Life Day 21241: Aftermath Afterthoughts
September 7, 2005 on 11:57 am | In Rants | No CommentsIt is easy to “monday morning quarterback” after any disaster, be it man-made or natural. Hurricane Katrina is no exception. If one watched or listened only to CNN, NBC, ABC, or CBS, they would come away thinking that the responsibiliy for the entire debacle (including the Hurricane itself) rests solely with George Bush and the Bush Administration. If one watched or listened only to Fox News, they would come away thinking that George Bush and the Bush Administration were entirely blameless and that the responsibility rests solely with Louisana Governor Blanco and New Orleans Mayor Nagin. What a bunch of B___S___!!! In actuality, there was a Total Abject Failure from the every level of Government. From the first responders (who basically abandon the people stranded in New Orleans once the levees failed) to FEMA (who was woefully unprepared for the enormity of the situation), all agencies responded with the equivelent of: “Showing up to a Nuclear War with a Sling Shot” (that’s nuclear George, not nuculer).
What really DISGUSTS me is the “finger pointing” and “shifting of blame” that is rampant among those in “power”. True Leaders Lead, they do not try to obviate the situation in an attempt to put themselves in a better light. There will be an appropriate time to play POLITICS and find out who screwed up and how, but, in my humble opinion, that time should be, oh I don’t know, some time AFTER you have rescued your citizens who are stranded on their rooftops without food or water with many needing medicine and/or medical attention.
It took less than 24 hours after the levees collapsed for all the usual suspects to play the “race card”. More B____S____!!! If they really wanted to “help”, they would be down there handing out food and water or rendering some other kind of aid rather than “sprinting” to the nearest TV camera to “poke the Bush Administration in the eye”. Like I said above, there will be a time and place to establish blame.
What conclusions can we, as Americans, draw from this tragedy:
1). “Homeland Security” is a joke. Congress needs to re-write the Homeland Security Act, and, while they’re at it, give us back the 3rd, 4th and 5th Ammendment Rights that they usurped in the original version.
2). What America needs is some “Adult Supervision”. These Childish Morons that currently “represent” us need to GO!!!
3). The “Bart Simpson” (I didn’t do it, no one saw me do it, you can’t prove it) approach to Politics by the Looney Left, is equally as frightening to me as the “Ecumenical” (I was elected to this office because GOD ordained it) approach by the Rabid Religious Right.
4). In the next election, no incumbant (City, County, State or Federal) should be re-elected. They have all been corrupted by the entrenched Special Interests and Lobby Groups whose sole purpose is to get American Taxpayers to cede to their Lunatic Fringe agendas or fund their Pet Projects (usually to the detriment of the Taxpayer). It’s time to Clean House and start over. This system is Broken.
5). Democracy is only as good as its citizens. WAKE UP AMERICA!!! You are the ones who elected these IMBECILES.
6). Democracy isn’t the perfect form of Government, but it is far ahead of whatever is in 2nd place. We need to FIX what we have. End the Bribery and Graft (disguised as “campaign contributions” and “political action committees”) of the current system.
7). Political Correctness is “Political”, but seldom “Correct”. Stop the absurdity of “Political Correctness” immediately. Who the H___ decides what’s Politically Correct anyway???
In conclusion, let me say that unless America wakes up, it is DOOMED. The answer lies somewhere between the extremism of the Looney Left and the extremism of the Rabid Right. Unless we find the answers soon, I fear for the future of my beloved Country!!!!!
THE LOAD FROM HELL
December 31, 1969 on 5:00 pm | In Rants | No CommentsAugust 6th (Friday): Delivered the load (from Brigham City, UT) at the “consignee” in Brownsville, TX this AM. The Planner gave me a load that picked up at the Laredo, TX Terminal going to Hayward, CA (201 miles empty, 1725 miles loaded). The route for today was US-83 north to Laredo, I-35 north to US-83 north to Carriizo Springs, TX. Then US-277 west through Eagle Pass, TX to Del Rio, TX. From Del Rio, US-90 west to Sanderson, TX, then US-285 north to Fort Stockton, TX. As it turned out this was “THE LOAD FROM HELL”!! I arrived in Laredo, picked up the paperwork for the load, and went out to hook-up to the trailer. I coundn’t find it anywhere in the yard. I finally found it in the Shop. They were installing new brake shoes. I finally got hooked to the trailer some 3 hours later. (the Shop has their priorities, & I have mine. They just happened to “collide” on this day). The “laden weight” of the load was 45,354 lbs (quite heavy, but “do-able” if the trailer was properly loaded). I was full of fuel (being the dutiful little trucker that I am, I had fueled upon entering the Terminal). Anyway, I went to the scale in the yard and weighed the load. It was legal according to that scale. Not being a trusting soul, I departed the terminal and went to the Pilot Truckstop and decided that a “certified” weight was needed. I scaled the load there, went inside to pay the fee and get my weight ticket. They couldn’t find it. (must have been a language problem. I speak & understand English, they didn’t). Sooooo, I fight my way through all the traffic in the truckstop and 15 minutes later am back on the scale. The lady takes my company and truck information again. I find another parking spot, go inside, and they CAN’T FIND MY TICKET, AGAIN. At this point, I “inform” her (using more colorful and less urbane language) that, compared to her, FORREST GUMP was a genius, and trace her lineage clear back to LASSIE. Anyway, I leave the truckstop in disgust, and “sans” a certified weight ticket. Between Carrizo Springs and Eagle Pass (about 20 miles form Eagle Pass), I have a tire “blow-out” on the left, inboard, forward axle of the trailer. I “limp” into Eagle Pass and call the company for help. This went relatively smoothly, considering the kind of day i’ve had so far. Swift has a network of hundreds of shops that they can call when a driver has mechanical problems on the road. Fortunately, there was a tire shop available right there in Eagle Pass. A half hour later the guy shows up with a new tire and has me ready to roll within a half hour of his arrival. Total time lost about 1.5 hours including getting a bite to eat & walking the doggies. I then continued my “slog” to Fort Stockton with no further problems.
August 7th (Saturday): Continuing the “saga” of the “trip from Hell”. The planned route for today was I-10 east through El Paso,TX; Las Cruses and Lordsburg, NM; into Arizona through Benson and Tucson and into Phoenix. The best laid plans of mice and men, however, are often thwarted by fate. I arrived at the El Paso Terminal at noon. I filled up with fuel, then (as an afterthought) decided to scale the load again. It was a “good thing”,because, sure enough, I was illegal (500 lbs overweight on the “steer axle” and 1700 lbs over on the “drive axles”) with no way to make any adjustments to the weight other than re-working the load. Had I entered the “port of entry” into New Mexico being that far overweight, I would have got a hefty ticket, and spent the week-end in my truck there until I cound get help on Monday. I went into the office and told them of my plight. They said to go to the truckstop (10 miles away) and get a certified weight, then come back in to see them. I did so (with considerably less effort than yesterday). I told them that the load was, in fact, illegal by about the same weights as mentioned above,and the load had to be re-worked. I asked if the shop could help me. They said that the shop did not work weekends and wouldn’t be in until Monday AM. I asked if they had a key to the shop so that I could use the forklift and re-work the load myself and continue on my way. They said that they had no access to the shop at all. I called my “home Terminal” (Salt Lake City, UT). My driver manager happened to be the “driver manager du jour” for the week-end. After some research, he said that Arizona allows 20,00 lbs on the steer-axle, so if i could “slide the weight forward on the 5th wheel, it would move all the excess weight to the steer-axle and the drives (drive-axles) would then be legal and I could proceed to Phoenix and re-work the load there (where the shop doesn’t have “bankers hours”). I succeeded in moving the weight and got the drives legal (but just barely). I then asked him about New Mexico’s regulations. New Mexico does not specify a legal weight for the steer-axles. He said that he didn’t know and to use my judgement as to whether I should try to proceed with the “plan”. Being the cautious type I decided that the best plan of action was to call the New Mexico Port of Entry and find out their interpretation of “not specified”. Another “good thing”. The officer at the Port said that the maximum allowable weight was 12000 lbs, and they would write a citation for anything overweight. End of that “plan”. Satan 3, Ernie 0. I called my driver manager back & told him the bad news. The load that was to deliver Monday, would still be in El Paso awaiting re-work, and would have to be re-scheduled (despite my Herculean efforts).
August 9th(Monday): Still on “the load from Hell”. The planned route for this day was I-10 west through Phoenix, AZ, then on into Blythe,CA. This AM, I checked in with the EL Paso Terminal. They informed me that the “yard manager” had not showed up yet, and that I should check with the shop to see if they could help. I did so. When I told them what the problem was, they looked at me like I had just asked them to “throw their puppy into a wood-chipper”. I got no help there. Back to the Drivers Window I went, and not a ‘happy camper’. I asked to see the Terminal Manager. He “shined me on” for about 1 1/2 hours. (He was in his office less than 20 feet away with his door open and fully aware that I was waiting to see him). I finally got tired of that. I elevated my vocal timbre by about 50% and asked what the *&# I had to do to get him to come talk to me about the problem. That got his attention. He came out of his office, obviously not pleased with the disturbance, and the verbal “fisticuffs” began. We traced each others lineage, he inferring that I was decended from the above mentioned LASSIE, and I inferring that he was “unaware of the identity of his paternal parent, and that he suffered from an Odephus complex ( again using the more colorful and less urbane language, much to the amusement of those in the office and the Drivers Lounge as well). He said that he didn’t have time to be dealing with drivers’ “petty complaints”. I said: ” I’ve been here for almost 48 hours waiting to get this load re-worked and that you can either find someone to help me re-work the load, or T-call it and get me on my way with something else, but that you are going to make for time this drivers ” petty complaint”, or that my next phone call would be to the Company President. Before the situation could deteriorate much further, the Yard Manager (who had been at the doctor passing a Kidney Stone) came in and said that he would help me. FINALLY. We had to pull every pallet out of the trailer and re-load it. Since the pallets were similar in weight and number to those of a beverage load, we decided to use the same load plan as a beverage load. Worked like a charm, and I was finally en-route once more. I do not suffer incompetance nor incompetants well, and this place is rife with both. I guess i’m “persona non gratis” in El Paso terminal for a while. Tsk, tsk. tsk. Anyway the rest of the day went well.
August 10th (Tuesday): Still on the Devil Load. The route today was. I-10 west to I-210 west (to avoid the LA grid-lock) to I-5 north to Santa Nella. All went well.
August 11th (Wednesday): The Hell Load is history. It deliverd at 0900 this AM and good ridance. All I had to do was navigate the 70 or so miles from Santa Nella to Hayward, through the Bay Area “rush hour” traffic without killing any “bone-headed” California drivers. (Why do they call it “rush hour” when no-one is moving)? The route is I-5 north to I-580 west to I-880 south to Hayward. Yes, I finally arrived without incident and made the delivery on time (for the re-scheduled appointment), but “par for the course”, there was no freight available. The Planners did eventually find me a load, but it didn’t pick up until the next day, so I just headed to the Lathrop, CA terminal and “kicked back”.
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