6/5/10

Another nice and easy day on the road gave me some time to consider what the folks at the Fenian Godfather Institute of Engineering had to say about this mess in the Gulf of Mexico.  Yep.  They made more sense than the yahoos who were shoving golf balls down a hole last week and hoping for the best.  It's our understanding that the oil is generating approximately 2,000 psi of pressure.  Both Kevlar and a good hydraulic pump can withstand that sort of pressure.  You pump hot water down the center tube during the insertion process to control the ice crystals and there you go.

You're welcome.

Despite whatever crazy thunderstorms blew through in the middle of the night last night, I caught decent weather for today's entire drive through New York and Pennsylvania.  The skies are looking pretty cloudy down here in Hagerstown, where I'll be spending the night, so maybe some more rain will come in and cool things off a little.  I wouldn't mind that at all.

I'm not terribly skilled with Microsoft Paint and the folks at the Fenian Godfather Art Institute are off for the weekend, so that little demo took me a little while.  Therefore I do believe that it's time for me to go inside and get an Italian BMT with double meat.  Good day to you.

UPDATE (8:22pm):  Guess I forgot to put my usual weekly summary on today's post.  2,652 miles plus holiday pay and over $80 in northeast pay.  Solid week at the office.

6/4/10

I think we might have us a true 'man bites dog' story developing today.  Two days in a row where everything went perfectly according to the script?  Could it be?

I managed to sleep for a few hours last night.  That's always a good start.  Then I got past Burlington before the traffic kicked up, reaching my consignee in Essex Junction shortly after 6am.  By 6:45am I was empty and ready to roll.  Beauty.

My pickup in Champlain, New York was scheduled for noon (according to my dispatch), so I had plenty of time to take a long break and get some lunch at a little truck stop along I-89 before heading over there.  I rolled into the shipper's lot at 11:15am, learned that my appointment was actually for 1pm, and rolled out of there with my full trailer at 12:30pm.  Not too shabby.

Another ride down through the Appalachians is normally sure to include a heavy payload, especially since my last two loads have been a little more reasonable.  So upon seeing the pallets stacked floor to ceiling and all the way to the back of the trailer, I was prepared for the worst.  A quick peek at the bills showed a total weight of 10,000 pounds though.  Excellent.  That'll be sure to save me at least a little bit of frustration before all is said and done.

An afternoon appointment in Georgia on Monday means that there won't be any alarms in my future between now and then.  Since I was a little tired today, following this morning's early wakeup call, I didn't do a whole lot of driving after I picked up my load.  I stopped off at the big truck stop in Wilton, New York and tried to take a nap.  No luck getting to sleep, so I basically just had a lazy day of filling out online surveys and listening to mp3's.  I think I completed about an hour and a half worth of surveys and earned $8.50 in the process.  Yeah, that's right, I'm a high roller.  I do have a $50 focus group tentatively scheduled for next week though.  Spend an hour telling people that their products suck?  I can handle that.

Hanging around and waiting for the ballgame was getting pretty boring, so I did some reading on various financial sites.  Oy.  I can't really fault the president for trying to put a happy spin on that debacle of an employment report.  He has to try and save his congressional majorities by whatever rationale he can muster.  My beef is with the damned economists.  I've spent the last four days hearing that there would be at least 200,000-250,000 new private sector jobs and a minimum of 500,000 including the temps for the census.  Epic fail on both projections.  I'm not talking about political hacks here either.  I'm talking about respected economists.  And then today, after a shitty jobs report, these so-called experts go straight from "Happy Days Are Here Again" to "Sell Everything?"  What changed fundamentally in the last 24 hours?  Absolutely nothing.  That's what.

The long and short of it is that they don't know anything.  You don't know anything.  I don't know anything.  We're dancing on the edge of a razor here and there's really no way of knowing which way things are headed.  I'll just echo what was once said by one of the most brilliant analysts of the modern age - "I would encourage everyone to do as much reading as possible regarding the relationship between financial risk and financial reward. I would venture to guess that the historical correlation isn't quite what you've been led to believe over the years."   Damned near two years later and, in my opinion, the other shoe still hasn't dropped.  I hope I'm wrong.  Still hedging against both directions though, just in case.

Speaking of hedging... it's a good thing we didn't go full tilt with ole Max Scherzer's campaign for the Cy Young award, eh?  He's back to his true form, stinking up the joint tonight.  Luckily he's facing Kansas City so there's a chance he might win anyway.  Not looking too good at the moment.

I can't end today's post on that note though.  Today was a good day, by golly.  So let's talk about juice for a second.  I'm not much of a juice drinker, to tell you the truth.  I can handle an occasional glass of OJ but it's really not my thing.  Too sweet for me, generally speaking.  I grabbed a bottle of juice this afternoon and I am thoroughly impressed.  The folks at Naked Juice have a product called Red Machine.  Fan-freaking-tastic.  No sugar or any of that nonsense.  Just a wicked good blend of various berries and other fruits.  Not too outrageous on the calories either.

6/3/10

Aside from the fact that there's a douchebag idling his truck next to me (with his windows down, go figure), disrupting the serenity of a lovely Vermont evening, I'd have to say that today was just about ideal.  Good weather, afternoon baseball on the radio, and none of the usual issues arose on this trip into New England.

Traffic can be a problem in this part of the country.  Today's traffic was moderate to light.  Construction can be another concern.  The only major construction zone today was on I-84 in Pennsylvania.  The road was down to one lane for a looong stretch, but there was no logjam at the merging point, so everyone just had to take things slowly for a while.  Parking tends to be another unknown.  I found a little truck stop with plenty of parking spaces, somewhere around 50 miles from tomorrow morning's consignee. Then we have the Vermont routing issue to address.  Some roads are okay in this state and others require a special permit.  I had a frame of reference from a previous trip though, so I just took the same route up past Glens Falls and across through Whitehall today.  No worries.

The last thing that can be an issue up here is deciding where to go once I get unloaded in the morning.  You get the same routing and parking concerns as before, in addition to the fact that there are no truck stops near the consignee and I don't know which way I'll have to go for the next pickup.  This is where a pre-plan becomes more than just a convenience.  It becomes pretty important.  Fortunately, I received a nice long pre-plan for the weekend as I rolled through Pennsylvania this afternoon.  Unfortunately, I couldn't accept it.  I'm no cartographer, but I've been led to believe that Quebec is a province in Canada.  Furthermore, I'm of the understanding that Canada is like a whole other country or something.  Even though I took my chance and opted out of Canada loads a few years back when the choice was presented to me, I wouldn't be averse to heading up there once in a while when the company really needed me to do so.  I can't though.  For reasons that still are not entirely clear to me, a passport is required in order to cross the Canadian border these days.

I was rolling down the highway and not in the position to have a satellite message exchange at the time, so I reached over and hit the 'N' button on the keyboard.  As in 'No' I can't accept the assignment.  A few minutes later I got a note explaining that it didn't have to pick up until tomorrow afternoon, and asking why I wouldn't be able to cover the load.  I don't know exactly what sort of computer display they look at down there in Joplin, but I was under the impression that they were supposed to be aware of my no-Canada status.  For instance, the dispatcher in Laredo once said to me, "Okay, you don't go to Canada.  Let's see..."  Perhaps today's assignment was just an oversight.  I don't know.  I arrived at my fuel stop a short time later and sent a quick note - No Passport.  And then the load was unassigned.

Once I got onto NY-149 and started across toward Vermont, I received a new assignment for the weekend. If you can't go to Canada, then I suppose you might as well get as close as possible.  I'll be picking up in Champlain, New York.  Due to another handy bit of knowledge from that prior trip up here, I know exactly how I can get to Champlain without any legal concerns.  Good deal.

Now, if only we could do away with these 7am deliveries...  Oh well, early morning tomorrow.

6/2/10

Unbelievable!  That guy was safe?!?  I got off the road early tonight, partly to make sure I had a parking space but mainly to witness history in the making.  And that guy was safe?  What a crock of shit.  He's half a step from the bag.  In baseball terms, that's not even a close play.  It's nice for the Tigers to finally win a game and all, but come on.  They stole a perfect game.  I'm absolutely stunned.

I headed over to my shipper this morning a couple of hours early, in hopes that I could get some extra miles behind me before the parking started to dry up.  If not for Mr. Galarraga's little dance with perfection tonight, I would have been hoping to get up to Maryland or Pennsylvania.  The shippers did get me loaded a little early and they were very polite, but I'm still gonna have to say that it's a place to which I'd rather not return.

In the following picture, you can see a local truck with a red and blue trailer.  If you're wondering how in the hell he got that trailer into the dock, you're not alone.  I was wondering the same thing when I pulled into the little parking lot there.

There is a little bit of room along the water tower where I had to wiggle my truck back and forth in order to get the trailer pointed at the dock.  (I had entered from the street along the right, so getting the trailer oriented was the hard part.)  Then some more wiggling back and forth got me settled into the right position.  Certainly not the most difficult dock that I've ever had to hit, but I'm still not a fan of that stuff.

I was back on the road at noon, armed with a nice 20,000 pound payload.  This makes two in a row that haven't been exceedingly heavy.  Maybe things are looking up for me in that respect.  Traffic was fairly cooperative as well.  I got through Charlotte before the afternoon rush got too bad and didn't encounter anything other than the usual parade route on I-81 in Virginia.

I had enough hours available tonight to get me into Pennsylvania somewhere.  As noted yesterday though, parking isn't terribly bountiful late at night in the Northeast.  So I was trying to decide on a practical approach when the radio broadcast of the Tigers helped to make up my mind.  I was approaching the truck stop in Mount Jackson, Virginia as the game went into the bottom of the 7th inning.  I saw that my (AT&T) phone had a 3G connection at the time, so I assumed that my (Sprint) internet card would give me some decent speed as well. 

After pulling off the road and firing up the computer, I found that I did indeed have a good enough connection to watch the last two innings.  1-2-3 in the 8th.  1-2-X in the 9th.  That guy was safe?  What a crock of shit.

Tomorrow's drive will be a pretty long one, somewhere around 600 miles from here to my consignee.  I'm not sure how the parking story will play out up in Vermont, but we'll just cross that bridge when we get to it.

That guy was safe?

6/1/10

Okay man, listen up. This is important. If I've told you once, then I've told you a thousand times. Stop dividing by zero!  You can have your theoretical discussions about limits approaching infinity and all of that.  Here in the real world though, there are consequences.

Guatemala? You gonna start taking me seriously now? I'm a busy guy, you know. I can't keep reminding you of these things forever.  Eventually the ghosts of your departed quantities are gonna screw up the whole universe.  Knock it off.

Now that we've got that out of the way...  shall we take on businesses that don't accept debit cards?  Nah, it's a free country.  They can demand whatever form of payment they like.  I didn't want to spend my money at that little truck stop diner in Sanford anyway.

This morning began quite early, as mornings are often known to do.  My delivery appointment was set for 8am.  My alarm was set for 7am.  Thunder woke me at 5am.  Can't win 'em all, I suppose.  Once the forklift guys showed up for work at 8am, they told me to go ahead and back in.  One truck had arrived and backed in before I drove across the lot this morning, so I was second in line.  Good enough. 

Once I opened the doors to my trailer - umm - not so good.  When I had picked up the load in Minnesota, the shippers had placed five pallets in the front of the trailer and another four toward the rear of the trailer.  Trying to balance out the axles and so forth.  So, prior to leaving, I had used three straps to secure the load.  One strap held the first five pallets against the front of the trailer.  The second strap went across the front of the last four pallets.  The last strap went across the back of the last four pallets.  All secure and away we went.

So now we get back to what I saw this morning.  The strap that was across the back of the last four pallets was still there.  The pallets were not.  At some point during my trip, those last four pallets had shifted forward.  The strap that was supposed to be holding them back had proven to be no match.  Snapped right in half.  First time I've ever seen that happen.  Fortunately, the pallets hadn't skidded to either side and hadn't tipped over.  They just went straight up against the ones at the front of the trailer.  So I wound up with a row of nine pallets in the nose of the trailer and one broken strap.  Coulda been worse.

After I was unloaded and on the board at #1, I headed into town and parked for a while.  Instead of going back to the place where I stopped yesterday, I chose the little truck stop diner down the street.  This was partially because I didn't appreciate the 'no overnight parking' bit from yesterday.  It was also because the place with the diner would give me an easier time of getting back onto the highway if I had to take US-1 or US-15 out of town.  So I headed in to grab a bite to eat.  You already know what follows here.  No credit cards, debit cards, or checks accepted.  I very rarely have any money on me and today was no exception.  No big deal though.  I would just hit the ATM and grab a few bucks.  No ATM?  Screw it then.  Back to bed.

By the time my satellite unit beeped me out of my peaceful slumber, the rain had moved out of town and the sun was burning brightly.  Nice.  My assignment was one of those that comes up every now and then, generally when we've either lost a customer outright or replaced it with a new customer.  I had to take my empty to the Con-way yard in Charlotte, drop it off, and then head down to South Carolina to retrieve an empty from another place.  I knew where the Con-way yard in Charlotte was, since I've already been there a handful of times.  So I made the nice and easy drive over there and dropped off my trailer.

Next it was time to head southward and get an empty from Orangeburg, South Carolina.  I didn't realize it until I was almost to Orangeburg, but I never received directions to the customer.  I had received the name of the place though, so I punched it into one of my cell phone applications.  The app got a GPS fix on my location and gave me directions that seemed pretty logical, so I didn't bother sending a message to my employers.  My phone's directions were all good and I got checked in without incident.

The security lass told me to head back to the drop yard and grab an empty.  Then I would have to drive over to the shipping office and get my gate pass signed.  Sounds simple enough, right?  Yeah, that's what I thought.  After standing in line at the shipping window for 45 minutes, I heard the yard dog yelling at me.  Apparently I had parked in a spot where I didn't belong.  (I thought I was going to be there for 30 seconds.  Sue me.)  So he was ranting and raving about how I needed to move my truck.  I said I would move it as soon as the shipping bimbo signed my gate pass and not a minute sooner.  Homeboy was pissed.  Fuck him though.  Seriously.  This was ridiculous.

After a minute or so, our little tête-à-tête had drawn the attention of the three guys who were still ahead of me in line.  Since they were still waiting to pick up their loads and I just needed a signature, they let me skip ahead.  Then the gal made sure to tell me how this particular yard dog was a major asshole, as if I hadn't noticed.  She signed my pass and I went on my way.  On balance I suppose that you could say I'm glad we lost that customer, whatever the reasons may have been.  If it takes almost an hour to pick up an empty trailer, I would have no desire to try picking up an actual load at that place.  Also, for whatever it's worth, the trailers that remained in the drop yard were mostly from the usual suspects - JB Hunt, Werner, Schneider, Heartland, etc.  I can only surmise that the freight is cheap stuff that we're better off leaving for the bargain outfits.

Just before arriving in Orangeburg for that fiasco, I had received the plan summary for my next assignment.  I would be picking up in Batesburg and heading to Vermont.  My directory listed a truck stop on US-178 in Batesburg where I could spend the night, so across US-178 I headed.  Then I somehow managed to drive right past the truck stop without even seeing it, so I had to re-route on the fly.  I wound up hanging a left some other highway and found my way down to a different truck stop on the southern edge of town.  Good enough. 

My load is set to pick up at 1pm tomorrow and deliver at 7am on Friday.  Coming in at around 1,050 miles, it's not an unreasonable amount of work for two days.  That 1pm pickup may kick me in the ass when it comes to parking though.  Depending on how long it takes to get loaded, I may end up looking for somewhere to park in the northeast tomorrow, well after dark.  That's generally a recipe for failure but we'll just have to see how it goes.  I think I'll head over a couple of hours early and try my luck just in case.

Until then, we focus on the bright side.  No alarm clock tomorrow.  Beauty.

5/31/10

I would have suspected that everything would go according to plan today, given that I only drove for three hours. That's not exactly how it turned out though. Nothing major went wrong, so the day was easy enough. Just the little tedious stuff here and there.

On the way out of Virginia and into North Carolina, there was a steady flow of traffic. That gets tedious enough in its own right, given that I tend to drop down to 45mph or so on the way up the hills, so I don't have much luck passing slower cars. Add in a few heavy downpours here and there and you get some obnoxious driving conditions.

I had my ace in the hole though. I timed my trip so that the ballgame would be on during most of the drive. Apparently they got rain in Detroit today though. No ballgame for me.

It's all good though. I got out of the rainy weather by the time I turned toward the southeast on US-421. The rest of the ride was just a matter of holding the steering wheel and setting the cruise control.

I made it to Sanford later in the afternoon and saw that there were a handful of open parking spaces at the little truck stop in town. "NO OVERNIGHT PARKING. VIOLATORS WILL BE TOWED AT OWNER'S EXPENSE." Well that's just rude. Unlike the parking lot where I stopped in Pennsylvania recently, this one was right out by the main highway and it only had a few parking spaces to begin with. If people were inclined to enforce their rules, it would be very easy to spot whichever trucks were parked overnight. Not wanting to wake tonight and find myself attached to a tow truck, I decided to grab some food and hit the road. I think there's another truck stop in town, but I figured that I might as well just head to my customer's location. The place would be closed on a holiday and I would save myself the trouble of driving over in the morning.

After driving the two miles or so from the truck stop to the customer, I found that they are in fact not closed on a holiday. Well hell, I hadn't anticipated that part. I wonder why they gave me a Tuesday morning delivery then. Anyhow, I pulled off to the far edge of the parking lot and set the brakes. Screw it. If they come and kick me out, then I'll have to see about finding a parking space at that other truck stop. Otherwise I'm just sticking around until morning.

Have a good Memorial Day everyone.

5/30/10

Oh hell, I think I screwed up here.  In what should come as a surprise to nobody, I wasn't exactly feeling like a million bucks this morning.  Let's just say that it was a late night last night.  That was fine though, because I didn't really have to go anywhere today until I was good and ready.  After a few Advils and another one of those nice big cheeseburgers, I managed to pull myself together a little better.  The burgers came in a package of four, so I cooked the last one and wrapped it up for later, then cleaned up my mess and hit the road.

The few hours of driving that I did today were fairly straightforward.  Well, I shouldn't say straightforward.  More like up and down and right and left and this way and that forward.  You know what I think of West Virginia, after all.

I was done for the day once I got down to the T/A in Wytheville, Virginia. Good enough. Might as well leave a few hours for tomorrow. So... pretty easy day of work today. The Tigers finally had a good game this afternoon. I got a nice easy parking space at the truck stop. What could be wrong?

I was tired when I got here. I mean really tired. One of the good things about my line of work, I suppose, is that I'm never more than a few feet away from my bed. I cranked up the A/C and hopped in the bunk for a nap. Good deal.

Now we come to the problem though. I just got up to take a leak and saw that it was 1:30am. I'm wide freaking awake now. Somehow, between now and Tuesday morning, I'm gonna have to get back on an 'up in the morning' schedule. I guess I can just stay up through the rest of tonight and tomorrow. That should leave me tired enough to sleep tomorrow night. Maybe. We'll see how it goes.

About 170 miles to drive in order to reach my consignee from here.