Saturday, October 20, 2007

10/20/07

Another freaking debacle. If they lose to Navy in two weeks, I'm becoming a free agent.

Oh, and I drove a bunch of miles today. Made a few bucks I guess. Drop off outside Toledo in the morning. Whatever.

Friday, October 19, 2007

10/19/07

You know... they teach you a lot of stuff when you're getting into this line of work. At CDL school, they teach you how to operate the truck to some extent. When you ask around about different companies, the drivers teach you how to give their truck number to your recruiter so they can get a bonus. When you talk to the recruiters, they teach you just enough of whatever you want to hear in order to get you in the door. When you go to a company, they teach you how their operation works. When you go out with a trainer, they teach you how to do the job on a day-to-day basis.

What none of them teach you though, and what somewhere along the way you have to figure out, is that sometimes you just have to be a dick. Sometimes you have to drive aggressively or you just won't get very far. None of the safety departments will acknowledge this. None of the holier-than-thou "old school" guys who know everything will admit it. None of the trainers will cop to it. The fact of the matter is, though, that once in a while people will really force your hand. For me, today was one of those days.

It started out normally enough. I'm not a big fan of dragging 45,000 pounds through the mountains, but I do appreciate the value of having a 13 speed. Those few shorter shifts really do come in handy. A little rain, a little traffic, no major issues, and on to Maryland we go...

The drive along the DC Beltway tends to be one of my least favorite ones. Today, the actual beltway itself wasn't all that bad. It was 270 heading in and 95 heading out that were totally screwed up. It's generally understood that, when I'm running heavy, I don't try to pass any more than I have to. Inevitably, I'll get out in the left lane and then hit a hill that will knock all of my speed down and leave me blocking the road for everyone else. That's fine until I come up on the freaking booger-eater in his rusted pickup truck going 45mph on the interstate. This is the part where people are full of shit unless they acknowledge that sometimes you just have to take things into your own hands.

There's a certain art to making sure you don't hit anyone, but putting the idea into their heads that you just might hit them. I'm sure I'm just a dumbass steering wheel holder who has no business being on the road, but I figured out somewhere along the way that you can't always do it the way you were taught during training. Sure you could just slow down, like my trainer always suggested, but at what point is it too damn slow? 15 below the limit? 20? 25? Surely I'm exaggerating, right? Oh no my friends, not at all. Between the people who would merge right off my front bumper at ridiculously slow speeds to the ones who would pass me up a hill and cut me off going down, to the ones who would speed up to get next to me and keep me from moving around slower traffic, I was ready to go ballistic on a few today.

Try to leave a seven second following distance, they taught us. Bullshit. That seven second following distance is nothing more than an invitation for people to cut you off. If you can keep more than three or four seconds on a busy road, you're doing quite well.

If you just slow down, the traffic will move away from you, they taught us. Bullshit. No matter how slow you go, some jerkoff will go slower. No matter how careful you are, someone with a license to drive will have no idea how to merge. I understand the concept, but the idea of making pickups and deliveries on time, while going 40mph down the insterstate, riding my brakes on wet roads all the while, just doesn't cut it for me.

So, for an hour or two this morning, I was 'that guy.' I was the guy who was in the left lane going below the speed limit because the people in the right lane were riding their brakes for no reason. I was the guy who wouldn't move over to let people merge because I knew the fucks behind me would come around on my right and I would never be able to get back over. I was the guy going above the speed limit through a city because if I dared to slow down, I would hold up the only line of traffic that was actually moving. I was the guy who would cut people off as they approached because I could see that there were no other openings for another mile or two.

I don't like days like this. I'm one of the few people out here who actually drive the speed limit, so 90% of the time I can just cruise along in the slow lane and mind my own business. If people always follwed the 'slower traffic keep right' edict, things would probably be a lot easier. But, every now and again, a day like today comes up and you just have to drive like an asshole to make it by.

So... a little break in Ruther Glen brought a pleasant surprise. The Flying J had the truck stop directory that I've been looking for. Plus my paycheck was once again well over budget so I got to scoot a little money into the official Godfather Slush Fund. A little partying is on the agenda when I go home next month, so it's nice to rake in a few extra bucks. After I hung out there and had some lunch, I finished running dow to Sutherland for my drop/hook at the WalMart DC. It took an hour or so to get my next assignment, which will see me picking up tomorrow morning in Suffolk and heading back up to Ohio. I may or may not have had the hours to get to Suffolk on today's 14 hour clock, but I didn't feel like driving down there and finding a place to hang out. I was settled in comfortably here, so I'll make the drive down tomorrow morning. Hopefully the weekend traffic will be favorable.

I expect to have time for a break tomorrow afternoon since this is a 660 mile run and it will most likely require more than a single driving shift. As long as this is the case, I can take a break to watch the football game and then get by with an eight hour break overnight. That would give me back whatever hours I use before the afternoon break, which should be plenty to finish off the run.

Well, when you're in the gutter and you have no place to go but up, you might as well just keep swinging for the fences:


And Skywalker was kind enough to share this little bit of amusement, titled 'Arab Technology Meets German Engineering':

Thursday, October 18, 2007

10/18/07

I'm not gonna lie to you. The thought of being without my phone for a month was more than a little intriguing to me. I had half a mind just to blow it off and drive straight to the consignee in Ohio last night. Just in case something serious may happen though, I drove to Taylor and found it on the floor of my car.

I managed to catch a nice refreshing nap just south of Columbus before finishing the run off this morning. After that, the last part of the drive was a tedious one. I've been trying to think of a decent way to describe the drive across Portsmouth on US-52, but all I seem to come up with is that it sucked ass. Posted speeds of 35mph, actual speeds closer to 10mph, rain, red lights every 200 feet, half-blind drivers in their gigantic 1965 Cadillacs... Yeah, it sucked ass.

I got to the customer a little ahead of the 11am appointment and worked my way into the dock. It was situated in a weird spot relative to the building and the street, so I had to redo my setup once. No biggie. After that I was immediately assigned to my next load. I was to head north and get loaded for a run to Virginia.

The drive up through the hills on skinny little state highways was tough to put my finger on. Any time, while driving an 18-wheeler, you feel compelled to shout "Wheee!" it has to be at least a little fun. That's what I was thinking half the time. Any time you see the yellow advisory signs saying "10mph" for a curve, it's going to be a long day. That's what I was thinking the other half of the time. The dispatch from Ironton to Nashport was for 162 miles, but I made it in 140. That 140 miles did take all of three hours though. Anyhow, the shipper worked quickly and I made my way to the interstate. Normally I look forward to getting off the interstate. This 45,000 pound load is going to make for a long day in the hills tomorrow though, so I was glad to get away from the skinny roads today. I set up at the Love's a little way down I-70, so I'll have a pretty long day of work to make it to the customer on time tomorrow. It's a drop/hook, so I'm sure CFI could have given me more time if they wanted to, but you know how that goes. As long as I'm running, I'm not going to complain.

They stuck my $52.50 for drops on the run to Michigan on the current paycheck, rather than the one that just ended. That will work okay though, because the miles started off on the slow side. With that extra pay and the $20.50 in northeast pay for this run, I'll get a little boost in the early going on this check. My miles are somewhere in the mid-1200's once I get rid of this one, so four days intp the pay period I won't be in terrible shape.

I would like to sit and watch some baseball tonight, but the day/night/day scheduling routine for the last few days has left me feeling pretty sluggish. I have to cover eight hours of driving by 12:45 tomorrow afternoon, so I had better try and get some sleep pretty soon. Cheers.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

10/17/07

There are drivers, at my company and every other company, who give 100% to their jobs and try to make their companies the best that they can be. I'm not one of those drivers. I really don't care much about anything and my job is just a job to me. That being said, I do make sure to always pick up and deliver, on time and safely. So, in an effort to do my job properly, I decided to act like an adult last night. I went out and had some dinner, then came home to get a good night of rest before this morning's run up to Brighton. I didn't stay out drinking all night, much as I would have liked to. I didn't spend the night trying to find a piece of ass, much as I would have liked to. I watched the last part of the ballgame at home and I was in bed at a decent hour. And then... I slept through my alarm this morning. Son of a bitch.

When I woke up and saw that it was after 10am, I grabbed my duffel bag and rushed out the door. I turned on my phone and saw that I had two messages. One was from my fleet manager and another was from someone at the Taylor terminal. So, I called my fleet manager to receive my necessary scolding. He was apparently indisposed at the time, but the guy with whom I spoke said that he was letting my fleet manager know that I was on the way to Brighton. A few minutes later, in my truck, I got a message saying I need to call my fleet manager ASAP. I just called a minute ago. Whatever, might as well call again and face the music since it was my fault I was late. Where is my phone? Shit. I must have left it in my car as I was rushing to get in my truck and go.

About halfway to Brighton, I got a message from the Taylor terminal saying that my delivery was set for 5pm. The customer is a little Mom & Pop delivery place, so they must have had to go out and do their thing before I got there at 12:30pm. I had to hang out and wait until 5pm for them to get back, but like I said, it was my fault so no use complaining. As I sat in the parking lot and tried to get my shit together, I got a plan summary for my next load. It was to be picked up in Howell, Michigan at 4am and taken to Ironton, Ohio by 11am. 4am pickups usually mean either beer or ConWay freight and neither one has much wiggle room on the delivery times. I was hoping for something allowing enough time to stop by Taylor and grab my phone and a couple of other things that I left behind. That timeline didn't look like it would work. 335 miles in seven hours of Michigan and Ohio is fairly tight, so adding the extra 20 or 30 miles to swing by the terminal would be ill-advised.

I wanted to take a nap while I waited but, without my cell phone, I had no alarm clock. I had to actually learn to work the alarm on my truck. It turned out to be pretty simple, so now I know how to do that too. I walked over to a little restaurant for some lunch and then laid down for a while.

The guys pulled their boxes off my trailer by hand, but it only took a half hour or so. Then it was only about fifteen miles to the next pickup. I stopped to clean out my trailer (yeah it's a beer load) and then checked in. They gave me a door and said that the load was staged, so I should get loaded some time tonight. Not too long ago, they started putting kegs on board, so it's looking like I might be able to pull off my stop by the terminal after all.

In almost a year and a half, this was the first time a late delivery was my fault. As I said before, I'm not the most conscientious employee in the world but it sucks just the same. Whatever shortcomings I may have, I could always point to the fact that I'm never late and I never hit anything. Now I have a mark against that record, but I guess there's nothing I can do about it now. Shit happens and life moves along.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

10/16/07

So... that dock this morning turned out to be no trouble at all. By the time they were ready for me, the bedbuggers had all moved on out and I had plenty of room to work. I did have to pull into the lot across the street, but I didn't encounter any traffic.

That was the part that I thought would be difficult, and it turned out to be easy. Driving into the terminal was the part that I thought would be easy. Think again.

Eureka Road has been under construction, of and on, for what seems like several years now. For a while, we couldn't make the left from the I-75 ramp and head toward our terminal. My last few times home, the left has been okay and I've had no issues. Today it was closed. No problem.

Since Racho Road (on which the terminal sits) is restricted to trucks, the only legal approach is from the north. I.e. from Eureka. So, the best thing would be to use the U-turn lane and come back up Eureka to Racho. Well, there were orange barrels taking away one of the lanes on Eureka and the day cab guy that I saw ahead of me... hit one of the barrels. That was enough to convince me that the U-turn didn't look like a good option. No problem.

I could make a left on Allen, then a left on Northline, then a left on Racho and run straight across Eureka and into the terminal from the north. No tight turns, no restricted routes, no bridges, all good. Yeah, no. I got onto Racho and saw that the left lane was closed. The right lane was a little tight, but no tighter than any urban construction zone on the freeway. Halfway down, there was a sign saying that Racho was closed at Eureka. Well shit, that didn't sound too cool. There was nowhere for me to turn around, so all I could do was drive along and hope they left me an out. They were routing the traffic onto the access road behind the mall. No problem.

Houston, we have a problem. The turn was crazy tight. I could make it with my truck but the trailer was another story altogether. I moved the barrels that were closest to the turn and got as far along as I could, then got out to take another look. Oh boy, this was a doozy. There was already a line of cars down Racho behind me and another lining the access road in front of me. Fuck 'em. They weren't going anywhere until I figured my way out of that mess. The only trouble was that the track my trailer tires would have to follow... wasn't there.

The road had been cut and the right trailer tires would have to go into a trough that was pretty damn deep. I concluded that this would be my best bet. It wasn't deep enough to drop the axle below the edge, and I had no weight at all in the rear of the trailer, so I hoped to be able to drag it up and over once it went into the cut out. The left tandems hadroom to stay on the road, so I felt pretty good about my prospects. And down they go... slowly... slowly. And now up the other side... I said up the other side... Come on now, up the other side... The trailer being cocked to the right was taking the pressure off of my left side drive tires, so I tried locking in the differential and gave it another tug. And away we go! Beauty. I don't mind telling you - that was some stressful shit right there. No harm, no foul though. No damage, a few people inconvenienced, but not too terribly, and I got back to the yard.

I guess sometimes it can be harmful to have knowledge of the local routes. If I weren't from around here, I would have probably driven all the way down to Southgate before I saw a big parking lot, and then turned around to head back up Eureka to Taylor. Such is life.

Laundry is done, so now it's a question of how to spend the next few hours. I am struggling with that decision, but I'm down to three choices:

1) Volunteer at a homeless shelter.
2) Write a thesis regarding the world's shifting demographics and the impact they will have on the long-established macroeconomic paradigms upon which modern governments are based.
3) Go to the Wheat & Rye with some friends for beer and baseball.

I'll wrestle with this decision for a while, I'm sure. Tune in tomorrow to see how it all ends!

Monday, October 15, 2007

10/15/07

Well, in a perfect world I'd be sitting at the pub with a pint in my fist, watching the ballgame right now. In the real world though, the customer was all locked up by the time I got here this evening. I'll have to make the scheduled drop tomorrow morning and then head home.

The guys at the place in Nashville woke me up this morning and got to work right away. From there it was a pretty easy ride up to Ohio, although I got tired and had to take a nap for a few hours halfway here. Without the nap, who knows? Maybe I get here early enough to get right of the freight today, although I doubt it. From the look of the way the trailer is loaded, they probably don't want anything to do with it until the scheduled time comes around. No big deal really. The biggest positive about getting home tonight would have been that I could get a restart before I drop in Brighton on Wednesday. As it stands, I'll just accumulate some hours from the three or four easy days in a row.

Coming through Cincinnati, right at rush hour, there was hardly any traffic at all. Pretty cool. Then, once I got out to the suburbs, the brake lights started. I broke north from exit 28 and ran US-42 all the way across. I've seen enough of the interstate lately and my patience for traffic was wearing thin. That was a stretch of road I don't remember running before, so I figured what the hell. It was a pretty mellow ride up here.

I got out and took a look through the locked gate at the dock I'll have to use tomorrow morning. I'm not entirely sure how that's going to work, but it looks like I'll have to pull into the lot across the street and then back into the lot, around the corner and back to the door. That and wrestling with the load straps will be about the hardest parts of my day tomorrow. These newer trailers don't seem to fit the locking mechanism of the straps as well as the older trailers do. It's like the holes are about a sixteenth of an inch too small or something. I had to bang on the thing with a rubber mallet to get the strap loose this morning, then do the same to re-secure the load once the first batch of stuff was pulled from the trailer. As for the actual driving, it's only about 175 miles from here to Taylor so it will be an easy day.

I wrapped up the first pay period of the month with 6,293 miles plus some extra pay to kick the gross over $2,300. I'll probably see the extra $52.50 for this run on that check too, so somewhere in the neighborhood of $2,400 should be the number. The extra stop pay doesn't show on my account until I've made the last drop, but the last few times I've earned pay, after a pay period ended, for a run that started during the pay period, it has been on that check. Since I have to plan a wedding with that French-Canadian chick, I need every little bit I can get.

Sunday, October 14, 2007

10/14/07

So old Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize. Ain't that special? It did get me thinking though... I could probably have a shot at a future award if I took up the cause of getting regular iced tea into every retail establishment south of the Mason-Dixon line. It would be quite a crusade, but I'm sick and tired of that brown-colored sugar water you people drink down here.

I had a pretty lazy day today. I woke up with a headache, then killed some time watching football. After the 'Skins gave away another game, I got my act together and headed for Nashville. I checked Google Earth and live.com before I left. It looked pretty good in terms of having room to park at the customer tonight, so I headed straight through. There was a convenient spot along the bulding when I got here, so I'll get some sleep and be ready to rock in the morning. The docks face the street, but there appears to be a whole bunch of room on either side of the street, with no curbs, so my job should be easy in the morning.

From here I'll head to Columbus. From looking at the aforementioned aerial photography providers, I'm pretty sure I'll have room to set up shop at that customer as well. I'm due there by 10am Tuesday, but I'm going to try and pull off a little switcheroo. If I can get to Columbus during business hours tomorrow, there's an outside chance they'll go ahead and unload me. Probably not, but I'm going to try. If that happens, I can head from there to Taylor and take a day off Tuesday before delivering in Brighton on Wednesday. My focus level has been sorely lacking for the last few days, so a day at home might do me some good. It seems like I've been on autopilot lately and that's not the best thing when you're barreling down the highway.

I was scanning the XM channels tonight and I came across a show that blew my mind - Gun Talk. Make no mistake about it. I'm a decent marksman myself and I think more guns, rather than fewer, would make us safer as a people. I just can't believe that people actually call in to a radio show in order to discuss their guns. What's next? A show about organic vegetable garening? Oh, too late, nevermind.
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