| Piece of Work, take hints from this guy. |
I have been saving this spot on my blog for a nice, thoughtful post about the new year and the year in review because frankly, it's been one heck of a year. However, today I got angry. For those of you that know me, there are very few things that set me off. True, sloppy chewing and loud chomping will set my nerves on edge but very few things will make me fly into a rage. But losing my sleep is the surest way to make me fly into a violent rage. And today I got angry.
Let me give you some background here. Since I go to UC I have been living at home to save money and enjoy the fruits of my parents labor while I still can (or something like that). Since I have lived on a college campus I have grown used to sleeping through pretty much anything (drunk neighbors, fire alarms, Wiley shenanigans, etc.) but this morning I was jarred out of blissful sleep by my whole wall shaking. Normally I would just try and go back to sleep because honestly I can sleep through just about anything, but this shaking wouldn't stop. And this shaking was accompanied by a loud, boisterous sound that can only be described as the power of American engineering. That's right. My new neighbors drive a diesel.
I should clarify that I have no problems with diesel trucks in and of themselves. This taste for the loud and the powerful is what has kept my father in a job at Ford making trucks (Thanks y'all!), so when I say that I don't have a problem with them, I'm being truthful.
I do have a problem with my Piece of Work neighbor and his truck though.
He drives one of those trucks with the giant exhaust stack installed on the back window that is roughly the same circumference as a children's water-slide and has this bad boy cranked so loud that when he fires it up (because one can't simply start a diesel) the whole street can hear it. And then the whole street can continue to hear it as he lets it idle for 30 MINUTES.
With temperatures in the single digits this week I have tried to be understanding that diesels need to be warmed up. I get it. If I was driving something that cost the equivalent of a small home, I would want to make sure I baby it as well. The more I research on it though the more I see that the engine really only needs maybe 10 minutes to warm up, basically just enough time to get the oil at the proper viscosity. Piece of Work lets his idle 3 times more than is needed. This little display makes me question his logic and reasoning skills because diesel has stayed relatively the same cost (which isn't cheap!) and this can't be very fuel efficient if it happens every single day.
So, now it is 5 am (I didn't have to get up til at least 7) and Piece of Work and his diesel truck have left (50 minutes of idle time this morning, what a lucky gal I am) and I am just angry. I am also laughing at myself and the comedy of this situation because I am lucky that this is the most pressing situation in my life. However I'm not sure what my next step will be if Piece of Work doesn't cut this out because Princess here needs her beauty sleep if I am to work with kids every day. I know that one of the other neighbors who have a young baby have already went out there and yelled at him and I might have to as well. Hey, who knows. Maybe this Neanderthal will find a petite college student intimidating (hahaha). But if anybody has any suggestions, or know of a car salesman that could convince him to switch to a hybrid, then I surely welcome them otherwise I might go completely bonkers.
So if you see a giant, white truck around Clermont County with a lovely sticker that says "Coal Rollin' Diesel" then say hello to my friend. And you might want to give him warning that I am plotting to cut down on his "warm up" time every morning. And refer him to this website where it refers to proper warm up times and procedures.
http://www.dieselhub.com/tech/warm-up.html
http://www.dieselhub.com/tech/warm-up.html
