friday

I'm not going to do 2 trips on a delivery if I don't have to.
For Monday, there is a large delivery with a lot of pipe. It isn't the weight of the load that was confounding me this afternoon - the total payload weight is only 36,000 pounds. My truck and trailer gross vehicle weight is 26,600 pounds, giving a total payload of 53,400 pounds (you could also call it net weight).

The point is that there are 2 different types of pipe that I had to load on the truck - that have different loading parameters and attempting to get that much pipe on a truck in that configuration? I loaded and unloaded pipe 3 times before I figured out how to get it all on there.

Further point is that I love a challenge, especially when loading trucks and attempting to figure out how to get all kinds of different product safely loaded onto one 48 foot long flatbed trailer and see a satisfactory result.

My problem is when it comes to loading a truck, I'm purely a perfectionist. The pipe has to be perfectely positioned and if it's off by an inch, I have to adjust it and get it facing the proportionate direction without any visible flaw. Many of my fellow drivers are far from that. But, this is a flatbed trailer, it is not a "dryvan" that has walls to hold everything in. Something falls over in a dryvan, it isn't going to end up all over the highway.

Something falls over on a flatbed, the highway becomes it's landfill. My mind always wanders about such things - what if there is a motorcyclist next to my truck and a 200 pound cast iron fitting falls off into his face? He's probably dead. Same thing with a car and that thing crashing through the windshield. I take my profession very seriously when it comes to safety. I have refused more loads than I care to admit for deference to safety.

I end up reloading the truck myself in a safe manner. It isn't an issue now, I load my own truck and I am very good at it. I am an expert in forklift operation, a thing that slipped my mind when I was looking for a part-time job some time ago. I haven't even pursued a job in a warehouse which entails mostly forklift operation. This would be an easy job and would bring in some much needed funds right now.

Back to perfectionist - I watch other people loading my truck because they are trying to help me and I can't stand it. There's only one other person in our company that I consider of the same level of expertise and trust. In fact, I was downtown and the subject came up. He stated that he loads trucks - whoever's truck - the same way he would load the truck for himself. I completely concur and do the same thing whenever the need arises. If it doesn't pass my muster, I don't care what other people think, it is not a good load. It MIGHT make it to it's intended destination, but it is NOT safe.

And, when other people are loading my truck - well, I nicely ask them to shift something to a different position or change this or that. I have definitely had a problem with that at my current company, I then politely state that I will go ahead and load the truck myself. This isn't LegoLand and you don't have the safety net of some sort of security that if your load falls off your truck, such as with a Tonka Toy being pushed over by a kid - that nothing will happen. People can die. People can lose limbs. People can be turned into vegetables. Generations of family can be altered. I have gone down the lines of thought concerning this stuff.

Switching gears, the weekend is here. I might say finally, but this week went by pretty fast. I was tickled to come home from work and find a hat - a fancy looking thing - sitting on my computer desk with the keys to the room of the older gentleman that - now-was - living here. He put an orange piece of paper on top of the hat with the following written in large, bold letters: Farmer Ben Hat.

LOL!! I hate to see him go. I hate to see any good tenants go. I understand why he had to go, but - it means attempting to find someone else to take his place. He graciously offered to leave the queen size bed with very nice wood frame and a lot of other stuff in there to make it another fully furnished room. I did NOT ask this man for anything, he just took me off to the side one day not long ago and said he would like to give me this furniture and that he is getting too old to move all of this stuff around.

I now have 2 empty rooms, sort of. The guy that flew back to Texas has his door locked - it's rented until Monday. His trailer is here, he is definitely coming back for that stuff. I GUARANTEE it. To abandon that stuff would mean abandoning 10k worth of off-road toys. I have several people in queue for either/or of the rooms. One is coming tomorrow - supposedly anyway.

Oh, well, that hat is pretty cool. I'll have to take a pic of it on my head - my skull is huge - I have a hard time finding hats that fit my head. This man was always calling me "Farmer Ben". Seriously!!

I'm tired. Long day. I had a couple of beers after work today after doing all that stuff on the semi with that pipe. So, I am going to end this entry. It is still cool here and I am looking forward to working outside in the dirt this weekend. I also hope to look forward to maybe having a deal with someone on a move-in.

G'nite.

ben