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'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