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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California Fever

 
Dad was home for Thanksgiving, and then off again on Friday.

He has a new student, Rick, and is now on a dedicated run. Which means that he "runs" from Salt Lake City, Utah to Los Angeles and back.

It's great because it gives him enough miles to actually make some money, but it also lets him get home a little more often. Not that he'll get through here at a time when we're all awake.

Right now he's knitting a baby blanket for his brand new Great-Nephew, L@ngdon, or L@ndon. (I'm not sure which spelling it is). I think he's about 1/2 done. Hopefully he'll finish soon so we can send it off in the mail.

You'd think that if all you did was sit in the truck you'd have lots of time to read, knit, or something but you don't. Because when his student is driving he has to either sleep, or observe. And if he's driving, well, he's driving.

Anyways. Now that I've figured out the password maybe I'll be able to update his blog a little more. Maybe I should work on my own too.

ComfortablyCrazy
posted by Tom at 9:03 PM

 
Dad lags so bad, I'm going to update his blog for him. He says he has two posts all written in his head, he just hasn't had a chance to get online. When he has a student with him he's too busy teaching and when he has home time, my mom loads him up with a million chores around the yard. Plus, they've recently acquired a new swing set for the grandkids (yay!) and he's been assembling that and getting it all set up for play.

My dad is a busy busy dad.

Right now he is in Redding California.
posted by SAJ at 8:00 AM

 


BJ got to go to school for the last week before summer vacation!
posted by SAJ at 9:29 AM

 


Bear is ecstatic!

My student got off the truck today.

I’m sitting in a dock waiting for them to load me with Gatorade bound for Von’s grocery stores in Southern California, and, I noticed Bear on the upper bunk giving me a look, I guess the best way to describe it, ‘beseeching’!

“That’s a funny look you are giving me,” I said, looking at him trying to figure what was on his mind…
“Your student…” he stammered, “He isn’t here any more. What happened to him?”
“He got off the truck today”, I replied. “He’s going to get his own truck. He’s finished his training. Why?”
“Does that mean……….” He lowered his voice. “Can I ride up front now?… for ever and ever?”

“Oh, Bear!.” I answered, realizing now, it has been several weeks since I had promised I would let him up front some of the time.
My student and I have been running so hard lately that I had completely ignored Bear. I felt terrible!
“Yes, you can ride up front now. I’m sorry but there just hasn’t been any time for you to ride up front. I have a surprise for you…”
“Can I sit up front right NOW? I’m sick of sitting on this bunk day after day!”
I strapped him in the seat belt. I grabbed my camera and took a picture of him. I have not seen him this happy since the day he met all the first graders in Amber’s class.
“You can only sit up here today.” I said.
Suddenly the sunshine left and his face clouded…
“What now?” “Are you going to get another student?”
“No, no more students for awhile. I said, I have a surprise for you!”

He looked up at me, his feelings were hurt and he didn’t think I could say anything now that could make him happy. He had just gotten his hopes up that he could ride up front from now on, and I had just dashed those. So he just looked at me… his emotions flat…

“Listen, Bear.” I started. “We are on our way home to Hemet to pick up Grandma Sue and then we are going to go back to St Charles Illinois to see Amber and Suki. In fact Suki is going to ride on the truck with us for a week or so, then Amber is going to ride with us all the way back out to California!! You are going to go to school with Amber till school is out and then You, and Amber, and Suki get to be together the whole rest of the summer!”

This took awhile to sink in… Bear’s brain was processing all this information as fast as a stuffed bears brain could, and it just took awhile.
The clouds cleared and I could see the sunshine returning to his face
‘I’m going to see Amber!!!… and… Suki!!!… and… Grandma?”
“Yup, You’ll see Grandma tomorrow and she’s going to ride with us! That will be fun, won’t it!”
“I can’t wait… I can’t wait… I can’t wait…I ….” Bear stopped and looked at me, his face suddenly serious.
“There is just one thing bothering me…” he said slowly.
“What’s that, Bear” I replied looking at him intently but I had no clue what was coming.
“Why do you still call me ‘Bear’? All the kids at Amber’s school named me Billy Jack. I really like that name and you hardly ever call me by that name.
Oh, dear… I didn’t know what to say. Bear was right. I was wrong.
“You know what? Billy Jack. You are right. I am truly sorry. Shame on me. I promise from now on you will be Billy Jack. You like ‘BJ’?”
“Sure”
“Ok, BJ… forgive me?”
“Of course”
“Hey, I think they are done loading us. Let’s close the doors and head for California!!!”
“Whoopee…!” was BJ’s happy reply.
posted by Tom at 2:07 AM

 
Today is a combination of frustration and anticipation... My wife and daughter are, as I write this, flying to Paris. How I wish I could be with them... I'm looking forward to seeing the photos Brenda sends back on her blog.

I'm sitting in my truck. It is 6:00 pm Thursday Apr 28,2005. Yes, three days till May and I'm sitting in my truck. I repeat that on purpose. I'm not driving. I am sitting behind the wheel, with my antique laptop on my steering wheel. My laptop froze up on me for the fourth time. It seems it can't do more than one thing well at a time.(a lot like me!!) The wireless modem is busy transferring blogg data so when I plug in my little digital camera to download a picture taken out my windshield of all the other forlorn trucks just sitting here like me, (I'l explain in a minute) my computer just stops working!

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that a four year old laptop with dead battery(must plug into cigarette lighter just to boot up!) would complain when I ask it to comunicate via a wireless modem and at the same time download pictures from a digital camera. I am using Windows ME and that is probably at least part of my problem.

My student and I are on a Hurry-get-the-load-there-as-fast-as-you-can load. We are supposed to be in Kansas City, Kansas by 1:00 am tomorrow Apr 29 but instead we are holed up in Rock Springs Wyoming. Interstate 80 is shut down due to ice, snow and multiple accidents. I am thankful we made it to the truck stop. The last 10 miles were at about 15 mph because the road was solid ice.

Two weeks ago I had my winter tires changed over to some steering tires I wanted to use up (trucks have different tires for different purposes. Steer tires are used on the front to steer. They have directional stability but are not any good for pulling a load in ice or mud or snow. On the back of my tractor are my drive tires. They don't need directional stability, they need traction to pull the load. In the summer time traction is not usually a problem. I didn't forsee a problem running some steer tires off on the drives. They have a lot of good tread left but are below my standards to be used as a steer tire. I will have them re-capped when they are worn down some more.) I thought there wouldn't be any more snow or ice by the end of April. I was wrong.

Sooooo, here we are, stuck in a Flying J truck stop. I had an excellent week going till now... I get paid by the mile.

I won't be able to go anywhere tomorrow till the ice and snow are melted. I sure wish now I hadn't changed out of my big knobby winter tires... bummer

Stay tuned, Billy Jack has given me plenty to blog about, I just haven't had time to finish the blog. It should be up in a day or two.
posted by Tom at 4:45 PM

 
I feel sorry for Bear, he’s having a hard time riding in the truck all the time.

Yesterday, we were going through Tucson Arizona. My student was driving, I was sitting in the passenger seat, the jump seat. Bear touched my arm. I was on the last row of a pair of slippers I was knitting and I wanted to finish and put it away. I paused and looked down at Bear.

“Something bothering you Bear?” I asked.
“A little” he said, not looking at me.
“What’s the matter”, I said, looking at him and seeing a sadness in his eyes. “Tell me what’s wrong.”

“It’s… It’s…just that… well, you sit up there all the time in the front seat. Your student sits up there all the time and I never get to sit up front. It just isn’t fair!”

Unfortunately, big trucks don’t have back seats. We have two air seats. (An air seat is a specially designed seat made for rough riding vehicles. It absorbs the shock of the bumps and gives us a comfortable ride so truck drivers don’t have trouble with their kidneys any more.) I understand why Bear doesn’t like being stuck in the back.

“But Bear”, I replied, “You are less than forty pounds, you would have to ride in a car seat, just like Amber and Suki have to do. Would you like that?”

Bear thought for awhile. “When’s the last time you saw a car seat advertised for ‘bears’?

I knew he had me there.

“Well,” I said, “Bears don’t usually ride in trucks either, or cars, for that matter.” … “Look, Bear… car seats are there to keep small bodies from smashing into the windshield in an accident. I should have you strapped into one even when you are on the bunk!”

“Why aren’t you in a car seat? You would do a lot more damage to a windshield than I would!” Bear retorted.

This stuffed fluff was getting the best of me.

“I’m in a ‘car seat’,” I shot back. “See this seat belt, if we were in an accident this belt would keep me strapped in my seat. I can put you in a seat belt on the bunk.
Then you wouldn’t be able to jump up and down on the bed like you love to do. I saw you do a really cool back flip the other day when you thought I wasn’t watching.

Bear did his ‘stare at the floor, make Tom feel bad’ look. “I’m just tired of this truck. I thought I would love riding in the truck. I thought I would get to look out and see all the sights. You haven’t let me see anything!,” he was really pouting now..
“How will I be able to write post cards to the kids at Amber’s school, if I can’t see out so I can see things to write about?”

“I’m sorry Bear,” I said “you’re right” “As soon as my student gets off my truck and gets his own truck, I promise to let you ride up here with me. OK?”

Bear shrugged his shoulders. “Where are we going today?

“Laredo, Texas” I replied.

“Are we there yet?”
posted by Tom at 10:22 PM

 
The other day, I was driving through Virginia. I felt a tap on my arm. I looked down, it was Bear; ‘BJ’. I still call him Bear.

“What you need, Bear”, I said, glancing at him, “You look kind of down today.” “What’s the matter?”

“Oh, its not important… I just thought people might like to know the story of how I got my name… you know, the way it really happened.

I looked down at him again. “OK, Bear tell me how it really happened. He told me his story. Then he said. “Will you put that on your blog? The people would read it and they might like my story”

“All right, Bear” I replied, “when I get some time I’ll type it up and we’ll put it on the blog.

So, yesterday I typed it up. Bear was looking over my shoulder the whole time, reminding me if I forgot any details.

Here is his story:


Bear woke up with a start. Moments ago it had been all dark, but suddenly it was bright as daylight. He looked around, nothing had changed since he went to sleep last night. Elephant and Giraffe were still right next to him. Then he heard some voices and everything came back to him. He was in a store, sitting on a shelf. He guessed he was waiting for something but he didn’t know what. For several days now he had been sitting on this shelf with his other two friends and they didn’t know what they were waiting for either.

What bothered Bear the most was he didn’t like his name. He had already figured out he was a bear. How he knew that nobody knows, bears are just smart. What bothered him was the other part of his name. People came by him in the aisle, some tall people some very short people. He liked the short people the most, because they were almost his size. They would look at him and say “Oh, look at ‘the Stuffed Bear’, isn’t he adorable!” or “Oh, Mommy, look at ‘the Stuffed Bear’! Can I have him?” but no one had wanted him enough yet so Bear sat and sat, waiting.

Bear puzzled over his name. “The Stuffed Bear”. He just didn’t like the way it sounded. Sometimes people would say “Oh, look at that ‘Cute Stuffed Bear’” Bear didn’t mind the word ‘cute’, he liked the word ‘adorable’. He didn’t know what the words meant but they sounded nice. It was that horrible word ‘Stuffed’! He didn’t know what that meant either but he just didn’t like the sound of it! Everyone used it before the word ‘Bear’ and he knew he was a bear so he figured it must be his name. “Oh well,” he thought sadly, all I want is for someone to love me and if living with the name ‘Stuffed’ was the price he would have to pay for love, he decided it was worth it.

That afternoon just about the time Bear was going to take his afternoon nap, a man came by. This man wasn’t too tall, he wasn’t too short either. A little taller than Bear, but Bear thought that was okay. This man looked Bear over. He picked Bear up and looked at his sides, both sides, muttered to himself “I guess they sewed him up alright, looks like he will do”

These words weren’t anything like Bear was hoping to hear from someone who might be someone who would love him. The next thing Bear knew he was being carried to a counter with a big noisy machine and a lady standing behind it. The man took some wilted green pieces of paper out of his wallet and handed them to the lady, she put the paper in her drawer, handed the man another white piece of paper and the man picked up Bear and walked out of the big room where Bear had spent all of the life he for as long as he could remember. They were ‘OUTSIDE”!!! He was surrounded in the brightest light he had ever seen. So bright, Bear had to squint. He was being carried somewhere, the floor was all black and he saw some other strange animals he had never seen before.

These animals were a lot bigger than he was and he saw that every one of them was a different color! They had funny feet, ‘if’ they were even feet at all. He couldn’t figure what else they could be. They were ‘round’ feet. All black too, just like the floor. They must have gotten that black dirt all over their feet, he thought. They are going to have to wash their feet when they get home.

Just then, another colored animal roared by him. A very strange roar. Maybe it wasn’t a roar, he thought, maybe it was just a growl. These were strange animals indeed. “Oh, No,” he thought, horrified, he just saw the side of the animal open up and ‘people’ climbed out! So, was that how people got around? Then a horrible thought occurred to him. This man had looked at his seams. Was Bear going to be cut open and were little people going to ride around inside of Him!! This wasn’t Bear’s idea of a fun time. He was willing to sacrifice a lot to get love but he had thought living with a terrible name was the limit. This would certainly require him to re-think his needs a little bit!

Just then the man carrying him turned Bear towards him and spoke. “Hi, I’m ‘Tomthetrucker”… if it’s okay with you, I’m going to call you ‘Bear’”. Bear quickly erased his previous train of thought and felt his heart give a little leap of joy! This man didn’t call him ‘Stuffed Bear’!! He just called him ‘Bear’! As things were going today, bear decided this was enough reason to be happy for now. This man had dropped the hated word ‘stuffed’ from Bear’s name so Bear decided he would do the same for this man’s name. That name, ‘Tomthetrucker’, seemed to Bear to be too many words squashed together anyway so if he could drop ‘stuffed’ from Bear’s name, then bear could drop a few from this man’s name. “Glad to meet you, Tomthetrucker, … Mind if I call you ‘Tom??” Tom didn’t say anything, just resumed carrying Bear and walked further across this hot black floor.

A few minutes later, Tom turned Bear around and pointed his face towards the BIGGEST animal Bear had EVER seen!! This animal was many times bigger than the other colored animals Bear had seen people climb out of. Like the other animals this animal had ‘round’ feet too, Bear noticed, but this animal had a LOT of ‘round’ feet!!! The other animals had four feet just like Bear but ‘this’ animal…. Bear couldn’t count high enough to count all the feet he could see!! All he could think about was, what would he do if this animal decided to EAT him??

Right at that moment, Tom grabbed a handle on the animals side and opened up a big ‘hole’ inside the animal. Then the man hoisted bear ‘UP, UP, UP onto a seat and then closed him in!! Bear was petrified! He was inside of this animal. He discovered he could look out. That was a relief!

Bear looked around. He saw next to him, another seat, and a big round skinny thing in mid air above the seat. He wondered what that thing was. He didn’t have anything like that inside of him that he knew about but then Bear didn’t have ‘round black feet’ either. Bear decided these animals were certainly different than he was. Bear remembered wondering why he didn’t have a long neck like ‘Giraffe’ had or why he didn’t have a Looooong nose like ‘Elephant’ had so maybe animals are just … different!

Just then bear looked out the front opening of the animal and he saw what looked like a nose! It was like bear’s nose, just a lot bigger. So… maybe this animal is just a BIG bear!

All of a sudden the wall on the other side opened up and Tom climbed up and sat beside Bear! He put his hands on the round skinny thing and then stuck a shiny silver thing into a slot on the front wall and then this ‘big’ bear really started to GROWL!! Wow, Bear had never heard an animal growl like this before!! Then the ‘big’ bear started to move!! Tom had his hands on the round skinny thing and then Bear noticed that if Tom turned the round skinny thing in his hands, the ‘big’ bear would ‘go’ that way!! Boy, this is great, thought Bear. “’Big’ bear goes wherever Tom wants him to go… just by turning the round skinny thing!

Finally Tom spoke up. “I’m taking you to school today!, Does that sound like fun?” Bear wondered what ‘school’ meant but he didn’t know how to say very many words so he just looked at Tom and tried to look happy.

A few minutes later Tom stopped this strange wonderful bear animal in front of a big building. There were a lot of people there, and Bear noticed there were a lot of the ‘short’ people he had seen walk by when he was on the shelf. Bear wondered if this is where ‘all’ the short people lived.

Tom came around and opened up ‘Big’ bear animal and grabbed Bear and carried him inside of the building. There were lots of smaller rooms with aisles between all of them. Bear heard so many voices all at the same time he couldn’t tell where the noise was coming from but he thought most of the noise was coming from the ‘short’ people.

Next thing Bear knew he was being carried into a room full on ‘short’ people. They were sitting in rows and they were all looking at HIM!!!

Tom set Bear down on a hard wooden surface a few feet off the ground. Bear noticed the floor was just like the floor where he had been before Tom came along. It wasn’t black like the outside floor was.

All the ‘short’ people shouted when Bear looked up. He was embarrassed to see so many people looking at him all at once.

Miss Jane, the only other ‘tall’ person besides Tom said. “Do any of you have a name for Bear?” The ‘short’ people all started talking at once. Miss Jane, said. “STOP! One at a time please”… Amber, do you have a name you would like to call Bear?” Amber thought awhile.. I want to call him “STUFFY”! Bear shuddered when he heard that word. He thought, “I sure hope nobody else likes that name…”

Miss Jane looked around the room. “Suzie, do you have a name??” Suzie looked at the boy sitting next to her. Secretly, she really liked this boy. “Yes, I want to call him… ‘BILLY”

Just then another boy called out, “I want to call him ‘JACK’”!

All of the ‘short’ people started talking at once so Miss Jane had to say again, “I told you… Only one at a time!!” “How many want to call Bear ‘BILLY’” ?? A lot of hands went up. “How many want to call him ‘JACK’”?? Again a lot of hands went up. Just as many as went up for ‘BILLY’!! Miss Jane thought for a second. “How about we call him ‘BILLY JACK’?? That suggestion was greeted with a huge “Yeah, let’s call him ‘BILLY JACK’”. Miss Jane said, “we can call him ‘BJ’ for short”.

Bear was soooo happy,

Miss Jane looked at Bear, and said. “BILLY JACK, you are going to ride with Tom in his big truck. Every week we want you to send us a postcard telling us where you are going and where you have been.”!

Bear was too overwhelmed to talk. He was going to get to ride around the country and send postcards to all of the ‘short’ people he had just met. He was sure they were going be the best friends he could ever have, except Tom, of course. Now he knew the ‘Big’ bear animal was called a ‘big truck’. He was sure he would have a lot to learn about this big truck.

As Tom was carrying Bear out of the classroom, Bear decided he wasn’t ‘Bear’ anymore. He now had a new name. ‘Billy Jack’, BJ for short. Just as BJ got to the door, all the ‘short’ people shouted. “We love you BJ!” “You help Tom drive his truck! Okay?” “Please come back and see us soon."

BJ couldn’t keep it inside any longer, big tears of joy rolled down his face. Today, he had met many new friends who he was going to love and he knew now they loved him already. He was going to go on the longest trip ever and see so many sights and he wasn’t going to hear the word ‘STUFFED' ever again.

Just as I was afraid… every time my cell phone rings now, Bear wants to know if ‘Sesame Street’ is calling. He is sure they are going to award him a million dollar contract and he will be the next big name on television.

“No, Bear” I say wearily, “I don’t think Sesame Street will be calling any time soon. I don’t think they even know I have a blog”

Bear looked down at the floor for a few moments, then he looked up, his face brightening. “Well then, do you think Auntie Brenda would do some neat pictures, you know ‘Illustrations’”? “Then we could maybe make a book for the children to enjoy.”

I had explained that the people Bear had been calling ‘short’ people, we called them “children”. “Sometimes, we call them ‘kids’. “Sometimes we call them ‘brats’. Sometimes we call them… Oh, never mind”

Bear thought about all of this. He said he would wait and see what happens. He went
back to his spot on the bunk. At least he looked happier now. We’ll see what happens…

“Bear”, I said again, “You know you got some of your facts mixed up in this story.”

“I know,” he said, looking at the floor again. “I made some of it up. Isn’t that okay?”

“I’ll tell them,” I said, and went back to driving.

posted by Tom at 2:07 AM

 
Wednesday March 30, 2005, 3:45 pm, I’m sitting in the jump seat, my student is at the wheel. We are driving across Tennessee. A gorgeous day… 83 degrees… everything is turning green after all the rain they’ve had back here. It’s easy to type on the laptop through Tennessee, the roads are very good. That’s more than can be said for lots of other states! I will upload this to the blog when we get to Nashville TN this evening.

We have the bible on CD, read by Alexander Scourby. We started Genesis last week and are now in Judges. My student and I are enjoying listening. It is sooo much easier than reading yourself, and I can blog while I’m listening.

Our trip to Boston was pretty uneventful, Sunday night, we dropped our load of bamboo cutting boards, picked up an empty trailer that originally we were told was to be taken somewhere to pick up a load going back to North Las Vegas NV. Well we waited all day Monday, sitting in a Target parking lot because there are no truck stops in the entire Boston area. Finally, Tuesday morning we are told to take our empty trailer to North Bergen New Jersey to get loaded.

The roads in NJ were made for horse and buggies, not semi’s, 75 feet long. My student had a grand time dodging 4-wheelers, barely missing telephone poles that for some reason they sunk in the sidewalk right at the edge, on a curve, so we have to take up the whole street just so our trailer will clear it. The 4-wheelers(cars, in case anyone is wondering what a 4-wheeler is…you call us 18 wheelers we call you 4 wheelers).

So we finally find our shipper in North Bergen. (if anyone wants to find N. Bergen on the map, just find New York, look across the water to the west, you’ll see Jersey City, Union City, West New York, North Bergen. As is usual we had two sets of directions, both of them wrong. Fortunately I’ve been there before so we got there. My student decided it would be OK with him if they never send him to NJ at all. I think he said he is going to run just the 11 western states.

We dropped our empty trailer and hooked to a full trailer loaded with 1200 cartons of ?? The bills don’t say what’s inside… just 1200 ctn. We could be hauling anything. It is going to TJ Maxx/Marshalls so I don’t think we have anything unusual, probably cartons of French perfumes or underwear. The load weighs 27000 lbs, a perfect load. Heavy enough so the wind doesn’t bother us, light enough so the weigh stations ignore us. In fact we have a little gizmo, a little black box, glued to our windshield called a transponder. They weigh us at highway speed our little transponder sends who we are and the computer checks us to see if we are wanted felons and if everything checks out they give us a green light and we go flying by… best thing ever invented! Its called Pre-Pass, almost all the states have it now… we love it.

That’s all for now, I’m going to do a blog on what truck drivers eat…next blog

________________________________________

What Truck Drivers Eat:

Too much!

Almost all the truck stop restaurants have buffets. They are great because not only do they have a good variety, a person can get a great meal and not have to wait for it to be cooked. That’s important when we have to be on the road in half an hour. Only problem with buffets… even though I don’t eat buffets everyday or even every other day, usually maybe twice a week I’ll do buffet. You get fat on buffets!!! I’m over 170 lbs now after starting out around 140 lbs 10 years ago. All because of buffets!!

So I decided to do something else. I would start cooking my own meals. Right in the truck.

I have a stove and a griddle, they run on little propane bottles, a 12 volt crock pot, a 12 volt cooler, and I take advantage of the fact that all truck stops have microwaves available to drivers.

So, take yesterday for example:

I bought a package of cut up chicken thighs from a Wal-Mart Supercenter

About 4:00 pm I put the chicken in the pot. I dusted the thighs with a package of dry Hidden Valley Dressing and seasoning mix and plugged the crock pot into the cigarette lighter.

At about 6:00 we stopped at a truck stop for dinner. I set up the little propane stove carefully on my bed, it comes in its own carrier so it is safe to set on any surface, opened a window to let in oxygen, and cut up an onion. Chopped it into little pieces. Then with a little olive oil in the frying pan I sautéed the onion. When the onion was tender I cut up two zucchini’s, also from Wal-Mart (88 cents a lb!) and added them to the onions. I poured a half cup of water on the mix and put the lid on and let it simmer for awhile. Oh I forgot to mention, I also dumped a little garlic powder into the mix.

Just as the zucchini was getting tender, though still a little crunchy, I drained off the excess water, then I sprinkled shredded jack and Colby cheese over the whole thing to melt.

It was a perfect dinner, chicken and zucchini. Better than any buffet and low carb!

I enjoy cooking for my students. I want them to know there are alternatives to greasy truck stop food.

Sometimes I’ll make cheese burgers on my propane griddle. I make pancakes too. That’s after cooking a few sausage patties and three eggs, over easy.

I eat good… maybe it’s the cab cooking that is why I’m gaining some weight. I don’t know.

I bought a jump rope. That sounded like a good way to get some exercise. Only problem, can you imagine me standing in front of my truck with 100 other drivers watching me, jumping rope? I’ve had the jump rope for a year now and I’ve jumped rope twice with it. So that’s not working.

A couple of weeks ago my wife, Brenda, and I were at South Coast Plaza and I saw the perfect solution to my lack of exercise. Sharper Image had a stair stepper that was only about 8 inches square. Perfect for the truck. I will have to get it!

That’s all for now,
Tom
posted by Tom at 4:09 PM

 


Who is BJ?

I noticed a few of you commented; “who is B J” when you saw the 1st graders drawings and thank-you notes.  My daughter-in-law answered the question in her comment but I’m not sure everybody saw that and besides there is a story behind “B J”.

There is a national association called the “Trucker Buddy Assoc”. (I think that is what it is called) See truckerbuddy.org. Their whole objective is to match willing truck drivers with elementary school teachers who want a truck driver to bring their truck to the school and show the kids.  Believe it or not there are many more teachers waiting for a truck driver to come to their school than there are willing truck drivers!  Usually a truck driver does this for the benefit of his kid or grandkid, but there are also drivers who love kids but don’t have any of their own so they are willing to go to schools etc… hence the “Trucker Buddy” program. 

My company,  Werner Enterprises, supports this program.  They sent a “Trucker Buddy” package to my granddaughter’s class.  It included a “Trucker Buddy” coffee mug,  a calendar, yoyo’s shaped like dual truck tires, and a T shirt for the teacher.  My daughter made up a bunch of “Tom Trucker” buttons (she can make you buttons, T shirts anything you want… check out my store and you can see for yourself).

Usually when a driver takes his truck to a school, he brings along a mascot.  My wife and daughter-in-law picked out this huge teddy bear.  We didn’t know what to name him so we asked the kids to name him.  There were lots of suggestions but “Billy” got most of the votes, then one kid said he wanted  to name the bear “Jack”… again we held a vote.  Jack received the same number of votes as Billy.  The teacher wisely suggested we call him “B J” for short.  Everyone was happy, so “B J” it is. 

I’m sure you can imagine my crowded truck… all my stuff… all my students stuff… stuffed into the cab of a truck.  True my truck is what they call a “Condo”;  Freightliner’s idea of a spacious ‘All-in-one-Motor Home-Freight-Hauling’ big rig.  Add ‘B J” and we are truly an "Overstuffed-Student-Behind-the-Wheel-Truck-Driving-Condo!”  

Last weekend I was out in my yard working on getting the ground ready to plant some tomatoes when my wife said ‘B J’ needs to get out of the truck too. Thus the pictures of ‘B J’ helping with the yardwork!

We are in Albuquerque, New Mexico… still have load of bamboo cutting boards going to Boston, MASS

post post:

Just an update regarding the blog about bamboo cutting boards... thanks Marilyn for your great comment!  I really appreciate comments. I'm not sure Marshalls are in California... I'll try to find out.  I will get to reading your blogs as soon as I can. 

Check out Totally Bamboo's website:   totallybamboo.com. 

I'm in Wytheville, VA  pronounced 'With-vul'... its Sunday morning, I've got to get on the road
 
Thanks everyone.. you are making this blogging thing a lot of fun!  :)
posted by Tom at 8:21 PM

 
When you pick up a product from the shelf at your local market or dept store, I wonder if people ever stop to think what it took to get that product from a raw material to something useful and then transported to the shelf for someone to buy.

This is a story about a bamboo cutting board. It just happens I’m carrying a load of bamboo cutting boards, bamboo bowls, and bamboo serving utensils to a Marshalls Dept store distribution center in a suburb of Boston, MASS.

We picked up this load in North Hollywood California. I asked the lady what we were carrying. She handed me a catalog. Totally Bamboo is the name of the company. This is their story from the back of the catalog:

In a nook in ‘NoHo’ Arts district of North Hollywood, CA, Tom and Joanne Sullivan own and operate a small design and manufacturing studio, focusing on luxury customized director chairs for the movie industry. In their quest for a lighter chair, they experimented with bamboo, long known for its strength vs. weight ratio. The resulting chair was not only lighter but much stronger than the oak they had previously used. Intrigued with using such a renewable ecologically friendly material they set out to design various houseware products using their “engineered bamboo” and in doing so developed the world’s first bamboo cutting board.

Bamboo, they discovered, is 16% harder than maple, making it perfect for a cutting surface. From cutting boards to salad bowls and plates they plan to change the way the world uses bamboo, as a viable alternative to our precious hardwood trees.

The bamboo used for these products is ‘Moso’ timber bamboo. It is not a food source, or a habitat for the Giant Panda.

I found this story fascinating… we have used bamboo rice paddles since I can remember.

Tom and Joanne Sullivan found a manufacturing plant in China and now they import the finished product to their business in North Hollywood. At first they took their new products to swap meets and craft shows where they sold very well. Then they attended a wholesale show in Chicago where the big orders started coming in. Marshalls and T J Maxx “MarMaxx” are just one of their regular buyers.

So next time you’re in a dept store and see some bamboo cutting boards and utensils you know where they came from.

Also… I never know from one day to the next what I’ll be carrying in my trailer. Keeps this job interesting.

Right now I have a student with me. Roland is a recent graduate from a truck driving school in Tampa Florida. Roland is 48 years old and finding that driving a 10 speed semi is not as easy as it looks. Of course my truck has what is called a ‘Super 10’ transmission and even though it is an easy transmission to shift, it always gives my students fits the first week or so. A ‘Super 10’ transmission is just a glorified 5 speed transmission like you would find in any car or pickup except each gear has a ‘high’ and a ‘low’ setting. Normally we start out in 3rd gear (1st and 2nd are granny low gears) which is straight up like 1st gear would be in a stick shift. 3rd gear is the ‘low’ setting for this position. Flip the switch (we call it the splitter) to ‘high’ setting, let off the throttle and the transmission shifts to 4th gear. Flip the switch again to ‘low’ setting, double clutch, and shift lever down to what would be 2nd gear in a stick shift. You are now in 5th gear. Again flip switch to ‘high’ setting, let off throttle and transmission shifts to 6th gear. Repeat procedure for the 3rd stick shift position and you have 7th and 8th gears. Double clutch and move shift lever to 4th stick shift position and you have 9th and 10th gears. Sounds easy, well maybe I have totally confused you… oh well it is easy… once you have learned it. Some students have it all figured out in a day or so. I had one student on the truck for 6 weeks and he never figured it out! He insisted my transmission was broke! It works fine for me.

We are arriving in Barstow CA so I am going to upload this to the blog. We have to be in Boston MA by Monday March 28th
posted by Tom at 3:18 PM

 
Surprise!! I finally have a wireless modem for my laptop. Now I don't have any excuse for not updating my blog on a regular basis... hopefully ... maybe ... 'daily'? ... we will see.

Ha! I'm online!

I'm in West Memphis Arkansas, we just got our wireless modem working and sent our first picture to my students wife. Thanks to my daughter, everything worked good. We are on our way to North Carolina and then back to Las Vegas NV by next tuesday.

Here is my last blog from a week ago:


A beautiful day in Laredo Texas… 74 degrees… blue skies, March 9, 2005. There are a few reasons I really like Laredo in March. Mostly its because I remember Laredo in July… 95 degrees at midnight, 115 degrees the rest of the time. Today they tell me I have a load to Southern California.. Home.. I Like that. It seems I can always get a load to So Cal. That is more than I can say for a lot of the rest of the country.

This morning though, wasn’t destined to be referred to as a ‘good’ morning. I brought this load of metal castings here to be transferred to a Mexican driver who will take the load to some metal plant in Mexico. My company employs a broker to expedite the transfer process so I take my trailer to InterAmerican, a big warehouse with lots of docks along one wall.

The man in the guard shack asks me to open the trailer door so I open the right door and start to open the other door. “NO NO.. just one door” he growls at me, “now take this trailer and put it in dock #27.” (it seems strange to me to put a trailer in a dock with only one door open but whatever the man wants).

I drive down to the other end of the dock area and begin looking for dock #27. There are no numbers visible anywhere so I ask another driver whose truck and trailer are already in a dock. He says he didn’t know either and had to ask. They told him he is in #25 so I figure two docks down will be my dock. Before I can back into the dock a man pulls up in what we call a ‘Donkey’ (a small tractor used to move trailers around the yard). He yells at me to put my trailer in between two other trailers at the other end of the yard. As I start to move he yells at me again and gets out of his truck and walks toward the end of my trailer.

I stop and get out to see what he wants. He looks at me like I’m stupid and says “You have to open the other door!” I tell him the guard told me to only open one door. “No, you have to open both doors” OK.. make up your mind I mutter under my breath.

So I put my trailer in a dock which ends up being four docks from the end of the other end of the building. Still no numbers anywhere… I walk back to the Receiving office to turn in my paperwork and the first thing the clerk asks me is “What dock did you put your trailer in?” I tell him I have no idea what the number is, I just put the trailer where the ‘Donkey’ driver said to put it. So the clerk instructs a fork lift driver to drive his fork lift out to see where I put my trailer. He glares at me like I’m really wasting his time and he drives out and comes back to announce that my trailer is in dock #6. Obviously they use a numbering system way beyond my comprehension level. Maybe the heat does something to your brain.. I don’t know.

What I do know is I’m heading west now and I guess that’s enough to be thankful for being sent to Laredo Texas.
posted by Tom at 5:39 PM

 
Here are some note's Amber's first grade class sent to Dad at Christmas. I'm sorry it has taken me so long to upload them. I tried to type the notes exactly as they were written but some parts were a bit tricky to read. Enjoy!


Tom haf a ho-ho merry christmas. Tooting the horn.
Alec


Dear Tom, win are you cumen to my house? I wus happy wen you cam to my clrasrom.
Amber


Dear Tom, Thank you for coming to my school and showing our class your 18 wheeler truck. I really liked tooting the truck horn! Thank you, Merry Christmas!
Alissa


Dear Mr. Tom: Have a merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Thank you for coming to our clss room.
Love, Alice


Dear Tom: Merry Christmas and Happy Now Year. I like BJ. Thank you for coming Tom. I like going in the18 wheeler Tom.


Dear grandpa Tom. How are you doing and how is BJ? Have a merry Christmas. Are you going to decorating your truck? It was fun time meding you. How was the trip to choclit or (can't read this part) Thank you for coming to our classroom.
Love, Aaron.


Dear Mr. Tom. Thank you for coming. Thanks for letting us in the truck. Have a merry christmas.
From Jimmy


How are you? Thank you for coming. I like the truck. I really liked going in the back. Merry Christmas!
Love, Bryant


Dear Grandpa Tom, thank you for coming to our class room.
From Natasha


War are you goweing? Are you going to have a merry Chrismas? Tom I like tooting the horn. Thank you for coming. From Thorne


Dear Grandpoo Tom, How is it going? i loved the 18 wheeler. How is B.J.? woot doos the hrtse fatry u.s. Merry Christmis!!!


Dear Grandpa Tom. Thank you for coming. I like the truck.
Kayla


Happy New Year Uncle Tom. Than you. I liked going in the front of the truck.
From Bailey.


Happy New Year. Thank you for coming to are clasrom. and leding us see the 18 wilr.


Dear grandpa Tom, thank you for coming. I hope you have a merr Christmas.


Dear Merry Christmas Happy Now Year. Thank you for letting us sit in the drivers seat. Thank you Grandpa Tom and B.J. for coming. Thank you.


Dear tom. thank you for showing us bj. it was fun and have a merry christmas. I wish you can come agen.
Love. Stephanie.


How are you? I'm good. We'v been very exsided for the post cared. thanks for coming to our clasroom.
from christopher.


Thank you for sending us The post card. it is awesome!!!!!!!!! Have a meery christmas.
from michael.
posted by SAJ at 7:25 PM

 
Tom is in Texas, Denton to be exact. He is delivering truck engines . be patient with me, my daughter is holding a water gun to my head so i learn how to do this blooger stuff . So all of you out there can really know where Tom my husband is.
posted by Sue at 5:19 PM

 
Of course by the time you get the news from me it's diluted because it's third hand. But this is the latest I know about Dad: He now has satelite radio. Woo Hoo! He also has a new student and they are on their way to Philadelphia.
posted by SAJ at 2:25 PM