Your Turn

Today's Thoughts By Jeff Head 11/30/12 Your Turn

I was just thinking, it is your turn to tell me your thoughts. I have been so pissed about this the last few days that I just have not been able to find the proper words to get it out. Well, to get it out on a PG level that is, and anything I could or would say about it would probably land me in jail.

We all know that public assistance is a must for some, this as a compassionate people we understand. But once again in my travels across this country just doing my job I run into a true patriot and as we are discussing what to do with our current situation, they describe to me what is going on behind the scenes where they work and my truck is currently backed into.

The people here make upwards of twenty five dollars an hour, yet a good portion of them as it is being explained to me have their spouses lying to the government about their relationship status and collecting government checks. Now mind you this is nothing new, I have seen it many places many times over the years. But as Obama refuses to cut entitlement spending or go after people that do this, leaving us hard working people paying the bills while we insist on doing it right, I was just wondering how you felt about this.

Be safe peeps.

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Reverse Education

Today's Thoughts By Jeff Head 11/24/12 Reverse Education

I have education on the brain today so I thought I would talk a little about how our Nation is being educated right out of itself and how to reverse it. Just so that we are on the same page here, I am going to start with a something I learned about the tactics being used against our American way of life.

 From the internet;

“Obama helped fund 'Alinsky Academy': "The Woods Fund, a nonprofit on which Obama served as paid director from 1999 to December 2002, provided startup funding and later capital to the Midwest Academy.... Obama sat on the Woods Fund board alongside William Ayers, founder of the Weather Underground domestic terrorist organization....  'Midwest describes itself as 'one of the nation's oldest and best-known schools for community organizations, citizen organizations and individuals committed to progressive social change.'... Midwest teaches Alinsky tactics of community organizing." Hillary, Obama and the Cult of Alinsky: "True revolutionaries do not flaunt their radicalism, Alinsky taught. They cut their hair, put on suits and infiltrate the system from within. Alinsky viewed revolution as a slow, patient process. The trick was to penetrate existing institutions such as churches, unions and political parties....”

Many leftists view Hillary as a sell-out because she claims to hold moderate views on some issues. However, Hillary is simply following Alinsky’s counsel to do and say whatever it takes to gain power.

"Obama is also an Alinskyite.... Obama spent years teaching workshops on the Alinsky method. In 1985 he began a four-year stint as a community organizer in Chicago, working for an Alinskyite group called the Developing Communities Project.... Camouflage is key to Alinsky-style organizing. While trying to build coalitions of black churches in Chicago, Obama caught flak for not attending church himself. He became an instant churchgoer." (By Richard Poe, 11-27-07)

Ok. I am back. Us old folks from the ice age can remember back when all the conspiracy theorist were telling us that this stuff was happening. But hard working people were to busy working their jobs and building their businesses to see what was happening. What we ended up with was hard working capitalist sending their children to colleges that were filled with progressive professors, Unions that went way beyond working for their workers to inserting themselves into national politics and churches that preached going out and getting yourself arrested because the man was against you. This last one I was amazed at as I actually heard them on a early morning broadcast supporting the Occupy Wall Street Movement.

So how do we combat this stuff? We do the same to them that they did to us as best we can. We stop sending our kids to progressive colleges. Seek out and demand that the school teach capitalism instead of socialism. Demand that equal numbers of right wing professors are available for our children.

Also we need to rip out by the roots any union involvement in our schools. Not only are union members more concerned about themselves then they are about this country, but they are filling our children’s heads with the union mentality. Teaching them that it is all for one and no one should step out on their own and become self sufficient or to stand up for themselves by themselves. I love when people get together a stand up for themselves. But unions have gone far beyond that point and now can be considered as one of many things dragging this country down.

We must as I see it teach ourselves and our children what they will not teach thim in school. That to be Americain is a special privaledge. That we are the best hope for freedom this world has to offer and when they meet a teacher that tells them otherwise, to walk away from such notions, to understand that our government has been infiltrated by those that would destroy our American way of life.

As for churches, you will hear them shout for and wide that there is a separation of church and state. All the time they are quietly teaching in their churches how to destroy our country. All you have to do to understand this point is to take a listen to their services many of which can be found on line. Teach in our own churches what a wonderful land God has left for freedom loving Americans and how to save it. Churches do have the right to talk about politics

I guess to close this one out, my point is we have been blind to what they have been doing to our country for too long.  We are going to have to deal with that fact. From here though, were do we go? Do we just sit back and allow them to win or do we do like we have always done in the past when the ugly head of progressivism arises? Knock it back down. Yes, this is not the first time in this country for these nuts, and it will not be the last. What we do is use their tactics to defeat them. We start to look like them, infiltrate, teach their young that being a leach sucks and that with a little hard work, they can once again have the freedom to be something other than a government dependent.

Be safe peeps.

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Human Dog Fights

Today's Thoughts By Jeff Head 11/23/12 Human Dog Fights

I was having a discussion with my son this morning and as we were talking along, I realized something as I was using something similar to what I was trying to explain to my son that would help him understand the point I was trying to make. I guess we all use this tactic from time to time in our conversations and if done properly, using similarities can help to drive a point home.

The point I want to drive home today is animal cruelty. We have all seen the stories in the news, dogs, roosters and other assorted animals being used not only as entertainment, but also for the purpose of profit.  Time and time again we watch as special interest groups and media outlets go after some well known famous person as they get caught engaging in such activities behind closed doors. There they are big as life, holding back animals while they antagonize them. Leaping forward shoving their faces together, then yanking them back just in a nick of time, building up anger to the point that each animal wants to kill the other, to the point that the only thing that matters is survival.

And when we catch these cruel bastards at this game, we crucify them in the public eye then we send them through our legal system and with any luck, it is prison time for them, unless of course the animal in question is a human. No, for humans we watch our politicians holding us animals back while they antagonize us. Leaping forward shoving our faces together, then yanking us back just in a nick of time, building up our anger to the point that each human wants to kill the others way of life, to the point that the only thing that matters is survival.

Why do we Americans allow our politicians to treat us like dogs at a dog fight? In the end we are losing our freedoms and they sit back gaining both power and profit. Recently I have been studying up on the different tactics being used in politics and the similarity between dog fights and human fights are quite amazing. They push one human at another and say they want to take away your rights. The other human is yanked back as they are told your rights mean nothing to this person. Think about it for a minute, we as a nation are being divided in as many ways as they can think up. We are being pitted against each other in a perpetual dog fight while they sit up their laughing their asses off, making bets, and drinking down as much of the destruction of the American way of life as they can.

Politicians that use these sorts of tactics should be jailed just like any other person that pits one animal against another for some sort of entertainment or profit. Only the politicians win at this game. As the rest of us animals find ourselves pitted against each other, nothing is being done to save this nation. The greatest animal trainer wins the elections but in the end all that is left is one or two of the strongest still standing while the rest of us have to live with the aftermath.

Start understanding how we are being used as a people, as an animal for the profits of our new found masters. Unlike dogs we as humans have the power to think, to rationalize what has been done to us. We can reverse this current course and return to a healthy and wealthy nation, but only if we refuse to be pitted against each other like dogs.

Be safe peeps.

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Fair Taxes

Today's Thoughts By Jeff Head 11/19/12 Fair Taxes

So I am awake again instead of sleeping like a good little trucker following my log book rules. Oh well, think I will look around on the web for a bit. There it is, once again, “The uber rich need to pay their fair share of taxes.” I am so tired of hearing this crap. Fair taxes and paying their fair share, let us take a look at this for a minute. Might as well, like I said I am not sleeping so I might as well spend a little time pissing off some libtard somewhere.

They have already paid taxes on that money, the rich guy has. No matter how they got it a good portion of it went into the pockets of the government before it ever went into their bank account. Fair share, they paid millions in taxes while some fat lazy slob perfectly healthy and able to work sits on their arse collecting a government dole check. So what you are calling fair is actually liberals legally stealing from a person who has legally made boat loads of money and then in turn buying the vote of some slob so that they can gain power in the political arena.

Fair share, why should one American be handed a tax bill for millions while the next guy only pays a thousand? Does not seem very fair to me, not at all but what it does seem like is politicians using class warfare to gain votes. What you have to understand here is that we need to stop vilifying people that are doing it right. They go out and figure out how to make millions while in the process providing jobs that that fat slob could be out their working instead of sitting on their asrs complaining about how unfair the world is.

Suck it up and deal with it. Keep screwing with the rich folk and they will split this country taking their millions someplace where their fair share is actually fair and not what the government can rape from them to buy votes with. Try endeavoring to be like them, to stand on your own two feet and make your own pile cash in this country instead of insisting on being some government leach.

Yes before you go crying that we need to take care of the needy, that goes without saying. But the rest of you lazy bums need to either get a job or figure out how to make a job for yourself. Do this and you might find that one day you will be the uber rich that that politicians love to make into a target. Then and only then will you understand what it is to build something just to have it raped away from you because of political correctness.

Uber rich, I hope one day to be so uber rich that the bums of America choke on my dust. And the Libtards that want to take it from me to buy the votes of bums with, well, perhaps if they are good, I mean really good and kiss my arse just right, I might throw them a quarter or two so they can go call someone that gives a …..

Peeps, we have got to stop vilifying what makes America strong if we are ever going to crawl out of this mess we find ourselves in. Reach down and grab your bootstraps and make your own way in this world. Being a government dependent, a government leach all your life will only get you one thing and that is nothing. Personally, I want a little more out of life than that.

Wonder how many I pissed off with this one?  Oh Well.

Be safe peeps.

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How The Have Nots Are Taken Power

Today's Thoughts By Jeff Head 11/18/12 How The Have Nots Are Taken Power.

"Obama learned his lesson well. I am proud to see that my father's model for organizing is being applied successfully beyond local community organizing to affect the Democratic campaign in 2008. It is a fine tribute to Saul Alinsky as we approach his 100th birthday."  Written in a letter from L. DAVID ALINSKY, son of Neo-Marxist Saul Alinsky.

Obama not only taught these methods but worked them for years as a community organizer himself. This is how he is turning America upon itself. The following from the book “Rules For Radicals.” Here is the link I found this information at with even more info.

www.crossroad.to/Quotes/communism/alinsky.htm

As you read over these rules, you can start to see why certain things are being done. You will start understanding why nothing they do makes sense to you. But for them, it all has a plan that in the end, brings America to its knees.

"Tactics are those conscious deliberate acts by which human beings live with each other and deal with the world around them. ... Here our concern is with the tactic of taking; how the Have-Nots can take power away from the Haves." p.126

Always remember the first rule of power tactics (pps.127-134):

1. "Power is not only what you have, but what the enemy thinks you have."

2. "Never go outside the expertise of your people. When an action or tactic is outside the experience of the people, the result is confusion, fear and retreat.... [and] the collapse of communication.

3. "Whenever possible, go outside the expertise of the enemy. Look for ways to increase insecurity, anxiety and uncertainty. (This happens all the time. Watch how many organizations under attack are blind-sided by seemingly irrelevant arguments that they are then forced to address.)

4. "Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules. You can kill them with this, for they can no more obey their own rules than the Christian church can live up to Christianity."

5. "Ridicule is man's most potent weapon. It is almost impossible to counteract ridicule. Also it infuriates the opposition, which then reacts to your advantage."

6. "A good tactic is one your people enjoy."

7. "A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag. Man can sustain militant interest in any issue for only a limited time...."

8. "Keep the pressure on, with different tactics and actions, and utilize all events of the period for your purpose."

9. "The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself."

10. "The major premise for tactics is the development of operations that will maintain a constant pressure upon the opposition. It is this unceasing pressure that results in the reactions from the opposition that are essential for the success of the campaign."

11. "If you push a negative hard and deep enough, it will break through into its counterside... every positive has its negative."

12. "The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative."

13. Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.  In conflict tactics there are certain rules that [should be regarded] as universalities. One is that the opposition must be singled out as the target and 'frozen.'...

     "...any target can always say, 'Why do you center on me when there are others to blame as well?' When you 'freeze the target,' you disregard these [rational but distracting] arguments.... Then, as you zero in and freeze your target and carry out your attack, all the 'others' come out of the woodwork very soon. They become visible by their support of the target...'

     "One acts decisively only in the conviction that all the angels are on one side and all the devils on the other." (pps.127-134)

Be safe peeps.

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NUTS

Today's Thoughts By Jeff Head 11/16/12 “NUTS”

General Anthony Clement "Nuts" McAuliffe used the phrase “NUTS” when asked to surrender back in WW2. “NUTS” was his answer then and “NUTS” should be our answer now. Again I am told “it’s over, deal with it.” General McAuliffe did not give in to Socialist rule back then and in today’s world, “NUTS” is my answer to anyone in this country that thinks this is over.

Freedom is ours to lose. It can only be taken from us if we stop fighting for it. So we lost and election, I get that. But where is it written in stone that now I am a socialist. It is not, it is not written anywhere that I am aware of.

About one hundred and twenty million Americans voted in this last election. That means that there are over one hundred and eighty million Americans out there that need to be persuaded not only to vote, but to vote to keep our nation free from this progressive agenda. One hundred and eighty million is far more then what is needed to bring things back our way.

In the meantime, we fight, we fight with what we have, a majority in the house. If being known as the party of no the last time around bugged them, just wait and see what we say no to this time. Over, not by a long shot. We have just begun to fight. With that I am going to leave you with a quote from another great American. Our history is full of attacks on our freedoms and with each attack, we have always endeavored to persevere as a nation and we will again this time, like all the other times, win.

October 13, 1982 – Ronald Regan in an address to the nation on the economy

"I have a special reason for wanting to solve this [economic] problem in a lasting way. I was 21 and looking for work in 1932, one of the worst years of the Great Depression. And I can remember one bleak night in the thirties when my father learned on Christmas Eve that he'd lost his job. To be young in my generation was to feel that your future had been mortgaged out from under you, and that's a tragic mistake we must never allow our leaders to make again."

Be safe peeps.

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Boycott My Butt

Today's Thoughts By Jeff Head 11/15/12 Boycott My Butt

Boycott, boycott, boycott. You might just as well boycott me because I have not created the one hundred jobs I had planned to create by now. Business after business are doing just like they said they would be forced to do if Obama was to get reelected. That is cut the hours their full time employees are able to work down to twenty eight or cut down the number of employees all together. Why you may ask? The answer is simple, if they are to remain in business and not shut their doors altogether, due to the forces applied to them by obamacare, they simply have no choice if they wish to survive.

So why blame the business? It makes absolutely no sense at all.  Big business and Progressive politics never work out in the end. Obama sits there and makes rules that sound good, but in no way work out in the real world. Then out in the real world, the regulations force big business to lay people off or cut their pay checks, Obama sits there and attacks the business community for what he forced them to do and then says to the sheep, “Come to me, I will protect you.” And time and time again, the sheep of this nation fall for it.

So for all you boycotters out there, try boycotting the people responsible for all these layoffs and the cutting back of hours, the President himself and the cronies that support him and this Progressive agenda. Expect more off the same from company after company because this is how the far left will build their base to win the next election also. Start understanding how they work. First force the Right into having to do something to survive. Then make them the villain for doing so and provide freebies to the voters to fix what they, the far left caused in the first place.

If we are going to beat this progressive attack on our nation, we are first going to have to learn and understand how they are kicking our butts. Then we are going to have to learn and understand not only how to defend against them, but how to turn the tables on them. Boycotting the business for doing what obamacare forces them to do, heck no. Boycott obamacare and the President for forcing big business to lay off workers and creating more government dependents. Start screaming that at the top of your lungs.  Start hitting what caused the problem in the first place and educating people on the real life facts and maybe, just maybe, we can start turning this country around.

Be safe peeps.

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Anti-Depressing

Today's Thoughts By Jeff Head 11/10/12 Anti-Depressing

Ok, raise your hands, How many of you out there of been depressed lately? Have you ever been depressed? Sure you have, everyone has at one time or another in their lives. Trucking and its nature can leave a depressed person with nothing but thousands of empty miles to do nothing but sit behind that wheel for hours on end in a depressed state of mind. Anyone that has experienced this or something similar knows that it is a long trip down to the bottom of that cold dark hole.

But at last, life sucks sometimes and that is just the way it is. I know for me I can always find the negative. Seems like I waller in it for what seems like forever sometimes and the way I see it, I have a right to blow off steam about things.  Holding back on something and letting life’s little problems build up inside of you can lead to an explosion and not always where and when one would prefer. This is just a normal thing, it happens to everyone at some point in their lives.

We find though that letting ourselves remain in this state is not a very healthy thing to do. I know that if I do not catch myself I will find that I am living my whole life around one little problem. This is not good at all. Sure our problems need attention but if we do not take care of our own selves both mentally and physically, years later we look up and see that we have wasted years of our lives and our physical self has some serious malfunctions to contend . But all is not lost just yet; we do not have to find ourselves here if we just step back and take a little time for ourselves.

Taking into account that everyone has their own way to kick back and relieve the pressure, one has to find a way that works for them. Some like fishing while others get their mind into cooking. Being a trucker lends its own unique difficulties to finding that happy place.  For me I am lucky enough to have a wife that agrees with me on how to find our happy place together. As we find ourselves deeper and deeper into depression, we like to give or do nice things for others around us even if we do not know them.

One of our favorite things is to give away our time share time. We rarely have time to go, it is paid off so no extra cost to us, and if we do not use it, we lose it. So we ask around and when someone does accept, we get to sit back and enjoy a family getting to take a vacation that they might not have been able to do otherwise. The smiles on their faces and joy in their voices raises us out of our dark place. The gift of giving we find is a wonderful thing. Sometimes it is just helping out with someone’s project, the loan of a little cash knowing we will never see it again, anything anywhere at any time, the darker our mood, the more we love to help out.

As we find ourselves in troubling times, and we will, let a little steam blow. Just somewhere along the way and before too long, take time to find the pressure valve that works for you. Life is too short to spend most of it in a cold dark hole. Only by making a conscious choice to change our attitude will you ever crawl out that hole and find that happy place again.

Ok, worked through that bout of depression, now, what’s next on the list?  Where did I leave that happy place?  There it is.    CYA folks …. (-:

Be safe peeps.

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With All Due Respect

Today's Thoughts By Jeff Head 11/08/12 With All Due Respect

So we go on, the elections being over and now we know what and who we are going to be dealing with. Nothing has changed except for the fact that now we have a FMCSA that is headed up by an administration that has no fear of being tossed out at the end of the next election cycle. So where does that leave us as safe and legal truckers.

Well we know from past experience that they plan on regulating the trucking industry until not one accident will ever happen between a car and a truck. Ok,ok, I know, they backed up on that line of thinking. At least they said they did but we all know the fact that the last four years have shown us that they simply do not mind how many decent drivers they shut down as long as they shut someone down so that they can say they are doing their jobs.

When I first started running safe and legal, you could actually make a profit by doing so. They way this country is now I am not so sure that you can do it anymore. My own personal experience has left me with less and less cash to work with. More and more I find myself wondering why I keep turning down loads that I know will buy me a tire or fix my brakes. The more the FMCSA piles on us trying to force all ready safe drivers to be safe, the less I am able to make enough profit to do so. The end result of this little game they insist on playing is more and more safe and legal drivers are being forced out of the industry. We are being starved out by the very entity that is supposed to be making the highways safer.

When a company does this to you, starve you out that is, there is not much that can be done. But when your country does this to you, there are options. One could spend years and years and thousands upon thousands of dollars trying to fight this through the legal system. Perhaps waiting for elections to fix things might be an answer. As many just found out thought, this will never happen in time now to save the drivers that managed to hold on this long. Waiting for a better political environment friendly to small business is now a good two years out if not four.

What is left out there for options, not much as far as I can see? Just one comes to mind and it was given to us by our forefathers. They knew that one day a tyrannical government would once again raise its ugly head in our country. A FMCSA that regulates to the point that a driver cannot survive under their rules is nothing short of tyranny. Face it, no human being can run one hundred percent legal in today’s world. There are just too many rules and regulations to do so. And they keep adding them all the time.

So what to do? I feel it is time that we follow in the footsteps of a proud American that stood up for her rights, Suzanna Gratia Hupp. A woman if you remember that went before Congress and explained what the Second Amendment was for. It is there for the American citizen to protect ourselves from the tyranny of government.

If the FMCSA is going to continue to pile on regulation so thick that it is impossible to run safe and legal and make a reasonable profit, then I say to you that the FMCSA has become a tyrannical arm of the United States Government. Yes, we need to be safe and legal out on that road. But to ham string us to the point that we are starved out of the industry does not meet this goal.   It simply puts us out of business. It forces safe and legal drivers into bankruptcy and leaves only the renegades to run the roads.

So a simple friendly reminder to the FMCSA, if the only possible way for safe and legal drivers to remain out on that highway is to remind you, the government that we have a Second Amendment to protect us from your tyrannical regulations, then I wish to take this time to make this reminder to you. I will do whatever it takes to keep that highway safe. Allowing you, the government the FMCSA to starve out safe and legal drivers is not an option.

Be safe peeps.

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Three Words

Today's Thoughts By Jeff Head 11/7/12 Three Words

Three words, I have been accused of two of them. Negativity. It seems that I am just a bit negative about the way our election turned out. It seems that I should be happy that a person set on the destruction of this nation was once again put into the White House.    Second word, Hatred. I hate this SOB with every bone in my body. Why shouldn’t I? He has destroyed the hopes and dreams of millions of hard working Americans while making government dependents of millions more.

This brings us to the third word, Apathy. As I walk around with my negativity and hatred towards those that are destroying the American way of life, I find it quite disconcerting the number of people in this country that sit idly buy not doing a damn thing to save our country. They refuse to accept the fact that our country is under attack. They only care that they and theirs have all they need while their neighbors are losing everything because of the actions of those set out to turn America into a third world county. Apathy will destroy this country way before my negativity and hatred will. If you are unwilling to stand up for our freedom as a country, then your apathy will be its destruction. 

Stand up and fight this bastard America with every ounce of energy you have. America is the world’s last best hope. Please do not let them destroy us.

Be safe peeps.

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Worthless

Today's Thoughts By Jeff Head 11/4/12 Worthless

Another day, another Rant, yup the wide world of trucking has once again bit me in the butt. I have often said that I would rather drag a truck across country on its nubs rather than try to get it fixed out on the road.  I know that there are good shops out here, honest mechanics and shop owners and I also know that you have better chance out there in Las Vegas, NV then you do of breaking down at a decent shop.

Anyway, Sunday last week, I pulled in to take a bit of a break. As usual, I walk away from my truck one way checking things out as I go, then return taken a different path checking out the other side. As I walked up the driver’s side of my trailer headed for the cab, I heard a slight air leak. Turns out that the hose, I have the straight kind; was leaking just a bit where it came out of the glad hand connecting to the trailer. I think about it as I check it out. All I have planed is dropping this load off, pick one up and I will be at the house in about five days. Experience has taught me that this little leak is nothing much to worry about, but I tried to be a safe and legal driver and with my luck, I will end up getting inspected on the way home, so I do the right thing and I set about fixing it.

I walk back into the truck stop and start checking out parts. I find on the shelf both glad hand ends and hose end kits. Everything I need to fix the problem except for one little problem. The cheaply made in some third world country over priced hose end kit does not fit the glad hand. So I cut my day three hours short and wait for the shop across the street to open up first thing in the morning.

First thing in the morning, I show the mechanic what needs to be fixed, and I go grab a cup of coffee. When I get back, they have put on the same cheaply made part to fix the hose. I complain that a plastic hose end will not hold up with all the pressure of a twisting and turning trailer. Just too much pressure will be put on that plastic and it will snap. “Oh no” says the shop. “We put these on all the time now and we never have a problem.”  I am already running behind so I kick out one hundred and eight dollars for a two dollar part and fifteen minutes worth of work and I am on my way.

Exactly one week later, I walk around my truck and the plastic part is blowing air. Worse than the first time.  The only thing I could find where I was at to fix it was a cheaply made in some third world country hose. Thirty five dollars and no wrench to put it on but at least I had it if I needed it. It was Sunday so nothing is open around here but I did find a shop fifty miles from where I was at so I eased that way.

The mechanic, after an hour and half wait, walks up to my truck and though my open window I point out the problem. As he is looking at it and I am getting out of the truck, I say “wait until you cut that (slice) line so that.” I never even get to finish my sentence.  He says “No problem, I have just what you need.”

So for the next two hours, we search and search through all the junk in his shop for the right part. “I could have sworn I had the right size.”  Finally the boss man shows up with the road truck and the right part is found. He puts it on and being as it is the right part, I decide to go ahead and replace the other side. As he reaches to start the other side, the first hose he just puts together falls apart leaving the hose end kit hitting the ground and the hose left swinging up against my fuel tank.  He put it together without any ferrels inside. So off we go on another thirty minute hunt for the ferrels.

About four hours later, another hundred dollar bill and I am out of there with two used but correct parts and my truck is now fixed. I went through all of this to keep the DOT happy, to be a safe and legal trucker. Truth of the matter is, is that little pin hole of an air leak would have held just fine until I made it to a known shop. The two hundred dollars would have replaced not only the hose ends, but the complete set of hoses with new hoses. And the time lost waiting until the next day, and then hunting through junk piles to find the right parts could have been spent easing down the road instead of hauling arse to make my appointment on time.

As I look back upon my little adventure I have to ask, Is the FMCSA really keeping these highways safe buy forcing us to fix every little insignificant thing at the exact moment that it happens. The first fix left me with a part that could have failed at any second. Leaving me with locked down trailed wheels at highway speeds, but at least it did not leak when you were standing there inspecting the truck. The second parts were old and used and now after spending so much time and money on them, I will have to go ahead and run them. I cannot afford to fix things three and four times to get the right.

We need flexibility in this industry if we are to both survive and be able to run safe and legal.  Sure trucks need to be in good repair and drivers need to be able to make their appointment times without being pushed. But insisting on instant fixes to minor problems out on the road away from a decent shop is not doing this. Truckers are being sold cheap and unsafe fixes at unrealistic prices because they are caught in a bad situation. Because they know that if we do not fix this little bitty pin hole of an air leak that the DOT will shut us down and then we will really find ourselves screwed.

Somewhere along the way, truckers need to make a profit. Without profit, no trucker can pay to keep their trucks safe. Forcing us to unwisely spend our money in this fashion will only force us into bankruptcy.  And as for asking fir a refund from the first shop, I hope that one day, the boss will finally show up and answer the phone.

Be safe peeps.

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I Want To Know

Today's Thoughts By Jeff Head 10/2/12 I Want To Know

I want to know I am thinking; fat chance they will ever tell me, but I still want to know. They, the government are the ones I want the answer from, yet they have to answer to no one. What they say is is, is what they say it is and you had better deal with the outcome or just go home and get out of the trucking industry if you do not like it as far as they are concerned. The thing is, is I want to know and I think it is high time we as safe and legal truckers demand an answer to my question.

I am riding along yesterday morning, just about half way light, when I come upon a construction zone. I slow down to the speed limit, fifty five with the left lane closed off with construction barrels.  It is not long before a car comes up behind me still traveling at normal highway speeds, slams on their brakes at the last moment getting right up on my tail and starts dancing side to side in the lane.  I can tell they want me to speed up. Years of driving have taught me how to recognize drivers like this. I know that in just a few minutes they will lose their patience and do something stupid here. So I watch, I wait, and sure enough, here it comes.

An exit ramp comes up and I go on by. My friend behind me takes the ramp to the right. There is a two lane highway at the bottom with a stop sign. I know exactly what they are about to do, I have seen it to many times. I keep a close eye on them in my mirror. Sure enough, they blow the stop sign and race up the ramp on the other side back onto the interstate. I am already hitting the brakes as I watch them do this. They enter the highway just in front of my truck, causing me to slam on the brakes even harder and off they go. Yet another idiot survives their suicide attempt in front of a big truck.

So I want to know a few things here and like I said, I think it is time we asked and demanded some answers here. If safe and legal truckers are doing the right thing out on that highway, if we are following every speed limit law, every highway sign, every rule, every regulation, everything to be as safe and legal as we humanly can, and idiots like this one still end up dead under our trucks, why are we being held responsible?

I mean think about it, the FMCSA sets up the rules so that we are where we are at the time they say we should be there. I had no less than five near accidents they other day because instead of driving a extra fifty miles to put me on the other side of a big city at night with no traffic, I shut down to keep the log book happy and left out in morning rush hour the next day. People are in a rush to get to work, thousands of drivers that have absolutely no time for a trucker to be out there running safe, doing the speed limit, blocking up lanes and exits.  An extra forty-five minutes the night before would have put me ahead of all that. But instead I have to shut down because they tell me I have to or face the penalties assigned to truckers for trying to be safe.

I want to know if anyone anywhere has ever done a study showing what happens around big trucks that are running safe and legal out on that highway. I can tell them, anyone that runs this way can tell them. People get plum stupid. They will do things to get in front of you, around you, whatever they have to do except slow down because of you, the trucker.  We become the most un-safe vehicle on that highway because of the actions that the human psychic brings out when someone is delayed because we are doing it right and they find themselves behind us. My question is how many people die each year because of this phenomenon. I want to know.

Another thing I want to know is if these people keep running into us because we are running safe and legal. If they are injured and if they die because we are following the rules. Why are the people that are making the rules and force us to follow them not being held responsible for these accidents involving trucks? They in their all knowing wisdom demanded of us to be where we are at the time of the accident. Doing what they say we should be doing, yet we find ourselves in an accident. Years of experience has taught us not to be here yet years of experience has taught us that if we make a safety decision to keep us out of this situation and it goes against what they say we should have done, we will be fined and eventually run out of the industry. I want to know why the people calling the shots are not being held responsible for what happens out on that highway when safe truckers follow their rules, their regulations, and their laws.

Well good luck with that Sunny Boy. If you do not like it, then you are most welcome to park your truck and walk away from the industry. So far this has been the answer. They will always bend their response away from the question and paint any trucker that wants to know as a whinny trucker just trying to make an extra buck instead of caring for the lives of the families that we share the road with. It is time though for an answer. It is time that somebody up there figures out just what happens around big trucks that run safe and legal out on that highway.

No matter who wins this upcoming election, chances could be that the FMCSA and others will have some sort of change in who is running things over the next four years. Now, right at the start of their regime, I think would be an excellent time to demand some answers to these questions. To educate them on the real facts of highway life, before they start just pooping, yes I meant pooping; out more politically correct regulations.

Be safe peeps.

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