Goodbye 2023!

There it goes!   

Personally, a good year.  

Globally, not so much.  

2023 Reads

 I’ve been reading more this year!

Rotary Club Food Distribution, December 2023

Not a bad way to spend a Sunday morning (apologies to Pastor Joe 😉 ) For the 39th year, the Clovis Rotary Club handed out food to those who need help for the holidays.  

              Our President’s back.  We try to “cover” it.

Locally well known P-R Farms provided both the facility and the large wooden produce bins that were filled with generous donations in Clovis schools.  Mix in a healthy amount of donations from vendors with purchases by the club, and a little from all adds up fast.  Our school based Rotary Interact clubs (age of 12 to 18-year-olds who work with Rotary clubs to do service projects and develop leadership skills), Rotary sponsored Boy Scouts, at least one school soccer team, Clovis Police, plus family members of all above, showed up in force ready to fill and distribute 500 boxes.  Plus, a trailer full of donated Christmas trees for those who needed one.  

Boxes were filled as they moved down conveyor rollers, stacked on pallets, then moved to the drive-through lanes by forklifts.

                          Having fun with my fellow box buster.  

It was an amazing process.  This is my first year with this club doing my very small part to help.  The scale of the operation was almost overwhelming to see compared to my former and much smaller club in Yosemite National Park where we were ecstatic to distribute 12-20 meals each year.  

Good deeds, small or large, are wonderful.

Backing Ain’t Easy

I’ve joked before, maybe here, that driving a semi-truck is a game of miles and inches.  Driving miles and maneuvering into places with inches of clearance. 

Here’s a reply I couldn’t help but post on Facebook after a guy posted what he called was a challenging dock.  I thought I’d share here.   It was long and narrow, but it was in a closed yard with lots and lots of pull-up space in front of it.  

Backing a semi-truck and trailer can be challenging under the best circumstances.  

Try Sugar Foods in Commerce, Calif.  

Take your OTR cab and turn off Slauson onto a busy Zambrano.  Stop in the street blocking traffic and open your trailer doors.  Pray no one pulls up behind you as you wait for the light to turn green.  

Back against the direction of travel and across the four lane divided road during your green light, trying to line up in the correct open dock.  Stop along the way, blocking traffic. Get out of the truck and fold *both* door mirrors in, because the truck won’t otherwise fit.  Finish backing in, truly blinded.  (And, there’s a busy L.A. County Fire Station nearby there too.)

Once parked, there isn’t any room between the other trucks to open your cab doors.  They call when it’s time to leave.  Then guess when Zambrano might have a green light.  Pull out onto one of the busy streets to close your doors. 

https://maps.app.goo.gl/64rFQBTwAwWfXTpF8?g_st=ic

One of many places like this in So. Calif.