Thoughts

Good early morning to everyone. Yes, Yes I know, I should be in bed. My mind is going about mach 20 though. I've got so many things going through my mind I don't know whether I'm coming or going.

I've been watching re-runs of the LDS conference reports on the television. For those of you who know me, I'd like to give you a quote by Dieter F. Uchtdorf published in the Ensign, May of 2010 which I think has helped me a bit through life: “Though you may feel that no one can understand the depth of your despair, our Savior, Jesus Christ, understands. He suffered more than we can possibly imagine, and He did it for us; He did it for you. You are not alone.”

I feel that sometimes this truck driving business is not what I'm meant to do, but rather to be in the funeral home where I feel the most comfortable, and then, as Lester Burnham said, Sometimes I feel like I'm seeing it all at once, and it's too much, my heart fills up like a balloon that's about to burst. And then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold on to it, and then it flows through me like rain and I can't feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupd little life.

Do you know what I mean? Of course not. Each of us have our own little battles we have to fight. Some of us lose some of those battles, but that doesn't mean we've lost the war.

Anyway, its bed time. That's all for now.

"Did You Fall Off of The Face of The Earth?"

Wow!!! First, why has it been over a year since I have written my last post??? What in the world? For those of you that have been faithfully checking back every once in a while, I deeply, deeply apologize. Second, for those of you who couldn't care less, I also apologize.

There. Now that I have all the apologies out of the way, on to my excuse. See, the thing is, I really don't have a good excuse. (as always) Only that I have been lazy, haven't had access to any internet, (intermittently of course), and have been battling some personal demons, which I may or may not get into in the next few days.
Well, here is my update: Things didn't work out for me at James H. Clark and Son Trucking. I left there the end of September of 2009. I was only job-less for about a week. (A new record for Max). I applied over at Knight Transportation of Phoenix, AZ. They have a yard here in SLC, and perhaps the best yard of the whole company. I am definitely being treated better here and I'm actually a human being now. lol.

The first week I was given a 2007 Volvo 670. Not too bad of a truck. Put six months in and then they gave me a 2009 Volvo 670. Just two months ago, in June, I had the greatest honor or being asked if I wanted a brand new truck. Well of course I accepted. I walked out to the shop where a brand new 2011 Volvo 670 sat in front of the 1st bay. So new, that they were just starting to put the decals on the door. I cleaned out my old truck and moved into my new "studio apartment" and just sat in the seat and took in the brand new smell.

Now, picture this, present day, approximately August 24th, I am on my way to go pick up a load, pretty much a normal day, normal things on the radio, I fueled at the regular truck stop and went on my way. I spent the night i Lewiston, ID, and proceeded to pick my load up the next morning. After I hooked up to my loaded trailer I left Lewiston, and pointed the hood towards Modesto, CA. 30 miles out of Lewiston, while pulling a hill, the truck started to stumble. Then the "check fuel filter" light illuminated along with the "check engine fault" light. I managed to baby it up the hill and pulled it into a rest area at the summit where the engine died. Now mind you, I only had about 18,000 pounds in the box, and it was pulling the hill like I was grossed out at 45,000. To make a long story short, we spent two days going back and forth between the shop and I trying to figure out why an engine with only 25,000 miles on it would have a problem like that.
My anxiety finally got the better of me, and I called the truck stop to verify that i had, in fact, not put in the low sulfur diesel in the tanks, rather than the ultra low sulfur diesel that the new engines require. She confirmed that I had pumped the correct fuel in my truck and that concluded the call. About a half hour later I received a phone call from the truck stop manager asking what kind of problems I had with my truck and she could tell me exactly what the problem was.
Apparently, the truck stop fuel vendor had accidentally filled the diesel storage tanks with unleaded fuel. He then caught his mistake and they had to close the fuel islands down for a day while they pumped the tainted fuel out. Well, from what I understand, there was still some residual unleaded in the tanks as the re-filled the them with the correct diesel.

The bad thing about this situation is, now I have driven about 130 miles before i new anything was wrong. I then shut the truck off and was towed 145 miles to Hermiston, OR. where now I sit in a hotel, while my truck is in the Volvo dealership shop.

So, there you have my latest update. Today is Saturday, and the dealership won't be open again until Monday, when they will drain my tanks and blow out my fuel system and do an inspection on the engine to see if anything was damaged. Therefore, I have internet access until at least Monday. I will keep everyone updated as much as I can.
Below I have posted some recent photos. A couple of my truck and then some random photos. I hope you enjoy.

Post script: I'm not expecting anyone to even read this. I believe that I may have lost my audience due to my laziness of not keeping up on my blog. Once again, I sincerely apologize and hope I'm not just writing this to further pursue a search for carpal tunnel syndrome. Anyway, May God bless each and everyone of you, and since the summer season is slowly coming to an end, let us all take some time out of our busy schedule and stop to look at the beauty all around, because, soon, the wondrous flowers and beautiful green leaves will soon give way to the cold frost of old man winter.