5/21/09

Uh oh. I think it's all downhill from here. I took a quick peek in the mirror this morning. Oh, the horror! Now, I know that you'll either notice the napkins over my right shoulder and laugh or you'll just think I'm awfully pretty, so I've gone ahead and highlighted the issue for you...


That, my friends, is a white whisker. My payback for making fun of the geriatrics down here in Florida has seemingly come to bear. My days are clearly numbered.

After the quick ten mile hop to this morning's consignee, during which I missed a turn and wound up three miles off course, I checked in and got the good news that I would have to hire another lumper. My interest-free float to my employer is now up to $232 for the week. Hopefully my reimbursements will get processed before the payroll cutoff. You know, bird in the hand and whatnot. I got the lumper receipt from the boss guy and he was super polite, even calling me "Sir." I guess he must have heard about my new status as a distinguished old guy.

Once I was empty I had to drive about four miles across town to my next shipper. Minimizing empty miles and maximizing shareholder return - awesome. Take that, Wall Street. I was loaded quickly and dispatched for Clewiston with 25,000 pounds of containers for the stinky old sugar factory. There was a time not so long ago when it seemed that the only freight out of Florida came from that sugar factory. Now I'm delivering to the same place. What a wacky world man. Wacky world.

Today's drive was essentially a matter of retracing yesterday's route and then retracing the route from the day before. East on I-10, south on I-75, east on FL-44, and south on US-27. I was careful to avoid the stretch of US-27 through and out of Ocala, as it tends to be a slow pain in the ass. Once you get to be old and wise like I am, you know this sort of stuff. The drive overall was pretty easy, although the storms were pretty intense during the last twenty miles or so. There's a shady little supermarket with a few truck parking spaces in the town right before Clewiston so I decided to grab a spot and call it a day. It's still raining.