Yeah, we got our snow overnight. It was enough to be a little annoying, but not really enough to cause any major snafus. I think the temperature drop affected me more. When I went to check in with the receiving people at the store, they didn't answer the damn doorbell. The door was locked so I got back in my truck to warm up a little bit. Then I saw a guy open the door. I ran back over there, but he had gone back inside without seeing me coming. I rang the bell a few more times, all the while freezing my nuts off. Then I called the store's phone number and spoke with some chick who sent the guy back to let me in. He was kind enough to point out that he had left the door unlocked for me when he opened it the first time. Yeah well... you know... okay. I hadn't thought of trying to open it a second time.
From us yanks to our hoser friends, I make the following plea: We appreciated the white Christmas and all. Now do you think perhaps you can keep your weather in the Great White North for just a little while? I think we've had our fill.
As I sat at the dock I got another planned load summary. That's becoming a welcome sight over these last few days. It's always good to know what's coming next before I'm empty. The planned load... oy. Not so much. I had to pick up in Maumee today and head for Texas. So we skipped over the piecemeal bit and tacked on some decent mileage to this week. And I'll get below all the cold weather that Canada keeps pawning off on the northern states. Sounds pretty good so far. What could possibly be the problem? Delivery - 1/6/09 10:00am. The trip is something like 1,150 miles. Next Tuesday? Oy! I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue.
As nearly as I can tell, my available hours would get me to my consignee on the afternoon of the 2nd. The 3rd, 4th, and 5th will then be counted as down time. One day free under the antiquated layover rules would mean that I get two days paid, or $120 added to next week's paycheck. Oy. That makes for a lean six days of work. Looks like I'll have lots of time to watch football. At least I haven't had to lecture anyone lately about paying my layover when it has applied. My guess is that quite a few guys have done some sitting in recent weeks so the office folks are paying closer attention than normal. We'll see what happens next week.
I headed over to the shipper, taking back roads since I didn't have any cash on me to pay the tolls. I think the mileage works out about the same and I had plenty of time. Conditions improved as I got closer to Toledo, where the roads were actually clean and dry. Once I was loaded I got to do some more off-interstate driving. US-24 heading into Indiana was also clean and dry and the traffic was a non-issue. I've stopped about an hour north of Indianapolis for the night. I have Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday to drive 1,050 miles from here. Oy. [Okay, I'll shut up about it now. My pay for this week is actually well over $800 (tolerable) and next week could be decent if I catch a break on Tuesday morning.]
124,123 miles for the year and I was home for 65 days. That's about what I expected. I "worked" a couple weeks more and got fewer miles for the year. A hefty chunk (9) of those 12 extra days were spent in motel rooms drowning my sorrows or at the terminal eating to cure my boredom while my truck was in the shop (see: Laredo; Jackson), so the word "worked" is probably a bit of a stretch. I was away from home more this year. How's that sound? In July I passed two years of service, so I got about $1,200 more in vacation pay for '08 than I had for '07. Then the pay raises and breakdown pay and all the rest of it added on to make it a pretty decent year for me. I suppose I can expect to be on the road a little more and earn a little less in the year to come, but somehow I suspect that I'll survive. Only three more weeks until the hopenchange arrives though. I've heard that we'll be able to choose whatever miles we want and we'll get paid double to take our free college classes online while someone else does the driving. I suspect that this is just a rumor.
Happy New Year everyone.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
12/30/08
That afternoon drop didn't wind up hurting me after all. The consignee required me to wait in the break room while they unloaded my trailer. Once I was empty I headed out to the truck, expecting to check my directory for a nearby parking place. I had a message waiting with my next planned load information. Beauty.
A short hop down to Lebanon, Kentucky got me to the next shipper. I was loaded after an hour or so and then headed north to Amherst, Ohio. The consignee is a retail store so I caught some luck with that one. I didn't have time for a ten hour break in the middle of this trip. My delivery time is 8am tomorrow. Being able to pull in behind the store and park for the night works out nicely. I had plenty of hours to get here in today's shift, but finding somewhere to spend the night and then driving here in the morning would have made the 8am time undoable (is that a word?). Hopefully they'll take at least an hour or so to get me unloaded. Then I'll be legal to use the 5.5 hours that remain on my 70. Sounds like an easy day is in store for tomorrow.
It was another day of good weather and light traffic, so I guess things are right with the world. The last stretch took me along OH-89 and OH-58. That's one of those kickass rollercoaster two-lane routes. I'm glad I got through when I did though. People are saying that there's snow expected at some point tonight. That route would suck major ass in bad weather.
We're doing it piecemeal this week, but we're getting there. I'm at 895 miles so far. After tomorrow's five and a half hours, I start to pick up big chunks of time starting the next day. As long as we can keep tacking on a few hundred miles each day, the week should turn out A-OK. I think New Year's Day is a paid holiday too, so that should be a few more bucks added into the mix.
You know how there are things that you would rather not think about? Yeah, try getting this story in your e-mail and then realizing that you were born in September. Damn internet.
A short hop down to Lebanon, Kentucky got me to the next shipper. I was loaded after an hour or so and then headed north to Amherst, Ohio. The consignee is a retail store so I caught some luck with that one. I didn't have time for a ten hour break in the middle of this trip. My delivery time is 8am tomorrow. Being able to pull in behind the store and park for the night works out nicely. I had plenty of hours to get here in today's shift, but finding somewhere to spend the night and then driving here in the morning would have made the 8am time undoable (is that a word?). Hopefully they'll take at least an hour or so to get me unloaded. Then I'll be legal to use the 5.5 hours that remain on my 70. Sounds like an easy day is in store for tomorrow.
It was another day of good weather and light traffic, so I guess things are right with the world. The last stretch took me along OH-89 and OH-58. That's one of those kickass rollercoaster two-lane routes. I'm glad I got through when I did though. People are saying that there's snow expected at some point tonight. That route would suck major ass in bad weather.
We're doing it piecemeal this week, but we're getting there. I'm at 895 miles so far. After tomorrow's five and a half hours, I start to pick up big chunks of time starting the next day. As long as we can keep tacking on a few hundred miles each day, the week should turn out A-OK. I think New Year's Day is a paid holiday too, so that should be a few more bucks added into the mix.
You know how there are things that you would rather not think about? Yeah, try getting this story in your e-mail and then realizing that you were born in September. Damn internet.
Monday, December 29, 2008
12/29/08
Dude. I think everyone listened to me when I said that I like it when they stay home. Crazy. For those of you in Chicagoland, I made it from South Holland to Hodgkins in 28 minutes this morning. I left the service plaza at 7:30am and rolled into the consignee at 7:58am. For anyone not familiar with the area, that's 25 miles across I-294 past Chicago and up onto I-55, through construction zones, at or above the speed limit. That was creepy. I've never seen those roads so empty at any hour, let alone during the morning commute on a Monday.
I can still be bitter though. Oh yes, I can be bitter. My consignee was a grocery warehouse. Those places tend to suck. Yep. No exception today. It took forever to get checked in (as the chick at the desk ignored me) and then I was at the dock for quite a while. Theextortionists lumpers charged $200 for the unloading. Sometimes I think I'm in the wrong racket. Since it's only Monday, I'll hopefully be able to get my reimbursement through the bureacracy before the pay period ends. I'm not really in the mood to loan anyone $200 right now.
I got a plan summary for my next load while I was sitting at the dock. This didn't help in my quest to become more bitter. Sitting around all day and thinking about how I was getting screwed would have been more effective. I would really rather be making money though, so I guess I should just be myself and enjoy it. I'll leave the angst to others who find it more natural... for now. There's always tomorrow.
Once I was empty I had to head north to Harvard, Illinois and grab a load bound for Louisville, Kentucky. I was scheduled to pick up at 5pm so I stopped for lunch and took my time, arriving at 1:30pm. My hope was that I could get loaded early and make my way south before my 14 hour clock ran out today. The fella doing the loading took my phone number and said that he would call when I had a dock, but pointed out that I had a 5pm appointment. Bummer. Man, life sucks! (See, I can still do it.)
I fell soundly asleep for a while. When I awoke I took a look at the clock. 5pm had long since come and gone. I checked my phone. Surely I must have missed a call. No, I hadn't missed any calls, and I apologize for calling you Shirley. At 6:30pm I got my phone call. "Aylo. Can you backin' in door nomber four pliz?" Si, Senor. Hey, I got to make a blindside back into an indoor dock in the dark! Sweet! I pulled that off without a whole lot of trouble and they had me loaded before much longer. Good enough.
This timeline didn't leave me with a whole lot of attractive options. I could stay at the shipper until I had been there for ten hours. This would get me to the consignee pretty early, but would burn up most of tomorrow's 11 and 14 hour clocks by the time I was empty. I could head out and use what was left on today's 14. This would leave more hours available once I was empty, but would get me to Louisville tomorrow afternoon. By then there would be a good chance that I wouldn't get a load tomorrow.
The dispatch took about ten minutes to come across the satellite and then the decision was made for me. The appointment time is 1pm tomorrow. If they were doing the usual 'earliest possible' thing, it would have been slightly earlier and it would have been a time like 12:34pm. The fact that it took ten minutes to come through and it's on the exact hour tells me that they had to make an appointment once I was loaded.
I had time to get down into Indiana before today's hours were gone. From here I'll have to cover a couple hundred miles in the morning. Empty in the afternoon. Holiday on Thursday. 70 hour rule catching up with me fast. I won't set my expectations too high for this week.
I can still be bitter though. Oh yes, I can be bitter. My consignee was a grocery warehouse. Those places tend to suck. Yep. No exception today. It took forever to get checked in (as the chick at the desk ignored me) and then I was at the dock for quite a while. The
I got a plan summary for my next load while I was sitting at the dock. This didn't help in my quest to become more bitter. Sitting around all day and thinking about how I was getting screwed would have been more effective. I would really rather be making money though, so I guess I should just be myself and enjoy it. I'll leave the angst to others who find it more natural... for now. There's always tomorrow.
Once I was empty I had to head north to Harvard, Illinois and grab a load bound for Louisville, Kentucky. I was scheduled to pick up at 5pm so I stopped for lunch and took my time, arriving at 1:30pm. My hope was that I could get loaded early and make my way south before my 14 hour clock ran out today. The fella doing the loading took my phone number and said that he would call when I had a dock, but pointed out that I had a 5pm appointment. Bummer. Man, life sucks! (See, I can still do it.)
I fell soundly asleep for a while. When I awoke I took a look at the clock. 5pm had long since come and gone. I checked my phone. Surely I must have missed a call. No, I hadn't missed any calls, and I apologize for calling you Shirley. At 6:30pm I got my phone call. "Aylo. Can you backin' in door nomber four pliz?" Si, Senor. Hey, I got to make a blindside back into an indoor dock in the dark! Sweet! I pulled that off without a whole lot of trouble and they had me loaded before much longer. Good enough.
This timeline didn't leave me with a whole lot of attractive options. I could stay at the shipper until I had been there for ten hours. This would get me to the consignee pretty early, but would burn up most of tomorrow's 11 and 14 hour clocks by the time I was empty. I could head out and use what was left on today's 14. This would leave more hours available once I was empty, but would get me to Louisville tomorrow afternoon. By then there would be a good chance that I wouldn't get a load tomorrow.
The dispatch took about ten minutes to come across the satellite and then the decision was made for me. The appointment time is 1pm tomorrow. If they were doing the usual 'earliest possible' thing, it would have been slightly earlier and it would have been a time like 12:34pm. The fact that it took ten minutes to come through and it's on the exact hour tells me that they had to make an appointment once I was loaded.
I had time to get down into Indiana before today's hours were gone. From here I'll have to cover a couple hundred miles in the morning. Empty in the afternoon. Holiday on Thursday. 70 hour rule catching up with me fast. I won't set my expectations too high for this week.
Sunday, December 28, 2008
12/28/08
I think I liked driving on holiday weekends better when a tank of gas cost a hundred bucks and all you peckerheads just stayed home. At least most people managed to avoid crashing into each other today, so the slowdowns weren't all that lengthy. It was certainly tedious.
I got onto the toll road in Illinois and then realized that I hadn't thought about where I would park for the night. I stopped at the first service plaza and found a few parking spaces open, so that was that. 25 miles or so left for tomorrow morning. That shouldn't be too terrible... maybe.
I got onto the toll road in Illinois and then realized that I hadn't thought about where I would park for the night. I stopped at the first service plaza and found a few parking spaces open, so that was that. 25 miles or so left for tomorrow morning. That shouldn't be too terrible... maybe.
Saturday, December 27, 2008
12/27/08
Well now I'm all twisted around. Day is night. Night is day. I'm not sure how I'll fall asleep later, but I really don't feel like driving anymore tonight. I got up into Georgia last night before I had to stop and finish my split. I heard my alarm go off after I slept for two hours this morning and decided, "To hell with this." I went back to bed and then hung out long enough to get a full ten hour break to get out of the split. This afternoon's drive got me into Kentucky so I did manage to cover plenty of miles overall. The weather was good and the traffic, while heavy for a Saturday, was flowing nicely. I think I have six or seven hours to go from here. I suppose that I won't have to wake up too early tomorrow, so whatever time I manage to fall asleep will have to be good enough.
We wrap up the pay week with a nice 2,861 miles plus $60 in holiday pay. Back over $1,100 for the week, where I belong. My first year on the road, I got a lot of miles during the week of Christmas but my base pay was significantly lower. Last year, I don't think I was all that busy. 2,800 miles is always a solid week as far as I'm concerned, so now I'm 2 for 3 in the 'making money while other people are off the road' department. As our good friend Meatloaf would say - two out of three ain't bad.
You know what is bad though? False advertising. Bastards...
We wrap up the pay week with a nice 2,861 miles plus $60 in holiday pay. Back over $1,100 for the week, where I belong. My first year on the road, I got a lot of miles during the week of Christmas but my base pay was significantly lower. Last year, I don't think I was all that busy. 2,800 miles is always a solid week as far as I'm concerned, so now I'm 2 for 3 in the 'making money while other people are off the road' department. As our good friend Meatloaf would say - two out of three ain't bad.
You know what is bad though? False advertising. Bastards...
Friday, December 26, 2008
12/26/08
Well, if we try to piece together a few words to describe today, we can leave the word "efficient" out of the conversation. It was about 140 miles from the rest area where I spent the night to my consignee. That took three and a half hours. More accurately, 130 miles took two hours and change. The last ten miles took the rest. Clusterfuck.
Things weren't running a whole lot more smoothly once I got to the ConWay yard in Orlando. On account of the holidays, none (or almost none) of their equipment was on the road. It was all parked at the yard. I got the old "drop here, no, there" and "take that empty, no, that one" routine. I am pretty sure that the little Cuban security guard was flirting with me though. Not really my type but it's at least a little flattering. He seemed like a nice guy.
Then I was headed north from Orlando to Palatka. First I had to retrace the same ten miles that sucked ass on the way to the yard. They weren't any better leaving the yard. Worse probably. Once I got to the freeway it shook out okay for a while. Then back onto US-17 for the last several miles. I can tell you this much - rumors of me getting old have been greatly exaggerated. Spend a day in blue hair country and you'll tend to agree. These people aren't in a hurry to do shit! That took a while.
My pickup was a drop/hook scheduled for 11pm. 11pm would be after my 14 hour window had closed for today, so I was hoping to find a loaded trailer when I got to the shipper. I found no such thing. They inspected my empty and told me where to drop it. Then I had to sit and wait. The inspector dude told me to check back around 8pm, as the load might be ready by then. It wasn't.
A few minutes ago, the chick at the desk told me that it would probably be around 11pm before my load is ready. I'm not really inclined to spend the night at this place, so I think I'll take a nap now. Once I've been here for eight hours, I can go into a split and get up the road a little ways with the hours that I have left from today. Then, depending on how I feel, I can take two hours off to pick up more driving time or just take ten hours off and get out of the split. I have to deliver in the Chicago suburbs on Monday morning. The trip is something along the lines of 1,100 miles from here. If I get 200 miles gone by tonight, I can do 450 and 450 over the weekend. That should work out just fine.
A quick review of the calendar indicates that today's paycheck will be my last of the year. My paystub shows that I just managed to squeak over $54,000 for 2008. This amounts to about a $6,500 increase from '07. Most of the increase would probably be due to pay raises that kicked in at various stages. We got a penny per mile as part of the ConWay merger deal at the start of 2008. Then I got another penny around May or something like that, as a result of reaching 250,000 miles of service. My safety bonus probably went up a quarter cent too this year, since I somehow haven't managed to hit anything.
I suspect that I was probably home a little less than last year as well, but we'll dig into the miles and all of that once I get my last dispatch of the year in a few days. I don't know how much I was home or what my miles were, but my (considerable) gut tells me that I was home slightly less and yet drove slightly fewer miles. Oh well, we'll get to the details in due time. I'm gonna try to get some rest now.
Things weren't running a whole lot more smoothly once I got to the ConWay yard in Orlando. On account of the holidays, none (or almost none) of their equipment was on the road. It was all parked at the yard. I got the old "drop here, no, there" and "take that empty, no, that one" routine. I am pretty sure that the little Cuban security guard was flirting with me though. Not really my type but it's at least a little flattering. He seemed like a nice guy.
Then I was headed north from Orlando to Palatka. First I had to retrace the same ten miles that sucked ass on the way to the yard. They weren't any better leaving the yard. Worse probably. Once I got to the freeway it shook out okay for a while. Then back onto US-17 for the last several miles. I can tell you this much - rumors of me getting old have been greatly exaggerated. Spend a day in blue hair country and you'll tend to agree. These people aren't in a hurry to do shit! That took a while.
My pickup was a drop/hook scheduled for 11pm. 11pm would be after my 14 hour window had closed for today, so I was hoping to find a loaded trailer when I got to the shipper. I found no such thing. They inspected my empty and told me where to drop it. Then I had to sit and wait. The inspector dude told me to check back around 8pm, as the load might be ready by then. It wasn't.
A few minutes ago, the chick at the desk told me that it would probably be around 11pm before my load is ready. I'm not really inclined to spend the night at this place, so I think I'll take a nap now. Once I've been here for eight hours, I can go into a split and get up the road a little ways with the hours that I have left from today. Then, depending on how I feel, I can take two hours off to pick up more driving time or just take ten hours off and get out of the split. I have to deliver in the Chicago suburbs on Monday morning. The trip is something along the lines of 1,100 miles from here. If I get 200 miles gone by tonight, I can do 450 and 450 over the weekend. That should work out just fine.
A quick review of the calendar indicates that today's paycheck will be my last of the year. My paystub shows that I just managed to squeak over $54,000 for 2008. This amounts to about a $6,500 increase from '07. Most of the increase would probably be due to pay raises that kicked in at various stages. We got a penny per mile as part of the ConWay merger deal at the start of 2008. Then I got another penny around May or something like that, as a result of reaching 250,000 miles of service. My safety bonus probably went up a quarter cent too this year, since I somehow haven't managed to hit anything.
I suspect that I was probably home a little less than last year as well, but we'll dig into the miles and all of that once I get my last dispatch of the year in a few days. I don't know how much I was home or what my miles were, but my (considerable) gut tells me that I was home slightly less and yet drove slightly fewer miles. Oh well, we'll get to the details in due time. I'm gonna try to get some rest now.
Thursday, December 25, 2008
12/25/08
Before I went to bed last night, I got a thoroughly dominating performance by the Fighting Irish. That's what is supposed to happen when you play a lower level bowl game, but the lads were underdogs to the mighty Rainbow Warriors. It was nice to see the offense finally come to play.
After I fell asleep last night, I was joined in a luxurious jacuzzi by Julia Roberts and Cindy Crawford. Sure it wasn't reality, but when your reality is as mundane as mine you learn to appreciate a nice dream every now and then.
After I woke this morning, I received a pre-plan for a load that will pick up in Florida tomorrow and make good use of my weekend. This hasn't been happening much lately, so it looks like my gambit of working through the holiday has paid off this time around.
When I fueled up this morning, I got $13.50 worth of driver reward points from Pilot when I bought enough fuel to earn $1.75. I must have eclipsed the 1,000 gallons for the month and got my free 1,000 points, but they were also giving double points on each gallon. Can't beat free money.
During today's drive, I found sunny skies and light traffic all the way down to Florida. A brief shower popped up, just enough to rinse the bugs from my windshield, but otherwise the day was perfect. I was able to cover 675 miles today, leaving me a short hop in the morning to make my delivery.
The check that will hit my bank account in the morning has some detention pay that I wasn't expecting plus my fourth quarter safety bonus on it. After a couple of sluggish weeks this month, a little shot in the arm for the old bank account will suit me quite nicely.
Overall I guess the old Godfather managed to find his way onto Santa's 'nice' list this time around. Hopefully the rest of you can say the same. Merry Christmas everyone.
After I fell asleep last night, I was joined in a luxurious jacuzzi by Julia Roberts and Cindy Crawford. Sure it wasn't reality, but when your reality is as mundane as mine you learn to appreciate a nice dream every now and then.
After I woke this morning, I received a pre-plan for a load that will pick up in Florida tomorrow and make good use of my weekend. This hasn't been happening much lately, so it looks like my gambit of working through the holiday has paid off this time around.
When I fueled up this morning, I got $13.50 worth of driver reward points from Pilot when I bought enough fuel to earn $1.75. I must have eclipsed the 1,000 gallons for the month and got my free 1,000 points, but they were also giving double points on each gallon. Can't beat free money.
During today's drive, I found sunny skies and light traffic all the way down to Florida. A brief shower popped up, just enough to rinse the bugs from my windshield, but otherwise the day was perfect. I was able to cover 675 miles today, leaving me a short hop in the morning to make my delivery.
The check that will hit my bank account in the morning has some detention pay that I wasn't expecting plus my fourth quarter safety bonus on it. After a couple of sluggish weeks this month, a little shot in the arm for the old bank account will suit me quite nicely.
Overall I guess the old Godfather managed to find his way onto Santa's 'nice' list this time around. Hopefully the rest of you can say the same. Merry Christmas everyone.
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
12/24/08
After slugging my way through the snow last night to get to my shipper, I received a phone call. My mother had turned on the TV and seen the tales of woe and carnage from the area freeways. I told her not to worry and that things weren't that bad. Yeah, so I was lying. What are you gonna do? She said that she would pray for me to make it safely and to get somewhere warm. Aww, how sweet. My mother is probably the least religious person that I know.
Once I was loaded I got the smorgasbord of bad freeway conditions. There was deep snow. There was plowed and packed snow. There was the always fun "wintry mix." There were spots where the salt was working and the roads were just wet. There were patches of ice along the edge lines in some areas. Once I got into Ohio, it seemed that wet roads would be the only issue. The temperature was steadily rising and things were rolling along just fine. Then I saw people with their flashers on in the right lane, going wicked slow. Then a big truck parked in the median, lucky not to have tipped over. Ahh, fuck me! Yep. Black ice. Sixty miles of it. That'll ruin your morning in a hurry.
After spending a little over two hours covering fifty miles, I decided that the best thing to do would be to park for a while and let the temperature get high enough for the salt to work a little better. My only issue would be the infamous 'expected time of arrival.' I was told as I sat on my couch yesterday that the load had to deliver between 8am and 10am today. I was dispatched for 8am, which is standard procedure for this company. I didn't want to risk missing the 8am dispatched time, so I shot a message to CTL informing them of the bad roads and asking if I could get an ETA of 9:30am. I never got an answer.
As it turned out, I got out of the ice ten miles later so I just kept rolling along. I got to the consignee at 6:30am and hopped in the bunk for a nap. Five minutes later a dude knocked on my door. I was directed to the dock and they got to work unloading me immediately. The guy said that they were looking to get done as quickly as possible today on account of it being Christmas Eve. I guess they were pretty glad nobody in Joplin ever answered my message, weren't they?
Not long after I was empty, I received my next assignment. I would have to head across past Indianapolis and make a drop/hook at the ConWay yard in Plainfield. By the time that was all said and done, I needed to take a ten hour break as my 14 hours had run out. Where to on this fine occasion? Orlando, by golly. Maybe Mom should have started praying for me a long time ago. I might not have been such a degenerate.
This dispatch had me arriving in Orlando at 2:30am on Friday. Bullshit. That ain't happening. I would have to run two more overnighters and then show up in the middle of the night with no place to park. The paperwork says that the load is due at 9pm. I know that the dispatching software defaults to use all available hours and get me there as soon as legally possible, but I had to nip this one in the bud. After having my message ignored this morning, I went ahead and called Joplin this afternoon. I asked the fella to change the time to noon. He said no problem and that was that.
Following my break, I shot down to Kentucky and then parked it for the night. We'll pick up the trip from here in the morning. I wanted to get off the road by 8pm for obvious reasons...
Once I was loaded I got the smorgasbord of bad freeway conditions. There was deep snow. There was plowed and packed snow. There was the always fun "wintry mix." There were spots where the salt was working and the roads were just wet. There were patches of ice along the edge lines in some areas. Once I got into Ohio, it seemed that wet roads would be the only issue. The temperature was steadily rising and things were rolling along just fine. Then I saw people with their flashers on in the right lane, going wicked slow. Then a big truck parked in the median, lucky not to have tipped over. Ahh, fuck me! Yep. Black ice. Sixty miles of it. That'll ruin your morning in a hurry.
After spending a little over two hours covering fifty miles, I decided that the best thing to do would be to park for a while and let the temperature get high enough for the salt to work a little better. My only issue would be the infamous 'expected time of arrival.' I was told as I sat on my couch yesterday that the load had to deliver between 8am and 10am today. I was dispatched for 8am, which is standard procedure for this company. I didn't want to risk missing the 8am dispatched time, so I shot a message to CTL informing them of the bad roads and asking if I could get an ETA of 9:30am. I never got an answer.
As it turned out, I got out of the ice ten miles later so I just kept rolling along. I got to the consignee at 6:30am and hopped in the bunk for a nap. Five minutes later a dude knocked on my door. I was directed to the dock and they got to work unloading me immediately. The guy said that they were looking to get done as quickly as possible today on account of it being Christmas Eve. I guess they were pretty glad nobody in Joplin ever answered my message, weren't they?
Not long after I was empty, I received my next assignment. I would have to head across past Indianapolis and make a drop/hook at the ConWay yard in Plainfield. By the time that was all said and done, I needed to take a ten hour break as my 14 hours had run out. Where to on this fine occasion? Orlando, by golly. Maybe Mom should have started praying for me a long time ago. I might not have been such a degenerate.
This dispatch had me arriving in Orlando at 2:30am on Friday. Bullshit. That ain't happening. I would have to run two more overnighters and then show up in the middle of the night with no place to park. The paperwork says that the load is due at 9pm. I know that the dispatching software defaults to use all available hours and get me there as soon as legally possible, but I had to nip this one in the bud. After having my message ignored this morning, I went ahead and called Joplin this afternoon. I asked the fella to change the time to noon. He said no problem and that was that.
Following my break, I shot down to Kentucky and then parked it for the night. We'll pick up the trip from here in the morning. I wanted to get off the road by 8pm for obvious reasons...
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
12/23/08
Up with the sun, it was time to call in to the terminal and have the dispatcher put me on the board. I saw the massive number of trucks parked there yesterday and wasn't sure what to expect for today. #2 when I got on the board though. Not too shabby. Most of those trucks probably belong to people headed home for Christmas. I hung around home, keeping an eye on the company's web portal to monitor my status. By 10:30am I was assigned to a load.
In good economic times and tough times economic times, there are a few constants. People will always have to buy diapers. People will always have to eat. And while they may not have to do so, people will always choose to drink beer. That's my payload for tonight. I have to head up to the beer warehouse in Howell and then make a 300 mile overnighter down to Indiana. I got plenty of notice on this one so I could take a nap before I get rolling. Beats the hell out of sitting around all day and then finding out that I'll be up all night. I'll have several hours of wiggle room on the way to Indiana for bad weather or another nap or whatever else may come up along the way. From some of the forecasts, it looks like I may need the extra time. We've definitely gotten plenty more snow in Michigan today.
So this afternoon was a leisurely one of lounging around and finding ways to blow money. I reserved a suite in Traverse City for my brother's wedding next June, so that should be pretty nice. I got a few things from the Notre Dame bookstore catalog. I ordered a few late Christmas gifts for people that I won't be seeing this month. Easy come, easy go.
My parents were meeting some of my aunts and uncles for dinner tonight, so I tagged along. What the hell, why not? It's back to the SubWay and beef jerky routine for the next month or so once I get rolling. Might as well have one more good meal. Now I'm off to Howell to get some beer (that I don't get to taste). I have to pick up by 11pm but these guys loaded me early the last time I drove out there. Here's hoping for a repeat. Cheers.
In good economic times and tough times economic times, there are a few constants. People will always have to buy diapers. People will always have to eat. And while they may not have to do so, people will always choose to drink beer. That's my payload for tonight. I have to head up to the beer warehouse in Howell and then make a 300 mile overnighter down to Indiana. I got plenty of notice on this one so I could take a nap before I get rolling. Beats the hell out of sitting around all day and then finding out that I'll be up all night. I'll have several hours of wiggle room on the way to Indiana for bad weather or another nap or whatever else may come up along the way. From some of the forecasts, it looks like I may need the extra time. We've definitely gotten plenty more snow in Michigan today.
So this afternoon was a leisurely one of lounging around and finding ways to blow money. I reserved a suite in Traverse City for my brother's wedding next June, so that should be pretty nice. I got a few things from the Notre Dame bookstore catalog. I ordered a few late Christmas gifts for people that I won't be seeing this month. Easy come, easy go.
My parents were meeting some of my aunts and uncles for dinner tonight, so I tagged along. What the hell, why not? It's back to the SubWay and beef jerky routine for the next month or so once I get rolling. Might as well have one more good meal. Now I'm off to Howell to get some beer (that I don't get to taste). I have to pick up by 11pm but these guys loaded me early the last time I drove out there. Here's hoping for a repeat. Cheers.
Monday, December 22, 2008
12/22/08
You know what really rocks about making a 6am delivery out in the sticks on a Monday morning? Unplowed streets and parking lots from the weekend. Just for shits and giggles, this route included a neat little double hairpin thing along the way. I had to make a really hard left from M-60 eastbound onto Business 60 westbound. Then, before that turn was even complete, I had to make an insane right almost u-turn onto some side street. Good times. Good times.
There was a truck at the consignee's dock when I arrived so I assumed that I was in for a long morning. Yes sir. The freight consisted of racks of glass, carefully nailed and placed along the floor of the trailer. As would be expected, it took a long time to get them unloaded. Long story short - arrived before 6am, left at 11:45am.
I did get my paid deadhead to Taylor immediately once I was empty. I guess there's really no reason that I should have expected otherwise. It has been right around two years since I went past the five days though, so I wasn't sure if anything had changed after the ConWay buyout. I guess not.
Going into the consignee this morning, I was around 77,000 pounds and there was a foot of snow on the ground. This made cornering a little tricky, mainly because I didn't really know where the roads ended and the ditches began, but the traction was pretty good. Leaving the consignee, I was around 33,000 pounds and the roads had been plowed down to a nicely packed layer of frozen snow. This made for a slipping and sliding pain in the ass. I only got stuck once though. Not so bad I guess. The state highway out of Niles was in decent shape, all things considered, but traffic was moving quite slowly. I was hoping for better once I reached I-94. No, it wasn't better. Worse maybe. The conventional wisdom holds that salt is ineffective when the temperature is incredibly low, so they just plow the snow off and leave a nice slick coating on the road surface. I think that the sunlight and the traffic would have generated plenty of heat to make the salt work today, but that's not my call. What can you do? Just drive along and deal with it.
After resisting my urge to wreak havoc on slow people in the left lane for a while, I ducked off for a lunch break outside Battle Creek. Then I got back on the road and found clean dry pavement all the way to Taylor. I'll be damned. Maybe the counties in the western part of the state were just saving their salt for a rainy day or something.
Back at the yard I had to clean out my trailer. There were still some boards nailed to the floor and it was generally pretty dirty and dusty. Funny little thing - when it's fifteen degrees outside, the inside of the trailer... is fifteen degrees. I can't say that I enjoyed that too much. Glamorous life of a truck driver and so forth.
I had time to grab some dinner with Mom, Dad, and the rev tonight. My mother had her knee scoped last week. Between her with her knee and me with my bashed up kneecap and squirrely ankle, we must have looked pretty funny walking through the icy parking lot. Then back home to read the mail and catch up some laundry. I told the dispatcher that I would be on the board tomorrow morning so I suppose I'll try to get some sleep. There's kinda sorta someone that I should meet for a few drinks tonight, but this was just a damn long day. I think I would rather go to bed. How pathetic is that? I think I'm getting old.
One last bit of whining from me tonight. Al Gore is lucky that he hasn't crossed my path lately. I will seriously kick that guy in the jimmy if I ever see him. I don't even care if he's in tight with The One. They can throw me in the gulag if they have to. I'll hurt him. Michigan should be warm and dry in the winter by now, damnit. SUV's as far as the eye can see and single digit overnight temps. That's horseshit. If they want more tax money and higher energy prices, I want some damn global warming.
I won't leave you on such a sour note though. Oh no, not tonight. Tonight I have news that fills my heart with joy. I happen to know a thing or two about the good old beer goggles. It's pretty hard not to notice the effect if you drink enough. You could safely say that I have drunk enough. There's new research though. Oh yes, there's new research. Beer goggles last longer for women. Money quote - "Researchers found that women who drink even moderately develop a reduced ability to rate attractiveness in male faces, even when they are sober." Hallelujah! There's hope for me yet.
There was a truck at the consignee's dock when I arrived so I assumed that I was in for a long morning. Yes sir. The freight consisted of racks of glass, carefully nailed and placed along the floor of the trailer. As would be expected, it took a long time to get them unloaded. Long story short - arrived before 6am, left at 11:45am.
I did get my paid deadhead to Taylor immediately once I was empty. I guess there's really no reason that I should have expected otherwise. It has been right around two years since I went past the five days though, so I wasn't sure if anything had changed after the ConWay buyout. I guess not.
Going into the consignee this morning, I was around 77,000 pounds and there was a foot of snow on the ground. This made cornering a little tricky, mainly because I didn't really know where the roads ended and the ditches began, but the traction was pretty good. Leaving the consignee, I was around 33,000 pounds and the roads had been plowed down to a nicely packed layer of frozen snow. This made for a slipping and sliding pain in the ass. I only got stuck once though. Not so bad I guess. The state highway out of Niles was in decent shape, all things considered, but traffic was moving quite slowly. I was hoping for better once I reached I-94. No, it wasn't better. Worse maybe. The conventional wisdom holds that salt is ineffective when the temperature is incredibly low, so they just plow the snow off and leave a nice slick coating on the road surface. I think that the sunlight and the traffic would have generated plenty of heat to make the salt work today, but that's not my call. What can you do? Just drive along and deal with it.
After resisting my urge to wreak havoc on slow people in the left lane for a while, I ducked off for a lunch break outside Battle Creek. Then I got back on the road and found clean dry pavement all the way to Taylor. I'll be damned. Maybe the counties in the western part of the state were just saving their salt for a rainy day or something.
Back at the yard I had to clean out my trailer. There were still some boards nailed to the floor and it was generally pretty dirty and dusty. Funny little thing - when it's fifteen degrees outside, the inside of the trailer... is fifteen degrees. I can't say that I enjoyed that too much. Glamorous life of a truck driver and so forth.
I had time to grab some dinner with Mom, Dad, and the rev tonight. My mother had her knee scoped last week. Between her with her knee and me with my bashed up kneecap and squirrely ankle, we must have looked pretty funny walking through the icy parking lot. Then back home to read the mail and catch up some laundry. I told the dispatcher that I would be on the board tomorrow morning so I suppose I'll try to get some sleep. There's kinda sorta someone that I should meet for a few drinks tonight, but this was just a damn long day. I think I would rather go to bed. How pathetic is that? I think I'm getting old.
One last bit of whining from me tonight. Al Gore is lucky that he hasn't crossed my path lately. I will seriously kick that guy in the jimmy if I ever see him. I don't even care if he's in tight with The One. They can throw me in the gulag if they have to. I'll hurt him. Michigan should be warm and dry in the winter by now, damnit. SUV's as far as the eye can see and single digit overnight temps. That's horseshit. If they want more tax money and higher energy prices, I want some damn global warming.
I won't leave you on such a sour note though. Oh no, not tonight. Tonight I have news that fills my heart with joy. I happen to know a thing or two about the good old beer goggles. It's pretty hard not to notice the effect if you drink enough. You could safely say that I have drunk enough. There's new research though. Oh yes, there's new research. Beer goggles last longer for women. Money quote - "Researchers found that women who drink even moderately develop a reduced ability to rate attractiveness in male faces, even when they are sober." Hallelujah! There's hope for me yet.
Sunday, December 21, 2008
12/21/08
As I drift along through this rather ho-hum life of mine, I find very few opportunities to present myself as any kind of respectable individual. So, on that rare occasion when the situation allows, you bet your ass you're gonna hear about it.
The wind kicked up overnight and kept me from getting any kind of decent sleep as it rocked my truck to and fro. One other thing that it did was to blow the six inches of snow away from the parking lot where I spent the night. Underneath - hockey rink. I'll be damned. I honestly had no idea that the ice was that thick under there. My truck's thermometer displayed a perfect zero degrees, so I did the quickest pre-trip inspection known to man and then started to drive away.
As I got to the main driveway of the truck stop, I saw someone blocking the way. Have you ever seen those shitty little minivans towing those shitty little cars? I see them all over the country and I have no idea what they are all about. Anyhow, one of those guys was stuck on the ice and couldn't get moving. Go around through the car parking area or get out to help the guy? Zero degrees outside. Hmm...
So I tried getting the guy to rock back and then go forward whenever I gave his van a shove. After a few tries it became clear that this wasn't going to work. The slight slope of the driveway caused the trailing car to want to go to the left, meaning that any time the van's wheels started spinning the ass end of the van was going left too. Even though we could get the van to inch forward, it got more and more jackknifed as we did so. I tried to think of another way to get him moving as the first truck behind mine drove through the car parking area and onto the road. And this was when my hands went numb.
The first thing that we would have to do was to get him backed up and unwind that jackknife situation. Then we could find a dry patch somewhere to get him started forward. Then he could stay on the gas while I walked alongside and leaned my fat ass against his van to try to keep it from jackknifing. That was the best plan that I could produce. You got it? Good. Now translate it into Spanish. Yeah, seriously. And this was when my vision went blurry.
Phase One of the plan was to get him rolling backward, but this would be no easy feat. I headed over to my truck and grabbed my crowbar. I don't have one of those standard little crowbars with the one flat end and the one hooked end. Well actually I do have one of those. It came with my truck. But I also have a big ass beast of a crowbar. It's four and a half feet of thick manly steel. That's the one that I grabbed. Through some language-neutral hand gestures, I managed to show the fella how I needed him to set up his steer tires. Then I wedged the crowbar under one of them and against the icy driveway. I got a good dig into the ice and then lifted with all of my less than considerable might. The tire gave a little against the crowbar, so I knew I had some decent leverage applied to the van. My hope was that, once the guy started spinning the wheels backward, gravity would seek the path of least resistance and take the van away from the crowbar. Much to my surprise, it actually worked. I had to reposition every couple of feet and restart the thing, but it worked by golly. And this was when I started gasping for air.
By this time there was a JB Hunt truck stopped beside mine, watching the action. He must not have realized that he could get out through the car parking area. Otherwise why sit there if he wasn't going to help? Our next challenge would be to get the van moving forward while keeping it from jackknifing again. I gave it a few good shoves and we managed to rock it forward a bit. "Easy on the gas" must mean "Give it hell!" once translated, because that's what my new amigo kept doing. So there I was trying to keep the weight of the van from sliding sideways as we slowly but surely managed to inch it forward. And this was when I slipped on the ice and bashed my knee.
Once we got the van started on a nice straight line toward the exit, the fella seemed to be on his way so I struggled back to my truck. We had gotten it moving just in time to cut off a Schneider driver who was trying to go around through the car parking area. Poetic justice, I thought. Then the guy got stuck again. Son of a... I was bleeding. I could hardly see. My hands were numb. I was coughing up phlegm. And now he was stuck again? I had to catch my breath before I could even think about heading back out there. Maybe that Schneider dude could give the guy a hand since I had already taken care of the tricky part. All he needed by this point was a little shove to get him started up a hill. You know what that pumpkin driver did? He jumped the curb on the right side of the driveway to get around the guy. Ain't that something?
Once the numbness from my hands had turned into acute pain in my hands, I decided to head out and finish the job. Just then, the Mexican fella managed to rock himself forward enough to get up the hill and proceed on his way. The JB Hunt driver patiently waited for me to get my act together and then followed me out of the truck stop. I couldn't see much until my eyes warmed up a little, but I was rolling before too long.
Once I got on the road I was relieved to see clean and dry pavement. It was too cold last night for anything to melt and the wind had blown all of the snow off the road. There was no traffic at all going past Chicago and the drive was nice and easy. The only slick spots showed up as I got to South Bend. The wind was blowing snow off the fields and onto the road there, causing some pretty lousy visibility in some spots. Yeah, the snow isn't the only thing that blows in South Bend these days, but anyway...
I pulled into another icy hole of a truck stop on US-12 in Niles to call it a day. I have to deliver a few miles away from here by 6am, so that should be pretty fun. Looking for a customer on icy roads before the sun comes up, that's usually a treat.
Now for the disclaimer: If I had known then what I know now, I would most definitely have driven around through the car parking area and let that van driver handle his own problems. I guess I'm not such a respectable individual after all.
The wind kicked up overnight and kept me from getting any kind of decent sleep as it rocked my truck to and fro. One other thing that it did was to blow the six inches of snow away from the parking lot where I spent the night. Underneath - hockey rink. I'll be damned. I honestly had no idea that the ice was that thick under there. My truck's thermometer displayed a perfect zero degrees, so I did the quickest pre-trip inspection known to man and then started to drive away.
As I got to the main driveway of the truck stop, I saw someone blocking the way. Have you ever seen those shitty little minivans towing those shitty little cars? I see them all over the country and I have no idea what they are all about. Anyhow, one of those guys was stuck on the ice and couldn't get moving. Go around through the car parking area or get out to help the guy? Zero degrees outside. Hmm...
So I tried getting the guy to rock back and then go forward whenever I gave his van a shove. After a few tries it became clear that this wasn't going to work. The slight slope of the driveway caused the trailing car to want to go to the left, meaning that any time the van's wheels started spinning the ass end of the van was going left too. Even though we could get the van to inch forward, it got more and more jackknifed as we did so. I tried to think of another way to get him moving as the first truck behind mine drove through the car parking area and onto the road. And this was when my hands went numb.
The first thing that we would have to do was to get him backed up and unwind that jackknife situation. Then we could find a dry patch somewhere to get him started forward. Then he could stay on the gas while I walked alongside and leaned my fat ass against his van to try to keep it from jackknifing. That was the best plan that I could produce. You got it? Good. Now translate it into Spanish. Yeah, seriously. And this was when my vision went blurry.
Phase One of the plan was to get him rolling backward, but this would be no easy feat. I headed over to my truck and grabbed my crowbar. I don't have one of those standard little crowbars with the one flat end and the one hooked end. Well actually I do have one of those. It came with my truck. But I also have a big ass beast of a crowbar. It's four and a half feet of thick manly steel. That's the one that I grabbed. Through some language-neutral hand gestures, I managed to show the fella how I needed him to set up his steer tires. Then I wedged the crowbar under one of them and against the icy driveway. I got a good dig into the ice and then lifted with all of my less than considerable might. The tire gave a little against the crowbar, so I knew I had some decent leverage applied to the van. My hope was that, once the guy started spinning the wheels backward, gravity would seek the path of least resistance and take the van away from the crowbar. Much to my surprise, it actually worked. I had to reposition every couple of feet and restart the thing, but it worked by golly. And this was when I started gasping for air.
By this time there was a JB Hunt truck stopped beside mine, watching the action. He must not have realized that he could get out through the car parking area. Otherwise why sit there if he wasn't going to help? Our next challenge would be to get the van moving forward while keeping it from jackknifing again. I gave it a few good shoves and we managed to rock it forward a bit. "Easy on the gas" must mean "Give it hell!" once translated, because that's what my new amigo kept doing. So there I was trying to keep the weight of the van from sliding sideways as we slowly but surely managed to inch it forward. And this was when I slipped on the ice and bashed my knee.
Once we got the van started on a nice straight line toward the exit, the fella seemed to be on his way so I struggled back to my truck. We had gotten it moving just in time to cut off a Schneider driver who was trying to go around through the car parking area. Poetic justice, I thought. Then the guy got stuck again. Son of a... I was bleeding. I could hardly see. My hands were numb. I was coughing up phlegm. And now he was stuck again? I had to catch my breath before I could even think about heading back out there. Maybe that Schneider dude could give the guy a hand since I had already taken care of the tricky part. All he needed by this point was a little shove to get him started up a hill. You know what that pumpkin driver did? He jumped the curb on the right side of the driveway to get around the guy. Ain't that something?
Once the numbness from my hands had turned into acute pain in my hands, I decided to head out and finish the job. Just then, the Mexican fella managed to rock himself forward enough to get up the hill and proceed on his way. The JB Hunt driver patiently waited for me to get my act together and then followed me out of the truck stop. I couldn't see much until my eyes warmed up a little, but I was rolling before too long.
Once I got on the road I was relieved to see clean and dry pavement. It was too cold last night for anything to melt and the wind had blown all of the snow off the road. There was no traffic at all going past Chicago and the drive was nice and easy. The only slick spots showed up as I got to South Bend. The wind was blowing snow off the fields and onto the road there, causing some pretty lousy visibility in some spots. Yeah, the snow isn't the only thing that blows in South Bend these days, but anyway...
I pulled into another icy hole of a truck stop on US-12 in Niles to call it a day. I have to deliver a few miles away from here by 6am, so that should be pretty fun. Looking for a customer on icy roads before the sun comes up, that's usually a treat.
Now for the disclaimer: If I had known then what I know now, I would most definitely have driven around through the car parking area and let that van driver handle his own problems. I guess I'm not such a respectable individual after all.
Saturday, December 20, 2008
12/20/08
Are there any lawyers reading this blog? They have upped the ante with this one. Holy jeez. I can tell you with 100% certainty that there is nobody on that dating site who looks this good. This false advertising has to stop!I got caught up in a long and drawn-out war with the Aztecs during last night's game of Civilization III. As a result of that battle, I have no idea what time I finally fell asleep. It was late. I do know that much. It was nice and cold ouside though, so the sun didn't heat up my truck and wake me this morning. I rolled out of the sack around 11am and got set to hit the road.
The traffic flow through Missouri was much more efficient today than it was last night. The speed limit is 70mph across most of the state and my truck can go 65mph. This generally means that the cars pass me continuously and never really cause me any trouble on the hills. I don't know what was the issue last night. Today it was all good. There was a Werner guy who couldn't figure out how fast he wanted to go, but I handled him.
Then I got into Illinois. If you ever have to drag a heavy trailer for a few hours, I-55 in Illinois might be a pretty good place to start. It's flat. It's sparsely populated for the most part. The speed limit for trucks is 55mph and almost nobody drives that slowly. For those of us who do obey the limit, that's a nice stretch of road for setting the cruise control and enjoying the ride while everyone else passes on the left.
My normal approach for a short weekend trip like this would be to split it somewhat evenly between Saturday and Sunday. I prefer to spend a little time driving on both days instead of driving a lot one day and sitting for the other day. Once I got to the halfway point on this trip, it started to snow. The roads were clean and dry though. I decided to keep rolling until things got slick, since I have no idea what kind of weather tomorrow will have in store. I know it's supposed to be pretty damn cold. Better to be fairly close, just in case tomorrow's drive is a rough one. The last twenty or thirty miles before I-80 started to show some accumulation and the temperature was well below freezing, so I've stopped in Wilmington for the night. The roads weren't too bad yet, but such a long ride today with the cruise set and no traffic had left me feeling pretty complacent. I wasn't really on my 'A' game so there was no point in diving into a snowstorm when I didn't have to. From here I have about 120 miles to cover tomorrow.
I tend to think that I'm a college football fan. Right now, I wonder. I simply can't watch South Florida vs. Memphis. It's too incredibly boring. BYU vs. Arizona? Not likely. I guess I'll fire up the good old Civ III and start a war with the Mayans.
Friday, December 19, 2008
12/19/08
I guess we can always find a silver lining if we're inclined to do so. I got five phone calls warning me to be extra careful on my way home this morning. Apparently the folks back in Michigan got pounded by some pretty heavy snow today. The joke's on you, suckers. The weather in Oklahoma and Missouri was fine.
I also got my layover paid today for the shop time in Tennessee. This was a much quicker turnaround than they made with my Thanksgiving layover pay, so that's pretty nice. An extra sixty bucks (when the breakdown itself cost me $260 in lost miles last week) obviously ain't gonna make me wealthy, but that sub-$700 thing was some kind of psychological threshold for me. At least now this week is over $700 and we can hope for some kind of decent luck moving forward.
After an extended lunch/shower/nap/etc. break outside Springfield, I dragged my nice heavy 44,000 pound load back onto the highway. Very shortly thereafter, it became readily apparent that I should have just stayed where I was. People were constantly passing me going up the hills and then coming down the hills in front of me at 55mph or so. I got to Saint Robert before deciding to cash in for the night and try again tomorrow. My road rage threat level had reached the red zone. Slamming someone into a ditch so close to Christmas just didn't sound like the right thing to do. Tomorrow is another day, or something like that.
It looks like I have a total of nine hours in total to drive over the next two days, ahead of my Monday morning appointment. Pretty easy weekend. If I'm gonna make seven hundred bucks, I might as well not work hard for it, right? You know, silver linings and such.
I also got my layover paid today for the shop time in Tennessee. This was a much quicker turnaround than they made with my Thanksgiving layover pay, so that's pretty nice. An extra sixty bucks (when the breakdown itself cost me $260 in lost miles last week) obviously ain't gonna make me wealthy, but that sub-$700 thing was some kind of psychological threshold for me. At least now this week is over $700 and we can hope for some kind of decent luck moving forward.
After an extended lunch/shower/nap/etc. break outside Springfield, I dragged my nice heavy 44,000 pound load back onto the highway. Very shortly thereafter, it became readily apparent that I should have just stayed where I was. People were constantly passing me going up the hills and then coming down the hills in front of me at 55mph or so. I got to Saint Robert before deciding to cash in for the night and try again tomorrow. My road rage threat level had reached the red zone. Slamming someone into a ditch so close to Christmas just didn't sound like the right thing to do. Tomorrow is another day, or something like that.
It looks like I have a total of nine hours in total to drive over the next two days, ahead of my Monday morning appointment. Pretty easy weekend. If I'm gonna make seven hundred bucks, I might as well not work hard for it, right? You know, silver linings and such.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
12/18/08
I know this doesn't exactly make me any kind of seer, but I'm pretty sure we're in for a long and boring winter in the old truckin' bidness. We're getting the PR spin from the company now about how, starting in January, they'll be using more ConWay and Menlo freight to keep us moving. You know, like they said they would be doing starting last January. You know, like they said they would be doing starting last May. You know... whatever. I guess things were rolling along pretty well so we didn't need any extra freight at the time. Now they're saying again that they're gonna get us more of that freight, so we'll see what happens there. I guess you can count me among the skeptics.
Today was another sweet one. Nobody kicked me out of my last customer's parking lot, so at least I had that going for me. Otherwise there wasn't much. I sat around all morning and most of the afternoon before being assigned to a 112 mile deadhead. The load that I pick up tomorrow delivers in Niles, Michigan... on Monday. For those of you keeping score at home, Monday will be day #6 and I'll be 185 miles from my house when I get unloaded. According to the "rules" I should be deadheaded home, with pay, at that time. Anybody wanna lay odds on whether or not that happens? Of course, Monday morning is exactly late enough for me to miss the entire weekend that Mom put together for the family. So now I'll be going home simply to get next year's permits for my truck and do my laundry. Then I'll be right back out on the road. You win some, you lose some, I guess.
Adding insult to injury, the run that ruined my weekend and failed to get me home is a whopping 756 miles. For those of you keeping score at home, this will give me a total of 1,769 miles for the week. As of yet, the chickenheads in Joplin haven't sent me the message indicating that the layover pay for my truck being in the shop has been processed. Without that I'll fall below $700 for the week. It's a good thing I had a damn busy nine months to start this year. We're sure as hell limping to the finish here. I'm told that everything will be great when all the hopenchange arrives next month though. I still haven't been told exactly how but, you know, I can't wait to see.
Today was another sweet one. Nobody kicked me out of my last customer's parking lot, so at least I had that going for me. Otherwise there wasn't much. I sat around all morning and most of the afternoon before being assigned to a 112 mile deadhead. The load that I pick up tomorrow delivers in Niles, Michigan... on Monday. For those of you keeping score at home, Monday will be day #6 and I'll be 185 miles from my house when I get unloaded. According to the "rules" I should be deadheaded home, with pay, at that time. Anybody wanna lay odds on whether or not that happens? Of course, Monday morning is exactly late enough for me to miss the entire weekend that Mom put together for the family. So now I'll be going home simply to get next year's permits for my truck and do my laundry. Then I'll be right back out on the road. You win some, you lose some, I guess.
Adding insult to injury, the run that ruined my weekend and failed to get me home is a whopping 756 miles. For those of you keeping score at home, this will give me a total of 1,769 miles for the week. As of yet, the chickenheads in Joplin haven't sent me the message indicating that the layover pay for my truck being in the shop has been processed. Without that I'll fall below $700 for the week. It's a good thing I had a damn busy nine months to start this year. We're sure as hell limping to the finish here. I'm told that everything will be great when all the hopenchange arrives next month though. I still haven't been told exactly how but, you know, I can't wait to see.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
12/17/08
I awoke to the sound of a beep this morning. Nah, not the satellite thing. I forgot to shut my phone off last night. I got a text message saying, "Good morning," way the hell before I got out of bed. Where are the text messages from my fiance? She can get in touch with me anytime she wants to, if you know what I mean. I'm starting to suspect that she was never told about our engagement.
After I managed to get back to sleep, the satellite thing beeped and I was awake once again. It was a message from my fleet manager, asking about my trailer situation. I cruised across the lot to see if my empty was ready. It was. I sent a reply and then hooked to my trailer. I was #1 on the board by that time so I didn't want to drive too far in search of a parking spot. I was parked in the bobtail area at ConWay overnight, but they really don't like us hanging around there hooked to a trailer. There has been a whole lot of that going in the wrong direction crap lately, but I had to go somewhere. Luckily there was a Petro right down the street. I headed over there and hopped back in bed.
Not long after I started to doze off, I received my next assignment. As seems to be the case quite often in recent weeks, CTL pimped out my services to a broker. As the brokered loads tend to be, this one was 44,000 pounds of paper. I had to head down to the paper mill outside Mansfield for an afternoon pickup. I took a nice nap to finally finish off my night's rest and then drove down. I was a couple of hours early but they checked me in right away and sent me to the warehouse. The guys back there were on their lunch break at the time. Once they got back, I was loaded fairly quickly and sent on my way.
Toward Michigan, you ask? Not exactly. For those of you keeping score at home, I began the day in Shreveport, 1,058 miles from home. I ended the day in Oklahoma City, 1,021 miles from home. Well hell, I guess I am getting closer after all. There is the possibility that there is freight heading north from this area and that's why I was sent over here. Of course, if this is the case, I'm not allowed to know. The driver is required to be the least informed person involved with every load. I'm pretty sure that rule is in the company handbook somewhere. Then there's also the possibility that there is no plan and they just sent me wherever they could send me today. Oh well, I guess we'll see what happens soon enough. I got another decent day's worth of miles so I'll take it for what it's worth.
In what could be considered a minor coup on my part, I noticed that the consignee's receiving hours were listed on the bill of lading. They are open from 7am to 11pm with no appointment required. I was dispatched to deliver at 7am. Instead of waiting until tomorrow, I hauled ass to Oklahoma City and got rid of the load tonight. The traffic around Dallas was horrendous but otherwise I made pretty good time. The temperature stayed above freezing the whole way so that misty foggy crap never turned to ice. Good thing the shipper checked me in early.
I'm #3 on the board right now. Hopefully getting here tonight will give me a leg up on whatever the planners start assigning in the morning. I didn't have any bright ideas concerning parking tonight so I've pulled off to the side of the consignee's lot. They use this area to drop trailers. I might end up getting kicked out if I'm in someone's way. So far though, nobody has bothered me. I guess I'll hop in bed and see if my luck can hold out until morning.
After I managed to get back to sleep, the satellite thing beeped and I was awake once again. It was a message from my fleet manager, asking about my trailer situation. I cruised across the lot to see if my empty was ready. It was. I sent a reply and then hooked to my trailer. I was #1 on the board by that time so I didn't want to drive too far in search of a parking spot. I was parked in the bobtail area at ConWay overnight, but they really don't like us hanging around there hooked to a trailer. There has been a whole lot of that going in the wrong direction crap lately, but I had to go somewhere. Luckily there was a Petro right down the street. I headed over there and hopped back in bed.
Not long after I started to doze off, I received my next assignment. As seems to be the case quite often in recent weeks, CTL pimped out my services to a broker. As the brokered loads tend to be, this one was 44,000 pounds of paper. I had to head down to the paper mill outside Mansfield for an afternoon pickup. I took a nice nap to finally finish off my night's rest and then drove down. I was a couple of hours early but they checked me in right away and sent me to the warehouse. The guys back there were on their lunch break at the time. Once they got back, I was loaded fairly quickly and sent on my way.
Toward Michigan, you ask? Not exactly. For those of you keeping score at home, I began the day in Shreveport, 1,058 miles from home. I ended the day in Oklahoma City, 1,021 miles from home. Well hell, I guess I am getting closer after all. There is the possibility that there is freight heading north from this area and that's why I was sent over here. Of course, if this is the case, I'm not allowed to know. The driver is required to be the least informed person involved with every load. I'm pretty sure that rule is in the company handbook somewhere. Then there's also the possibility that there is no plan and they just sent me wherever they could send me today. Oh well, I guess we'll see what happens soon enough. I got another decent day's worth of miles so I'll take it for what it's worth.
In what could be considered a minor coup on my part, I noticed that the consignee's receiving hours were listed on the bill of lading. They are open from 7am to 11pm with no appointment required. I was dispatched to deliver at 7am. Instead of waiting until tomorrow, I hauled ass to Oklahoma City and got rid of the load tonight. The traffic around Dallas was horrendous but otherwise I made pretty good time. The temperature stayed above freezing the whole way so that misty foggy crap never turned to ice. Good thing the shipper checked me in early.
I'm #3 on the board right now. Hopefully getting here tonight will give me a leg up on whatever the planners start assigning in the morning. I didn't have any bright ideas concerning parking tonight so I've pulled off to the side of the consignee's lot. They use this area to drop trailers. I might end up getting kicked out if I'm in someone's way. So far though, nobody has bothered me. I guess I'll hop in bed and see if my luck can hold out until morning.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
12/16/08
Whenever people discuss these OTR outfits, the conversations tend to follow a predictable pattern. Sometimes a given person is trying to get a recruiting bonus by highlighting the good things. Other times a person is trying to make a former employer look bad by highlighting the bad things. Either way, you fall back to so many cents per mile and so many miles per week and this kind of truck or that kind of truck. None of that matters a whole lot to me. I am inclined to believe that 90% of us in this line of work earn within a few thousand bucks of each other over the course of a year. 90% of us could probably convince ourselves that there's a reason for choosing one company over another, even though they're all about the same. If I had to point to one thing that I really liked about CFI (and subsequently CTL), it would be that they leave me the hell alone. Unless something unforeseen comes up, there is rarely a reason for me to communicate with anyone in Joplin. I like that.
Then, every once in a while, something unforeseen comes up. My broken truck was unforeseen, for example. I spoke with the people on the weekend shift before checking into my motel on Sunday. They appeared to have everything all squared away. But it wasn't all squared away, at least not for my fleet manager. After getting a ride back to the Kenworth dealer and getting my truck back this afternoon, I hopped inside. There was a message waiting on the satellite unit. My fleet manager was wondering why I haven't been on the board for the last two days. Huh? I was told quite specifically that some chick was typing all of that nonsense into the computer on Sunday while I was talking to her. She said that she saw the notation from our road service guys authorizing my motel. She said that the relay had been set up to get rid of my loaded trailer. She said that I was all set. Somehow this information didn't get passed along to the Monday-Friday crew, I guess.
I had to feel at least a little bad for my fleet manager, given the barrage of crap that I sent to him next. Since he hadn't known what was up with my truck, he must have been thrilled to get a bunch of extraneous messages from me after I got the truck back. A reply to his inquiry, asking him to put me on the board, was first. Then the form requesting my home time. Then the form requesting layover pay. Then the form requesting a reimbursement number for my motel. Then he asked for my trailer number. So I replied to that one. Then he asked if I had changed my mind about being home for Christmas, since he had me down as planning to be on the road. So I answered that one explaining that I just need a few days at home and I'll be back out before Christmas. Lots of communication today. That's not the strong suit for this company, so I guess that should just remind me of how good I have it most of the time.
I was #5 when I got on the board in Jackson. Before too long, I got an assignment. I had to bounce over to our terminal in West Memphis and pick up a loaded trailer going to... Shreveport. I guess we're going with the Christopher Columbus approach to home time. If I go south long enough, eventually I'll be further north... or something. At least I got in a good 435 miles of work today so I won't hang my head about the home time thing just yet. There's still plenty of time for me to get to Michigan from here by the weekend (as long as they don't really try sending me around the South Pole). If the choice was to roll south today or not to roll at all today, I would prefer to roll south.
The CB commandos were in full force on I-40. Tales of doom and gloom were coming across the radio every fifteen seconds or so. Apparently there was some messy weather in Arkansas to the west of Little Rock. For my part, the trip down I-40 onto I-440 and then I-30 was no problem. The bridges around Little Rock did look like they might be a little slick but I didn't notice any slippage. Fortunately things warmed up gradually as I made my way further south. I had to run about a ninety mile stretch on two-lane roads with which I wasn't familiar. I didn't have a lot of confidence that those roads would be easy to handle if they were indeed icy. By the time I got to Shreveport it was up to forty degrees though. A little rain here and there, but that was about it.
I rolled into the ConWay yard in Shreveport a little while ago to make my drop/hook. The drop part went as planned. The hook part, not so much. There are no CFI or ConWay Truckload trailers on the yard. I spoke with the guy in the dispatch office. He assured me that there were two CFI trailers out here. So I headed back outside. There are most definitely not two CFI trailers out here. So we reached the conclusion that I'll just go to sleep for the night and the trailer that I brought in will be empty by tomorrow morning. I'll take that one back and everybody will be happy. Simple enough. No problem.
And what was that thing that I like most about my job? Oh yeah, the communication (or absence thereof) thing. The computer system won't put me on the board without a trailer. My first inclination would have been just to send an empty call as if I had been live unloaded. Then the computer would have the trailer number that it needed and I could get on the board. That probably would have worked fine. I have a bit of an unlucky streak sometimes though. What would happen if I were on the board and they assigned something to me while my trailer was still full of ConWay freight and sitting at the dock? That would be bad. So I had to call Joplin. The nice young lady who answered the phone said that she would take care of it for me. In what I must admit was a surprising twist, she took care of it just like she said she would. Good lookin' out, my sister.
I'm #2 on the board and highlighted for home time. I'm guessing this means that I'll be moving pretty early tomorrow. Goodnight.
Then, every once in a while, something unforeseen comes up. My broken truck was unforeseen, for example. I spoke with the people on the weekend shift before checking into my motel on Sunday. They appeared to have everything all squared away. But it wasn't all squared away, at least not for my fleet manager. After getting a ride back to the Kenworth dealer and getting my truck back this afternoon, I hopped inside. There was a message waiting on the satellite unit. My fleet manager was wondering why I haven't been on the board for the last two days. Huh? I was told quite specifically that some chick was typing all of that nonsense into the computer on Sunday while I was talking to her. She said that she saw the notation from our road service guys authorizing my motel. She said that the relay had been set up to get rid of my loaded trailer. She said that I was all set. Somehow this information didn't get passed along to the Monday-Friday crew, I guess.
I had to feel at least a little bad for my fleet manager, given the barrage of crap that I sent to him next. Since he hadn't known what was up with my truck, he must have been thrilled to get a bunch of extraneous messages from me after I got the truck back. A reply to his inquiry, asking him to put me on the board, was first. Then the form requesting my home time. Then the form requesting layover pay. Then the form requesting a reimbursement number for my motel. Then he asked for my trailer number. So I replied to that one. Then he asked if I had changed my mind about being home for Christmas, since he had me down as planning to be on the road. So I answered that one explaining that I just need a few days at home and I'll be back out before Christmas. Lots of communication today. That's not the strong suit for this company, so I guess that should just remind me of how good I have it most of the time.
I was #5 when I got on the board in Jackson. Before too long, I got an assignment. I had to bounce over to our terminal in West Memphis and pick up a loaded trailer going to... Shreveport. I guess we're going with the Christopher Columbus approach to home time. If I go south long enough, eventually I'll be further north... or something. At least I got in a good 435 miles of work today so I won't hang my head about the home time thing just yet. There's still plenty of time for me to get to Michigan from here by the weekend (as long as they don't really try sending me around the South Pole). If the choice was to roll south today or not to roll at all today, I would prefer to roll south.
The CB commandos were in full force on I-40. Tales of doom and gloom were coming across the radio every fifteen seconds or so. Apparently there was some messy weather in Arkansas to the west of Little Rock. For my part, the trip down I-40 onto I-440 and then I-30 was no problem. The bridges around Little Rock did look like they might be a little slick but I didn't notice any slippage. Fortunately things warmed up gradually as I made my way further south. I had to run about a ninety mile stretch on two-lane roads with which I wasn't familiar. I didn't have a lot of confidence that those roads would be easy to handle if they were indeed icy. By the time I got to Shreveport it was up to forty degrees though. A little rain here and there, but that was about it.
I rolled into the ConWay yard in Shreveport a little while ago to make my drop/hook. The drop part went as planned. The hook part, not so much. There are no CFI or ConWay Truckload trailers on the yard. I spoke with the guy in the dispatch office. He assured me that there were two CFI trailers out here. So I headed back outside. There are most definitely not two CFI trailers out here. So we reached the conclusion that I'll just go to sleep for the night and the trailer that I brought in will be empty by tomorrow morning. I'll take that one back and everybody will be happy. Simple enough. No problem.
And what was that thing that I like most about my job? Oh yeah, the communication (or absence thereof) thing. The computer system won't put me on the board without a trailer. My first inclination would have been just to send an empty call as if I had been live unloaded. Then the computer would have the trailer number that it needed and I could get on the board. That probably would have worked fine. I have a bit of an unlucky streak sometimes though. What would happen if I were on the board and they assigned something to me while my trailer was still full of ConWay freight and sitting at the dock? That would be bad. So I had to call Joplin. The nice young lady who answered the phone said that she would take care of it for me. In what I must admit was a surprising twist, she took care of it just like she said she would. Good lookin' out, my sister.
I'm #2 on the board and highlighted for home time. I'm guessing this means that I'll be moving pretty early tomorrow. Goodnight.
Monday, December 15, 2008
12/15/08
The last time I found myself in a motel room as a result of waiting for a Kenworth dealer to fix my truck, I awoke on day #2 and briefly (very, very briefly) entertained the notion that I would never drink again. Yep. Same deal today. Lots of football to watch yesterday and not much else to do really. My Skins continued to play the role of the NFL's version of Notre Dame... by losing to the NFL's version of Syracuse. They even had the damn orange uniforms.
I think that the most disappointing part of the day yesterday came when one of the mechanics was driving me to my motel. I observed that I have a hard time picturing how that bracket could have snapped cleanly above the bolt in the way that it did. His reply - "Hell, I've seen a thousand of 'em do that." So... it might not be a completely rare occurrence? A design issue maybe? Maybe it would make sense to keep at least ONE bracket in stock then? Unbelievable.
Once I reviewed my miles for last week, I was relieved to see that at least I got to 2,588 paid miles by the time I reached Jackson. This doesn't change the fact that I lost the bulk of the trip to North Carolina, but it does make my pay for the week decent if nothing more. However, I needed a big week, not just a decent week, to offset the prior shitty one. My broken bracket kept this from happening. Since I now have to request home time as soon as I get my truck back on Tuesday, I'm not terribly confident that I'll make much money this week either. Oh well... the way the cookie crumbles and whatnot. My hotel for next weekend in Niagara Falls has a casino nearby. We all know that a casino is a good place to go to make money when you're broke, right?
On a positive note, the damn false advertisers keep giving me more ammo for my impending lawsuit. Maybe I can collect a big settlement and not have to worry about economic conditions.
I think that the most disappointing part of the day yesterday came when one of the mechanics was driving me to my motel. I observed that I have a hard time picturing how that bracket could have snapped cleanly above the bolt in the way that it did. His reply - "Hell, I've seen a thousand of 'em do that." So... it might not be a completely rare occurrence? A design issue maybe? Maybe it would make sense to keep at least ONE bracket in stock then? Unbelievable.
Once I reviewed my miles for last week, I was relieved to see that at least I got to 2,588 paid miles by the time I reached Jackson. This doesn't change the fact that I lost the bulk of the trip to North Carolina, but it does make my pay for the week decent if nothing more. However, I needed a big week, not just a decent week, to offset the prior shitty one. My broken bracket kept this from happening. Since I now have to request home time as soon as I get my truck back on Tuesday, I'm not terribly confident that I'll make much money this week either. Oh well... the way the cookie crumbles and whatnot. My hotel for next weekend in Niagara Falls has a casino nearby. We all know that a casino is a good place to go to make money when you're broke, right?
On a positive note, the damn false advertisers keep giving me more ammo for my impending lawsuit. Maybe I can collect a big settlement and not have to worry about economic conditions.
On an additional positive note, it looks like my cozy little motel room is keeping me away from some pretty lousy road conditions around here. I just saw the weather report on the local news. Oy. I'm kicking it in my nice warm room, sitting comfortably in my boxers. (For your own sake, don't try to picture that.)
Now we get to some more legal news. Jim over at Lease Purchase Journal noticed that a certain blogger has been seized by the mullahs. There have now been calls for his release. This may be cause for concern but the folks at Fenian Godfather Legal, after doing their required research, are pleased to report the following:
First, those whackjobs arrested the 'Blogfather,' not to be confused with the grossly overused moniker 'Godfather.' I'm not nearly creative enough to have combined an old nickname from a few friends with a 21st century internet trend. To quote our good friend Shaggy - "It wasn't me."
Second, the outspoken critic being held by those folks in Tehran is also a Canadian citizen. It's no secret that I suspect the crazy Canucks of plotting to invade Montana, so I doubt that his sympathies and mine are likely to intersect in a problematic fashion. One more crisis avoided.
Last but not least, since I'm jamming a bunch of links into this post, yeah baby!
Sunday, December 14, 2008
12/14/08
A long, long time ago...
I can still remember how
my paycheck used to make me smile
And I knew if I had my chance
A few days off, I could finance
And, maybe, I'd be happy for a while
But the frosty winds made me shiver
With every load that I'd deliver
Bad news on the post-trip
My bracket snapped at its tip
I can't remember if I cried
When the dealer said they really tried
But the part I need they don't supply
Today, my paycheck died
So bye-bye, weekly income that's high
Drove my Kenworth to the dealer
But the stock room was dry
And them good old boys
Were smokin' Camels nearby
Singin, "Tuesday is the day you can fly"
"Tuesday is the day you can fly"
Did you write the book of life?
And did you include all the extra strife?
Just 'cause you were in the mood
Do you believe in the luck of the draw?
Or that little thing called Murphy's Law?
Can you teach me how to choose the long straw?
Well, I know that that's just how it goes
My life has had more highs than lows
I'll just kick off my shoes
Now I have lots of time to snooze
I was a lonely driver rolling east
With a good week's pay in the books at least
But I knew I that my luck had ceased
The day my paycheck died
I started singin, "Bye-bye, weekly income that's high"
Drove my Kenworth to the dealer
But the stock room was dry
And them good old boys
Were smokin' Camels nearby
Singin, "Tuesday is the day you can fly"
"Tuesday is the day you can fly"
For the last month I've been on the road
Praying for miles with every load
But that's not how it used to be
Before the market went into the tank
We all had some money in the bank
But the financial meltdown, we did not foresee
Oh, and while Fannie Mae was going down
Hank Paulson mumbled like a clown
The congress was adjourned
No action was returned
And while The One, he read a book on Marx
Into a recession we did embark
And Bush spent a trillion on a lark
The day my paycheck died
We were singin' "Bye-bye, weekly income that's high"
Drove my Kenworth to the dealer
But the stock room was dry
And them good old boys
Were smokin' Camels nearby
Singin, "Tuesday is the day you can fly"
"Tuesday is the day you can fly"
Helter skelter, I had no smelter
So I would have to search for shelter,
With a smelter, I could have built the part
Instead it would have to be shipped in
And I would take it on the chin
While I sat and thought about, what might have been
Now the air was filled with diesel fumes
While the radio played a redneck tune
I don't get up to dance,
Oh, but have I ever got the chance!
'Cause I tried to find something to do
All I could find were food and brew
Do you recall what worked for you
The day your paycheck died?
We started singin' "Bye-bye, weekly income that's high"
Drove my Kenworth to the dealer
But the stock room was dry
And them good old boys
Were smokin' Camels nearby
Singin, "Tuesday is the day you can fly"
"Tuesday is the day you can fly"
Oh, and there we were all in one place,
A bunch of southern boys talkin' Chase
But I've never been a NASCAR fan
So come on: Jack be nimble, Jack be quick!
Jack come up with some kind of trick
Cause without that part I'm sitting on my can
Oh, as I watched him on the phone
I realized my day was blown
No angel born in hell
Could break that Satan's spell
And as I gave into my plight
I needed a place to spend the night
I saw Satan laughing with delight
The day my paycheck died
He was singing, "Bye-bye, weekly income that's high"
Drove my Kenworth to the dealer
But the stock room was dry
And them good old boys
Were smokin' Camels nearby
Singin, "Tuesday is the day you can fly"
"Tuesday is the day you can fly"
I met a Godfather who sang the blues
And I asked him for some happy news
But he just smiled and turned away
I went down to the Super 8
Where for my part I would have to wait
But the Hindu guy said, "Please enjoy your stay."
And in the streets, the cars went by,
Then I shrugged, and let out a sigh
But not a word was spoken
My weekend hopes were broken
And the three men I admire most
The Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost
They inspired me to write this post
The day my paycheck died
And they were singing, "Bye-bye, weekly income that's high"
Drove my Kenworth to the dealer
But the stock room was dry
And them good old boys
Were smokin' Camels nearby
Singin, "Tuesday is the day you can fly"
"Tuesday is the day you can fly"
They were singing, "Bye-bye, weekly income that's high"
Drove my Kenworth to the dealer
But the stock room was dry
And them good old boys
Were smokin' Camels nearby
Singin, "Tuesday is the day you can fly"
I can still remember how
my paycheck used to make me smile
And I knew if I had my chance
A few days off, I could finance
And, maybe, I'd be happy for a while
But the frosty winds made me shiver
With every load that I'd deliver
Bad news on the post-trip
My bracket snapped at its tip
I can't remember if I cried
When the dealer said they really tried
But the part I need they don't supply
Today, my paycheck died
So bye-bye, weekly income that's high
Drove my Kenworth to the dealer
But the stock room was dry
And them good old boys
Were smokin' Camels nearby
Singin, "Tuesday is the day you can fly"
"Tuesday is the day you can fly"
Did you write the book of life?
And did you include all the extra strife?
Just 'cause you were in the mood
Do you believe in the luck of the draw?
Or that little thing called Murphy's Law?
Can you teach me how to choose the long straw?
Well, I know that that's just how it goes
My life has had more highs than lows
I'll just kick off my shoes
Now I have lots of time to snooze
I was a lonely driver rolling east
With a good week's pay in the books at least
But I knew I that my luck had ceased
The day my paycheck died
I started singin, "Bye-bye, weekly income that's high"
Drove my Kenworth to the dealer
But the stock room was dry
And them good old boys
Were smokin' Camels nearby
Singin, "Tuesday is the day you can fly"
"Tuesday is the day you can fly"
For the last month I've been on the road
Praying for miles with every load
But that's not how it used to be
Before the market went into the tank
We all had some money in the bank
But the financial meltdown, we did not foresee
Oh, and while Fannie Mae was going down
Hank Paulson mumbled like a clown
The congress was adjourned
No action was returned
And while The One, he read a book on Marx
Into a recession we did embark
And Bush spent a trillion on a lark
The day my paycheck died
We were singin' "Bye-bye, weekly income that's high"
Drove my Kenworth to the dealer
But the stock room was dry
And them good old boys
Were smokin' Camels nearby
Singin, "Tuesday is the day you can fly"
"Tuesday is the day you can fly"
Helter skelter, I had no smelter
So I would have to search for shelter,
With a smelter, I could have built the part
Instead it would have to be shipped in
And I would take it on the chin
While I sat and thought about, what might have been
Now the air was filled with diesel fumes
While the radio played a redneck tune
I don't get up to dance,
Oh, but have I ever got the chance!
'Cause I tried to find something to do
All I could find were food and brew
Do you recall what worked for you
The day your paycheck died?
We started singin' "Bye-bye, weekly income that's high"
Drove my Kenworth to the dealer
But the stock room was dry
And them good old boys
Were smokin' Camels nearby
Singin, "Tuesday is the day you can fly"
"Tuesday is the day you can fly"
Oh, and there we were all in one place,
A bunch of southern boys talkin' Chase
But I've never been a NASCAR fan
So come on: Jack be nimble, Jack be quick!
Jack come up with some kind of trick
Cause without that part I'm sitting on my can
Oh, as I watched him on the phone
I realized my day was blown
No angel born in hell
Could break that Satan's spell
And as I gave into my plight
I needed a place to spend the night
I saw Satan laughing with delight
The day my paycheck died
He was singing, "Bye-bye, weekly income that's high"
Drove my Kenworth to the dealer
But the stock room was dry
And them good old boys
Were smokin' Camels nearby
Singin, "Tuesday is the day you can fly"
"Tuesday is the day you can fly"
I met a Godfather who sang the blues
And I asked him for some happy news
But he just smiled and turned away
I went down to the Super 8
Where for my part I would have to wait
But the Hindu guy said, "Please enjoy your stay."
And in the streets, the cars went by,
Then I shrugged, and let out a sigh
But not a word was spoken
My weekend hopes were broken
And the three men I admire most
The Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost
They inspired me to write this post
The day my paycheck died
And they were singing, "Bye-bye, weekly income that's high"
Drove my Kenworth to the dealer
But the stock room was dry
And them good old boys
Were smokin' Camels nearby
Singin, "Tuesday is the day you can fly"
"Tuesday is the day you can fly"
They were singing, "Bye-bye, weekly income that's high"
Drove my Kenworth to the dealer
But the stock room was dry
And them good old boys
Were smokin' Camels nearby
Singin, "Tuesday is the day you can fly"
Saturday, December 13, 2008
12/13/08
After more than 24 hours at the good old Circle K, I was getting a little impatient. I cleaned out my trailer and headed over to the shipper a little early. The place involved quite a bit of red tape. Various forms to fill out, an inspection of my truck, yada yada yada. Once I got back to the warehouse I was told by the yard dog to drop my empty in a given spot. Sweet. I hadn't known that this was a drop/hook. Maybe showing up early was a good idea. But... the loaded trailer wasn't loaded just yet. I had to back in front of it and wait for a couple of hours. Oh well.
I got a message today saying that my layover for the 48 hours of down time in Laredo over Thanksgiving had been paid. Maybe someone in Joplin is a mind reader. When I saw that my paycheck posted yesterday without my sixty bucks, I wasn't a happy camper. A stern phone call was going to be in store for someone on Monday morning. But they preempted me and paid the sixty bucks today. Fair enough. One less call to make.
I got rolling after the trailer was loaded and released to me, taking advantage of the light traffic and getting all the way to Jackson, Tennessee before deciding to call it a night. The truck stops are surprisingly crowded for a Saturday night. Both the one in Arkansas where I stopped to fax some paperwork and this one where I've parked for the night were jammed up. Of course the one difficult parking spot that nobody wants to tackle tends to be open, regardless of the time of night. That's the one I got tonight.
Once I got settled in I stepped out and did my little post-trip inspection. Son of a! The bracket holding my left rear drive wheel's air chamber in place... has snapped. I've never seen that before. I can't even figure out how the damn thing could crack in the manner that it did. Just a clean fissure right above the bolt. But it did. After a call to our road service department, I learned that I'm right down the street from a Kenworth dealer and that they are open for service on Sundays. Guess I'll head over in the morning and see what's what. I'm about eleven hours from my destination right now. If something had to go wrong, I suppose that the timing worked out as well as possible for me. Even if most or all of tomorrow is burned at the dealership, I can knock out the run on Monday without any real trouble. The consignee has overnight parking so I can get there as late as I want to.
The best way to remove the sting of an 1,825 mile week is to back it up with a 3,225 mile week. That's what the fine folks at CTL managed to do for me this time around. Then we tack on the $60 in layover pay and the $47 in northeast pay and I have no complaints.
Reality TV right in front of me tonight! Sweet! As I was winding up that last paragraph, a Central Refrigerated dude just swung out of a parking spot and totally fucked up the side of a Swiftie with his tail swing. Mirror, headlight, fender, he did a number on that one. Hopefully there's a Volvo dealer with Sunday hours nearby too.
I got a message today saying that my layover for the 48 hours of down time in Laredo over Thanksgiving had been paid. Maybe someone in Joplin is a mind reader. When I saw that my paycheck posted yesterday without my sixty bucks, I wasn't a happy camper. A stern phone call was going to be in store for someone on Monday morning. But they preempted me and paid the sixty bucks today. Fair enough. One less call to make.
I got rolling after the trailer was loaded and released to me, taking advantage of the light traffic and getting all the way to Jackson, Tennessee before deciding to call it a night. The truck stops are surprisingly crowded for a Saturday night. Both the one in Arkansas where I stopped to fax some paperwork and this one where I've parked for the night were jammed up. Of course the one difficult parking spot that nobody wants to tackle tends to be open, regardless of the time of night. That's the one I got tonight.
Once I got settled in I stepped out and did my little post-trip inspection. Son of a! The bracket holding my left rear drive wheel's air chamber in place... has snapped. I've never seen that before. I can't even figure out how the damn thing could crack in the manner that it did. Just a clean fissure right above the bolt. But it did. After a call to our road service department, I learned that I'm right down the street from a Kenworth dealer and that they are open for service on Sundays. Guess I'll head over in the morning and see what's what. I'm about eleven hours from my destination right now. If something had to go wrong, I suppose that the timing worked out as well as possible for me. Even if most or all of tomorrow is burned at the dealership, I can knock out the run on Monday without any real trouble. The consignee has overnight parking so I can get there as late as I want to.
The best way to remove the sting of an 1,825 mile week is to back it up with a 3,225 mile week. That's what the fine folks at CTL managed to do for me this time around. Then we tack on the $60 in layover pay and the $47 in northeast pay and I have no complaints.
Reality TV right in front of me tonight! Sweet! As I was winding up that last paragraph, a Central Refrigerated dude just swung out of a parking spot and totally fucked up the side of a Swiftie with his tail swing. Mirror, headlight, fender, he did a number on that one. Hopefully there's a Volvo dealer with Sunday hours nearby too.
Friday, December 12, 2008
12/12/08
Fun with satellite imagery. Step one was to pull into the yard forward (yellow line). Step two was to back 180 degrees around that rusty building there (blue line). Step three was to get myself parallel to the rusty building. My eventual parking spot was somewhere in the shadow to which the red line is pointing. The railroad cars that you see along W New Boston Road should give you an idea of the scale of the area. Yeah, it was tight. I'm not sure if you can see the various pieces of equipment that were strewn about, but they were most certainly strewn about. And the whole area is loose dirt. And there are railroad tracks all over the place. My poor old truck was not enjoying that little exercise. Get stuck, rock forward, rock back, get unstuck. Rinse, recycle, repeat. Thus begins another glamorous day in the life if this here trucker. That backing practice in CDL school made no mention of this kind of shit.The guys at the consignee probably enjoyed the delivery even less than I did. They don't have a loading dock and they don't have a pallet jack. The fellas had to hook up a strap to a tractor, place the strap around the barrels in my trailer, and drag them to the tailgate. Then they could lift them from the trailer with a forklift. One barrel at a time, that took a while.
After I was empty, I bounced over into Arkansas to look for somewhere to park. I found a little Circle K off of Exit 2 and backed in. Once I got parked, I received my next assignment. I would be picking up in Texarkana, Texas and heading for North Carolina. I had an afternoon pickup and some time to kill, so I tried to spruce up the inside of my truck a little bit. My last few stops have involved one muddy mess after another. Some people manage to keep their trucks squeaky clean, but I have no idea how.
Once I reached the "good enough, that'll do" stage of my cleaning, I started to write down my directions to the shipper. I hadn't received an order number yet. That seemed a little odd. I did have directions though, so I took a look at my map and concluded that I would be ready to go. I checked my paid miles (1,052) against the route that PC Miler suggested (1,038) and then noticed something that I hadn't seen the first time around. That afternoon pickup... yeah, it's tomorrow afternoon. Aww hell. Looks like the good old Circle K is home for the night. Maybe Bill and Ted will come crashing down in their phone booth or something. Otherwise it looks like much boredom is in store for me.
I'll be delivering in North Carolina on Tuesday morning. Then I have to put in my request for home time. If things go well, I should make a few bucks on the way up and be home for the weekend. If not, I may have to drive my own car to Niagara Falls and join a family vacation already in progress. There's not much that I could have done differently though. I had to grab another run before requesting home time to make sure I get a few bucks in the bank. This week's pay will be around $1,300 so that mission will be accomplished. When I come back to work it will be the week of Christmas, so my chances of making good money that week will be up to the luck of the draw. My first year out, I cleaned up while all of the other drivers were home. Last year was a little slower for me.
I haven't managed to find an attorney yet, but they're still going ahead with that damn false advertising. They don't like look this! I'll get these guys. Sooner or later, I'll get them.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
12/11/08
One thing is for certain. If I ever decide to start taking drugs, I'm not starting with the soft stuff. I'm going right for whatever they're taking at Yankee Stadium these days. A.J. Burnett? For $17 million a year? C.C. Sabathia? For seven years? For $40 million more than anybody else was offering? Are you kidding me? I remember the Paul Kariya deal years ago signaling the beginning of the end of the old way of doing business in the NHL. Now I really think that these $20 million per year contracts becoming commonplace will send baseball down the same road. Bummer.
I got rolling out of Indiana after a decent night's sleep, into the home of the good old double nickel. Across to Effingham and then down to Missouri, that's a pretty long low-speed drive. The rest of the trip was pretty decent I guess. It did take me a full eleven hours of driving to make it to Gurdon, Arkansas today. There really aren't any cities along the route, other than the Little Rock bypass, so I was able to keep my foot to the floor and enjoy the ride for the most part. I also got parked in time to catch some overtime football, so that's pretty cool. I don't imagine my Skins have much of a chance to make the playoffs, but now there's one less team in the way. Thanks for playing, Saints.
I have to cover about seventy miles in the morning to make my delivery in Nash, Texas. Then I should be able to catch something decent for the weekend and make this a much better week than last week was. It has already been a better week, but you know, let's go for much better.
I got rolling out of Indiana after a decent night's sleep, into the home of the good old double nickel. Across to Effingham and then down to Missouri, that's a pretty long low-speed drive. The rest of the trip was pretty decent I guess. It did take me a full eleven hours of driving to make it to Gurdon, Arkansas today. There really aren't any cities along the route, other than the Little Rock bypass, so I was able to keep my foot to the floor and enjoy the ride for the most part. I also got parked in time to catch some overtime football, so that's pretty cool. I don't imagine my Skins have much of a chance to make the playoffs, but now there's one less team in the way. Thanks for playing, Saints.
I have to cover about seventy miles in the morning to make my delivery in Nash, Texas. Then I should be able to catch something decent for the weekend and make this a much better week than last week was. It has already been a better week, but you know, let's go for much better.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
12/10/08
Let's see. How long did it take to make my first mistake today? Actually when I went to bed last night. It was 50 degrees outside, with a light rain. I went to sleep with my truck off. Yeah, it got cold. 26 degrees when I rolled out of the sack this morning. That's never a pleasant discovery to make when you're not fully clothed. (For your own sake, don't try to picture that.)
So, it probably took a while for the second mistake, right? No, not really. My intention was to drive west on US-223 and bypass the Ann Arbor area. I made the mistake of not looking at a map. I'm not sure but, in hindsight, that truck stop where I spent last night must have been on US-223. I went north on US-23 thinking that I would run into US-223 at one of the next exits. Nope. So I got to hit Ann Arbor during rush hour. It wasn't as bad as I expected it to be though. The old saying goes that Michigan has two seasons - winter and construction. In today's case, winter wasn't as bad as construction. The ramps and bridges were all good to go, so the only really slow spots were right before and after the merge onto I-94. After State Street everything shook out and the drive was fine.
I pulled into the customer's lot and walked toward the receiving area to check in. There were several doors with signs that said, "Use other door." Each of these signs had an arrow pointing toward one particular door. That's the particular door that I was approaching. My third mistake of the day was litening to one of the other drivers. He told me that I had to check in at the door on the end of the dock (one of the "use other door" ones). So I walked down there and stood in the cold for a few minutes before deciding that he was full of shit and nobody was coming. Back at the door to which I was originally walking, I went inside and handed my paperwork to the forklift dude.
About an hour later I was empty and ready to rumble. I drove across the freeway to the little local truck stop to park and await my day's work. This situation, per usual when I'm empty in southeast Michigan, brought an unfortunate contradiction. I was #12 on the board and in the Taylor dispatch zone. This could have meant that I had a bunch of free time to kill at home. Maybe meet someone for lunch. Maybe kick back on the couch and play some video games. Maybe do a little shopping. I was sixty-five miles from Taylor though, so instead I had a bunch of free time to sit in my truck and look at the snow.
Around 2pm I finally got my assignment. My next pickup would be in Adrian, Michigan. Adrian is the home of Adrian College. Yeah, go figure. Adrian College was a hell of a place for a high school kid to hook up with wild college girls back in the early 90's... er, so I'm told. I also heard that it was helpful to be on a baseball team with a guy who went to Siena Heights so you would have a place to sleep after a night of partying at Adrian.
No parties or any of that today though. Just a shipper with the inside/outside dock setup. That's always a bonus. Sun in my eyes looking forward. Complete darkness looking backward. Concrete poles a few inches from my mirrors on both sides. No real way to tell if I'm moving straight back or not while I'm at the wheel. Good times, good times.
I got rolling after a little while there and headed for Texas. The down time waiting for my assignment and the time at the shipper combined to limit my driving before the 14 hour rule caught up with me. I was able to get to the rest area on the west side of Indianapolis before I had to shut it down. So once again I'll have a pain in the ass schedule to run for the next day and a half. I'll put in a full eleven tomorrow, take a ten hour break, and drive the last hour or so on Friday morning. That's one of the neat little conundrums about OTR driving I guess. When business is better, I get an assignment ahead of time and set up my schedule however I like. When things are slow, I sit all day waiting for a brokered load to come across the satellite and then have to run hard to make the drop on time. Less business = less flexibility. There probably aren't too many other industries that work this way.
I guess I'll roll the dice and grab one more load on Friday before requesting my home time. I might get burned that way but I really can't afford to go straight home and miss out on any pay for next week. We're not supposed to leave for the little family trip until Saturday. I should be okay.
So, it probably took a while for the second mistake, right? No, not really. My intention was to drive west on US-223 and bypass the Ann Arbor area. I made the mistake of not looking at a map. I'm not sure but, in hindsight, that truck stop where I spent last night must have been on US-223. I went north on US-23 thinking that I would run into US-223 at one of the next exits. Nope. So I got to hit Ann Arbor during rush hour. It wasn't as bad as I expected it to be though. The old saying goes that Michigan has two seasons - winter and construction. In today's case, winter wasn't as bad as construction. The ramps and bridges were all good to go, so the only really slow spots were right before and after the merge onto I-94. After State Street everything shook out and the drive was fine.
I pulled into the customer's lot and walked toward the receiving area to check in. There were several doors with signs that said, "Use other door." Each of these signs had an arrow pointing toward one particular door. That's the particular door that I was approaching. My third mistake of the day was litening to one of the other drivers. He told me that I had to check in at the door on the end of the dock (one of the "use other door" ones). So I walked down there and stood in the cold for a few minutes before deciding that he was full of shit and nobody was coming. Back at the door to which I was originally walking, I went inside and handed my paperwork to the forklift dude.
About an hour later I was empty and ready to rumble. I drove across the freeway to the little local truck stop to park and await my day's work. This situation, per usual when I'm empty in southeast Michigan, brought an unfortunate contradiction. I was #12 on the board and in the Taylor dispatch zone. This could have meant that I had a bunch of free time to kill at home. Maybe meet someone for lunch. Maybe kick back on the couch and play some video games. Maybe do a little shopping. I was sixty-five miles from Taylor though, so instead I had a bunch of free time to sit in my truck and look at the snow.
Around 2pm I finally got my assignment. My next pickup would be in Adrian, Michigan. Adrian is the home of Adrian College. Yeah, go figure. Adrian College was a hell of a place for a high school kid to hook up with wild college girls back in the early 90's... er, so I'm told. I also heard that it was helpful to be on a baseball team with a guy who went to Siena Heights so you would have a place to sleep after a night of partying at Adrian.
No parties or any of that today though. Just a shipper with the inside/outside dock setup. That's always a bonus. Sun in my eyes looking forward. Complete darkness looking backward. Concrete poles a few inches from my mirrors on both sides. No real way to tell if I'm moving straight back or not while I'm at the wheel. Good times, good times.
I got rolling after a little while there and headed for Texas. The down time waiting for my assignment and the time at the shipper combined to limit my driving before the 14 hour rule caught up with me. I was able to get to the rest area on the west side of Indianapolis before I had to shut it down. So once again I'll have a pain in the ass schedule to run for the next day and a half. I'll put in a full eleven tomorrow, take a ten hour break, and drive the last hour or so on Friday morning. That's one of the neat little conundrums about OTR driving I guess. When business is better, I get an assignment ahead of time and set up my schedule however I like. When things are slow, I sit all day waiting for a brokered load to come across the satellite and then have to run hard to make the drop on time. Less business = less flexibility. There probably aren't too many other industries that work this way.
I guess I'll roll the dice and grab one more load on Friday before requesting my home time. I might get burned that way but I really can't afford to go straight home and miss out on any pay for next week. We're not supposed to leave for the little family trip until Saturday. I should be okay.
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
12/9/08
Bedtime last night in Connecticut - 12 degrees. Wake up time this morning in Connecticut - 16 degrees. A few minor snow flurries along the way through New York. Coulda been a really long day for the ole Godfather. In an unexpected twist though, things got warmer and warmer as I rolled west. Then the sun went down and it just kept getting warmer. By the time I stopped for the night it was 50 degrees outside. My truck obviously has a heater, so the temperature in and of itself isn't a huge deal. Since half of Penssylvania and all of Ohio were getting a steady rain today though, warmer is definitely better. I had no time for all that snowfall nonsense that I hit the last time I crossed Ohio.
I was able to make pretty good time all day today, getting past Toledo and into Michigan before my eleven driving hours were exhausted. The Pilot in Blissfield had lots of open parking. That's always nice. I have just enough time to take my ten hour break here and then finish out the run ahead of my 9am delivery appointment. About all I have to decide is whether to shoot across US-223 to US-127 and up or to stay on US-23 up to I-94. That stretch of I-94 in Ann Arbor was always a clusterfuck when I worked out there, but I haven't been around here much lately. I would like to think that the bridge construction might be finished by now. I don't know. I'll probably just steer clear of Ann Arbor and come in from 127 anyway.
Anybody think I should take this chick up on her offer and move to New York? $400 a month, hey. I'm not home much anyway. The bathroom can't be that bad. I do love Manhattan.
I was able to make pretty good time all day today, getting past Toledo and into Michigan before my eleven driving hours were exhausted. The Pilot in Blissfield had lots of open parking. That's always nice. I have just enough time to take my ten hour break here and then finish out the run ahead of my 9am delivery appointment. About all I have to decide is whether to shoot across US-223 to US-127 and up or to stay on US-23 up to I-94. That stretch of I-94 in Ann Arbor was always a clusterfuck when I worked out there, but I haven't been around here much lately. I would like to think that the bridge construction might be finished by now. I don't know. I'll probably just steer clear of Ann Arbor and come in from 127 anyway.
Anybody think I should take this chick up on her offer and move to New York? $400 a month, hey. I'm not home much anyway. The bathroom can't be that bad. I do love Manhattan.
Monday, December 8, 2008
12/8/08
A certain football team has a former quarterback guru as its head coach. This team has a defense that isn't great, but is good enough to hang around with most opponents. The team's offense started out the season very strongly and the team got out to a good record through the first month and a half. Then something happened. The team started to play without any fire. The offense went down the toilet. The quarterback, despite his obvious talent, started to look lost. The record crept downward toward the .500 mark as the head coach appeared befuddled on the sideline during games. Touchdowns became a rarity while breakdowns on the offensive line became the norm. What team is this? Notre Dame or the Redskins? Take your pick, I guess.
I stayed up and watched the game last night and then tried to get some sleep. I had my alarm set for 7am, so I fully expected someone to wake me before then. Much to my surprise, the alarm woke me at 7am. Beauty. I found a locked door at that time so I hung around until 8am and tried again. My dispatch stipulated that I was to arrive by 8am so I guess that's when the place opens. Shortly thereafter, I was unloaded and ready for another day. I pulled off to the side for an hour or so until my next assignment came through.
This trip had me deadheading up to Waterville, Maine and grabbing a load bound for Michigan. By the time I headed north, the traffic around Worcester and Lowell had subsided for the morning so the drive was nice and easy. After checking in with the shipper, I was told that the load would have been pre-loaded if they had known that my company was the carrier. Yeah, probably could have kept that information to yourself there, bub. Since I would have to be live loaded and there were three trucks ahead of me, I had to wait at the shipper for a while. They won't load a trailer while the truck is running and it was 14 degrees outside. This did not sound like a workable situation for me, but they told me that I could drop the trailer at the dock and bobtail to the other side of the parking lot. As long as I wasn't at the dock I would be allowed to run my truck while I was waiting. Fair enough.
As I sat patiently awaiting my loaded trailer, I was browsing around the good old interwebs. I got my daily e-mail from one of the employment listing aggregators and decided to click and see what's going on back home. I think I found a pretty sweet job posting. I would have thought it paid a little better, but you know... Personally, I'm not qualified, but they haven't named a replacement yet. If you've always dreamed of living and working in lovely Ypsilanti, I suggest that you send your application soon.
Once I was loaded and rolling, I had time to get to the T/A in Milldale, Connecticut before my 14 hour clock ran out. Now I'll have to keep a pretty brisk pace in order to make it to Jackson, Michigan by Wednesday morning. Oh well. A brother's gotta eat. We've almost caught up with last week's miles and it's only Monday. The extra $47 so far in northeast pay this week won't hurt either.
I stayed up and watched the game last night and then tried to get some sleep. I had my alarm set for 7am, so I fully expected someone to wake me before then. Much to my surprise, the alarm woke me at 7am. Beauty. I found a locked door at that time so I hung around until 8am and tried again. My dispatch stipulated that I was to arrive by 8am so I guess that's when the place opens. Shortly thereafter, I was unloaded and ready for another day. I pulled off to the side for an hour or so until my next assignment came through.
This trip had me deadheading up to Waterville, Maine and grabbing a load bound for Michigan. By the time I headed north, the traffic around Worcester and Lowell had subsided for the morning so the drive was nice and easy. After checking in with the shipper, I was told that the load would have been pre-loaded if they had known that my company was the carrier. Yeah, probably could have kept that information to yourself there, bub. Since I would have to be live loaded and there were three trucks ahead of me, I had to wait at the shipper for a while. They won't load a trailer while the truck is running and it was 14 degrees outside. This did not sound like a workable situation for me, but they told me that I could drop the trailer at the dock and bobtail to the other side of the parking lot. As long as I wasn't at the dock I would be allowed to run my truck while I was waiting. Fair enough.
As I sat patiently awaiting my loaded trailer, I was browsing around the good old interwebs. I got my daily e-mail from one of the employment listing aggregators and decided to click and see what's going on back home. I think I found a pretty sweet job posting. I would have thought it paid a little better, but you know... Personally, I'm not qualified, but they haven't named a replacement yet. If you've always dreamed of living and working in lovely Ypsilanti, I suggest that you send your application soon.
Once I was loaded and rolling, I had time to get to the T/A in Milldale, Connecticut before my 14 hour clock ran out. Now I'll have to keep a pretty brisk pace in order to make it to Jackson, Michigan by Wednesday morning. Oh well. A brother's gotta eat. We've almost caught up with last week's miles and it's only Monday. The extra $47 so far in northeast pay this week won't hurt either.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
12/7/08
Given that I only had to work for four hours today and that the traffic over the George Washington Bridge and through the Bronx never as much as slowed down, of course my directions would have to be wrong. I don't think I've ever gone over that bridge without at least seeing a few cars backed up at the toll booths. Today I breezed right on through. Since I had no real parking options along the way, I decided to roll the dice and head straight to the consignee. I gambled on them being closed for the weekend, since I couldn't see a 24/7 type of operation getting such a tiny shipment by truckload. If they were in fact closed, then only a locked gate could rain on my parade.
My directions said that I needed to take I-190 to Exit 4. Okay. No problem there. Then I was to proceed west on Shrewsbury Street. Uh, no. The exit only went to the east and I had the choice of going north or south on MA-12. I chose north, thinking I must need to make a left on Shrewsbury to follow my directions. Uh, no. There was no Shrewsbury Street. Massachusetts being Massachusetts, I never did manage to find a place to pull over and check my map. It was one skinny road after another as I wandered along. I would just have to go with my gut and follow the signage to find my way out of an uncomfortable situation. I followed MA-12 north and veered left on MA-140. This took me back to I-190, so at least I made a lucky call on that one.
Back on the freeway, I hit the button to have my Qualcomm unit read my directions to me one more time. Yep, I heard it right the first time. I-190 to Exit 4, west on Shrewsbury. Maybe I would have better luck approaching the exit from the other direction. Nope. Same deal. The exit only went to the east and took me to MA-12. Since I already knew that going north would do me no good, I tried going south. Nope. No Shrewsbury down there either. I hung a right on Mountain Street, since I had seen a sign on the highway indicating that Exit 3 would be for 'Mountain St / Holden.' I knew that I needed to get to the west side of the freeway. I knew that I was going to Holden. Any decent sized street would have to do at that point.
Mountain Street did get me to the west side of the freeway and eventually wound its way around to Shrewsbury Street. I hung a left and crossed my fingers. From there I caught MA-122A up to the industrial park, just like my directions said that I would. Go figure. I found that my customer did have some room for me to back up to the docks and they are closed for the weekend. There's some good news. I went to maps.live.com and did a postmortem on the routing fiasco. From Exit 4, about the only way to get here would be the way that I eventually did get here (down to Mountain and across the freeway). Shrewsbury doesn't appear to cross the freeway and the other roads to the north of Exit 4 were way too tight for a big truck. Exit 2 would have been the correct one to take, but whatever. I didn't hit anything and I had plenty of time for a little Sunday drive. No harm, no foul.
I have a nice fast connection here so I've been enjoying a pretty good battle between the Cowboys and Steelers. Then my 'Skins are playing tonight, although I haven't found a video stream of that one yet. I'll be empty with a boatload of hours available in the morning. Maybe next week can provide more than 1,825 miles for me. Maybe.
My directions said that I needed to take I-190 to Exit 4. Okay. No problem there. Then I was to proceed west on Shrewsbury Street. Uh, no. The exit only went to the east and I had the choice of going north or south on MA-12. I chose north, thinking I must need to make a left on Shrewsbury to follow my directions. Uh, no. There was no Shrewsbury Street. Massachusetts being Massachusetts, I never did manage to find a place to pull over and check my map. It was one skinny road after another as I wandered along. I would just have to go with my gut and follow the signage to find my way out of an uncomfortable situation. I followed MA-12 north and veered left on MA-140. This took me back to I-190, so at least I made a lucky call on that one.
Back on the freeway, I hit the button to have my Qualcomm unit read my directions to me one more time. Yep, I heard it right the first time. I-190 to Exit 4, west on Shrewsbury. Maybe I would have better luck approaching the exit from the other direction. Nope. Same deal. The exit only went to the east and took me to MA-12. Since I already knew that going north would do me no good, I tried going south. Nope. No Shrewsbury down there either. I hung a right on Mountain Street, since I had seen a sign on the highway indicating that Exit 3 would be for 'Mountain St / Holden.' I knew that I needed to get to the west side of the freeway. I knew that I was going to Holden. Any decent sized street would have to do at that point.
Mountain Street did get me to the west side of the freeway and eventually wound its way around to Shrewsbury Street. I hung a left and crossed my fingers. From there I caught MA-122A up to the industrial park, just like my directions said that I would. Go figure. I found that my customer did have some room for me to back up to the docks and they are closed for the weekend. There's some good news. I went to maps.live.com and did a postmortem on the routing fiasco. From Exit 4, about the only way to get here would be the way that I eventually did get here (down to Mountain and across the freeway). Shrewsbury doesn't appear to cross the freeway and the other roads to the north of Exit 4 were way too tight for a big truck. Exit 2 would have been the correct one to take, but whatever. I didn't hit anything and I had plenty of time for a little Sunday drive. No harm, no foul.
I have a nice fast connection here so I've been enjoying a pretty good battle between the Cowboys and Steelers. Then my 'Skins are playing tonight, although I haven't found a video stream of that one yet. I'll be empty with a boatload of hours available in the morning. Maybe next week can provide more than 1,825 miles for me. Maybe.
Saturday, December 6, 2008
12/06/08
Well, not a whole lot to say today really. The flip side to not making much money this week is that I haven't worked much this week. Today saw me cover a few hundred miles into New Jersey and put my feet up for a marathon of (hopefully) good football. Since I've mainly watched Notre Dame this season, I haven't seen a whole lot of good football.
The route to the east of D.C. is closed for construction this weekend, so I had to take the long way around. Other than that though, it was a ho-hum kind of day. It's cold and dreary but the traffic was about as light as you'll ever see for a trip up I-95.
Those camouflage uniforms that the Army players are wearing look pretty cool. They might as well make that their regular uniform instead of looking just like another gold pants wearing college team.
The route to the east of D.C. is closed for construction this weekend, so I had to take the long way around. Other than that though, it was a ho-hum kind of day. It's cold and dreary but the traffic was about as light as you'll ever see for a trip up I-95.
Those camouflage uniforms that the Army players are wearing look pretty cool. They might as well make that their regular uniform instead of looking just like another gold pants wearing college team.
Friday, December 5, 2008
12/5/08
Damn the board. Damn it all to hell. I was #1 for the better portion of the day yesterday, but had to come off the board once my 14 hours ran out and I could no longer drive anywhere legally. When I got up this morning, I sent in my form to put myself back on duty. Then I was #3 on the board. Damn the board.
It only took until noon for me to get an assignment so I guess that wasn't so bad. The assignment itself... not so good. I had to deadhead eighty miles to the south and grab a load heading for Massachusetts. For those keeping score at home, this week winds up at 1,825 miles (yeah, seriously), plus $35 in stop pay and $33 in northeast pay. Total gross - $761.50. Ouch. That's unfortunate. My spending in November could easily be described as profligate. I have some catching up to do, so sub-$800 pay weeks are not what I hope to see. Oh well, maybe next week the manufacturers will have shaken off the Thanksgiving hangover and gotten their shit together.
The trip down to the shipper was quick and easy. I got to watch a really groovy safety video after I checked in. Then the people there completely disregarded every rule espoused by the safety video. What can you do? Just go with the flow, I say. I was loaded with three boxes weighing in at a combined total of 4,700 pounds. That's pretty sweet.
Then it was time to trudge back up I-95 for a while. I was planning to stop in Colonial Heights for the night and then split the trip into two short legs from there. The damn drivers down there weren't cooperative with respect to my wishes, so I never made it over to that exit. I guess it was just as well to go ahead and get through Richmond tonight anyway. By the time I fought through the rush hour traffic down there, I had reached the T/A in Ashland. And that closes the book on another delightful day on the road.
I'm due in Holden, Massachusetts on Monday morning. Since the schedule for this weekend will be so light, I'll probably try to get some driving done early tomorrow and then settle in for some football. I'm too poor to get a motel room though. Hopefully I can find a place with a fast internet connection and watch some video streams. Alabama plus the points and Oklahoma minus the points would be my plays if I were inclined to make a wager or two. I'm usually wrong though, so Florida and Missouri fans should be smiling by the time tomorrow is over.
It only took until noon for me to get an assignment so I guess that wasn't so bad. The assignment itself... not so good. I had to deadhead eighty miles to the south and grab a load heading for Massachusetts. For those keeping score at home, this week winds up at 1,825 miles (yeah, seriously), plus $35 in stop pay and $33 in northeast pay. Total gross - $761.50. Ouch. That's unfortunate. My spending in November could easily be described as profligate. I have some catching up to do, so sub-$800 pay weeks are not what I hope to see. Oh well, maybe next week the manufacturers will have shaken off the Thanksgiving hangover and gotten their shit together.
The trip down to the shipper was quick and easy. I got to watch a really groovy safety video after I checked in. Then the people there completely disregarded every rule espoused by the safety video. What can you do? Just go with the flow, I say. I was loaded with three boxes weighing in at a combined total of 4,700 pounds. That's pretty sweet.
Then it was time to trudge back up I-95 for a while. I was planning to stop in Colonial Heights for the night and then split the trip into two short legs from there. The damn drivers down there weren't cooperative with respect to my wishes, so I never made it over to that exit. I guess it was just as well to go ahead and get through Richmond tonight anyway. By the time I fought through the rush hour traffic down there, I had reached the T/A in Ashland. And that closes the book on another delightful day on the road.
I'm due in Holden, Massachusetts on Monday morning. Since the schedule for this weekend will be so light, I'll probably try to get some driving done early tomorrow and then settle in for some football. I'm too poor to get a motel room though. Hopefully I can find a place with a fast internet connection and watch some video streams. Alabama plus the points and Oklahoma minus the points would be my plays if I were inclined to make a wager or two. I'm usually wrong though, so Florida and Missouri fans should be smiling by the time tomorrow is over.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
12/4/08
All day, staring at the ceiling, makin'
Friends with shadows on my wall
All night, hearing voices telling me
That I should get some sleep because
All night, hearing voices telling me
That I should get some sleep because
Tomorrow might be good
For somethin'
One of those days. I got started early and made my drive to the consignee. No big news along the way, just a lot more hilly terrain. I arrived and checked in with the forklift guy. He proceeded with an obscenity-laced spiel about how they were getting too much paper and the machines were all loaded and yada yada yada. As if I give a damn. Once a dock opened up, I backed in and waited. It only took an hour or so to get empty once I was at the dock. Given the dude's attitude, I was expecting to wait longer.
It was around 2pm so I headed to the local truck stop to see if I could find somewhere to park. The place was listed as having a small parking area, but at that time of day I was pretty optimistic. The next closest option would be another twenty miles away. When I pulled into the lot I found two empty spaces. Excellent. Those two spaces were empty for a reason. Bogus. They were difficult to access, given the arrangement of the lot. I had to spin back toward the fuel island and then make a really sharp blindside turn back into my spot. After I got out to look four or five times, an old dude stood at the back of my trailer and helped me finish up the job. Good lookin' out, my brother. (We won't discuss the guy who showed up after me and made parking in the spot next to mine look easy.)
I was #2 on the board so I expected a little bit of time to pass before I got some work. Yeah, some time passed. In fact, it's still passing. I'm up to #1 now, but my 14 hour clock doesn't have a whole lot left to offer. Looks like Wilson, North Carolina will probably be home for the night. The paycheck terror threat level has been upgraded to orange. I need something pretty good for the weekend or I'll definitely fall below $900 for the week.
I don't want to end my post on a sour note though, so I'll share this happy news with you. I found a way to make my limp look less pitiful. I just bank my cap to the side and let my pants sag. I'm a gangsta! Hey, ridiculous is much better than pitiful in my little world.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
12/3/08
Well, I was able to walk without too much difficulty today. That's always a good start. My ankle isn't exactly feeling super, but it has definitely been worse before. The rest of the day? Eh, whatever.
I got up nice and early and I was rolling as soon as my ten hour break was complete. The drive to my consignee was exactly forty miles and took a little over an hour. The last fifteen miles or so were pretty damn slow. As I followed the directions to the customer, I could have sworn that I had been taken back in time to CDL school in Detroit. Go down one shithole ghetto street and make an insanely tight right turn onto another shithole ghetto street. Park next to some decrepit old building and try to figure out what to do next. Yep, just like CDL school in Detroit.
I wound up having to back onto a side street in order to get turned around and pointed in the right direction, then back from the main street into the dock area of the customer. Fortunately the traffic on that particular street wasn't nearly as heavy as that of the surrounding streets. I don't think I caused any terrible delays for anyone. Those guys had me unloaded rather quickly and I was back in the SOL parking situation.
Yesterday I was out in the sticks with nowhere to park. Today I was in the 'hood with nowhere to park. I dropped down I-77 to the turnpike and stopped at the service plaza on the westbound side. I figured that I could get on I-71 and go in pretty much any direction from there once I got an assignment.
By the time I grabbed a quick breakfast I got that assignment. I wasn't completely headed in the wrong direction, so that was nice. I would have been better off if I were still on I-77, but I only wound up going ten miles or so out of the way once all was said and done. The drive to my next shipper was a twisting and winding one through the hills of Central Ohio. For the second day in a row, I got a load from an outside broker. This one is paper going from Coshocton, Ohio to Wilson, North Carolina. A nice 41,000 pounder to drag through the mountains. Groovy. The shipper took a couple of hours to have me rolling, but it wasn't too terrible.
Yeah, this paragraph... whatever. Down I-77 through West Virginia with a heavy trailer. Use your imagination.
Once I got past Wytheville, Virginia I was getting close to my 14 hour limit. I decided to stop at a little truck stop in Austinville to use the restroom and check my directory for somewhere to park. The truck stop in Austinville has a small parking lot so I assumed that I wouldn't find a space there. Hey, how about that! I got the last spot. I'll have to knock out another three and a half or four hours in the morning to reach my delivery point from here.
So we tacked on some pretty decent mileage today. The deadhead was a little over a hundred miles and the loaded trip is five hundred something. With Thursday, Friday, and Saturday still to come, I might just pull out a good week somehow.
I got up nice and early and I was rolling as soon as my ten hour break was complete. The drive to my consignee was exactly forty miles and took a little over an hour. The last fifteen miles or so were pretty damn slow. As I followed the directions to the customer, I could have sworn that I had been taken back in time to CDL school in Detroit. Go down one shithole ghetto street and make an insanely tight right turn onto another shithole ghetto street. Park next to some decrepit old building and try to figure out what to do next. Yep, just like CDL school in Detroit.
I wound up having to back onto a side street in order to get turned around and pointed in the right direction, then back from the main street into the dock area of the customer. Fortunately the traffic on that particular street wasn't nearly as heavy as that of the surrounding streets. I don't think I caused any terrible delays for anyone. Those guys had me unloaded rather quickly and I was back in the SOL parking situation.
Yesterday I was out in the sticks with nowhere to park. Today I was in the 'hood with nowhere to park. I dropped down I-77 to the turnpike and stopped at the service plaza on the westbound side. I figured that I could get on I-71 and go in pretty much any direction from there once I got an assignment.
By the time I grabbed a quick breakfast I got that assignment. I wasn't completely headed in the wrong direction, so that was nice. I would have been better off if I were still on I-77, but I only wound up going ten miles or so out of the way once all was said and done. The drive to my next shipper was a twisting and winding one through the hills of Central Ohio. For the second day in a row, I got a load from an outside broker. This one is paper going from Coshocton, Ohio to Wilson, North Carolina. A nice 41,000 pounder to drag through the mountains. Groovy. The shipper took a couple of hours to have me rolling, but it wasn't too terrible.
Yeah, this paragraph... whatever. Down I-77 through West Virginia with a heavy trailer. Use your imagination.
Once I got past Wytheville, Virginia I was getting close to my 14 hour limit. I decided to stop at a little truck stop in Austinville to use the restroom and check my directory for somewhere to park. The truck stop in Austinville has a small parking lot so I assumed that I wouldn't find a space there. Hey, how about that! I got the last spot. I'll have to knock out another three and a half or four hours in the morning to reach my delivery point from here.
So we tacked on some pretty decent mileage today. The deadhead was a little over a hundred miles and the loaded trip is five hundred something. With Thursday, Friday, and Saturday still to come, I might just pull out a good week somehow.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
12/2/08
I'm contemplating a lawsuit for false advertising. I saw this banner ad saying that I should click if I need a girlfriend. I don't really need a girlfriend, but seriously, look...
Who wouldn't click, right? Yeah well, the girls on that site don't look like her. Not even close. And the ones who are halfway decent looking don't seem to have much interest in washed-up guys who drive trucks for a living and straddle the line between reason and madness. I think it's a classic bait and switch move. I should start interviewing lawyers the next time I have a chance. They shouldn't be allowed to get away with this.
Anyhow, impending legal battles aside... I got up bright and early to finish off my run from the weekend. My drop/hook on the back end was nice and quick, then I was on my way. On my way to where exactly? By golly, we didn't have an answer to that question. I had no place to park at the consignee. The truck stop where I spent last night was 30 miles away and not likely to be near my next destination. What to do, what to do? Driving up to I-64 seemed like the best solution. I could go east (toward Lexington) and park at a rest area. Or I could go west (toward Louisville) and park at the Flying J. We pick up more freight in the Louisville area, so I went west. Around three hours after I parked, I got my next assignment. Picking up in Lexington, of course.
Since I was much further from Lexington than I had been when I made my drop this morning, I had to haul ass to make my pickup time. I got there though, and the order was a quick one. They put five big plastic containers on my trailer and sent me on my way. There was a second pickup in Georgetown, maybe fifteen miles from the first stop. Those guys put another 23 of the plastic containers on. The only catch was that they still had to empty #'s 22 and 23. That took a while. Eventually they got everything loaded and I stood up to go get my paperwork...
Mayday! Mayday! Man down! I was blessed with more things in this life than I could ever hope to count. I was not blessed with strong ankles. My left ankle is the one that I broke a few years ago during a baseball game. That one feels fine right now. The other one... not so much. I had been sitting so long that my right leg had somehow gone completely numb. I was not aware of this when I stood up. I didn't feel my foot hit the ground when I took my first step. I did, however, feel the pain shoot up my entire right side when my ankle rolled over. Sonofabitch. The ligaments in that ankle are like the elastic in a sock that you've had for far too long. They've been torn and stretched and pretty much destroyed repeatedly throughout my life. So, like that old elastic, they just don't offer much support anymore. My foot came down wrong and that was all she wrote. And now I have a nasty purple ankle to keep me company for a little while.
At least I would be able to set the cruise... haha, I was just about to say... oh nevermind. Of course I couldn't set the cruise today! I got to go through Cincinnati at rush hour. Lots of just downright lovely pedal action between the accelerator and the brake. Just what my ankle needed. I was able to get up to Seville, Ohio tonight before my 14 hour clock ran out. I only covered 410 miles in total today, but the (dumbass) rules are the (dumbass) rules.
Between the 55mph speed limit in Ohio and that traffic jam in Cincinnati, my 8:30am delivery appointment isn't doing me any favors. I should have plenty of time for a ten hour break here and then the last 40 or 50 miles of driving. You just never know what kind of bullshit you'll run into at that time of day in a major city. Guess we'll find out soon enough.
The week isn't off to a racing start for me, but once my extra $35 in stop pay for this run is tacked on I'll be over $170 today. One good one after I get empty and then something long for the weekend will do just fine.
Who wouldn't click, right? Yeah well, the girls on that site don't look like her. Not even close. And the ones who are halfway decent looking don't seem to have much interest in washed-up guys who drive trucks for a living and straddle the line between reason and madness. I think it's a classic bait and switch move. I should start interviewing lawyers the next time I have a chance. They shouldn't be allowed to get away with this.
Anyhow, impending legal battles aside... I got up bright and early to finish off my run from the weekend. My drop/hook on the back end was nice and quick, then I was on my way. On my way to where exactly? By golly, we didn't have an answer to that question. I had no place to park at the consignee. The truck stop where I spent last night was 30 miles away and not likely to be near my next destination. What to do, what to do? Driving up to I-64 seemed like the best solution. I could go east (toward Lexington) and park at a rest area. Or I could go west (toward Louisville) and park at the Flying J. We pick up more freight in the Louisville area, so I went west. Around three hours after I parked, I got my next assignment. Picking up in Lexington, of course.
Since I was much further from Lexington than I had been when I made my drop this morning, I had to haul ass to make my pickup time. I got there though, and the order was a quick one. They put five big plastic containers on my trailer and sent me on my way. There was a second pickup in Georgetown, maybe fifteen miles from the first stop. Those guys put another 23 of the plastic containers on. The only catch was that they still had to empty #'s 22 and 23. That took a while. Eventually they got everything loaded and I stood up to go get my paperwork...
Mayday! Mayday! Man down! I was blessed with more things in this life than I could ever hope to count. I was not blessed with strong ankles. My left ankle is the one that I broke a few years ago during a baseball game. That one feels fine right now. The other one... not so much. I had been sitting so long that my right leg had somehow gone completely numb. I was not aware of this when I stood up. I didn't feel my foot hit the ground when I took my first step. I did, however, feel the pain shoot up my entire right side when my ankle rolled over. Sonofabitch. The ligaments in that ankle are like the elastic in a sock that you've had for far too long. They've been torn and stretched and pretty much destroyed repeatedly throughout my life. So, like that old elastic, they just don't offer much support anymore. My foot came down wrong and that was all she wrote. And now I have a nasty purple ankle to keep me company for a little while.
At least I would be able to set the cruise... haha, I was just about to say... oh nevermind. Of course I couldn't set the cruise today! I got to go through Cincinnati at rush hour. Lots of just downright lovely pedal action between the accelerator and the brake. Just what my ankle needed. I was able to get up to Seville, Ohio tonight before my 14 hour clock ran out. I only covered 410 miles in total today, but the (dumbass) rules are the (dumbass) rules.
Between the 55mph speed limit in Ohio and that traffic jam in Cincinnati, my 8:30am delivery appointment isn't doing me any favors. I should have plenty of time for a ten hour break here and then the last 40 or 50 miles of driving. You just never know what kind of bullshit you'll run into at that time of day in a major city. Guess we'll find out soon enough.
The week isn't off to a racing start for me, but once my extra $35 in stop pay for this run is tacked on I'll be over $170 today. One good one after I get empty and then something long for the weekend will do just fine.
Monday, December 1, 2008
12/1/08
Pretty easy day today, as expected. As I got further north, it got colder. As it got colder, it snowed more. So far the roads are in decent shape so we'll have to see what things look like in the morning. I got up to the Bluegrass Parkway and then realized that I needed to figure out where I would park for the night. Damn trip planning... There is a little truck stop along the way, but it's a half hour or so from my delivery point. Unfortunately I didn't see any better options in my directory. So here I am.
I'm scheduled to deliver tomorrow at 8am. Then I'll be in good shape vis a vis my loogbook and available hours. Hopefully I can get a good start to this week. I'm due back home in less than three weeks, so I could use a little cash if you know what I'm sayin'.
I'm scheduled to deliver tomorrow at 8am. Then I'll be in good shape vis a vis my loogbook and available hours. Hopefully I can get a good start to this week. I'm due back home in less than three weeks, so I could use a little cash if you know what I'm sayin'.
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