4/26/10

The inevitable conclusion to a week off is that, eventually, a fella must get back to work.  Until I convince myself to go the full-on welfare route, I'm left with the unfortunate need to earn a living.  So back at it we go...

'Jump right in with both feet' would have to be today's slogan.  I called the terminal this morning to put myself on the board, found that I was #12, and went back to bed.  The first couple of 90-minute checks found that I was moving up the list steadily, with more napping in-between.  At 11am I found that I had reached #2 so I headed up to the terminal.  By the time I got to my truck, there was an assignment waiting for me.  Beauty.

My pickup was scheduled for 1pm in Hamtramck so there wasn't a lot of time to waste.  I grabbed my empty trailer, topped off the gas tanks and headed through Detroit.  Nice light traffic and quick work by the shippers found me rolling out of town with my 44,000 pound payload by 1:30pm.  Not bad.  The timing allowed me to get back through Detroit and Ann Arbor before the afternoon traffic picked up.  On the flip side, I got to the Gary-Chicago area right in the midst of rush hour.  Things moved reasonably well in my direction though.  The only major tie-ups appeared to be on the eastbound side.

My assignment has me scheduled to deliver in Phoenix on Friday morning, so a few solid days of driving were in order.  My intent for today was to get clear of Chicago and then find a place to call it a night.  This would leave me within three reasonable driving shifts of I-17, where I plan to spend Thursday night and then drive into Phoenix on Friday.  I received an ETA of 9am MST, which is noon for us civilized folks, so I won't have to finish the trip at too ridiculous an hour.  I got down onto I-55 and grabbed a spot at the rest area outside Pontiac before deciding that I had driven far enough for today.  All in all, solid first day back on the job.

There is some sad news to report though.  It seems that the pendulum has swung heavily in favor of laziness and gluttony for long enough.  It's time to pay the piper, so to speak.  So my damned weight bench is over there, staring at me with its typical sarcastic glare.  I'm gonna have to drag the son of a bitch out and see what we can do about this situation.  Prediction for tomorrow - pain.