Saturday, November 10, 2007
11/10/07
Typical first day home - lazy, gluttonous, hungover, etc. My adopted team (Alabama) lost in an upset, so I'm back on the market. I would think my presence as a fan could be the jinx, but that other team from Indiana lost too (after I resigned for the season).
Friday, November 9, 2007
11/9/07
Have you ever yelled so loud that you had a headache the rest of the day? Yeah, me too. Most recently today. It was my stunning rendition of "FUCKING GO!!!" that did the trick. People stopping, again and again, for no apparent reason - it was just too much. I find that, right before a trip home, my patience on the road wears extremely thin. I haven't figured out exactly how it works. Sometimes I think that, after a certain number of days on the road, I'm out of patience and that tends to coincide with my decision to go home. Other times I think that, armed with the knowledge that I'll be home soon, my patience takes off a few days early. I think the second scenario is more likely. This trip home was planned way in advance, to see a concert, not because I got tired and needed a break. Anyhow...
Eight hours to Columbus, no major issues (aside from the aforementioned yelling incident) so it was pretty easy. I knew I was stopping in Bentleyville, Pennsylvania for fuel so I thought about calling an old girlfriend who lives a little ways south of Pittsburgh. Occasionally if I'm in the area we'll get together and have lunch, shoot the shit, or whatever. I chose not to call her today, on account of some suggestive text messages she sent me a while back. She's married, so that's really not cool, and I seem to have an inability to say "no" when faced with such circumstances in person. So I avoided the situation entirely. So, to those of you who think I'm a total degenerate, lookie there. I'm only about 90% gone.
I got to the customer a little before 1pm, which was the forklift guy's lunchtime, so they got going right at my 2pm appointment time. It gave me a chance to chill out and get rid of that headache, so I didn't mind. Plus, my internet access was pretty shitty last night so the good connection in Columbus allowed me to catch up with e-mails and so forth.
An hour after I sent in my empty call, I got my next assignment. Go home. My headache is back right now, as I sit on my couch. I'll share the phrase that I yelled this time, but I'm going to pay homage to the guys at SNL by replacing a certain word with the word 'shampoo.' Enjoy.
"How in the shampoo am I supposed to make any shampooing money when these mothershampooers send me home with no shampooing pay one shampooing day after I shampooing highlight for shampooing home. 2,300 shampooing miles and I'll be sitting on my shampooing ass for the next shampooing week! This is shampooing bullshit!" And there you have it.
If I could make one change to this company post-haste, this would be it. These knuckleheads probably thought they were doing me a favor by getting me home so quickly. 99% of the complaints they get regarding home time come from people who don't make it in five days. There should be some provision for people who want to be home for a reason (such as a concert next Wednesday). They get five days to get us home so, as a corollary, we have to highlight five days out. If I waited until today (the five day mark), I ran the risk of getting a long weekend run and being on my way to California from New Jersey right now. Then I would have no chance to make it back by Wednesday. So I highlighted yesterday. One run to Columbus, and a deadhead home. Since it's within the five day window, I drove from Columbus to Taylor without pay. This shit happens to me every time and there has to be a better way.
I got a comment from someone indicating that Oregon would be a suitable team for me, as a free agent college football fan. That could work, but those damn uniforms...
Eight hours to Columbus, no major issues (aside from the aforementioned yelling incident) so it was pretty easy. I knew I was stopping in Bentleyville, Pennsylvania for fuel so I thought about calling an old girlfriend who lives a little ways south of Pittsburgh. Occasionally if I'm in the area we'll get together and have lunch, shoot the shit, or whatever. I chose not to call her today, on account of some suggestive text messages she sent me a while back. She's married, so that's really not cool, and I seem to have an inability to say "no" when faced with such circumstances in person. So I avoided the situation entirely. So, to those of you who think I'm a total degenerate, lookie there. I'm only about 90% gone.
I got to the customer a little before 1pm, which was the forklift guy's lunchtime, so they got going right at my 2pm appointment time. It gave me a chance to chill out and get rid of that headache, so I didn't mind. Plus, my internet access was pretty shitty last night so the good connection in Columbus allowed me to catch up with e-mails and so forth.
An hour after I sent in my empty call, I got my next assignment. Go home. My headache is back right now, as I sit on my couch. I'll share the phrase that I yelled this time, but I'm going to pay homage to the guys at SNL by replacing a certain word with the word 'shampoo.' Enjoy.
"How in the shampoo am I supposed to make any shampooing money when these mothershampooers send me home with no shampooing pay one shampooing day after I shampooing highlight for shampooing home. 2,300 shampooing miles and I'll be sitting on my shampooing ass for the next shampooing week! This is shampooing bullshit!" And there you have it.
If I could make one change to this company post-haste, this would be it. These knuckleheads probably thought they were doing me a favor by getting me home so quickly. 99% of the complaints they get regarding home time come from people who don't make it in five days. There should be some provision for people who want to be home for a reason (such as a concert next Wednesday). They get five days to get us home so, as a corollary, we have to highlight five days out. If I waited until today (the five day mark), I ran the risk of getting a long weekend run and being on my way to California from New Jersey right now. Then I would have no chance to make it back by Wednesday. So I highlighted yesterday. One run to Columbus, and a deadhead home. Since it's within the five day window, I drove from Columbus to Taylor without pay. This shit happens to me every time and there has to be a better way.
I got a comment from someone indicating that Oregon would be a suitable team for me, as a free agent college football fan. That could work, but those damn uniforms...
ROLL TIDE!
Thursday, November 8, 2007
11/8/07
Seriously man, today was like a collection of bullshit trucker stories rolled into one. Most days out here involve eight or nine hours of absolutely nothing happening, with an interesting moment or two that define the day. I'm not sure anything that went on today was all that interesting, but when taken collectively it was something else.
Let's start with the beginning, which is usually a decent place to start. I got up and ready to roll at 12:45am. I pulled out of the lot, hit the radio, and got "XM NON" on the display. That happened last fall and I had to do without my XM until I went through Joplin six months later. Apparently the receiver dome gets disconnected somehow and the radio thinks I don't have XM. I'm not a big fan of Joplin, but I might have to head down there soon and get this thing fixed if I can't find a way to do it myself while I'm home. Having no XM means way too much time alone with my thoughts and that's never a good thing.
So I was rolling up I-295 and feeling pretty decent. The prescribed route called for me to take 295 to County Something to County Something Else and catch US-206 northbound. I've had more than my share of bad luck with those New Jersey county roads. They're not always clearly marked and rarely involve a simple 'go down there and take a right.' Thus, I chose to follow 295 all the way around to 206 and just run it the whole way. It was maybe four or five miles longer, but it would be simpler, right? Wrong.
First of all, I was looking for exit 78 off I-295. There went the 50's, then the 60's, then 295 ends and welcome to Pennsylvania? What the hell happened to exit 78? Yeah, I'm retarded. It was exit 7-B, not 78... off of I-95, not 295... in Pennsylvania, not New Jersey. Luckily for me, I saw the sign for 206 right after I got into Pennsylvania so I didn't have time to try another route and screw myself up.
Next, there was construction as soon as I got on 206. It's a winding two lane road that was reduced to one lane. Those wily little pranksters didn't stop there, though. They coned off what was left of the road to accomodate bi-directional traffic. I won't bother with any hyperbole regarding how incredibly tight it was, but on a few turns I saw cones wobbling in my rearview mirror. As nearly as I could tell, I didn't knock any over. That's apparently more than I can say for the people who went before me. Quite a few cones were laying on their sides along the way. Then, above the county road that I was originally considering, the construction ended. Nice. Woulda, coulda, shoulda, I guess.
I got to go right through Princeton on 206, so that was pretty cool. It reminded me a lot of Ann Arbor. It was a lot smaller and a little nicer, but there were more similarities than differences. The most glaring difference to me was the fact that, at 1:45am, Princeton was a ghost town. I don't know if the students are out on a quarterly break or something, but Ann Arbor is a much livelier place at that time of night.
Rolling along, the route went from a 35mph suburban street to a 55mph highway and back a few times. I caught the litle roundabout by Frelinghuysen Avenue. That's probably a bitch during the day, but there was no traffic at that time. I don't know if that street rings a bell for anyone else, but it had me picturing Tony Soprano buying up real estate. What it didn't conjure up for me was the next image that I saw. Deer in the headlights! Shit! I would like to think I would have been able to stop in time, but I really can't say for sure. Fortunately for me and him, the deer scampered off when I got within a few yards so I didn't have to find out.
Then I got to I-80. I needed to go east, so of course I went west. I don't know why, but 'west' was stuck in my head at the time. No big deal, we'll just take the next numbered route and double back. Okay cool, here's NJ-183 south. If I go south, I'll have to run into I-80, right? Well, sort of. I was almost back where I needed to be when I saw a rather unpleasant number right in front of me. 13'4". Shit. So I took the ramp to the right of the bridge, which happened to be Us-206 north, the road I was on for most of the drive. Again it paid off being out in the middle of the night as I was able to flip in and out of a grocery store parking lot and get on 206 southbound, back toward I-80. Then, JCT-183 was the next thing I saw. You've got to be kidding me. It was okay though, the roads merged on the south side of the low bridge so I got back to the freeway in one piece.
On to the customer... There was a door that said "receiving" but of course that was the wrong door. The guy there directed me to a different door and said he would meet me down there. I stood and froze my nuts off for maybe four or five minutes, but that might as well be four or five hours when it's 25 degrees outside. Then I backed into the dock and kicked back. My light was still red when the guy came out to my truck and asked me to come inside. I'm not here to ask questions. I just do as I'm told, so in we went. One of the pallets was crushed and there were bags of sugar spilling out the sides. Sweet. I asked what I needed to do and he said he just wanted to show me because he would have to note it on the bills. Fine with me. I sent a message to CFI and got a reply instructing me to call the safety department in the morning for a claim number.
Then I was empty a short time later and needed to find somewhere to park. There was a neighboring business with a drop lot. It had a few empty slots, so I took one and hopped in bed. I heard the yard dog prowling around a few minutes later. I expected him to kick me out sonce I had no business being there, but he never did. He just picked his trailer and went about his business. So I managed to get a few hours of sleep.
The communications system woke me up around 8am with my next assignment. I was heading to Pennsylvania to grab a load bound for Columbus, Ohio. The pickup was scheduled for 1pm but, on account of my 14 hours running out at 2:45pm, I headed straight there. I've used truckmiles.com for non-interstate routes quite a bit of the time since I started this job last summer. They've never given me a bad route, until today. I was rolling westbound on NJ-57 and the next turn was to be County 519 south to I-78. County 519 had a 10'6" bridge right off of NJ-57 so I couldn't go that way. And lest the highway heroes out there start with their shit about using routing software, no, it wasn't listed as a low clearance location in the atlas either. So I had to stay on 57. That ran into US-22, which ran into some Pennsylvania highway, which ran into I-78, so no harm no foul.
At the customer, I asked where would be the best place to clean the sugar out of my trailer. They told me to go ahead and back in the dock and come inside to clean it out. Holy shit, that was a lot of sugar! They had garbage cans by each dock, but I wound up using four of them. I didn't fill them up or anything, but the sugar was pretty damn heavy so I tried to spread it around. I wouldn't feel too cool about leaving them with a hundred pound garbage can to dump at the end of the day. Then I headed out to the truck and waited, and waited, and waited. They actually started loading me right away, but it took until 2:30pm for them to have me on my way. Out of time, out of luck. I originally thought I had been at the place in New Jersey for eight hours, but I was just looking at it wrong. I wasn't even close. I drove out of there anyway and just found the nearest truck stop type place to take my break. I have to be in Columbus by 2pm, so I'll take off early in the morning and give myself a couple hours of wiggle room.
Let's start with the beginning, which is usually a decent place to start. I got up and ready to roll at 12:45am. I pulled out of the lot, hit the radio, and got "XM NON" on the display. That happened last fall and I had to do without my XM until I went through Joplin six months later. Apparently the receiver dome gets disconnected somehow and the radio thinks I don't have XM. I'm not a big fan of Joplin, but I might have to head down there soon and get this thing fixed if I can't find a way to do it myself while I'm home. Having no XM means way too much time alone with my thoughts and that's never a good thing.
So I was rolling up I-295 and feeling pretty decent. The prescribed route called for me to take 295 to County Something to County Something Else and catch US-206 northbound. I've had more than my share of bad luck with those New Jersey county roads. They're not always clearly marked and rarely involve a simple 'go down there and take a right.' Thus, I chose to follow 295 all the way around to 206 and just run it the whole way. It was maybe four or five miles longer, but it would be simpler, right? Wrong.
First of all, I was looking for exit 78 off I-295. There went the 50's, then the 60's, then 295 ends and welcome to Pennsylvania? What the hell happened to exit 78? Yeah, I'm retarded. It was exit 7-B, not 78... off of I-95, not 295... in Pennsylvania, not New Jersey. Luckily for me, I saw the sign for 206 right after I got into Pennsylvania so I didn't have time to try another route and screw myself up.
Next, there was construction as soon as I got on 206. It's a winding two lane road that was reduced to one lane. Those wily little pranksters didn't stop there, though. They coned off what was left of the road to accomodate bi-directional traffic. I won't bother with any hyperbole regarding how incredibly tight it was, but on a few turns I saw cones wobbling in my rearview mirror. As nearly as I could tell, I didn't knock any over. That's apparently more than I can say for the people who went before me. Quite a few cones were laying on their sides along the way. Then, above the county road that I was originally considering, the construction ended. Nice. Woulda, coulda, shoulda, I guess.
I got to go right through Princeton on 206, so that was pretty cool. It reminded me a lot of Ann Arbor. It was a lot smaller and a little nicer, but there were more similarities than differences. The most glaring difference to me was the fact that, at 1:45am, Princeton was a ghost town. I don't know if the students are out on a quarterly break or something, but Ann Arbor is a much livelier place at that time of night.
Rolling along, the route went from a 35mph suburban street to a 55mph highway and back a few times. I caught the litle roundabout by Frelinghuysen Avenue. That's probably a bitch during the day, but there was no traffic at that time. I don't know if that street rings a bell for anyone else, but it had me picturing Tony Soprano buying up real estate. What it didn't conjure up for me was the next image that I saw. Deer in the headlights! Shit! I would like to think I would have been able to stop in time, but I really can't say for sure. Fortunately for me and him, the deer scampered off when I got within a few yards so I didn't have to find out.
Then I got to I-80. I needed to go east, so of course I went west. I don't know why, but 'west' was stuck in my head at the time. No big deal, we'll just take the next numbered route and double back. Okay cool, here's NJ-183 south. If I go south, I'll have to run into I-80, right? Well, sort of. I was almost back where I needed to be when I saw a rather unpleasant number right in front of me. 13'4". Shit. So I took the ramp to the right of the bridge, which happened to be Us-206 north, the road I was on for most of the drive. Again it paid off being out in the middle of the night as I was able to flip in and out of a grocery store parking lot and get on 206 southbound, back toward I-80. Then, JCT-183 was the next thing I saw. You've got to be kidding me. It was okay though, the roads merged on the south side of the low bridge so I got back to the freeway in one piece.
On to the customer... There was a door that said "receiving" but of course that was the wrong door. The guy there directed me to a different door and said he would meet me down there. I stood and froze my nuts off for maybe four or five minutes, but that might as well be four or five hours when it's 25 degrees outside. Then I backed into the dock and kicked back. My light was still red when the guy came out to my truck and asked me to come inside. I'm not here to ask questions. I just do as I'm told, so in we went. One of the pallets was crushed and there were bags of sugar spilling out the sides. Sweet. I asked what I needed to do and he said he just wanted to show me because he would have to note it on the bills. Fine with me. I sent a message to CFI and got a reply instructing me to call the safety department in the morning for a claim number.
Then I was empty a short time later and needed to find somewhere to park. There was a neighboring business with a drop lot. It had a few empty slots, so I took one and hopped in bed. I heard the yard dog prowling around a few minutes later. I expected him to kick me out sonce I had no business being there, but he never did. He just picked his trailer and went about his business. So I managed to get a few hours of sleep.
The communications system woke me up around 8am with my next assignment. I was heading to Pennsylvania to grab a load bound for Columbus, Ohio. The pickup was scheduled for 1pm but, on account of my 14 hours running out at 2:45pm, I headed straight there. I've used truckmiles.com for non-interstate routes quite a bit of the time since I started this job last summer. They've never given me a bad route, until today. I was rolling westbound on NJ-57 and the next turn was to be County 519 south to I-78. County 519 had a 10'6" bridge right off of NJ-57 so I couldn't go that way. And lest the highway heroes out there start with their shit about using routing software, no, it wasn't listed as a low clearance location in the atlas either. So I had to stay on 57. That ran into US-22, which ran into some Pennsylvania highway, which ran into I-78, so no harm no foul.
At the customer, I asked where would be the best place to clean the sugar out of my trailer. They told me to go ahead and back in the dock and come inside to clean it out. Holy shit, that was a lot of sugar! They had garbage cans by each dock, but I wound up using four of them. I didn't fill them up or anything, but the sugar was pretty damn heavy so I tried to spread it around. I wouldn't feel too cool about leaving them with a hundred pound garbage can to dump at the end of the day. Then I headed out to the truck and waited, and waited, and waited. They actually started loading me right away, but it took until 2:30pm for them to have me on my way. Out of time, out of luck. I originally thought I had been at the place in New Jersey for eight hours, but I was just looking at it wrong. I wasn't even close. I drove out of there anyway and just found the nearest truck stop type place to take my break. I have to be in Columbus by 2pm, so I'll take off early in the morning and give myself a couple hours of wiggle room.
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
11/7/07
Today was actually much easier than expected. If only I weren't a miserable prick right now, I probably would have enjoyed it. Light traffic in Virginia, virtually no traffic on the Capital Beltway... Hang on a second, let me make sure that was right. Yep, that's right - virtually no traffic on the Capital Beltway. In fact, my last several trips around D.C. have been that way. No backups at the toll booths. I made it from Dunn, North Carolina to Carney's Point, New Jersey in seven hours. Truckmiles.com estimated the drive at seven hours, forty-five minutes so I guess I did okay.
There were plenty of clueless people on the roads, as always, but I only recall one major asshole along the way. Coming out of the tolls north of Baltimore, I was in the second lane from the right. The guy on the far right pulled a little ahead, so I had to slow down to let him over. Then a car passed me up from the left and I started to merge into the regular lanes behind the car. Who sped up on the left and cut me off, almost taking my fender with him? Another CFI driver. But we're a cut above, right? Yeah, fuck you too buddy. We're just as big a collection of dickheads as any other company. We just like to kid ourselves I guess.
It looks like I'm around two and a half hours from my drop right now, so I'll take off after midnight and get up there. With the lighter traffic at that time, I imagine it will probably be closer to two hours, but I have until 4am so I'll be fine either way. Then I'll put in my request to go home and hope for the best while expecting the worst. From the northeast, the odds are pretty good I'll be home in a day or two. In a perfect world I could work until next Tuesday and try to salvage a respectable paycheck, but we don't live in a perfect world, do we?
There were plenty of clueless people on the roads, as always, but I only recall one major asshole along the way. Coming out of the tolls north of Baltimore, I was in the second lane from the right. The guy on the far right pulled a little ahead, so I had to slow down to let him over. Then a car passed me up from the left and I started to merge into the regular lanes behind the car. Who sped up on the left and cut me off, almost taking my fender with him? Another CFI driver. But we're a cut above, right? Yeah, fuck you too buddy. We're just as big a collection of dickheads as any other company. We just like to kid ourselves I guess.
It looks like I'm around two and a half hours from my drop right now, so I'll take off after midnight and get up there. With the lighter traffic at that time, I imagine it will probably be closer to two hours, but I have until 4am so I'll be fine either way. Then I'll put in my request to go home and hope for the best while expecting the worst. From the northeast, the odds are pretty good I'll be home in a day or two. In a perfect world I could work until next Tuesday and try to salvage a respectable paycheck, but we don't live in a perfect world, do we?
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
11/6/07
I have a pretty cool collection of voices that hang out in my head. Most of them are just random strange individuals, but today the dean from Animal house made an appearance. "Fat, bored, and unmotivated is no way to go through life son," he advised. Well that's just the way it is right now. I think I've managed to beat back the progress of my growing waistline, but the bored and unmotivated parts are tough to escape at this point.
I got rolling around 3am today. In normal mathematics, 95-75=20. In Georgia, 95=75, as in they're the same damn thing. Construction for miles and miles and miles. As with I-75, the construction zones on I-95 are mostly posted at 60mph. That's not bad, but of course the actual range of speeds is anywhere from 45-90mph. I imagine it's even worse if you don't roll through before the crack of dawn. Add to that the incessant bouncing (with my wights and weight bench singing their tune), and I was about to go from mostly nuts to completely mental. Then it smoothed out and things were better.
Today was the easy part. Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina - C'est bon. (Practicing my French for my future bride.) Tomorrow I get Virginia, D.C., Baltimore, and Delaware. Ce n'est pas bon. I'm thinking I'll go into Jersey tomorrow and stop at the Flying J on 295, unless some other idea strikes me when I wake up. There doesn't really look to be anywhere close to the customer for me to stop, so I'll have a couple of hours left to run the next day before my 4am appointment. Whatever. At this particular moment in my rather insignificant history, "Who gives a shit?" seems to sum it all up.
Cheers.
I got rolling around 3am today. In normal mathematics, 95-75=20. In Georgia, 95=75, as in they're the same damn thing. Construction for miles and miles and miles. As with I-75, the construction zones on I-95 are mostly posted at 60mph. That's not bad, but of course the actual range of speeds is anywhere from 45-90mph. I imagine it's even worse if you don't roll through before the crack of dawn. Add to that the incessant bouncing (with my wights and weight bench singing their tune), and I was about to go from mostly nuts to completely mental. Then it smoothed out and things were better.
Today was the easy part. Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina - C'est bon. (Practicing my French for my future bride.) Tomorrow I get Virginia, D.C., Baltimore, and Delaware. Ce n'est pas bon. I'm thinking I'll go into Jersey tomorrow and stop at the Flying J on 295, unless some other idea strikes me when I wake up. There doesn't really look to be anywhere close to the customer for me to stop, so I'll have a couple of hours left to run the next day before my 4am appointment. Whatever. At this particular moment in my rather insignificant history, "Who gives a shit?" seems to sum it all up.
Cheers.
Monday, November 5, 2007
11/5/07
Honestly speaking, I have a pretty crummy attitude about my job right now. That being said, I know I have a crummy attitude and knowing is half the battle, or something like that. I'm stuck in the midst of a perfect storm of bad luck that is going to make for a whopper of a lousy paycheck. Luckily for me, the check that hit my bank account today was enough to pay my bills for November. Otherwise I might have had some issues.
Element 1 of the perfect storm: I worked the first day and a half of November finishing a run for which I was paid in October.
Element 2: I sat at the shipper all day waiting for the load to Florida.
Element 3: The run to Florida was only a little over 300 miles, following a 30 mile deadhead.
Element 4: I delivered on a Saturday afternoon in a state that doesn't seem to produce a whole lot of outbound freight.
Element 5: I picked up (today) a load that covers 1,260 miles and delivers on the 8th. Not good.
Element 6: I have plans set for the 14th. This means that I will need to highlight for home by the 9th. I'll be in Jersey on the 8th, so the safe move will be to highlight when I get there. The one time I decided to press my luck and wait a day, I got a five day run to California. I can't take that chance this time around.
Element 7: My last few working days of the pay period will see the planners trying to rout me to Michigan, while the last two days of the pay period will see me sitting at home. This essentially means there is no hope for a big finish to the pay period.
So yeah, that's what I've got going for me. I drove down to Clewiston overnight as planned. The sugar plant smelled like ass, but otherwise it was a pretty straightforward pickup. Then, when I was loaded, I sent in my empty call. I got my dispatch and saw that the 4am appointment Thursday was real. Shit. So I went sightseeing. I don't even know exactly what my route was (I was just picking a direction each time I reached a crossroads), but I cruised here and there and wound up checking out Disney World along the way. There's a Motel 6 right down the street from Disney World with "Truck Parking" on the marquee, so I'll file that one away for future reference. I only drove a total of nine hours. I could have done the full eleven but, like I said, my attitude sucks right now. I stopped in at the Love's in Ormond Beach to set up camp for the night. I'll roll again some time after midnight.
I did face a minor medical emergency today. I don't want to be too dramatic but, as I understand it, I was within mere minutes of starving to death. In an amazing act of heroism, the folks at Arby's sprung into action and saved the day. That was too close for comfort.
Element 1 of the perfect storm: I worked the first day and a half of November finishing a run for which I was paid in October.
Element 2: I sat at the shipper all day waiting for the load to Florida.
Element 3: The run to Florida was only a little over 300 miles, following a 30 mile deadhead.
Element 4: I delivered on a Saturday afternoon in a state that doesn't seem to produce a whole lot of outbound freight.
Element 5: I picked up (today) a load that covers 1,260 miles and delivers on the 8th. Not good.
Element 6: I have plans set for the 14th. This means that I will need to highlight for home by the 9th. I'll be in Jersey on the 8th, so the safe move will be to highlight when I get there. The one time I decided to press my luck and wait a day, I got a five day run to California. I can't take that chance this time around.
Element 7: My last few working days of the pay period will see the planners trying to rout me to Michigan, while the last two days of the pay period will see me sitting at home. This essentially means there is no hope for a big finish to the pay period.
So yeah, that's what I've got going for me. I drove down to Clewiston overnight as planned. The sugar plant smelled like ass, but otherwise it was a pretty straightforward pickup. Then, when I was loaded, I sent in my empty call. I got my dispatch and saw that the 4am appointment Thursday was real. Shit. So I went sightseeing. I don't even know exactly what my route was (I was just picking a direction each time I reached a crossroads), but I cruised here and there and wound up checking out Disney World along the way. There's a Motel 6 right down the street from Disney World with "Truck Parking" on the marquee, so I'll file that one away for future reference. I only drove a total of nine hours. I could have done the full eleven but, like I said, my attitude sucks right now. I stopped in at the Love's in Ormond Beach to set up camp for the night. I'll roll again some time after midnight.
I did face a minor medical emergency today. I don't want to be too dramatic but, as I understand it, I was within mere minutes of starving to death. In an amazing act of heroism, the folks at Arby's sprung into action and saved the day. That was too close for comfort.
Sunday, November 4, 2007
11/4/07
I was going to head down to Clewiston last night, but I came up with a change in plans. I think it will make my life a little easier, but we'll see. I stayed in Ocala, where my 34 hour restart will be up tonight at midnight. I'll get some sleep tonight and then head south around 3am or so. That schedule will have me finishing my driving days early in the afternoon and starting back up in the middle of the night. Driving in the off hours and sleeping during the day seems to be a more productive way of getting up the east coast. The traffic is lighter and it's easier to find places to park when I run that kind of schedule. The plan summary says the load delivers at 4am Thursday, but those 4am things usually just mean the appointment has yet to be set. Hopefully it will be some time Wednesday, because this pay period has the potential to be an unmitigated disaster if I don't get some miles in before I highlight for home.
So, today involved a lot of laziness, a little exercise, a little food, a little football, and a lot more laziness. Never much in-between when it comes to this job. I either run my ass off or sit around and wait.
So, today involved a lot of laziness, a little exercise, a little food, a little football, and a lot more laziness. Never much in-between when it comes to this job. I either run my ass off or sit around and wait.
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