I was either (a) champing at the bit to get going this morning, or (b) ready to go back to bed. You can probably guess. Anyhow, I got up and finished off my run to Taylor. My fuel tanks were damn near empty before I got to the Pilot at exit 25 in Ohio, but I made it.
Coming up US-250 through Amish country, a state cop got behind me and followed me for what seemed like a hundred miles. In reality, it was more like four or five miles, but still... Ohio gets a little stressful for me sometimes. I don't know for sure, but there is a possibility that the judicial branch of the Lucas County government is holding an open invitation for me. A miscommunication took place several years ago and I blew it off, so I have no idea where I stand with those guys. I'm not really inclined to find out, so I just try to keep my nose clean down there. The kind officer finally ducked off after a few miles and I breathed a huge sigh of relief.
After I got parked at our terminal, I pulled out my weights and jammed out the workouts for my back and legs. My back workout was scheduled for yesterday, but I never really found myself in a suitable spot for a workout, or a jog for that matter. I think I'm going to have to switch up my style to allow for more flexibility because this will become a regular occurrence otherwise. Anyhow, today I got a good workout.
The dispatcher in Taylor confirmed a sneaking suspicion of mine. I won't mention his/her name (in case providing drivers with accurate info is a violation of some company policy). He/she said I could deliver tomorrow in Canada any time between 7am and midnight. Remember what my communications system said? 7am appointment. Liars. So, I was faced with a choice (and probably made the wrong one, but that's what I do). I could stick to the plan, take a nap, leave before midnight, and get the pay on this check. Or I could watch football all day, have a few pops, go to work in the morning, and get the pay on my next check. Fuck it, I've already made more than I budgeted for in September. I'll just chill. Whenever I wake up, I wake up. Then I'll go to work. One of these days I'm bound to grow up but it hasn't happened yet, apparently.
Today mainly involved laying on the couch and watching football. The NFL chose not to cooperate with my wagering tendencies the way the college teams did. As a result, I need Philly to cover -3 in order to break even for the weekend. Oh the drama!
I'm feeling a little tired so I imagine I'll be in bed shortly after the game. I don't have to get up early, but I probably shouldn't waste the whole day by sleeping too late. Can't get the next load until I get rid of this one.
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Saturday, September 29, 2007
9/29/07
Early mornings and odd schedules are the order of business these days. I was dispatched to be at the customer in Raleigh at 8am this morning. That was a little odd for a few reasons, but odd things coming from the desk jockeys in Missouri are nothing new. The customer didn't open until 8am, so that was the earliest this one could pick up. That's well enough, but it was a drop/hook so I could have gotten there a little later and had no issues. Being there by 8am made the log situation pretty difficult to manage, but I think it's all good. The split sleeper wasn't terribly useful since I drove so much yesterday, but it got me enough time back to make the last hour drive to the customer and then find a place to shut down and complete the break.
About the only real issue with the pickup was the damn tandem pins. I had to fight to get the things loose and move the wheels forward last night, then go through the same hassle to move the wheels back before I dropped the trailer this morning. Adding to the aggravation, the loaded trailer that I picked up was parked on the side of an incline. So much weight was on the pins on the right that I couldn't budge them. I had to spin the trailer around and stop in a position that leaned some of the weight forward onto the truck. That worked well enough, but it took a few tries.
I got a good high speed connection on my Sprint card, so I was able to watch the football game on my computer. North Carolina seems to be a pretty good state in terms of broadband service for some reason. I've been at various points throughout the state and often found that my speeds were good. I guess I'm becoming a loser of a football fan because that game today didn't bother me as much as the others. I was encouraged to see that, at least during the second half, the boys looked like a real football team. Hopefully they will build from there. I guess time will tell.
The drive that I had to make today was one that I knew I wouldn't enjoy. It's 90% mountains and I'm pulling 43,000 pounds of acetaminophen (The coincidence was not lost on me). Slow going most of the way. My usual route from North Carolina with this run would be to angle up US-52 and then catch I-74 over to I-77 and up through Fancy Gap. Today I gave in to curiosity and stayed on US-52 all the way up to Fancy Gap. I can honestly say that was one of the longest and steepest climbs I've made on a two-lane road so far, but it was pretty cool. I don't imagine I'll go that way with a heavy load again, but I was glad to have a chance to check it out. Very steep inclines, lots of curves, pretty scenic for the most part.
For entertainment purposes only, as long as Auburn stays within 16 1/2 of Florida I went 7-1 today. Even my Irish beat the point spread for heaven's sake. I can't afford to venture a lot of 'entertainment purposes' on the games, but a little extra never hurts. This year my record has been pretty solid. It looks like the college football world is being turned on it's head this year, but it's been pretty entertaining. (Um, Greg. Who could have known K-State would do that again? Crazy year man.)
I've shut down for the night about twenty miles short of the Ohio line. Rolling at 4:30am, I'll have just enough time to get to Taylor by my scheduled 11am arrival. I'll have to make a fuel stop, but otherwise it's non-stop driving. I have to be in Guelph, Ontario by 7am Monday morning, so I don't imagine that 11am arrival in Taylor is a big deal. Guelph is only 200 miles from Taylor. For personal reasons, I'd like to get in as early as possible and enjoy my break at home. Since I have been to this customer before and I know they have overnight parking, I figure I'll leave Taylor and cross the border sometime before midnight tomorrow. That way I can get that dispatch plus the border pay on my September paycheck. I'll get payed the same amount either way, but they say a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush or something like that. Might as well have the cash a couple weeks sooner.
With any luck, I'll get the hell out of Canada quickly on Monday. I've been deadheaded out the last few times and that's fine with me. Last year I got stuck sitting and waiting for loads a few times over there. Some of those little Canadian truck stops don't take American Express so I have to carry cash. I don't trust those crazy Canucks with the exchange rates so I like to be in and out in the same day. I think they secretly stash an extra nickel from every dollar in preparation for an eventual invasion of Montana. Crazy Canucks.
About the only real issue with the pickup was the damn tandem pins. I had to fight to get the things loose and move the wheels forward last night, then go through the same hassle to move the wheels back before I dropped the trailer this morning. Adding to the aggravation, the loaded trailer that I picked up was parked on the side of an incline. So much weight was on the pins on the right that I couldn't budge them. I had to spin the trailer around and stop in a position that leaned some of the weight forward onto the truck. That worked well enough, but it took a few tries.
I got a good high speed connection on my Sprint card, so I was able to watch the football game on my computer. North Carolina seems to be a pretty good state in terms of broadband service for some reason. I've been at various points throughout the state and often found that my speeds were good. I guess I'm becoming a loser of a football fan because that game today didn't bother me as much as the others. I was encouraged to see that, at least during the second half, the boys looked like a real football team. Hopefully they will build from there. I guess time will tell.
The drive that I had to make today was one that I knew I wouldn't enjoy. It's 90% mountains and I'm pulling 43,000 pounds of acetaminophen (The coincidence was not lost on me). Slow going most of the way. My usual route from North Carolina with this run would be to angle up US-52 and then catch I-74 over to I-77 and up through Fancy Gap. Today I gave in to curiosity and stayed on US-52 all the way up to Fancy Gap. I can honestly say that was one of the longest and steepest climbs I've made on a two-lane road so far, but it was pretty cool. I don't imagine I'll go that way with a heavy load again, but I was glad to have a chance to check it out. Very steep inclines, lots of curves, pretty scenic for the most part.
For entertainment purposes only, as long as Auburn stays within 16 1/2 of Florida I went 7-1 today. Even my Irish beat the point spread for heaven's sake. I can't afford to venture a lot of 'entertainment purposes' on the games, but a little extra never hurts. This year my record has been pretty solid. It looks like the college football world is being turned on it's head this year, but it's been pretty entertaining. (Um, Greg. Who could have known K-State would do that again? Crazy year man.)
I've shut down for the night about twenty miles short of the Ohio line. Rolling at 4:30am, I'll have just enough time to get to Taylor by my scheduled 11am arrival. I'll have to make a fuel stop, but otherwise it's non-stop driving. I have to be in Guelph, Ontario by 7am Monday morning, so I don't imagine that 11am arrival in Taylor is a big deal. Guelph is only 200 miles from Taylor. For personal reasons, I'd like to get in as early as possible and enjoy my break at home. Since I have been to this customer before and I know they have overnight parking, I figure I'll leave Taylor and cross the border sometime before midnight tomorrow. That way I can get that dispatch plus the border pay on my September paycheck. I'll get payed the same amount either way, but they say a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush or something like that. Might as well have the cash a couple weeks sooner.
With any luck, I'll get the hell out of Canada quickly on Monday. I've been deadheaded out the last few times and that's fine with me. Last year I got stuck sitting and waiting for loads a few times over there. Some of those little Canadian truck stops don't take American Express so I have to carry cash. I don't trust those crazy Canucks with the exchange rates so I like to be in and out in the same day. I think they secretly stash an extra nickel from every dollar in preparation for an eventual invasion of Montana. Crazy Canucks.
Friday, September 28, 2007
9/28/07
I don't know man, should I feel guilty about working my balls off when other people seem to be low on miles? Nah, screw 'em, I'm pretty selfish. As long as I'm the one paying my bills, I'll stick to worrying about my paychecks and leave the rest to someone else.
I woke up at the customer this morning and checked in. They unloaded me quickly, filled out the paperwork, and sent me off. I pulled off to the side of their lot to send in my empty call and wait for an assignment. By the time I stepped out, cleaned some crap out of the trailer, and closed it up, I had a message waiting for me. Pick up a relay in Hebron, Ohio and run it down to Virginia. Beauty. 66 miles for the deadhead and another 500 with the load. Oh, there's more you say? Why yes, there is. I was also pre-planned on a load picking up in Raleigh, North Carolina tomorrow morning. I'll be taking that one up to Canada.
It looks like my expectations will be soundly exceeded as I wrap up the month. The fact that I took almost half the pay period off and I'll still gross over $1,500 is pretty groovy. And my safety bonus was over $300 today, after taxes. That's another $50 over what I planned. I like stuff like that, since I'm basically a capitalist pig.
Random hypothesis: There is a direct correlation between the presence of a GPS unit on the dashboard of a car and the presence of a douchebag in the driver's seat of said car. Discuss.
Okay, back to today... I was running across 70, down 270 to DC, and then south on 95. When I got to the Maryland scales (my usual spot to wait out DC rush hour) I was about two hours ahead of schedule. Since I had time and there is usually plenty of room in there, I pulled my weights out and blasted my chest for a while. One day at a time is a pretty good motto for fat dudes that didn't mean to get fat. Well, today was day two and I'm hanging in there. Hanging in there...
The traffic on the beltway was slow and tedious, made worse by the fact that I was genuinely having a hard time steering. I hadn't lifted in a while and my arms got fatigued much more quickly than my chest. By the time I drove for a little while, they felt like Jello. I stopped in at the Pilot off exit 104 to grab some food and got stuck behind some idiots who (a) took 20 minutes to get the pump started and begin fueling, (b) didn't pull forward after they finished fueling, and (c) took another 13 minutes to pay and leave. Pissed me right off.
At the customer (an LTL company not named ConWay, oh the shame) I checked in and dropped my loaded trailer in a dock, then grabbed an empty. This piece of shit empty just might be older than I am. The frame is bent, so the doors are a little squirrelly and the tandem slides are a bitch. After fighting it for a few minutes, the only way I could get the pin to release was to use a trick I learned from one of my classmates during CFI orientation. I hooked a couple of short rubber straps to the pin and then hooked them to the edge of the trailer. With the tension on the straps, I rocked the truck a little bit and got the pin to shimmy loose so I could pull it. It's a glamorous life, I tell you. As shitty as the trailer is, I didn't find any real safety issues so it was onward ho.
I've been to the shipper in Raleigh before and they're really friendly people. They'd be even better if they would let us park there at night, but we can't go in until morning. This time around it made no difference as I burned up my 11th hour getting just across the NC state line tonight. I'll have to cover the rest tomorrow morning and then head north.
My Irish are on at noon, so maybe I'll get lucky and find a high speed internet server somewhere along the way. The game is on ESPN so my computer will be the best bet to catch the game. I have to cover a lot of ground to get to Michigan by Sunday morning, so a motel is not an option this time. Of course, the last few games have left me nauseated so maybe it's just as well if I don't see this one. Bullshit, who am I kidding? I'm a loyal fan till the end. Even when they play people like this and probably lose...
I woke up at the customer this morning and checked in. They unloaded me quickly, filled out the paperwork, and sent me off. I pulled off to the side of their lot to send in my empty call and wait for an assignment. By the time I stepped out, cleaned some crap out of the trailer, and closed it up, I had a message waiting for me. Pick up a relay in Hebron, Ohio and run it down to Virginia. Beauty. 66 miles for the deadhead and another 500 with the load. Oh, there's more you say? Why yes, there is. I was also pre-planned on a load picking up in Raleigh, North Carolina tomorrow morning. I'll be taking that one up to Canada.
It looks like my expectations will be soundly exceeded as I wrap up the month. The fact that I took almost half the pay period off and I'll still gross over $1,500 is pretty groovy. And my safety bonus was over $300 today, after taxes. That's another $50 over what I planned. I like stuff like that, since I'm basically a capitalist pig.
Random hypothesis: There is a direct correlation between the presence of a GPS unit on the dashboard of a car and the presence of a douchebag in the driver's seat of said car. Discuss.
Okay, back to today... I was running across 70, down 270 to DC, and then south on 95. When I got to the Maryland scales (my usual spot to wait out DC rush hour) I was about two hours ahead of schedule. Since I had time and there is usually plenty of room in there, I pulled my weights out and blasted my chest for a while. One day at a time is a pretty good motto for fat dudes that didn't mean to get fat. Well, today was day two and I'm hanging in there. Hanging in there...
The traffic on the beltway was slow and tedious, made worse by the fact that I was genuinely having a hard time steering. I hadn't lifted in a while and my arms got fatigued much more quickly than my chest. By the time I drove for a little while, they felt like Jello. I stopped in at the Pilot off exit 104 to grab some food and got stuck behind some idiots who (a) took 20 minutes to get the pump started and begin fueling, (b) didn't pull forward after they finished fueling, and (c) took another 13 minutes to pay and leave. Pissed me right off.
At the customer (an LTL company not named ConWay, oh the shame) I checked in and dropped my loaded trailer in a dock, then grabbed an empty. This piece of shit empty just might be older than I am. The frame is bent, so the doors are a little squirrelly and the tandem slides are a bitch. After fighting it for a few minutes, the only way I could get the pin to release was to use a trick I learned from one of my classmates during CFI orientation. I hooked a couple of short rubber straps to the pin and then hooked them to the edge of the trailer. With the tension on the straps, I rocked the truck a little bit and got the pin to shimmy loose so I could pull it. It's a glamorous life, I tell you. As shitty as the trailer is, I didn't find any real safety issues so it was onward ho.
I've been to the shipper in Raleigh before and they're really friendly people. They'd be even better if they would let us park there at night, but we can't go in until morning. This time around it made no difference as I burned up my 11th hour getting just across the NC state line tonight. I'll have to cover the rest tomorrow morning and then head north.
My Irish are on at noon, so maybe I'll get lucky and find a high speed internet server somewhere along the way. The game is on ESPN so my computer will be the best bet to catch the game. I have to cover a lot of ground to get to Michigan by Sunday morning, so a motel is not an option this time. Of course, the last few games have left me nauseated so maybe it's just as well if I don't see this one. Bullshit, who am I kidding? I'm a loyal fan till the end. Even when they play people like this and probably lose...
Please don't tell me any Purdue fans actually read this blog. I don't know if I could handle that.
Thursday, September 27, 2007
9/27/07
The practical route that my software suggested would have taken me past Chicago last night. I have developed a serious distaste for Chicago, so I angled down on I-69 to Indianapolis and then across. I think it cost me about 20 miles, but more time running at 65mph in Indiana, as opposed to 55mph in Illinois, probably took less time anyway.
I was struggling a little as I finished off the run into Pocahontas this morning, but a good dose of Dropkick Murphys provided a little energy boost and all was well enough. I dropped my trailer and took a look around the yard. Yeah, the outbound driver wasn't there. Typical. I was about a half hour early rolling in. By the time I dropped and inspected the truck and trailer, it was pretty close to my scheduled arrival time.
I fired off a message to CFI telling them the other truck was nowhere to be found. They quickly sent a message back saying he was there. Obviously I had overlooked the possibility that his truck might be invisible. Morons. In my complete state of exhaustion I wasn't in any mood to play that game. I parked in front of the trailer and went to bed.
About ten minutes later a bobtail pulled up in front of me. The guy had probably been having breakfast at the restaurant next door or something. Technically speaking, he wasn't late for the relay. Technically speaking, I didn't give a shit. The sooner I got rid of the paperwork, the sooner I could go to bed.
I slept for an hour or so until I got beeped with another load assignment. There was a relay inbound to Pocahontas that I would pull to Ohio for tomorrow morning. Not too bad I suppose. The scheduled relay time was 2pm, after my 14 hour clock was up, but I would have plenty of time to deliver it legally. The run was 373 miles so it wouldn't be difficult at all. Back to bed.
An hour later the guy showed up with the load. I was drifting in and out of sleep, but I heard someone set his brakes next to me. There would be no reason for anyone else to be parking that close to me, so I got up and looked to see if it was him. It was. Relay made, trailer inspected, load dispatched for 7:30am Friday, now it was time to sleep for real. And sleep I did.
I didn't set an alarm. As long as I was rolling by midnight, there would be no issues with time. I just wanted to let my body rest until it decided to give me the thumbs-up to proceed. I finally rolled out of bed around 2:30pm, feeling pretty good. Good, that is, until I did my running for the day. Before I took off, I was just a guy who had gotten a little out of shape. About a half mile into it, I officially gave myself a new designation - fat bastard. I forgot to grab my heart rate monitor when I was home, but I'm pretty sure 'beating out of my chest' is not the target range I was going for. I can tell that much with no technology at all. This is going to be a long couple of months but I have to whip my ass back into shape somehow. After my jog and walk (more walk than jog unfortunately) I got in the truck and hung out for a bit. My ten hour break was up at 5:45pm, so that's when I planned to roll.
I had a nice easy drive across to the Columbus suburbs. I wondered what in the hell was going on in Indiana, where a ton of big trucks seemed to be going really slowly. There were a shit-ton of cops with people pulled over along I-70, but going 10-15mph below the speed limit just seems stupid to me. I cruised by a few of them stationed in the median with my cruise set right at 65. No worries at all.
My directions didn't seem to make a lot of sense before I got to Marysville, but they were pretty clear once I got here. Clear right up to the point that it was dark and foggy and I drove right past the rinky-dink little sign for our customer. It's on a skinny little county road with nowhere to turn around, so that minor error cost me about twenty miles and a half hour. The directions said that overnight parking was available and they were correct, so here I lie. I should get a nice night of sleep with the truck off and the cool weather. I do love the fall.
Quite a few people at quite a few outfits have been bitching about miles this month. The various theories are making the rounds, but Occam's Razor works for me - the simplest explanation is probably the correct one. My guess is that people aren't shipping much right now. One tangential bit of confirmation for me seems to be the fact that I've only gotten one call from a trucking recruiter in the last two weeks. Usually it's three or four a week. I'm guessing they aren't hiring as aggressively because they don't have as much work. Just a guess.
I did get a message from a guy, representing "The largest company in the world" while I was sleeping today. Yeah, that would be G.E. I got online and looked up the number that he left me. Yeah, his division of G.E. would be Primerica. No thanks brother. My resume states very clearly that I have no interest in another financial job, nor in a different OTR job. The financial field is a thing of the past for me and I'm fine with the OTR job I have now. But who always calls? Financial firms and OTR companies. It might behoove these guys to read once in a while.
I was struggling a little as I finished off the run into Pocahontas this morning, but a good dose of Dropkick Murphys provided a little energy boost and all was well enough. I dropped my trailer and took a look around the yard. Yeah, the outbound driver wasn't there. Typical. I was about a half hour early rolling in. By the time I dropped and inspected the truck and trailer, it was pretty close to my scheduled arrival time.
I fired off a message to CFI telling them the other truck was nowhere to be found. They quickly sent a message back saying he was there. Obviously I had overlooked the possibility that his truck might be invisible. Morons. In my complete state of exhaustion I wasn't in any mood to play that game. I parked in front of the trailer and went to bed.
About ten minutes later a bobtail pulled up in front of me. The guy had probably been having breakfast at the restaurant next door or something. Technically speaking, he wasn't late for the relay. Technically speaking, I didn't give a shit. The sooner I got rid of the paperwork, the sooner I could go to bed.
I slept for an hour or so until I got beeped with another load assignment. There was a relay inbound to Pocahontas that I would pull to Ohio for tomorrow morning. Not too bad I suppose. The scheduled relay time was 2pm, after my 14 hour clock was up, but I would have plenty of time to deliver it legally. The run was 373 miles so it wouldn't be difficult at all. Back to bed.
An hour later the guy showed up with the load. I was drifting in and out of sleep, but I heard someone set his brakes next to me. There would be no reason for anyone else to be parking that close to me, so I got up and looked to see if it was him. It was. Relay made, trailer inspected, load dispatched for 7:30am Friday, now it was time to sleep for real. And sleep I did.
I didn't set an alarm. As long as I was rolling by midnight, there would be no issues with time. I just wanted to let my body rest until it decided to give me the thumbs-up to proceed. I finally rolled out of bed around 2:30pm, feeling pretty good. Good, that is, until I did my running for the day. Before I took off, I was just a guy who had gotten a little out of shape. About a half mile into it, I officially gave myself a new designation - fat bastard. I forgot to grab my heart rate monitor when I was home, but I'm pretty sure 'beating out of my chest' is not the target range I was going for. I can tell that much with no technology at all. This is going to be a long couple of months but I have to whip my ass back into shape somehow. After my jog and walk (more walk than jog unfortunately) I got in the truck and hung out for a bit. My ten hour break was up at 5:45pm, so that's when I planned to roll.
I had a nice easy drive across to the Columbus suburbs. I wondered what in the hell was going on in Indiana, where a ton of big trucks seemed to be going really slowly. There were a shit-ton of cops with people pulled over along I-70, but going 10-15mph below the speed limit just seems stupid to me. I cruised by a few of them stationed in the median with my cruise set right at 65. No worries at all.
My directions didn't seem to make a lot of sense before I got to Marysville, but they were pretty clear once I got here. Clear right up to the point that it was dark and foggy and I drove right past the rinky-dink little sign for our customer. It's on a skinny little county road with nowhere to turn around, so that minor error cost me about twenty miles and a half hour. The directions said that overnight parking was available and they were correct, so here I lie. I should get a nice night of sleep with the truck off and the cool weather. I do love the fall.
Quite a few people at quite a few outfits have been bitching about miles this month. The various theories are making the rounds, but Occam's Razor works for me - the simplest explanation is probably the correct one. My guess is that people aren't shipping much right now. One tangential bit of confirmation for me seems to be the fact that I've only gotten one call from a trucking recruiter in the last two weeks. Usually it's three or four a week. I'm guessing they aren't hiring as aggressively because they don't have as much work. Just a guess.
I did get a message from a guy, representing "The largest company in the world" while I was sleeping today. Yeah, that would be G.E. I got online and looked up the number that he left me. Yeah, his division of G.E. would be Primerica. No thanks brother. My resume states very clearly that I have no interest in another financial job, nor in a different OTR job. The financial field is a thing of the past for me and I'm fine with the OTR job I have now. But who always calls? Financial firms and OTR companies. It might behoove these guys to read once in a while.
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