8/3/10

Ankles.  They suck.  At least mine do.  The years and years of repetitive injuries to my worthless ankles have left them in a pretty sorry condition.  The ligaments on the right one are stretched all out of whack and the left one gets pretty painful on cold or rainy days, most likely as a result of my failure to accept proper treatment the last time I broke it.  Hey, guess who stepped in a hole tonight!  Yeah buddy.  Those ligaments in my right ankle got one more good stretching.  It's a swollen purple mess right now.  Fortunately, the ligaments are so loose to begin with that I don't think I tore them this time around.  Walking is rather painful, but at least I can walk.  When those suckers get torn, we're talking crutches and wheelchairs.

Now that I think of it, tonight's injury occurred in a spot where I wasn't originally supposed to be.  You see, I had one load scheduled for today.  It was a four-stop deal in and around Flint that paid $160.89.  Not enough to send anyone to an early retirement, but a decent bit of coin for a Tuesday.  Weekends are the busy times in this gig of mine.  When I got to work this morning, I was told that I had a second run set up for tonight.  The new one had three stops in the Toledo area and paid $137.53.  When we tack on my extra $15 incentive for taking two loads in a shift, what is that?  $313.42, right?  Not exactly a typical Tuesday at the office.

Anyhow, I got back from my first trip at 7pm and dropped my trailer full of empty milk crates.  Once I found the trailer for my next load, I backed under it and stepped out to connect the air and electrical lines and do my inspection.  OUCH!  Fucking hole in the parking lot, right in front of that trailer.  I think the only thing that saved me from further damage was that I was still holding the handle of the truck when I felt my ankle buckle.  This isn't my first rodeo when it comes to ankle problems, as you're surely aware by now, so I'm trained pretty well.  I reacted almost instantly by pulling all of my weight off that leg.  It's gonna be pretty tender for a week or so, but it'll get better.

So yeah, a $300 Tuesday.  Just between you and me, I'd prefer something a little lighter on the pay scale.  By the time you make trips to Flint and Toledo, mixing in seven deliveries, a drop/hook, and a fuel stop, you've burned damn near fourteen hours.  In a former life I was that guy who chased every last dollar.  Not anymore.  There's a point when it's just too much.  I think we reached that point this evening.

On a positive note, I didn't really screw up any of the deliveries.  My total Line 4 time for the shift was 6.25 hours.  That included all seven stops, fueling, dropping, hooking, and inspections.  Just a couple of weeks ago, I don't think I would have come close to finishing both trips within fourteen hours.  Now I'm still not fast, but it would be hard to deny that some progress is being made.

I should get a little relief tomorrow, both in terms of my ankle pain and my work schedule.  Unless something changes, I'm only scheduled for one run out to Grand Rapids and back.  That trip involves mainly setting the cruise control and holding the steering wheel for a few hours, rather than walking repeatedly in and out of the trailer.  I've made the turn in Grand Rapids without any delays the last couple of times, so here's hoping for a quick and easy shift tomorrow.  That would be the perfect way to set up my day off on Thursday.

Speaking of perfect, is this the perfect campaign ad for our man Basil Marceaux.com?  I think it just might be.