other dog

Yeah Joe,it really is a nice parade.You have to pay an entry fee of $10 to be in it,so I guess that keeps the riff-raff out ! Route 60 goes right through town,and it's 4 lane through town,so they just close the right lane before the parade and put numbers on little flags by the road so you know where your place is.You just find your number and park in that spot,put the decorations on,and it's a straight shot through town,no turns or anything,then I pull over and take the decorations off,and go back to Concord. I live near Gladys,but I keep the mixer parked at F.L.Moore and Sons shop,where I work. p.s....half dressed women? ..and your parade is when?

Yep,you're right Joe.That's what they do. I don't like driving in those conditions,i'm not near as brave as I used to be! But, like you said,you still got to do your job to earn your pay. If it gets too bad,i'm looking for somewhere to park it though. I don't really care about trying to be a hero at all. I've been to the Cumberland parade 3 years now,and won 3 trophies.That's not why I go of course, , I was born and raised in Cumberland.The trophy streak will probably end this year anyway,but that's all right. The first year the theme was "a red,white and blue Christmas" so I was dead-on with my paint job,then it was "oh Christmas tree" so I painted a board red,attached an artificial Christmas tree to it,and strapped it to the front bumper.Last year it was "Christmas bells" so I borrowed 2 big plastic bells and had them on the rear of the mixer.This year the theme is "A Jamestown Christmas"- how do you decorate a cement mixer for that? I have no idea,so i'll just go and put something on it,because the rules say it's got to be decorated.

Usually you don't even have to run a continuous bead,just kinda stick the rod in there and go round and round a couple of times,and the weld will "draw" it enough so it comes right out.

Gee you get up early!

Had a long week this week,driving in snow for most of it. I left last Sunday for Orville,Ohio and when I unloaded Monday morning it was snowing and the radio said the wind was gusting to 50 mph.When I took the straps off of one side of the tarp it blew off and over the trailer and was flapping like a flag,still holding on by the straps on the other side.I finally got it detatched and it blew up under a trailer parked beside me.I struggled with it for a while and decided I was never going to get it folded,so I was waiting to get unloaded so I could just get it up on the trailer somehow and get it strapped down. When the truck at the dock beside me pulled out I grabbed a corner of the tarp and dragged it up to the dock and stuffed it under the door.Then I went inside and pulled it in and got it folded and rolled up with no problem,then did the other one the same way. All this titanic struggle with my tarps probably took 30 minutes,and the tarp was winning the battle until I outsmarted it. Went from there over to Sharon,Pa. and loaded up 2 coils and back to Lynchburg.The crane was broken at N.B.Handy,so I had to take them to the shop where they unloaded them with the forklift.Then on to Dillwyn to load a Fremont,Oh. I knew they were calling for more snow in Ohio Tuesday night,so that motivated me to get all the way to Fremont,trying to beat it. It started snowing about the time I got there,around midnight. Wednesday morning it was still coming down,with about 3 inches on top of the tarps.I had to get a broom and get up on top and sweep the snow off before I could pull them off,because it was so heavy. Again,I had much difficulty trying to fold them,not because of wind this time,but the snow.I had to fold them on the ground in the snow,and when I got finished they were about the size of a Volkswagon beetle,and weighed about 1400 lbs each ( that's just a guess ) so I had to get Troy to put them on the trailer with the forklift. Then I had to go to Macedonia to load coils for Roanoke.It was still snowing,but the roads were in good shape,plenty of salt. Ohio does a good job on the roads,they were putting brine on them from the time I crossed the state line at Marietta Tuesday night,long before the snow started falling.That's key,getting an early start on them instead of waiting until they're covered and people start wrecking,like they do in West Virginia. I made it all the way to Beckley with no problems,but when I got on I-64 and headed east it looked like they had used up all the salt allotment for the year,or they forgot 64 was even there. It was completely snow covered and I was a little nervous starting down Sandstone mountain...OK,I was a LOT nervous! I mentioned Sandstone before,if you haven't been across there it's a 5 mile 7% grade,speed limit is 45 mph for trucks,and it has 2 runaway ramps on it.I was easing down in the low side until about halfway to the first runaway ramp when it appeared to have been salted and you could see the pavement again.It was clear the rest of the way down,across the flat,and about 3 quarters of the way up the other side,then it was back to completely covered. When I got to the top there was a truck jackknifed on the westbound side,a pickup in the ditch on my side,and a car in the median in a distance of about a mile. I was trying to get to exit 161 where I was planning to stop for the night anyway.The ramp is at the bottom of a hill so I was still taking it pretty easy,running about 35 mph. A car was ahead of me about half a mile,so I wanted to keep plenty of distance in case I had to stop if he decided to slam the brakes on to see if the road was slick. Right about the top of the hill a Swift truck went by in the left lane and he must have been doing 60 mph.That's fine if you're by yourself,the hill was straight down and straight back up,but if something were to happen unexpectedly in front of him,like that car spinning out on the bridge at the bottom of the hill,there's no way he could have gotten stopped. So I finally made it into the fuel stop and parked.From Beckley to there I saw just one truck salting the road. I went on to Roanoke and unloaded Thursday morning,then by the shop for fuel,and went to Petersburg and loaded some beams going to Carnegie,Pa. Got up there Friday morning,and yep,snowing like he....uh,heck,snowing like heck. Took a long time to get unloaded because the forklift was spinning in the snow and he could barely get up to the trailer. Once he got a lift of beams picked up it was all right,then he could hardly get back from where he was putting them on the ground back to the trailer to get another lift. I finally did get unloaded of course,then went over to Galv-Tech in Pittsburgh to load coils for Handy,and by the time I left there it had warmed up and the roads were just wet,so I hammered down to Lynchburg,dropped the load at N.B.Handy about 9:30 last night and bobtailed home.Got the Cumberland County Christmas Parade Sunday. It's the longest trip of the year for the mixer,about 55 miles one way. At least they're calling for nice weather,with temperatures in the 50's!

I ended up adding a can of carrots to mine. Your recipe sounds better than my Mama's,but i'm not gonna tell her.

Yeah,I saw it up close-I went to Orville,Oh. Sunday and it was snowing Monday morning,unloaded in Fremont,Oh. Wednesday morning and it was snowing,this morning I unloaded in Carnegie,Pa. and went to Galv-tech in Pittsburgh to reload,and it was a real mess up there this morning.

Yeah...I love my job!

When I was coming from Macedonia Thursday night headed to Roanoke,running with " BB Brain",somebody started yelling on the radio when we were coming down Sandstone mountain on I-64,east of Beckley. Turns out it was a Swift driver,but it could have been any number of the company drivers you see nowadays. He said "get off your brakes,you're going to burn your brakes up,have to go in the runaway ramp,and never be able to get another job with another company".Then something like "get off your brakes,I smell brakes-you're gonna die in a fiery crash.I see your brake lights,just use your jake brake,or you'll die in a fiery crash,and never be able to get a job with another company-you should kick your trainers a**!- my trainer didn't teach me like that!". And this went on for a while and I was just listening-the Swift and the other truck,I don't remember the name,it was a something-or-other express, were both in front of me,and the other truck driver never answered the Swift driver,so I finally did. As I said,I was behind them,and I never smelled hot brakes.Smelling brakes doesn't really mean anything except your brakes are working-i've had to get on the brakes hard at a red light and could smell brakes when I got stopped.Now,if you can't see the truck for the smoke,and it looks like a burning brush pile coming down the mountain,that's a different story. Maybe the other truck didn't have a jake.Maybe he did and it wasn't working.Maybe he liked his job and didn't want to drive for a different company anyway,but I can see why a Swift driver might assume everybody else does,because he drives for Swift. Jake brakes sure are nice,but I remember when nobody had a jake-you might see one once in a while,but they certainly were not a common item like they are today. Many times I've loaded over 50,000 lbs. of coils at Armco Steel (now AK Steel) in Middletown,Ohio and ran rt. 60 from Charleston,W.V.over to Sam Black Church in an F-model Mack with no engine brake,no power steering,and an AM radio that didn't work-I-64 wasn't even finished,it ended at Sam Black Church.Rt. 60 was the only way you could go,unless you ran the W.V.Turnpike to Princeton,then 460 over to Christiansburg,and picked up I-81. The steel usually went to Harrisonburg or Buena Vista,and that was too far out of the way to go through Princeton,so going across "Hawk's Nest" was no big deal-I still go across there occasionally,just for the adventure.It's very steep,and crooked as a dog's hind leg.So,back to the Swift truck,I finally told him "I guess if you didn't have your jake brake and power steering,and GPS,satellite communication with dispatch,cell phone,and color TV,you'd just park it at the top of the mountain quit,and walk home,since you don't have any brakes except your jake brake".He said "oh no,I could drive this truck without a jake brake-or power steering". I kind of doubt that he could,if he had to run the old road,but it's all he's ever known,having all the modern equipment.That last curve at the bottom of the mountain going into Rainelle would probably be the end of him,like it's been for many others.

Yep,that's it!

Cheswick,Pa.-that's where I went. I remember now,since I've already been there and back. I called Tina,one of our drivers who had been to this jobsite before, and after I talked to her I was beginning to regret taking this load instead of the pipe going to Anderson,S.C. She said it was very cramped,they sat all day waiting to get unloaded because they were pouring concrete,and concrete trucks were in and out all day until 5 o'clock that evening.She also said you had to go down a steep hill and drive onto a barge to get to the island where they were unloading,then they had to be pushed back up the hill,and they had to pick the back of their trailers up with a crane and move them over to make the turn through the gate at the railroad tracks to get out. Geez,what have I gotten myself into here? Usually if you're expecting the worst,it's never that bad. I made it in,you had to cross the tracks and make a hard left after you crossed the tracks but you couldn't pull very far forward through the gate because a crane was set up there,then hug the chain link fence on the left,because then you had to make a hard right to go down the steep cut they had made in the bank,but again you couldn't pull very far forward to make the turn because of a pile of stuff they had on the ground,and there was a little green thing on the right-looked like a gas meter or something-that you had to clear before you turned. I had dumped the trailer air on the back axle and locked the power divider in at first,and made all the turns with inches to spare.When I got down the hill I had to get over as close to the air compressor parked on the right at the bottom to make the hard left onto the "bridge" which was actually barges side by side across the river.When I talked to Tina I thought they put the truck on a barge and floated over to the island,and I wasn't too sure about all that! But I felt pretty good about the bridge when I saw them drive a bulldozer across it before I went across. So I made it onto the bridge and went across and got unloaded,turned around,and went back up the hill OK,and made it back through the gate without having to pick the trailer up and move it over. I should mention that I had a 48' trailer,and the others had 53s, and like I said I had only inches to spare on all the turns,including getting onto the bridge. I reloaded at Macedonia,Oh. for Roanoke and unloaded there Thursday night. Yesterday morning back at the shop Todd gave me a choice of another load of piling to Cheswick or kyanite going to Orrville,Oh. I went with the Orrville.

I get that too,I'll be looking forward to reading it.

Just got my "Double Clutch" today.Good story,though sad,about the Procter Company.Just a great restoration of the B-813SX though.What a tough truck!

Welcome indeed-some (OK,one then)of my best friends are from Ontario. (Elliot Lake)

Handsome chaps you got there Joe-but the one in the little hat looks like he's dreaming about driving a tri-plex-what's up with that? What are their names? One looks like a Bill and the other looks like a Tom.My name's William Thomas by the way.How about Joseph William Paul Van Thomas Scott.. ? No? well,it was just a thought.

You are exactly right,on every point you made.There is a difference between "immigrant" and "illegal immigrant" that a lot of people don't seem to get. And we had a pile of broken chain binders at the shop in the floor-not bent,broken-that said "made in China" on every one of them. The ones that say "made in USA" might bend,but they do not break.These Red Wing boots i'm wearing right now are a couple of years old and I just had them resoled,so they should be good for a couple of more years. Everybody on welfare in this country,unless they're disabled,ought to HAVE to (I don't know how to underline,but anyway...) do something,whether it's picking up trash along the highway or cleaning at the school or courthouse,instead of popping out babies and collecting even more money. A lot of people say "why SHOULD I work,when the government pays me to sit on my fat a** and do nothing?",so that's exactly what they do. Maybe if they had to work anyway,they'd get a real job and be a productive member of society instead of a parasite to everyone else.I know some people need and deserve help,but too many people just take advantage of anything and everything they can-it's not about the common good,it's what's good for ME! Me,right now!..oh yeah,I could go on and on...

Hi Paul,just got a preview of the '08 F.L.Moore and Sons calendar-has an H-model on it.

Thank you Paul...thank you very much.

Made the Fremont turn,and brought coils back to Roanoke again to the frame rail plant.After I got unloaded I loaded some rails and took them to Rustburg,to the school bus place.Now I've got to go load some 51' beams in Petersburg at 10 am tomorrow going to...gee,I forgot.But it's in the Pittsburgh area,on rt.28 just north of the turnpike.Had some leftover turkey and sweet potato pie for supper,still delicious.Had turkey sandwiches for lunch this week that I took with me. Now i'm just waiting for a tape i'm copying from a DVD for Big Jim to finish,and i'm gonna turn in.I gave Big Jim a BMT calendar,and he said he was going to keep the mixer picture and frame it when the calendar's out dated.I told him i'd be glad to print one for him so he could keep the calendar intact,so I did. I'm very proud to have the picture of it on the calendar.

Way to go Joe!...and you said they're eating like little WHAT'S?!!...Wait 'til they're teenagers-you might want to buy Food Lion stock now,so you can get a discount on your groceries.Are they boys or girls? Or perhaps one of each?P.S.-Way to go Joe's wife too!

nice choice,that red with black fenders.

I'm tellin' 'ya-that turkey,taters,onions,and celery-it's really good!

I only got three days,but i'm sure i'm a little fatter! Gotta leave for Fremont,Oh. as soon as I take a shower.

it's good.She always made it out of the leftover turkey. It might be better'n poke salad,but i'm not sure.

I could almost guarantee that somebody here could do that conversion.