Tuesday, May 7, 2013

I am very annoyed right now.
First off a dog that shit on my bedroom floor last night.
Lack of sleep.
Manager gone at court today and when that happens I get all the phone calls and inquiries that he usually gets.  Annoyed salesman wanting to know when what is getting where and after a while I got rather curt with one of them that got an attitude with me.  Manager was selected for a jury and he is very upset - he is supposed to leave on vacation to Chicago on Saturday.

The new worker at our branch decided he was going to nothing.  When I was leaving to get in the semi and take off - for the entire day - I gave him some suggestions as to what to do with his day.  Sitting around on his ass was not one of them.  I told him if nothing else, there is plenty of clean-up he could do.  He simply stated that he was going to "wait for deliveries".  That was very annoying.  But I am not his manager.  However, his manager knows about it - I was talking with my boss after he finally got out of court today and I informed him of the new worker's decision to basically - do nothing.  Boss got mad - very mad.  We both work our asses off on a daily basis and a new person that decides that when the boss leaves, he's just going to sit around smoking cigarettes all day long?  That person will not last very long at our branch.
I asked my manager if he had a list he would like to supply to this dude - yup - and he's going to email it to me in the morning.  If the guy comes off with the same attitude again, I will simply relay that information to my manager and he can act accordingly.

And a lot of junk that happened at construction sites, making it take way longer to get the work done than it should have.  Like, getting off after 5:00pm.
The only bright spot in the day was when I got back to the yard - a brand new tractor.  Our new semi finally arrived and the thing is much better than what I envisioned.
It actually has chrome, lol
It also has an air horn, which the current tractor does not have.
Significance: I am tired of sitting behind people at stop lights that are texting and paying no attention to the fact that the light has turned green and has been green for several seconds.  An air horn will get their attention and if they flip me off, I don't care. I drive my vehicle, I don't sit around playing with electronic toys and not paying any attention to the road in front of me.
The AC works.  Yes, even after that long of a day of driving all over the place, I got in that new tractor, fired that beast up and took it for a spin around the yard.  No bad, but I suspect the governor is set too low.

NP, when it's due for an oil change, they can bring out their computer and set it up to 75 or 79 mph.
It has a CD player and really cool, it has electric mirrors - IE: adjust both sides with a switch.  It also has all wheel lock instead of the 2 wheel inter-axle lock, which it has that too.  Next time I get stuck in a pile of rocks at a construction site, I can simply flip that switch and walaah, I will drive right out of it.

The only thing I don't know about is the Detroit Diesel engine it has in it.  I haven't driven a tractor with a Detroit in it since the mid 80's.  I am a CAT fan first, then Cummins.  I am guessing Detroits have gotten better - I do hope so.

Well, whatever.  Long day. The kicker? I am leaving for church in about 10 minutes.  I do hope to sleep well tonight, lol.

I actually have plenty more to write, but, time has run out and I am pretty sure that when I get home from church, sitting down at the computer won't be any of my planned activities, IE: time to go to bed!

G'day.

ben

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Ben

woot, woot!! New semi/prime mover .. you won't know yourself for a few days. :)

I just can't get used to the idea of calling it a tractor. It conjures up visions of you driving a farm tractor to do your deliveries. ;)

Cheers

Lynne
Western Australia

BenB said...

You guys call them trains over there - but for good reason, lol. I don't know what you call the power unit, I think I have read it and just don't remember it. We call them tractor-trailer rigs or semi-trucks. Some people call them cabs. But, it really is a tractor because in and of itself, you can do nothing with it. Only the vehicle it is pulling is useful for any kind of payload. A farm tractor is the same. It pulls different implements, but without those implements, the tractor itself would not have much use. But yes, I am psyched. I envisioned a piece of junk. It is nothing like that at all. But I haven't put it to the test yet: driving it and pulling a heavy load and also finding out what the governor is set at.
ben

Anonymous said...

Hey Ben

We certainly do grow roads trains big over here! :).

We call the truck/power unit a prime mover.

When it is pulling 1 trailer eg: 40 foot trailer, it is a semi trailer.

If it is pulling 2 or more 40 foot trailers it is a road train.

Enjoy your new 'prime mover'. ;)

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KL4g67IFptI&feature=fvwrel

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yb5d6ISHoMU&feature=related

Cheers

Lynne
Western Australia

BenB said...

Cool, I'll check out the videos when I get home from work today!

BenB said...

Well, those trucks are all driving on the wrong side of the road!
Some of that stuff would never be allowed on public roads in the U.S! Some states allow 3 trailers on the Interstates only, most states do not. Even if they do allow it, they don't allow 40 plus feet long triples, they have to be the 28 footers. Most of it would only be allowed on private roads. I did get my chance at pulling 2, 40 foot belly dump trailers when they were building a freeway here. The trailers were snow-coned with dirt and the weight of the entire setup after all that dirt added was approximately 200,000 pounds, on old trucks that had most of the brakes non-functional on both the tractors and the trailers!

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