4/29/09

I've never been to the Philippines. Is the dental service really that thorough? I suspect that we're looking at some false advertising here.

Pretty easy day overall today. I didn't have to get up too early, so that's always a good place to start. I bounced across Tennessee and then pulled into the consignee's lot. The forklift guy told me to stage in front of the dock and then back in once the truck ahead of me pulled out of there. I parked in front of the other truck and opened my doors. Sweet...

I had suspected that I may run into a problem with that load. The loaders had put the pallet on the left all the way against the wall of the trailer and had left a lot of room on the right. I couldn't get the hooks for my straps between the beer and the wall on the left, so I did the best I could and hooked in above the stack. For what it's worth, I think the halfassed strapping job did keep the whole damn thing from crashing off the pallet, even if it did contribute some left-to-right pressure in the process.

I backed into the dock when my turn came up and then expected to have a hassle on my hands. Not so fast though... The forklift guy scooted his forks under the pallet and then shifted it to the right, against the wall of the trailer. Straightened up the whole damn stack. Then he backed it out of my trailer and drove it forward against a wall. Straightened up the front-to-back alignment. Then he lifted it a few feet and set it down abruptly. Settled all of the cases into nice and neat rows. I know I'm easily entertained but that was pretty impressive.

By the time I got unloaded I had received my next planned load info. I guess it has been a while since we discussed the standard CTL playbook, but this one will fit the template. I had to go to the ConWay yard in Knoxville and stage for a load leaving tomorrow morning. I'll be relaying the load to a colleague in... come on now... think of the playbook... Troutville, Virginia. Substitute Knoxville for Nashville and there you have it. Standard routine.

The load is set to leave here by 6am but the guy in the office said that it will be ready between 4am and 5am. Probably ought to get some sleep before too long. In the meantime I can't decide if I should listen to the Tigers or hold off for another pastime of mine. I'll probably go with the bingo game. I can keep the press shindig on the radio and watch the pitch-by-pitch of the ballgame on my cell phone. I'll post a comment if I get a bingo. It usually takes about ten or eleven minutes during a speech, but this press conference format can be unpredictable.