Tennessee layover

Yep, last week I got to sit in middle Tennessee an extra 24 hours..........seems to have been a lot of laying over this month but hey, just one more week and I'm off on that much needed vacation.  Thanks to the layovers and Lola breaking down so much this summer I won't have near the funds I had planned on but I will deal, I very much need this time away from trucking.  

The packing in process, kind of a monochromatic palette

The layover wasn't all bad, thanks to the tropical storm moving through, temps dropped a lot--as in a 40-50F drop from what we have been experiencing and I got to go run aka play in the rain for 5 miles.  Happy girl!  Not only was it a refreshingly cool run, I managed an 8:59 per mile average with negative splits.  Very, very, very happy girl!!! 

Other tidbits from the week:

While I was standing in line to pay for my shower (only had Love's shower credits, no Pilot ones) a driver very kindly gave me one of his credits.  That hasn't happened for a while, although I've been known to do that for someone else when I have one available that I'm not gonna use.

There was actually a very polite group of drivers at the customer on Wednesday despite the delays for everyone.  Even had one stop to make sure I didn't need help with sliding my tandems, that rarely happens because it's usually rush, rush, rush, get outta my way there.  Guess the cooler temps had everyone in a better mood.

Shop kept my trailer hostage past my 14 hours after I left it there Wednesday evening so I ended up spending the night at home.  Had a very nice walk with a friend who happens to be a neighbor with our pups, enjoying those cooler temps still.

A bout of insomnia had me up and awake well before my alarm so instead of meeting the Thursday morning group, I got up and ran a timed run--50 minutes solo, then 17 minutes with Elsie.  Timed because I hadn't planned on being home and my garmin was in the truck.  I was up so early that I had my workout done, showered, and was pulling off the yard by 0700.

Yes, please!

I actually had a trailer preplanned so was in and out of Laredo in well under an hour Friday morning.

Dry and dusty Texas

Way too long trying to fuel at the Pilot/Flying J in Waco--damned fuel optimization software, that most of the large companies use had the place backed up, it's a bitch trying to get in and out of there traffic-wise, and of course you have some idiot drivers that insist on using ink pens or knives to punch in their info on the fuel pump keypads which resulted in me having to stand in line inside to get my fuel authorized.

Seriously, there is no call for this

Decided to try drinking unsweetened cranberry juice for the health benefits this week. Only way to get through it is drink it fast. Very, very, very, very fast.  Or maybe add vodka?

Pucker up!!!

Her grumpiness

Has it really been almost a month since I last blogged? Wow, bad blogger. Bad, bad blogger. There probably is some appropriate punishment for the lazy bloggers--a bit of time in the stockade being flogged maybe?  Hmmm, just a case of declining interest by people more likely, certainly a case of oh my gosh she's still around, we'd forgotten all about her, lol.

So what's gone on since Lola was turned into a human crock pot.......I tentatively think the truck is finally fixed, only a few minor issues with the air conditioning for the past 2 weeks.  However I did stop to fuel in south Arkansas night before last and was confronted with this image when I stepped back into the truck and started to buckle up as I always do

Yep, that is my seat belt, snapped in half. Scary, eh?  Fortunately I was near a wal-mart so was able to buy a star driver hex head set to swap out seatbelts from the passenger seat to the driver's seat.  Those seatbelts aren't meant to come loose though........there was some grumbling, grunting, pushing and pulling with the socket wrench to get them undone.........Oh and liberal use of WD-40!!!  Afterwards, while putting away my tools and the oh so handy can of aforementioned WD-40, what did I find but a star driver set hidden away in a nook just like the one I had purchased only an hour prior........there went $23.97 plus tax, grrrrr.

Other work news....the new dispatcher is a very nice lady but she has our dedicated lanes so futzed up it's ridiculous.  Instead of keeping trailers down at Laredo for those of us who are dedicateds, she sees there's a trailer sitting there and thinks it must be dispatched out immediately and is doing so on OTR drivers. This in turn causes us to have to wait for trailers here, last weekend I was sitting from Thursday night until Sunday afternoon and having to check in with the office every 2-3 hours to see if one had crossed.  Not fun.  Today, I was at least assigned a trailer although I'm having to wait on it to cross.

Training, hey I've got a new plan now after it all went to hell last month.  There will be no personal records at the Marine Corps Marathon but I will do my level best to get across that finish line.  Last Sunday's long run was a 10-miler was 8 miles on the side of Loop 20 in Laredo, then 2 miles in a nearby neighborhood with Elsie.  Too much concrete, my legs and body were suffering from the no-give surface.  Tuesday, ran 6 miles with friends at home, then did a 5.55 mile run here in Laredo again.  This time I explored a neighborhood where there was a lot of new home construction so porta-potty score!!!!!!!!  Oh, probably only runners will get the importance of that, lol.

There's been lots more going on but this is turning into too long of a post already

Silent is my tweet

Sigh...........still having issues with my twitter account at the moment, I am currently unable to follow or approve anyone to follow me as of yet.  A quick perusal of the help section revealed that I'm not the only one with this issue, just waiting on the engineers to find a workaround.  While I'm frustrated and going through withdrawals I do have to give Twitter a huge thumbs up for the quick reactivation of my account.

In other news after 5 successful restarts of Lola, she decided to misbehave again.....yep, twice under the hood to get her restarted last night and at lunchtime this morning.  Ok, that's about all I have to say other than this is giving me serious motivation to pursue other means of earning filthy lucre.  Lol, I'm sure buying the Texas Lotto ticket is NOT a very viable option but it would be nice.

Workout stuff.......ran 4.14 miles in 36:27 on my favorite dirt road this morning and even stopped to take a picture of the cows who ran with me because they thought I was bringing food

Music stuff....Seether has a new song out that I'm loving, here's a live version vid.  Enjoy!!

continuing travails of Lola

So Lola has continued to ail and I've continued to get all kinds of perturbed but she's currently in the truck hospital aka shop being gone over with a fine tooth comb......errrr, wrench. Last week though she developed a new symptom...........the dreaded stop engine buzzer and light.  First time or two, I pull over, shut it down (dreading and not knowing if she would start back without persuasion), check all the fluids and various items that a person checks when you have all this obnoxious beep, beep, beep that comes with the red flashing stop sign on the dash.  Mind you, all my gauges are reading absolutely normal and nothing appears to be amiss so quick diagnosis was the egr valve going (again).  This is nothing uncommon, they tend to go out quite often sadly.

So what does an egr valve do?  Here's a link to a quick explanation of what one does on a car. Couldn't find one for a big truck but essentially very similar.

Anyway, back to last Tuesday, after the 3rd time the stop engine light came on and I had to find a safe place to pull over and shut the engine off, I told myself that the next time I was calling in and telling them the load had to be relayed once I made it back to N. Little Rock.  Sure enough, less than 20 miles down the road, I had the stop engine warning AGAIN.  I also had to wiggle the wire and cable cluster that led from the starter to get the engine to turn over (2nd time that day).  I'm dirty, greasy, and way past aggravated at this point.

Yep, call was made along with a frustrated sigh from my dispatcher.  I didn't care, no way was the truck gonna make it to Laredo and back with having to stop so much.........however I wasn't liking the thought of sitting without pay even if it was at home so I qualcommed the cranky dispatcher telling him that I would take the load on down to Laredo if HE could get me a loaner truck--I'd already tried to no avail on Monday.  Sure enough, that's what it took, 15 minutes later I had a truck number along with a note saying it was mine to use as long as needed.  Lola in the meantime continued her cantankerous ways by making me shut the engine down 3 more times before reaching the terminal.......grand total of 7 times for the day.

The trials and tribulations of Lola

I have been having a recurring issue with Lola the truck over the past couple of months.....I honestly never know if she's gonna start or not when I shut off the engine so my weeks lately have resulted in me not shutting the engine off at all while I'm working.  The problem seems to be one of the wires/cables leading to the starter or starter solenoid.....starter has been replaced.....and a couple of bolts happened to not get replaced and the positive cable was crimped and touching metal.  It's a wonder the truck didn't catch fire on that particular week.  Now there's a ground or loose cable that seems to not be connecting correctly and to get the truck started I have to crawl underneath or reach from the top to start kinda jiggling at wires, crawl back out if I can't find anyone to sit in the drivers seat and repeatedly turn the key while I'm checking said connections. A complete and utter hassle which has resulted in me being wet, cold, and filthy muddy more times than I can stand.  So now I don't shut the truck engine off after each stint in the shop unless it's on a relatively clean surface.

The truck that's causing me all kinds of grief

Handy, dandy latch that unclips to allow the front bumper to be lowered

Bumper in lowered position

The tire that I have to crawl behind in order to reach the starter

Part of the wiring that leads from starter and solenoid

My view from under the truck and behind the left steer tire

Yup, there's the part causing me the problem

Oooh, bent license plate bracket and bumper from where somebody didn't use the tow hooks to pull my truck into the shop when it wouldn't start



Mudbaths are good for the skin I hear

I drive a 2008 International Prostar for work and the starters on these particular trucks have a tendency to fail quite regularly....the kicker of it is that you don't get the traditional "click-click" noise when the key is turned.....just nothing....kind of like the dead silence you get when someone says something mortifying that everyone else wishes they could scrub from their auditory canals.  Well I've been getting those episodes occasionally this month so when I had the fuel leak issue I also wrote up the starter....which night shift supposedly tested...and I assumed it had been replaced.  Yep, mistake number 1 on my part.

Second mistake? That would be shutting my truck off at the dunnage dock which just so happen to sit downslope from a very muddy area and water puddles up in small ponds all around the cab of your truck.

Yep, turn the key, let it cycle through the cacophony of warning buzzers.....and nada..I'm cringing because I don't want to get out and lay in this

in order to beat on the starter... to reach it you have to lay on your back just behind the driver's side steer tire, kinda fold up the mudflap and scoot under the fender and springs to reach the thing.  Whoever came up with that design should be drawn and quartered, just my personal opinion anyway.

So hair is tucked up into a ponytail bun to try and keep it out of the way, work jacket on (why don't I own coveralls???), and with a huge sigh of trepidation I scoot my way under Lola's chassis to hammer on the starter....once, twice...no results. After the second time, Scotty the forklift driver meanders out to find out what I'm doing.

Explain the situation then crawl under there again.  Attempts 3, 4, and 5 and still that maddening silence.  Each time I'm getting more and more soaked and dirty and Scotty is looking more horrified everytime I scoot back out.

The fifth attempt also came with a bash to my right eyebrow, after a quick glimpse in the mirror to make sure I wasn't going to bleed all over everything I discovered the grease and mud down the left side of my face.  Yup, I love my job :D.

Thus began the process of trying to get in touch with our road rescue dept...yeah I was going under that truck with the iPhone pressed to my ear praying I didn't drop it.....RR by the way wanted me to continue with what I was doing (of course) but with someone turning the key simultaneously. I enlisted Scotty to sit in my truck and be in charge of that while I hammered on that recalcitrant starter several more times. FINALLY it caught!!! Geez, I wouldn't mind a mudbath but I really prefer a spa setting, lol.