8/8/07

Another day, another dollar. I headed over to the Pepsi distributor this morning. After checking in, I was told that the only restriction Pepsi puts on the forklift guy is that he can't unload if anything has tipped over. I would have to straighten things up if anything had tipped. I opened the doors, the straps were still in place, and everything was good.

I headed out to the truck to catch up my log book and check my e-mail. A little while later, the forklift guy came out with the bad news. Halfway into my trailer, a pallet of Mountain Dew had tipped forward. The guy seemed almost embarrassed to make me go in there and straighten it out. Why? Because there was no freaking way it was my fault. If you turn corners too hard, things tip sideways. If you don't strap things in properly, they tip backward. The only way they tip forward, in the middle of the damn trailer, is if they were loaded by a jackass. The pallet of water that should have kept the Mountain Dew in place was about a foot off-center in the trailer, leaving nothing in front of an eight-high pallet of 20 ounce bottles. The Mountain Dew probably tipped before I even left the plant. I played the good sport and set the pallet back up, reminding myself of how out-of-shape I'm getting as I did so.

Not long after that, I was empty. I headed to the local truckstop in Roswell to grab some food and put my feet up for a bit. There were two other CFI trucks there, but according to the computer I was #1 on the board. Something in the back of my mind said, "There won't be any freight anywhere near here today." Yep, I was right. After sitting for half the day, I got dispatched to pull my empty to El Paso and go on the board. 203 miles is better than nothing I guess. When I got here this evening I was #4, so I began another movie watching spree.

Not long ago, I got my next assignment. I'll be pulling a load out of here in the morning and taking it to Calexico. That's a good day of running for me, even though I really despise California. It's hard to believe my miles for this month are anywhere near decent, with all of the sitting lately, but that run tomorrow will put me over 3,500 for the month, nine days in. Not setting any records, but considering the way my time seems to be wasted every other day, it's not bad either.

The most recent flick I watched tonight was Man On The Moon. I don't know if the movie was just pure crap or if Andy Kaufman was really that uninteresting. I'm not into that "If you don't get it, you're just not hip enough" crap. This stuff just wasn't very good. Hopefully my Vongo library has something better for me before I hit the sack.