1/22/09

I don't know why people had to go and rain on my hopenchange parade today. Starting with the beginning, we had a satellite message coming in an hour before my alarm was set to go off, informing me that my appointment was 10am rather than the 11am that I had been told. That's a nice way to wrap up a long night of tossing and turning.

So I hopped out of bed and got my act together, then hit the road for Lansing. I arrived at the consignee and thought, "Sweet Lord, what the hell is this all about?" My basic rule of thumb is that if I have to get out and look twice in order to move into a parking lot forward, the place is bullshit. This place was bullshit. Then it got even more fun as I found one of my CTL colleagues sitting on the far side of the main building, facing toward me. He motioned to me that I would need to pull a 180 into some pretty damn tight quarters and then back up alongside him. That was fun. Laredo redux. The best part is that the toughest backing was still to come.

As I sat next to the other CTL truck, a gentleman came and knocked on my door. Thinking that it must be my turn to go to the unloading area, I rolled down my window. You know... I think it was that great American poet Everlast who first recorded the phrase - "If you wanna fuck me, first you gotta kiss me." Yeah, 1994. How about that. The gentleman outside my door today was kind enough to inform me that he had two trucks scheduled for today and two trucks scheduled for tomorrow. I was truck #3. After a call to Joplin to figure things out, I was politely reminded that the appointment change - that message to which I awoke this morning - was to 10am on January 23rd, not 10am today. I grabbed my Qualcomm to verify. Sonofabitch. 90 miles from home and stuck with this load for another day. I got fucked and never even got my kiss.

Since I had plans at home for tonight and I have to stay at a truck stop outside Lansing until tomorrow, my Swedish buddy Sjoe had to come to the rescue once again. Apparently he caught a ride to the Detroit area and spent the evening with a few of my friends before returning to wherever he had been earlier in the day. That Sjoe is always there for me when I need him.

I took a look at tomorrow's pay stub and found that my cartage pay for the local run in Atlanta is indeed on there. No repeat of the UPS 'paperwork' escapade. That's good. It's $20 and not $25 though. It had been a long time since I last pulled a local run, but for some reason I thought that they paid $25. Oh well. I guess I won't buy that five dollar lottery ticket tomorrow. Then I can spend the rest of my life convinced that I almost had $21 million.

I guess it would follow that the local work in Laredo will pay $60 rather than $75. I also had $60 coming in layover pay for being on the Laredo board for two days, according to my recollection. I sent in my request on Tuesday morning after I left Laredo. I received a response today, indicating that their records show me on the board for 47 hours, one hour short of qualifying for layover. I ain't gonna lie to you. That one pissed me right the hell off. After muttering a few obscenities, I checked the timestamps on my Qualcomm. I found that 48 hours and 44 minutes elapsed between my arrival in Laredo (indicated by my receipt of directions to the broker, sent from the inspection bay) and my next load assignment. So I responded one more time with my facts laid out. I got my $60 paid today. All's well that ends well. I'm not generally inclined to be a pain in the ass for these guys, but sixty bucks is sixty bucks. Especially in light of this morning's kick in the nuts, I wasn't letting this one pass uncontested.

I guess I should get to bed now. I'm pre-planned for a trip home once I get rid of this load in the morning. Hopenchange may resume tomorrow. We'll have to see.