I've been a trucker for the last ten years but now I am back home at "Camp Chaos" and I will be working at the Fontana terminal as a safety specialist. I hope now that I'm home I'll have a lot more time for blogging!


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I finally get a chance to do some blogging in the daytime! Usually I have to blog just before going to bed and I don't do very well then.
I promised to do another episode of Murphy's Law on the road. This one is about Mountain Dew...
I really love Mountain Dew. I love the flavor. I don't drink Mountain Dew for the caffeine though, it only gets my kidneys going overtime and I have to stop at every truck stop!... so
I have been looking for de-caffeinated Mountain Dew for quite a few years now. Whenever I buy a Mountain Dew I always look to make sure there isn't a de-caffeinated version available. All I ever find is the Diet version.. Which I really can hardly drink. .... so
A month ago or so I was in Kansas somewhere at a little truck stop on I-70. I had made a roast beef sandwich and I needed something to go with it. I went into the convenience store and bought a Mountain
Dew. I looked again for a de-caffeinated version but I am really getting tired of looking because there has never been one. This particular day I was really frustrated because I didn't want to do the caffeine thing but I sure wasn't going to buy the Diet version... so
As I was getting back in the truck with my Mountain Dew I noticed a Pepsi Truck at the back door of the Convenience store so I thought..."I am going to go over to that Pepsi man and ask him why Pepsi has never thought of making a caffeine free Mountain Dew"... so
I walk over to the man. He is loading a number of flats of product onto his two wheel cart so I walk up and say... "Sir, I would like to ask you, 'Why doesn't Pepsi make a caffeine free Mountain Dew?... I would sure drink it if it were available'"... I couldn't believe what he did next. He reached down to one of the flats of product on his cart and pulls out a bottle of caffeine Free Mountain Dew. It has a gold label. I stare at the caffeine free Mountain Dew as if it just landed from Mars. I tell the man "I have never seen this before and I have looked for caffeine free Mountain Dew for years!" He looks at me with a tired look and says... "We have had this for a while now but nobody buys it. I always end taking it back to the plant 'out of date'" I really feel stupid but I tell him I will buy it from now on since I know now that it is available.
Since that time I have looked for caffeine free Mountain Dew at every store I come to and have asked every store manager if they carry caffeine Free Mountain Dew and every one tells me... "I have never seen caffeine free Mountain Dew... I don't think Pepsi makes it"
Just my luck... the one Pepsi guy in the world that I ask about caffeine free Mountain Dew and he has it on his cart, and I have never seen it again and nobody knows anything about it!
So much for my Mountain Dew story.
I'm in Hemet for a day. It is Christmas day. I will be leaving to take a load to Oakland for tomorrow morning. Then I hope to be back here in So Calif for Sunday so I can attend our Bible Conference in Burbank. Sue and everybody else is going to Burbank today.
That's all for now... next time I'll tell you about the speeding ticket I received a few years ago. I was apprehended by an officer on foot! True story.. stay tuned. Tom
posted by Tom at 9:46 AM

 
Great news tonight! Thanks to Brenda's computer savvy, you can leave me comments. Just click on 'Comments' at the bottom of the page. Thanks in advance! I'm looking looking forward to hearing from you. Also I now have a E-mail address. "Tominthetruck@Yahoo.com"
My truck is back together, I hope to be back on the road by next Tuesday. Stay tuned for another episode of Murphy's law on the road
posted by Tom at 10:21 PM

 
I'm sitting here in front of Sue's computer listening to the prairie Home Companion that broadcast last Saturday night from NY City and contemplating what I am going to write on my blog tonight. (Brenda wants me to tell the story about the man with the flat tire so I'll try to do that.)

It's Monday evening.. They took my old differentials out of my truck today. We didn't see the damage we were afraid was there after I heard the clanking sound coming from rear end of my truck as I was climbing a hill in Montana in the snow a few weeks ago. We were afraid we would see broken teeth on the gears and we didn't know what else might be broken inside the differentials... After all, they only have a million miles on them. I was very surprised to see the main ring gear looking about like it looked when it was new!! I couldn't find any sign of wear but my mechanic showed me where the gears have meshed with the other gears and they shouldn't look all shiny on one side; that indicates a bearing is going or already gone which allows the gears to wobble and rub against the other gears where they shouldn't so I guess I did the right thing having them replaced. It seems weird, to spend $6000.00 to replace something that looks perfectly good to my untrained eye. Oh well sometimes you have to do what you have to do..

Now for that flat tire story... You see I am always in a quandary.. If I say something to help someone I always end up being a fool... But when I don't say anything the other person ends up with a big problem and I feel terrible I didn't say something to prevent the disaster...

A few weeks ago, a flatbed truck came by my and I could tell he was about to lose one of his tarpaulins. I looked again and told myself, no it is just the wind going by his trailer that was making it look like he was loosing his tarp. So I went on down the road and about 5 minutes later I had to do a sudden evasive maneuver to miss this huge tarp strung across all of my lane and part of the other lane. "Why didn't I say something when I should have"... I'm so angry with myself.... Oh well...

So a few days later a truck goes by me and he has a flat tire on his trailer. This time I'm going to try to help. His trailer says "Lessors Trucking" so I grab my CB mike and holler "South bound Lessors... Got your radio on?"...And I wait a while.... "South bound Lessors! ... Got your radio on?"

I do this about six times... I guess he doesn't have his radio on, I see he has antennas on his mirrors but I guess he doesn't listen. So I go to plan B... I grab an envelope that is on my dash and carefully setting it on my steering wheel I write with my pen "FLAT TIRE - TRAILER. I pull around him and then slow down so he will pass me and I'm just ready to hold the sign up so he can see it... Just then I hear on the radio... (from the truck behind Lessors) "Hey Lessors, you have a flat tire..."... And immediately the radio crackles back... "Thanks, big truck which tire is flat?" I feel really stupid holding up a sign telling him something he now already knows. So I just go on down the road, careful to not make eye contact with Lessors as he passes me...

Next thing he's on the radio again asking if anyone knows where the nearest truck stop is that fixes flats... Nobody answers him so once again I stick my mike in my mouth.. I call him and tell him I will look in my truck stop guide and try to find him a truck stop. My book says there is a truck stop about five miles ahead but doesn't say whether they fix tires. So I tell him and he thanks me. To my surprise, the very next exit has a huge truck stop with garages and mechanics and we just fly right by it... it wasn't even in my book! So we go the five miles to the exit I had told him and it turns out to be a defunct truck stop without a single truck parked in its small unpaved lot and once again I go down the road trying not to make eye contact with anybody who might have heard me.

A few minutes later further down the road I hear in the background.. a truck that is now a few miles ahead of me .... "Can anyone please tell me where I can get a flat tire fixed!!!... This time I don't say a word...

Bye for now... Tom


posted by Tom at 9:51 PM

 
It's really too bad my Dad doesn't have more opportunites to post on his blog, because he has some hilarious stories from the road. His latest involve his forever typical bad luck. My Dad has a very bad case of Murphy's law. If you should happen to hang out with him be sure to ask about the trucker with the flat tire and how he tried to radio the guy unsuccessfully and then when he finally did get through he sent the guy to the only truckstop that was closed.

Presently my Dad is in Hemet while his truck is in the shop AGAIN. Poor Dad.

posted by SAJ at 11:44 AM