10/25/08

Ahhhh... this evening finds me relaxing comfortably in the Corleone Family's Indiana estate. I had plenty of time to get into Illinois or Missouri today, but I saw a bunch of billboards for exit 41 in Indiana. Hotels with truck parking, restaurants, and be-... umm... convenience stores, all right off the interstate. It's somewhere on the order of 450 miles from here to my destination so tomorrow shouldn't be too terrible. I need to request home time, so I'm driving straight to the customer tomorrow and we'll just see what happens with respect to parking. In order to put in my request I have to be at my destination. Given next weekend's plans and the fact that I need to be home by Friday, I don't want to wait until Monday morning to put in my request.

So football is on TV now. The World Series is coming on later (pending weather), as is the Notre Dame game. My belly is full. The fridge has plenty of cool refreshment. Best part --> The betting line has moved toward Washington this week. Despite the loss to North Carolina, Notre Dame did in fact beat the point spread in that game. This means that the gamblers have still been 100% wrong about the Irish this year, without a single exception. Good news for the good guys. Since they're now favored by ten, they would win pretty convincingly if they kept the 100% streak alive. Couple hours...

Homeboy on I-90 was ready a couple days ago:

10/24/08

Well, 465 miles today ain't a bad start to this trip. I came down along US-11 to I-81 to I-90 to I-271 and then decided that I had gone far enough. The rest area just before I-71 had a spot for me, so I took it as a sign from above... or something.

I did have a bit of a change of pace this morning as I dropped down toward Syracuse. The cops were inspecting people at a rest area just south of Watertown. Nothing major really. They took my log book and license and came back a little while later with a piece of paper saying that I had no violations. Then I told the guy, "Look here flatfoot. Don't be giving me a hard time, hey. Just talk to Smitty downtown about me. All the coppers know the Fenian Godfather, see." Actually, no, I didn't say that. That's what I would have said if I were in a 1920's gangster film though. I really said, "Fuck tha police comin' straight from the underground. Young nigga got it bad cuz I'm brown, and not the other color so police think, they have the authority to kill a minority." Oh man, I did it again. Sorry. I didn't say that either. That's what I would have said if I were in a 1990's gangster rap song though. Today I just said "thanks" and went back to work. I know. I'm so freaking conventional.

I was actually impressed by how friendly the trooper was. Let's see... a cop in Colorado once kicked me out of an illegal parking space. He was super nice about it and suggested a nearby street where I could park legally. A cop in Michigan once pulled me over for an inspection. He was super nice and let me off with a warning about an illegal wheelbase. A cop in Georgia once pulled me over for a burned out headlight. He was super nice and let me go with a warning. A cop in New Mexico... actually that guy was a cocksucker. Nevermind him. A cop in Tennessee once saw me speeding toward a construction zone and flashed his disco lights to warn me to slow down, instead of pulling me over. A cop in the Bronx once caught me in the left lane and, when I thought he was pulling me over, he just yelled at me over the PA and sped off. The guy today thanked me for my time and wished me a safe trip after he finished doing his job. I guess I have to draw one of two conclusions. Either the local cops back home all just had issues that caused them to be assholes when I was growing up... or I just deserved it. Yeah, don't answer that one.

Now this week's miles have all been dispatched and the smoke has all cleared. What do we have? 2,799 miles plus a little over $60 in northeast pay. Another paycheck around $1,130 or something like that. Steady as she goes. This is probably not the best time to go home. Usually it works best to ride out the good times and go home when things slow down. Alas, I have some pretty fun plans coming up so I'll have to deal with it.

Looks like tomorrow night should find me in a cozy motel somewhere in Illinois or Missouri, depending on how late I sleep. Bring on the football. To whet your appetite, bwahahahaha... Ty...

10/23/08

Another day, another early morning. I made my drive across to Marcy without incident. Then when I checked in with the guard, he said that my drop number had already been used. Nice. So, for the second day in a row, I had to get my fleet manager on the phone and sort things out. He spoke with the CSR who then gave me another number to try. Another CTL driver had arrived about twenty minutes ahead of me, so maybe he had inadvertently been given my number. I would try his number and see if that worked. Nope. He had used the right number. My original number was used yesterday by a WalMart driver. So, back on the phone... 45 minutes later they had everything worked out and I got a new drop number. At least the security guys were pretty friendly. If I had to hang out with someone for 45 minutes, they might as well not be a couple of assholes.

Once I made my drop, I headed over to the industrial park in Rome to wait for whatever was next. I was #1 on the board, so the little delay really hadn't impacted me in any meaningful way. I slept away the rest of the morning and most of the afternoon before I got my next assignment. I would be picking up in the morning further north in New York and delivering on Monday in Kansas City.

So, I had to decide whether to stay in Rome and then drive up tomorrow morning or to drive up today. My stop location information said that the shipper had parking available, as long as the gate was unlocked. Well how in the hell do you know if the gate is unlocked until you get there? I chose to head out right away. My thought was that I should be able to arrive during business hours today and have a pretty good shot at finding an open gate. I really had no Plan B, so I was relieved to find that I was able to get in and park. The route that I took was all state highways winding through the hills. If I couldn't park at the shipper, I was pretty much SOL.

The drive today was pretty nice with an empty trailer. A few small towns and a few scenic areas, almost without any traffic at all. I find myself tonight without internet service (explaining the day-late posting) so it looks like I'll have to read a book and improve my mental capacity instead of shrinking it tonight. One major issue that almost came up was that of starvation. I don't keep food with me in the truck, as I simply prefer to stop and buy something when I'm hungry. There was nowhere to stop today. In a harrowing tale of survival, I clung to life by eating chocolate animal crackers. Hey, it ain't pretty but a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do.

10/22/08

Pretty eventful day, I suppose. Of course waking up at 4am, in and of itself, qualifies as eventful for me.

I shot up to the WalMart DC in Gas City and checked in. They assigned me to a door and instructed me on the procedures (slide tandems, drop trailer, chock wheels...). I set up in front of my dock and hopped out to slide the tandems. Damn things wouldn't break loose. So I hopped in and wiggled the truck back and forth a little. Second try, broke 'em loose. I got back in the truck and locked down my trailer brakes so I could slide the wheels back. No. What? I got out and checked to see if the handle had slipped and the tandem pins had locked back out. No, the pins were still pulled in. I hopped in the truck and tried again. No.

When I crawled under the trailer to see what was going on, I found that the handle was pulling the pins from the left side of the trailer but the bar going to the right side was disconnected. Must have broken a bolt or something. I guess I'm pretty powerful, or something. So I dropped the trailer with the wheels as-is and headed inside to check with the receiving clerk. I was sure not to mention the tandem thing. What they don't know won't hurt 'em. They gave me a beeper and told me that there would be no charge for the unloading. That's always nice. A couple of hours later, my beeper went off and I retrieved my trailer.

I had delivered 1,232 cases of various food items. One case of chocolate animal crackers was torn in the corner and rejected by WalMart. That's a new one for me, so I wasn't exactly sure what I had to do. I called my fleet manager but the safety people who handle cargo claims weren't in yet. After 8am Central, we got everything squared away and I somehow wound up as the proud owner of a case of animal crackers. Who wants to bet my snobby little niece will give Uncle Joe a hug this time when he gets home?

I was due in Fort Wayne by 1pm. On account of starting so early today, I wanted to see if I could get rolling a little sooner. I knew that the 14-hour rule was going to play a role one way or the other. I headed straight to the shipper and they loaded me immediately. Beauty. Next up was the Petro in Stony Ridge. I needed to get the tandem arm gadget thingy on my trailer fixed. I also had a pair of marker lights out on my truck. One that I fixed a while ago had stopped working (most likely on account of the fact that I can't fix shit). The other one just stopped working last night. I called the road service dudes to see if I was due for preventive maintenance on my truck while I was at it. Yep.

We have some newfangled Qualcomm protocol for requesting purchase orders, so I sent my message to the shop. I'm not sure which repairs are supposed to use that protocol and which ones are not, but they sent me the PO numbers so I guess it was all good. Then the chick at the Petro had to call and wait on hold to verify them with the road service dudes anyway. In that sense I'm not sure what was the point of using the Qualcomm, but anyway... I was there for a couple of hours and then rolling east again.

I got out of Ohio and through Pennsylvania with no major slowdowns. Even Cleveland was pretty smooth this afternoon, aside from a brief construction zone. Once I got to the service plaza east of Buffalo, I was 14-houred and forced to stop for the night. It looks like I'll have a few hours left to cover once my ten hour break is up in the morning. Then we'll hope for something down the east coast. That would leave me a good distance from home with time to make a few bucks on the way back up.

10/21/08

Start with one part tired driver. Add one part rest area with no trucks idling. Mix in some nice cool weather. Let stand. And that's how you manage to sleep until noon. Sweet.

Today's drive was a mellow and easy three and a half hours across Ohio and into Indiana. The last part on US-35 was a peaceful and relaxing roll through the farmland. I've set up at the Petro in Gaston, so we'll see if I can manage to sleep for a little while tonight. 5am deliveries are not exactly my cup of tea, but I'll have to cover the last fifteen or twenty miles before then.

Shortly after I got parked here, I received my next planned load info. Once I'm empty I'll be shooting up to Fort Wayne and then heading for New York. That will have my week starting to take shape quite nicely. Some more miles and some more northeast pay. Then one more run out of New York should have me about ready to request my home time.

Part of the job done by the people at the Fenian Godfather Institute is to oversee fairness in journalism. Some folks on the right have been crying foul about Katie Couric's interview with Governor Palin. They seem to think that the interview was edited in a way to reflect poorly on the governor. While the Insititute takes no position on the value of the questions nor the governor's answers (or non-answers), we have managed to dig up a full unedited clip of one prominent segment so that you can decide for yourselves if there was any sandbagging going on...

10/20/08

So I was lying there in Hagerstown last night when I wound up on the phone with some chick from back home. I had never talked to her on the phone before, but it was a pretty entertaining conversation. Seeing as I was on the phone and not sleeping, I decided just to finish the trip up to Carlisle.

Pretty standard operation there. Check in, slide tandems, drop trailer. I cruised through the yard looking for an empty and didn't find one. When the yard dog came by, I flagged him down and asked if he knew where I could find an empty. Now, to some people this request may have sounded like an invitation to share one's life story as I stood freezing my nuts off in the 32 degree air at 2am. I can assure you however that I really just wanted an empty. After the guy finished his soliloquy he said, "I know I saw one of yunz's trailers around the back of the building." When I drove around the building, none of our trailers were anywhere to be found. As some of you know, I have a bit of history with the state of Pennsylvania. My long held understanding has been that 'yunz' is a form of 'you ones,' which is an unnecessary extrapolation of the perfectly acceptable plural pronoun 'you.' It now seems that I need to revisit my knowledge of the Pennsylvania vernacular as, in this case, 'yunz' meant 'somebody else.'

Anyway, what was I saying? Yeah, no empty trailers. I checked in with the receiving office and they sent me to some neighboring industrial park to check on another lot. I don't know what in the hell that was all about. The industrial park just had two vacant warehouses and no trailers of any stripe. So I called in and the fine folks in Joplin put me on the board without a trailer. The morning shift would have to sort it out from there. Good enough. Time for bed.

Guess who was awakened by a beep from his Qualcomm this morning at 6am, asking him not to use the phones unless necessary today. On second thought, don't guess. You already know the answer. As if it wasn't bad enough that I couldn't fall asleep until well after 4am.

Around the time I managed to doze off again, I received the information for my next assignment. It was set to pick up at 2pm, so I responded and hopped back in bed. Then the sequence of events that I guess I knew was coming... came. I got a message asking if I had an empty. No. I got a message asking me to remind them to check with the CSR, who wouldn't arrive until 7am Central. Fine. I sent the reminder as requested, and the fun continued.

They told me to go to the Michael's in Carlisle to retrieve an empty. A Michael's distribution center in Carlisle? That doesn't make sense. Hazleton is only 100 miles away from Carlisle. Why would they have two DC's so close together? Some people are paid to think. I, much to my liking, am not paid to think. I am paid to drive. So I followed the directions to the Michael's in Carlisle. Yep. Retail store. No empty there, obviously.

Another exchange of messages had me on my way to Hazleton. Of course that place hasn't exactly been a reliable source of empties in the past. Today though, they had plenty. I grabbed the first one I saw and bounced back south to York for my pickup. The people there were friendly and efficient, then I was rolling westward.

I made a call to part of that aforementioned history with the state of Pennsylvania. Apparently she's no longer married, so I thought she might want to meet me along I-70 for some dinner. She was busy tonight though, so I stopped and took a nap instead. Then I had a pretty easy drive into Ohio, where I've stopped just east of Columbus for the night. I have a 5am Wednesday appointment in Gas City, Indiana so tomorrow will be a nice easy day for me.

All told, I managed to put 575 miles on the odometer today. That ain't so bad. Disregarding all of the extracurricular nonsense, the driving part went pretty smoothly. Maybe tomorrow will bring more of the same.

10/19/08

Yep. It's getting to be going home time here, or something. The patience level is dwindling with each passing day. If I can hang tough until next weekend, I'll be ready to put in for home time and get back by the end of the month. A few more trips along I-81 and I may not get to next weekend. They really should have three lanes in Virginia.

I took a few breaks along the way to calm my ire. In a weird twist, I felt better after a workout during one of the breaks. That's odd. I hate working out. Anyhow, I stopped in at the Pilot in Hagerstown and found that the place was jammed up at 7:30pm. I got the last parking space - you know the shitty one where you have to wind your way around a dumpster in order to get in. So now I'm chilling out here and carrying on a debate amongst myselves. I am allowed to deliver this load any time after midnight. So I could drive the last hour tonight, make my drop/hook, and try to find somewhere to park. That would get me on the board tonight, but the parking situation in Carlisle isn't pretty. Or I can take a nap here and drive up in the morning. That will give me better odds of finding parking, but I might end up further down the board.

I don't know man. I guess I'll take a nap. I'm not in a huge hurry to get back on the road just yet. My patience level is dwindling.

This is something to which I can look forward though. Old Ty still just ain't quite got it right. I get to see the hell unleashed next Saturday night. The veil has been lifted and those who called us racists for running that fraud out of town are being exposed.