10 years--Gettin' back on the horse!

Hmm... I've been using Gimp 2.4.2 on this machine since I've had it and never noticed any slowdown. Gateway/XP/Celeron M

There are lots of different versions, one of which should be stable on your machine. Could it be you downloaded a beta version?

 

Um... shhhh!!! Adobe will come and break your kneecaps... unless your dad shelled out $1700 for your own licensed copy.

 

LOL... and here I thought this thread had finally died. Now you've gone and resurrected it from the dead.

Because you have entered the Tomb of the Dead Horse and awoken the mummies, the curse is now yours. You must update this thread daily, lest you be eaten by zombies.

Seriously, I once thought I'd like to be a freelance writer, except my ambition to write goes in spurts. I might write a novel in a week, and then'nothing'for months on end. If you're good at Googling, you might find evidence of my slackerism at Blogspot.

Anyhoo, as for the update, I'm sitting in Ponce de Leon, FL... delivering in Panama City in the am.

 

lv... I know you been waiting a long time for an update, so here it is. Yeah, it's long and the beginning of the story is kinda boring, but it gets better... believe me!

Saturday Feb. 28, 2009

Yesterday was one of those days where you wish you could just crawl back into bed and start over...

After a pretty slow start to the week, I thought I was going to be able to salvage it after receiving an 800 mile run and a 1000 mile run back-to-back. I loaded up in VA and planned on a leisurely run to the house'with a two stop delivery set for Monday morning.

Heading south on 85, I came to the Alberta, VA weigh station'open for business, so I pull in. Slowing to a stop before the platform, the engine died on me... NOT GOOD! I reached for the key and tried in vain to start it back up'no deal'dead in the water.

I got on the radio and told the driver behind me that it died, forcing him to back up so he could pull through the bypass. The weigh-master, on the other side of the highway, saw what was going on and closed the scale for the southbound side. Meanwhile, the driver who was behind me stopped to see if he could help.

We shot it with ether... nope, not even so much as a cough. It was time to get the shop on the phone.

While I was waiting for a service truck to come out, a DOT officer from the other side of the highway finally made her way over to see what was going on. I told her the truck was dead and made a joking reference to the place where it decided to die'she wasn't amused'not in the slightest. She wanted to know when it was going to be off her scale and who was coming out to get it. I repeatedly told her that my shop had called out a service truck. She wanted to know the name of the place, which of course, I didn't know because I didn't call them.

She then says, "Can't you just put it in gear and crank it to get it around the back?"

Um... ok.

"Try that," she says, "otherwise we'll have to call someone to tow it."

Rrrr-rrr-rrr-rrr.... beeeeeeeeep... PSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSHHHH

That's the sound of the low air warning and the brake valves popping just as it comes up on the platform. Not only was it dead, apparently it was out of air too. Charging the trailer back up drained all the available air.

The green light flashed for me to go... yeah, if only... As much as I would have like to have gotten the hell out of there, uh, nope, not gonna happen.

I frantically called the service guy. He assured me he would be there in fifteen minutes.

A few minutes later, he arrives and sets to work. I explained to him that a few days earlier, the gauges were going wacky and it was switching between limp-in mode and full power. I thought for sure it was an electrical problem. But alas, unscrewing the fuel filter revealed that it was bone dry.

He filled the filter up with fuel.... and we cranked... and cranked... and cranked... and then I had a moment of clarity and put two and two together'the accessory drive shaft was broken. Low air + no fuel being sucked up by the pump = time for a tow truck. And so it was...

Approximately two hours after this ordeal began, my truck and trailer'all 79,900 lbs. of it'is on the hook and headed south to the nearest truckstop.

The wrecker was an oldie and not so goodie. I climb in and start having deja-vu of my early days with PST. It shook, rattled, wandered all over the road and brought back many memories of the junkers I used to drive. Every time he'd let off the throttle, the tranny would howl like it didn't have any lube. For a fleeting moment, I thought what if the transmission blows on this thing? A few miles down the road and I was just praying that we'd make it to the truckstop in alive and in one piece. I was counting down the mile-markers with a death grip on the grab rail.

BANG... BAM... BANG!!!

That's the sound a driveshaft makes as it exits out from under the vehicle at highway speed after giving up the ghost. One hundred seventeen thousand pounds of GCVW proved to be too much for the old beast. It released the driveshaft to fly and be free... not more than a hundred yards from our exit.

I remember thinking, "OH S#!^... this is it... this is how I'm gonna die!" and practically ripping the door handle out by the roots as he coasted the whole #### mess to the side of the road. I must have had six or seven heart attacks in the span of 45 seconds.

To be continued...