23:50 -- today was a gorgeous day. Tima and I went for a walk when I got up. I changed some light bulbs in the house. The one in the main bathroom was tough. Today I worked with Nancy. We did a story about musicians being classified as panhandlers in an attempt to banish them. We went live from Westport. I ENG'd in van 4.
Here's a link that will take you to yesterdays story.
Tuesday 20 February 2007 FAT Tuesday -- Happy Mardi Gras
09:40 -- puter room. Flickr was down last night. Lessee if they are done with the "massage."
I took Tima for a walk. The weather is MUCH nicer. Still, the lake in Hidden Lake[s] is frozen.
Tima is here with her nose to the ground -- typical dog posture during a walk -- reading the news.
I'm here eating Grape Nuts(tm) and yogurt. I'm also having my homemade mocha --- mmmmm. Tima doesn't want to come inside now. I don't blame her after being couped up all winter. I am uploading a pretty drive I took yesterday from my dashcam. It is taking it's own sweet time to compress. Speaking of the dashcam, that little gadget has seemed to raise the ire of some people. I now have a cyberstalker who calls himself fr8hauler. I call him H8hauler. He doesn't like me. It all stems from this video I uploaded almost a year ago, that I would have completely forgotten about if it weren't for some bozo's who keep commenting on it...
Now, admittedly, the video doesn't show much other than him passing me in a no passing zone right before the road narrows for some construction. Like I said, I pretty much have forgotten about this video, except that some people seem to get upset. I mean, if truely there is nothing on the tape and the driver of that truck is innocent, then why all the noise? What's the problem. I got my anger out, had my little tantrum, let it rest. You either agree with me or you don't. But read some of the comments. Some of the people have all but stated they are UPS people. That is what upsets me. You know, were someone to show one of us in one of our marked cars doing something on the highway, my response would be, actually no response. But I'm sure the company response would be that we hire safe and courteous drivers and we are sorry if you are upset by the behavior of one of our personel. END OF STORY! It seems however that some otr truckers don't like to be called out. I mean, really nobody does. However, is there some guilt projection here? That stretch of I-70 between Higginsville and Blue Spring Missouri is known for its accidents. Many of them involve large trucks. Many of them have ended in conflagration and death not only of the truckers, but also of fellow travelers. One crash ended in the fiery death of ahighway patrolman. While looking for that link, I found another.
http://www.thekansascitychannel.com/news/10050366/detail.html?rss=kc1&psp=news
I was there working that accident all night, so I remember it well. There was also one in 2004 I beleive. I think it involved a trucker who came over the hill leading to Bates City too fast and plowed into the back of a bunch of cars that were stopped for construction. I know my neighbor, Ray said he was on the overpass when it happened and he said he literally saw cars flying in the air. I also worked that one. I also worked one in 2005 where a tour bus cliped an 18 wheeler causing a serious injury accident. The tour bus was hauling the road crew for eminem. My sympathies go to the trucker and his wife. She was injured seriously as she was coming from the sleeper into the front of the truck when the accident happened. We got to meet and talk to the trucker -- an independent operator, I beleive, and HE WAS LIVID!!! Understandibly so as his wife was nearly killed and his livelyhood was destroyed.
The point is that truckers, more than anyone should be, and I beleive most are, keenly aware of safety -- giving safe distances, not tailgating, avoiding the assohaulics we see on the roads daily. Definitely truckers must have the patience of saints, and most do. Road rage is out of the question for them. But as you know, you take a population of people, and you will find a small number that make the rest look bad. Now, I don't care if you believe me when I post in my Youtube description as to what happened.....
"UPS Truck: License 817 LAN
I-70, Milepost 45, Mayview Exit
Roadrage, complete disreguard of safety in a work area, excessive speed, tailgating, inattentive reckless driving
13 March 2006
23:20
I-70 is 70 miles per hour. But at a stretch where the road narrows for some construction work, I dutifully slowed down incrementally using my cruise control. Well, a UPS truck that I had observed weaving in the road a few minutes before, was right behind me -- apparently unaware or unconcerned that the speed limit was now 50. He bore down on me FAST -- honked his horn and flashed his lights and angrily honked at me as he passed me going EXTREMELY fast in a no-passing zone right before the road narrowed as the right lane was blocked by orange barrels. I first tried to contact the UPS company. Apparently they have only two options offered by their robo-voice and no live operators after business hours, so I found calling UPS helped nothing. Then I called 911, to get the Highway patrol. They can't help unless they actually witness the behavior. In the video, you don't see the incident that started me rolling on my dashcam, as it happened so fast before I could hit the button, but later on down the road you see how inattentive the driver is as he almost drove the truck completely off the road. That is when I made my second call to 911, only to talk to Independence Missouri police. I sped up portions of the video to show the time lapse."
I know what happened. So does the UPS driver who used his big brown billboard to bring shame and distrust to his employer. I also believe many truckers and other drivers who ran into this person know too because this driver had been weaving all over the road and tailgating other drivers terribly -- many of them fellow truckers.
As I've said, I've forgotten about this incident mostly. But the comments coming from some of the mother-truckers (some of them I believe to be UPS people) re-opened the can of worms. I posted it on platewire to see how that works.....
http://www.platewire.com/ViewBlog.aspx?bid=1211
Yeah, I read the comments, and took many of them in and considered what some of the more intelligent people said. However, for the most part, the comment sections, forums and blogs are a lot like the internet everywhere, a clicque takes over and tries to shout all the other people off -- nevermind that the site is about reporting plate numbers -- some people there seem to have made it into their own private yahoo chat room. It is kind of like the cjonline forum, right boB? If you don't believe me, read some comments on the other plates. You will see the same howler monkeys on almost every one. They even know each others names. And they say I need a life.
However, what really happened, and what was really productive, was that due to some of the nasty comments, I decided to retry the UPS hotline. After calling it and getting disconnected once, I finally got through. I talked to a nice customer service gentleman, and told him my story. I gave him the link to the video, and I even said i would remove the video if the company asked me to. But I told him, my main area of concern is that the culture among some of the UPS people who posted is one of yelling at or threatening people who complain rightfully about their driving. The customer service guy listened to me, and told me that the supervisors in charge will watch the video, and will investigate the incident. I told the UPS representative that I didn't feel that my calling him would have even been necessary if I hadn't felt like some UPS people (drivers) were posting their comments showing a complete disreguard and indifference to safety on the road. I mean, if a guy races up on your ass in a truck train honking and flashing his lights like he wants to run you off the road, that is pretty blatent, don't you think? Then for the comments to be rude, and maybe even threatening -- read h8haulers comments -- and note that he is now watching my channel (only mine) and has commented on some of my other videos as well in the same manner -- then you might conclude, as I am concluding that maybe some changes need to be made at UPS. Needless to say, the call to the UPS rep was satisfactory and productive.
Another thing I think is funny -- ironic, is that a lot of people who comment claim that I have been "keeping this going" for a year. I only posted it once on Youtube. The people who have been "keeping it going" are the people who have been posting comments. I only commented one other time, and responded privately to one poster who wrote me in my inbox. That in a whole year. Then, last week, I put it on platewire. What I have been keeping going for over a year is the other 399 videos I have posted with right now having 1228570 views of my videos and 47399 channel views and only 3 "haul of shame" videos being posted. I also have my blog and myspace page which I work on. Oh, and I have work, and life, and buying a house and all those other things. Up until last week, I literally don't think about the "haul of shame" videos much at all except to say that I think having cars equipped with security cameras that always capture what is going on is a great deterrent not only to assahaulic drivers but also to crime. Let me also state that the difficulties of getting a camera rolling in time to catch bad driving usually precludes showing anything. The mayview incident is no exception but that I clearly catch the truck train passing me in a no passing zone, then weaving later on down the road. Even at that, the compression of the space due optics of the lens and the darkness makes it hard to make out how bad it really is (distances and speed), but no one wants to discuss that. However, I think I've found something that is useful not only to police, who use dash cameras, but also to the general public. As I stated, these three that I chose to post, with all my driving, are but a few of the many that I have witnessed or tried to shoot. Suyen and I followed an obvious drunk driver one night on I-70, were able to safely call him in, and follow him until the highway patrol pulled him over on 291. The dispatcher even stayed on the line with us as we reported his exact movements. Not only that, as some people have noticed, I have a scanner in the car. Every day people (good citizens) do this and the police appreciate it. As long as they can do it safely and not get involved in the incident, the police are more than happy to allow people to do it so that they can pull dangerous individuals off the roads. I mean, how would you feel if a drunk driver killed people you loved and the police did nothing and no one called. I would feel angry. But the platewire monkeys think it is wrong for you to try and call somebody in. I know all the criminal cockroaches definitely don't want you to snitch. They just want to be able to terrorize everyone around them with impunity. So to do all the horrible assahaulics on the roads. I beleive that is why somebody would start a site light platewire.
To finish, I have a good friend, Mark, who is an over the road trucker. He tells me that many truckers dislike several things. One of them is drivers who cut them off or don't give them room. But truckers especially hate the few truckers who "should not be on the road" in his words. He also says that some trucking companies are known for hiring bad drivers and/or for having sloppy safety proceedures. You know, it only takes a few bad apples to ruing the financial prospects of a large company. UPS is no exception to that.
12:38 -- I just finished having my walk with Tima and lunch.
What a nice day. Here is the view from our deck.
Here is that video of yesterdays driving I promised....
I'm going to go by YJ's to see if there is any early celebrating.
TMI
Stevo
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