3/6/08

It turns out that I can get lost even on a day when I don't pick up or deliver anything. So I have that going for me... which is nice. I called the Kenworth dealer first thing this morning and asked for directions. I-90 to so and so, take a right, take this exit, blah blah blah. I got to the last street and I was supposed to take a left at the second blinking yellow light. Maybe it's just me, but I assumed that this would mean I should proceed past the first blinking yellow. Yeah, there was no second blinking yellow. So I wound up in some residential ghetto, under construction, on a non-truck route, with no idea where I was going. I found my way back to the highway and circled back. As I got off, I called the dealer and asked for directions again. "Turn left at the second blinking yellow." What the hell? I pressed for more info and the guy said that there was a restaurant called Rooster's on the corner. That helped. It was, of course, the first (and only) blinking yellow; the one that I had passed through the first time.

About an hour after I checked in with the service department, they pulled my truck inside. Beauty. Maybe I could still get in a decent day's work after they finished. Ten minutes later, someone must have called and told them who I was. After all, I'm not allowed to have things go smoothly at a Kenworth dealer. They had two windshields in stock - one with a crack and one that was scratched up. So I had to wait all day for their afternoon parts shipment to arrive. On the bright side though, this new windshield is awesome. I hadn't realized just how much the surface of a window gets etched over time. When this one is clean, it looks like there's not even a windshield in front of me.

So I got back on the board around 5pm today and I was #2. By the time I got to the palatial (aka piece of shit) truck stop in Buffalo, I was up to #1. And that's as far as I got today. At least this day gave my log book a break. I wasn't going to have much of a weekend if I kept burning hours the way I have been lately. I pick up good hours tomorrow but then only three and a half hours Saturday. Carrying some hours over from today should help me out.

I got an answer to a question that I never thought to ask earlier today. My dispatch to Buffalo was followed by the little mesage saying I got a few bucks in northeast pay. We always get paid to drive to the shop, but I guess this was the first time I've done so in the northeast. It never occurred to me that I would get my extra nickel. I suppose it makes sense, since I was still driving their truck even if I wasn't picking up or delivering a load. You learn something every day.