My dad called me at work - wanted me to stop by and pick him up on the way home from work. Millie - his wife - was not feeling too well and didn't want to go anywhere. They ARE older folks - I don't get too hyped up about the older generation doing whatever makes them happy, regardless of what the might mean to plans that have been made.
So, I stopped at Walmart - I have one good pair of jeans and one pair of dress slacks and that's IT for pants. I have several pairs of blue jeans with holes or rips in them. Oh, dog food, roach killer, new windshiel wipers for both cars.........ummmm, oh and more pond clear. I usually only need to use "Pond Clear" at the start up of a pond. After it clears the pond out, it's not necessary again as the filtration unit keeps it clear from that point forth.
Stopped at their hotel - a nice place and visited with both of them for about an hour and then took dad to my house. He wanted to see all of these plants and trees I have been talking about forever. He was pleasantly surprised to see the fish ponds. I was pleasantly surprised to see that Mark had done even more cleaning in the kitchen. First impressions - sort of anyway, my dad was here a couple of years ago I guess it was with Millie - are always important. I mean, between Mark and I cleaning in this place for 3 solid days, it's freaking awesome in here. I did not ask Mark to do anything in here - he saw what I was doing this weekend in spending hours and hours of relentless cleaning and picked up where I left off.
We left and went to dinner without Millie, who wasn't feeling up to coming. Spent a good hour and a half, maybe it was 2 hours there, visiting. Dad is very interested in what is going on with Caleb, who is beginning to show more and more confidence in himself and speaking up - not in an obnoxious way either - about what's going on in his life and what he's up to. It was a great time and I hope to make it down there either Thanksgiving or Christmas. I don't know that Caleb will be able to go either time - that's up to him. He has work and that is very important to him as it should be. I don't know that it takes more precedence than family, but I consider the economy and the fact that people my age that are unemployed are willing to take the same job he got. Keeping a good impression with an employer is even more important now than ever. Again, I'll leave that up to him and hold no ill will with whatever decision he makes.
For me, my dad is getting old - but - he looked good today. A bit slower, yes, but still very talkative, looked healthy, I was glad to see him still getting around.
We left - Caleb went to his mom's house, I took dad back to the hotel, but I went back inside with him as I wanted to bid Millie a goodbye. She's a good lady and I'm glad she and dad found each other. They get along well - at least what I see when the doors aren't closed - but it is a good match I think and they have been together awhile now. Quite a while, actually. We talked a while longer but I could see they were both wearing out so I bid them well, a safe trip home and hopefully see each other at Christmas or Thanksgiving.
That was it. I'm pooped. I drove all day long today, it was nonstop and grueling. Not complaining, just saying that getting up early, working, stopping at stores, going out? I'm not 20. But it felt good anyway. It felt even better today at a jobsite. Most jobsites we have don't have forklifts,they have fork attachments that are put on backhoes. One of the forks was bent so that getting both forks into a pallet was almost impossible. On the last pallet, they operater basically destroyed the pallet and all the very heavy parts were laying all over the bed of the semi.
The backhoe operator and his helper - both in THEIR 20's - grimaced and started complaining, what are we going to do now? I smiled - easy, put the bucket of the backhoe up next to the trailer and we will throw the parts in there. These are people that don't know me. I have seen the look before - WHO is actually going to end up doing the work? These aren't 2 pound parts, they're 20 pounds, 30 pounds, 50 pounds and up, a varying allotment of different sized things.....and as if I'm just going to stand there, an "old" guy and direct them. Not at all. But I always read that. I got up on the trailer and started pickup up those things by 2's, chucking them into the bucket and going at a rapid pace until it was done. The helper was also up there - going about an 1/8th of the pace I was. I thought nothing of it, this goes on everywhere. When I was through, this guy exclaims: "HOW did you do that so FAST?".
Took me by surprise. Didn't know what to say to that, so I just remarked that we have to throw this stuff around all day long. I thought about it later, he was paying me a compliment and for that I am appreciative. For good health I am far MORE appreciative.
It's the end of the day. I hope tomorrow is busy, but there was only one thing in our truck routing system and I believe that is being put off as the vendor has not finished manufacturing the part needed for our contractor yet and may not have it done until Friday.
I would get into politics - the Obama administration inviting the "president" of Iran to talks about Afghanistant is unconcsiounable, but why ruin the rest of a good day? Go to bed in peace.
G'nite.
ben
5 comments:
Wednesday
We tried to give this guy some information, that's it. He NEVER listened to any of us, 3 of us attempting to inform him what we have learned, some of us the hard way. He was going to do things his own way, didn't care what anyone thought about it and now? A $250 fine.
I'm referring to another truck driver in our company that works out of our Tucson branch. He drives up to the main branch often enough and we - other drivers - see how he has his load strapped.
He actually started arguing with me about a year or more ago concerning straps and not having to put them under the rub rails. Besides Federal law, or own company's driver training program requires that drivers use rub rails if a truck is equipped with them.
But, that's now what he got caught on. Another rule about strapping loads is if the trailer doesn't have a bulkhead on the front (a big piece of metal basically that's on the front of the trailer designed to keep loads from shifting forward in case of accident/extreme braking events). The rule states that you have to put an extra strap - 1 more than would be required for whatever it is that is on there.
In the case of a regular pallet, that, therefore, would be 2 straps instead of one. Well, he was pulled over near Casa Grande I believe it was on I-10 and handed over a ticket for not having 2 straps on the front pallet. I saw the item on the front, plastic material. The driver was mad at D.O.T. because the item was "less than 5 feet in length". Yes, I said to him, but there is no bulkhead on the trailer, THAT is why you got the ticket".
He got mad at me and walked off. Tough. The new rules coming out? Retroactive, that violation will put 10 points on his driver record. It's a different point assessment than the regular one. It doesn't mean you lose your CDL, it targets you as a problem if you start racking those points up. It also affects the entire company. Yes, one driver here getting pulled over for that violation will put that information in a MUCH larger database and a cop in Virginia might see one of our trucks (we are a national company with a huge fleet) and pull it over to check - straps.
So, not only is this guy's insolence against the rules, cops and other drivers attempting to help him out going to cost HIM, it will also begin to rack up against the entire company. The new rules have provisions to actually shut an entire fleet of trucks - the whole company's worth - down. No, this one single individual isn't going to cause that, but if there are enough more like him, yes, that can happen. Then what? Hopefully corporate will jump all over this.
Corporate gets these notifications from the DOT about any warnings or tickets given to CDL drivers. There will be a notice of this violation that is automatically generated from corporate sent to that driver's management structure - which include the ops manager here in Phoenix and probably the GM as well.
I don't want to be a rat and say anything about the rest of what this guy does, so for now, I won't. The fact of the matter is, though, that all 3 of us drivers tried to inform him that his load was improperly secured on several different occasions of seeing this stuff, this guy just gets attitude. It's not like he didn't KNOW that he could get a ticket for such is the point.
Onto other things. $250. This is Obama's new ploy to buy a guaranteed control of the Senate and House. Nice. It's so OBVIOUS that this is what he is doing, it is nothing about trying to help the American people, it's ALL about buying votes. Totally outrageous, frankly. I hope those that were going to vote against entrenched, almost life-long politicians aren't swayed by this newest attempt to deceive, is what I call it.
I'm referring to the $250 he wants to give to Americans who are on Social Security and didn't get a cost of living increase again this year. $250 is not that much money and even for people on fixed incomes, I can't imagine it going THAT far. If it was $2,500 I could see some political damage, but hopefully that amount is so small it won't change anyone's minds. I would to see a total changeout of every politician that is in there, regardless of party, and replaced with new faces. Would that make a difference? Probably not, to be realistic, but it would be worth a try anyway.
Well, the elections are soon but I expect the political bile to only get worse, especially from the party that apparently is facing the inevitability that they are going to lose seats and perhaps lose too many seats to stay in control.
I'm still seething that the Obama administration would invite the Iranian president to ANYTHING - much less talks on how to deal with a war and cause it to end. It's like invited the devil to return to heaven, it ain't gonna work out too well.
Whatever.
Work day is here, albeit the fact there is nothing in the truck routing system to do (unlike the last 2 days where I have been extremely busy). Oh well.
G'day.
ben
Hi Ben! I haven't left a comment in a while but I just wanted to say Hello. I'm glad you had a good visit with your Dad and it sounds like things are gong relatively well with you. Have a wonderful day/weekend.
Take care - Terri
Ummmm
That 250.00 ticket would be his one and only get out of jail card. If he did it again and I would fire or reprimand him severely. Now I can understand a mistake but he is just careless...
Glad you enjoyed your folks.
Hell, Even I'm slowing down some Ben. I'm constantly sore from working or working out and it takes longer to recover...
This is new territory for all of us. I have no idea what kind of limits the company might impose on points acquired. There is one portion of our company's safety that is almost at "intervention" level - meaning the feds come in and do whatever they please, basically. I think most drivers are eventually going to get some points. I've "forced" my company to spend a good deal of money on the truck I drive to make sure it is as perfect as it possibly can be. Yet, from ample experience, the best of trucks can be found with a "problem" - however insignificant it may be and certainly not a safety-related issue - and the driver at the minimum gets a warning. Warnings will now count as those points.
The driver in question doesn't give a damn, has already been reprimanded for attitude BS and probably? Won't last much longer in his position.
My dad and his wife (not my mother, so that's why I state it that way) are great people. I love visiting with them.
Dude, the older we get, the slower we get. Can't keep the 20's pace, but it was nice to see I can still stand my own against a 20 something. Yet, I couldn't possibly think of working the hours I was working my 20's - 14 to 24 hour days. I don't WANT to do that anymore, so no biggies to me!!
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