On Wed, 17 Feb 2016 11:31:46 -0500, "(PeteCresswell)"
wrote:

Per Bod:
I've driven in the USA and it didn't take long to get used to
driving on the right.

I would think the problems come more when somebody is switching
back-and-forth using the same (Righthand or Lefthand drive) car...
as in working in Germany and making trips back to Blighty via the
Chunnel.
It was a bit of fun driving on the left all the way fron
Livingston/Vic Falls to the copperbelt in a lrhd Peugeot, then driving
across the pedicle of Zaire on the right side (nominally - basically
you drove in the middle and moved rigt for approaching traffic, and
overtook on the left) then back to the left side in Luapula province -
then repeat in reverse order 3 days later.
We used the "ditch" as a passing lane a couple times because it was a
lot smoother than the road.

On 02/17/2016 09:28 AM, (PeteCresswell) wrote:
I didn't even know it was out... last thing I read about Larsson was
that his survivors were haggling over the money....

I guess in the end his long term partner got screwed even though the
consensus was he would have wanted her get the estate. That's led to
some ill will about the new book. The moral to that story is if you
don't believe in marriage you need an armor plated, vulture resistant will

On 02/17/2016 04:06 PM, Mr Macaw wrote:
If you like Monty Python you should like Benny Hill.

I don't like either. They had a similar problem. Throw out a humorous
gag. Repeat it in case someone was reaching for the chips and missed it.
Do it once again for the really slow learners. And finally, just to be
sure, let's do it one more time.

I have a warped sense of humor but it leans to the 'if you snooze, you
lose' school that requires viewer participation. No 'Applaud Now' signs
please.

One of the few I remember from Python was some old charwoman on her
knees scrubbing the floor. As she recites here litany of woes and
lifetime disasters she sums it up with "but I never worked for Jews."

My memory of Benny Hill was an extended skit with a lodge pin, iirc,
fashioned from a banana and two apples. Momentarily funny but the sixth
time around you're screaming "I got it, ffs."

On 02/17/2016 07:52 AM, Don Y wrote:
Yeah, but the food in those places is well below the "par"
offered in the locations I suggested! :

There were a few good places. The Springs was a family favorite but it
seems to have fallen on hard times:

http://www.berkshireeagle.com/headlines/ci_5730013

My father taught me a lesson there. I was 15 or 16 but I was a big kid
and didn't have a problem getting served when with my family. The
waitress came to take the drink order and my father ordered a manhattan.
He asked me if I wanted anything so of course I said "Sure, I'll have
one of those." It was busy and the meal was slow so the waitress came
by again. "Want another?" "Sure!". I don't remember if there was a
third. In fact I don't remember much except my mother saying "He's going
to be sick" many times on the drive home.

There was a hidden gem in New Lebanon. A Japanese couple bought an old
Victorian and turned it into a restaurant. They kept the original floor
layout so there were tatami rooms if you wanted to go whole hog or rooms
with conventional tables and chairs. The meals were the full blown,
multi-course traditional Japanese meals. Plenty of Asahi and saki of
course.

And for a brief period there was Alice's Restaurant. Nothing special as
restaurants went but still...

On 02/17/2016 12:08 PM, Mr Macaw wrote:
On Wed, 17 Feb 2016 14:55:16 -0000, rbowman wrote:

On 02/16/2016 09:38 PM, Muggles wrote:
We watch that show every week.

'Blue Bloods' is one of the few cop shows that is optimistic. Or
something.

I cannot understand the point of watching a cop show.


Whatever. I can't understand the point of watching Downton Abbey but
people seem to do so. I suppose you don't like 'Jack Taylor' either.
Iain Glen does a good job although you'd think they could have found an
authentic alcoholic Irishman rather than importing a Scot.

On 02/17/2016 08:29 AM, Mr Macaw wrote:
As for a long distance, just how long do you take to overtake? It
doesn't matter how long the road is, you need the same length to
overtake in Saskatchewan as anywhere else.

How fast does your car do 70 to 100? That's the usual passing maneuver
around here. Granny is doing 70 on a 75 mph road. Pull out and you'll be
there forever if you just accelerate to 75 so you nail it and keep it
nailed. Usually you're doing 90+ by the time you get back in your lane.
With someone coming at you at 80, you close fast.

Sunrise and sunset are particularly bad. I avoid driving into the sun
wherever possible.

On 02/17/2016 12:02 PM, Muggles wrote:
I don't know how truckers manager to drive safely.

It's gotten better but middle of the night appointments to load or
unload and other irregular times can really destroy your circadian
rhythm. Tired? Keep driving. Sick? Keep driving. Bad weather? Keep
driving. Given the millions of miles driven truckers have a good safety
record overall.

Still it's not a job for everyone and the turnover rate is high. The
grass is always greener someplace else. Part of that is the nature of
the job. A driver isn't a key employee and is replaceable. Deliver the
load and get the rig back to the terminal and that job is done. Many
times I would quit in November, spend the winter in Arizona, and hire
back on in the spring. Get the keys to a truck, throw you're stuff in
it, and you're good to go. Quite a few retirees fall into that pattern
too. Team drivers are a premium because they always have hours. Husband
and wife teams are particularly good since the odds they can live
together in a truck without killing each other is better than with two
guys.

On 02/17/2016 06:12 PM, wrote:
And in that 14 hours if you were stuck in raffic the clock was still
running. I know drivers who would get off at the first possible
opportunity and book some "rest time" untill the traffic cleared -
giving them a couple extra hours of good driving later in the day.

At least in the states logs were checked that closely. I would log a
half hour inspection, five hours of driving, half hour break, and five
more hours of driving. We could log a 60 mph average speed so I'd drive
600 miles a day and it always took ten hours. On paper.

That's assuming I was going someplace like across country. Loading and
so forth would break the pattern. Unloading always took half an hour.
You might have spent 4 hours quality time in some crappy grocery
warehouse pulling skids with a pallet jack and restacking the goods to
their pleasure, but it took half an hour.

I don't know how it is today but that's how you played the game 20 years
ago. Like a lot of things they system worked and nobody really wanted to
look too hard at how it worked.

On 02/17/2016 09:26 AM, Mr Macaw wrote:

Incorrect, I activate ABS all the time. It means I'm fully utilising
the ability of the car.

Damn, I'm glad you're in Scotland.

On 02/17/2016 09:31 AM, (PeteCresswell) wrote:
I would think the problems come more when somebody is switching
back-and-forth using the same (Righthand or Lefthand drive) car...
as in working in Germany and making trips back to Blighty via the
Chunnel.

One day when I was working on my Sprite I noticed it would be fairly
easy to convert it. Luckily I don't always do things just because it's
possible.

On 02/17/2016 09:31 AM, Mr Macaw wrote:

So the so called safety feature of logging times actually causes loss of
life. For goodness sake.

Possibly. At least in the US it is an archaic system laid down in the
'30s. If you can find the 1940 film 'They Drive By Night' with Bogart,
that's what the laws were written for. Not quite the same as driving
down the interstate with the cruise control set to 65, the air
conditioning cranked up, and good tunes on the mp3 player.

On 02/17/2016 09:33 AM, Mr Macaw wrote:
Work of art as in easy to fiddle?

Very. The logbooks we used were tablet size books with a carbon. The
original was turned in with the trip envelope and the carbons were your
record. The books were not bound, just conveniently held together with
two common staples. It was simple to unbend the staples, take out some
pages, and do a retroactive version of what you'd been up to. You'd
always grab a handful of logs before setting out so you had a supply of
spare pages. Or even staples. Sometimes the damn things would break if
you unbent and bent them too many times.

In the short term you could just use another book that could be a
complete work of fiction.

On 02/17/2016 09:37 AM, Mr Macaw wrote:
I wonder if there's any truth in the rules that most truckers are
forbidden by their companies from picking up hitchhikers? I have had a
few hand signals from them driving past which looked like "sorry I can't".

Very much so in this country. We have 30 million lawyers in search of
work and they would have a field day if an unauthorized passenger was
injured. For most larger companies you're fired if you're caught.

On 02/17/2016 12:04 PM, Mr Macaw wrote:
I do that in the UK all the time. If the car's facing the other way,
sometimes my subconscious swaps over and sometimes not, but I don't know
whether it has or not. So instead I just look for the steering wheel.

So do you get off bicycles on the wrong side too? I know the old Brit
motorcycles had the shifter on the wrong side until you got over that
foolishness.

On 02/17/2016 01:25 PM, Mr Macaw wrote:
I think England should put a tax on the use of our language.

Kein Problem.

On 2/17/2016 5:59 PM, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
On 2/17/2016 6:09 PM, Mr Macaw wrote:
On Tue, 16 Feb 2016 00:43:26 -0000, Don Y
wrote:

On 2/15/2016 5:10 PM, RonNNN wrote:
In article ,
says...

I'll simplify this. I like getting out of the house. I do more than
shop, I volunteer at different places at different times. It's not
really a big deal.

I definitely drive less now that I've retired. I did test drives on
vehicles I worked on way more than I commuted to and from work. However,
since I retired I do sometimes make longer trips than I did during my
working days. The grocery store I frequent is only two blocks away, and
Wally World is only another block past that. The other places like Home
Depot or Lowes or Sams club are just a few miles (maybe 5) away.

Combined, we drive less than 6,000 miles per year. E.g., car is now
7 months old and has *about* 3,000 miles on it.

We tend to group all of our shopping into one "big loop", one day
each week. We arrange this loop to minimize distance traveled,
maximize number of right turns (so we don't have to cross traffic),

That's rather anal. Either that or you're a really **** driver and
scared of turning left.

I vote for anal

In her defense, there are many reasons why lefts should be avoided.

First, leaving a place of business (i.e., with no traffic control signal
applicable to your entering the roadway) means you have to cross at least
3 lanes of traffic (full shoulder plus two full lanes) before you are
able to merge with traffic moving in the direction that you intend.
Of course, you may NOT have an opening in that traffic flow so you're
stuck in the path of traffic coming at you from the left.

[unless there's a center lane into which you can merge and wait it out]

Arranging all rights INCLUDING BUSINESS ACCESS/EXIT avoids this.

Turning left at a controlled intersection incurs a time penalty;
you likely have to wait for a left turn signal (no such problem with
right turning traffic). And, unless you do so with a left turn
arrow, you're again crossing several lanes of oncoming traffic.

As most businesses (here) are located on the main arterials,
there are often two or more left turn lanes. These two tend to
map into 3 or more on the targeted roadway. If you happen to be
in the rightmost of these turn lanes, you have to HOPE the
guy in the leftmost actually turns into his target lane (i.e.,
the innermost) and doesn't opt to turn wide (because he wants
to get a head start moving to the right lane AFTER the turn)

[i.e., as if he is changing lanes WHILE turning]

Turning right you have *your* lane turning into a special lane
reserved for you *or* the right lane of traffic; there's never
anyone turning ALONGSIDE you that you have to watch for.

Posted previously:
,76m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x86d66f8252320bfb:0x5ec7d 10263490e02
zoom out and you will see the TWO left turn lanes are almost 300 ft long!

He
,306m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x86d66f8252320bfb:0x5ec7d 10263490e02
the east bound left turn lanes (to turn north) are 400 ft long!

The same is true, he
,306m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x86d66f8252320bfb:0x5ec7d 10263490e02

We have lagging lefts so ALL of the left turn lanes tend to fill backing
up left turning traffic into the leftmost *travel* lane. In the last
example, southeast bound traffic is frequently backed up to the
Post Office entrance a full quarter mile northwest of the intersection.
This reduces traffic flow THROUGH the intersection as a travel lane is
effectively lost.

The eastbound two left turn lanes he
,306m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x86d66f8252320bfb:0x5ec7d 10263490e02
are ore than 600 ft long. Left (north) turning traffic backs up to the
intersection cited above -- half a mile to the southwest!

Then, we have these weird legal definitions for our "intersections".
Returning to the first cited URL, note that east/west traffic is stopped.
the cars are effectively *at* their respective "stop lines" (a few
are encroaching on their cross walks). The white car headed east,
turning right (south) in the lower left has not YET entered the
intersection! Despite being some 30 ft PAST his stop line!

He, however, can turn right on red so can be considered to be in
the PROCESS of turning right -- albeit slowly. However, the white
car in the rightmost left turn (to be heading north) will eventually
creep past his stop line (when the light turns green), entering
INTO the crosswallk. He'll essentially be stuck here waiting for
oncoming traffic to provide a crossing opportunity. Or, worst case,
for a left arrow.

You can see there is room for ~three cars to have crossed that stop
line -- and still not have LEGALLY entered the intersection!
If the light turns red, they are prohibited from progressing
farther into the intersection (must be completely IN the intersection
to not trigger a violation).

For lagging lefts, you're faced with the decision (when light turns
yellow), "Do I think I can get the entire vehicle past that line
farthest INTo the intersection to be legal"?

For LEADING lefts (we have both -- to confuse the tourists!), if you
arrive at the intersection AFTER the left arrow (i.e., while through
traffic has green), you queue in that left turn lane. Everyone wants
to be as far INTO the intersection as possible -- because the yellow
that follows will NOT result in a left arrow but, rather, a solid red.
Opt to play it safe (i.e., NOT cross the stop line) and risk incurring
the wrath of those folks behind you.

Throw pedestrians into the mix and its relatively easy for traffic
to get bound up by left-turners (a right-turner can invariably continue
along after the pedestrian has cleared the walk)

Arrange all your travels to be right turns and you get where you
want quicker, risk fewer accidents and violations AND tend to have a
less stressful experience! ("Why the hell didn't that guy in front
of me go through the light? Crap, now I'll have to wait an entire
cycle...")

http://www.slate.com/articles/life/t...turn_left.html

Left turns are the bane of traffic engineers. Their idea of utopia runs
clockwise. (UPS' routing software famously has drivers turn right whenever
possible, to save money and time.) The left-turning vehicle presents not only
the aforementioned safety hazard, but a coagulation in the smooth flow of
traffic. It's either a car stopped in an active traffic lane, waiting to turn;
or, even worse, it's cars in a dedicated left-turn lane that, when traffic is
heavy enough, requires its own "dedicated signal phase," lengthening the delay
for through traffic as well as cross traffic. And when traffic volumes really
increase, as in the junction of two suburban arterials, multiple left-turn
lanes are required, costing even more in space and money.

They've mucked with all sorts of different ideas trying to keep traffic
moving without adding more lanes. As left turns eat up a lot of
roadway AND contribute significantly to congestion, there's an incentive
to get folks away from them.

Some parts of downtown have adopted the "every road one-way with alternate
roads traveling in opposing directions".

[widening roads downtown is considerably harder as there are no setbacks
there]

On 2/17/2016 10:00 PM, rbowman wrote:
On 02/17/2016 09:26 AM, Mr Macaw wrote:

Incorrect, I activate ABS all the time. It means I'm fully utilising
the ability of the car.

Damn, I'm glad you're in Scotland.

It's a shame he doesn't also fully utilize his air bags!

On Wed, 17 Feb 2016 21:47:43 -0700, rbowman
wrote:

On 02/17/2016 12:02 PM, Muggles wrote:
I don't know how truckers manager to drive safely.

It's gotten better but middle of the night appointments to load or
unload and other irregular times can really destroy your circadian
rhythm. Tired? Keep driving. Sick? Keep driving. Bad weather? Keep
driving. Given the millions of miles driven truckers have a good safety
record overall.

Still it's not a job for everyone and the turnover rate is high. The
grass is always greener someplace else. Part of that is the nature of
the job. A driver isn't a key employee and is replaceable. Deliver the
load and get the rig back to the terminal and that job is done. Many
times I would quit in November, spend the winter in Arizona, and hire
back on in the spring. Get the keys to a truck, throw you're stuff in
it, and you're good to go. Quite a few retirees fall into that pattern
too. Team drivers are a premium because they always have hours. Husband
and wife teams are particularly good since the odds they can live
together in a truck without killing each other is better than with two
guys.
My youngest brother spent 8 days at home one year. Not terribly good
for a marriage. Gor a couple years he and his wife co-drove. When he
hired on he told the bosses they were hiring a professional tourist.
He had 2 kayaks strapped to the back of the sleeper - if he took a
lood to California or Oregon or whatever and didn't have a return load
right away they'de go for a kayak trip for a day or two.

That was in his owner/operator days

On Wed, 17 Feb 2016 22:00:51 -0700, rbowman
wrote:

On 02/17/2016 09:26 AM, Mr Macaw wrote:

Incorrect, I activate ABS all the time. It means I'm fully utilising
the ability of the car.

Damn, I'm glad you're in Scotland.
I think all of North America and half of great britaiin is glad the
idiot is in scotland.

On 2/17/2016 10:47 PM, rbowman wrote:
On 02/17/2016 12:02 PM, Muggles wrote:
I don't know how truckers manager to drive safely.

It's gotten better but middle of the night appointments to load or
unload and other irregular times can really destroy your circadian
rhythm. Tired? Keep driving. Sick? Keep driving. Bad weather? Keep
driving. Given the millions of miles driven truckers have a good safety
record overall.

Sounds like a parallel life of the average mom or dad raising kids.
Tired? Feed the kids. Sick? take the kids to soccer practice. Bad
Weather? You still stuck with car pool.

Still it's not a job for everyone and the turnover rate is high. The
grass is always greener someplace else. Part of that is the nature of
the job. A driver isn't a key employee and is replaceable. Deliver the
load and get the rig back to the terminal and that job is done. Many
times I would quit in November, spend the winter in Arizona, and hire
back on in the spring. Get the keys to a truck, throw you're stuff in
it, and you're good to go. Quite a few retirees fall into that pattern
too. Team drivers are a premium because they always have hours. Husband
and wife teams are particularly good since the odds they can live
together in a truck without killing each other is better than with two
guys.

I bet it takes a particular type of person to do OTR for any length of
time. Hubby did it for a while, but couldn't stand being away from the
family for long periods of time, so he found local work for a while driving.
--
Maggie

On 2/17/2016 9:18 PM, rbowman wrote:
On 02/17/2016 07:52 AM, Don Y wrote:
Yeah, but the food in those places is well below the "par"
offered in the locations I suggested! :

There were a few good places. The Springs was a family favorite but it seems to
have fallen on hard times:

http://www.berkshireeagle.com/headlines/ci_5730013

My father taught me a lesson there. I was 15 or 16 but I was a big kid and
didn't have a problem getting served when with my family. The waitress came to
take the drink order and my father ordered a manhattan. He asked me if I wanted
anything so of course I said "Sure, I'll have one of those." It was busy and
the meal was slow so the waitress came by again. "Want another?" "Sure!". I
don't remember if there was a third. In fact I don't remember much except my
mother saying "He's going to be sick" many times on the drive home.

I recall dressing as a hobo one halloween, as a kid. Had a GENUINE
cigar to cram in my mouth, blacked out (missing) teeth, etc.

Of course, the cigar HAD to come out of its wrapper -- else it
wouldn't be authentic! I insisted -- over the advice of parents.

Yes, "sick" is a good way to describe it! Wasn't terribly interested
in the candy I'd collected...

There was a hidden gem in New Lebanon. A Japanese couple bought an old
Victorian and turned it into a restaurant. They kept the original floor layout
so there were tatami rooms if you wanted to go whole hog or rooms with
conventional tables and chairs. The meals were the full blown, multi-course
traditional Japanese meals. Plenty of Asahi and saki of course.

And for a brief period there was Alice's Restaurant. Nothing special as
restaurants went but still...

Big (city) doesn't necessarily mean better. But, *usually* means "more
choice".

I liked Stevenson's (?) in KC; Grotta Azura, Marbona's and Ferrara's in NYC;
Hunan Garden, My Pi and a slew of other pizzeria's in Chitown; (big) Joyce
Chen in Cambridge; The Backside in Dedham (?) etc. None particularly large
but all memorable experiences.

Here, the metro area is large-ish -- but there are no real choices. So, we
rarely eat out -- other than "american food". A notable exception is
Seri Melaka (oriental/malay) -- though we prepare (certain) dishes better
than many of theirs. (we have at least two oriental-ish meals each week;
tomorrow: beef w/ brocolli)

On 2/17/2016 9:04 PM, rbowman wrote:
On 02/17/2016 04:06 PM, Mr Macaw wrote:
If you like Monty Python you should like Benny Hill.

I don't like either. They had a similar problem. Throw out a humorous gag.
Repeat it in case someone was reaching for the chips and missed it. Do it once
again for the really slow learners. And finally, just to be sure, let's do it
one more time.

Yup. Though the same can be said of some popular US "cartoons"
(hmmm... perhaps they are trying to appeal to the same crowd?)

There was a series called "Buttons & Mindy" -- buttons being the family
dog and Mindy the precocious young toddler buttons was always trying
to protect (at HIS expense!).

The show was *so* formulaic that you can practically recite the next
line(s) from memory -- regardless of whether you'd ever seen this
episode!

One episode is produced entirely in FRENCH! (WTF??) I can't recall if
there were subtitles -- but, that's immaterial: the humor was that
you KNEW what was being said, EVEN THOUGH IT WAS BEING SAID IN FRENCH!

I have a warped sense of humor but it leans to the 'if you snooze, you lose'
school that requires viewer participation. No 'Applaud Now' signs please.

I can't recommend _Coupling_ (season 1 -- it's just maybe 6 episodes and
the accents and regional references aren't terribly disruptive) enough!
You won't need prompting to know when to laugh (unlike american humor
shows)

One of the few I remember from Python was some old charwoman on her knees
scrubbing the floor. As she recites here litany of woes and lifetime disasters
she sums it up with "but I never worked for Jews."

My memory of Benny Hill was an extended skit with a lodge pin, iirc, fashioned
from a banana and two apples. Momentarily funny but the sixth time around
you're screaming "I got it, ffs."

Think: "Laugh-In"

Per rbowman:
'They Drive By Night' with Bogart,
that's what the laws were written for. Not quite the same as driving
down the interstate with the cruise control set to 65, the air
conditioning cranked up, and good tunes on the mp3 player.

My takeaway from reading interviews with various OTR drivers is that
their primary worry is falling asleep at the wheel - and they have a
number of strategies for dealing with that, CB radio conversations and
singing to oneself among them.
--
Pete Cresswell

On 02/17/2016 11:01 PM, wrote:
My youngest brother spent 8 days at home one year. Not terribly good
for a marriage. Gor a couple years he and his wife co-drove. When he
hired on he told the bosses they were hiring a professional tourist.
He had 2 kayaks strapped to the back of the sleeper - if he took a
lood to California or Oregon or whatever and didn't have a return load
right away they'de go for a kayak trip for a day or two.


Birthdays, recitals, the normal family stuff doesn't happen. I wanted to
spend time at home so I took a job that was supposed to be a drive from
here to Kelowna, BC with Western Star parts and back. My last run was
when they told me to go from Kelowna to Edmonton for a load of pipe
going to Alabama. Then I loaded lumber in Alabama going to Pennsylvania,
and next picked up an elevator going to Seattle. Meanwhile I'm stopping
at Walmarts to buy clothes. I got back to Missoula parked the truck,
told them somebody else could take it to Seattle.

I usually carried a bicycle. I got some nice rides in while hanging
around waiting for a load. The only bad moment was coming back from
Canada and I realized I didn't have a receipt showing I bought it in the
US. Fortunately they weren't in a nosy mood that day. When Canada and
the US were in a ****ing contest over something it seemed the border
cops felt it their duty to be pricks.

On 02/17/2016 11:16 PM, Muggles wrote:
I bet it takes a particular type of person to do OTR for any length of
time. Hubby did it for a while, but couldn't stand being away from the
family for long periods of time, so he found local work for a while driving.

It was fun for a while. I tried for a local job but never got anything
permanent. After a year I gave up and went back to driving a computer.
The view from my chair isn't as interesting but the pay is better and I
get to sleep nights. Not everyone has another career they put on hold to
go back to though.

On 02/17/2016 11:46 PM, Don Y wrote:
I liked Stevenson's (?) in KC; Grotta Azura, Marbona's and Ferrara's in
NYC;
Hunan Garden, My Pi and a slew of other pizzeria's in Chitown; (big) Joyce
Chen in Cambridge; The Backside in Dedham (?) etc. None particularly large
but all memorable experiences.

I've been out of the loop for too long. Most of the places I remember
fondly are just that -- memories.

http://www.buffalorising.com/2013/03...-the-cloister/

Another article says they were too carnivore oriented when tastes
changed to nouvelle cuisine, two asparagus spears and 1.5 ounces of
grilled chicken on a plate, but I always wonder what went wrong.

On 02/18/2016 07:09 AM, (PeteCresswell) wrote:
My takeaway from reading interviews with various OTR drivers is that
their primary worry is falling asleep at the wheel - and they have a
number of strategies for dealing with that, CB radio conversations and
singing to oneself among them.

Books on tape were okay but if you got too engrossed in the story that
could be bad too. Crank up the radio or tape. I was crossing Iowa one
night and the search on the radio was coming up dry. Finally it picked
up a station that was playing a Bo Diddley cover

I'm a man
I spell M-A-N
A Christian man..


Oh ****... Seek...

On 2/18/2016 9:00 AM, rbowman wrote:
On 02/17/2016 11:16 PM, Muggles wrote:
I bet it takes a particular type of person to do OTR for any length of
time. Hubby did it for a while, but couldn't stand being away from the
family for long periods of time, so he found local work for a while
driving.

It was fun for a while. I tried for a local job but never got anything
permanent. After a year I gave up and went back to driving a computer.
The view from my chair isn't as interesting but the pay is better and I
get to sleep nights. Not everyone has another career they put on hold to
go back to though.



That' true. Hope you get all the work you need!

--
Maggie

On 2/18/2016 7:09 AM, (PeteCresswell) wrote:
Per rbowman:
'They Drive By Night' with Bogart,
that's what the laws were written for. Not quite the same as driving
down the interstate with the cruise control set to 65, the air
conditioning cranked up, and good tunes on the mp3 player.

My takeaway from reading interviews with various OTR drivers is that
their primary worry is falling asleep at the wheel - and they have a
number of strategies for dealing with that, CB radio conversations and
singing to oneself among them.

Rock-a-bye baby, in the treetop
When the wind blows, the cradle will rock
When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall...

On 2/18/2016 8:11 AM, rbowman wrote:
On 02/17/2016 11:46 PM, Don Y wrote:
I liked Stevenson's (?) in KC; Grotta Azura, Marbona's and Ferrara's in
NYC;
Hunan Garden, My Pi and a slew of other pizzeria's in Chitown; (big) Joyce
Chen in Cambridge; The Backside in Dedham (?) etc. None particularly large
but all memorable experiences.

I've been out of the loop for too long. Most of the places I remember fondly
are just that -- memories.

http://www.buffalorising.com/2013/03...-the-cloister/

Another article says they were too carnivore oriented when tastes changed to
nouvelle cuisine, two asparagus spears and 1.5 ounces of grilled chicken on a
plate, but I always wonder what went wrong.

I've never been big on eating out -- don't like to wait, consider
eating to be a chore, can make most of the things that I like better
than the folks you'd be PAYING to make it, etc.

Having said that, the meal with the best "desire-difficulty" product
(high desire, high difficulty) is baked stuffed shrimp. I've only
encountered it *once* in a restaurant -- and it was terribly
disappointing (a couple of tiny, overstuffed shrimp on a bare plate).

Unfortunately, the desire-difficulty factor is *so* high that I
rarely take the time to make it myself (not living on the coast
also has me leary of "fish purchases")

On 2/17/2016 11:47 PM, rbowman wrote:

Team drivers are a premium because they always have hours. Husband
and wife teams are particularly good since the odds they can live
together in a truck without killing each other is better than with two
guys.


I had a well paid supervisor quit. I think this week him and his wife
are starting driving school. Both are in their early 50's and want to
do this. I wish him well, but it does not seem to be a good age to
start over, but he wants to be his own boss. Biggest challenge I see is
getting that first couple of years of experience and reputation.

On Tue, 16 Feb 2016 13:20:47 -0000, Don Y wrote:

On 2/16/2016 6:05 AM, SeaNymph wrote:
[I *don't* like "getting out of the house" as that often takes me
away from *my* work]

Since we often go different places to hike or kayak, we have to drive to the
places. Many times, the drive is just as interesting as the activity.

I used to like to drive -- I think I've done the coast-to-coast three
or four times. I can recall first encountering Kansas:
"OK, this is .... different."
Then, several hours later:
"OK, enough already!"

Nowadays, I have little patience for "overhead". I'm willing to *go*
anywhere -- but am extremely conscious of the time lost "in transit".
As driving is relatively slow,

That depends on the driver.

--
Working with Sophia Loren is like being bombarded by watermelons -- Alan Ladd

On Tue, 16 Feb 2016 15:21:27 -0000, rbowman wrote:

On 02/16/2016 06:20 AM, Don Y wrote:
I used to like to drive -- I think I've done the coast-to-coast three
or four times. I can recall first encountering Kansas:
"OK, this is .... different."
Then, several hours later:
"OK, enough already!"

The US would be a much nicer place to drive across with a little origami
folding so the Rockies were aligned with the Mississippi. I once mislaid
Oklahoma. Or I should say I hallucinated that Arkansas directly led to
Texas like it does at Texarkana rather than a dreary 180 miles or so of
Oklahoma along I40. The Nth time you've driven between LA and Dalton GA
it gets a little old.

Wormhole technology.

--
Working with Sophia Loren is like being bombarded by watermelons -- Alan Ladd

On Thu, 18 Feb 2016 14:09:28 -0000, (PeteCresswell) wrote:

Per rbowman:
'They Drive By Night' with Bogart,
that's what the laws were written for. Not quite the same as driving
down the interstate with the cruise control set to 65, the air
conditioning cranked up, and good tunes on the mp3 player.

My takeaway from reading interviews with various OTR drivers is that
their primary worry is falling asleep at the wheel - and they have a
number of strategies for dealing with that, CB radio conversations and
singing to oneself among them.

I've found that driving keeps me awake.

--
My ex-wife was temperamental.
90% temper and 10% mental.

On Thu, 18 Feb 2016 15:19:57 -0000, rbowman wrote:

On 02/18/2016 07:09 AM, (PeteCresswell) wrote:
My takeaway from reading interviews with various OTR drivers is that
their primary worry is falling asleep at the wheel - and they have a
number of strategies for dealing with that, CB radio conversations and
singing to oneself among them.

Books on tape were okay but if you got too engrossed in the story that
could be bad too. Crank up the radio or tape. I was crossing Iowa one
night and the search on the radio was coming up dry. Finally it picked
up a station that was playing a Bo Diddley cover

I'm a man
I spell M-A-N
A Christian man..


Oh ****... Seek...

Loud music makes me go to sleep.

--
If quizzes are quizzical, what are tests?

On Thu, 18 Feb 2016 05:10:59 -0000, rbowman wrote:

On 02/17/2016 09:31 AM, Mr Macaw wrote:

So the so called safety feature of logging times actually causes loss of
life. For goodness sake.

Possibly. At least in the US it is an archaic system laid down in the
'30s. If you can find the 1940 film 'They Drive By Night' with Bogart,
that's what the laws were written for. Not quite the same as driving
down the interstate with the cruise control set to 65, the air
conditioning cranked up, and good tunes on the mp3 player.

On the subject of health and softy shooting itself in the foot, there have been many more deaths in boxing since they started wearing gloves.

--
If quizzes are quizzical, what are tests?

Per Don Y:
I've never been big on eating out -- don't like to wait, consider
eating to be a chore, can make most of the things that I like better
than the folks you'd be PAYING to make it, etc.

I *like* to eat - perhaps a little too much.... but restaurant eating
lost it's appeal for me after 3 experiences:

- Working KP in the Air Force, watching the cooks spit big hockers
into the scrambled eggs before cooking/serving them; and seeing
the dozens of rats crawling over the pastry sitting in carts
off to the side of the mess hall.

- Parking cars at a fancy French restaurant in Waikiki and finding
out that if you ****ed off a waiter they would spit in your
food while it was still in the kitchen - before serving it
to you.

- Belonging to a martial arts club where I trained with a guy
who was some sort of psychotherapist and was treating a
homosexual guy with evangelical tendencies: the patient was
suffering from the delusion that if people ingested his semen,
they would be converted from hetro to homo.

The patient worked in a local pizza shop and would regularly wack
off into the pizza dough..... and the guy I trained with claimed
"Patient Confidentiality" when I wanted to know which pizza shop.
--
Pete Cresswell

On 2/18/2016 4:07 PM, (PeteCresswell) wrote:
Per Don Y:
I've never been big on eating out -- don't like to wait, consider
eating to be a chore, can make most of the things that I like better
than the folks you'd be PAYING to make it, etc.

I *like* to eat - perhaps a little too much.... but restaurant eating
lost it's appeal for me after 3 experiences:

- Working KP in the Air Force, watching the cooks spit big hockers
into the scrambled eggs before cooking/serving them; and seeing
the dozens of rats crawling over the pastry sitting in carts
off to the side of the mess hall.

- Parking cars at a fancy French restaurant in Waikiki and finding
out that if you ****ed off a waiter they would spit in your
food while it was still in the kitchen - before serving it
to you.

- Belonging to a martial arts club where I trained with a guy
who was some sort of psychotherapist and was treating a
homosexual guy with evangelical tendencies: the patient was
suffering from the delusion that if people ingested his semen,
they would be converted from hetro to homo.

The patient worked in a local pizza shop and would regularly wack
off into the pizza dough..... and the guy I trained with claimed
"Patient Confidentiality" when I wanted to know which pizza shop.


OMG! That's some sick people out there!

--
Maggie

Per Mr Macaw:
On the subject of health and softy shooting itself in the foot,
there have been many more deaths in boxing since they started wearing gloves.

On PBS a few years ago I heard a round-table discussion involving some
older world-class welterweight fighters and the consensus was that brain
injuries were almost unknown back in the bare-knuckle days.

The rationale: bare-knuckle boxing was essentially an endurance contest
- circling, looking for an opening. Once one of the fighters landed a
punch, the fight did not last much longer. A person just can't take
very many full-force bare-knuckle punches. Therefore there was very
little of trading punches - especially to the head.
--
Pete Cresswell

Hi Pete,

On 2/18/2016 3:07 PM, (PeteCresswell) wrote:
Per Don Y:
I've never been big on eating out -- don't like to wait, consider
eating to be a chore, can make most of the things that I like better
than the folks you'd be PAYING to make it, etc.

I *like* to eat - perhaps a little too much....

There's an adage: Some folks live to eat, others eat to live.
I'm in the second group (i.e., how quickly can I consume these
calories and get on with whatever)

E.g., I probably spent the better part of an hour (over the course
of the day) preparing tonight's meal; it was gone in 5 or 6 minutes!

but restaurant eating
lost it's appeal for me after 3 experiences:

- Working KP in the Air Force, watching the cooks spit big hockers
into the scrambled eggs before cooking/serving them; and seeing
the dozens of rats crawling over the pastry sitting in carts
off to the side of the mess hall.

- Parking cars at a fancy French restaurant in Waikiki and finding
out that if you ****ed off a waiter they would spit in your
food while it was still in the kitchen - before serving it
to you.

Yeah, I had a childhood friend who managed a restaurant.
The horror stories he told were chilling!

I tend to be a bit obsessive/compulsive when it comes
to cleanliness in the kitchen, cooking, etc. E.g., when
I make marinara/bolognese sauce, the sink will end up
FULL of "used spoons" -- take one out, dip in sauce,
taste test, toss spoon in sink to be washed later.

Anything with pork or chicken is even more paranoid!

- Belonging to a martial arts club where I trained with a guy
who was some sort of psychotherapist and was treating a
homosexual guy with evangelical tendencies: the patient was
suffering from the delusion that if people ingested his semen,
they would be converted from hetro to homo.

The patient worked in a local pizza shop and would regularly wack
off into the pizza dough..... and the guy I trained with claimed
"Patient Confidentiality" when I wanted to know which pizza shop.

Eeeew!

One of the local TV stations has a periodic (?) "spot" where they
report on restaurant inspections around town. They apparently
just obtain the reports from the health department (or whomever
is responsible for this) and basically READ them on the air
(with "stock" footage so you're not even seeing the businesses
or their conditions at time of inspection).

No doubt the station's idea of "being relevant"... :

I've yet to understand the grading system that is used as,
like most "reporters", they never tell you this!

But, from observations, I've deduced it is something like:

Super fantastic Nothing that really LOOKS any worse than most homes
Great A few cockroaches swimming in the salad dressing
Wonderful At least one of the cockroaches has died!
Really good No meat left unrefrigerated for more than a day
Good No meat has begun to actively decompose
Fair Cat found dead under 'frig after eating tainted meat
OK No person has died from eating the meat
Needs improvement Not more than one meat-related death
Deferred judgement Let's pretend we didn't SEE that stuff!

Makes you wonder what you have to do to get "closed down"!