3/31/10

Since my air conditioner doesn't work and I have been heading northward over the last couple of days, I expected a little relief. Good time for a little Al Gore style global warming, eh?  I don't know exactly how accurate my truck's temperature readout is but it said 82° when I reached the Chicago area this afternoon.  That ain't right.

Other than the heat, which wasn't all that terrible with the windows down and the vent fan on, I don't recall too many major issues today.  US-67 in Missouri is apparently going to be a big-boy highway pretty soon, so there were a lot of construction zones down there.  Moving freely though.  Then a couple of spots on I-55 were down to one lane.  Not moving freely.  All in all though, pretty standard seven and a half hours on the road.

This consignee's parking lot is a doozy.  After arriving, I asked a guy inside the building whether or not I should back into a dock tonight.  I could see nowhere else to park.  He said yes, I should back into the dock, but that I would need to have the receiving people break the seal on my trailer tomorrow morning.  Fair enough. 

The loading docks are on the left as you enter the receiving area, but they're at the end of the road.  In other words, there's no way to drive past the docks and set up to back in from the standard angle.  In a fun little coincidence, there's also not any room to swing out in front of the docks and back straight in.  So we get to pull the good old spin-around-and-blindside maneuever that they conveniently forgot to mention in truck driving school.  It took some work but I got back to the dock without hitting anything.  After getting settled in, I realized that I won't be able to pull straight forward far enough to open my doors in the morning.  (Fairly logical, since I wasn't able to back straight in, but it hadn't occurred to me.)  This means that I'll have to pull out around the corner to my right, open the doors, and then hopefully retrace my path back to the dock without getting askew.  The smart money is against this happening on the first try but we'll see.

I've got plenty of hours to burn once I'm empty in the morning, but still no pre-plan as of now.  Also still no word on last weekend's layover pay, so I wouldn't mind hearing the damned satellite unit chirp at me a couple of times before my trailer is unloaded.  One to give me my money and one to give me somewhere to go, in essence.  I have no idea where I can go from here to find parking and the idea of wandering the Chicago suburbs during the morning rush is fairly unappealing.

The worst part about a broken air conditioner isn't driving on a hot day, although this does suck.  The driving part of the day is helped by the moving air.  The worst part is trying to sit in the truck after the drive is over.  Even though the outside temperature has dropped quickly since the sun went down, the truck's engine will be radiating heat for a few more hours.  There's a breeze coming through with my windows down.  That breeze is carrying various insects.  This, my friends, is the worst part about a broken air conditioner.  I'm not ready to capitulate yet though.  Still hoping to stick it out for another couple of weeks and then put the truck in the shop while I'm... ahem... sitting on my couch and drinking beer.

Update - 12:23am - I can't sit on this one until tomorrow.  In our ongoing series of videos showing the intelligence of our elected leaders... oh hell, I don't even know what to say here.  Just watch the admiral's reaction.  (You'll know when.)