Blogging notes
You may have noticed the schedule change. I’m blogging at night. I decided life is easier to just publish the night before instead of future dating posts. This won’t really affect you, even if 98% of you read from work. You just won’t be the first to know.
Also, still really busy but enjoying myself very much. The blog reading has suffered so if I’ve not blogged about that thing you sent me, means I probably haven’t read it yet. Them’s the breaks.
Junior started third grade and The Second started first. They grow up fast.
I love little baby ducks.
I think my body is used to long days in the heat. I no longer eat like a horse but . . .
Until recently, I bet the last time I had a Mountain Dew was over a decade ago. Just never cared much for them. Now, I crave them and have one a day. Not sure if it’s the sugar I’m craving or what but they hit the spot. Especially the Throwback with real sugar.
I have learned to drive a Bobcat. Poorly. But at least I haven’t run anything over. Up next, learning to haul a big ass trailer.
Turbo diesels are loud when the blower kicks on.
And people seem to think big truck means cut them off. Seriously, people, this things don’t come to a stop fast. Knock that off. A F550 nailing your Prius won’t go well.
August 1st, 2012 at 9:47 pm
“Until recently, I bet the last time I had a Mountain Dew was over a decade ago. Just never cared much for them. Now, I crave them and have one a day.”
Its required by law when working construction to drink only Mountain Dew (at least in my experience on construction sites).
August 1st, 2012 at 9:54 pm
I’m glad you’re enjoying the job. A miserable job makes for a miserable life.
August 1st, 2012 at 9:57 pm
When maneuvering huge ass trailer, its helpful to think about hinge points. The most important point is the hitch point, the furthest out you can get that into the intersection, the better. Also, in reverse, dont think as pulling, think as pushing. I find that mindset helpful. Also, Bobcats are awesome. And fun.
August 1st, 2012 at 10:16 pm
I can sympathize with the blogging schedule. Right now I am working, as I find happens often with working from home. Sometimes shit comes up during the day, and I have to work at night.
As for the Mt. Dew… being on the low carb diet, I find when I get active, it’s at that point I want to mug someone for some fucking carbs. I think when you’re doing more physical work, you need the cheap energy only carbs provide. When your sedentary, like I am most of the time, your body can afford to do some work to make energy.
August 1st, 2012 at 10:25 pm
Ahh, heavy machinery 🙂 It will maim or kill you so easily, yet one just can’t stay away. A broke ass Abrams tank took my virginity, the trees will never forgive me, I’m sure.
August 1st, 2012 at 11:07 pm
I suppose that depends on your conditions for what constitutes “well”. One less environmentally disastrous douchecage on the roads = nothin’ but upside.
August 1st, 2012 at 11:33 pm
Mtn. Dew, sugar and caffeine. Lay off it now,jr. You’re running on high test.
August 1st, 2012 at 11:46 pm
Because Pixi Stix and iced coffee.
August 2nd, 2012 at 2:38 am
“A F550 nailing your Prius won’t go well.”
Oh, I dunno. It teaches the Prius owner a lesson about Mr. Inertia.
August 2nd, 2012 at 9:10 am
Beware “Dew Mouth”.
August 2nd, 2012 at 9:26 am
There might not be too many things that are more fun to drive than a Bobcat. Once you get the hang of it, its almost like you’re making art work.
People also don’t realize how fast trucks can accelerate. They can really shit and get when you press that pedal but like you said stopping can be an adventure.
August 2nd, 2012 at 9:50 am
Remember – Dig Safely
http://www.call811.com/
August 2nd, 2012 at 10:11 am
Throwback Mountain Dew (and or Pepsi) FTW! That is fo shizzle!
BTW, there’s a rule that you (and the Prius punks) aren’t following…ye with the most lug nutz wins, and that’s who shall have the right of way! Drive like it!
August 2nd, 2012 at 10:21 am
“Until recently, I bet the last time I had a Mountain Dew was over a decade ago. Just never cared much for them. Now, I crave them and have one a day.”
Bloomberg just crapped his drawers leading to a new initiative……Mt. Dew ration cards. “Sorry sir, you’ve already had your Mt. Dew for the week.”
August 2nd, 2012 at 11:55 am
molonlabe, Bloomberg needs to understand he’s just the mayor of some town up north, not King of F*cking Everything. And he’s not my Mommy.
August 2nd, 2012 at 12:49 pm
LOL, yep sugar and caffeine THAT will get you revved up! And a big diesel vs. a Prius is what I’d call a good start!
August 2nd, 2012 at 12:49 pm
I got to tow the 30″ theater-trailer full of scenery from Santa Maria down 101 to Solvang a few times, driving the dually-Ford. That was fun until you had to back-up down the narrow side street to make the 3-point-turn into the theater! We drank Pepsi though.
August 2nd, 2012 at 2:07 pm
Find an empty parking lot, lay out your traffic cones (you DO have some, right?) to outline parking stalls, and practice backing into them from various angles, and around obstacles. You need the cones to give you spacial cues you don’t get with just the painted lines. Doing it in the real world, you have real objects to work with.
Don’t forget to practice driving around cones to get a feel for how the trailer follows and swings.
August 2nd, 2012 at 2:19 pm
Given enough practice in a wide open, blue-law closed-on-Sundays parking lot, “anyone” (term used advisedly) can learn to back a trailer. One gets into trouble, as in so many things in life, when one changes from one trailer to another.
A difference in hitch type, tongue length!, number of axles, or wheel location radically changes the way a trailer steers in reverse. Given a reasonable weight distribution, any (again, advisedly) trailer will follow you down the road. But they sure as hell won’t push back the same. I learned this by reading, quietly and harmlessly, in the comfort of my own cab. Do not ask how the lesson was so firmly imprinted.
Any apparent double entendres here are purely intentional, I assure you.
Hmm, and obligatorily: F-550? Son, I learned to drive on a bigger truck than that. It did have a Merc flattie, though. Trucks were…different…back then.
August 2nd, 2012 at 6:38 pm
Just remember driving a truck is fun. As for backing, take your time and pay attention and you’ll do ok. It’s not a race. Unless you’re driving an r model with 5 reverse gears. That was FUN! I nearly got fired, but I won! @comatus I got my start with coe internationals and r models.
August 2nd, 2012 at 6:56 pm
“A F550 nailing your Prius won’t go well”
I wonder what the babies would look like…?
August 2nd, 2012 at 7:57 pm
Son of Earthfucker?
August 2nd, 2012 at 9:51 pm
“I wonder what the babies would look like…?”
Subaru Brat
August 3rd, 2012 at 7:49 am
“I wonder what the babies would look like…?”
[sound of seams popping]
Ford Truck had a medium-duty hybrid before the Prius ever went to market. And Euclid made electric trucks while these sissies were still shitting Davis-safety-yellow. Coal powered electric trucks.
August 3rd, 2012 at 9:07 am
Bobcat rentals are some of my fondest memories of home landscape renovation. I think our real cat finally came home several days later.
Drivers who cut you off should see a dented front bumper in their rear view mirror, at the height of their chins. That little bit of warning generally kicks their brains into gear.