12/31/08

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.