YOGI-ISMS (actual quotes from Yogi Berra)
March 13, 2005 on 10:01 am | In Humor | No Comments“It ain’t over till it’s over.”
“This is like deja vu all over again.”
“A nickel isn’t worth a dime today.”
“It gets late early out there.”
“You can observe a lot just by watching.”
“If you come to a fork in the road, take it.”
“Nobody goes there anymore; it’s too crowded.”
“It was impossible to get a conversation going; everybody was talking too much.”
“Half the lies they tell about me aren’t true.”
“The future ain’t what it used to be.”
“You’ve got to be very careful if you don’t know where you’re going, because you might not get there.”
“If you don’t know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else.”
“I knew I was going to take the wrong train, so I left early.”
“If you can’t imitate him, don’t copy him.”
“You better cut the pizza in four pieces because I’m not hungry enough to eat six.”
“Baseball is 90% mental — the other half is physical.”
“90% of the putts that are short don’t go in.”
“I made a wrong mistake.”
“I always thought that record would stand until it was broken.”
“If the fans don’t come out to the ball park, you can’t stop them.”
“Why buy good luggage? You only use it when you travel.”
“The other teams could make trouble for us if they win.”
“It ain’t the heat; it’s the humility.”
“The towels were so thick there I could hardly close my suitcase.”
“You should always go to other people’s funerals; otherwise, they won’t come to yours.”
“I didn’t really say everything I said.”
“In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is.”
“I think Little League is wonderful. It keeps kids out of the house.”
“I wish had an answer to that because I’m tired of answering that question.”
“If you ask me anything I don’t know, I’m not going to answer.”
“We have deep depth.”
“You wouldn’t have won if we’d beaten you.”
MAINTENANCE MALAISE
March 12, 2005 on 7:20 pm | In On The Road | No CommentsThursday, the 10th, my truck began running rough. It had a loss of power, rough idle, and a “coughing” when accelerating. I guessed that I had blown a fuel injector. I “limped” to our Terminal in Columbus, OH. I tried to T-Call my load when I arrived, but they said that they didn’t have any trucks to cover it. I said that I was going to put my truck into the shop first thing in the AM, and they could either T-call it or re-schedule it. I then went to bed.
Friday, the 11th, at 6:00 AM, I put my truck into the shop. Since I HAD to go into the shop anyway, I decided to make a day of it, and take care of all those “little things” that had been bugging me but did not, in and of themselves, warrant a maintenance delay. I submitted the following list of discrepancies:
1) Truck running rough.
2) Replace wiper blades.
3) Headlights out of adjustment.
4) Install 8 new Drive tires.
5) Optomized Idle inop. (Optomized Idle is a feature that is supposed to shutdown and re-start the truck as necessary when stopped to mantain the cab temperature and/or coolant and oil temperature. It has never worked since I bought the truck).
6) Bright lights inop.
7) Fog lights inop.
8) Splitter inop (a splitter is the devise in a 13 or 15 speed transmission that “splits” the gears in the upper range. It makes climing hills easier).
When I checked in with the shop, they said that I would have about a 2 hour wait before they could get to me. I then called my DM to try to appraise her of the situation. The Planners in Columbus finally acquiesced and T-Called the load. The mechanic came out right on time to put the truck into the shop. Shop policy does not allow anyone except mechanics in the maintenance area, so I had to evacuate the truck, with the ‘doggies’, their water and food, and their ‘tie out” chains. I attached them to the chain-link fence around the shop. It was cold and overcast. It was not a good day to be a ‘doggie’. After about an hour, I checked with the Service Manager as to the status of my truck and to get an ETA for completion. With all the work that I had requested, I knew that it would be a WHILE. He confirmed my suspicion that I had a blown fuel injector. (Affirmation is good for the ego). I thought that they would fix all of the small items and refer the fuel injector and the splitter to the local Freightliner dealership, so I was prepared to be DOWN for a couple of days. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that they had an ‘on-site’ Detroit Diesel mechanic to fix the fuel injector and a ‘gear man’ to repair the splitter so all the work could be done here. This is unusual for a Swift Shop. He said that it would take 2 days to do all the work, but that my truck would be operational so that I could sleep in it. Soon after that, it began to SNIZZLE (my term for snow and drizzle). The Service Manager said that I could bring the ‘doggies’ inside the waiting area if I kept them under control and no one complained.
I found an out of the way place and tied them up. They didn’t mind too much, because almost everyone who saw them came over for a visit. When I took them out for a walk, they ‘did their thing’, then headed directly back to the shop door to get inside and back to all the attention. They’re just a couple of “love sponges”. A little after noon, I checked on the truck again. The mechanic was finished with the ’small stuff’ and was working on the Optomized Idle. He had determined that there was a short in the wiring harness, but after 3.5 hours he still couldn’t isolate the problem. I asked if he could just by-pass the system (I was paying the hourly rate of $45.00 per hour and didn’t want to spend a fortune trying to get operational a system that I seldom use anyway). He said that he could and did so. The truck then went to the Detroit mechanic. It normally takes about 2 hours to change a fuel injector. So after 3.5 hours, I began to wonder what else was going on. About 5:00 PM he called me over to the truck. He had found that the EGR valve was leaking. He had to change about every component in the EGR system. He finished about 8:00 PM. I got in my truck and parked it near the shop since there was still work to be done tomorrow. After I walked the ‘doggies’ and got back into the truck, I noticed that there was no heat, and that I had a “check engine” light. Back to the shop I went. I wasn’t going to sleep in a cold truck. They caught the Detriot mechanic just before he clocked out. I pulled the truck back into the shop and told him what was wrong. He had forgot to open the heater valves when he replaced the EGR stuff and had forgot to connect the fuel sensor when he replaced the fel injector. OOPS!! It took 5 minutes to fix the problems. Needless to say, he was embarassed and apologetic.
On Saturday, the 12th, I put my truck back into the shop at 6:00 AM. The drive tires still needed to be replaced, the splitter still needed to be repaired, and the headlights still needed adjustment. The ‘doggies’ and I just hung out in the waiting area. A light snow had fallen during the night and when I took the ‘guys’ for a walk, Walter began making “Snow Doggies” (like Snow Angels, but less precise).
Above right, Walter is admiring his artistry. ANYWAY, back to the truck. The mechanic first changed out the drive tires, then began work on the splitter. About 11:00 AM the mechanic told me that he had found an air line to the splitter was mis-routed and had chaffed through causing an air leak which in turn rendered the splitter unusable. He replaced the miscreant air line, but when he checked the system, the valve was stuck, therefore the truck was stuck in “neutral”. I teased him saying that he was regressing rather than progressing. He then had to drain the transmission, and pull the valve. He managed to repair the stuck valve with a good cleaning and re-installed it. This took about 3 hours. After that, he started adjusting the headlights. The left headlight adjusted without any problems, but the right had a broken adjuster, and the whole assembly had to be replaced. He finished at about 3:00 PM. To cap everything off, there is no freight here. I wasn’t going too far today anyway after getting up at 5:30 AM for the last 2 days and being up all day. I didn’t log the shop time, but I was still awake and sitting around being BORED for 2 days. Total time in the shop 22 hours. Total lost time 48 + hours. Total cost about $2400.00. That doesn’t include the fuel injector or the EGR work, but most of that should be warranty (I hope). Otherwise the total will DOUBLE. It also doesn’t include the 2 + days down time, which is about $1100.00. If I’m not movin’, I’m not being paid. Despite the cost and lost time, I have to give the Columbus shop a big “thumbs up”. The facility was clean and the people were professional. This is one of the best Shops in the Swift Maintenance System.
WORDS TO LIVE BY
March 9, 2005 on 9:00 pm | In Humor | No Comments* Accept that some days you’re the pigeon some days you’re the statue.
* Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat them.
*Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.
* Drive carefully. It’s not only cars that can be recalled by their maker.
* If you can’t be kind, at least have the decency to be oblique.
* If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.
* It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others.
* Never buy a car you can’t push.
* Never put both feet in your mouth at the same time, because then you won’t have a leg to stand on.
* Nobody cares if you can’t dance well. Just get up and dance.
* Since it’s the early worm that gets eaten by the bird, sleep late.
* The second mouse gets the cheese.
* When everything’s coming your way, you’re in the wrong lane.
* Birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live.
* You may be only one person in the world, but you may also be the world to one person.
* Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once.
* We could learn a lot from crayons. Some are sharp, some are pretty and some are dull. Some have weird names, and all are different colors, but they all have to live in the same box.
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