"That kid that don't know nothin'"

I’ll agree Dave good read in this thread! And spot on with advice Don’t sweat the small stuff!

 

Happy to hear the journal is well-received. I agree with you all on attitude. It definitely is a struggle and no one is perfect at all time, but so long as you slow down and find beauty in the smallest and simplest of stuff, you will never be unhappy.

For anyone who is interested, I get a lot of my outlook from Taoism. Theres a book, short and sweet called the Tao of Pooh. It explains taoism through winnie the pooh. For you audiobook fans, it's like a dollar and 2 1/2 hrs long. Next to the bible, it's my favorite book to dip into when i'm irrationally irritated or stressed.

Onto the topic, the AFB load got cancelled last night and this morning I was told to take it back to the plant to unload it back where I got it from. It was easy, i kept the psi at 15 and had two hoppers emptied in about 15-30 mins. A driver came over and chatted with me, showed me a neat trick to empty my hoppers completely and I left for Muskogee.

Got to Muskogee at 1 and that eliminated any possibility of getting the 2nd load. So I took the one and ran. Thennn my truck started overheating. Bad. I stopped asap and put water in it, it chugged about a gallon and i started running again. And again, it got hot. So i started texting my boss, he figures the fan belts are loose and will replace them with me tomorrow night.

I stopped to put coolant in it, and put the entire bottle in thinking "wow i'm sure dumb for running this thing empty." Only to look down and see most of the bottle is on the ground. It ran out down what I assume is an overfill hose? Idk, i'll attach 3 pics and anyone who can recognize it, let me know!

Boss still thinks its the fan belts. They do look mighty loose.

Anyway, I baby'd this death trap down to the city, only to #### near run off the road when an otr semi cut into my lane during some road construction. I looked around and tried to find why he did that, didn't see any obvious reason. So who knows.

Now i'm unloading, got to drive back to Muskogee tonight to sleep at the truck stop by the power plant. Hopefully this truck doesn't blow up on the way.

My tank guage is working, but i've decided to replace is asap since it's 5 lbs lower than the line gauge. So that's on the agenda this weekend. Along with changing one of the trailer tires, adjusting all the brakes and putting a new fan motor on the a/c.

I swear you'd think I own this rig.

 

One of my 350 cats coming out of Philly smelled that I am losing coolant.

It's a hard rule I have if you smell coolant in the cab or muscle car while driving (Or any vehicle really) you are losing it to open atmosphere out of a sealed pressurized system.

What I could not know at that time and learned the next morning after overnight sleep in Kenly NC was the water pump has a seal so when it gets hot it works hard to seal. The moment you shut off and cool it, out through that seal and a lake forms under your tractor and the next three neighbors.

Kind of annoying to hop out thinking breakfast and then SPLASH what the....

TA shop replaced coolant entirely and fixed the leaks by replacing seals that day. But it had been losing some since philly. And this was long before the aggravating computer engines that beep and fault shut down over a lost pint from that overflow sensor when its thirsty and needs coolant. And getting hot...

That is the other disadvantage of a exhaust blower truck. Sick engine, no unloading.

I wanted to point out some thing else. Racing. In the early morning of the 80's there would be 6 of us sent to the pentagon silos arlington in DC and we all would pound across the Memorial Bridge on 495 at 100+ in a group. The first 5 to get a silo there pretty much will get a 5th or 6th load for that day. (When it's 68 dollars or so a load to pay 6 loads times that much you are getting close to 400 dollars gross pay for the day. So it's worth the racing.

Tickets for 90 was 55 dollars and pay was still 68 so you are break even. You can get 5 tickets in any 18 month period and not breach the points against suspension. Shrugs.

The company and two states eventually got the racing stopped but not all of it. Some of our older bulk drivers would fly down US 15 with a tanker doing things that would probably cause me to roll mine on that road.

As far as stress, there isnt any really. That starts when something breaks or plugs begin. You have a short time to get it settled fast before it really plugs then fills the silo pile and eventually your hose. (That is the painful part. Pounding the silo pipe empty then picking your hose and duck walking that empty and then shoveling that cement back into a few buckets. Once drained the tank, pressure off. Carry the bucket up top, pour, close seal and pump it off a puff or two and done. Such a pain.

If it's raining or high humidity she is going to plug any chance you get. That is where you increase the pump flow pipe air and drop tank to about 10 pounds and wait. The result should be a snaking hose that is alive. And when you stand on that, you will notice a loss in hose height under your feet with product and air moving really fast. Half full or a little more.

Takes a little longer but you shouldnt plug.

It's been years, decades even but these little tidbits of knowledge means I had awesome trainers in my day and I wanted to at least maybe share some of that useful tidbits.

 

One thing I didn't see or maybe overlooked it while going through the posts, become a "creature of habit" when hooking up and unhooking. Sometimes if someone is there when you back in they will assist you in hooking up and tell you that you are good to go, I always go through a routine even if they say that, bc if anything happens who will it come back on, that's right you! Also get yourself a claw hammer so you can open the camlocks on your hose when you are finished and can tap them completely closed when you hook up, they should have some resistance when hooking up, if not replace the gasket in the hose. And get a rubber mallet to tap on tank to make sure it's completely empty, bc looking at your trailer it looks a little older, and may have some old stuff hung up on the inside and sometimes doesn't allow the product to completely fall off the sides and completely empty out. Do not use a metal hammer on the sides of the trailer, especially when pressurized!

 

Gen Hood was actually a very... ferocious fighter once he gets going. Longstreet matches him in defensive situation but hates to spend men. (Pay in blood)

If I remember right, Hood was finally cornered near Atlanta under what was superior forces under Johnson I believe for the CSA side sometime after Lee at Appamotix (Spelling)

The Union equivilant of Hood would probably be Gibbon, probably Iron Brigade, first corps of first. I think that particular unit was destroyed near the Almshoues in front of Gamble and Devon' calvary dismounted with repeating rifles. However the two divisions that came towards the three themselves got wrecked in turn.

There is a book that illustrates all the generals and a short life story and synopsis of their success or failure on the shelf. It's a shame that Jackson was lost so early relatively speaking.

 

Carry a roll of duct tape. Eventually, you'll wear a product hose through, and usually duct tape will get you through the load.

 

Gen. Hood is my least favorite generals of the war, frankly.

My list goes something like this;
1. Lee
2. Grant
3. Stonewall
4. Nathan Bedford Forrest
and so on, til you get Hood at 10 or 11.

Hood is such an interesting character. He's one of the deadliest men of the war, but so wreckless with his men. This is why I favor Forrest higher than Hood. Forrest was ferocious, deadly and downright amazing to tell people about, but most importantly he cared for his men. It showed in his battle actions, he wasn't tyrannical like Bragg, but wasn't soft like Lee. He was the perfect confederate general. Lee's own opinion of him was that. That he wasn't utilized properly.

 

I've become so proper on making sure the trailer is carefully hooked & unhooked that it's becoming second nature. I'm glad because i'm so deathly afraid of the trailer. I can see the actions being unlikely if I take my time, but from all the horror stories I hear, I don't want to be near a hose that pops off and goes flying, nor near a trailer that over pressures.

So i've made a couple purchases. First being 5 small gasket rings for the hoses, two large gaskets for the hatches. I got them under the bed. Then I bought some velcro straps specifically for hose ears, they go on everywhere I connect.. If I miss them, I have an insane abundance of rubber bungee cords.

I've got a lil dinky f'd up rubber mallet some other driver gave me to keep. Half the handle is broken off and it's wrapped in eletrical tape. It's so cute. Does the job well.

I always carry PB blaster due to having hell with rusty boomers when I ran flatbed in the past. So it's definitely seeing some use on these rusty hose connector-things.

I've got to buy a new cap to put on my blower. Ended up forgetting it and lost it somewhere between oklahoma city and tulsa. And it was given to me by my bosses brother with direct instructions to not lose it, so I think i'll buy two.

All in all, I think i'm coming together as a bulk driver with friday approaching. Still gonna be another week til I see the paycheck. I've been asking my boss what I should be expecting(25%perload) and his only response is "you're gonna like it."

He's never skipped on paying me and often overpays me on odd jobs like hay and machine moving, so i'm hopeful.

 

Don't drop your hose ends on the pavement. It will make the camlock fittings egg shaped and they'll be hard to connect.
And pay no attention to the guy that said to beat on the ears with a hammer. If you can't close them with just your hands or maybe a tiny tap with your rubber hammer it's time to clean the fittings or replace them.
Carry some old metal seals with you. If a camlock ear is a little sloppy you can use the seal for a shim.

 

Being afraid of the bulk tanker is second nature. If any of the welds should fail at 15 PSI over our atmosphere you will probably not suffer. Much. One minute you are working and the next minute over the river at the gates or whereever it is beyond.

I don't know what 25% of bulk is, but in my time we were paid very well per load. It's not often there was a oppertunity to come out of school and into a trucking job that ran around close to 40000 gross per year and almost two times that for gasoline for those insurable at 25 and over to do it.

In those days 40K a year would be equal to the almost 70K we pulled in 2001 which would be the inflation between that time and this. If I stayed 6 months instead of being let go in three, that 7700 dollar brand new car I bought would have been paid in full. The school paid in full 2 months after that and so on. But that is not here and now. It's water under the bridge.

As far as favorite generals I don't have any particular favorite despite my post. The civil war situation at times was a near thing. For example Lee had his back to the river at Antietam next to the Dunkard Church on down. The Unions presented 4 seperate assaults on his line. The last one to arrive at 1 PM was met by Jackson I think who came across on foot from Harpers Ferry which he captured very recently. Leaving at sunrise early to go 17 miles on foot to arrive just in time to meet the 4th and last Union Assault with 17000 infantry and artillery. (What little there was)

Unfortunately there is a small road in the center of the battlefield called bloody lane. 25,000 were killed or wounded there. Stacked 5 or 7 deep they say. If you were standing or driving through on a auto tour, you will find that lane essentially a strip in the land bowl with no place to find cover anywhere with everyone shooting down on you. I believe it remains to this day one of the worst single day losses in battle in America. However Gettysburg double that in three days out of 150,000 total combatants.

Gettysburg is the one I am most familiar with of all the battles. My family was burned out of warwick east of Richmond due to Union Forces on the one wing gunning for Richmond. There is a particular courthouse that was burned and with it family records around that time. The survivors moved across the water to Somerset where they picked up and carried on with relatives who were there about 15 years prior to the civil war.

Baltimore was a federally occupied city, cannon pointed downtown from Federal hill above the harbor and fort mchenry was a prision for half the police force that was dismissed and some of the State legislature that was disbanded for the duration by Lincoln to prevent Maryland from going south. The other half of the Police and legislature was probably held in Mass for the duration of the war.

Yes Lee was a touch soft but once in a while he gets seriously violent when the blood rises in rage or emotion against the enemy. From that becomes history in which his actions are examined for better or worse. Many people forget he was a leader of a detachment of US Marines to pry john brown loose from the insurrection at the fire dept of the Federal Arsenal there and was able to spend time listening to mexicans talk about things that were supposed to be secret during the mexican war. The information he brought back to his Boss made certain battles possible.

If I remember right, the Arlington House and lands was occupied by Federal troops who buried the dead in Lee's wife's rose garden as a deliberate insult. At some point after the war, Lee's son was able to have congress execute a act in which the entire property was purchase for 150K and then reused as a federal cemetary we know today. I have a relative buried there and will be back within the year to bury another. Im not looking forward to it. It will be difficult.