12/4/09

You know... I like to read the Wall Street Journal. Their reporting is generally pretty sound and I have always taken an interest in things related to the financial world. So what in the hell am I supposed to make of today's article by Ray A. Smith? I ain't gonna lie to you, man. I could easily play the Charlton Heston role in The Greatest Story Ever Told. Am I to understand that now I need to shave my chest periodically and wear low-cut shirts? This is bullshit. I now know, more than ever, that I was supposed to be born fifty years earlier. At least the college chick quoted at the end of the article has a little common sense.

Last night was generally annoying, beyond the point when I stopped driving. It was pretty damned cold so I had my bunk heater running. A couple of hours after I went to bed, my truck's battery rundown warning thing started beeping. I got up and started the engine, then went back to bed. The next time I woke (for no apparent reason, as I'm prone to do), I reached over and turned off the truck, then kicked the bunk heater back on. A couple of hours later, the damned beeping woke me again. I started the truck one more time and resolved that I would just leave it running until it was time to get up.

An hour or so after that, my satellite unit woke me with a pre-planned assignment to follow the one that I had to deliver this afternoon. I replied with my confirmation and then managed to doze off for one last half hour before I had to get to work.

The drive into Minnesota was nice and easy. There was some light snowfall but it was so cold that the flakes were light and they were blown off the road before they could cause any trouble. I checked in at my consignee in Rogers and kicked back for a while as they unloaded the freight. Once I was empty (or so I thought), I pulled away from the dock and walked back to close the doors to my trailer. There were two cases of bleach sitting inside. Shit. So I headed in and got my paperwork, complete with the notation that 2 cases were damaged and refused. The lady was kind enough to note that I had arrived with the seal intact, so that was good.

Next I had to call our claims department and get some direction from them. The first part was fairly standard - note 'seal intact,' write the claim number, etc. Then the guy told me to write down that the shipper had advised us to donate the product. Yeah, donate it to a dumpster, right? He said that we're not supposed to dump bleach and that I should find a fire department or some other place where it could be put to good or charitable use. No, I'm not making this up. I understand that it's best not to waste things and all that jazz, but seriously. I have a job to do. Moseying on up to a fire station in a 70 foot tractor-trailer combination is not commensurate with my need to perform this job. Not to mention that it was rush hour on a Friday afternoon in a busy suburban area. It was about all I could do just to get back to the freeway.

I decided to head to my next shipper and try to think of something along the way. By the time I made the 70 mile trip down to Le Sueue amidst fairly heavy traffic, I had forgotten all about the bleach. After I opened my trailer doors and realized that it was still there, I asked the guy in the office at the shipper if their janitor or someone else might have a use for it. He said that he would find someone to use it and took it off my hands. Good enough for me. I guess it may not have been completely within the spirit of 'donating' to someone, but what can you do? They didn't want me to throw the stuff away and I couldn't exactly take it with me. Carrying all that bleach in my truck likely would have been more problematic than those paper towels in Miami.

Once I was loaded with another 40,000 pounds of goodies, I was off and running again. This time I'm headed down to Waverly, Nebraska. Out of Le Sueue, the route was along US-169 to MN-60, which later became IA-60. I passed on a chance to park in Worthington, Minnesota in hopes that I could reach Sioux City, Iowa before today's 14 hour clock expired. I wasn't sure just how much further it would be to Sioux City, but I had two and a half hours left so I was pretty optimistic. It turned out that Sioux City was only another 90 miles or so along the way and the route (IA-60 onto US-75) was mostly a divided highway with a 65mph speed limit. There was virtually no traffic and I made it with plenty of time to spare.

The first truck stop that I saw was completely full. I headed over to the other (bigger) one and found a couple of open spaces. All told, it turned out to be a pretty productive day. I'll have around 140 miles left to drive from here. The delivery in Waverly is a drop/hook and my dispatch says that I'm due at the perfectly logical time of 10:53am. Another early morning wake-up call appears to be in store. At least it looks like the weather should be cooperative in the morning (notwithstanding the fact that it's 15º outside right now). Dry roads are happy roads... or something.