How do you make vegetable soup? A little of everything. That’s what this is today, some of this, some of that, something in between. Lets start by talking about this past weekend; I didn’t get home until Saturday around 4:30 P.M. so that was where I was supposed to start my 34-hour reset. I get home every weekend just so you know where I am coming from. When you get used to this kind of trucking I guess you can get spoiled so I get a little cranky when I get home late. I have plenty of things to do around the old Ponderosa so I like to get home either Friday night or Saturday morning. We have a large garden at the house and for the past three weekends we have been trying to put weed barrier and straw down not to mention planting more plants. It has rained every weekend since we got the thing ¾ planted. We had a small window for this past Saturday but that went out the window when I didn’t get home in time to deal with it. Sunday was father’s day and I had plans other than gardening.
I was planning on having a quiet Fathers Day with just me and the wife, we were smoking some ribs, making mac and cheese and baked bean, even fresh bread from the bread machine. It was going to be a stress free Sunday or so I thought. I had just put the ribs in the smoker around 2 P.M. when dispatch called and said he needed me 165 miles away first thing Monday morning. It didn’t matter that I wasn’t going to get a 34-hour reset or that I really needed one more night in my own bed. That wasn’t so bad; I could enjoy the rest of my day relaxing, albeit short of any adult beverages. That new six-pack of Newcastle Ale would have to wait till next weekend. It seems like that is all I do, put things off till next weekend. I settle in to watch the smoke drift out of the smoker and relax, about 30 minutes went by when the phone rang again, something told me to ignore it but I didn’t. It was the boss again; the load that I brought to the yard on Saturday that was supposed to deliver Monday morning somehow was needed in the middle of the day on Fathers Day? He said that he needed me to run it the 25 miles over there and deliver it. I told him that I had just put ribs in the smoker and that I couldn’t leave for at least 5 hours.
Apparently Fathers Day doesn’t mean anything to this guy. I was furious over this crap. I knew that I had this stupid load hanging around my neck now and now I would worry about it for the rest of the day. So much for relaxing; we get our food done, sit down and try to enjoy it. Those were some pretty good ribs, not my best but not too bad. As soon as we get done eating the wife and I go get in the truck and take this stupid load over to the customer. We get there and the lady in the office said she didn’t know what I was talking about when I told her here is your load you were looking for. She looked up the P.O. and proceeded to tell me that it wasn’t due until Monday morning at 9 A.M.! “But my boss said someone called him looking for it?” She said that was impossible since they didn’t schedule a receiver since it was Fathers Day. They took it anyway but that took over two hours out of my day and ruined any relaxation that I was going to get. I wish I could get the truth out of people but I probably already know it. Some body is full of you know what.
A little Nascar news for you, today Red Bull announced that they will be pulling out of Nascar racing after this season. Lack of performance has led them to believe that they are just spinning their wheels here. Red Bull owns the teams of Brian Vickers and Kasey Kahne; if there are no deals to be made to sell the team to someone else Vickers will be a free agent at seasons end. Kasey Kahne starts his new deal with Hendrick Motorsports in 2012. This could mean more trouble for Brian Vickers if they don’t get their ducks in a row and work out some logistics before this season ends. No driver wants to head into the off-season not having something lined up already for the next. As I said before, Red Bull owns the two teams so they are self-sponsored just like they are in other racing series. Red Bull owns race teams in Formula 1 as well but unlike in Nascar they are successful in Formula One racing with driver Sebastian Vettel being the defending champion. I think that this is just another incident where team owners who race in top open wheel series think that stock car racing should be easy compared to their discipline. When they get over here and don’t succeed they will blame everything before they will admit that this is really a very difficult sport to master. Just ask former Formula One champion Juan Pablo Montoya, he will tell you right off that this is the most difficult thing that he has ever tried in his racing career. I doubt that anybody will pick up the tab here, my money is on the scenario where they just sell off the parts pieces and points and abandon ship.
Don’t forget that Tuesday is the day that Nascar hands down penalties for infractions from the previous weekend. We are waiting to hear what the penalties will be for Joe Gibbs Racing attempting to run illegal oil pans on their cars. In my opinion it was a deliberate attempt to get the center of gravity lower in the cars along with helping with the aero package since the heavier oil pans closed the gap between the pan and the cross member under the motor thus creating less drag. I have been listening to the talking heads and most think that it will be a slap on the wrist since the pans didn’t make it onto the track. I disagree with that line of thinking, I don’t care that they didn’t get on the track with them; they still showed up trying to cheat. That in my book deserves a pretty good penalty. We will see tomorrow afternoon.
Stay safe out there
TW
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