I'm cold and I'm wet and I'm just plain scared!

And yesterday was going so nicely too...

After an easy day on the road; no drama, no awkward loads, I got back to the shop. There was one local pick-up to do from a welding shop we use a great deal.

Long story short. They loaded me with about 4 tons of material, most of it these U-shaped constructions made from a heavy baseplate and two 4" wide round bars. One of the pallets they loaded was not wrapped, and stacked pretty high. On the way back over, my load shifted so I couldn't lift it with the forklift. So we had to manually restack these damn things onto a new pallet to lower the load.

In the pouring rain. It took an hour and a half, and since the rain suits hadn't been issued yet, I was soaked to the skin. Needless to say, I called kshandra and we went out for a nice hot dinner.

I'm amazed I didn't wake up with pneumonia.

They're back...

This morning I posted about 4,800lbs of rods that made my life hell yesterday. How we faced an epic struggle in the rain to restack them to get them off my truck, and safely into the shop.

Today, like the slasher in a bad sequel, they were right back on my truck. After being weighed, I had to take them to our main source for galvanizing. At least this time our shop had tried to band the pallets, but the four pallets were all awkward, oversize, and a bit over a tone each. And I had to do this after my regular run. (Had I tried to load everything this morning, I would have been close to a tone over my allowed GVW.)

The drive up was not to bad, but I have to wonder. The place we go to does hot-dip galvanizing. This is a process that seems to involve open a gateway to the 423rd level of the Abyss, judging by the heat and noxious fumes. Really, I was there for half an hour today and can still feel the crap in my throat and lungs, and I was outside across the small street waiting to get unloaded! Yet I see people working inside that hellish furnace with not even the most basic breathing protection! OSHA inspectors going berserk aside, I would think that sheer survival instinct would prompt them to inquire about something to filter out the thick, metal-laden smoke! But no, they go about their business with nothing between them and a long, lingering death by way of lung disease but their mucous membranes.

I really, really cannot figure out people sometimes.

OH, and a note to the driver of the white SUV on Wright Brothers Way in Livermore today. Why yes, that was a stop sign you just blew threw. I know this is a quiet stretch of road, but blowing a stop sign while making a left turn and never looking right to see the heavily-loaded truck that came within three feet of you is fucking suicidal. The only reason I didn't track you down and beat you senseless with my pry bar is the paperwork and the concept that somewhere there might be a jury that would convict me.

Boid!

All work ceased this morning at Lord & Sons. Throughout the shop all eyes were fixed skyward.

A Christmas miracle? An unexpected total eclipse heralding the coming of Ming? No.

A hawk had flown into the building. A Red-Tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) to be precise.

Now, it's not uncommon to see birds inside the shop. Starlings have set up numerous nests among the rafters (and the more adventurous ones have actually nested inside the stands we use to hold bar products) so we're used to seeing birds flying around the place (especially near the break table, where food can be found) but a hawk was news. We all were pretty impressed that such a large bird could fly so gracefully through the spaces at the top of the warehouse. There was much discussion on how to get it out, and I, being an ass, told a coworker that hawks went after the color red; prompting him to remove his Cardinals cap with great haste.

While I was out "working" the hawk evidently scared the shit out of the folks work at the sorting table by swooping down, grabbing a starling, and, seeing daylight, making his break.