6/24/10

I'm sure Larry the Cable Guy could treat us to an amusing simile that would put everything in perspective here, but I'll just say that it really sucks to be four hours from home when your government says that you'll be tired after three hours.  It sucks the mighty balls indeed.

My overnight deal worked out okay for the most part.  I got rolling right at midnight, made a fuel stop once I got onto I-71, and then cruised into my consignee's lot at 6:40am.  The forklift guy had me unloaded in short order, after which I rolled down the street to an abandoned factory.  (Insert another observation about the Midwest in a bygone era, vacant buildings, etc. here.)  As morning turned to afternoon and I sat at #1 on the board, it became apparent that there wasn't a lot of freight hanging around for me to deliver.  Eventually I got hungry.  You ever get hungry?  I do.  Every day.  So I was sitting there in a parking lot along some little side road, wondering how to rectify the situation.  It's nice to live in the internet age sometimes.  Since I have a nice powerful computer and a speedy mobile broadband connection, the next step was obvious - look out my window, of course...

Any place that has been dishing out burgers since before my parents were born must be decent, I thought.  'This exit' was referring to the business loop through Chillicothe, which I was able to reach from the side road where I had parked.  So after a few minutes I was tucked into their truck parking area and placing my order.  Back in the 50's it was probably pretty exciting for people to sit in a booth and place their orders via telephone.  To me, today, it was just cheesy.  Oh well though.  When in Rome and whatnot...

The food wasn't bad.  Not really all that good either, but not bad.  After I had my fill, I drove back down the street to my abandoned factory and resumed the wait.  My 14 hour clock ran out at 2pm, but I went ahead and stayed on the board since I would be completing a ten-hour break at 5pm anyway.  If they left me sitting around all day and then needed me to roll somewhere before 5pm, then I'd just have to say they were out of luck.

In the end, it was I who was out of luck.  I got my next assignment a few minutes ago - deadhead home.  It's no secret that I've been anxious to get home for a while now, so that part is fine.  Still 226 miles away though.  The stretch from Columbus to Findlay will take me along some back roads and through some towns, so the overall pace of the trip will end up somewhere in the neighborhood of 50-55mph.  Not possible in three hours, so I'll have to sit here until 9pm, at which point my remaining three hours will carry me to midnight and I'll pick up more hours.  Then I'll get home in the middle of the night.  To some bureaucrat in D.C. this makes sense. 

And one more thing not to like about my new fleet - no pay.  That's SOP for this company whenever they send us home within the allotted time frame, but I've always gotten paid for driving home.  I park my truck at a fairly busy terminal, so my occasional deadheads home have been a simple matter of repositioning the company's equipment, as far as I'm concerned.  I go to Taylor with a loaded trailer 90% of the time (like last time and the time before), but even my deadheads have been paid in the past (like the prior time).  Not any more.  One more thing that we'll be doing 'by the book' from now on apparently.  Not coincidentally, also one more thing that bugs me.  Add it to the list, and that list is already a good bit longer than it used to be, if we're keeping score.  I can tell you that much.

Since I've caught a series of bad breaks, do you suppose Congressman Kanjorski might have some relief to offer me?  After all, I'm not a "minority" or "defective," last time I checked.  (I think I know what he was trying to do here.  Trying to call people like me racists since we're not real fond of government spending, but for someone who was a kid of Polish descent in the 40's, when the term "defective" had its own special meaning, he should know better.  This is pretty sloppy work.)



I do have one thing going for me.  My unfortunate lodger somehow came up with enough money to buy a case of beer.  I'm told that this case of beer now sits in my fridge and he's going to visit his parents for the weekend.  Looks like I won't have to race the clock and try to beat last call this time around.  Small victories, my friends.  Small victories.