An old man's career goes flat, Snackbar moves to open deck

This is what I am hauling BTW

 

Depends on what I am securing and how much clearance I have. Snap binders are quicker, but you need enough room for a winch bar to get them good and tight, but sometimes where the load is positioned you can't get the right tension. One link is too tight, move back a half a link and it's not tight enough. Ratchet binders are slower, but you can get them as tight as you need, but sometimes no matter how lubricated they are they still want to wrap up your chain, so you still need room for your bar to keep the end of the binder from twisting. I usually use both, snap binders on one end first, then ratchet on the other end.

 

The hardest part was securing the louvers. These have an exhaust fan with louvers, facing forward. It was raining when I loaded, and getting tape to stick to the frames of the louvers to keep them from flapping themselves to pieces was a PITA...but Gorilla tape comes thru again.

 

Just under 3 weeks into this month (and I started driving after a 34 on the 2nd), and I am 35 gallons away from diamond on my Love's card already...

 

Not sure I have ever seen this many drivers in Arlington...and the shop is waaaaaay backed up. They said they are turning away B services if you don't have anything else that needs fixed and aren't over on your miles. Well, I am over by 700 miles, I have a coolant leak, and my batteries have so much corrosion on the terminals it looks like green fungus...and I just cleaned and coated them when I was on hometime. I may be here a while.

Unload was a 3-ring circus. One of the smallest military bases I have ever seen and it took me 4+ hours to get clearance, get in, drive right down the pier next to the ships and unload 2 22' storage containers and get out. And the fun part, the piers aren't wide enough to turn a 53' trailer around, so it was drive on, then back off, and it is loaded with people coming on and off duty so you have to back at walking speed watching both mirrors all the time because people just wander across behind a moving truck....the personell there were very cool and helpful, but for a place that small, there were a lot of people(civilians) waiting to get their ID badge to enter the base.

 

Just before I headed to SoCal a few weeks ago it was pretty vacant up here then too. It is coming up to the end of the month and the end of the quarter, so customers might be taking a breather.