I wasn't going to sit around all day long doing nothing.  The truck isn't finished and now it's going into Thursday.  On that note, I called work a while ago asking if it was done. No, no word from Peterbilt yet.  I'm not one of those kinds that sits around waiting for a call. I'd rather call them after the time has elapsed to fix the thing in the time they say it should take and find out what's going on. But, I didn't do that, just bite my tongue and let them deal with it.

However, the mechanic said we aren't going to be changing the parameters for the engine brake. Meaning, they aren't going to change from the odd configuration of having to hit the foot brake for th engine brake to come on and instead just having it come on when you let off the accelerator.  Why?  He said the VP of the company said no and that the maintenance director called him and gave him an earful about it.

At that point, I understood it was out of his hands and I either live with it or go up the chain.  I went up the chain, immediately actually. Wrote a letter to the "Executive VP" of our division of the company.  However, the mechanic said the decision came from the VP of the mother company. No explanation why, just take it or leave it I guess.  I'm fully prepared to write a letter to everyone - the entire chain of command and their emails are readily available on a Google search.  But, I'll see what, if anything, happens with this individual.  I'm in no hurry, I'm obviously not going to get the thing configured the way i want it - which is not unreasonable and most other trucks in the fleet are already configured that way.  That's the kicker.  The previous 6 trucks I have driven in this company, 3 of them company trucks, were configured the way I want it.

Well whatever.  I'll wait and see what becomes of it, but at the very least, I want a rational explanation of why, exactly, they won't allow this.

So, I set out to get a bunch of outdoor stuff done around the house today and I can say that I accomplished most of what i set out to do.  Just cleaning up, raking, hauling and burning leaves, cleaning up the front porch, mowing the lawns. Used the electric blower and cleaned up the entire cement areas in the back of the house, tidied it up and then fired up the smoker.

Popped in a pork loin and cooked it in there for about 2-1/2 hours and finished it off in the oven at 325 degrees for however long, I didn't really pay attention, came out very, very tasty.

Busy day, made the best of time off at home.  Taking vacation hours for the time wasted sitting here waiting on yet another broke down truck.