Scott, I love bulldozers, but I have to admit, I haven't spent more than a few minutes under one. I have spent a couple thousand hours ON one though. I know everything on them is heavy and awkward. Too bad you missed out on time with the kiddo.

 

​​​​​​​Thanks Roy! Happy for it! Really over the supper in a sack and getting home after 8 to do it again at 5:30. But I'm enjoying classic county on the TV and my "cheater" woodstove for now. I'm about to the point of hanging the wrenches up and going for a desk job!

 

You may find that you regret that decision at about the time you can no longer reverse it.

 

Good night "old" man.........

Lights out.....

 

They're ok from the seat. But the packaging sucks to work on big/small/old/new. Though new is worse with dpfs and scr jammed in there too. Everything about heavy equipment is generally heavy and awkward. If scrap would come back I can wave goodbye to the dozers for a while as i generally live in the scrapyards. Scrap prices have that killed for now though. Missing the kiddo sucks, but if I have to I'd take now over later.

 

Honestly I'm too young to have everything hurt this bad. Knocking on rotator cuff issues. Dumb decisions in younger years and the job take their toll. I have options and some irons in the fire that would be more boots on the ground than desk. Still want to ride this wagon for 3 more years and make the mortgage go away. Beyond that other options are easier to consider, but I've made a promise to myself that the wrenches get hung up by 40. I want to be able to enjoy life and not be crippled.

 

The only thing UNDER one that I have done, was to drop a belly pan from a D-7 for cleanup at the end of Desert Storm, so that the equipment to be loaded onto a ship for transport back to the States. All of our stuff had to be dirt free, because they didn't want us to import any diseases to the US. I was amazed at all of the places dirt can get packed into a D-7 among other equipment we had.

There is definitely a time and a place to get behind the desk. Just make sure you are genuinely ready when you make that leap. It can be tough to go from hands-on field work, to pencil pushing desk jockey. One of the hardest points for me was letting go of the direct control over our processes, and relying on my people to follow instructions, as well as using some (un)common sense when monitoring or adjusting things.

 

Too bad they're not that picky about diseases WALKING in...
I've worked in the field for all but about 2 of the past 43 years, with 2-way radios for the first 20 and with cellular/wireless for the last 20+. I like the freedom, but technology is taking a lot of that away... of course, the work isn't nearly as heavy or dirty as heavy machinery.

 

All true Lewis. Many of the people that work for me now, have no idea how it used to be done here as recently as 10 - 15 or 20 years ago. I'm sure that my predecessors would say the same for me.

 

WOW this thread hit a new low last night, its all Dougs fault

nice sword R, have a great day in silver truck land

 

Silver swords and silver hitches too Gerry...

Take it easy today Scott...

Doug, behave yourself...

Howdy Lewis...

 

Good morning ya hard working folks........you too Rodney...

Saturday number 5 here with 10°F / -12°C temps.........
Busy day today........work at school and home to get done, plus a teacher's laptop computer to fix. Staples wants $170 to fix it. That is hard for her to afford......Roy to the rescue.

 

A teacher cant afford 170 bucks, whats wrong with this world .....
no disrespect intended

 

I LOVE haggis, especially with the scotch cream sauce on it!!! But, then on the other hand, I also LOVE menudo!!

Lots and lots of protein in both!!

 

You better clarify you mean the soup Steve. Otherwise folks might thing you like this Menudo...