RowdyRebel

I tend to stick to those 2-lane windy roads whenever possible, especially when the weather turns ugly. Too much stupid on the interstates...whether it's the 15 mph white knuckler or the 90 mph superhero...all leading to the inevitable pileups we see in the news every time the snow flies. Get caught behind one, you've got nowhere to go...just sit there hoping traffic behind you decides to stop...waiting until it's cleared so you can get going again. At least a 2-lane you can usually find a place to turn around, other routes you can take...side roads around, etc... Hell, even those 2-lane roads are too "improved" for my tastes...give me a gravel road through the hills, or a dirt path through a cow pasture any day.

It's the best.🤦‍♂️

Pair of singles. Worst part was the farm hand (with the side-by-side) trying to "help"...told him several times "I got this...just stay back and let me do my job." It'd work for about 5 seconds before he'd be right back in there grabbing & tugging on the chains as I was trying to get them on the tires. Took 10 times as long as it should have.

Critters gotta eat, and it's my job it there. A good truck sure helps...R-model w/20K steer & 46K Mack drives on Camelback, with a steerable & liftable tag axle when needed on the road. Unfortunately, just a power divider...not full lockers. Proper tools are important, too. Only had 6 chains on the truck...chained up all 4 on the front drive & the outside 2 on the rear. 1st attempt was a chain fail...front right inside popped off, slicked up the ice, and the chains on the outsides had nothing to grip...forward momentum stopped & I had to back down for another try...grossing 61,640 on 3 axles (tag raised for grip) in a top-heavy truck...and the front started sliding around. Fun. 2nd attempt was a camera fail...but otherwise successful. Guess I need something better than a pair of gloves wedged between the dash and the phone placed against the windshield. Took a claw hammer up to chip away the slicked up spot, put the chain back on, and hit 'er just a wee bit harder. Critters was happy...and when I got back to the yard, I grabbed another set of chains. Got 8 on the truck now. Only had 6 so we'd have 6 for each truck...but nobody else cares to have them or use them, so they just sit at the shop. Screw that...tool I have & don't need is better than the tool I need & don't have with me. 8 chains the 1st time wouldn't have required a 2nd try. I love this kind of work. Physically demanding, wears you out, but fun none the less. I absolutely LOVE a challenge. Any idiot with half a brain can guide a truck down the interstate on a clear, sunny day. I like taking trucks places most won't take their 4x4 pickups.

FINALLY winding down...my 3 brothers have hit the road (with their 10 kids in tow...4, 4, & 2) leaving just my wife, me, & our 2 kiddos at my mom & dad's. Let's just say it was a rowdy. Mom made her caramel pecan rolls, then we loaded up & went Christmas carolling outside grandma's (great grandma to the kids) window at the memory care assisted living place she's at these days. She'll be 99 in February & tested positive for China virus a couple weeks ago...never had any symptoms, though, but my question is...how do you get someone to quarantine in their room if they can't remember they have the virus? Anyway, she was happy to see everyone. Got back to mom & dad's and opened presents...not-so-organized chaos there were 12 kids under the age of 10 excited to be tearing open the huge pile of presents. We gave my boy his big gifts at home before we left with the other grandma (the mother-in-law is still staying with us & stayed home to work & look after the critters)...bicycle and a trampoline...instead of carting them up here. He got lots of monster trucks...one of them remote control, which he loves. Daddy got lots of m&m's and a big cast iron skillet. Momma got a ccw purse and a 1.8L electric water heater for tea & oatmeal and such. Then we got to go through some more of great grandma & great grandpa's stuff...grandpa's been gone since '05, and like I said, grandma willbe 99 in February and needs assisted living, so while the family was all here we got to get some keepsakes. Got my boy a matched set of cuff links and a tie bar with old cars on it. Grabbed an old mechanical pedometer for myself...interesting piece that looks like a watch, but you wear it on your ankle. Has 3 or 4 different scales depending on length of stride and 24 miles is a full revolution of the single hand going around. Can't post a pic, because I don't have enough space...but here's a link we found when trying to figure out exactly what it was: https://www.compasslibrary.com/products/vintage-west-german-pedometer-c-1960 Also in the boxes of stuff, I grabbed my grandpa's harmonica that nobody else wanted...until I showed them the box that had his military info (unit, etc) from the war...it was the one he carried overseas...too late, they had their chance to speak up. Also found some OPA ration tokens...just a variety of stuff. The old Christmas ornaments spoke of the times they were from...walnut nut shells carefully cracked to clean out for cookies, and then glued back together to decorate & hang on the tree...paper cups wrapped in tin foil to look like bells...turkey wishbones painted up all pretty...basically anything that nowadays would quickly be discarded without a second thought, they had saved, decorated, and hung on the tree. Grandparents grew up in the depression & didn't have much, and maintained that extremely frugal lifestyle while raising their 4 kids in the remodeled chicken-coup they called home sitting on an acre of land in suburban Chicago. House was actually moved to it's current location when Argonne Nat'l Lab was being built & they wanted the land my grandparents were on at the time. Don't know what happened to the pics of that move...but I remember grandma showing them to me ages ago. Anyway, enough reminiscing. Hope everyone's Christmas was as enjoyable as mine!

So with a 2000 gpm pump, and only a 500 gallon tank, that gives 'em about 15 seconds to get the truck hooked up to a water source before you're pumping air? Seems like a bigger tank would've been better...but then I'm just a truck driver with no experience on or around fire trucks. Not like you have to worry about DOT running you across the portables on your way to a fire...

I had a car pull out in front of me leaving town. I'm barely back up to speed (car pulling away) when we meet a statey going to other way. He flips around & lights me up. 2-lane road, no shoulder...but 1-1/2 miles up the road is a big gravel lot at an intersection...so I puton my 4-ways to indicate "I see you back there and will be stopping", reduce my speed (in case he wanted around me to get the car...I know...not likely), and proceeded up to the safe place to stop. He wrote me for 62 in a 55. I asked about the car speeding off & easily pulling away from me ahead of me. He said "I had him clocked at 57". On what planet does THAT make sense? He then proceeded to tell me they've had a lot of complaints about 'you coal haulers speeding in & out of the mine' just on the other side of the town I had just come through. Didn't matter to him that I hadn't hauled a load of coal in over a week, or that I had never in my life been to that particular mine. I was pulling a dump wagon, and it wouldn't look good FOR HIM if he let me off with a warning (for what...NOT speeding?)...so he wrote me a ticket Yeah, F you too, buddy. Last time I try & do y'all any favors. Fast forward to a couple months ago. I cross the Chester bridge loaded pretty heavy (but legal) and they're sitting right there at the IL welcome center. I had a line of cars behind me as I started up the hill into town, so when I saw the state cop hit his lights & start to pass, I slowed to make sure he could get around before oncoming traffic got too close. He pulled in behind me...so I stopped. Right there in the middle of the road (zero shoulder...rock wall to my right) on this little 2-lane hill with a long line of cars behind me & oncoming traffic now also having to stop coming down the hill because he's out of his car dealing with me. Wanna F with me? I'll F with you right back. Have a nice day.😂

Over the years I've found going out of my way to make their job easier never buys me an ounce of good favor, so I quit trying. I'll be professional, but if they don't ask for something I don't offer it up, and even if they DO ask, if the regs say I'm not required to have something I'll say I don't have it. There's a big green book that gives us the rules we have to play by. Your job is to know the rules & how to bend them in your favor. Their job is to catch you breaking the rules. I've found a lot of the time they don't know the rules...they find something they THINK looks wrong, and they have to look it up to verify. They won't tell you about the exceptions and exemptions you may have available to you that say what you're doing is OK. In my experience, they don't know about them and will only look them up if YOU cite them as a reason for doing what they think you shouldn't be doing.

Back when my truck was still new-to-me, I was having issues with barrel nuts breaking and I hadn't figured out why. Before leaving the shipper, I did a quick walk-around and everything looked good. Tight on time (and close...but legal...on weight) I knew I had to run the big road & get past the scales before fueling. I pulled onto the scale and sat there for what seemed like an eternity waiting for the green light. It came on, and I was gone...to jump off at the next exit & grab some fuel. While fueling, I did another walk-around...and found 8 broken barrel nuts on a drive wheel...FACING their window!😱 Dodged a bullet. BIG time. Anyway, finished fueling & drove across the street to a TA (closest shop) to rectify the situation. I later figured out my problem. The ad for my truck had said "aluminum wheels", but when I got there to buy it, it turned out to be "aluminum outside wheels". I didn't realize there were different barrel nuts, and I'm assuming they didn't either. I'm guessing my truck HAD 10 aluminum wheels when they got it in, and they had another truck with aluminum steers & steel drives...and they figured they'd make more by selling 2 trucks with aluminum outside wheels with steel inners. The barrel nuts were for aluminum inner & outers, and wouldn't properly secure the steel inners...leading to vibrations & broken barrel nuts. Once I replaced them with the proper barrel nuts, I never broke another barrel nut. I don't even want to think about the treatment I would've received had they noticed that 8/10 barrel nuts on 1 wheel were broken.🤦‍♂️ Also extremely thankful I needed fuel & caught the problem beforeit became a catastrophe.

Exactly the point I was making.

Amazing the balls on some of those union thugs...especially when you've obviously got the means to make them & every trace of their visit disappear...permanently. Would've been easier back then, too...no cell phones/gps trackers to ping...no security cameras on every corner to trace their trip to your property...no evidence at all to say they successfully made it onto your property.

...sounds expensive.

I always buy candy...but only the stuff I like, and don't go overboard because I know I'll be the one eating it. The trunk-or-treat wasn't TOO bad...had some old cars for daddy to look at with candy & games for the kids. First trunk-or-treat I've been to, though, so really nothing to compare it to. The boy was dressed up as "Chase" (Paw Patrol) riding his little Chase scooter he got for his birthday & got a lot of compliments along the way. Of course *I* had the scariest costume around...dressed in my usual attire & wore the mask that pretty much looks like my regular face. Masks were allegedly "required" for anyone over 9 years old...seemed like a good time to wear it again...only other time I've had it on was for the birth of the girl.

We went to the "Monster Mash Car Bash" car show/trunk-or-treat last weekend. Then took the kiddos out last night. We only hit 2 houses...it was late by the time we headed out, and even later by the time we left the 1st. I DEFINITELY need to get the boy to understand "We don't go into people's houses when we're out trick-or-treating" before we start knocking on random people's doors. Only houses we went to this year are the 2 houses in town where I know the people. The 3rd house we would've gone to we didn't have to, because they showed up at the 1st (his dad's) while we were there. We still ended up with quite the haul. Not many kids in town, so not many trick-or-treaters. I used to only get 1...(2nd house we went to)...until his little girl got too old to trick-or-treat. Now I return the favor. At 9:00 last night, we were the 3rd toknock on their door...and they're "in town" surrounded by other houses. I'm across the highway all by myself, so I never really expect kids to make that walk. Everywhere we went, he got half the bowl dumped into his little bag...🤦‍♂️

I do like the round headlights, though...only seen one other CH with 'em. Momma always said "If you can't say something nice, you shouldn't say anything at all." I guess I'm done sayin' stuff about that truck now.

Add Sean Connery to the list. 2020 sucks. Sean Connery, Scottish actor who played James Bond in 7 movies, dead at 90 https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/sean-connery-james-bond-dead-90-report

I guess now we know the answer to the question, "Who is John Galt?"🤷‍♂️ [Quote]The driver of the truck was identified by the company as John Galt, 48, of Oklahoma City, married and the father of four children.[/quote] https://www.nytimes.com/1970/10/01/archives/truck-blows-up-driver-killed-3-accused-of-murder.html

I was getting ready to leave the house one day to head to town & have dinner with the wife on her lunch break. Railroad gates started to come down and a truck made an abrupt stop...with one hell of a bang. I look up, and it's Prime pulling a Walmart trailer, and the tandems are slid ALL of the way back. I walked out to the road and told him he may want to check his lock pins on the slider before he loses the tandems. He'd come all of the way from Ohio and was almost to misery...er...Missouri when this happened. He'd heard the bang when he stopped, but didn't know what had happened. Sure enough, he'd forgot to lock 'em.

Working 50-60 hrs per week, with an extra hr on each end of my day commuting, 4 horses to look after on my way home, and then when I DO finally make it home I have a 3 yr old, a 1 mo old, and a wife that's been couped up in the house all day with a 3 yr old & 1 mo old. Got a 28 yr old daily driver that gets run 100 miles per day, and a 30 yr old "family truck" that I need to keep safe & roadworthy. Not to mention the household maintenance issues (water line to the ice maker on the fridge broke about 2 weeks ago at 1:30 in the morning...FUN!). Hell, my F250 has been sitting for almost a year waiting for me to replace the timing cover gasket...that I really need to do before winter gets here so we've got two 4-wheel drives. Needless to say, not much time for the interwebs these days.

Whenever I see someone standing around admiring my work, I like to climb down out of the truck, look at them & shrug as I try to sound surprised when I say "That almost looked like I knew what I was doing!" 😁 This is an old video, but still one of my favorites of me showing off my mad skillz. Definitely NOT a fail, so if that's what you're looking for you'll be disappointed.

I'd call that one a "win"...sure, it's not ideal, but the truck isn't wrecked either. Crane or a rotator (if he isn't too heavy) and he can be plucked up, spun over to solid ground, and drive it away under its own power.

I will never order anything from redbubble again, nor would I recommend them. Found some masks there (knew I'd need them at the hospital for the birth of my newest kid) that I thought would be funny (and I wasn't wrong). They both were bearded faces, with similar color/texture as mine. One was a "serious" look that I wore right up until my daughter popped out...then I changed to the one that had a big goofy grin. I bought a few others, too, with phrases such as "Let's pretend this mask is useful" and "Covid-1984" and the like...for when I'm somewhere they are required. I CCW, so I'd rather not have some imbicile causing a scene around me because I'm NOT wearing one. Anyway, I paid over $70 extra to expedite the order (it was close to the wife's due date) in order to get them in time. They didn't even SHIP until the expected arrival date...and even then, it was standard shipping w/o a tracking number. There is no customer service phone number or email...have to reach out to them on social media. Took them 3 days to get back to me. Despite my giving them the order #, they said they needed my email & shipping address before they could help. I sent it to them. 3 days later, I hear back from them again and we FINALLY start going back and forth. They blamed the virus (which had been around since long before I placed the order) on the delay. They also blamed shutdowns in the state they were being made (which was also BS, because I ordered a new IWB holster & double mag pouch around the same time from MTR Custom Leather in the same state, and got those ahead of schedule). They blamed the state of affairs at the shipping companies (fedex/ups/etc) for the delays...which again was BS because I placed an order with Summit Racing AFTER my order from them had allegedly shipped, and it arrived BEFORE the redbubble order...and was FREE shipping, not $70+ expedited like redbubble was supposed to be. They did refund the $70+ I had paid to expedite the order, which was all I was asking them to do...but the BS involved to get it was ridiculous. Like I said, I wouldn't recommend them to anyone.

Had a similar problem with LMC...paid for the order on a pre-paid card, and tossed it when it was used up. Ended up sending a part back after talking to them and notifying them of the need for a check to be sent, NOT just a credit onto a card I no longer had. Even noted on the return form NOT to credit the card, but to send a check. What did they do? Credited the card. Went a few rounds on the phone with them and they claimed it was beyond their control because the credit had already been posted and there was nothing they could do. Contacted the BBB and lodged a complaint. Few days later, they (LMC) sent me a check. I've never had an issue with Summit...hell, place an order Sunday night and it shows up Wednesday with free shipping. Most of the parts on my Suburban have come from Summit, Jeggs, or LMC. Stuff with a core charge I'll usually get locally, though...IF I can find it locally.

Well, hell. Guess there's no denying the getting older part. In talking to some of my old friends that I grew up with passing along the good news of the new baby, I found out one of them had a heart attack...100% blockage...they called it the "widowmaker"...luckily, he survived. Damn. We're too young to have to worry about that sort of thing...or at least I THOUGHT we still were. Guess not. Probably a good thing he wasn't married...widowmaker can't make a widow if there ain't a wife, so it let him live. "I'll get you next time, my pretties..." OK, that was probably in bad taste...but he survived, so I'm going to say that allows jokes to be made. Anyway, sure as $#!+ we're getting older, but I guess it beats the alternative.

So the boy was trying to pull my wife into the kitchen, and she asked: "Why do you want me in the kitchen?" I couldn't help myself. "'Cuz that's where wimins is s'posed ta be!" 😁 *duck*