2/18/10

In light of how inefficiently I did my job today, I'm now 100% certain that it's time to head home for a few days. Alas, it looks like I'll be working just a little while longer. I awoke to find a pre-planned assignment that came through as soon as I fired up my truck. Picking up in Los Angeles tomorrow afternoon and going to Laredo. Big paycheck and a chance to deal with my balding drive tires - not too shabby. Maybe that message about my tires was in the computer after all. I'll wait until I get to Laredo and then send in my request for home time. That should work pretty well in terms of getting me home around the end of the month.

I made a fairly uneventful trip into California, over the mountains, and into the valley this morning. Then my brain decided to take some time off and leave the work to the rest of me. As I merged from I-15 onto I-10, I got out of the 'exit only' lane and joined the flow of traffic. A few miles later I realized/remembered that I needed to have stayed in the 'exit only' lane for the truck stop. Shit.

I had two options at this point. I could find somewhere to turn around and head back to the truck stop, or I could continue onward and leave my parking fortunes in the hands of a higher power. I'll bet you can guess which one I chose.

I hadn't planned to drive to my consignee today, so consequently I hadn't checked the directions to my consignee yet. Traffic on I-10 and I-605 was wicked heavy and there was no chance for me to read the screen on my Qualcomm unit, so I had to rely on the computerized voice lady. Yeah, that's asking for trouble. She reads everything phonetically, such that the street names are always mangled, but I can usually interpret that part well enough. The bigger issue is the shorthand abbreviations that tend to comprise the bulk of our directions. The computer voice lady speaks absolute gibberish when she gets to that part.

I got onto I-5 and found my exit without any trouble, then tried to square what I had heard on the Qualcomm with what I was seeing in front of me. I thought I had it figured out. I was wrong. I wound up cruising all the way through Norwalk in the wrong direction before getting stopped at a red light and having a chance to read what the directions actually said. It turns out that they really weren't all that complicated. I caught I-605 to the north and then got back on I-5 southbound to try again. Everything matched up with my directions, but every street along the way had 'No Parking' signs from corner to corner. I made my last turn onto the street with my consignee and... didn't see any more 'No Parking' signs. Beauty.

A brief walking excursion allowed me to discover that there is a McDonald's within three quarters of a mile or so. McNuggets for dinner. And they were fresh and everything. Groovy.

I'm pretty sure that this trip satisfies my 2010 quota of runs to the West Coast. Three times a year is plenty for me. (I'm aware that this is only my second trip out here this year. The end of December is close enough to count, as far as I'm concerned.) Let's just hope that whatever awaits me in L.A. tomorrow is nice and close to the freeway.