THEM

I'm parked in Lynchburg, OH, across from a small-engine repair place that my APU warrantee people finally sent me to after six phone calls. After running great for nine days, the thing started stalling every time it started. I found it low on oil and added some. Thought it was fixed.

Nope! Sometimes it works fine--I mean for eighteen or 26 hours! Then it stalls. I manually restart and it stalls again. And again. Eventually I get it started. It's running now, and I bet will be fine for another long stretch until it decides to start stalling again.

At least there was some parking here, so I can just walk across the street in the morning. And I just went shopping at Dollar General--got me five bags of pistachios and two of almonds for a buck each, cargo pants for twelve bucks (now I got five non-emergency pairs), and some flying insect spray. (Flies are a huge problem for truckers. It's like they truly are agents of Satan. They deliberately buzz your face--I mean like they KNOW what they're doing and are getting even for all their brethren thaty sadistic punks pulled the wings off of. I' ll poison myself to take the bastards out.)

H.A.L. likewise rose up and started screwing with me. First I was prevented from opening anything in Hotmail. Then, when I opened a Yahoo account, I was even able to uplod my mail to it. Then I try to log in, and can't. And some sites wouldn't load, while others zapped in right away.

I thought I might need a Windows update, so I tried that. And couldn't get in.

So I treid Java. It took a long time and repeated attempts through various links, but finally I got there, and downloaded their latest software. (That is, after several failed attempts).

That did it. Now I'm cookin. Evidently Java is taking over the internet. Good ole Sun Micro--I made some money on that stock. Maybe even more than I lost!

I hit Wal-Mart again. This time, I knew exactly how much stuff I could cram in my freezer, and now it's PACKED. So is the fridge part, and I have a bunch of non-perishables. And the money-saving part is working better than I'd expected.

With all the stuff in the fridge and freezer, plus my sammich-fixins, I simply can't bring myself to buy any fast food whatsoever. I'm terrified that if I don't eat what's refrigerated, it'll go bad. So I haven't bought any fast food. At all.

I also got a coffee cup the size of my head, and my own teabags, and honey, and powdered french vanilla creamer. Even a jug of water, so I can heat it up in the microwave. Things are more-or-less set up and not falling all over the place whenever I turn or hit a bump.

Since I found out that my Qualcom wiring harness might not get to Jamestown for over a week (or two), I'm going to leave that loose end for later and take off after getting my APU fixed, and my PO Box (which should be ready pretty soon).

I need my PO Box number before I can switch all my accounts over. There's my Corporate Account, which pays all my monthly bills, and then my personal account. Then there's my wireless, prepass, subscriptions--all of that will have to be changed over before I can resume buying anything (inc. the ceramic additive and my hydrogen generator (Onboard Vehicle Hydrogen Generators! ).

Because of how this company operates, I should be sent out and then brought back. At USA, I was just "out", running all over the country, with no "base". This company is smaller, and takes loads to and from Ohio.

This is okay with me. I'll be running harder than I did with USA; I can cover more miles. Although my first priority is to be super-greedy and take all I can get, the fact that I'll be back here so often means that I can time 34-hour breaks to take care of my mail and other business, and watch the BROWNS sometimes!

Like yesterday. I again parked on the street outside of Wild Wings and watched the Lions beat the snot out of them in preseason. They played music--it wasn't really like a big Browns meeting, and the place was full of people with no interest in the game. But they have these portable wireless boxes which play the sound for you. I even carried it around with me when I went out on the patio to smoke (and it's on TVs out there, too).

This company is the last stop for a lot of guys. Here are ex-cons and outlaws. Some of them run like I wish I could run, but...

When you get pulled over at a weigh-station, and that DOT cop asks for your logbook, you'd better have your bases covered.
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In one western state, I was pulled over, and the guy got on his computer and saw where I had passed other scales. He had me cold. You can go around scales, but that's just a pain in the ass and slows you down. You can use creative math, but you can't be rediculous with it. These guys think they've got it all covered, but one DOT cop could cost them 6 grand and their licence.

I'm no goody two-shoes. I just weigh consequences. The last officer let me off the hook. The one before that finds one mathematical error and went into full proctological mode. That only cost me 400 bucks. And it could have been worse.

Oh, but make no mistake: I'm going to hammer it, and outrun most of these guys anyway.

Ah! Here we go! I restarted the APU and it stalled again. Wait...it's counting down...(I set it up that way....it's started...running...okay I got A/C.

I can't operate this way. I have to be able to trust the unit. Emergency genrators don't stall, nor should this. There are times when I'm away from the truck for long periods, and this could kill my batteries. And I hate waking up in a pool of sweat or freezing to death and trying to re-start the thing several times in a row. And try getting back to sleep after that! Hell, try going to sleep wondering if the stupid thing's going to do that to you!

Well, at least I'm here now, and I'll bet it's something simple.
Onboard Vehicle Hydrogen Generators!