8/6/09

Man, I'm really getting boring. A whole afternoon to kill, with no trailer, and what do I do? I sit in my truck and read a freaking book. It's a pretty decent book, but still. Lame.

There are only a handful of ways that a day can go when I get started before 2am and use half the day's hours in reaching my consignee. The way that the day usually goes, especially in the Midwest, is that I get assigned to a Con-way load for the following morning. Today stayed true to form. As I turned into the consignee's lot in Columbia City, my next planned load info came through. Picking up in Fremont and going to Normal. Eh, good enough. Maybe I'll get a little breathing room vis a vis the 70 hour rule for a few days.

The 44,000 pounds of copper consisted of only six spools, so the unloading was done in short order and I was on my way further up I-69 to Fremont. I dropped my trailer and headed over to the Pilot for some lunch and a shower. Wendy's was still serving breakfast. Dude, that sausage, egg, and cheese biscuit is awesome. I never had breakfast at Wendy's before. May have to keep them in mind.

My internet connection sucks, so searching online for something entertaining to do in this area was a little too frustrating. I wasn't really in the mood to start wandering aimlessly, so we arrive at the lame conclusion of this day's saga - reading. A textbook, no less. Lame.

A 4am wakeup call is a little better than a 1:30am wakeup call, so I think we're making some progress on the work front. Not sure what may come up for the weekend after I'm empty tomorrow. The light day today has left me with some hours to burn and I'll be a little over 1,900 miles, so the week could turn out pretty good with a decent weekend.

I just got a text message from a friend of mine. He put on his Brooks Brothers clothes today and got in line for Congressman Dingell's town hall meeting an hour before it was scheduled to start. The meeting organizer was expecting 175 people. 300 were already inside. He had about 50-60 more ahead of him and wasn't sure if he would be able to get in. Behind him...


I don't exactly agree with his politics, but I will say this much for Congressman Dingell. He has occasionally bucked his party in order to stick up for his constituents. Not often, but at least once every few years or so. Usually on matters of gun rights (lots of hunters back home) and environmental matters (lots of factories back home). I'll be interested to hear how this one turns out. Probably about as one would expect, since he was the one who introduced the current House bill into committee. I live in solid Democrat country anyway, so maybe they're showing up in support of the congressman. I don't know. Hopefully my buddy can get his paycheck from the insurance lobbyists and buy a ticket to that Notre Dame game next month though.