8/13/10

After doing a little reading this evening, I feel that I should tell you I was born in 1976.  My sister was born in 1979.  The older of my little brothers was born in 1985.  My youngest brother was born in 1987.  What is the relevance of this?  Oh... nothing.  (I'm left-handed too, you know.  I ain't sayin', I'm just sayin'...) 

Now that we've gotten the obligatory self-high-five out of the way, let's talk about Friday the 13th.  I trust that no grave misfortune has befallen any of you.  My luck was just fine today, for whatever that's worth.  I guess we'll just have to get past next May now.

I do believe that today's run to Flint, Saginaw, and Bridgeport was my most efficient three-stopper to date.  I was in and out of the Flint stop within 15 minutes.  Five pallets delivered, three pallets of empties retrieved.  The drive from there to my Saginaw stop took an hour, largely because I couldn't get straight into town on I-675.  That road is closed, so I had to head across on M-46 and then shoot up one of the main roads in town to the store's location.  I had to wait about twenty minutes for a Frito Lay driver to vacate the loading dock, after which I delivered ten pallets of milk, retrieved twelve pallets of empties, and rotated all of the milk for my last stop to the rear of my trailer.  My total time there, even with the initial wait, came to just over an hour.  Then the last stop in Bridgeport took only 20 minutes.  With the milk all at the back of the trailer, I had it off in no time.  Then I snagged a few empties from outside the door, shoved them into my trailer, and hit the road.

The initial plan was for me to have only one run today.  The good old $65 bonus platter came up again though.  Another trip to that store at 8 Mile and Wyoming fell into my lap.  The pay for the run was $49.99 in addition to my $15 for taking a second run in one shift, so today's income got up over $200.  I would have to work a little harder this time than I did the last time this run came up.  On that previous occasion I was delivering three pallets of milk.  Tonight's version of the trip had me showing up with an empty trailer and taking all of the store's empty milk crates back to the dairy.  (There were 19 pallets in all.  I had been told that there would be 20.)

There was a US Xpress truck in the dock when I arrived, with a First Fleet truck waiting in line.  I assumed the #3 spot in the queue and was quickly followed by yet another First Fleet truck.  Busy place this evening.  I got settled into the dock about a half hour after I arrived, then spent another half hour loading up my trailer.  The drive back to Livonia was quick and easy and then my night was finished.  So the whole round trip took a little under two hours.  Fair enough.

Tomorrow brings one three-stop run out to the boondocks again, at least so far.  That's what I had scheduled for today and I wound up with two trips, so we'll see how it goes.  Any superstitions that I should know about the day after Friday the 13th?  Hmm, I wonder.