Another nice easy day today. It was a little over seven hours from Lancaster to West Memphis. That seems to be about the length of time that I like to drive in a given day. If you think about it, it was 470 miles. So that means that you could work six days like this every week, cover over 2,800 miles, make some good money, take a day off, and never run out of hours. Ahhh, the world of daydreaming...
Anyhow it was the usual light weekend traffic and the weather was cloudy and cool. Pretty much ideal for me. Even though I won't be home for a few more days, it seems almost like my time off has begun. Before I left Laredo, they planned me on a run picking up in Columbus Monday night and delivering in Traverse City on Tuesday morning. I'm guessing that means beer. But anyway, there's probably not a whole lot of freight coming out of northern Michigan so my best good hunch is that I'll deadhead home from there. Maybe I'll even get back in time to vote in the primary, since I forgot to get an absentee ballot the last time I was home. Having an idea of what lies ahead (going here, then there, then there, then home) has some kind of psychological impact. This is, for all intents and purposes, just a nice productive weekend. Having visions of the first frosty pint of Guinness though... now that's the kind of motivation that I've been missing.
So today wraps up our first seven day pay period, as I understand it. 2,737 miles is cool with me. Time for some football. I really thought they would just cancel the playoffs after the Redskins lost, but apparently they're determined to go through all the way to the Super Bowl. Since I really have no dog in the fight, I guess I'll just root for New England to run the table. At least that would give people something cool to talk about for years to come.
997 miles for me
ReplyDeleteJim, if you don't mind my asking, what did you have for the first five days?
ReplyDeleteI ran into a guy last night who was howling about a 1,000 mile paycheck this week. When I asked what he had for the first five days, he said 3,500. That's 4,500 for twelve days, which sounds decent to me. "But this one's only 1,000," he kept saying. I wasn't in the mood to do the math for him, so I just left it at that.
Then another guy apparently had 1,700 for the five days and only 1,100 for the past week. Of course I have no way to verify that, but that ain't too good if he was telling the truth.
We'll definitely see more swings up and down from one check to the next, getting paid every week. As long as it all adds up at the end, it works for me.
Cheers.
1647 first five days.
ReplyDeleteNo good \\
Fist of five!!
But I'll survive and wait till freight picks up.
How do I change that JIM to FIST OF FIVE??????
I don't think it's changeable. Your mask has been removed!!!
ReplyDeleteI heard a lot about a slowdown last year too, but I just kept rolling along. I guess I must be a better person than you. It's hard to draw any other conclusion. I'm just under 6,000 for the year so far.
Just out of curousity, when does it pick back up, and why?
ReplyDeleteWhen you have slow time, or time when your just waiting around. What do you usually do to keep yourself busy? I know there is not much room in the truck.
ReplyDeleteI'm not the one to say when freight picks back up, since it has never really slowed down for me in the last year and a half. The conventional wisdom says mid-February. By that time, "they" say, 2007 inventories will have been moved and 2008 production will ramp back up.
ReplyDeleteOn my down time, I basically do what I would do at home (minus the drinking). Movies, books, internet, computer games, working out (not nearly enough of that lately), and so forth. Out west they have casinos and stuff so I play an occasional card game, but not often. In more populated areas I can usually go for a walk and find a good restaurant. Otherwise though, it's the stuff I have available on the truck.