OH BOY...

nice relaxing day yesterday? no... today? not even close... one of our amigo operators nosed one of our track loaders into a hole yesterday morning... i show up at the site after a freaked out dude got on the radio and we couldn't understand him...

"that's sounds bad, i better go!"

we pull the track loader out of the hole with the back hoe and go back to the yard to get the crane, lift the loader up and over a barn and onto a trailer to bring to Caterpillar for repair. cracked head and shot turbo, nothing like shooting water through a turbo that's running about seven hundred degrees.
get back to the yard and buddy who is hauling the the thing to town calls on the radio that there is another problem... i drive out to his location and there is the trailer off the tow ball on the side of the road... wrong size ball, when he went around the corner at a high rate of speed and hit a bump the trailer came loose and dragged him off the road sideways and backwards into the dirt... lucky for him he wasn't west of one at that point...
get back to the yard and finish out the day.
get home and the phone is ringing... its buddy. he has dropped off the loader and picked up a rental to replace the one that was fucked up... well, the one he picked up was much larger and barely fit on the trailer... he was going down hill for about a mile or so (Carmel hill) and he didn't downshift, just rode the brakes, when he came to the bottom of the hill and up to the light he had no more brakes... blew through the light and managed to get it pulled over to the side of the road. he got out and was scratching is head and called me. while we were on the phone a passerby stopped and pointed out to him that his truck was indeed on fire and would he like some help...

uh, yeah?!?

so they put out the fire and leave the truck there over night. i call up one of our other drivers to swap trucks with buddy in the morning and get parts for the burned out brakes. then limp the other truck down the coast, haul the loader/trailer with the one ton truck...

did that happen?

not even close....

get to work this morning and ask "wheres buddy."
"dunno" says office gal.

other buddy rolls up with the one ton and trailer forty minutes later, but with no rental loader.

"wheres buddy? where is the loader?" i ask.
"he is in town waiting by the loader on the side of the road. i tried to pull the trailer with the loader but i didn't want to fuck this truck up too."


grrr....


so we call and call and call buddy to tell him to come down the coast and pick up a bigger truck and trailer, then go back to town and retrieve the loader. no answer...


hours later, still no answer... just as I'm getting into my truck to go to town and see what the fuck this moron is up to he calls from a payphone.... his phone and lunch box are in the truck that the other driver brought down that morning... i fill him in on wtf he was supposed to be doing. he hadn't gotten the parts yet either....

grinding my teeth at this point...

two hours later he rolls into the yard and swaps trucks, leaves parts and heads back to town....

i go to lunch...

when i come back to the office gal is about to pop...
"I've been calling your cell phone, but i just remembered that cheese ran it through the washing machine, um, buddy ran out of fuel on the way to town and needs you to bring him some diesel."
"i don't think so, he can fucking call AAA for all i care." i reply.

we arrange for one of our guys to bring him some fuel and his lunch box...


fuck... have a great day everyone...