7/31/10

We're going to have to break with protocol for a moment this evening.  It has been my standard practice that once an image is posted on this blog, it is not to be reused in a future posting.  I have a plentiful supply of this stuff, so there's no need to recycle the pics.  Unfortunately though, there is one image that has appeared here in a prior post and must now appear one more time.

My three stops today were out in the northern suburbs.  After getting a call this morning (a call that I actually expected this time around) I was assigned to take a trailer to Rochester, Lake Orion, and Bloomfield.  The trip over to the first store wasn't bad.  The dairy guy there was a proactive sort, so things went quickly and easily.  I was more than content to let him pull the freight out of the trailer, given that the pallet jack at that store was one of the herky-jerky ancient models.  I'm getting better as the days go on, but I still don't like those damned things.  I had most of the empties staged and ready to put into my trailer by the time he got the last pallet of milk into the cooler.  Nice and efficient.

Then the next leg of the trip was short and sweet, over to I-75 and up to Lapeer Road, then straight on into Lake Orion.  Upon arrival at my second store, I found a Pepsi truck in the loading dock and a US Xpress truck waiting behind him.  I still harbor a bit of animosity toward US Xpress drivers in the wake of the Atlanta incident, but I kept that to myself.  The fella today only had a few pallets to drop and the Pepsi guy was done a few minutes after I arrived.  I got backed in within a half hour or so.  Good enough.

One last stop to go and we'll wrap up a quick and easy weekend shift... or... no.  I dropped down onto I-75 and then caught Square Lake Road over toward Telegraph Road.  My last store was a few miles to the south on Telegraph.  Review that graphic above for a moment, if you must.  Then compare.

See those pretty orange signs on the right?  There was a steady stream of them, along both sides of the road, for the entire stretch from I-75 to Telegraph.  They say that the right lane is closed.  See all those assholes in the right lane?  They weren't making life any easier for anyone.

Now, as we approach the end of the clusterfuck, the bastards are still trying to gain that last position.  Can't be behind a big truck when everyone is going 2mph now, can we?  Normally Square Lake dumps three lanes of traffic onto the three or four lanes of Telegraph, but Telegraph is presently down to one lane in this area.  The little cross street that you can see on the right is only one short block before Telegraph, so the construction people or engineers or whatever were forcing the traffic on Square Lake down to two lanes at this light - one lane to continue straight and one to turn right onto Telegraph.  (No left turns here.  It's a Michigan thing.)  I was just thankful that they had the right two lanes closed on Square Lake and not the left two.  I wouldn't have been able to turn from a one-lane road onto another one-lane road if I were against the curb.  Having room to swing a little wider was quite helpful.

I got into the first turnaround above Square Lake and then headed back southward.  The next 'Michigan left' would be at Long Lake Road.  That one was a doozy.  The turnaround lanes aren't always wide enough for a big truck in the first place, but I can usually get through the ones near major intersections without a problem.  In today's case, the outside half of the damned turnaround was gone.  It was obvious that I would be adding to the collection of tire tracks cutting across the grass and mud.  No skin off my nose there, but I only missed the big wooden pole on the corner by a few inches.  Shit damn.

The place had a mofo of a loading dock to top it all off but, quite frankly, I could post about loading docks every day if I really wanted to.  It amazes me that companies spend millions of dollars on these stores and it apparently never occurs to them that they may need trucks to deliver their shit.  They just get ready for the ribbon-cutting ceremony and some stock boy says, "Hey, where's them trucks gonna unload?"  The navigability of the stock rooms is another such topic - I could say it every day.  It would get old.

I got down Telegraph to I-96 without too much further difficulty, so that was good.  I even managed to scoot over to our little fuel stop and top off the tanks before the rain moved in.  I took one of the older trucks with a manual transmission today.  It didn't occur to me until I was headed back to the dairy that I had never bothered to figure out where the fuel gauge was.  I saw that I had air pressure and oil pressure this morning, then I left.  The fuel gauge was tucked in a weird spot a little lower on the dashboard.  It was pretty low by the time I stopped.  Good thing I only had to drive 97 miles today, eh?

Condensed version - Worked 6.75 hours, much of which was spent stuck in traffic or waiting for a loading dock.  Earned the daily minimum of $138.08 and squeaked over $1,100 for the week.  Worst week thus far in terms of money, but that's plenty for me.  I enjoy the easy days.

By the time I dropped off my trailer at the dairy and my paperwork at the terminal, tomorrow's assignments were on the board.  I have two trips tomorrow - one down to Monroe and Toledo for two stops and then one out to the northwest for three stops.  My pull time is 4:15pm and I happen to be off on a Saturday night for a change, so... bye.