12/15/07

Dear Southwest,

I know our relationship hasn't always been the greatest. I know I've called you "useless" and a "Godforsaken wasteland." It wasn't me talking. It was the fact that my mother never loved me. I know I thought your drab red and brown landscape was ugly. Really I just need to learn to appreciate your lack of beauty. I know I prefer places that seem a little more civilized, but I need to learn to appreciate the things about you that say "no man belongs here."

So what do you say, Southwest? When I go back to work in a few days, do you think maybe we ought to give this thing another try? Michigan is freaking cold.

I made the overnight run up here and dropped my loaded trailer at the terminal, then proceeded to come home and drink heartily until I fell asleep. Ahhh, that's better. Pizza's on the way, the day has just begun, the snow doesn't look too heavy, and there's more beer in the fridge. Sometimes it's the little things, right?

12/14/07

Well, how did we do today? I ain't getting to Taylor by 3am. I can tell you that much. I called in and, predictably, "No problem." Since tomorrow is going to count as a day off anyway, I'm going to go ahead and head up there at midnight. I'm just more than three hours away right now.

On the roads, it was a typical weekend day. Light traffic, no delays, uncrowded fuel stop. Man, I wish every day were like a weekend out here. They say there's more snow coming through, but I think I'll stay ahead of it this time around. I did find a little issue as I was checking the truck over a little while ago. In addition to the leaking steering fluid, now I have a little fuel leak. I guess there's something to be said for timing. If that had to come up, it might as well come up when I'm on my way to the shop.

I managed to exchange a couple of messages with a buddy of mine earlier tonight. It looks like he'll be doing a show in Detroit this weekend, so anyone around there might want to head down to Jacoby's on Saturday night. Ty Stone won't let you down. Always a good time.

12/13/07

I don't know what's wrong with me. Usually a long day on the road involves me getting bored or hungry or just generally distracted, so I get off the road and screw up my schedule. Then I end up running hard to finish off the trip. These last two days have flown by and I've stayed on the road. That's actually the case for pretty much the whole last week. Crazy. I'm starting to seem like a real truck driver or something.

The plan was originally to split my remaining hours between today and tomorrow morning. After I got to the nine hour mark today though, it seemed like I had hardly driven at all so I just kept going. I put in a full eleven and knocked out 700 miles, so it was a very productive day. Tomorrow morning I'll run until my hours are out, then have time for an eight hour break to extend my 14 before I finish off after midnight. Dumb schedule? Yep. Illogical way to prevent tired drivers? Yep. Typical of a government mandate? Yep. Another day in the trucking business? Yep.

Oklahoma, damn! I've never seen so many busted trees in my life. I got a pretty good AM signal out of Tulsa so I was listening to the stories of the general misery those people are suffering. Power failures, people using stoves for heat and getting carbon monoxide poisoning, improvised heating devices causing house fires, hard-wired smoke detectors not working due to the power outage, smoke inhalation deaths, traffic deaths. Sheesh! The roads were clean and dry today and the traffic flowed freely. That was a very big deal for me, considering the timeline I'm on.

So I guess I'll fire up a cigar and watch another movie. I get wicked fast download speeds at home so I need to get some of these off of my hard drive before I get there.

12/12/07

Well, I got a little over 600 miles in today. Depending on the weather in Oklahoma and Missouri tomorrow, this timeline might need some adjusting. Looking at my log book, I'm going to run out of hours on the 14th. Then, when midnight of the 15th rolls around, I'll be legal again. So I'll be, according to the dispatch, due in Taylor three hours later. According to PC Miler, that will be right on the edge of workability. As long as there are no major slowdowns, I think I can pull it off.

I was noticing that my truck has been burning oil a little faster than usual lately. That's usually a sign that it's due for a PM service. The shop sent a message this morning - "Truck due for service." Damn I'm good. Or I guess it could be bad, since I don't really keep track of the miles in-between. I probably should pay more attention. So I stopped at a T/A and got that done. I also had a bad light on this trailer that I picked up. And they threw in some steering fluid. That should hold me over until I get to the dealership in Michigan.

Some days just seem easier than others. Today went really smoothly. Even I-25, which has to be one of my least favorite highways, was pretty mellow today. I was rolling along and looked up to see "Welcome to Texas" and thought damn, that was quick. It was only nine and a half hours of driving, but due to the log book issue there was no need to go eleven today. I'll spread out the hours that I have left so hopefully I can maintain some sense of balance without sitting for twenty hours on the 14th.

I guess it's time to watch Transformers. A friend of mine says it's pretty good, so I had better not be disappointed.