5/18/10

They have Big Boy restaurant franchises in various parts of the country, right?  Back home, it's called Elias Brothers Big Boy.  (Actually owned by the Ansara family - my former employers - but apparently someone named Elias was around at some point.  But anyhow...)  I think they have Bob's Big Boy out west in the People's Republic.  Well, the Big Boy franchise in the Toledo area is called Frisch's... and it sucks ass.  Just a little heads-up for those of you who might make the mistake of stumbling in one evening.

This morning's first pickup was quick and easy.  Twelve pallets of relatively light stuff were added to my trailer and I was sent on my way just as it started to rain outside.  Bummer.  Since the Tigers got rained out last night in Detroit and I was heading in that general direction, I wasn't surprised to encounter a fairly dreary day.  (At least it wasn't quite this dreary though.  Oy.)  I was just hopeful that the wet roads wouldn't affect traffic too much.  I sent in my 'loaded' message and headed back out to the highway.

After an hour, I still had not received a dispatch to the next stop.  I was still a couple of hours away, so I didn't sweat it.  I would have to get dispatched sooner or later.  Eventually the dispatch did come through, and I also learned that I've been doing part of my job wrongly for almost four years.  Some stuff I just didn't know, I suppose.  Apparently I'm only supposed to send the 'loaded' form from my satellite unit after the first pickup.  After each subsequent pickup, I'm supposed to send the 'additional bill of lading' form but not another 'loaded' form.  I've always sent a 'loaded' form at every pickup and I've never been told that I needed to do otherwise.  No skin off my nose though.  The 'additional bill of lading' form is a little shorter, so it's all good as far as I'm concerned.  It's kinda like when I first started and I was taught that I needed to send a 'dropped trailer' form and then a 'loaded' form whenever I made a pickup at a drop/hook location.  After a year and a half of doing so, I got a message one day.  The message told me to stop sending the 'dropped trailer' form at shippers, since it caused problems with the dispatching system.  I was only to send the 'loaded' form.  Same deal as today - less typing for me so I have no complaints.  It just seems odd to me that these issues would pop up out of the blue like that. 

The total weight in my trailer from the first two pickups was only 10,000 pounds, so I was generally the king of the hills on the way out of New York and into Pennsylvania.  I got passed by a few empty flatbeds and 80mph super truckers and such, but overall I was making good time through the rough terrain.  If only the whole damned state of Pennsylvania weren't under construction...  In any event, I got to my last pickup in McElhattan just before my scheduled time of 2pm.  It took all of five minutes for me to get my last eight pallets, only adding another 5,000 pounds, and I was on the way to Illinois.  More rain and construction traffic ensued, but overall the pace wasn't bad.  A solid 9.75 hours of driving got me to the Petro on the edge of Toledo, where I'm parked for the night.

Mom drove down after work and joined me for dinner.  And this is where we come to Frisch's.  We were cruising across US-20 and looking for somewhere to eat.  Neither of us had been to Big Boy in a while, so we stopped in and placed our orders.  Patty melt with fries and onion rings for me.  Big Boy hamburger with a salad and mashed potatoes for Mom.  I'm not sure that I've ever, in 33 years on this planet, had such awful onion rings.  I've had plenty of onion rings that were just so-so, but never awful.  Tonight's version was awful.  My mother's luck was worse though.  They brought her fries instead of mashed potatoes, but she wasn't terribly concerned so she didn't complain.  Her burger was a joke.  From the menu - "The Big Boy® The Original Double-Decker Hamburger - Delicious 100% pure ground beef in two patties with American cheese, lettuce and our famous Big Boy special sauce on a sesame seed bun."  It's essentially a Big Mac without the pickles and onions.  The "special sauce" is Thousand Island dressing, just like at McDonald's.  A picture of it pops up as soon as you click on their website.  Not in Ohio though.  My poor mother got a double decker burger just absolutely soaked in mayonnaise (and a bun with no sesame seeds).  Suffice to say that we won't be trying that place again.

I have around 260 miles to go from here, so I'll have to get cracking fairly early in the morning to make my delivery ETA just after noon in Joliet.  It's a straight shot across I-80 and I'll pass Chicago late in the morning, so I'm expecting a pretty easy ride.  We'll see.

I get a chuckle out of the ubiquitous stupidity in American politics, perhaps more so than the average dude.  So it's probably worth noting when I see something political and just say to myself, "Awesome."  I saw this ad a few days ago and said just that, but it was late at night and I thought maybe I was just tired at the time.  When I got it in a second e-mail today, I took another look and confirmed that I really do get a kick out of Mr. Peterson.  That's the first ad for a prospective Agriculture Secretary that I've ever seen in my life.  I don't even know what that job involves, but if he always gets to brandish a .30-30 and threaten people... I may have to re-think my views on politics.

So there was that.  But there's no way a second local politician could show some nuts on the same day, right?  Wrong.  I'm not entirely sure where Commissioner Pierce stands on the issue of that raaacist law down there in Arizona.  He seems to hint that it might not be his cup of tea, but that really doesn't even matter.  All I know is that he just bitch slapped (metaphorically speaking, of course) the mayor of Los Angeles right in front of the whole world.  Is it time for a good old-fashioned interstate pissing match or is it time for 'cooler heads to prevail?'  Heh.  You know which one I'd like to see.