Good Night From II

At the Phoenix terminal with my truck in the shop. Sucks to have the truck in the shop but after talking to a friend back east I'm happy that the current temperature here at 6:30 PM is 75 degrees. And it is sunny.

 

Sorry to read your truck is down but at least you get to enjoy our beautiful weather here

 

Flying J in Twin Falls, ID. My delivery in Centerville, UT isn't until 1:00 pm tomorrow, so I knocked off early this afternoon to snag a nice parking spot and do some work on the truck:

- I bought a siphon pump for $13 earlier today and siphoned out all the radiator coolant that was in the windshield washer reservoir (compliments of the previous truck driver that filled the windshield washer bottle with radiator coolant... how was my trainee to know?)...

- Inserted a paper shop towel in the reservoir to sop up all the radiator coolant until it was pretty dry inside, then filled it with windshield washer fluid.

- Ran the windshield wipers with the washer fluid until it drained down 1" to get the radiator coolant out of the lines, then wiped down the windshield and mirrors with ammonia in distilled water, then with Windex.

- After cleaning all the surfaces of the oily radiator coolant I applied a coating of Rainex, then Windex'ed the inside of the windshield and side windows.

After that workout I'm doing laundry and chillin'. The last of the chicken tamales my daughter packed went down real nice.

 

Inver Grove Heights, MN, just coming off home time.

I got my DOT physical today, which expired today, and got off safety hold at around 1820.
Then I got a pplan to pick up an mt about 30 miles from here, which I can do in the morning.
One line in a note said 'service recovery, phx'.

Then I get a call from a gal asking where I would like to go for my next load.
I don't think that has ever happened to me, being asked my preference of a next load. I was astonished.
She said they always follow up on service recovery loads to thank the driver for helping out.
So I picked up a load, d/h and 24k, going to NC.

Between lousy loads and home time I have two really bad checks. It's nice to be able to start this week with a good load.
I'm just hoping the mt I'm picking up is decent. I'm picking up at MOM, and they are picky.

 

After that, you deserve to chill.

I always smell the contents if I open a refilled bottle that I personally didn't fill. That would have prevented the mistake.
And getting a truck with fluid bottles still in it... you never know what might be lurking.

 

At the Lathrop terminal. Delivery tomorrow morning in Tracy then back here for a split so I can pick up in Stockton headed back to Phoenix.

I've morphed into a regional driver and except for the money I like it. Longest I've been out in the last 6 months has been 8 days.

351 days left (on my lease), but who's counting!

 

Yeah, lesson learned. Personally I'm picky about making sure I never cross fill my empty bottles. It never occurred to me when I my trainee said the windshield washer fluid was low and I told him to go ahead and fill it... without being a "helicopter trainer". Sometimes I challenge a trainee by throwing something like that back at them to see how they handle it, then peek to see how they are doing. He did fine. Filled it up, capped it off. It just didn't register to me that it was red, not blue.

Boy we sure found out the first time we used it!

 

Just think, when you wake up tomorrow only 350 days left....

 

Rain-X washer fluid is orange and could easily be mistaken for coolant, or coolant for it. I use it often, especially in cold weather.
It's not refillable, of course. Just mentioning the fact.

 

349 and a wake-up!