other dog

ATAAC? What's that?..automatic transmission and air conditioning?..no, 5 and 4... a truck and a computer?..hmmm, probably not- a terrapin and a cougar?..aha, a tri-pod and a camera?

Well, I stand corrected- somebody in a 4wd pickup truck with a plow on it just went by slinging slush- thank you whoever you are!

Good picks, any of the Hendrick cars could do it- but one to watch might be Martin Truex Jr.

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I ventured out to the store to get some beer snacks for watching the Daytoner 500 and swung by the dumpster to drop off some trash just now. The road is still slush covered in most places, but it's up to 36 degrees and I cut tracks almost down to the pavement in the Ranger pickup. One pass up and back with a plow now would clean everything, but i'm not expecting that to happen. And it's just going to re-freeze tonight.

The real question is, the next time there's a "meeting of the minds", who's going to figure out what number it is?..this is more confusing than the Super Bowl!

Of course!..would Al lie?

So far so good, except we had to replace the intake manifold because it was leaking water. It was leaking where the heater hose connects to the manifold. I didn't realize that it was part of the manifold itself where the hose connected, but it was- all made in one piece, and the manifold is all plastic. I've never seen such- plastic manifold...geez! But that's been the only issue so far.

Picture from google earth- You can look over to the right and see it from 460 west in many places between Lynchburg and Montvale. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Orchard_Mountain Closer view-

Thank you very much. It was snowing here a while ago, but it stopped- now it's sleeting! Still only 18 degrees.

Yeah, there were plenty of parking spots when I got there, i'm sure he could have found one- maybe he ran out of hours right there. That Hugh Rowland looking hat is the cat's ass, as Larry Wales used to say. I pull my hood up over it and my head will be sweating it's so warm. Got it at the Wal Mart store a few years ago, forgot what it cost but it was money well spent.

Then when I was coming home yesterday... The head of the Winfall public Works Department had fixed that fence- looks great,eh? The next door neighbor was out catching some rays- I was looking at her and almost took out my mailbox trying to turn in the driveway! I went out there with a shovel and dug up this much ice down to the pavement, it was hard as a rock. ...and now it's snowing again...I give up. Supposed to be up close to 50 degrees tomorrow...

Part 2- The weather station is way over yonder- I have to back all the way in this road to get to where they load flatbeds. I got in there... After tarping, in my 10 degree tarping suit. I took this load to Chesapeake, Va. Saw the big white things in the field again, all covered with snow. Saw a big Mack truck there too. I stopped at a little fuel stop in Ivor, Va. and walked over to Zero's Subs and got a cheese steak sub. I don't know if it was an officially "approved by Yardo" sammich because it didn't have a stamp on it, but it was delicious! After I got unloaded Friday morning, I went over to this container getting place to pick up 2 20 foot containers to bring back to Sonny Merryman's in Rustburg. They said they couldn't load them because it was too slick for their lift to get to them. So, I went over to this other container getting place to get 2 other containers. Solid ice in there too, but I got them loaded. I only needed a 14 degree suit there. Saw some big Mack trucks on the way back up rt. 460.

*or maybe "Global Warming-Here and Now!" I stayed home Monday because it was snowing everywhere, even on Other Dog. Road was still covered Tuesday morning- I would have been OK with giving it another day, but when I called headquarters I got the impression they wanted me to get going. So I did. Road was crappy until I got out to 501. Fence looks pretty bad at Winfall, I thought they fixed that. Snow plow at the shop- it did a good job though, that piece of beam on the forklift. Everybody was pushing when I got there, they had the old pickup with a plow on it- I didn't even know it still ran- and the little International tractor with the bucket on it. I-64 was good, but I saw a little flurry headed east at Low Moor. There's where all that guard rail is torn down, just across the W.V. line a little ways. Going up Sandstone mountain. Unloading in Gallipolis, Ohio. Some old trailers made into a part of the building. Never seen that before, but it looks pretty neat. Then I had to go to Haverhill, Oh. to pick up an exchanger and a crate- only 4,500 lbs. Normally I would like that, but i'd rather have had 45,000 lbs. on this trip. Rt. 7 didn't look too good. ...and it soon looked worse- A cold looking crow on a light pole. I stopped at a little truckstop in Coal Grove Oh. because Randy (dispatcher Randy, not randyp, Y, or M) called and said they weren't going to load me until 4pm. Meanwhile, it's snowing hard...getting deeper...and deeper... More snow ahead! Then they said they'd load me at 1pm. When I got to the chemical plant to load, the man that loaded me said the load had been ready since the day before! Apparently they don't take snow removal too seriously at the chemical plant. After I got loaded and strapped down the guy said there was a big spot all the way down at the end of this road where I could turn around. He said doing that would be better than backing through the intersection to get out. So I drove down there, and the spot wasn't all that big, and everything was snow covered so I couldn't tell if there were hidden obstacles, and I was afraid i'd get stuck, so I went on around the corner looking for a better spot. Then I got all the way to the next corner and it looked like a ditch on the left and a yellow metal pole on the right- it would have been tight getting around the pole anyway, and I was afraid to get over to the left very far- because everything was covered in snow,and it looked like a ditch there. So...I backed all the way back, blindsiding around the corner now, and all the way back, right past where I started from, through the intersection, then turned left and out the gate. Random Oreo picture, just to see who's still awake. Dammit!..more snow ahead, even after Oreos, rt.52 in Ohio. The W.V. Turnpike was good, but when 64 split off at Beckley it was the usual deal, part of the right lane was clear, all the way to the Va. line. Instead of going down 220 to go to Salem I went over to Lee-Hi and spent the night. I saw this truck pull in before I went to bed. He never even went into the lot to see if there were parking spaces, he just stopped right there. The last parking spot is where the Marten truck is and he had the entrance partially blocked. Next morning part of his bumper was laying out in the parking lot. Later, that same day, i'm unloading in Salem, Va. I've got to get turned around up in here some kind of way and back in that door because it's too slick to get their fork lift out side. I guess they figure it's not as slick for me. So I pulled down there, and backed over yonder, pulled up, backed around, got turned around. Then I went to Bedford, Va. to pick up a load of shot at Wheelabrator. It's in 55 gallon drums, on pallets. Had to be tarped too, and it was still only 10 degrees. Peaks of Otter, from the road going into Wheelabrator. The white thing on top of that mountain over there is a weather station. It was ran by the U.S. Navy at one time, and manned 24 hours a day,every day. It might still be a Navy facility, i'm not sure, but an article in the paper a few years ago said it was no longer manned full time, it was mostly remotely operated by computers. I've been by it on the Blue Ridge Parkway before, it looks like a giant golf ball on top of the mountain.

"big fur baby"??? never mind, maybe it's best that we don't know...

Some menu possibilities...just a thought.

Hmmmmm...i've got an HP laptop too, i'm on it now, but I don't have the cord with me to put pictures on it. I have before and it worked all right, but I usually put my pictures on the computer at home, I plug the cord that came with the camera into a USB port to put mine on. This has the card reader hole too, or whatever you call it, but i've never used it.

I got a dollar more when I first went to work in a garage,1974. I made $2.75 an hour, my first raise was to $2.90 an hour. Then in '77 I left to make the big bucks, $4.00 an hour welding. But, in the '60's if you brought home $100 a week, you were rich- that was big money then. My parents would usually spend 20 some dollars at the grocery store a week- and that was for a family of six! Of course we always had a big garden and raised hogs. Ma kept 2 freezers full of meat, fish we caught, and vegetables, plus she canned a lot of vegetables. I used to haul chips from Dillwyn,Va. to Covington,Va. for $30 a load, and you were lucky to get 9 or 10 loads a week- and that was if you stayed out all week and didn't go home. A load to Chicago paid about $170 in the 80's I think, now it's 200+ to go to Pittsburgh, but the difference is that now you can carry $20 worth of groceries out of the store in one hand,you don't even need a bag!

Well...back to the gutter then, if she wasn't the voice of Wilma!

I did not know that, thank you very much!

12 degrees here now, snow still coming down!