3/19/08

If you ever have a hard time getting your ass in gear in the morning, I think I have the answer for you.

1) Set your alarm for 6:45am
2) Go to bed.
3) Wake up to piss and wonder why it's so light outside.
4) Look at the clock and see 8:15am.
5) Do some quick mental math (8:15am + nine hours = 5:15pm)
6) Check your appointment time (5pm)
7) Haul ass out of town.

Yep, that seems to do the trick. Of course, it's also a good way to get yourself behind the eight ball, but that's just details. I was making pretty good time and looking like I'd arrive around a half hour early... then it started raining. Rain isn't such a big deal, right? I agree, but apparently the rain means that people are free to block both lanes of the interstate at 35mph for thirty miles. So I had to be the aggressive pain in the ass driver as I made my way through, but I got out of the logjam and showed up about ten minutes before 5pm. Then the guy at the receiving location told me to go to shipping, which was a couple miles away. I got over there and checked in. Strike that. I got over there and tried to check in with the lady in the office. I could describe her for you, but what fun is that? Let's just say that she must have a son named Kyle.

And on my ex-wife's birthday too... that's pretty funny. Since I had the audacity to try to tell the lady that I was dropping off and not picking up, I got to sit and wait for a while as she pretended to be too busy to hear me. That seems to be some kind of ego trip that certain customers like to exercise. Then they loaded a local guy who showed up after I did, so I waited a little longer. When she came out to check the seal and tell me that I had a door assigned, I acted like I was on the phone and couldn't hear her. Fuck it... good for the gander and so forth. Once she looked good and annoyed, I rolled down my window. So they unloaded me and that was that. In the end, I wasn't actually there all that long.

I've ducked into a little truck stop just north of Dothan for the night. I have to pick up tomorrow a couple hundred miles to the north, in Anniston. As I looked at my intended route, I didn't see any places that I would be likely to find parking at night. I've been to the T/A in Montgomery and it pretty much sucks. All the other places listed in my directory have small lots or no lots at all. My instructions say that I am not to arrive at the shipper more than a half hour before my appointment, so I guess that means I can't park there overnight. So yeah, I'm just staying down here. I can only work a total of ten hours or so between the rest of today and all of tomorrow, so it really makes no difference when I drive up there.