8/9/08

I hate the world today. You're so good to me, I know, but I can't change. Tried to tell you but you look at me like maybe I'm an angel underneath. Innocent and sweet...

Oh, seriously dude. I'm a bitch right about now. I got up like a good little trooper at 7am to get on the board. I was #6 at the time, so I asked if it was going to be a while. Yep. Back to bed.

I couldn't get back to sleep at that point, so I wound up pretty much climbing the walls around here. I think I've gotten a handle on at least one thing that was getting me down, but I don't exactly feel any more positive than I did yesterday. So... all morning... waiting. All afternoon... waiting. Getting out of town right now is probably the best thing for me to do. Waiting.

At some point, I called and found that I was up to #3. There's a dumpy little par three golf course right by the terminal, so I headed out for a round of hack and whack. That way, if my turn came up, I could just go to work and I would only lose the ten bucks for my round of golf. I checked when I got to the first tee and I was up to #1. Typical. I fully expected to get an assignment while I was on the course, but a man's gotta eat so that was just the way it would have to be.

I checked again when I got to the third tee. #1 on the board. Fifth tee. #1. Sev... oh hell, you get it. Still #1 all afternoon. Still #1 all evening. Still #1 all night. At 10:30pm, I had to call and have them take me off the board for the night. I could just see the phone call where they tell me to pick up something at 2am and drive through the night. I just don't have it in me right now, so in the interest of safety the right call was to get off the board and try to sleep. Of course, trying to sleep and actually sleeping are two different things, but that's just the way it is for me. So I'll get passed by some people who get into Taylor tonight, then I'll take my place in line tomorrow morning and see what I get.

Kick-ass 127 mile pay period for me. Groovy. I hate the world today.

8/8/08

Another day that I should have gone to work, and another day stuck in some kind of malaise. I have to report for duty by tomorrow morning, so I guess I'll use what's left of my time here to try and dig myself out of this funk. I get to these spots where my thoughts say one thing and my mood says another, and I'm completely inept at trying to figure it out. Weird. I guess I'll sort it out sooner or later.

So, now it's off to do a little running around and tying up loose ends. Back at the grind tomorrow...

8/7/08

Reason #723,434 that Detroit is cooler than your hometown - The mayor is in jail. Yeah, I know. Your envy is understandable.

I probably should have gone back to work today, considering that I just putzed around like a bum. Not surprisingly though, I didn't feel like it. So I'm still home.

I have managed to get most of my mp3 collection onto a single hard drive. I guess that's something, right?

8/6/08

Okay, if you choose to read whatever I'm about to type, you need to accept two preconditions. First is that I'm fairly drunk and I have a beer in my hand, so my sentence structure and verb agreement may not be quite what they should be. Second is that what happened tonight sounds like such complete and utter bullshit that I, much like you, wouldn't believe it when I saw it.

I got my new USB connection card from Sprint this afternoon. I had some issues getting it installed onto my system. Then I had some issues getting the patches and updates to run properly. So I was laying around, essentially connected to the world via computer just like I am when I'm out on the road. For whatever reason, I found this to be quite depressing so I went out for a drive. Somehow the idea of burning fossil fuels with no apparent destination just sets my mind at ease sometimes. My little jab at the global warming crowd I guess.

So it was a nice night and I was out cruising around. At some point it occurred to me that I would like to have a beer. I wasn't really in the 'bar' kind of mood, so I stopped at my boy Nasim's place to grab a bottle. Forty ounce Mickey's = therapy for three dollars. When I walked back out to the alley where I was parked, things got strange. Two black guys came walking up along Telegraph Road. They stopped and one of them asked me if Joy Road was ahead, as he pointed to the north. I told him that Joy Road was in fact to the north, but it was a hell of a way to the north. He asked if I could give him and his colleague a ride to Joy Road. No. That was an easy one.

I had my weight bench in the back seat, so that was the most convenient excuse. He persisted. "Can't you please give us a ride?" (And then here's where it gets really bizarre.) "They just let us out down here and we're walking all the way to Joy Road." Naturally, I was leery about the "just let us out" part. That made it sound like they just got out of jail or something. Then he continued... "We just got out of the Dearborn jail and we've been walking. Can't you give us a ride man?"

I can only speak for myself here, but I find amazing the number of thoughts that can cross the human mind in less than two seconds. Take, for instance, my human mind this evening. In order (as closely as I can recall) -

(1) I'm in a dark alley.
(2) I don't know these guys.
(3) Ain't I supposed to be afraid of black people in dark alleys?
(4) My weight bench really does block the whole back seat.
(5) What jail lets people out late at night?
(6) Is the Dearborn jail really around here?
(7) Did he seriously say that he just got out of fucking jail?!?
(8) Why in the hell is the other guy hanging out around the corner of the building where I can't see him?
(9) Do I have any money on me?
(10) What's the worst that could happen?
(11) The worst that could happen is that they could kill me. That would suck.
(12) I really just want to sit in this alley and drink my beer.
(13) What's the best that could happen?
(14) They just got out of fucking jail. The best that could happen is that they could say thanks.
(15) They wouldn't have told me they were in jail if they had ill intentions, would they?

And #15 took the prize. Maybe a couple of wackos take me out and I'm never heard from again. What's the difference, really? I had a pretty good read on the one guy and he seemed okay. So we moved the weight bench and they hopped in. As a public service, I told them that they probably shoudn't mention the part about getting out of jail the next time that they need a ride. Just a little FYI, you know?

I was invited to a party once we reached our destination in Redford. Given that my whole departure from home was caused by an overwhelming feeling of anonymity, I couldn't exactly say no at that point. Someone with whom to party was better than noone with whom to party, right? I had a pretty good time, I have to admit. I never did ask what exactly my passengers were accused of doing, in order to get them sent to the clink. Somehow I don't think I really need to know.

While I chose not to partake in some of the festivities (aka 'the chronic'), I did have a good time. A certain lovely lady added what only a certain lovely lady can add. That always improves my impression of a given evening. Good times. Good times. Now I guess I'll go to sleep, wake up with a hangover, and resume wondering just how irrelevant one man can possibly be. My guess is that none of my 'friends' from tonight would give a damn about me tomorrow.

8/5/08

Nothing like a good barbecue. That's what I say. Steaks, burgers, potatoes, shish kabobs... mmm, good.

I also began the first in my series of experiments with my automobile and its fuel supply today, so we'll see how that goes. Step one was to add a gallon of E-85 when I filled the tank. We'll run a tank or two that way and then kick the E-85 up to two gallons the next time around. My tires are already inflated and, despite the Senator's proclamation, I do not take pride in being ignorant. So I'm toying with my own ways of burning a little less gasoline while not sacrificing my lifestyle. It seems to me that burning a little less while producing as much as possible domestically would be the smart move to cut our imports, but then again I'm not terribly worried about letting the (American) oil producers get rich in the process. I don't really worry much about the whole fossil fuel thing either, but you know, I'll be the Guinea pig for my fellow Americans. I still haven't decided if I'll start brewing my own 'shine in order to get the tax credits, but we'll have to play that part by ear.

This will be my last comment about the Tigers' bullpen for the rest of this season - Fuck the Tigers' bullpen. Nothing further.

8/4/08

Quite a long day, given how little I actually accomplished. I knew that my consignee receives shipments between 8am and noon, Monday through Friday. I shot a phone call to the terminal, asking if I could deliver at 11am instead of 8am today. Sure thing, no problem. Sweet.

So that gave me a chance to get a little more sleep this morning. Right before I got to the customer in Midland, I received my next planned load information. I would be picking up in Midland and going to... Newark, New Jersey. I assumed that I would be relaying the load in Taylor in order to start my home time, but there was no way to know for sure. The plan said that I was heading to Newark.

At the customer, I dropped my loaded trailer and located an empty. I didn't bother hooking up to the empty, since I had a suspicion that I would be picking up at the same place. I've been down that road once before - left with an empty, drove to a truck stop, got info to go back to the same place and swap the empty for a loaded trailer. I sent in my empty call today before I went through any of that process, in order to see if my hunch was right. Yep. Picking up a pre-loaded trailer at the same place.

I went back out to the traffic office to see which trailer I needed to take. They gave me my trailer number and sent me back into the drop yard. The trailer wasn't there yet. Bummer. It did give me a lot of time for a nice long nap though. After I woke up and went back into the drop yard, my loaded trailer was ready to roll. When they sent my dispatch through outer space and into the satellite gadgetry, I was sent to Taylor and not to Newark. So the folks were on top of it after all. No worries.

I dropped the trailer and paperwork at the terminal not long ago, so now I'm actually on real home time for a couple of days. When I consider how early I started today and how late I got home today, in order to earn $48 today... that's at least a little depressing. Oh well. The Tigers are off so they can't lose tonight, the Redskins are the only NFL team in the whole universe with a win this season, and I have 24 cans of delightful malt brewed goodness in the fridge. Life could be worse. Life could be a whole lot worse.

8/3/08

Word association time...

Fernando Rodney - douchebag.
Kyle Farnsworth - douchepump.
Todd Jones - douchesquirt.
Joel Zumaya - douchesqueeze.

So anyway, how is the back end of your team's bullpen? Yeah, I guess you could say that the back end of my team's bullpen sucks. Oh well. At least I am convinced that my Skins will win a (meaningless) (pretend) game tonight.

I think I'll head to work around 4:30am tomorrow. Damn that's early. Goodnight.