[Today’s run: none]
You may remember from last fall, I talked about getting my CDL learner’s permit. The idea was to pass the written test then work with the neighbor a bit with his new trucking company to get in some practice time and then I would take the test. I would then do a bit of driving for the neighbor on weekends when he needed it.
I had to renew my learner’s permit because the first six month expired. Now I have a second six months to make the plan happen or not.
Yesterday I talked to the neighbor and he had a couple of runs to do this morning. So I got up this morning and we met over at his house at 3:45 am. We drove out about 4:30, heading for a limestone quarry over east of Tuscaloosa. We ended up making two round trips between Tuscaloosa and Hamilton, MS, about a 90 minute trip each way. We worked until a bit after noon. I did get in about 3 minutes behind the wheel. That’s how long it took to prove that I have no idea how to shift a big rig. But I did try to be helpful and I had a nice morning. The plan is for me to go out again and get some shifting practice. I don’t know when that will happen.
Also yesterday I drove the family car to Birmingham, AL to pick up this second auction-won printer. This one is a black-and-white scanner/printer all-in-one, but not an ink-jet, it’s a laserjet model M2626nf. So it will do a lot more pages before needing new ink. When I got it home in the evening I plugged it in and it worked for a while then quit. Some internet searching came up with the fact that there is a known defect with the soldering on the “formatter” circuit board and a procedure for cooking it in the kitchen oven at 350F for 8 minutes to try to fix the bad solder joints. I did the oven thing last night and got the board put back in today. It seems to be working. I’ve had it on for a couple of hours and it has not fritzed out yet.
Here’s a picture of some flowers:
