First post on the new computer... ooh, thrilling. Of course it would have been better if this damn thing hadn't consumed the better part of my day. I ordered a usb modem from Sprint last night. That should arrive within the next couple of days, but until then I needed to find another source of internet access. I took my router to my parents' house and set up a network using their Comcast connection. Good and fast. Okay, let's get to work.
...All afternoon, all evening, and all night later, I finally got everything moved and upgraded and re-downloaded and all the rest of it. That's better.
I guess tomorrow I should do my laundry and stuff, in case something weird goes on when I head back to work on Monday morning. I'm guessing that I should be back home Monday night, but things don't always make sense in my line of work. We'll see.
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Friday, August 1, 2008
8/1/08
Well, I guess that I had to earn my stripes before I could get my weekend off. Two accidents in Ohio and the usual construction nonsense in Michigan ought to do the trick. Hey, what's an extra hour on the road anyway?
Tonight I get to engage in the time-honored tradition of setting up a new computer and trying to transfer files. This here piece of shit has run its course, so I'm migrating to a bigger and better machine. My new computer was actually delivered a while ago. I expected it to get here the last time I was home... and it got here right after I went back on the road. Story of life. It's quite an impressive device though, I must admit. My PCI internet card won't work with the new beast, so there goes some cash tomorrow at the Sprint store. Otherwise, I think I've covered all the bases.
If you'll excuse me now, I also need to alleviate a terrible shortage of malted hops in my blood stream. Slainte.
Tonight I get to engage in the time-honored tradition of setting up a new computer and trying to transfer files. This here piece of shit has run its course, so I'm migrating to a bigger and better machine. My new computer was actually delivered a while ago. I expected it to get here the last time I was home... and it got here right after I went back on the road. Story of life. It's quite an impressive device though, I must admit. My PCI internet card won't work with the new beast, so there goes some cash tomorrow at the Sprint store. Otherwise, I think I've covered all the bases.
If you'll excuse me now, I also need to alleviate a terrible shortage of malted hops in my blood stream. Slainte.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
7/31/08
Do you suppose that I could ever find a job hauling empty trailers around the country? That would be pretty cool. The drive down to Chattanooga with my empty trailer had me feeling all manly and stuff. Whenever the other trucks would hit a hill and slow down, I would blow right on by. I got to my customer around 6am, so my timing was good in terms of traffic. My shipper didn't open until 7am though. I pulled around the corner and grabbed a wi-fi signal from the house across the street while I waited.
Right at 7am, the security guard told me to pull into the facility, scale my empty, and go to the far end. They used some kind of a portable ramp thing to load my trailer, so that was something different. I backed up as close to it as I could get and then a guy chained it to my trailer. After I sat around for about an hour, they went hog wild and got me loaded in about five minutes. I'm hauling thirty rolls of paper on this trip. That's thirty big ass, heavy ass rolls of paper. There were three forklift guys going in a rotation and doing the loading. Pretty impressive.
Once they were done, I had to drive out the other end of the facility, around the block, and back in the entrance in order to scale out. Then I got to back out onto the street, since another truck had taken my place in front of the portable ramp thing. There was no room for two trucks to pass each other in that place. Then it was back up and into the mountains with another 45,000 pounds. Ahh, I love my job, I love my job, I love my job.
By the time I got into the mountains north of Knoxville, the drive was looking like a repeat of yesterday. About the only difference is that the slower traffic came from truck drivers instead of blue hairs. It looks like the Crete trucks are about as slow as the Schneider trucks now. Bummer. Anyway, there were a handful of us that were all running right around 65mph and all pretty heavy. So we sort of hung together in the slow lane and did our thing. A Crete guy came out of a rest area and decided that he would pass us going up a hill. Sensible enough, assuming that he was lighter. Why wait behind the rest of us, right? Well, he may have been a little lighter, but not much. He barely managed to pass me (the guy in the back) before we got to the top of the first hill and he cut me off. Then, on the way down, I had to ride the brakes because he was way slower than I was. I won't go into a full-blown play by play here, but the bottom line is that this particular Crete truck could only run about 62mph on flat ground. If you know that you are slower than everybody else, you don't cut off people who are going faster than you. Moron. Luckily for me, he pulled into the scales when the sign said 'closed' and I left him behind. There were other trucks waiting to scale, but the cops were probably closing up each time they got a few trucks to inspect. In any case, he turned in and I drove away. Moron.
In the rain and in the mountains, I was about ready just to park and say to hell with today. The Tigers were coming on at noon though, so I knew that I would have a diversion to keep me occupied if I could just hang in there a little longer. Yeah, they lost. I got to northern Kentucky today, so tomorrow will be a pretty easy drive home.
I suppose now I'll try to deal with my rampant case of racism. Until the good Senator was kind enough to tell me yesterday, I had no idea that my political views on the various issues were based on the appearance of the guys on the dollar bills. Then again, I am a "typical white person," so it probably stands to reason that I must be a racist. I guess you learn something every day. Hopefully someone can help me work through it. (And pssst: Increased economic growth in the second quarter. Am I a racist, or a seer? Hmmm.)
Right at 7am, the security guard told me to pull into the facility, scale my empty, and go to the far end. They used some kind of a portable ramp thing to load my trailer, so that was something different. I backed up as close to it as I could get and then a guy chained it to my trailer. After I sat around for about an hour, they went hog wild and got me loaded in about five minutes. I'm hauling thirty rolls of paper on this trip. That's thirty big ass, heavy ass rolls of paper. There were three forklift guys going in a rotation and doing the loading. Pretty impressive.
Once they were done, I had to drive out the other end of the facility, around the block, and back in the entrance in order to scale out. Then I got to back out onto the street, since another truck had taken my place in front of the portable ramp thing. There was no room for two trucks to pass each other in that place. Then it was back up and into the mountains with another 45,000 pounds. Ahh, I love my job, I love my job, I love my job.
By the time I got into the mountains north of Knoxville, the drive was looking like a repeat of yesterday. About the only difference is that the slower traffic came from truck drivers instead of blue hairs. It looks like the Crete trucks are about as slow as the Schneider trucks now. Bummer. Anyway, there were a handful of us that were all running right around 65mph and all pretty heavy. So we sort of hung together in the slow lane and did our thing. A Crete guy came out of a rest area and decided that he would pass us going up a hill. Sensible enough, assuming that he was lighter. Why wait behind the rest of us, right? Well, he may have been a little lighter, but not much. He barely managed to pass me (the guy in the back) before we got to the top of the first hill and he cut me off. Then, on the way down, I had to ride the brakes because he was way slower than I was. I won't go into a full-blown play by play here, but the bottom line is that this particular Crete truck could only run about 62mph on flat ground. If you know that you are slower than everybody else, you don't cut off people who are going faster than you. Moron. Luckily for me, he pulled into the scales when the sign said 'closed' and I left him behind. There were other trucks waiting to scale, but the cops were probably closing up each time they got a few trucks to inspect. In any case, he turned in and I drove away. Moron.
In the rain and in the mountains, I was about ready just to park and say to hell with today. The Tigers were coming on at noon though, so I knew that I would have a diversion to keep me occupied if I could just hang in there a little longer. Yeah, they lost. I got to northern Kentucky today, so tomorrow will be a pretty easy drive home.
I suppose now I'll try to deal with my rampant case of racism. Until the good Senator was kind enough to tell me yesterday, I had no idea that my political views on the various issues were based on the appearance of the guys on the dollar bills. Then again, I am a "typical white person," so it probably stands to reason that I must be a racist. I guess you learn something every day. Hopefully someone can help me work through it. (And pssst: Increased economic growth in the second quarter. Am I a racist, or a seer? Hmmm.)
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
7/30/08
Did you ever wonder whose is the first voice that people hear in the morning. For some, it might be a significant other whispering sweet nothings. Others might hear the wacky FM disc jockey on their clock radio. Maybe some hear their neighbor Stanley yelling at his wife Stella. This morning, the first voice that I heard belonged to a security guard. What a dick. My appointment time was 6am and there was one truck with a 4am appointment ahead of me. When I got up at 5am, the other truck was still in my door so I set my alarm for 5:45am and went back to bed. The security guard called my cell phone at 5:30am and started bitching at me. He said that I needed to get to my door immediately and, if I didn't hurry up, he didn't know what to tell me. Whatever dude. I drove over to the dock area and the damn truck ahead of me was still in the door. Peckerhead.
A short time later, the other truck left and I backed in. In a strange twist, the lumpers were the most polite people at the place. Usually those people are some miserable SOB's too. Not today though. It was fifty bucks to get my trailer unloaded, so we'll have to see if my reimbursement gets processed before my payroll week closes. I was empty around 7am and got on the board at #1.
I drove about ten miles south to the nearest truck stop and, no sooner than I had pulled my sleeping bag over me, got my next assignment. I had to shoot up to Raleigh and make a drop/hook and then head to Knoxville to relay the load. The shipper in Raleigh is one where the loads are always heavy, so that trip across I-40 was pretty brutal. Rain... mountains... blue hairs... oy. That sucked.
I passed off the load at the T/A on the west edge of Knoxville a little while ago and now I think I'll call it a night. I didn't sleep all that well and today was a taxing one, so I'm feeling a little tired. I got a pre-plan while I was on the way to Knoxville, picking up tomorrow morning in Chattanooga and then heading to Midland, Michigan. I have to pick up by 7am, so leaving here bright and early should get me away from Knoxville before the traffic gets bad.
This next run takes care of getting me home for the most part, but it doesn't deliver until Monday morning. I suppose I'll just head up to Taylor and take a couple of days off and then drive up to Midland on Monday morning. That will add a few miles to the trip, but it probably beats idling my truck for two days. I've been stuck in the heat and idling non-stop for the better part of the last couple of weeks. The other option would be to see if the people in Taylor will take the load from me and pass it off to someone else. It would be pretty shitty to stick another driver with that little short drive to Midland though. It won't hurt me to run it up there.
My week will wrap up with something over 2,600 miles, a bunch of northeast pay, and $35 for one extra drop. That's a pretty solid week. As long as all goes well at home, I should be able to snag a decent pay check for next week too. If I do end up with this weekend off, I imagine that I'll only take a day or two of actual home time once I get back to Taylor.
A short time later, the other truck left and I backed in. In a strange twist, the lumpers were the most polite people at the place. Usually those people are some miserable SOB's too. Not today though. It was fifty bucks to get my trailer unloaded, so we'll have to see if my reimbursement gets processed before my payroll week closes. I was empty around 7am and got on the board at #1.
I drove about ten miles south to the nearest truck stop and, no sooner than I had pulled my sleeping bag over me, got my next assignment. I had to shoot up to Raleigh and make a drop/hook and then head to Knoxville to relay the load. The shipper in Raleigh is one where the loads are always heavy, so that trip across I-40 was pretty brutal. Rain... mountains... blue hairs... oy. That sucked.
I passed off the load at the T/A on the west edge of Knoxville a little while ago and now I think I'll call it a night. I didn't sleep all that well and today was a taxing one, so I'm feeling a little tired. I got a pre-plan while I was on the way to Knoxville, picking up tomorrow morning in Chattanooga and then heading to Midland, Michigan. I have to pick up by 7am, so leaving here bright and early should get me away from Knoxville before the traffic gets bad.
This next run takes care of getting me home for the most part, but it doesn't deliver until Monday morning. I suppose I'll just head up to Taylor and take a couple of days off and then drive up to Midland on Monday morning. That will add a few miles to the trip, but it probably beats idling my truck for two days. I've been stuck in the heat and idling non-stop for the better part of the last couple of weeks. The other option would be to see if the people in Taylor will take the load from me and pass it off to someone else. It would be pretty shitty to stick another driver with that little short drive to Midland though. It won't hurt me to run it up there.
My week will wrap up with something over 2,600 miles, a bunch of northeast pay, and $35 for one extra drop. That's a pretty solid week. As long as all goes well at home, I should be able to snag a decent pay check for next week too. If I do end up with this weekend off, I imagine that I'll only take a day or two of actual home time once I get back to Taylor.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
7/29/08
That went a lot better than expected. I knocked out a full eleven hours through the night and into this morning, getting me all the way to Henderson, North Carolina. I hadn't really checked my map all that closely, but I didn't realize that I would be able to make it that far. The overnight traffic was obviously light, with the exception of construction zones sporadically placed along the entire route.
If you'll indulge me a quick detour... I hear from various folks, including our next President, that we don't need to increase our oil supply because the answer is "alternatives." So we take it up the ass on gas prices while they spend hundreds of billions of tax dollars trying to find a way to use bunny fur and warm hugs to power our vehicles. Why then can't we spend a few hundred billion dollars trying to find the replacement for asphalt and concrete? From coast to coast and border to border, our roads are all messed up. Every summer since we have had roads in this country, the roads have been getting repaired and replaced. Clearly we can't pave our way out of the problem. We need a new type of road surface. Just a thought.
Anyhow, the timing of this run was about as perfect as I could hope for it to be. Traffic was starting to kick up a little by the time I went through Richmond, but otherwise everything was groovy. When I woke up this afternoon, I took a look at the directions to my consignee. They said that overnight parking was available, so I went ahead and drove down to Salisbury once my ten hour break was complete. It was late enough that the usual meat grinder from Durham to Greensboro wasn't too crowded, but early enough to let me get another break in before tomorrow morning. By the time I'm empty in the morning, I will have been here for more than ten hours so I'll have a fresh clock. And that, my friends, is how you drive 800 miles down the east coast in less than 24 hours.
I sent in my request for home time when I got here. Hopefully the planner dudes will come up with something cool whenever they start work in the morning.
If you'll indulge me a quick detour... I hear from various folks, including our next President, that we don't need to increase our oil supply because the answer is "alternatives." So we take it up the ass on gas prices while they spend hundreds of billions of tax dollars trying to find a way to use bunny fur and warm hugs to power our vehicles. Why then can't we spend a few hundred billion dollars trying to find the replacement for asphalt and concrete? From coast to coast and border to border, our roads are all messed up. Every summer since we have had roads in this country, the roads have been getting repaired and replaced. Clearly we can't pave our way out of the problem. We need a new type of road surface. Just a thought.
Anyhow, the timing of this run was about as perfect as I could hope for it to be. Traffic was starting to kick up a little by the time I went through Richmond, but otherwise everything was groovy. When I woke up this afternoon, I took a look at the directions to my consignee. They said that overnight parking was available, so I went ahead and drove down to Salisbury once my ten hour break was complete. It was late enough that the usual meat grinder from Durham to Greensboro wasn't too crowded, but early enough to let me get another break in before tomorrow morning. By the time I'm empty in the morning, I will have been here for more than ten hours so I'll have a fresh clock. And that, my friends, is how you drive 800 miles down the east coast in less than 24 hours.
I sent in my request for home time when I got here. Hopefully the planner dudes will come up with something cool whenever they start work in the morning.
Monday, July 28, 2008
7/28/08
And everything is cool in the mind of a gangsta, 'cause gangsta ass niggas think deep.
Up 365 and yo 24/7, cause real gangsta ass niggas don't sleep...
Yeah, so I took a few naps yesterday. And I just woke up from a nice rest today. Let's not ruin the narrative. For a while there, it felt like I hadn't slept in... well... a while there. Damn it feels good to be a gangsta.
I got a call last night, some time after 10pm, asking if I would have the hours to cover a load. It would be a hundred something miles to Hazleton, Pennsylvania and then two hundred forty miles up to the suburbs of Albany for a first drop at 5am. Given the miles involved, it looked like it would be tight but manageable. They assigned the load to me and then I saw that it would be a little tougher than previously thought. The route to Hazleton would take me up PA-309, a skinny two lane road snaking through the mountains. Oh yeah, and it was foggy as hell too.
I rolled into the shipper around 1am and made a rapid-fire drop/hook. All signed out and ready to roll at 1:15am, it was back to the road time. According to the security fella at the shipper, one of our guys brought a load into Hazleton on Saturday night, with the expectation that he would be taking the load to New York with him when he left. Apparently (again, according to the security fella) he didn't have a drop number for the load that he brought to Hazleton so they wouldn't let him drop it. Next appointment --> Monday. So the dude had to sit on his inbound load all weekend and I got a call at the absolute last possible second. The paperwork says that the trailer was ready at 1pm on July 18th. Saturday (when the problem allegedly was discovered) was not yesterday, let alone late last night, so chew on that one for a second. A little more lead time could have helped. Driver's fault? Customer's fault? CTL's fault? Who cares, really? I just had to haul balls to New York. That's all I know.
When the guy from CTL called me to see if I could cover the load, he said that he would try to stack something behind it for me. That way I wouldn't get stuck sitting in Albany after my second drop with low hours available and nothing planned. Good lookin' out my brother. My next planned load came through somewhere along the way as I was driving. I'm headed from Clinton, Massachusetts to North Carolina for a Wednesday morning drop. The cruise across and into New York in the middle of the night went pretty well. That thick fog was pretty persistent, so I had to stay on my toes. Traffic was light though, so I managed to roll into the customer's lot at 5:10am. That's pretty good time, the way I see it.
When I sent in my arrival call at the first drop, I got the usual response - directions to the second drop. Then, a few seconds later, my satellite unit beeped with another message. I can assure you that the last thing I needed to see was anything asking me why I got to the customer ten minutes late. Guess what I saw. Haha, fooled you. It was a note thanking me for doing such a good job on short notice, from whoever had been monitoring my progress throughout the night. Well ain't I just special?
I was sent down to Albany for my second drop a couple of hours later and then I was empty a few hours after that. I had time to get to Clinton within my 14 hour window, but I didn't have time to take a ten hour break and then go to Clinton. ( My appointment was for 7pm.) So I headed straight here. Either I could take a ten hour break at the shipper or they could load me quickly and I could roll down the highway until I found a place to take a break. When I checked in, the guy said that he had some bad news and that it would be several hours. Say no more, fair chap. One man's bad news is another man's lullaby. I was asleep within mere seconds. They just woke me up and gave me a door a few minutes ago. By the time I'm loaded and ready to roll, I'll only have to hang out for an hour or so until my ten hours have elapsed.
Then it's another overnighter for old Joey. I'm not even going to try to get cutesy with the schedule on this one. I'll take off as soon as possible, trying to knock out as many pain in the ass choke points on my route before the sun comes up. The funny thing is that, in trying to take care of me with a pre-plan, they managed to find a trip that is almost completely along I-95 (and the part on I-85 ain't much fun either). I get to tackle Connecticut, The Bronx, the Jersey Turnpike, the Delaware Memorial Bridge, the Delaware Turnpike, Baltimore, D.C., Richmond, and Greensboro, along with various mountainous and hilly terrain along the way. As much driving as I can do overnight, combined with as much sleeping as I can do during the day... that's the plan.
So, for a gangsta like myself, you know that it's all about the Benjamins or something like that. How are we looking? Well, it's considerably better than it was 24 hours ago. That's for sure. I'll be empty on Wednesday morning, with hours available, and I'll be somewhere over 1,300 miles. The vast majority of those are northeast miles (with the extra nickel). Plus I have my $35 for the extra stop this morning. Halfway through a pay week, that's pretty decent. I'll put in my request for home time once I get down to North Carolina, so I should grab a few more bucks on the way back north. The only downside thus far, with respect to pay, is that I'll probably have to hire a lumper at the consignee. Then I'll have to hope that my reimbursement gets processed before my paycheck for the week gets processed. Otherwise it will be one of those informal $60 loans to my employer.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
7/27/08
Once upon a time, I was dating a chick who had moved to Michigan in order to attend U of M in Ann Arbor. One night, we had dinner with her aunt and uncle who had just moved to Ann Arbor from Princeton. Sitting on the patio in the summer, there were a few bugs around. The uncle noted that he missed New Jersey, where there were no mosquitos. On account of the West Nile virus, the folks in Jersey had eradicated the entire mosquito population. I assumed that he was exaggerating at least a little bit. Nope. There is not one mosquito in the state of New Jersey. I've spent nights up by New York. I've spent nights down by Philly. I've stayed at truck stops and rest areas. Last night, I was parked on a street next to a field full of weeds. I had my windows down the whole time. Not one mosquito. If Rick Reilly really wants to cure malaria, he should arrange it so that everyone in Africa just moves to New Jersey.
Why the story about mosquitos, you ask? Well, I'm trying to follow the President's lead and looking on the bright side. Sure, I've been sitting on my ass way too much this week. Sure, I'll have to stay out for at least another few days before requesting home time, since I only made $800 last week. Sure, the Tigers only took one out of three from the White Sox. Sure, I just ate a whole pizza for dinner and now my pants are too tight. Sure, I don't have any access either to a keg of beer or to an adventurous college chick who thinks that I'm witty. Sure, Rollye James and Alex Jones told me that we're being slowly exterminated by chemtrails. At least there are no mosquitos in New Jersey.
I slept late this morning. Woke up. Still #1 on the board, as I was when I dropped off yesterday. Hung around for a while. Drove down to Carney's Point. Lunch. Shower. Watched the Tigers. Took a nap. Set a new personal record on cell phone Tetris. Took a nap. Watched season four of The Simpsons. Took a nap. Ate the aforementioned pizza (actually there's one slice left, but that's just details). Placed some trade orders to rebalance my IRA tomorrow. Did some shopping online for shit that I don't need, using money that I didn't need to spend. Still on the board, waiting for work. If you're on the east coast and you need to ship something, please call Con-way Truckload right away.
Now, enough about me trying to earn a living and the man trying to keep me down. On to a more serious matter. Since you'll probably see this on the evening news, I'm going to address it directly. Apparently some video of an ex-girlfriend and me has surfaced. All I can say is that sometimes a woman has to be reminded of her place in the world. While I had hoped to keep this matter private, I am not ashamed...
Why the story about mosquitos, you ask? Well, I'm trying to follow the President's lead and looking on the bright side. Sure, I've been sitting on my ass way too much this week. Sure, I'll have to stay out for at least another few days before requesting home time, since I only made $800 last week. Sure, the Tigers only took one out of three from the White Sox. Sure, I just ate a whole pizza for dinner and now my pants are too tight. Sure, I don't have any access either to a keg of beer or to an adventurous college chick who thinks that I'm witty. Sure, Rollye James and Alex Jones told me that we're being slowly exterminated by chemtrails. At least there are no mosquitos in New Jersey.
I slept late this morning. Woke up. Still #1 on the board, as I was when I dropped off yesterday. Hung around for a while. Drove down to Carney's Point. Lunch. Shower. Watched the Tigers. Took a nap. Set a new personal record on cell phone Tetris. Took a nap. Watched season four of The Simpsons. Took a nap. Ate the aforementioned pizza (actually there's one slice left, but that's just details). Placed some trade orders to rebalance my IRA tomorrow. Did some shopping online for shit that I don't need, using money that I didn't need to spend. Still on the board, waiting for work. If you're on the east coast and you need to ship something, please call Con-way Truckload right away.
Now, enough about me trying to earn a living and the man trying to keep me down. On to a more serious matter. Since you'll probably see this on the evening news, I'm going to address it directly. Apparently some video of an ex-girlfriend and me has surfaced. All I can say is that sometimes a woman has to be reminded of her place in the world. While I had hoped to keep this matter private, I am not ashamed...
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