Profile For Half Pint

Hey girl, yes ma'am, still here. Not flatbed though, pulling a box and still loving this life. Thank you for your kind words.

I hope you're doing well and that your holidays are Merry and Bright.

Thank you Ann.

Packrat, there was this one in PA I was empty and I thought I was gonna blow away, lol

Hey all! Just wanted to drop a note and say hey, still here, still very thankful for all of your hard work and dedication to TT. Still loving this life and still learning.

I'm headed to CT from St Augustine totally thankful for such a great load during a slower time of year.

I just wanna say thank you G-town for a well written article. I saw myself in some of that and I saw things I need to work on.

I've recently decided to drop flatbed, some of the reasons I won't go into here, but one of the reasons I will elaborate on. I'm 53. It was really hard to swallow that my older, physical, self doesn't want to get on the band wagon with those 8 ft drop lumber tarps. Talk about a hard pill to swallow. Man... Flatbed was my goal and while I did do it for a few months I still felt like a failure. Part of that was my pride.

There are other things I saw in the way I view certain aspects of my job. Like "competition". I've seen it out here but I thought I was right and I've absolutely balked at the idea to compete.

Also, the idea of change. I ran one way with my previous company and now I have to run differently. I've balked at that too. Both of those have hurt me in the long run. And I've allowed it to happen. It's time I switched things up.

If you haven't read it yet, do yourself a favor and take a look. Maybe none of it will apply to you. But it sure doesn't hurt us to take a look at our mentality and shove that thermometer up our keester and check our vitals.

I decided to revisit that article from time to time and give myself a check-up from the neck up. It's that good.

Thanks again G-town.

I will check that blog out!

I love audiobooks on those long stretches of highway.

Congratulations!

Thank you for the link. I read them. If a person can reach the air lines to connect them that's a good thing. But reaching the chains and binders from the ground would require a really tall person.

My truck had to go in the shop at one of our yards. While I was there I was talking to a new driver about his truck so we went over to have a look. I noticed, among other things, that he didn't have a catwalk...

Since a flatbedder uses the catwalk I would assume it's necessary but I don't know. I suggested he call securement at the main terminal because I didn't have an answer for him. Seems awfully dangerous not have one. I tried looking it up online for my own knowledge but I'm not having any luck with that.

Does anyone know for sure?

she also told me i would never be able to write a book or sell them and i have sold 200 audiobooks and thousands of ebooks and paperbacks in every part of the world, including India and Japan.

Girl, I'm way impressed!!! I just went to audible and put your stuff in my wish list!!!!

Organization... Ugh... I'm no good at that. It's nice to see that I'm not alone.

I'm bad about losing things and being slow. Here are a few things I did that help me but I don't know how this would work in a team situation. I drive a 17 midroof Cascadia.

I got a cheap hanging shoe rack and hung it from the outside of the set of cabinets that have the fridge space. It faces the bunk. Each little pocket is specified for a certain item. For example, my hair is very curly and I have to wrap it in a satin cap so it doesn't friz up during the night and I have a frizzy afro in the morning... That satin cap and an eye cover goes in one of those pockets. In another pocket all of the things that were in my jeans for that day goes there. So when I empty my jeans pockets everything goes in that shoe pocket. It's the same pocket every single time. the rest of the pockets hold things like extra toothpaste, extra razors, first aid stuff, TV remote etc, just things like that so that I don't have an extra plastic tote sitting around somewhere. I have enough of those... lol

In the automotive section at Walmart I bought a... I don't really know how to describe it, it's like a canvas cup. you put it in the vent and it hangs down and you can put pens in it. I use mine for pens, my clear ruler, my sunglasses, and when I'm done driving I put my eyeglasses to the outside.

I also bought a very small center console thingy from Walmart. It's plastic and sits on the floor. My little truck stop book goes in there, with lens wipes, and vape juice. I fold up a few napkins and stick down there and since it has a place for drinks I usually put an extra water bottle down there. I used it when I was driving a 10-speed and it wasn't too bad. This truck is an automatic so there's a little more room for that. It doesn't slide around a whole lot. If I ever have problems with it I might just velcro it to the console. Like I said I don't know if this is doable in a teaming situation.

For getting a shower faster on my DOT break I've found that I had to get it out of my mind that my shower was a relaxing moment or my time to unwind.

It's not, it's just a shower. I'm dirty, I need to clean up and I'll relax later. That's what I tell myself and it helps me.

I put an extra change of clothes in my bag the morning I get up so that I don't have to do it when I stop. When I get to the shower, I take everything out and I take a shower. No looking on my phone, no worrying about hair or makeup. I wash, I shampoo, I run conditioner through my hair, and I'm out. I save the relaxing, deep conditioning and leg shaving for my 34 or if I'm lucky enough to get a night time shower with no wait. I also don't take anything out of that bag until I stop for the night.

From time I start my break to the time I get back to the truck and release the brakes is rarely over 45 minutes now and I've hit the 30 minute mark several times since I really started working on it. But I've also dropped the hair and makeup routine since I started flatbed too. The face gets lotion and the hair goes under a ball cap.

Susan, I agree with you, those cascadia's with the ladders... They suck so bad. I really don't like them at all. My trainer had one of those, and one day I slipped off the ladder... I went flying backwards towards the cab... And I landed with the armrest from the driver seat on my tailbone. Yes I broke it... My tailbone I mean lol. I'm still dealing with the aftermath of that today. Those first few months of sitting in that seat and putting in a full day were horribly painful.

My trainer had one of those organizers that hang off the back of the seat like you're talking about. Hers was black and she got it from a truck stop. I'm planning on getting one of those too, it was very helpful.