Compared to sitting around and watching football for the last two days, this driving thing kinda sucks. I'm pretty sure that I would be a better analyst than most of those guys on ESPN too. Maybe I should give them a call and see if they want to sign me to a long-term deal. Yeah, probably not. Guess I'll have to keep my day job.
I got rolling late in the morning and, within two hours, it was time for a nap. It's weird how that goes sometimes. Once I'm in the flow of things, I'm usually good for seven or eight hours. After a couple of days off, I get tired in no time. An hour of sleep did the trick though. Back to the highway.
As I approached the exit from the Indiana Toll Road to I-80/94, I saw one of those message boards with the amber lights. It said that traffic to Chicago should take I-90 in order to avoid delays. I had been planning to take I-80 to I-294, but the traffic was backed up all the way down the ramp so I thought maybe the advice on the message board was good. A mile further down I-90, traffic came to a dead stop. Shit. I got hoodwinked. After idling along in first gear for a few miles, I hopped off on I-65 and dropped back down to I-80. The traffic was heavy but it was flowing smoothly, so I have no idea what that message was all about.
The rest of the drive was nice and easy. No construction or slow traffic or any of that. Just a steady ride with the cruise control engaged and a good audio book on the radio. Upon arriving at the consignee in De Forest, I went for a walk to see where would be the best place to park. My directions say that I'm going to one address while the bill of lading lists the address of a neighboring building. The building indicated on the bill of lading appears to be vacant, so that's where I'm parked. With a 6am delivery I would prefer to sleep until at least 5:30am. The last time I had such a schedule, the workers started showing up at 4am and I had to move. I don't think I'm blocking anyone's parking space over here. Should be all good.
This little weekend respite should leave me in good shape to make a few bucks over the next couple of weeks. Today only used 7.75 hours out of my fresh 70, so I have plenty to burn going into next week. Mom's little Christmas vacation deal is set for the 18th through the 21st, so I'll be putting in my request for home time before too much longer. It would be nice to pad the bank account a little before then.
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Saturday, November 28, 2009
11/28/09
Let me get this straight. Stanford has a big white dude at tailback and he runs over every defense that he faces. Notre Dame has a defense that couldn't tackle my grandmother. The Irish have a coach who is, for all intents and purposes, a dead man walking. Haven't we seen this movie before? If Miami sent Gerry Faust on his merry way with a 58-7 thrashing, then what will we get from Stanford (the only opponent to whom Weis hasn't lost yet)? This could get ugly. Oh well, that's why they play the games... or something.
Sitting around all day today, watching football. These early games are boring the hell out of me, so hopefully there will be some better action as the day goes on. My 34 hours will be up at some point tonight but I think I'll just stay put and then drive the last 400 miles or so tomorrow. The week wraps up with 2,009 miles plus holiday pay and some northeast pay. Not a barnburner by any stretch but, with the way my logbook was looking, it's a pretty decent outcome. I'll go into next week well rested and with a fresh logbook, so things should keep rolling along.
Sitting around all day today, watching football. These early games are boring the hell out of me, so hopefully there will be some better action as the day goes on. My 34 hours will be up at some point tonight but I think I'll just stay put and then drive the last 400 miles or so tomorrow. The week wraps up with 2,009 miles plus holiday pay and some northeast pay. Not a barnburner by any stretch but, with the way my logbook was looking, it's a pretty decent outcome. I'll go into next week well rested and with a fresh logbook, so things should keep rolling along.
Friday, November 27, 2009
11/27/09
When you wake in the morning and see snow falling outside your window, the only logical response is to go back to bed immediately. Then, when you wake again an hour later... still snowing. Damn. That didn't work quite the way I planned. Oh well. I drove out of the snow within an hour or so though. Not so bad.
The trip up the turnpikes and into the Toledo area was nice and easy today. A friend of mine volunteered to pick me up and take me to dinner. Good deal. And plenty of time to kick back and watch some football.
Now West Virginia can entertain me by beating Pitt, for no reason other than that I'm still pissed about that game a couple of weeks ago. Then Pitt can turn around and beat Cincinnati by three scores next weekend and maybe the Brian Kelly-loving Notre Dame fans will shut their cake holes. Any common jackass could hire Brian Kelly at Notre Dame right now. He's an 8-4 or 9-3 guy at best against a big-time schedule. If that's going to be the outcome of this whole process, then why bring in an experienced negotiator as the new athletic director? No, no, no. Captain Jack needs to earn his stripes on this hire. All roads lead to Oklahoma.
The trip up the turnpikes and into the Toledo area was nice and easy today. A friend of mine volunteered to pick me up and take me to dinner. Good deal. And plenty of time to kick back and watch some football.
Now West Virginia can entertain me by beating Pitt, for no reason other than that I'm still pissed about that game a couple of weeks ago. Then Pitt can turn around and beat Cincinnati by three scores next weekend and maybe the Brian Kelly-loving Notre Dame fans will shut their cake holes. Any common jackass could hire Brian Kelly at Notre Dame right now. He's an 8-4 or 9-3 guy at best against a big-time schedule. If that's going to be the outcome of this whole process, then why bring in an experienced negotiator as the new athletic director? No, no, no. Captain Jack needs to earn his stripes on this hire. All roads lead to Oklahoma.
Thursday, November 26, 2009
11/26/09
We all know about the age-old debate regarding just how sleepy you can get from eating turkey. I would have no way of knowing, of course, but I've been told by some people in Pennsylvania that turkey can most certainly help you get a good night's sleep. In completely unrelated news, I got a very good night's sleep last night. Whew. Yeah, I slept like a baby.
Nice and late in the morning today, I awoke feeling well rested and ready to go for the first time in several days. With the four and a half hours that I had available under the 70 hour rule, I was able to cover 240 miles on the road plus a fuel stop and a post-trip inspection. This brought me to the last service plaza on the turnpike, just outside New Stanton, Pennsylvania. Good enough, I suppose.
NFL football is widely considered to be the most popular sport in America. Personally, I often find it almost unwatchable. I like to watch my 'Skins sometimes, but they're so terrible that even their games are usually tough to watch. I'll concede that the teams playing today weren't exactly the cream of the crop, but damn. When you're sitting at a highway service plaza and that's all you get... Boo! NFL football. Boo! (Looks like I'm about to go 3-for-3 against the spread though, eh? Too bad I had no 'entertainment purposes' riding on the action.) At least this college game has been pretty entertaining so far. Not sure if the Aggies will be able to hang around much longer.
I haven't received any messages this week reminding me to send in my receipt for reimbursement of my Thanksgiving meal. Maybe they stopped offering it or maybe they're just not reminding us in hopes that we will forget and they can save a few bucks. I'm proceeding on the assumption that the reimbursement is still offered though, so I tried to find a way to spend $15 at Burger King. That's not as easy as one might think. Whopper meal? Nah, make it a Double Whopper. Cheese? Sure, toss some cheese on there. Small, medium, or large? Go big or go home, as they say. Anything else? Ah, what the hell, give me one of those slices of pie while we're at it. And the grand total comes to... $10.80. Damn. I let 'em off easy. I suppose that I could have tacked on more stuff to reach the $15 mark but, to be honest, I was pretty full after eating that meal. Fair enough.
I think I'll hop over to the Toledo area tomorrow and then sit for a 34-hour restart before continuing on to Wisconsin. I have six hours coming to me tomorrow. That should be enough to get me somewhere good. I wouldn't mind sitting around and watching football all day on Saturday. Then I can finish the trip on Sunday and make my delivery with plenty of available hours on Monday morning. Pretty clever thinking, says I.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone.
Nice and late in the morning today, I awoke feeling well rested and ready to go for the first time in several days. With the four and a half hours that I had available under the 70 hour rule, I was able to cover 240 miles on the road plus a fuel stop and a post-trip inspection. This brought me to the last service plaza on the turnpike, just outside New Stanton, Pennsylvania. Good enough, I suppose.
NFL football is widely considered to be the most popular sport in America. Personally, I often find it almost unwatchable. I like to watch my 'Skins sometimes, but they're so terrible that even their games are usually tough to watch. I'll concede that the teams playing today weren't exactly the cream of the crop, but damn. When you're sitting at a highway service plaza and that's all you get... Boo! NFL football. Boo! (Looks like I'm about to go 3-for-3 against the spread though, eh? Too bad I had no 'entertainment purposes' riding on the action.) At least this college game has been pretty entertaining so far. Not sure if the Aggies will be able to hang around much longer.
I haven't received any messages this week reminding me to send in my receipt for reimbursement of my Thanksgiving meal. Maybe they stopped offering it or maybe they're just not reminding us in hopes that we will forget and they can save a few bucks. I'm proceeding on the assumption that the reimbursement is still offered though, so I tried to find a way to spend $15 at Burger King. That's not as easy as one might think. Whopper meal? Nah, make it a Double Whopper. Cheese? Sure, toss some cheese on there. Small, medium, or large? Go big or go home, as they say. Anything else? Ah, what the hell, give me one of those slices of pie while we're at it. And the grand total comes to... $10.80. Damn. I let 'em off easy. I suppose that I could have tacked on more stuff to reach the $15 mark but, to be honest, I was pretty full after eating that meal. Fair enough.
I think I'll hop over to the Toledo area tomorrow and then sit for a 34-hour restart before continuing on to Wisconsin. I have six hours coming to me tomorrow. That should be enough to get me somewhere good. I wouldn't mind sitting around and watching football all day on Saturday. Then I can finish the trip on Sunday and make my delivery with plenty of available hours on Monday morning. Pretty clever thinking, says I.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone.
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