2015 Cascadia OTR Performance

Discussion in 'John Christner' started by Aminal, Nov 8, 2014.

  1. Aminal

    Aminal Heavy Load Member

    Sorry I haven't updated recently. Hometime in my very small ex-hometown where I was a good bit younger and more of a Wild Aminal was quite a trip. Haven't seen or heard from some of those folks in almost 30 years. The big WOW was at the reception when the Bride's Mother recognized me and reminded me about a date we went on a few years before either kid was born when I tried to hit a homerun and she was a devout practitioner of Christianity in the local Church of God, and not even interested in 1st base with a half drunk, more than half Wild Aminal. Oh, I only offended her sensibilities trying to get to 1st base and absolutely backed right off when it was apparent I was striking out totally but talk about AWKWARD 30 years later at the wedding reception for her daughter and my son. BUNCH of similar moments. Spent the whole next day explaining to my wife while my oldest daughter laughed and said THAT explains . . . It was a trip and a half folks. I tell ya that for sure.
    The creep mode is "automatic" and not something you set on this Detroit DT12. It sets and unsets itself based on your driving. Doesn't even bother with a light or symbol on the dash. You can just tell it's changed it's driving style. Without authority and only driving it knowledge, I think it slips it when the throttle pedal is making real small changes but when it senses a bigger right foot movement it slides right into regular manual. It does have to be in manual mode to get the fine feather on the throttle, though. I'll say this; world of difference. Before I figured out to go manual for docking etc., one of our drivers saw me backing like a rookie in Casa Grande. When I was done and knocked the dock a lot harder than I like he made the comment, just making friendly conversation, "I see you're struggling with one of the new automatics. Wouldn't touch one with a 10' pole myself. You can keep that mess." I kinda got my hackles up a bit at first cause I can talk bad about my wife, dog and mule all day long but don't you do it. Know what I mean? We can discuss pros and cons, likes and dislikes til the cows come home just fine. Don't down it, though. Started to say: "Don't recall offerin' to sell her or give her to ya." Then I realized he was just making conversation with an accent very different from mine (folks from different parts of the country just have different ways of speaking) and I WAS struggling to get the throttle right. I am learning to dock again, as these super singles with this particular config do also seem to "cut" sooner than I've been used to for a long time and I've been over steering and until last couple moves, over throttling. Manual reverse is DEFINITELY a big help and in the end this thing does seem to be a real tight reverse maneuverer. About the same as others in forward.

    I don't go along with ANY vendor fussing at a client or user but I do get the neighborhood where he was coming from. What's that old commercial? "This ain't your Daddy's Oldsmobile." And when they came out with that slogan it sure wasn't. This all Detroit system is about as far from the older Allisons and Eatons, married to all the different engine and rear end OEMs as my "slap stick" '68 Charger w/ dual Holley 650's on top of a 440 (true hemispherical heads from the factory) Hemi is from the new factory 700+HP, Hemi Challengers of today are. This is definitely not just an "automatic". It's more like a: "I can slice it and dice it 18 ways to Sunday and still have leftovers for Monday morning. Just tell me what'cha want me to do Driver. I'll get it done the instant you tell me to" machine. The trick is figuring out to tell it exactly what you want it to do, when you want it to do it. Nothin' to it. It's just like learning to back as a rookie. You just got to spend the time to read all the crap that comes with it a few time then spend a bunch of time effen with it in each "mode" in each driving scenario to get back to being "one with the mule" again. Can NOT over emphasize that this ain't like any other auto tranny config so the reading all that crap they give you and watching the DVD will shorten the learning curve of just getting in and making it do its do A LOT.

    I was very concerned before, sweatin' a little during; but very impressed after. I'm still the last one up the hill. About the same climb rate as my 2012 DD15/ Eaton straight 10 - maybe a super thin TAD hair better because she shifts faster than I can, has more gears and does it computerized a zillion ways to give you the max of all she's got for the best fuel burn. That said, it's still config'd for economy - not power; so it's a slow pull to the top, just like all my other mules since I ditched a 650HP Cat w/ a 13 speed (4.1 average MPG). Gotta choose your priorities; right? First one up and down the hill and first one taking big gulps at the fuel pump: or first one to hit their savings and escrow goals. Brother, I'm totally sold on this config - as long as the technology holds up. I guess to be perfectly honest that is my biggest concern after getting to know what she can do and how to get her to do it a little. I've only gotten about a third of the way into that, but as impressed as I am; I'm also concerned about how heavily dependent she is on technology as far as computerization goes. I'm still afraid that if the wrong fuse blows there will be nothing for me but a tow to Freightliner.

    I'll put it this way: I really like the Detroit innards in her (Freightliner part is still Chrysler - Daimler Benz selling Chrysler back to Chrysler was not good for us Drivers in my book), and overall I'll say, so far, I really LIKE her; but I don't TRUST her yet. Know what I mean? I know that sounds dumb, but that's the best way I can put it. I like her in hills, mountains, flats, city, urban, industrial, rural and also fat rain and a tad of flurries in the aforementioned scenarios. MPG and performance have been solid for a raw engine and drive train and so has traction and speed control. SO FAR. Picked up my winter gear during hometime after the wedding. I'll let you know how she does when I dive into full on winter driving in the big stuff. Full on "Winter In Your Face in Big Country" will definitely either earn trust or regrets. That's for sure.

    Y'all have a Safe trip.

    OH: Fuel Miser Club:

    7.8 overall since I picked her up. 8.7 average on flats and not fighting wind. 7.4 fighting hills and wind. A lot of that 7.8 is due to Florida flat and no wind to speak of. I'd say 7.4 is better close to a national run average. It was a combination of a LOT more hills and winds. I just got lucky on these last few legs and it jacked my overall up a couple points. All of this in Automatic - Economy Mode and letting cruise do as much of that as possible.

    OK, so now, thanks to an overage that took WAY too long to find a donation place and cut my time down WAY bad for OTD on a FT. Pierce, FL to Walnut, CA run - I gotta run at max speed to make OTD, all the way across I-10 from the Sunshine to the Golden to make OTD: I'm gonna do it and log MPG and differential leg to leg. Gonna mash Darla to her max from coast to coast. See what that does to MPG and where and when. I have a suspicion that I can run fast on flat with no MPG loss of any significance. When I hit the hill country of West Texas, it will get into whether or not higher speed helps "float the hills"
     
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  3. Cranky Yankee

    Cranky Yankee Cranky old ######

    15,317
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    Jan 31, 2012
    Green Bay Wi
    0
    i figure 9-10 guys that whine about autos have never driven one
    like the guys saying they wont chain up
    sitting in Laramie....they plan on staying until April?
    so the new truck had 250 miles when it got back from sign shop
    now at 500 still figurin out where everything is
    going all the way Green Bay to Sacromento so we shall see


    my youth finally got me to AA in 2001
    couple weeks of going to meetings some girl comes up says you dont remember me do you
    said sorry she says we spent a week in Nantucket together
    I says that was the 70's was just a blur...........
     
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  4. Aminal

    Aminal Heavy Load Member

    Test. Test. Test. System test. My last two posts just went "poof" before I hit "post". I got some technology issues of some kind here. Will update as soon as I can figure them out. Be Safe All.
     
  5. Aminal

    Aminal Heavy Load Member

    OK; before I get into today I do want to argue a few things in the affirmative. I chose to run this run this way and it is still tight. I didn't get any pressure from anyone to mash the motor to max the possibility of OTD. OYD in economy mode was shot out due to the overage taking so long to resolve. It cut a day of linehaul driving out of the plan. I had 21 minutes left on my 14 when Tropicana finished loading me, due to late load, due to the overage on the previous load. I feel strongly that I could have told Steve there is no way I'll make OTD, I run economy - period, and we'll have to look at a repower somewhere before delivery and it would have been no problem. I chose myself to give it a shot on a tight run to the max coast to coast. Two reasons: One, I have been doing her first 5K miles in "take it easy on her" mode. Yes I have had her up to good size speed, but only for a few minutes. The steady running has been at between 55 - 60 MPH as (both) part of break in and getting to know her in what should be her max economy range in a variety of driving conditions and scenarios. She clocked 6K just before bed yesterday so it's time for some steady higher rev run days for (both) break in and getting to know her "stats" at max. I figured that given this juice load is heavy and the first 2 !/2 days will be essentially flat, that would be a good time to get some breaking in done at max. Plus, if I don't like the way she's doing I can still holler "Uncle" and get a repower if I see a need to back off to a point of shooting any chance of OTD. I don't know if I'm making sense but it's just a good opportunity all around, but I want to be clear that nobody at JCT made me feel in any way that I needed to do this to get the load done OTD. This 44k pound load of juice got screwed by 700 pounds of leftover cream cheese I had nothing to do with and I think I better stop there. LOL. So, that said . . .

    Today I spent all 11 driving hours (save 5 minutes: I managed to get to ground just before "expiring" so technically 10h:55m, LOL) with the cruise set on 68 (max) in Aecon (Automatic Economy) mode and just reengaging after braking for the normal four wheeler, construction and traffic stuff. Made 713 miles from Ft. Pierce, FL to Biloxi, MS. Fought moderate head/crosswind (from about 2:00 - 3:00 position) until I made the turn from 95N onto 10W and it became moderate side and tail (3:00 - 5:00). I drove (as always) with the MPG bar as my Driver Info Display. The MPG bar seemed to be doing pretty much the same as it was at 60MPH. Hovering at the same places for the same reasons for the same amount of time. Wound up with 7.6 MPG for the total time I've had her, 7.9 on SensorTracs for it's "trip" and 7.4 on the dash for today. 7.4 is down from 8.4 (or so) on this same leg in the opposite direction, but I had wind today and this leg coming over from AZ last week I didn't.

    Noticeable differences (other than wind - wind does make a big difference, and it doesn't take all that much. Just has to hit you from the front and it pulls MPG down pretty good); Her flat runs in calm she hovered just under and over 10 and at 60 on the same stretch in calm she hovered between 11 and 12. The higher speed did float the gentle FL panhandle hills at better MPG and speed and everything. She crested just as she applied fuel and then backed it right back off for the down slide. One key, I think at this point, is when she's in E-Coast to apply just a tad of foot (leaving her on cruise) when the speed gets to a point she goes from E-Coast and back into "gear in - free rolling" like you're calling for some power; but not really trying to mash the motor. See, she'll down shift going down hill to keep your speed close to cruise OR max governed unless you put enough pressure on the foot to "trick" her into thinking you are calling for power. Do that and she'll leave it in 12 (top) and let you go as fast as you want down the hill until you get into serious over-revs. Then she'll flash on the dash that she's over-revving and strongly suggest you reduce RPMs - but she won't do anything herself to do that. It's up to you to take the foot off the right pedal (she still won't do anything but keep rolling however she is rolling) and mash the service brakes. When you do, she'll reengage her "brain" and downshift to the speed you are reducing to, to keep the RPMs back down into her "RPMs OK" range, yet still be slowing you down with down gearing. She's got her mind set on how fast you are going and what gear she should be in for that speed (and hill - don't forget the terrain map and GPS). You learn how to "work her". It's really an amazing system. Just takes a bit to re-think and re-train how you and your feet and brain engage with something that "thinks" for itself. As crazy kooky as it sounds; it's a relationship just like a human relationship only without the sex. Well, maybe. Mess up real bad and you ARE screwed. LOL. I actually managed to overheat the clutch (according to the dash) backing into my spot tonight. Real tight, taking my time and this beeping starts. BTW - she has the SAME "beep" for everything! Just maybe a different "dot, dot" to it - but ANY beep is the same tone and you have to check the dash to see WTF she's bi+chin' about. In this case she said her clutch temp was high and she had disengaged "Creep Mode". Yeah. OK. Long as you keep backing and fronting when I tell you. And she did. She just didn't like it. Kinda like my wife when I . . . . never mind that. You get the idea. Don't know why that issue came up with this maneuver other than I did take my time. The fender and bumper I was trying to avoid was painted flat black (never liked that style - flat paint, myself but whatever) in a dark parking lot and tight too. So I was being real careful. "BEEP, BEEP, BEEP; High Clutch Temp - . . . Creep Mode Disabled". I didn't engage it in the first place BEEYATCH! WTF? Are you gonna move? - Yes she did but objecting the whole time and in what "mode - I don't have a clue but I finally got it around the night cammo truck (really; who paints their truck to be invisible? Really?) despite the owner (with a heavy foreign accent) out with his flashlight waving back and forth like a runway traffic control guy at La Guardia or O'Hare only THEY don't point the raw white light into the pilot's eyes and actually have a universal system to their "wand" movements that the pilots and runway guides are all on the same page with. I mean really! What does waving a white, LED, cheap, truck stop flashlight in my mirror up and down and side to side mean when I'm inches from your invisible bumper? Bless is heart, I finally got out (reminds me - one thing easy to forget in the standard to Autoshift time is a time in the beginning when you don't turn the knob back to neutral before getting out - habit change and form thing to keep in mind there); BEEP, BEEP (thinking more clutch stuff and blowing it off because I'm not moving the truck) and saying to the nice gentleman (and he was nice - once we crossed the language barrier) "just shine the light here (on his fender) so I can see it and I got the rest." BEEP, BEEP . . . you still ain't cooled down? Whatever - GO BACK! Good Girl. There, there and . . . there. Done. Thanks Mr. and Mule. Sheeze!

    Oh, and the vibration at 15 MPG is much less when cruise set on max. Prolly cause it only stays that way a few seconds. Yeah. Overall I'd say she dropped a good 1.5 MPG between 60 and 68 MPG. That's significant.


    I was too young in the 70's. The 80's was party time. No such thing as too much beer or too many women. In the early 90's a Judge in Savannah, GA slapped the crap outta me with a real wake up call by maxing out the fines, punishment etc for a fairly minor (back then) alcohol related offense. No such thing as a "minor" alcohol related offense any more. It made me grow up and get my s#!+ together and to this day you can't put a gun to my head and make me even FLIRT with the line. If I ever see that Judge again, or the PO he assigned me to while paying my fine, I'll shake their hand and buy them a cup of coffee and a slice of pie. Whether he knew what he was doing or was just in a bad mood; that Judge and his making a mountain outta a mole hill; to the fullest extent allowed by law, saved me from an UGLY road. That brush (well more than a brush - say interaction) with the Law at full power was enough to get me right. I count myself as very lucky in that respect.
     
  6. DenaliDad

    DenaliDad Retired Wheel Dog

    My ex-wife The Lawyer used to say a "negative contact with law enforcement" was sometimes what a young, unbridled stallion needs to learn The Way before getting saddled up for adulthood. Sounds like you had yours and it worked.
     
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  7. Aminal

    Aminal Heavy Load Member

    It did indeed. Nobody to help with anything except a Greek Mob bail bondsman on the island that I knew from partying with. I was on my own and it was an ice water plunge reality check. Actually Nikki had a lot to do with the "reformation" too. He had a genuine heart-to-heart with me on the way back to the island from the mainland from picking me up where the cop transported me to Savannah, about what I owed him and the realities of that. Several other conversations involving my debt to him after that too. "I like you a lot kid. Don't make me do something I don't want to. As much as I like you, business is business and it'd be real bad if we had to take it to there." It was clear I was in a tri-fold mess. I had the hard nosed Judge and Law, a hard nosed PO and his strict enforcement and a bent nose Greek Mobster (retired - yeah, sure) and his making sure I paid my debt to him (which was his bond money and complete my probation requirements on time); all making sure I got the message loud and Waterford Crystal clear. Grow the F up and make something of yourself or you will spend the rest of what will be a short life in misery at our mercy. Yup. Worked REAL good.

    Ex-wife Lawyer huh? Betting one of two things: You had a very amicable and fair divorce settlement in a quite civil manner. Or you bent over and she drove. LOL. Have a good one Man. ;)
     
  8. Aminal

    Aminal Heavy Load Member

    Yeah. Ok. Technical difficulties wiped out my post about today's performance. I'm borrowing Mickey D'd WiFi from the parking lot and it timed out so I lost my post. Manana folks. Be safe. Short version is she did very well but natch, MPG is down.
     
  9. Cranky Yankee

    Cranky Yankee Cranky old ######

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    Jan 31, 2012
    Green Bay Wi
    0
    WY with its 40-50 head wins was not the place to be lookint at fuel mileage
    3 blow overs on Elk Mn

    more later
     
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  10. DenaliDad

    DenaliDad Retired Wheel Dog

    More like the latter. She thought she was hot stuff, so she represented herself...and proved the old adage about lawyers who represent themselves having a fool for a client. She didn't add the provisions about my federal retirement (which hadn't happened yet) but she got back at me by creating a fake document the judge accepted over the strenuous objections of my own lawyer. We've been divorced nearly 20 years and I'm still paying for that one.
     
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  11. Aminal

    Aminal Heavy Load Member

    Been outta pocket with internet technical difficulties, now resolved. Sorry. Every time this happens I get all fidgety and swear I'm gonna buy new stuff and upgrade, and get a stand alone GPS (mine is on my phone - no data = no GPS) and all that cause it's back to total old school. Considering in-cab Qualcomm is now 20 years old, I'm putting it in Old School category and since JCT uses these old arse QC units and no NaviGo - I'm going with it as old school too. I did upgrade from pen and paper. Kinda. I still use the heck outta my notebook but I took some "Contact Paper" (the brand you line drawers and cabinet shelves with) "Dry-Erase" paper and cut a sheet so all the black on the console where the QC control, suspension air dump valve, 5th wheel slide switch and inter-axel lock are (you know, to the right of the radio) and all that black space is now white "dry erase" and I make all my direction (and other) notes there so I don't have to use the windshield (was always hard for me to see - poor contrast even w/ red and it just messed w/ me) or keep looking at my notebook. See. I'm all w/ this new technology. I call it "Manual GPS". LOL. Anyway, as soon as I start fussing and wanting the new stuff cause my stuff fails - I do just fine w/ no problems; reverting to my RMN Atlas, Pocket Exit Guide, Calculator and Directions from the company database, and I say; "Why spend the money? I been doin' this long enough before they had all this stuff that I do just fine w/o it. It's just convenience and nice. I don't really need it." Sure do like it when I have it, though. LOL.

    OK: Darla update. Wow. So much to say and everyone is so great w/ patience w/ my long arse posts. So I'll cut to the meat and taters first. Fuel. [Announcer voice]: "When we last left Aminal he was doing a coast to coast "waste fuel" run from FL to CA because his pride won't let him holler Uncle on a tight load so he can run it in economy mode (read - slow)." So here we go . . . Remember - it's all I-10. Except the 10-12-10 hump across the top of Lake Pontchartrain;

    Biloxi, MS to Junction, TX, 721 miles, 7.5 on the dash for Trip (my whole time w/ her - about 6K: when I say Trip, that's what I'm referring to; my entire time w/ her), 7.2 SensorTracs (from now on "ST") 2,900 miles on that "trip", 6.9 on the dash for that leg. Not enough wind to speak of. Started raining a bit (moderate about Houston). I set the cruise on full speed in Aecon mode but started messing with Auto-Performance ("Aperf" from now on) a little in Houston and it did real well (better for big city traffic and maneuvering where and when I wanted to - y'all know how you like to get through big city traffic; my style is not aggressive but at times a little assertive) so I ran it all Aperf in San Antonio, then started playing with going back and forth from Aecon to Aperf in the hill country west of San Antonio. Aperf to climb, Aecon to go down and let her roll and stroll going down. She did well. Taps on the "paddle" and throttle pedal here and there and my goal was speed - not economy and she did what I asked and I made 721 miles and the only reason I violated my 11 (by 5 minutes) was my bad and missing my turn into the T/S. She stood and delivered. The rain did not bother the grip, handling or anything in the least. It was a good "speed run" for an economy truck and e-logs.

    Junction, TX to Benson, AZ, 718 miles, 7.4 Trip, 5.2 ST w/ 309 miles on it's "trip", 5.9 on the dash for that 718m leg. OUCH!! I ran her on cruise as much as I could and wide arse open (which sounds dumb to say in a 68MPH truck LOL), in VERY heavy straight and front quartering headwinds. It was the front of a front and it was 35MPH sustained and 50 and 60MPH long gusts, head on, all day. I'm w/ Cranky on MPG on that leg and I was glad to be fully loaded. I continued to mess w/ switching from Aecon to Aperf and back to salvage some MPG but I couldn't back down on speed. I got the Fid on that w/ the OS&D claim and donation deal from the previous run taking up a day of my time on this load so I had to make 700 miles/ day the first 3 days to make OTD work w/ the Cali leg slow down getting me back to economy mode and still make OTD. She did well. Still no complaints and I'm actually getting to really like the Autoshift. Maybe I'm just getting older and lazy but, pushing buttons and tapping the throttle pedal sure beat the gear jamming whatnot I would have been doing in a manual on that run and it did great.

    Benson, AZ to Walnut, CA,: I didn't note the miles but you can run them if you want. Y'all know it anyways. It's 500 +/-. 300 in the Grand Canyon State and about 180 and change in Cali. Walnut is over by Covina, a little west of Pomona, in the Ontario extended "Inland Empire" area. I went back to Aecon and set the cruise at 63 in AZ then 55 in the Golden. 7.4 for Trip, 6.4 ST and 7.8 on the dash for that leg. Wind was negligible. She did well again and I swear I heard my Mule Darla shake her head and "PPppprrrruuuhhh" a thank you and I promise my wallet did too. LOL. I did top off the air in the tires in Benson. The shop said run the steers at 110 and the SS drives at 120 and I been having a time finding a t/s compressor at the fuel island that could get the steers t much over 105 and drives up to 120 and been running them all at various 105 - 110 PSI. I got a burr under my saddle about it that morning in Benson and they didn't have any air at all at the fuel island so I went over to the shop and made my dissatisfaction known (professional but not happy) and had a conversation with the supervisor about me being Diamond Loyalty but not getting Diamond air and a nice chat about how important proper air in the tires is on every level and why is it that Love's doesn't have air at that fuel island, or weak air where it does have air, for a loyal customer.

    He told me to pull into a bay and he'd use shop air (shops have higher PSI compressors) to get Darla's shoes right . . . for free. He did too. I was doing the tire gauge sticking (I love the Doran brand TPS and wish I had it, but there is no substitute for a high quality tire stick - in my book anyways. Kinda makes you run your gloved hand over all the surface rubber while you're there. That's always a good thing to do. Even brand new.), and him looking and filling and bleeding til we got exactly 110 on the steers and 120 on the drives in cold tires. I liked that level of service. Darla did too. She rolled better. Sounds dumb but y'all know what I mean. You can feel the difference when the air is just right in the tires.

    So, summary:

    I think the MPG is gonna be higher overall with Darla once she gets broken in. She's doing better than any other unit I've ever had at her "age". The MPG killers have been MPG killers with any config. Speed, terrain and wind. She autoshifts reliably and I will now say I trust her in all scenarios (save the deep white stuff - we still have that to do together before I can say full trust. DEFINITELY takes getting used to, though. There are so many things to an Old Schooler making the change from a standard to this Detroit, intuitive, adaptive, "total package driveline" Autoshift that it would take a library to catalogue. One funny thing that doesn't have anything to do with Detroit is the turn signal. YUP. Turn signal.

    Couple days and I quit stepping on an imaginary clutch and grabbing a ghost stick shifter. Two weeks and I'm remembering to turn the knob to "N" when I park so she doesn't have to do it for me. If you leave it in "D" and set the brakes she'll electronically go to "N" but I don't like it when that happens. To me it's like leaving it "in gear" and running and getting out. First time was funny. Bout broke my neck diving back into the cab in a panic thinking she was gonna start tugging against her brakes and take off on the fuel island w/o me. Knocked my hat off, shoulders commin out my jacket and doin' a basketball jump shot leap into the cab grabbing at - what? A stick that wasn't there and keying it off. Busted my noggin on the steering wheel. Darla had already gone to "N" on her own. WHEW!! LOL. Panic moment helped to create a habit. Nope. None of the hundred Autoshift habit changes are harder to break than the turn signal has been.

    Darla automatically cancels her turn signals when you reverse the wheel straightening out after a turn. Just like a passenger vehicle or pickup does. OK, for 17 years I have stuck my pinky finger out whenever I'm back steering in a turn, to cancel the turn signal. I'm still doing it and I keep knocking the turn signal from it's already cancelled neutral position to the opposite turn position. I'm signaling left (or right), making my turn, then during my turn, signaling I'm gonna turn right because my habit pinky knocks the stick that is quietly already back to neutral to the opposite turn position. Who'd a thunk it? LOL. It's funny. I log a fair bit over 100K miles every year in my truck(s) and drive a fair enough bit more than that. I'd bet a month's settlements I don't put 3K miles behind the wheel of a passenger vehicle in a year and that's prolly a stretch. When I'm home I don't drive. It's kinda like a mailman taking a walk on his day off or a mounted policeman going horseback riding on the weekend, a plumber fiddling with pipes, a carpenter buzzing some wood. You get the idea. Plus I hate the way they design passenger vehicles. You can't see out the darned things. Not behind you anyway. Teeny Tiny mirrors. Too little windshield too. No WONDER four wheelers act so crazy. They can't SEE!! Well, there's that and the whole texting and cell phoning and make-up putting on and what not. But add: THERE'S NOT ENOUGH GLASS and I get why they do crazy stuff.

    Anyhoo. Darla's doin' great. I think we can groom each other into a fine team. She has adaptive and intuitive capabilities and I do too. We'll figure each other out. Got a couple ex-wives (Yeah, I know; but I do.) that would absolutely contest my adaptability abilities. I might agree to a point. My adaptability capability is proportionately relative to my desire to adapt. I really wasn't motivated to adapt and acquiesce to my ex's demands. I'm not a big "demand" or "ultimatum" type. I'll gladly do my part, but that needs to work both ways. Parasitic relationships are not conducive to mutual fulfillment. Symbiosis is where it's at. I'm all about symbiosis and I think Darla and I can work that out a helluva lot better than any of my exes and I ever could or will. Maybe it's because we spend more time together and I actually care more for her than I do my exes. Funny how that works. The more you care about something, take time to get to know it fully, and attend to it's needs: the more it gives back to you in a mutually fulfilling relationship. Machine or person. Works the same way.

    Hmmm.

    I'm thankful for my Mule, my friends online, my health, my wits (what little I have), the family (what I have) and peanuts and sweet potatoes. Together or individually. All forms. Great Spirit's perfect foods. Together; BOMBDIGGITY!

    :)

    Happy Thanksgiving y'all.
     
    Last edited: Nov 27, 2014
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