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George, SHHHH!
I’ve been trying to keep it under wraps as the neighbors keep wanting to play with it.
Actually, I live about 1/4 mile from that underpass if it is the logical one (2nd st. in NLAW, Lonecat?), and in the drivers defense, that underpass is both undersized and sneaky. The idiots dipped the road under instead of crossing at level, long before semi’s were thought of. During the flood of ’93, it filled right up to the tracks, people were swimming in it…
Used to have a synthetic “oriental” carpet, 6×9. My ex-roomates pets had been pretty enthusiastic with it, so I took it to the local self serve carwash. Draped it over the top, shelled out my quarters and got it nice and clean. Of course, afterwards I realized it was way to wet and heavy to get back IN the car, so I carefully pull it back so I can see out the windshield, climbed in and drove very slowly home. I had visions the whole time of that thing getting airborne and really giving some poor sod a magic carpet ride! I must of looked like this fancy mammoth trundling down the road…
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A couple days ago, a guy hauled a backhoe all the way from South Dakota only to scrape it off the flatbed under a railroad overpass in Lawrence, KS. He was 51 years old, so was likely a steady man who just got carelss. Last week I let my guard down and damn near lost an extension ladder on the freeway. Couple years ago, my wife and I bout got killed in Pensacola by a wheelbarrow which shook off a work truck in front of us. Check that load!
*Dittos to that!I had a 2 x 6 x 8’ board in the bed of my truck on one windy day and when passing a Safeway truck on I-405 going from Bellevue to Renton in Washington a small tornado was developed between us. The wind sucked that board up like someone had snapped his finger and awaked someone in a start. I was watching through my mirror in horror as this was happening. When it just stood straight up, like it was standing to attention it twisted around in the small tornado and flew over the tailgate without touching it. It then landed on the road in front of a Mini Van. When it hit the road it slid with the traffic. Fortunate for all the others and me that followed it was in the middle of the lane and in line with the traffic. So the van and anyone following were able to just drive over it and I never heard of an accident happening on that day in that area. There was no way to stop and go get the board with as heavy as the traffic was that day. Ever since that day, I haven’t been without straps chriss crossing the bed of my truck, even if a load is in the bottom of the bed of my truck and weighs 50 lbs. Secure it even if you think its OK. Just be sure without question.
*A couple of months ago the guy who does our dirt work pulled onto a divided four lane from a side road with his dozer on a flatbed trailer . He cut it a little short to stay in the inside lane and hit the curb with the left side tires on the trailer . The dozer was chained down , but he said it jumped straight up and then sideways . It ended up upside down in the middle of the highway .Luckily no one was hurt .Chuck
*It keeps going on, too. Friday I was in my off-duty car over in the big city looking at new vans. Whipped around a left turn on-ramp to I-35, and my cell phone which was on the dash slid all the way across and out the passenger side window. Everybody missed it, though, and let me wade out into traffic to get it back.
*Lonecat, you know... I was wondering where Lisa got that Backhoe from... yep, the ol' gypsy clothesline trick...
*Had a small repair at the end of the day. So, I just loaded what tools I'd need into a 5 gal plastic bucket. Speeding along, I passed the UPS driver--that's fast!--just then I hit a small bump. Up goes the bucket into the slipstream and over the tailgate. The UPS driver didn't even flinch as he creamed the bucket o' tools. I stopped and spent the next 20 minutes picking up scattered, bent tools.As for tieing things down: I tie everythind down as if it may go overboard, or, that I won't have a second chance. Did I ever tell you about the gloss black, late model Mercedes Benz that used to follow me around, probably hoping something would spill?
*Several years back, my truck went awol for awhile, and I used the car. One morning I had a load of dressed 2x6x8 pine on the roof racks, and was zipping down the local highway, all alone, when up ahead some dork in a pickup decides he just has to get onto the highway ahead of me, even though he could clearly see that there was nothing coming behind me for miles.So dork boy sprays gravel all over three counties pullin onto the highway, and then throttles back to about 25mph. Figurin he musta been in a hell of a hurry, and would keep right on peelin' I was a little slow backing off. By this time I'm right up his tailpipe, and there's a car in the oncoming lane, so I leaned on the horn and the brakes. Well my car slowed down nicely, but the lumber kept goin. Dork boy checked his mirror in enough time to speed up a tad and deny my pine a soft landing in his open truck bed.I stopped in the middle of the road to rescue my beat up pine, and damned if dork boy doesn't pull over too, and backs up, and gets outa the cab. Dork boy turns out to be a goof ball senior citizen who's all golly gee whiz yuck, yuck, "I saw that lumber on the road and thought it was mine, then I remembered I didn't have any in my truck", yuck, yuck.I lost no time telling old dork dad exactly what I thought of a**holes who pulled out onto highways in front of oncoming traffic.The SOB gets all huffy and says "Well I was gonna help you pick it up, but if you're gonna be like that you can dang well do it yourself!"His trip back to his truck was accompanied by a continuous string of abuse from me as I contiued to reload my seriously mutilated lumber.i Roof racks, senior citizens and beat up pine. . there's a c&w tune in there fer sure. Throw in a few i struttin mommas and a side 'o beef and it could be a medley of my greates hit!!>snoozin while yer cruisin >down the boulevard of life>with some pine upon the roof racks>and a geezer out fer spite-pm
*Having launched a bunch of long 2x6's bungied to my racks at a car I'd slammed on my brakes to try to avoid, I bought 4 ratchets for my racks at $50 apiece. Money well spent. My first thought was that it could have been a kid on a bike. Scared the hell out of me. I ratchet that stuff down tight now. JonC
*George, SHHHH!I've been trying to keep it under wraps as the neighbors keep wanting to play with it. Actually, I live about 1/4 mile from that underpass if it is the logical one (2nd st. in NLAW, Lonecat?), and in the drivers defense, that underpass is both undersized and sneaky. The idiots dipped the road under instead of crossing at level, long before semi's were thought of. During the flood of '93, it filled right up to the tracks, people were swimming in it...Used to have a synthetic "oriental" carpet, 6x9. My ex-roomates pets had been pretty enthusiastic with it, so I took it to the local self serve carwash. Draped it over the top, shelled out my quarters and got it nice and clean. Of course, afterwards I realized it was way to wet and heavy to get back IN the car, so I carefully pull it back so I can see out the windshield, climbed in and drove very slowly home. I had visions the whole time of that thing getting airborne and really giving some poor sod a magic carpet ride! I must of looked like this fancy mammoth trundling down the road...