My erratic sleep patterns have been well documented. On most nights, I toss and turn until the wee hours of the morning and then get a few hours of sound sleep before it's time to get up and start working again. I enjoy a nice nap in the afternoon when I can, but rarely do I get the recommended eight hours (or whatever it is) during a single stretch. That's just not how I'm wired. So last night, after several late nights followed by early mornings, I was feeling a little run down and I knew that I had another early morning in store. A dose of Tylenol PM from the truck stop took care of my headache and knocked me out for a solid ten hours of sleep before this morning's alarm went off.
I got up and rolling by 6:45am. This is clearly earlier than my preferred start time of 10am, but I was well-rested and relieved to see that I still had good weather in which to drive. So I was all set up for a good day. I rolled into Winston-Salem, sent in my home time request, made my drop/hook, and got on the board. I was basically SOL in terms of finding somewhere to park and await my next assignment, so I decided to head up to I-40 and see what I could find. As I approached the entrance to US-52 that would take me back up to I-40, I received a new assignment. I hurried and did some quick stenographer-style typing to confirm the assignment before the traffic light turned green, then had to change course. I wouldn't be going up to I-40 after all. I would be going southward to Charlotte. Fortunately, there was no traffic on my left. I cut across to the southbound freeway entrance and that was that.
Now for the shitty part. My load leaving Charlotte is a 10pm deal going overnight to Pennsylvania. After covering the sleep situation in that first paragraph, you can probably guess how thrilled I am right now. Normally the schedule wouldn't have been much of an issue at all, since I'm often awake until 4am or 5am anyway. I slept so much last night though that I have no idea how today will go. I'll try to take a nap in the afternoon but I won't hold my breath in anticipation of getting any sleep. Bummer.
The schedule left me with plenty of time for ten hours off (with two extra hours to spare, even) so there's nothing technically wrong with it. And it is heading in the general direction of home, which is the idea whenever I request home time. It's just one of those things that probably ain't gonna be a whole lot of fun. Curse of the working class, I suppose.
On the good side it looks like I'm still dodging the bad weather, at least for one more day. And this assignment gets my miles for the week up to 2,248 with Friday and Saturday still to come. And, if enough people decide to turn them down, I may end up with the Notre Dame head coaching job. You know, maybe... or something.
Are there many solo loads that dispatch overnight like that? Seems it would screw one up for days having to do an overnight like that. I ask 'cuz i'm bound for the way of the solo come Christmas.
ReplyDelete"I may end up with the Notre Dame head coaching job"
ReplyDeleteShoot for the stars and sleep well.
Bookerz
The overnight runs come up every now and then, but I wouldn't call it a regular occurrence by any means. A handful of Con-way lanes, some draft beer loads, and maybe a few other odd ones here and there. I catch those draft beer loads out of Michigan quite a bit when I leave home, but most people don't live where I do.
ReplyDeleteFor normal individuals with normal sleep patterns, I imagine it would be a pain in the ass to go from days to nights and back to days. I take my 4-5 hours of sleep a day wherever I can get it, so it doesn't bother me too much. The real issue is that you end up with your 14 hour clock running out at 11am and then the only logical thing for them to assign you is another overnight run. It can take a few days to break the cycle if you're unlucky.
That Notre Dame gig didn't pan out for me after all. I was clinging to the notion that Brian Kelly would turn down the job and start a trend. Now it's like a political campaign. I didn't support this guy in the primary, but he won and I sure as hell can't throw in with the other side. Now I'll have to fall in line and hope he wins the whole enchilada. (And I'll have to keep driving my truck for a living.)