Wednesday the House voted 335-85 to suspend the rules, and passed a three month extension of funding for the federal Highway Trust Fund, throwing down the gauntlet in the face of Senate leadership and the Obama administration, which prefer an 18 month extension to avoid debating how for pay for a six year, $500 billion reauthorization which is not supported by motor fuel taxes at present rates.
Mired in health care reform negotiations and climate change cap and trade discussions, the House Ways and Means Committee is unprepared to find new revenue sources for highway and transit projects, and loathe to increase motor fuel taxes during this recession. Nevertheless, Congressman Oberstar, Chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, won this round, and the battle is joined for the hearts and minds of the commuting public and the trucking industry.
Friday, September 25, 2009
Lake House Exorcism
We snuck off this week to spend some alone time at Lake Granbury. Rented a nice lakehouse, boat, the works. I’m so spoiled. I know. So shoot me.
But first, the REAL haircut. We drove into Mansfield about midnight, then had a leisurely breakfast with Mike and Pam. Pam and I then went to VuJen Hair Studio for me to face my fate with Robyn and Rebecca, hair artistes extraordinaire. They’re both regular readers of this blog, so the new do a la drug test wasn’t a surprise. My blog couldn’t prepare the girls for the WAY the drug testers wrecked my hair, though! Rebecca said it’s going to take some doing to work with those layers when they grow out, and I think Robyn just flat gave up on the highlight part.
Later that afternoon, we went to supper, then traveled on to Granbury. Dropped by Kroger’s and picked up about $250 worth of perishables. (This will be important later.) By now, it’s dark. We were so stupid to try and find a lakehouse in the dark! We put the address in the GPS, to no avail. “Address doesn’t exist in this town.” You gotta love it.
Finally, we find the place. Gated property, looks inviting. We drive down the driveway and get out of the truck, flashlight in hand.
We cannot find the front door. By this time, ThatManILove is exhausted, he’s been sick, and he’s more than just a little done. We see a ramp, and go up it. There’s a door there, but no lockbox. We go downstairs, same thing. Finally, we find the lockbox...but by now, we’ve forgotten the lockbox number. I trudge back to the truck, find the paper, read the number by the interior light of the truck, and call it out to ThatManILove...who can’t hear me, because the wind is blowing.
We finally get into the place. We walk into the living room with the beautiful rock fireplace, just like was shown in the pictures....except for the bed in the kitchen, which is also in the living room. ThatManILove looks at me like, “What have you done, girl?” (Thank God he looked at the pictures, too, before we closed the deal.) Whoever took the pictures for the ad is either a cropping expert or one who knows how to work the heck out of Photoshop!
We’re both trying to talk ourselves into making this work when we realize there is no way from the 1st floor to the 2nd floor. We have to go outside to gain access to the 2nd floor. I can’t make this stuff up.
And then, I see a door. I open said door. Inside said door is...(wait for it!)...an old elevator. Complete with pillows and blanket. I kid you not. We work and we work, and we can’t get the elevator to run. Finally, we walk back up the upstairs ramp (outside the house, remember) and go up to the second floor. We get the second floor unlocked, and try the elevator from the top down. No go. We look around to see if this house is even a doable deal, since by now, it’s 9:30 p.m. There are probably 10 beds on the 2nd floor, complete with a black bathtub/shower. Scary, that.
None of this stuff was ever even mentioned in the ad - and the ad certainly never mentioned an elevator! That had been converted to a very small bedroom.
Needless to say, we immediately tried to call the realtor, to no avail. I sent an e-mail, we locked everything back up, and we get ready to leave. At this point, we realize that the lights on the second floor porch are blinking like they're participating in an exorcism. We go back in, try to find the way to turn them off, to no avail. We give up.
ThatManILove looked at me, and said, “We need to jet this deal and not worry about it tonight. Let’s holler Calf Rope and leave. I’m calling Mike and Pam to see if we can stay with them.”
So, he does, and they graciously say, “C’mon!” Thus begins another 45 minute drive. We’re trucking down the highway towards Mansfield about 20 minutes later, and somehow, I have my first post-elevator/bedroom shock cognizant brain thought.
“Honey, what did you do with that 30 lbs of ice?” (that’s now been melting for an hour plus...)
“Oh, Lordy, Janie, pull over! It’s sitting on top of everything in the back of the truck.”
We contributed to the ground water level of Johnson County, hit Mike and Pam’s house around 10:45 p.m., unloaded all our groceries into their refrigerators, and crashed.
It’s never boring around here!
PS - Did I tell you that the next day, I realized I left my favorite pair of MauiJim sunglasses on the table right next to the bed that was right next to the stove that was right next to the elevator/second bedroom that was in the kitchen/living room in the house we refused to sleep in? Oh, yeah, baby.
Oh, yeah.
$49 million Jury Award to Victim of 18-Wheeler Truck Collision
A California jury this week awarded $49 million in damages to a man who was catastrophically injured in a trucking accident in California. The damages were awarded against the 2 truckers, whose big rigs collided when one truck crossed the center line and the other truck driver was talking on his cell phone, and the State of California.
As a Georgia trucking accident lawyer, I have seen all too often where tragic accidents such as this one rob an individual of a promising future. This is a young man who, 2 and 1/2 years ago, was about to finish college and start medical school. Now he is living in a full time neurological treatment center because of his severe brain injuries and head trauma.
You can read a copy of the article from the California newspaper here.
As a Georgia trucking accident lawyer, I have seen all too often where tragic accidents such as this one rob an individual of a promising future. This is a young man who, 2 and 1/2 years ago, was about to finish college and start medical school. Now he is living in a full time neurological treatment center because of his severe brain injuries and head trauma.
You can read a copy of the article from the California newspaper here.
A "TELEPHONE POLE FOREST"
The hydraulic post driver was now fully operational, and on my return trip this was the top project for Ed and me. All the vines had been planted, and during the last couple of weeks Ed had been trucking water back and forth from the house well to keep the new plants watered. With 2000 vines at 1/4 to 1/2 gallon a day, that's alot of trucking. Ed was probably the only one wishing for non-stop rain just so he could skip doing it. It wasn't like he was carrying pails upon pails; he had a 55 gallon drum in the back of his truck that he filled and then used a standard hose with "gravity feed" to water the vines. It was still alot of work even with this. Couple this with the mowing he did weekly, and a certain amount of weeding, and you can see how his time was spent.
When these poles were dropped we only had half a clue as to how we were going to proceed with the job. One of the things we did was break all the bundles, determine which end would go in the ground, and predrill our first wire holes that were to be 18 inches above the ground surface after they were pounded in. It just made sense that it would be easier to drill them lying on the ground instead of in a vertical position. We loaded about 20 poles at a time onto the pickup truck for distribution, using the tape marks on the yellow rope we had also used for plant location. This is when we found another problem. Turns out the rope really did stretch, especially over 450' of row length, and that everytime we moved the rope a bit to plant the vine (or auger the hole), the rope was really pulled out of position, affecting every location down the line. What a mess. Plants were to be 6' on center, poles 24' on center. Putting the first vine 3' from the first pole, then going 6', 6', and another 6', (leaving 3' to the next pole) we would be giving each vine 3' in each direction for trellis training and growth. Our actual measurements were close at best, and putting some plants literally on top of a true pole location at their worst. It bothered me (and still does) to no end how 2 educated guys couldn't get a simple pole / plant layout to work in a simple grid pattern. We did the best we could though, compromising in some areas and moving vines in others. We decided future layouts would use a steel cable only, and discard this rope idea.
This problem, though accentuated by this rope idea, was really due to not getting the poles in the ground first. Pole pounding is a long tedious process, and we wouldn't have been so inclined to use the yellow rope if we only needed to be true on center , which we used a surveyor's transit for, and be 24' apart, easily measured by the cable or a long tape measure. Once the poles are in, laying out the plants would have been easy.
There are 2 sizes of poles. The 10' long end posts, that are 5" - 6" diameter, that go 3' into the ground, and the smaller much easier to handle 3"-4" line posts, that are 8' long and go in the ground only 2'. Though the hydraulic driver was able to handle the end posts, it did take seemingly forever to drive them in. Remember, the posts have blunt ends and had to go in 3'. Driving straight down, with all the earthly resistance , is a tough job even using hydraulics. It maybe took 15 minutes to pound one in, and we had 82 of these to do ! We resolved the time issue by using a post hole digger to start the poles, digging down maybe half the required depth and letting the driver do the rest. It cut our time in half, thank heavens. And you couldn't even get these to vibrate once they were in. Line posts comparitively, were a snap. Their biggest issue was because they were smaller, if they hit a rock or a hard spot they would go in crooked. Though we were really aware of this, Ed ended up digging out maybe 20 of them to straighten them . The vineyard was now easily identifiable when someone drove by on State Route 10. There were nearly 500 poles in the ground, dwarfing the vines they would someday support.
As you can see, it took some time to do this part of the job. Oh, and those pre-drilled holes ? We couldn't see them after we brought the poles out and put them in position, and the poles sometimes twisted when they were put in, which would have twisted the wires had we used them. We also changed our minds sometimes on which end of the pole should go in first. Enough of that. We gave up and just decided to ignore the hole locations and to drill them later. When we finally got to this, we set up a portable generator on the back of the truck and used a drill with a level on its face to keep it aligned, and placed the bit on a jig that located the hole exactly 18" above the ground. It was much easier than we would have guessed, and alot more accurate.
When we finished with the hole drilling, it was now time to run the lowest wires. Bamboo stakes were used to support the vertical growth of the vines, but the wires were needed to run the black flexible PVC pipe needed in the drip system. But now was the time for chasing the latest problem, and strange as it may seem getting water to the plants efficiently had to take the back burner. We were getting eaten alive by Japanese beetles, which came out in droves on June 1st. And with the hot humid days before us, weeds as well as airborn fungi & mold became our primary concerns. I raced out to our local AgriSupply (local is 50 miles away) and picked up a backpack sprayer. We only had 2000 vines, and none of them were above knee high yet. I felt it would be able to do the job. Wrong again. A backback sprayer only held about 5 gallons, which didn't get us very far. The very next day I raced out once again to pick-up a 55 gallon ATV-sized sprayer which I put in the back in my truck, locked and loaded to spray the vineyard.
The good news ? 55 gallons was enough to do the entire vineyard, riding along down each row in my truck, using a hand wand to direct my spray on each vine. The bad news ? Though the rows were supposed to be 9' on center, they weren't, and I got my truck wedged in-between 2 endposts, bringing my nice shiny truck to an end. There was no debate on which was the immovable object. The truck now has "personality" with what I call "story lines" on its right side showing that this is no longer a highway truck, it is now a working farm truck. Needlesstosay, when Ed saw what I did to my truck, proclaimed I would get in a boatload of trouble with the Mrs., and that he wasn't going to subject his nice shiny F150 truck to row driving. Once again, Weeds 2 - Opposition 0.
When these poles were dropped we only had half a clue as to how we were going to proceed with the job. One of the things we did was break all the bundles, determine which end would go in the ground, and predrill our first wire holes that were to be 18 inches above the ground surface after they were pounded in. It just made sense that it would be easier to drill them lying on the ground instead of in a vertical position. We loaded about 20 poles at a time onto the pickup truck for distribution, using the tape marks on the yellow rope we had also used for plant location. This is when we found another problem. Turns out the rope really did stretch, especially over 450' of row length, and that everytime we moved the rope a bit to plant the vine (or auger the hole), the rope was really pulled out of position, affecting every location down the line. What a mess. Plants were to be 6' on center, poles 24' on center. Putting the first vine 3' from the first pole, then going 6', 6', and another 6', (leaving 3' to the next pole) we would be giving each vine 3' in each direction for trellis training and growth. Our actual measurements were close at best, and putting some plants literally on top of a true pole location at their worst. It bothered me (and still does) to no end how 2 educated guys couldn't get a simple pole / plant layout to work in a simple grid pattern. We did the best we could though, compromising in some areas and moving vines in others. We decided future layouts would use a steel cable only, and discard this rope idea.
This problem, though accentuated by this rope idea, was really due to not getting the poles in the ground first. Pole pounding is a long tedious process, and we wouldn't have been so inclined to use the yellow rope if we only needed to be true on center , which we used a surveyor's transit for, and be 24' apart, easily measured by the cable or a long tape measure. Once the poles are in, laying out the plants would have been easy.
There are 2 sizes of poles. The 10' long end posts, that are 5" - 6" diameter, that go 3' into the ground, and the smaller much easier to handle 3"-4" line posts, that are 8' long and go in the ground only 2'. Though the hydraulic driver was able to handle the end posts, it did take seemingly forever to drive them in. Remember, the posts have blunt ends and had to go in 3'. Driving straight down, with all the earthly resistance , is a tough job even using hydraulics. It maybe took 15 minutes to pound one in, and we had 82 of these to do ! We resolved the time issue by using a post hole digger to start the poles, digging down maybe half the required depth and letting the driver do the rest. It cut our time in half, thank heavens. And you couldn't even get these to vibrate once they were in. Line posts comparitively, were a snap. Their biggest issue was because they were smaller, if they hit a rock or a hard spot they would go in crooked. Though we were really aware of this, Ed ended up digging out maybe 20 of them to straighten them . The vineyard was now easily identifiable when someone drove by on State Route 10. There were nearly 500 poles in the ground, dwarfing the vines they would someday support.
As you can see, it took some time to do this part of the job. Oh, and those pre-drilled holes ? We couldn't see them after we brought the poles out and put them in position, and the poles sometimes twisted when they were put in, which would have twisted the wires had we used them. We also changed our minds sometimes on which end of the pole should go in first. Enough of that. We gave up and just decided to ignore the hole locations and to drill them later. When we finally got to this, we set up a portable generator on the back of the truck and used a drill with a level on its face to keep it aligned, and placed the bit on a jig that located the hole exactly 18" above the ground. It was much easier than we would have guessed, and alot more accurate.
When we finished with the hole drilling, it was now time to run the lowest wires. Bamboo stakes were used to support the vertical growth of the vines, but the wires were needed to run the black flexible PVC pipe needed in the drip system. But now was the time for chasing the latest problem, and strange as it may seem getting water to the plants efficiently had to take the back burner. We were getting eaten alive by Japanese beetles, which came out in droves on June 1st. And with the hot humid days before us, weeds as well as airborn fungi & mold became our primary concerns. I raced out to our local AgriSupply (local is 50 miles away) and picked up a backpack sprayer. We only had 2000 vines, and none of them were above knee high yet. I felt it would be able to do the job. Wrong again. A backback sprayer only held about 5 gallons, which didn't get us very far. The very next day I raced out once again to pick-up a 55 gallon ATV-sized sprayer which I put in the back in my truck, locked and loaded to spray the vineyard.
The good news ? 55 gallons was enough to do the entire vineyard, riding along down each row in my truck, using a hand wand to direct my spray on each vine. The bad news ? Though the rows were supposed to be 9' on center, they weren't, and I got my truck wedged in-between 2 endposts, bringing my nice shiny truck to an end. There was no debate on which was the immovable object. The truck now has "personality" with what I call "story lines" on its right side showing that this is no longer a highway truck, it is now a working farm truck. Needlesstosay, when Ed saw what I did to my truck, proclaimed I would get in a boatload of trouble with the Mrs., and that he wasn't going to subject his nice shiny F150 truck to row driving. Once again, Weeds 2 - Opposition 0.
The Adventures of the Morning Commute
Every morning's drive to Chase's school is a lesson in how to drive and how not to drive for my son. Naturally, we have no choice but to head out during the high traffic time when everyone else is also hitting the road to go to work or school. Plus, you've got the moving obstacles stopping at every school bus stop with flashing lights that few seem to understand (flashing yellow means you can continue past them cautiously; only flashing red means you need to stop). It's hectic, and there's nothing you can do about it.
I personally have an unfortunate amount of left hand turns on my route from home to school. One light in particular is a true test of patience for all involved: the traffic is so backed up in all directions, each light change finds a multitude of cars blocking the intersection in a desperate attempt to not have to wait one more cycle of light changes. Which means the alternate flow can't move anywhere until halfway through their green light, which allows about two cars to squeak through before the light changes again and the dance starts anew. We are all familiar, right?
The sketchiest part of the drive is a T that I encounter each morning. Like a breath of fresh air, the traffic as you approach the T greets me about 20 car lengths out. About 80 percent of the cars approaching the T (a 1-way stop, not a 3-way) need to go left, including myself. There's those damn lefts again. And from all three directions, the traffic flow is very heavy with a healthy dose of buses sprinkled about thanks to four schools in the proximity. So those of us approaching from the stem side of the T with the stop sign must rely on the courtesy and generosity of the drivers cruising the top side of the T to allow us schmoes to get out. And when turning left, we need the generosity and kindness of two souls to help us get out. Now you're asking a bit much. Particularly at 7:45 a.m.
And it's at this intersection that the ratio of considerate drivers to inconsiderate drivers is abundantly clear. In case you couldn't guess, we're severely lacking on the considerate side. Here's how it operates in a perfect world: Driver #1 is in a car approaching from the right and wishing to turn left onto the street I'm on. So he's forced to stop and wait for a break in the onslaught of vehicles approaching from the opposite direction. Fortunately (for him), lots of these cars are turning right onto my street. So we have one coming along, planning a right hand turn onto my street; this is Driver #2. As long as Driver #2 is a nice, observant driver who sees Driver #1 needing to go left, he slows down to create enough of a gap to allow this. Now ideally, Driver #1 would have observed Driver #3 (that'd be me) sitting at this same intersection with her signal flashing a need to go left and when he gets his go-ahead from Driver #2, he would first allow #3 to hop out, he'd then turn left in front of the still-patiently-waiting #2 and all is right with the world. Make sense? Clear as mud? You'd get it perfectly if you could see the intersection. My main point here is that it's rare that Drivers #1 and 2 both get this or are in the kindhearted mood to allow it.
Since almost everyone in this particular show is in it daily, everyone is familiar with the intersection and the steps that must be maneuvered for all to finally make the turn they need. So when it doesn't flow properly, I tend to blame it on inconsiderateness more than obliviousness.
So each morning I tell Chase the rules of driving: 1. Safety first. 2. Be a defensive driver because too many others out there aren't as concerned for your life (or their own) as they are getting somewhere fast. And 3. Be aware of what all is around you and be considerate of others. As often as you have the opportunity to help another driver, you will need the same sort of help yourself. And if the world were full of nothing but inconsiderate people only looking out for number one, it'd be a pretty miserable place to be...not to mention impossible for any of us to get anywhere.
Monday, September 21, 2009
New 2 week period
Took the wife out and generally had a very good time at home. Went and got the air card on Saturaday hope I don't come to regret the expense (but it is a write-off).
Got out of the house about 9am went over to the yard to get my load. Life lesson call the shipping office on Friday to get the trailer number. This way you don't have to spend 20 minutes looking at all the bills on all the trailer to find yours. (Grin). Anyway saw about 5 dead deer along side the highways today guess it tis be the season or close to it.
Made it to the 44 on I-20 and called it a day. Figure on rolling out about 4 or so in the morning. Here's the w/a so far this week.
A career in the trucking industry?
Out for a walk on a beautiful autumn day, Emmett and his parents happened upon a monster truck event at Stampede Park. With tears in their eyes, Emmett's parents wondered if this might be the moment that would set the tone for the rest of his life. Would he grow up enjoying a life of adventure on the monster truck circuit?
Alas, Emmett conjured up little enthusiasm for the spectacle, and opportunity knocks but once. Poor little fellow, relegated to a life of relative obscurity in medicine, law, education, or municipal solid waste management.
Alas, Emmett conjured up little enthusiasm for the spectacle, and opportunity knocks but once. Poor little fellow, relegated to a life of relative obscurity in medicine, law, education, or municipal solid waste management.
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