11/23/09

Nothing is quite as rewarding as dealing with a sluggish computer for several hours while your DVD encoding software hogs the processor and memory, only to have the actual DVD writing process fail on account of an 'unknown error' at the 90% mark. Quite rewarding indeed.

I actually got something resembling a little bit of down time today (hence the DVD encoding). They're still keeping me moving, to be sure, but tomorrow's delivery is for a very reasonable 1:30pm. Good deal too, 'cause today I'm freaking tired. I set my alarm for 4:30am this morning so that I could be ready whenever the employees at my consignee showed up and started parking. I never made it to 4:30am. I think, all in all, I probably slept for an hour or two. The rest of the night was spent tossing and turning and checking to see how long it would be until I had to get up. By 3am I concluded that it was pointless so I sat in the front of the truck and browsed the interwebs for a while.

It turned out to be a good thing that I was up before 4:30am though, as the first employee arrived at 4am and told me that I would have to move. He pointed me to another area where I could hang out and told me to check in at Door #1 shortly before 6am. They would have to load their local delivery trucks first and then they would get me unloaded. Okay then. I don't know exactly what time the main forklift driver dude showed up but it was definitely well before 6am. He said that they needed some of the materials from my truck to put on one of the local trucks, so I needed to back into the dock. One of last night's mysteries was solved when I found out that there actually was an indoor loading dock behind a big overhead door facing the street.

Once I got settled into the dock I had plenty of time to try taking a nap, given that the bales of insulation were being unloaded by hand, but I didn't manage to fall asleep. I was freaking tired too. Such a shame. Once I was empty, I headed back southward to the McDonald's that I passed last night. By the time I parked and bought a sausage biscuit, I had a new assignment waiting for me. Onward we roll. This time I did manage to nod off for an hour before I had to get going though.

My next shipper was up to the north of Milwaukee along I-43. So I had gone a little out of the way in search of morning parking, but not too terribly out of the way. I was right along I-43 so I just had to run it all the way up to Belgium, Wisconsin. I was dispatched to arrive at 11am. I showed up at 9:45am. The broad in the office said that I had a 10:30am appointment. The forklift dude directed me to a door at 11:15am. So take that however you will. I don't know. I was just glad to see that it was an appointment deal because there were a bunch of trucks hanging around before I arrived. I skipped right past most of them, so one might reasonably conclude that they had later appointments.

My string of empty or lightly loaded trailers came to an abrupt end once I had my 42,000 pound payload all ready to go. You win some, you lose some. Back down I-43 through Milwaukee and then onto I-94 toward Chicago we go. I took the bypass this time and the traffic was tedious but reasonable in the early afternoon. I'm heading for Delaware, Ohio so I decided to cross Indiana on US-30 instead of taking the turnpikes. I think I'll shave around twenty miles off the trip this way and I find it to be a pretty relaxing route once I get to the east of Valparaiso.

Coming off a pretty intense weekend of driving and feeling pretty weary, I stopped off in Plymouth, Indiana for an Italian BMT with double meat. Then, about two seconds after I set my brakes, I decided that this will do just fine for tonight. I'll have a little over 200 miles to cover from here to my consignee, but that afternoon appointment shouldn't be too bad. It's getting tough to tell day from night at this point so with any luck I'll get some decent sleep here pretty soon. I'm (hopefully) going to get one more DVD finished and then give it a shot.

Sometimes, while creating DVDs and posting a blog entry, one might be inclined to peruse the news of the day. Yeah, I just did that. Media reports are now saying that our golden boy quarterback was involved in a bar fight late Saturday night in South Bend, leaving him with two black eyes. People who were there are saying that he got sucker punched, which (to me) sounds quite a bit different than being involved in a fight. (For the record, I've been sucker punched before and I've been involved in fights. There's most certainly a difference.) Either way, just one more awesome story in a season that can't end soon enough.

11/22/09

It occurred to me as I was driving this evening that I've been running my ass off for the last few days. The weekends are usually the times when we take it a little easier out here. Over the last three days, I've spent 12.75, 11.75, and 11 hours on duty, respectively. I'm paid by the mile so of course it's good to keep moving, but damn. I'm getting a little tired. I don't think I'm supposed to be parked where I am tonight either, so I'll have to set my alarm for 4:30am to make sure I'm sitting awake by the time anybody arrives. That way I can pretend that I just got here or something. Alarms suck. That's my policy.

I was up this morning, without an alarm clock, around a half hour before it was legal for me to start working again. So I bummed around and had some breakfast, then hit the road. It was pretty warm and rainy as I left Missouri. Thus, I suspected that I might see a bit of snow after I made it further north. Little did I know that it would get even warmer as I moved away from the equator. Weird. Score one more for the CO² I suppose. The rain was off and on all day but the overall drive was pretty easy. Light load and weekend traffic and so forth.

Upon arriving at my consignee in Waukesha, I saw what looked to be a pretty tight driveway so I stopped on the street and took a walk around the building. The driveway wasn't all that tight after all and there is plenty of room for me to park for the night. Given the nature of the place though, I suspect that I'm sitting where the employees will park in the morning. There is a sign out by the next driveway saying that all semi trucks must park on the street and check in, but I think that one is for an adjoining business. There are 'No Parking' signs on the street and it's not all that wide, so I'm definitely not spending the night out there. Then again, this place doesn't even seem to have a loading dock so I don't know where I'll end up getting unloaded. That adjoining business with the 'park on the street' sign has two docks. Whatever. My appointment is for 6am. If someone needs to park here before I'm up at 4:30am, then they'll just have to knock on the door and wake me.

I spotted a McDonald's with truck parking when I got off I-43, about ten miles back down the road. As nearly as I can tell, that's where I'll have to go once I'm empty unless I get a pre-plan before then. I would have to go further than ten miles to find a truck stop and I have no idea which way I'll be headed next. At the very least the McDonald's location should be a practical one, since I'll be able to move easily in any direction from there whenever my next assignment does come through.

11/21/09

If you've gotten a laugh from watching my Irish pathetically try to tackle mediocre running backs over the last several years, then you're really going to love watching the administration try to hire a new coach. The institutional indifference to football under the previous university president has yet to be fully eradicated. When they end up settling for Brian Kelly because they think he's the poor man's Urban Meyer, just remember who told you first that he's actually the poor man's Rich Rodriguez. How's that guy doing now that he's no longer the tallest midget? God help us.

Luckily (I guess), I got stuck working all day and didn't get to watch the game. When I woke and called the 800 number to see where I was on the board, the robo-voice chick said that I was assigned to a load. I guess "way more than ten hours" actually means "less than ten hours." The assignment itself was an odd one. I was to make a 504 mile deadhead to Kansas City, Kansas and pick up a load heading to Wisconsin. Once my ten hour break was up, I grabbed my empty trailer and headed northward.

I was scheduled to pick up by 9am Central tomorrow, so I tried like hell to get to the shipper's location by 11pm tonight. That way I could get a ten hour break in and then have a full day's hours available to me. I probably would have made it too, if it weren't for those nosy kids a weird exit ramp that threw me off. The ramp from I-35 to I-635 was one of those 'exit within an exit' deals, but there were no lines on the road and I didn't see the little temporary exit sign in the dark. So I had to loop around this way and that, ultimately getting to the shipper at 11:15pm. No big deal though. I would be able to use the split-logging option to make the pickup after an eight hour break and then complete the split later in the morning.

There was all kinds of room for me to park in the shipper's drop yard for the night, but I also saw that there were a handful of our trailers with seals on them at one end. I saw that the door to the shipping office was open, so I figured what the hell. Might as well check in tonight and see what they said. Beauty. It was a 24/7 outfit and one of those loaded trailers was mine. I got my bills, made my drop/hook, and got my 560 miles to Wisconsin dispatched before the pay period ended at midnight. 2,331 miles for the week and I started on Wednesday. I'll take it.

I still had a couple of hours available on tonight's 11 hour clock, so I scooted out of Kansas City and up I-35 for a while. Might as well get out of town late at night when the traffic was light. I assumed that parking would be plentiful on a Saturday night. I assumed incorrectly. I was getting down to very few remaining options by the time I pulled into the Shell station at Exit 61. It was pretty full, but there was room for me to duck off in the back corner of the lot and call it a night. So that's that.

Looks like I have around 500 miles left to cover tomorrow, ahead of a 6am Monday delivery appointment. I think I'll head straight to the consignee once my ten hour break here is over and then let the chips fall where they may.

11/20/09

First we'll tie up one last thing from last night's post. Those peckerheads in Walton had my trailer ready 45 minutes late. Their status as my favorite Con-way Freight terminal has been placed on an indefinite suspension. I had a pretty tight timeline from there to West Memphis in the first place. Somehow our benevolent dispatching system determined that a delay of 45 minutes in getting my trailer would translate to a delay of 5 minutes in reaching West Memphis. Go figure. That point was largely moot though. Any extra time on the dispatch would be mere window dressing, given that I had to be off the road before 5:30am Central in any event. I started yesterday at 4:30pm Eastern, so add 14 hours... and there you have it. I made it to West Memphis with 15 minutes to spare, so good enough.

After I handed the paperwork to the overnight dispatcher, he took a look at the clock and noted that a ten hour break would carry me until some time between 3pm and 3:30pm, at which point I could get back on the board. I agreed, bade him adieu, and hit the sack. 6:30am (Godfather Standard Time) is a touch later than 5am, of course, but it's still better to go to bed at that hour than it is to wake at that hour. Alarm clocks suck. That's my policy.

I remembered to shut off my phone before I went to bed this morning. I don't, however, have the ability to shut off my damned satellite unit. After sleeping for a few hours, I heard the signature chirp. I ignored it and stayed in bed. Screw 'em. I was on my mandatory break. A couple more messages followed (also ignored by me). Then I got some peace and quiet for a while. When I had to get up and use the restroom a short time later, I took a look at the satellite unit and saw that I was lined up for a run this evening. It was another Con-way relay heading to Dallas, set to arrive in West Memphis shortly after I would be available for work again. Beauty. I replied to the plan summary, indicating that I could meet the timeline, but I left the actual load assignment alone. I was still on a mandatory break period, with zero hours available, and didn't care to try figuring out what kind of data to send.

Then a few more hours of sleep carried me to a fantastic dream involving a former politician and a Jell-O wrestling arena. Lots of fun, from what I recall. Time to be awakened by the damned satellite unit then, eh? Yep. A string of messages concerning my next run started streaming through. I got up and took a look. Stop location info, special instructions, stop summary, and so on. For the love of... oh, fine, I'm awake. I turned on my phone and found that I had a voicemail message from the morning dispatcher, asking me to speak with her "as soon as possible." I headed inside and told her that I had turned off my phone so that I could sleep, and that I would have no problem with this evening's assignment. She apologized for waking me with the satellite messages and explained that she just needed to make sure that the last leg of the relay (the one assigned to me) was all set to go. Then we shared a nice little hug to celebrate our camaraderie. Okay, I made up that last part, but she did apologize for waking me. That was good enough as far as I was concerned.

The only thing to do from that point forward was to wait. I still had to stay off duty until at least 3:15pm Central and my inbound relay was scheduled to arrive at 3:45pm. Time to let my computer burn a DVD while I caught a quick shower and did some reading. My loaded trailer showed up an hour and a half early... of course, since I couldn't go anywhere. If I had been able to do anything with it, the damned thing would have been an hour late. Once my ten hours were finished, I hooked to my trailer and topped off my fuel tanks.

I was walking around and checking out my tires while the fuel pumps ran when I noticed a potential problem. There had been a nail in the tread of one of my drive tires for a while, but it seemed to be in a thick spot where it wasn't going to be a problem. As long as I wasn't losing any air, I considered it to be a non-issue. The tires were about due to be replaced anyway, so I was just keeping an eye on it instead of wasting money to repair a tire near the end of its lifespan. Today I saw that the tread had worn a little more and that the nail had shifted in a way that potentially could end up busting a hole in the tire. I also saw that another nail had joined in the action. Damn.

I called the road service guys to fill them in on the situation. Since I knew that the question would arise, I had made sure to check out the tread depth before I called. I had 2/32" in the middles and 3/32" on the edges of both rear-axle drive tires. That's borderline at best. We determined that, on account of the nail situation, I should see if the tire shop at the Pilot in West Memphis could get me in quickly. If so, I still should have enough time to reach Dallas before 1am Central. If they couldn't get me in right away, I would just make the trip to Dallas and then find somewhere to deal with the tires after making my drop. After checking in at the Pilot in West Memphis, I was immediately assigned to a service bay and the work started shortly thereafter. Beauty.

The instructions from Mount Joplin were for the mechanic to replace the two rear tires and then rotate them, such that my existing front tires would go to the rear axle and the two new tires would go up front. The guy doing the work resembled, for lack of a better metaphor, a Martian fucking a football. I've only pulled a tire off the rim and then replaced it once in my life - on my Schwinn when I was ten years old. I've never done so with a car or truck tire. That being said, I'm pretty sure that I could have replaced and rotated those damned things in less than an hour and a half today. That dude was an unholy combination of lazy and incompetent. So, by the time I got back to the freeway, I was up against the clock... big time. Any further delays would most likely render me late for my scheduled delivery. Once I got out of the construction in West Memphis though, I was able to keep my foot to the floor for most of the trip. There was more construction forcing people off the freeway in Texarkana for a couple of miles, but that was it. Smooth sailing for 99% of the drive. I managed to squeeze in a quick potty break and still arrived in Dallas twenty minutes early.

After dropping my loaded trailer and getting my paperwork signed, I headed out to retrieve an empty... or maybe not. At least fifteen of our trailers at that place and none of them empty. That's bullshit. One of the loaded trailers sitting on the yard was the one that I pulled out of Kentucky last night. Good to see that we haul ass getting those loads delivered for a reason... or something. I sat around for a couple of hours until the yard dog swung around and brought me an empty trailer. Then, after a quick phone call to the dispatcher in Lancaster, I had my next dispatch to head down to the terminal.

I dropped my empty and went inside to tell the dispatcher that my 14 hour clock was nearly shot. She suggested that I get on the board anyway (at #23), since it would be "way more than ten hours" before I was moved again. Fair enough. Depending on how we interpret "way more," my pay week may be finished or there may be one more load to squeeze in before midnight. In any event, I'll probably have plenty of time to watch the football game here where my internet connection tends to be nice and fast.

Since we're still on the 5am bedtime routine and there is no reason to expect an assignment to interrupt my rest this morning, who wants to bet that there will be some dumbass satellite message in a few hours, telling us to drive safely or something equally vapid?