9/6/08

Ahh well, a win is a win. It wasn't exactly pretty, but in defense of the lads, this was their first game while most of the country were playing their second. I may not be a happy camper next weekend, but at least it looks like Michigan ain't so great either. As an added bonus, those Jesuits in Boston lost. Hehehehehe.

Here's a lesson to all of you: I made it through Austin tonight... at 40mph. Now, this may not sound so great for a trip down a major interstate. For that bunch of degenerates though, it's record speed. And the chick at the McDonald's in Italy gave me 11 McNuggets when I ordered 10, so there. The lesson? The world is a better place when the Fighting Irish win.

Speaking of the 40mph thing, I hope you'll indulge me a bit of a non sequitur for a minute or two. When I lived in the Fort Worth area, we were taught in school that Texas was the biggest and baddest republic in America and every other state was pretty much full of pussies. I'm paraphrasing of course, but they really did try to indoctrinate that lesson in us. Good for them, as far as I'm concerned. Nothing wrong with a healthy sense of state pride. What I can't figure out then is why so many people here seem so damn afraid to drive at the speed limit. Don't even think about adding a little bit of rain to the mix. Bunch of candyasses.

Anyhow, what were we discussing? The trip down I-35? It wasn't perfect, but good enough for me. Kinda like the football game in that sense, I suppose. I didn't pick up enough hours to reach Laredo until after midnight tonight had passed, so staying in Lancaster until late in the evening would have been my best approach even without having football to watch all day. Sometimes the stars just align. Since Saturday is now gone, my week will stay at the 2,131 miles plus holiday and northeast pay. Fair enough. I put in my request for home time when I got here. I'm #49 on the board and highlighted for home, so I expect to get out of town within a reasonable time frame. There are a ton of trailers on the yard right now.

9/5/08

Nice cloudy weather in Arkansas today. I got more sleep than I thought I would get. Usually the dreaded greenhouse effect wakes me up once the sun rises. Not today, since there was no sunshine. So I got rolling late in the day. It turns out that the timing was pretty good in that sense. I got to the Dallas area late at night and avoided traffic for the entire route.

So it looks like I have a decent TV signal here. [Have a very merry, extraordinary, KXAS Christmas... Kinda weird the things you remember from when you were a kid...] My new computer has a TV tuner card that is actually pretty cool. I don't watch much television, but you know what tomorrow is... Our Lady's glorious defenders of truth and virtue are on a mission from God. Human sacrifice is an abomination and the Aztecs must be vanquished! Wasting a bunch of good virgins might be the worst thing any civilization could ever do. Have no fear though, the lads are pumped up and ready to do battle. (Plus SDSU lost to a 1-AA team last week, but you know...)

I'll hang out here and watch the game and then roll onward down Satan's Driveway. I should get through late at night so I'll hope for a break in the traffic. Probably construction though...

9/4/08

Ahh, that was a pretty relaxing day. Since I have limited hours available to me, I decided break up the trip and stop at CTL terminals for the next couple of nights. This means that I am able to fall asleep at whatever ridiculous hour my brain decides to shut down and sleep through the morning. Since I know that there will be a parking space waiting for me, I don't have any particular timeline to follow. That's more my style than getting up early and trying to sleep on a schedule.

So I got rolling around noon and took my preferred route through Western Kentucky and down US-51 into Memphis. I didn't really hit any traffic at all today and, aside from a couple of brief rain showers, the weather was pretty nice. The only bad part was that the Skins lost, but you know, just giving the rest of the NFC East a head start. I'll go to Lancaster tomorrow and then Laredo on Saturday.

I decided to scrap that third workout for a while and get more of the core lifts done each week. So...
[Workout A]
Incline Press - Kept same weights, added one rep
French Press - Kept same weights, added two reps
Side Lateral - Kept same weights, added one rep
Seated Calf Raise - Kept same weights, added five reps
Squat - Added ten pounds to each set, kept same reps

What the hell is that? Starting to make actual progress? How do we explain this? Dunno. Maybe I got the fee-vah and the only prescription is more barra-freaking-cuda. Or maybe I'm just starting to get back into shape a little bit. Seriously though, as much of a snoozer as I find him to be, the old guy gave me goosebumps with the last minute and a half of his speech tonight. When was the last time someone got fired up about what we can do as Americans? 1980 maybe? I had just gotten so used to hearing how bad things suck and how we pathetic losers need to be rescued that I found tonight refreshing. I still like the chick better though.

9/3/08

That place in Pittsburgh is freaking crazy. I had aluminum cans this time, as opposed to whatever food items I was hauling last time. So today I was sent to a different set of docks. At first I was glad not to have to go around the back and into that tiny alley again. Then I saw today's dock area. Incredible.

While I was at the dock, I received my next load assignment. When you don't have anywhere to park, a pre-planned load is always welcome. Second verse, same as the first. Just like last time, I had to head up to Hermitage and grab a load (of aluminum cans, funny) headed for Laredo. Just like last time, I was early. Just like last time, I was at the shipper for a while. Just like last time, I got down a little way past Columbus and decided to call it a night.

That 34-hour restart that I got in Laredo over the weekend is starting to evaporate in a hurry. My fresh 70 hours are now down to 22, so I will have to use just about all of them in order to get to Laredo. We'll have to see how things play out from there. I'm putting in for home time when I get to the terminal. At 2,131 miles plus some northeast and holiday pay, the week has been a pretty decent one so far. On the odd chance that I get one more dispatch before midnight on Saturday, this will be one of the better holiday weeks that I've had.

9/2/08

See that house-looking building there? Yeah, it really is a house. It has been converted to office space, but you know, it's a house. That's where my employer sent me this morning. See those cars along the sides of the street? Yeah, those are parking spaces. See what looks like one lane running down the middle? Yeah, that's the street. I suppose that someone might not be inclined to drive a tractor-trailer on that street. Don't be fooled when people say that these companies shouldn't make drivers pass an obstacle course in order to be hired. And thus began my day...

The lady in the house/office asked me what I was delivering. She seemed to think that I was the UPS guy or something. Oh, just thirty pallets of stuff. I imagine we can just pile it on your desk, right? So she gave me the address of the warehouse to which I was supposed to deliver. Google maps came in handy and I headed across town. Here's the real location. See the loading docks? That's always a good sign.

One of my colleagues was sitting on the little side street when I got there, so I gave him the new directions and we both went to the warehouse to make our deliveries. I was #1 when I got empty and he was ahead of me. This must have meant that he got an assignment almost immediately, so I was optimistic about my chances of getting back to work fairly quickly. It took an hour or so, but that ain't too bad.

I had to make a quick jog up to Edison by 3pm, so I had time to stop for a delicious slice of Sbarro pizza along the way. I was still quite early for my appointment though. This meant that I got to hang out at the shipper for a few hours. From there I was headed to Pittsburgh, right down on the riverfront. We've seen this movie before. The second time around was obviously easier since I knew where I was going. The traffic was nice and light tonight and the drive was fairly enjoyable. Listening to the news coverage along the way, I suddenly feel like I may have a crush on a guy named Fred... But then that VP nominee chick is pretty hot... Just one more issue that I'll have to work through on my own I guess.

My delivery time for tomorrow is 9:30am, as opposed to 6am the last time. Maybe there will be an open parking space over here once I'm empty in the morning. Maybe not. I did get some nice cool weather for a workout tonight...

[Workout B]
One-arm Row - Added ten pounds to each set, kept same reps
Curl - Kept same weights, added one rep
Front Lateral - Added five pounds to each set, lost two reps
Stiff-legged Deadlift - Same weights and reps
Hammer Curl - Kept same weights, lost one rep

9/1/08

Pretty decent day on balance, I suppose. Virginia is always a little bit frustrating but today the traffic was a little on the lighter side. People just line up in the left lane in that state and it's a pain in the ass whenever you come up behind slower traffic. My original route would have taken me across I-66 and then up toward New Jersey. I decided to pull a quick re-route as I approached the exit for I-66, instead going up into Pennsylvania and across. That turned out to be a pretty good call. Traffic on the turnpikes was nice and light.

I rolled the dice and hoped that I could find parking at the only service plaza on the New Jersey portion of my route. If not, I would have been wandering toward the customer with no backup plan in mind. Plenty of parking, so we're all good. I'll have around thirty miles or so to drive in the morning.

In honor of the holiday, I'm laying around and being lazy tonight. I engaged in ten hours' worth of labor already today. We'll get back into the weight training tomorrow. Happy Labor Day everyone.

8/31/08

Oy. 670 miles yesterday and then another 685 today. That's some driving. Oy. Tomorrow brings about another 620 or so, depending on how close to my consignee I can manage to find a place to park. I do love me some holiday weekend traffic though. Today was mostly spent with the cruise control engaged and the radio blasting.

Since there isn't a whole lot else to say, I'm going to pass along a bit of information that I received. All you naysayers might want to pay attention. The last time that we had a Presidential election featuring a combat tested Navy pilot against a Harvard Law educated fella who sounded curiously Marxist... 1988. The last Notre Dame national championship season... 1988. I ain't sayin', I'm just sayin'...