2/13/08

Even as lazy as I am, it was nice to finally get out and work for a change. I was #17 when I woke up, and it was a few hours later that I got a load headed for Illinois.

I covered a little over 600 miles today, but it was mostly a feeling-out process with my new ride. The suspension seems a little better. I didn't get pounded as badly by the bumps, but I think there is a tradeoff in terms of a slight understeer compared to the older model. The pedals are different. The change in the way the pedals feel under my foot, combined with the overall quieter sound, left me running the RPMs a little higher than normal for quite a while. I think I'm getting used to that. The new Qualcomm thing is pretty cool I guess. It started reading the directions to me when my fuel recommendations came through. Apparently I was supposed to leave the terminal and go to the Federated States of Micronesia. I have no idea where that is, so I just used my own directions. The climate control is a hundred times better on this truck. On my old truck, I had 'wicked hot' or 'wicked cold' so I spent most days flipping between the two choices. It had the red and blue adjustment knob thing, but anything above the absolute cold setting made it completely hot. This one actually gives me the in-between range. Oh yeah, and it goes 65mph. Fun.

Anyhow, I have to be at the customer by Friday morning. The dispatcher in Laredo said it's a 24 hour place, so I'm going to try and get there tomorrow night. That should get me at the top of the board when the planners get to work Friday. I have some serious ground to make up after the last week, so I'm hoping for a good weekend. I don't know if they still have me highlighted for Joplin, but I hope not. I will need to get my inverter re-installed and have the windshield fixed, but until I get a few more dollars in the bank I can live without those things.

2/12/08

Look at that. Don't say anything. Just look. I've never been so relieved to be #41 at anything in my life. On my first baseball team, I was #41 as a tribute to Darrell Evans, but that was a long time ago. Ahhh...

I sat at the dealership all morning, being ignored by those motherless fucks. Sometime this afternoon my fleet manager called and said he was working on getting me a truck. A little after 2pm, he and a few other folks made it happen. My truck is now black, as opposed to red. It has a couple names on the doors, neither of which belongs to me. It has a small crack in the windshield. It has a bunch of switches and gauges that were changed slightly from the older model of T-600, just to annoy me. And it's all mine. Beauty.

It took the bulk of the afternoon to get everything moved over. It's astonishing just how much shit one can accumulate in a year and a half on the road. And I don't even carry much on the truck, compared to most people I meet. Anyhow, it's all moved. Hopefully they're not switching me into a new truck any time soon. This one only has 250,000 miles on it. Give the new ones to people who need the ego boost. I'm fine right here. (Moving sucks!)

The paperwork is done. I'm on the board. And Laredo, at some point in the next day or so, will be in my rearview mirror.

When I talked to my fleet manager, it sounded like I would need to take that old truck back to the dealer and drop it off today, then hitch a ride back here with someone. When I did the check out/check in with the CTL mechanics though, they said they would take it back tomorrow. Beauty. It's probably best that I not go back to that place, now that I have no vested interest in being polite to them. I have a bit of a smart mouth sometimes, or so I'm told. Instead, I'm going to chow on some more Mexican food, confident that my (new to me) truck will make it back here without stalling.

I don't know who you are, Veronica and Juan, but thank you from the bottom of my heart. Whatever caused you to quit your jobs, I hope it wasn't too bad. You just made my day.

2/11/08

A new haiku for you:

At the shop all day
Closing time, truck is ready
Fuck me, it's still broke

Yeah, that's about how my day went. I headed over to the shop and sat there all damn day. The guy gave me my keys as they were locking up for the night. He said I was good to go. And my truck died twice during the half-mile drive to the terminal. The best advice road service can give me is to head back over there in the morning and take those jagoffs for a test drive with me. How long have I been in Laredo now, anyway?

They told me this morning that I had "busted fuel lines." Yeah, I may not know a lot about trucks, but I didn't fall off the banana boat either. If this thing has busted fuel lines, the dipshit with the blowtorch busted them after I gave them my truck. Whatever it is, fuel lines or otherwise, they still haven't fixed it. I should have just stayed at the fucking motel.

2/10/08

If it weren't for the fact that I am not making any money, this wouldn't be so bad. I had quite a few beers left after last night's binge, so I had a kick start in getting rid of my hangover this morning. Hair of the dog and whatnot. Then it was a long lazy day of polishing off the beverages, eating like a pig, and watching HBO.

I got a call from my fleet manager, waking me up this morning. I had a pounding headache and a sore throat at the time, so I'm sure I sounded thrilled to receive the call. Anyhow, he's doing what he can on his end to get me out of this predicament. Hopefully I will get my truck back (and functional) tomorrow, but if not we'll try to find another way of getting me to Joplin. Apparently one possibility would be to hitch a ride with another driver and then haul a load back down here to retrieve my personal effects. That sounds like a pain in the ass to me, so I'm hoping we don't have to go that route. Another possibility would be that someone quits and leaves a truck available in Laredo, but again I would prefer just to get my truck back and drive it to Missouri.

The Red Wings were on NBC today, so that was pretty cool. That last goal that got waved off was a complete hosejob though. It should have been 3-3, but the refs gave the game to Anaheim. It was a pretty exciting finish anyway.

Oh well, I guess I'll try to get a little sleep tonight. I guess there's a possibility I'm driving away tomorrow, so I might as well be ready.