8/1/10

Try this one on for size.  I left my last stop at 4:15am tonight.  As I pulled out of the loading dock, I hit the 'scan' button on my truck's radio.  The first song sucked.  So did the second...  I rolled into the dairy to drop off my trailer full of empty cases at 5:45am.  During the hour and a half drive from Owosso to Livonia, I never stopped the radio from scanning the stations.  When I heard a song that I didn't like, I just waited a few seconds and then the station changed.  When I heard a song that I liked, I sang along for a few seconds and then the station changed.  It simply never occurred to me to stop the scan.  I'm not sure what to make of that one.  I wasn't really tired or anything.  Just had a short attention span, I suppose.

If we back things up to figure out how I wound up in Owosso at 4:15am, we'll find that I initially was assigned to two loads today.  My first run had a stop in Monroe and another in Toledo.  My second run had stops in East Lansing, St. Johns, and Owosso.  A couple of hours before my scheduled 4:15pm pull, I got a call from work.  Things had changed.  Some dude couldn't make his last scheduled run so the board had to be shuffled a bit.  No more Monroe/Toledo run for me.  Now I was going to start with the East Lansing/St. Johns/Owosso run and then take a four-stop run on the overnight shift.  My pull time was set for 6:15pm.

I wasn't too thrilled about the change, mainly because the run that I gained would pay about the same amount as the run that I lost, but it replaced more miles and fewer stops with fewer miles and more stops.  I'm not a big fan of more stops.  Whatever though.  This is what I do.  Just have to suck it up and get the job done.

I checked out directions to my newly assigned four stops and wrote down the relevant information, then kicked back and relaxed for a while.  I had been all set to go at 4:15pm, so now I had two hours to kill.  Then the next call came.

Another guy had lost his prescription glasses.  He had a pair that he could use, but they were sunglasses.  This meant that he couldn't drive at night.  (No, I do not care to speculate on whether or not this was a bullshit story.)  There was one load with some long miles but only a couple of stops on it, so the dispatcher put Mr. Sunglasses on that one.  He would be able to finish up with that one before the sun went down.  This switch then set off a chain reaction.  This guy went to this load, that guy went to that load, all the way down the line.  Eventually they got to me.  Hey, guess what wound up happening to my schedule.  Some other dude got my newly assigned four-stop run and I got my previously assigned two-stop run.  Woulda been nice to start at 4:15pm then, eh?

All in all, the night went fairly smoothly once I finally got started.  I was at the dairy at 5:45pm and I was back in my mother's car at 6am.  For a shift that paid $265.48, that's fair enough.  I had to burn some time waiting for another US Xpress guy to leave the dock at my last stop in Owosso.  Then I found that their power jack was broken.  I got the pleasure of lumping nine pallets of milk (2,200 pounds apiece) with a manual jack.  Good times, good times.  It's always something at that damned Owosso location.  I'm under the impression that our man Brent lives out there somewhere.  I may have to get him on the case.

So may day off has begun a couple of hours later than it should have, but it's all good.  I may manage to sleep at some point along the way.  I thought I was stopping by my parents' house to hang out with the dog until the folks get home, but ole Molly isn't here.  My brother must have her over at his house or something.  Guess I'll just do some laundry and relax then.  I picked up some ground beef and seasonings on the way over, so I'm going to see what kind of gourmet burger arrangement I can produce before I nod off.  A little 'wake and grill' in the afternoon should be A-OK.

An hour and a half of radio listening in five-second increments?  What is that?