2/4/09

They were limited in the number of open scholarships due to recent recruiting successes, yet the Irish managed to be the lead story on news updates around the country all day. Welcome aboard, Mr. Te'o.

I was pleasantly surprised when I slept until the sun came up this morning without any interruptions. Then I checked on the recruiting progress of Mr. Weis and company before hitting the road. We've had some last second defections in recent years. Today though, the 16 verbal commitments all signed on the line which is dotted. After I drove for a few hours, the update guy on Fox Sports Radio broke in with the surprise announcement of our 17th (and best) new recruit of the year. Good day for Our Lady.

Once I got past the Dallas area, I realized something disturbing. I was tracking along a timeline that would put me in Austin at 5pm. Given that The One seems to have lost his ability to perform miracles according to recent headlines, I wasn't too happy about the prospect of fighting my way through the traffic. Even if he did get me through Austin and San Antonio at the speed limit the last time around, today was probably not going to be quite so pleasant. Instead, I decided to check out a tip that I was given a while ago. I angled down on Farm Road Whatever and caught up with US-281, then ran that down to San Antonio. I've never done cocaine before, but they say it only takes once before you're hooked. I think I might know the feeling now. Holy smokes. I may never drive down Satan's Driveway again. The route lengthened my drive by about twenty miles but it lowered my blood pressure by about twenty points. I owe a tip of the cap to Tron for that one. Good lookin' out, my brother. There was construction on the west side of the San Antonio loop, but otherwise everything was as smooth as silk.

I got into Laredo a little while ago and went through the inspection bay. The fella over there didn't like one of my trailer tires so I had to drop it on the repair aisle. Then the night dispatcher told me that I'll have to check with the local dispatcher in the morning about directions to my broker. It seems that there are conflicting addresses in the system for this load. The local dispatcher gets in at 7:30am and my original instructions said that this load has to deliver by 9am. Hopefully my trailer has a new tire by the time I figure out where I'm going.

Getting to Laredo on a Wednesday night is about a hundred times better than getting here on a weekend. I was #18 on the board when I checked in, meaning that I should most likely be out of here by some time tomorrow. With 1,900 miles on the books so far and three days to go, we just might see a return to normalcy for at least one week. Here's a weird one though... I was home all of last week so this Friday's paycheck was due to be a zero. The $70 for my trip into Indiana (this week) is actually being paid on last week's check though. It really doesn't make a whole lot of difference when I get the $70, but now at the very least I will be kept current with my insurance premiums and such. It will also be amusing to see my 401(k) transactions; .0002 shares of XYZ Fund or something.