A Trucker's Lament...

Today I'm not going to report on crimes or tragedies. At least not for now. We'll have to wait and see what the day brings, tough. Anyway, my trucker friend sent me a series of text messages a while back. I saved them and thought I'd share... (With a bit of editing to put them all together into a readable format.) Think Willie Nelson here... And no, my trucker friend is not a big fan of Willie.. Just ask him.. He'll tell you!

On the road again,
Going to places I have already been,
Seeing things I never want to see again,
Oh god help me, I am on the road again.

Dealing with people that are a pain in the end,
Doing things I wish I didn't have to do again,
Oh lord, I think I am going to cry again,
Damn it, I am on the road again.

All eighteen wheels are turning once again,
Stopping at places all over again,
My route seems to never end,
All I do is work and sleep before I start again,
Please someone help me I am on the road again.

Will I ever see my wife and kids again,
Will spend the holidays alone again,
Some day soon, will have to play the lottery or I will never win,
Oh man, its four am, time to get on the road again.
Do I have to die before this will end,
Oh god, I am on the road again

The "purty" big red truck above is one of the trucks I drove back in the 90's. If you look real close at the windshield, you can see a very vague image of the driver. That's me! My trucker friend was out freezing his butt off in the snow taking the picture.. We're in a rest area on I70 near Aspen... The weather was very nice in Denver, but it was blizzard time in Aspen... lol

And now I'll close with a little more humor that I just can't resist this morning:

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Update on the Highway 166 Accident & Yesterday's Rant

The investigators have released name of the truck driver who died in that horrible accident Friday night. The driver was identified as 27-year-old Ricardo Zamora of Bakersfield.Mr. Zamora died when his rig caught on fire. The authorities had to use dental records to identify the poor man. My condolences go out to his family and friends.

And the "impatient" idiot of a man who caused the tragedy passed away yesterday. A CHP spokesman says 41-year-old Wayne Delangie of Santa Maria passed away at Cottage Hospital in Santa Maria Sunday night. Delangie's family says he is an organ donor and that his body is being kept on life support until the organ donation process is complete.

So now there are two families who've lost someone due to the impatience of one man. One man who just had to get in front of a couple of trucks. One man who was in such a hurry to get where he was going that he did something incredibly stupid. He tried to pass those trucks on a right-hand curve with a double yellow line. He failed. Spectacularly. Tragically.

If any of my readers out there get out on the highway and end up behind a truck that is going slower than you, please don't get impatient and pass unsafely. I don't care how big of a hurry you think you are, wait for a safe area to pass. A passing lane. A long straight stretch of road with no oncoming traffic. Trucks go slower than cars by law. Especially here in California. The maximum a truck is allowed is 55 miles per hour. Even on the highways where cars are allowed to go faster, those trucks are not allowed to go faster than 55.

Be safe out there folks. I don't want to have to read more reports of tragic accidents caused by impatient drivers.

Source: KSBY Channel 6

Another Rant about "Impatient Drivers"

Last year in May I posted a rant about impatient drivers (Look here for the post.) and this morning, I'm going to do it again. Yesterday morning, I read about a bad accident on highway 166 down near San Luis Obispo/Santa Maria involving two big rigs (according to the original article) that happened Friday evening. There weren't many details yesterday, but this morning the San Luis Obispo newspaper has another article on their web site about the accident which gives a lot more details. Another article on the KSBY Channel 6 web site gives even more. The accident was caused by an impatient driver trying to pass a couple of trucks.

According to the articles, a man from Santa Maria (who's identity hasn't been disclosed) in a F-150 pickup crossed a double yellow line and attempted to pass two big rigs. When he pulled out into the opposing (westbound) lane, he sideswiped a Honda being driven by a woman from Bakersfield, then sideswiped another pickup truck (A Chevy) driven by a man from Bakersfield. He then hit another big rig head on. That rig went on into the eastbound lane and crashed into another big rig, causing it to roll over. Then both rigs caught on fire. The pickup then hit another eastbound big rig, then sideswiped another westbound car (A Saturn) driven by another woman from Bakersfield.

The driver of the rig that was hit head on died, either in the initial crash or in the fire. That driver could not be identified yet. The driver of the rig that rolled over luckily only suffered minor injuries. The woman in the Honda also suffered minor injuries and the man in the other pickup, the man in the 3rd big rig and the woman in the Saturn were truly lucky, they weren't injured at all. The impatient man is in the hospital with "major" injuries. The accident scene covered over 2,000 feet of the highway and the wreckage, cleanup and investigation had the highway closed for nearly a full day.

One idiot who thought he was going to get where he was going just a little sooner by passing a couple trucks on a curve with double yellow lines didn't get where he was going that night. He got a trip to the hospital and probably will have a long convalescence from his injuries. He killed a man. He injured two other people. He wrecked 7 vehicles, including his own. (I think the photo to the left is the F150, or what's left of it.) His impatience and stupidity closed a highway for a day, causing other drivers to take long detours in order to get from one side of the coastal range to the other.

Amazingly, or maybe it's not that amazing, the first comment below the article in the San Luis Obispo paper blames the trucks for the accidents.

"croberts wrote on 03/07/2009 08:31:05 PM:

To repeat: As a regular 'user' of 166 I can say without hesitation that 166 is unsafe due to overuse by large truck/trailer combos. This should NOT be allowed as a 'truck-route', used by commercial and semi-tractor trailer rigs looking for the sort-cut to I-5/99. The combination of hills, curves, one-lane each way, bad passing areas, motor-homes, pickups towing trailers, U-Hauls, and autos driven by the unskilled and impatient result in deadly accidents. Add to the mix an obvious lack of law enforcement. (Never seen a Chippy)."

As I look at a Google map showing the highway this accident happened on, I see that Highway 166 isn't a "shortcut". I see that it is the most direct route between Santa Maria and Bakersfield. Perhaps this guy who wrote this comment is one of those guys who do stupid things to get around trucks? Blame it all on the trucks... Sheesh!

View Larger Map

Sources:
San Luis Obispo Tribune
KSBY Channel 6 (Also has a video and more photos)
Original article about the crash; San Luis Obispo Tribune

Truckers Can Be Heroes Too

I know lots of folks look at trucks on the highway as just an obstacle in their way. They are wrong, though... If it weren't for trucks and the people who drive them, there wouldn't be much of anything to call your own.... Because if you have something, more than likely it got to you in the back of a truck.

Anyway, in the news here the last couple of days there has been a story of a trucker that a lot of folks are calling a hero. There is a truckstop near the town of Ripon, California and on Thursday night, one of the trucks in the lot caught on fire. Well, not the whole truck, just the trailer. The trucker didn't just jump out of his truck and run away. He put the truck in gear and drove it out of the parking lot and down a nearby street to an area where it was isolated and the fire was unable to spread.

The Ripon Police Department was dispatched along with the fire department. The first patrol car on the scene had his dash-cam going when he arrived and the video has been on the news this morning. I "grabbed" it and put it on YouTube this morning so I could share it here:

The Modesto Bee has a number of still photos of the aftermath of the truck fire. What a mess, huh? From the angles of the photos, it looks as though only the trailer burned, not the tractor. Lucky for the driver, I would imagine, because that means that all his belongings in the truck are still there.

I also posted the Modesto Bee article on the California Fire News blog this morning.

In my opinion, that trucker is a hero. By staying with his truck and driving it out of the truckstop he prevented a disaster. At night, truckstop parking areas are usually full of trucks parked close together. If that trucker hadn't moved, who knows how many trucks would have burned and who knows what kind of loads would have been destroyed. The hero's name is Randal Jack, and I salute him for keeping his head when he looked out his mirrors and saw the flames.

Snow in the Mountains Means a Bad Day for Truckers

Well, Northern California is getting snow in the mountains this weekend. I've talked to my trucker friend a few times this weekend and he's not a "happy camper". If you take a look at the image to the left (A screenshot of the CalTrans Traveler Information page), you'll see that they are saying that I80 Westbound is closed to trucks. Well, that doesn't mean my friend can sit back and wait it out. For the simple reason that he's hauling the U.S. Mail, which means he doesn't stop, even if they block all the other trucks. He has to put chains on and run it anyway, he has to deal with the folks in cars, SUV's and pickups doing stupid things on the highway in front of him. For instance, this morning he had a guy in a SUV pass him and then suddenly change lanes and slow down right in front of my friend's truck. It's a good thing my friend was going slow (due to having max chains on his truck) because he was able to slow fast enough to not hit the idiot in the SUV.

Anyway, it's been a few hours since I heard anything from my trucker friend, so I figured I'd check out the traffic cams up on the hill. It looks nasty up there. I started from the Nevada end and worked my way "down the hill" with the cams. Take a look at the screenshot to the left. That is at the Truckee Scales. Normally, you can see the hills in the distance. Not today! Too much snow falling. The wind is blowing pretty good up there too, when you watch this camera, it really sways with the movement of the pole that the camera is on.

The next camera in line isn't working this afternoon. It's at the Ag Station on the Westbound side of the highway. Thats where you have to stop and tell them where you're coming from and what kind of agricultural products you're carrying when you're coming into California.

After you pass the Ag Station, you get into the city of Truckee. So the next camera is at the junction of I80 and Highway 89 which is in Truckee. Lots of snow, huh? If you're watching the camera live, you can really see the snow blowing past the lens of the camera!

I am glad I'm not up there in that mess. I'm sitting here in the comfort of my living room, listening to the rain and wind outside. I feel sorry for the truckers that have to travel in that stuff up on the mountains during storms like the one we're having today! I'm also very thankful that when I drove trucks way back when, I drove for a company that had a "no chain" policy for the cross-country drivers. We carried the chains, but the company wanted us to find a spot to wait out the chain controls rather than put them on and run. My partner and I spent a lot of time in truckstops waiting for weather conditions to improve back then.

The next view is a bit further west at Kingvale. The traffic on the lower section of the road is going westbound. You can barely see the upper/Eastbound side through the snow flying. Although, if you look close right next to the "E" in Kingvale, you'll see the taillights of a car headed east. I was almost tempted to give my trucker friend a call to see where he was when I saw that white truck headed west. I decided not to distract him though, so I have no clue where he is on the hill.

Are you glad that you are sitting in the warmth of your home looking at these pictures on your computer instead of having to drive in that lovely white stuff? lol..

Ok, the next camera is the one at Whitmore Grade. This one puzzled me for a long time because I couldn't quite figure out where the camera was. In a previous post on this blog, I posted a map or two trying to show where it is. I wish Caltrans had a camera on the Eastbound side as well, but I'm guessing that this location is where a camera is needed since I've seen a number of spinouts and such when I'm watching it.

Anyway, you can see all the traffic trying to make it back down into the Sacramento Valley. And all the snow blowing around. No spinouts yet, but I'm sure there will be one or two before the day is over.

This is the last screenshot for today. It's at Crystal Springs and I added it in because of the fellow at the back of the truck over there on the left. I watched the poor guy putting the chains on the wheels of his truck. And watched a few idiots in cars that seemed to try to get as close to him as they could. Dummies...

One of the things that struck me as I watched the cameras today was that I saw very few plows or sand trucks running. My trucker friend's favorite rant about Caltrans is the lack of plows running down the road. He says that he sees more plows and sand trucks sitting alongside the road than he sees on the highway itself. What the heck are those guys doing? Napping?

Snow in the Mountains = Truckers Curse

California is finally getting some snow up in the mountains and my trucker friend isn't a "happy camper". Yesterday he had a long day dealing with the snow up there and it looks like today is going to be a repeat. I just got off the phone with him and he said that he's already had to put the chains on (and take them off) twice getting up the hill this morning! He's definitely dreading the trip back down the hill this afternoon!

Anyway, since his call, I've been playing with the live cams on the CalTrans website. (It's been a while since I watched them. Like last winter when I was his weather/road conditions info person.) The first screenshot looks pretty good. That's at the Whitmore Grade showing the westbound lanes. Road looks pretty good, doesn't it? Pavement is a little wet and there's just a bit of snow on the shoulders. Ahhh.. But wait until you get a little further up the hill! It gets whiter!




Here's the Caltrans camera at Kingvale. The snow is deeper at the sides of the roads and the lanes aren't as clear. This is one of the spots where my trucker friend had to put the chains on this morning. I guess it was pretty nasty between Kingvale and the Donner Lake interchange. I'm not quite sure where he had to put the chains on the truck the second time. With the mood he's in, I was afraid to ask! lol... (And, no.. Neither of the trucks in this screenshot is his! lol)




A bit further up the road, there is a camera on I80 at the highway 89 interchange which is in Truckee. Again, it doesn't look that bad in the camera shots, but apparently the pavement has ice on it. And again, I don't know if this is one of the areas he had to have the chains on. A short while back, he and I went up to Reno for a couple days and on our way up, he pointed out most of the cameras that I've viewed from the Caltrans site plus quite a few more that I've never seen listed on the site.



Caltrans has done some shifting around of available cameras this year. I don't remember seeing this one last year. I'm not quite sure of the position of it, whether we're looking at I80 or if we're looking at highway 267. It seems to be a pretty busy road, though. By looking at a map, it seems to be just down the road a bit from the highway 89 interchange camera. I guess I will have to take a drive up to Truckee one of these days and see if I can spot this one. lol




This camera is a "new" one and I'll have to keep an eye on this camera to see if the snow and ice on the lens clears up later so I can get a screenshot from it. I have no clue which direction it's pointing or what we're supposed to see. The description of the camera says that it's at the Ag Station on I80, which means it's at the inspection area where you have to stop and tell the folks where you're coming from and whether or not you're carrying agricultural products.




There were a couple of the cameras not working this morning. The one at the Truckee truck scale and the one at Floriston. I'll check them out later on today, maybe. Here's a list of the I80 cameras from the Caltrans site, go check them out!;

• 80 at Applegate
• 80 at Colfax
• 80 at Crystal Springs
• 80 at Dutch Flat
• 80 at Whitmore Grade
• 80 at Kingvale
• 80 at 89
• 267 at 80
• 80 at Truckee (Ag Station)
• 80 at Truckee Scales
• 80 at Floriston

Update 1:20pm
Just a quick update. I got another call from my trucker friend. Poor guy. He is stuck in Reno with an "out of commission truck". One of the brake lines on the truck went bad and he can't release the trailer brakes so he's stuck at the loading dock at the Post Office distribution center there in Reno until a mechanic gets out there to fix the problem. It looks like he'll be spending the night in the truck up there. What a way to start your "weekend" huh? His "weekend" normally starts on Sunday night, but he's going to have to stay up there and drive down tomorrow, so the first day of his weekend will be gone. I took a look at the CalTrans camera in Truckee again and it looks like even if he were able to drive, he'd still be stuck. Traffic is at a complete standstill in Truckee and it's been that way for a while now. Somebody must have pulled a really bad boo-boo on the highway west of Truckee.

Family Visits, Travels and The News

Family Visits and Travels
I wonder, has anyone missed my posts on here? For the last couple of weeks I was busy with family. My brother, Ted, flew out from Virginia two weeks ago today and we had a grand time visiting and traveling and visiting some more until he left this past Monday. The day after he arrived, we headed up to Oregon for a visit with my Dad and Stepmom. We got an early start, he picked me up while it was still dark and then we picked up my other brother Gene and headed up the highway. As you can see from the photo below, we saw the sun rise over the Sutter Buttes as we drove up the highway towards Oregon. The clouds and such made for a nice photo of the buttes in the distance.
My brothers and I were having a lot of fun talking and getting "caught up" as we went up I5. A few miles up the road, Ted made a comment about seeing flashing lights periodically in the rear view mirror for the last few miles. There was a big-rig traveling along in the fast lane with the flashing lights peeking out on one side or the other. So Ted moved us into the slow lane and the big-rig caught up to us pretty fast with a Highway Patrolman right on his tail with lights and siren going. Now we were doing about 75 or so and this truck passed us by like we were almost standing still! Then, up ahead we could see another Highway Patrol car coming down an onramp with his lights flashing, and I suppose his siren was going as well. The truck driver "gave up" and pulled over to the slow lane and then onto the shoulder. The two patrol cars didn't stop behind him, they pulled clear off the road and onto the dirt alongside the truck even with the cab of the truck. We just kept going and have no idea what the outcome of that trucker's fate, but it made for some "interesting" comments between the three of us for a while. Ted is a trucker on the east coast, owning and operating his own rig, and me being a former trucker a few years back, we had a few ideas on what might have happened to the driver. For one, the speed limit for trucks in California is 55mph. That guy had to be doing 80-85mph and that is considered "reckless driving" for a truck. We speculated that the guy might have gotten a ride in the back seat of one of the patrol cars and the rig got towed until he managed to get his "ticket". For another thing, Ted was seeing those lights flashing behind that truck for at least 10 miles or so. What charges would the Highway Patrol tack on for that? Oh well, that trucker at the very least got a really steep fine and I'll bet he stays out of California for a while.

Remember the photos I posted last month of Mount Shasta with no snow on the top? Well, we had a weather change for a few days while Ted was here. We couldn't even see the top of Shasta as we drove to Oregon this time! The clouds were completely covering the summit.
I'll add a picture from the trip home a few days later so you can see Mount Shasta with snow on the top again. The snow was "thin", but it looked more like the Mount Shasta we normally see instead of the bare, dry mountain we saw last month.
Anyway, we had a great time up at my Dad's. Our step-sister came down from Vancouver, Washington and the four of us along with my Dad and Step-mom had a lot of fun reminiscing and getting caught up. It rained for most of the visit, but that didn't matter, we spent most of the time sitting around the kitchen table talking, drinking coffee and playing dominoes or cards.

After coming home on Monday, we had a day to unpack and rest up, then on Wednesday my Mom, Step-Dad, brother and I went over to the Coast Guard Station at Petaluma for a couple days. We took a couple scenic drives, one over on the coast (With a stop at Bodega Bay to get some souvenirs that had references to the Alfred Hitchcock movie "The Birds" for Ted to take home to Virginia.) and then on our way back home the next day, we took a back roads route to Clear Lake just for the scenery.

Hmm.. I guess I should shut up about the travels and the family visit for now, huh? Anyway, Ted flew home to Virginia on Monday and the rest of us went back to our "normal" lives. Maybe I'll post more about some of the other stuff that we did during Ted's visit this year. Maybe I'll post another day about the old photos that my brothers and I sorted through. Maybe I'll post another day about the family tree information that I have borrowed from my Step-mom that shows that a couple of our ancestors came over on the Mayflower. Maybe.

The News
Since it's been all over the news the past few days, I am guessing that most everyone reading this blog knows that Casey Anthony was indicted for 1st degree murder among other things on Tuesday. She was arrested after some hinky car switching by her from her mother, Cindy's car to a bail bondsman's car under an over pass (What was up with that stunt? Were they trying to be sneaky or what?) and now sits in a jail cell with no bond. No more revolving door at the jail for Casey. And she still won't give up any truthful information about the whereabouts of her daughter, Caylee. All we get from her, her family or the lawyers is that we will all "understand" her actions once the truth is told at trial.

Hey, Casey? Why wait for the trial if you are so "innocent"? If what you did with that child is so "understandable", why wait? Tell the truth now and let that poor child be found! Casey's family and her lawyer are still saying that Caylee is alive out there somewhere. My question to them is "Who was the dead body in the trunk of Casey's car if it wasn't Caylee?" How can anyone understand the lies and mistruths that have come from Casey and her family? How can leading the investigators on a wild goose chase be "understood"? How can staying silent about a missing child for 31 days and going out partying and shopping be "understood"?

And Mr. Baez. Hmm.. What can I say about him? Well, from what I am hearing and reading on the news, Mr. Baez isn't qualified to defend a 1st degree murder case. He hasn't been practicing long enough and has never even sat second-chair on a murder case. Who is going to be first-chair for Casey's defense when this comes to trial? And I have no doubts, Casey will be sitting in a courtroom defending her actions even if somehow a miracle happens and Caylee does come home alive. There are still the financial charges, the child neglect charges and the charges of her lying to the investigators. They can't dispute the financial charges, the checks with the forged signatures are there, the store and bank videos are there showing Casey spending the money she stole from her former friend Amy. The child neglect charges will also be hard for them to defend against as well. Didn't Casey keep her daughter's disappearance secret for 31 days before her mother, Cindy, caught on and called 911?

Geez.. I have so many questions I would like to ask Casey, Cindy, George and Lee and I know that I'll never get answers to a lot of them. Right now, my big question is how the heck they think I am going to "understand" what Casey did. I can't think of a single scenario that would make me or any of my children hide the truth of a 3 year old child's disappearance. Not for 31 days. Not even for one day.

More snow on I80!

Updated!

My trucker friend called to find out what the snow was like in the pass. He's on his way back West again having made his drops in Reno and beyond. It looks like a mess up there. CalTrans road conditions page says chains are required, but they are holding trucks at the Nevada State line. Normally my friend is exempt when they close the roads to trucks because he's carrying the mail, so we'll see what happens. I checked all the cameras, as usual, and it really looks nasty up there.

The camera at the Truckee scale is wobbling really bad because of the wind and there is a lot of snow blowing sideways. For the few minutes I watched the camera, I didn't see a single truck, so they must be holding most of them.

Hmmm... Now that I have a screen shot posted, I see a truck going through the scale.. Fed Ex, of course.. lol




They've got definite problems at the Hwy. 89 and I80 junction. The Eastbound side of the highway is moving slower than a person could walk. According to the CHP site, they had a multiple vehicle mixup. No injuries, thank goodness. I've been watching this camera for about 15 minutes now and it doesn't look like there's going to be any let up in the traffic for a while.




The Kingvale camera is almost completely whited out with the snow and ice packed on it. Once in a while I can see a dark shadow move by where I know the road is, but you sure can't tell it's a car from the view on the camera!

The Whitmore camera looks very similar to the screen shots from yesterday. It doesn't even look like the wind is blowing very much there. Just lots of snow covered cars on the road heading towards the camera.

One of these days I'm going to have to try timing the screen shots for when my trucker friend is passing by. I've actually seen him on one or two of the cams when we've been on the phone at the same time.. He tells me "Look quick, I see the camera!" and yep.. There he goes.. White truck and grayish trailer.. lol

The weathermen were predicting that this storm would be kind of like the one we had back in the beginning of January. High winds, lots of rain, etc. During the January storm, the power went out and stayed out for quite a while. The little town where I am was without power for nearly a day but since the PG&E maintenance yard is here in town they jumped right on it and got the lights back on. But outlying areas were without power for days. This time, so far, all the power has done is blink a couple times. It triggered the alarm on my battery backup for my computer, but we haven't lost power so far. I've got my fingers crossed that we don't end up in the dark again. Last time my freezer started defrosting before my next door neighbor hooked me up to his generator. This time, well, I've got my fingers crossed!

Update 3:20pm
I just got another call from my trucker friend. That traffic mess in the 89/80 junction camera? The traffic mess is still there... In the camera, and in my friend's view. He's stuck in that mess. The CHP site says that they have a major boggle up near the vista point. That is miles from where the camera is. Poor guy is going to have a very long day. The camera is still showing a stop and go crawl on that side of the highway.

Update 10:35pm
My trucker friend called again. The interstate is still technically closed, but they've got enough of it clear to let the trucks carrying the mail get moving again. He says that the blowing snow is really bad. But the road has been "cleared" some by the plows. Poor guy started his day at 4am this morning. Then sat at the side of the road West of Truckee for nearly 8 hours. It's days like today that make me a bit happy that I'm not driving rigs anymore. I can sit here in my house, in front of my computer with a hot cup of coffee and surf the net. If I was still driving, who knows where I'd be...
Anyway, I thought I'd put one last screen shot in for today. Here's the Truckee Scale again. Lonely, quiet and cold. The camera isn't shaking nearly as bad as it was earlier. But there's still a bit of snow blowing sideways now and then. Brrrr.....

Snow in the Pass Again

A while back I posted about the snow in the Sierras with a rant about CalTrans and the CHP not talking. Well, it's snowing again in the Sierras today. And, again, CalTrans and the CHP aren't communicating. Here's a view from the live camera at the Whitmore Grade... Looks a bit snowy, right? The road doesn't look that bad, so maybe it's ok to go? Maybe?






So I check the CHP dispatch site... Nothing being said about chain controls. Cool! It must be okay to run, right?


So, I check the CalTrans website for the road conditions....... What? Chains are required? Oh boy......










I am not going to call my trucker friend and ask him what the radio is saying. He has a constant rant about CalTrans and how they handle the snow up in the pass. He says that he sees the plows and sand trucks sitting along side the road or on an offramp more than he sees them plowing. All I can do is tell him what I see on the websites...
**sigh**

Trucker update and stuff

I forgot to post about my trucker friend yesterday. Yes, he made it safely down the hill in that snowy mess Sunday night. He was sore and tired, but made it safely. Yesterday was fairly quiet around here. Did a little trimming of the blasted mock orange that is coming over the back fence from the neighbor's house, hopefully by the time the weather warms up, I'll have it all trimmed back to the fence and have all the trimmings disposed of. I played WoW for a while with my friends, the trucker and a couple that live in a nearby town. My paladin character is now level 47...

My younger daughter called from Oregon last night. She and her family are really suffering from the cold up there. For the last few years, they had been living in Hawaii, but for a job opportunity, they pulled up stakes there and moved to Northern Oregon this past December. Talk about climate shock! They're doing good, her husband seems to be doing well with this new job opportunity and the kids are thriving, naturally. Isn't that what kids do? They adapt!

My Mom also called last night. She'd gotten a call from my Uncle, who lives up in Washington. His mother passed away yesterday morning. She'd been staying with a family member up in a town called Burney, so now they have to make arrangements for transporting her down to this area and for the funeral. I think I only met his mother one time.. Briefly, at that. There had been a "family reunion" up in the foothills at what used to be the 4H camp a few years ago. The reunion involved the whole extended family. Since my side of the family is connected to my uncle's family in a couple of branches, some of us went up there for it. I don't remember a whole lot, other than just sitting and visiting with a bunch of cousins (both blood cousins and cousins "by choice") and watching all the little ones running around. I do remember it was a very pleasant afternoon.

CalTrans, CHP and truckers.....

Oh the frustrations.... I just got a call from my trucker friend. He's heading west out of Reno, NV and wanted to know what the road conditions are coming down Donner Pass. So I click on my usual bookmarks, Caltrans Road Conditions and CHP Traffic Incidents to check what the chain controls are. The Caltrans page says that Westbound I80 is closed to trucks due to snow, but the CHP page says absolutely nothing about closing the road, nor does it give chain requirements on either page! No chain controls listed for any vehicles? But they've closed the road? Weird. So I tell my trucker friend what the pages say.... And then I go look at the Caltrans Live Traffic Cameras page and click through a few of the cameras. I tell him what I'm seeing, Floriston looks good, the Truckee Scales looks ok, Kingvale looks like a mess, the Whitmore Grade isn't much better, but the rest of the way down just looks wet. He's got the Caltrans radio on and they're just telling him to tune to station such and such and they're giving NO information at all!

Why the heck aren't Caltrans and CHP talking to each other? lol... Sometimes I am glad that I'm not driving a rig anymore!

Here's a screenshot of the lovely snowy view from the Whitmore Grade camera:


See the big rig on one shoulder? And the SUV on the opposite shoulder? According to the CHP website, they had a bit of a fender bender between them. Later shots from the camera show the SUV pulling away and the CHP site says they're waiting for the big rig tow to come help the trucker get out of the snow bank at the side of the road... Frustrations for the trucker? You bet... I'm glad I'm not up there.