12/5/09

There are various reasons that people choose to drive a truck for a living. I'm pretty sure that the quality of conversations on the road isn't one of those reasons. It surely isn't for me.

I received a satellite message this morning telling me that I would be bobtailing to Omaha to retrieve an empty trailer after making my drop in Waverly today. (This was not one of today's dumb conversations, for the record.) I shot back a note acknowledging the message and then checked to see which coaches were rumored to be taking over the Irish today. I had a half hour to kill before I could leave Sioux City, so I figured some amusement would do the trick.

Once my ten hour break was over I hit the road. Just to the south of Sioux City, the scale house was open and I pulled in. I weighed each axle and then got the message to park and bring in my logs and permits. It was 9:15am Eastern time. The following is exactly what was said;

Cop: How are you?

Me: Cold, and you?

Cop: Cold. Is yesterday's log in the back there? (My log sheets are attached at the top and folded back as the days go by.)

Me: Yeah, they're all there.

Cop: (After flipping through a few pages) How were you off duty until 9am?

Me: I got out of bed at 8:30 and hung around the truck stop until 9.

Cop: {Confused stare}

Me: I live in Michigan. I'm on Eastern Time.

Cop: You need to be on Central Standard Time.

Me: {Confused stare}

Cop: Unless your company has a terminal in the Eastern time zone.

Me: Yeah, it says right there that my home terminal is in Taylor, Michigan.

Cop: (After flipping through the pages again) How many terminals does Con-way have?

Me: Somewhere around 400.

Cop: Okay, you can go.

Them there's the educated folks keeping your highways safe from guys like me, America. Good luck with that.

I got back on the road and finished the trip to Waverly without any further incidents. The consignee is closed on Saturdays so I was able to avoid any conversation there. I just had to enter a security code to open the gate and then leave my paperwork in the nose of the trailer after I dropped it.

Then I was headed over to a customer on the west end of Omaha, where I found the assigned trailer waiting for me. Let's see what they left me this time. One blinker didn't blink and one marker light didn't light. Par for the course I'm afraid when it comes to my esteemed colleagues. I bounced over to the Sapp Brothers truck stop a couple of miles away and bought some lights to fix my trailer, then stepped over to SubWay for some lunch.

SubWay Guy: You watching the Huskers today?

Me: Probably. Isn't that one on at the same time as one of the other games?

SubWay Guy: I think Texas is playing Auburn or something.

(We're in Omaha, mind you.)

Me: Texas is playing Nebraska.

SubWay Guy: Yeah, that's what I meant.

Me: I'll probably watch some of the game if I'm not driving. I think the ACC game is on at the same time.

SubWay Guy: There's a UFC fight tonight. Are you gonna watch that?

Me: No.

Another asinine conversation, but my Italian BMT with double meat was quite delicious. We'll call it a fair trade.

I was #2 on the board, so I kicked back to watch some football. In the first game, I was hoping to see Pitt put a whipping on Cincinnati. Anything to make the Notre Dame folks realize that Brian Kelly has built his resume on squeaking past weak opponents. Since Big Game Bob finally gave us the dreaded "I will not be the next coach at Notre Dame" today, I fear that people will start to see Kelly as the inevitable pick. The 'Stache managed to blow a big lead and Kelly's team won, so no luck there.

In the next game, I was hoping for the rules of the game to be suspended in some way so that both teams could lose by fifty points. That didn't happen obviously, but the bigger douchebag of the two douchebag coaches lost, so good enough.

The ACC game didn't hold much intrigue so I moved on to the Big XII game to wrap up the night. Obviously I wanted Nebraska to win and throw the BCS into chaos. And they would have done it too if it weren't for those meddling kids. Seriously, Nebraska's defense-to-offense disparity is like a mirror image of Notre Dame's offense-to-defense. That was painful to watch. After seeing that defense shut down Texas for the whole game though, it just didn't seem right for them to give up that last field goal drive. A kickoff out of bounds and a freaking horse collar tackle? Seriously? Bummer.

The inevitable conclusion of the day was that neither Colt McCoy nor Tim Tebow could hold Jimmy Clausen's jock when it comes to playing quarterback. And Alabama will probably stomp Texas by three scores. And that Suh guy from Nebraska is probably the best player in the country. And Golden Tate is probably the second best player in the country. And spread offenses are terribly boring to watch, no matter who is running them (meaning big fun for me if any of the rumored candidates come to South Bend next season).

I never left my #2 position on the board today so the pay week will wrap up in an hour or so with 2,386 miles plus $120 in layover pay and another $70 in stop pay. Just a shade under $1,100 in total and I got to spend a full Saturday watching football. Beauty.

I have 14 hours left on my 70 going into tomorrow so, in the event that there's any freight to haul, I'll be ready. You never know.