8/22/10

Another Sunday in Michigan...

Since people seem so eager to head up north and pretend to live the simple life every weekend, I can't figure out why they spend so much money on all of the modern conveniences and entertainment when they're down here.  If all you need is a campfire and a jet ski, then stop blowing your paychecks on iPods and the rest of that crap.

Sunday is the day when all of these weekend travelers come back home to reality, of course.  And there I was this afternoon with my typical run up to Genesee County.  The bad traffic doesn't persist all the way back home.  Some people go east or west once they hit I-69.  That cuts into the volume a little bit.  Then some people take I-75 down toward Detroit while others take US-23 down toward Brighton.  Once the roads go their separate ways, the traffic seems to be pretty reasonable.  On the north side of Flint though, there's that glorious stretch where we're all on one road together for a little while.

I know what you're wondering. Yes indeed, those are actual brake lights.

I was returning to the dairy, having completed my first three deliveries without issue, at the point when everything came to a halt.  As I noted above though, things seem to shake out once everyone gets on the appropriate freeway.

Before I got back down to Livonia, I received a call from the weekend dispatcher at work.  It turns out that the dairy was having production issues today.  As a consequence, one of our guys showed up to find that his load wouldn't be ready for a while.  My second load, on the other hand, was ready to roll.  So the other driver took my run and I was to take his run once I got back.  Fair enough then.

There was one little issue to overcome with respect to the new arrangement.  I had taken the time last night to come up with detailed directions to my originally scheduled three stops for tonight.  My new assignment, much like the original, had three stops in the Toledo area.  The problem was that I had been to exactly zero of those three stops.  I decided to swing by the terminal and make copies of the directions to each store before making my drop/hook at the dairy and heading back out.  While I was in the office, I took a look and saw that my pay for the day had increased by $17 as a result of the change in assignments.

Armed with a new trailer full of milk and three pages with rudimentary directions on them, I headed southward to finish out the night.  Nothing in particular stood out about that second run but I did end up knocking on the door of the 14 hour rule by the time I made it back.

Having earned $308 for the day without any incidents, I was feeling somewhat content.  I also was feeling somewhat exhausted.  14 hours is a long time for me to be working when I'm feeling normal.  When it feels like I can't lift my arms - long, long night.  I decided to skip tonight's leg workout and head home instead.  Then I saw a truck driver stopped at a red light.  Not only was he wearing one of those Goddamned sleeveless shirts that so many of them seem to love, but his arms were a big old mess.  Not a pretty sight.  Okay then... turning around and heading to the gym...

It's probably not ideal to hit the weights at 3am on a Sunday night, especially after a really long day of work.  There was an unintended side benefit though.  It turns out that, at 3am on a Sunday night, I'm not the only fat dude at Lifetime Fitness.  Who knew?  On second thought that's not much of a benefit, but it did make me chuckle.  I do enjoy me a good chuckle whenever I get the chance.  I actually managed to get some pretty solid lifting done, then dragged my jelly legs and droopy eyelids back home to call it a night.  The ringer on my phone is off and my A/C is set to a frigid temperature.  I'm pretty sure I won't be having any trouble sleeping this time around.

8/21/10

It's the small things that make or break a day sometimes.  I had three stops today - Howell, Flint, and Imlay City.  My first stop in Howell was, as tends to be the case, nice and simple.  The dairy manager works the day shift most of the time and today was no exception.  He pulled his six pallets of milk out of my truck and then observed that he didn't think he had any empties for me to take back with me.  I hadn't seen any in the staging area outside, so I concurred.  He signed the bills, we exchanged best wishes for the weekend, and I was on my way.

Stop #2 was in a part of Flint that we could safely call 'the hood.'  Now, plenty of you may be thinking to yourselves that all of Flint could be called 'the hood.'  To an extent you may be right, but trust me.  There are varying degrees.  This neighborhood was rough.  (As three sheriff's cars rolled down the street behind the store, I suggested that maybe they were going for coffee.  "They don't go for coffee around here," the store manager replied, without any humor whatsoever.  "That's an eviction.")  I had to back in from the aforementioned street, which is always fun, but at least this store had a loading dock.  Err, nevermind.  There was a hole in the side of the building that kinda looked like a loading dock.  It turns out that it was just a hole in the side of the building though.  I had to get the milk to the tailgate so that the dairy guy could pull it off with his fancy machine, just as I had done at the no-dock store on my previous trip.  Good thing I didn't have any empties to move around in there, eh?  It's the small things.

The third stop (in Burton) seemed like it might go pretty quickly.  The loading dock was a weird one to access, but it gets to the point where you don't even notice that stuff after a while.  I was only dropping off three and a half pallets.  How long could it take?  Then I stood out in the sun for ten minutes waiting for someone to answer the door.  After giving up and walking around through the front of the store, I found the dairy gal waiting at the loading dock.  Typical.  Then she piled her pallets of empty cases in the hallway where I had been putting the milk.  Those hallways aren't very spacious, to say the least.  So she couldn't get any milk and I couldn't get any empties.  I wound up having to take some time to rearrange things, then pull all of the empties out of the hallway, and then put the milk back into the hallway.  What a pain in the ass.  It's the small things.

The stop at Imlay City was quick and easy, as it usually seems to be.  I dropped off five pallets of milk and took seven pallets of empties within twenty minutes or so.  The fortunate side effect of the Burton situation was that I had rotated the milk for Imlay City to the rear of the trailer.  If that chick in Burton was content to waste my time, then at least I was going to get some benefit out of the delay.  It's the small things.

I wasn't sure what to expect on my way back down to Livonia, but I knew that I would be passing Detroit on I-696.  Tonight was one of the nights when the dorky old people gather and drive their dorky old cars up and down Woodward.  There was a huge line of brake lights as far as I could see when I passed Woodward, but none of the traffic was affecting the freeway.  Good deal.  It's the small things.

My shoulder workout for tonight wasn't bad.  I suspect that tomorrow might be a real SOB though.  The next workout in my rotation is my leg workout.  Nobody likes a leg workout to begin with, but it's a necessary evil for many of us.  Then you add in the fact that my legs are essentially a physiological train wreck and I'm not feeling too eager.  Then, to top it all off, tomorrow is Sunday.  $291 on two loads with six total stops.  That'll take me 12-13 hours or so.  I'll bet you can name one thing that I don't want to do after such a shift, can't you?  I may end up leaving the leg workout for Monday but, as long as I'm not too exhausted, I think I'll go ahead and do it tomorrow night.  That way I can spend Monday lying on the couch and feeling sorry for myself.  Yes indeed, lying on the couch is something to which I occasionally look forward these days.  It's the small things.

8/20/10

A Christmas Carol.  You remember the Charles Dickens novel, right?  After I typed last night's blog post and headed out for a while, I could have sworn that I was transported right into that story.

Before I could visit someone and degrade myself for the night, I needed to wash away whatever remnants of dignity I had left.  A few beers oughtta do the trick.  Two of the movies that I watched yesterday were Waiting and Still Waiting, so of course I was left with some subconscious inclination to have my few beers at Applebee's.  I can't explain that sort of thing and neither can you.  It is what it is.  I'll just say to you what I've said to a lot of people over the years, and this is true.  I've never seen anyone mess with a customer's food for any reason.  Eight years of people treating me and my employees like shit - not one single solitary instance of revenge.  For whatever that's worth.

I saw the ghosts of Thursdays past sitting all over the place.  Pretty young girls and their pretty young boyfriends, stopping by for dinner and a drink after work.  Ah yes, the optimism and the hope... heh.  Been there.

The ghost of Thursdays present was at the bar.  Me.  Drinking alone and keeping my mouth shut.  Nuff said.

The ghosts of Thursdays future were at the far end of the bar.  Four porky old middle-aged dudes were hanging around, enjoying the cheap appetizers and beer while they chatted about how expensive Chuck's upcoming divorce was going to be.  Oh goodie, I can't wait to be a part of that.

I think there's some kind of moral in the original Dickens story, but I haven't managed to find the one that applies to my version.  I guess I am kind of an asshole, like ole Ebenezer.  I'm far from miserly though.  I would probably do well to spend a little less, in point of fact.  Maybe I need to avoid having any friends named Chuck.  That way I won't get dragged into such a depressing chat.  Yes, I'm sure that's the lesson.

As for today, things seemed to go fairly well.  I knocked out my four stops in around seven hours, including a quick lunch break.  Probably not my most efficient shift ever, but it was good enough.  Whenever there are no major controversies along the way, I have no complaints.

After checking into a few options, I've somehow managed to settle on the most expensive gym in Southeast Michigan.  I'm not sure exactly how that happened.  I just lift weights and mix in a little cardio work, meaning that I don't really take advantage of the full 'experience.'  To be fair though, the place is pretty damned nice.  Plus everybody there is far better looking than I am, so maybe I'll be able to keep up some of that motivation that seems to be so lacking in my life.  For a month or two, at least.  I hadn't lifted in a while, so I was surprised to find that my strength was still somewhat decent.  My lung capacity on the other hand... oy.  My time on the treadmill was enough to confirm that this fat gut of mine is a mofo.  We're gonna have to work on that.

In an odd twist, I wound up being the lame friend tonight.  A buddy of mine invited me to some broad's birthday party at a local dive bar.  I took a pass.  Drunk chicks are not really as fun as people seem to think they are.  Usually quite obnoxious, actually.  It is Friday though, so I did think about heading out for a bit.  The only problem was that I actually wore myself out at the gym.  I just wanted to get home and relax.  Go figure.

One more trailer and four more stops for tomorrow.  If it goes as smoothly as today went, I'll be a happy fella.  The last few Saturdays have been nice and easy.  I have no reason to expect anything different this time around.  Then, in typical wild Saturday night fashion... shoulder workout.  This getting old shit is a crock.

8/19/10

Heh.  This Politico article, last screen cap, last line.  Aka 'stop lying' to people.  Score one more for your humble blogging hatemonger.  I know I wasn't supposed to say "I told you so" back when I was married, but now I'm just a solo dude here on the interwebs who can call it like he sees it.  I'll go ahead and let you know when I get one right every now and then.  (Probably a lot more than every now and then when it comes to money, as a matter of fact, but you know...)  How long until they admit that $862 billion in exchange for a few thousand government jobs and a handful of political payoffs was a disastrous experiment?  I guess I won't hold my breath on that one.

I may be forced to head out tonight and spend a little time with a non-friend, given that my friends have proven themselves to be quite lame.  I'm not sure yet if that's where this evening is headed, but it's my day off so I might as well do something.  I did manage to watch a few movies and get them off my hard drive this morning.  When this passes for an accomplishment, it's time to look for a fresh perspective on things.  "Must be nice to sleep in your own bed every night..."  Bah.

I have to work at noon tomorrow, so I guess I shouldn't stay out too too late.  I'll be heading back up to the Flint area (of course) for four stops.  I've only been to one of the four stores previously, and the third stop doesn't have a loading dock, so this could end up being fairly interesting.  I'm told that I'll have to get the milk to the tailgate and then the store people will pull it out of the trailer with some sort of gadget.  This means that I'll need to have the milk rotated behind the empties before I get there.  It also means that I won't be able to do much rotating with respect to my last stop.  I don't know.  The whole thing sounds like one big hassle, but we'll just see what happens. 

At least I only have one load so I should be done somewhat early.  Assuming that I don't get any social calls tomorrow (pretty safe assumption) or extra work thrown my way (pretty unsafe assumption), I think I'm going to check out a couple of new gyms and see where I feel like working out from now on.  If the Tigers keep playing the way that they have been, I'm expecting a phone call before next season.  Better get my ass in shape, just in case.