Back in the swing of things

It's Tuesday night, and once again, I'm out at our usual place, after a couple of weeks off due to general ennui and last week's bout of Ganesha's Revenge.  I'm glad we could make it as we're celebrating the birthday of one of our friends.  We gave presents and brought cupcakes, we received a glass of a lovely prosecco, and now I get to sit and relax for a little bit.

Work progresses as usual, although a little slow this week.  I have a run scheduled for tomorrow morning and I think I'll have at least one more guaranteed run by the end of the week, but other than that there's a lot of scrounging for something to do.  I'm not overly concerned because at least I can get my basic forty hours, and while overtime is nice, I'm sure it will come later on.

You may have gathered form reading this blog, but in case you weren't aware, I am a bit of a bonehead.  At work, we have special keycards that we use to get in and out of the building and parking areas.  Because I'm jumping in and out of a truck fairly frequently, the safest place for me to keep my keycard is in my wallet (also because I am so much of a bonehead that I will forget the card at home).  So, today I used the card to get the tractor parked inside the fenced-in area, which meant I had to take my wallet out of my pocket and place it in front of the reader.  I parked the truck, grabbed my stuff, went to the main building to turn in my paperwork, and realized when I went to get in to the building that I left my wallet in the truck.  Great.  Luckily, I was able to get in to the building through the loading dock, and once that was finished I went back in the vain hope I might be able to get back in to the parking area through the pedestrian gate.  No such luck.  I did find, however, that there was a  damaged section of fence that had a hole just big enough for me to fit my big, fat posterior through so I could get to the truck and retrieve my wallet.

Anyway, all is well and I have my wallet and once again there is cake and ice cream and unicorns pooping rainbows across the sky ...

So, for now I will close and hope everyone else's week goes well.

Time to get caught up

A week and a half, and nothing from me.  What kind of blogger am I, leaving you all hanging on what's been going on in my life?  Well, what's been going on hasn't been very pretty; in fact, a lot of it was downright disgusting.  And we'll get to the nasty details after the break, so if you're not of a strong constitution or just hate hearing about general unpleasantness, do not read further.  There will be more come Tuesday.

Before the jump, I offer my condolences to Sonya's family on the loss of her husband's father this week.  May he find eternal rest and freedom from his pains.

Feast or famine

One of the drawbacks about my job is there's no regularity to how busy we are.  Sometimes there's lots going on and I'm constantly on the move, and other times I'm scrounging for something to occupy my time because, let's face it, there's only so many times I can get away with doing "maintenance" on the trucks.

Last week, I was kept pretty busy, so much so that I missed my usual Tuesday outing because I had to work late.  This week looks to be the opposite, despite the promising start on Monday.  After tomorrow's early delivery, I have absolutely no idea what else I will have to do.

This past weekend was a busy one as well.  On Saturday, I took the car in for it's annual inspection (it passed, hooray), and we went to Sam's Club to renew our memberships.  We did a little bit of shopping, picking up some nice looking baby-back ribs and the sliced mozzarella that I love, which factored in to our dinner plans.

Dinner on Saturday was at one of our favorite Vietnamese places.  The food was good as usual, but the broth we get along with our meal was excessively oily.  Oily as in, it seemed someone dumped a ladleful of oil on top of the broth in an effort to provide more flavor, but only succeeded in making it just ... greasy.

Sunday dinner consisted of the ribs cooked in the slow cooker (recipe courtesy of Robyn and Nance).  I decided to throw caution to the wind and make actual baked potatoes to go with dinner.  All told, I should have started the potatoes earlier, but it all still turned out wonderful.  There's still some ribs left, and I'm contemplating them for afters tonight.

Ms. Darkstar made biscuits for strawberry shortcake to round out the meal, and our weekend was complete.

I usually opt for a simple dinner on Mondays, mainly because I'm all cooked out and I have no idea how tired I'll be by the end of the day.  I opted for vegetarian sliders.  I had these at a little pub in Plano and they were fabulous.  And the simplicity -- a slice of mozzarella, a slice of tomato, on small toasted buns smeared with pesto sauce (I used Classico's) -- nice, quick, and easy, as it should be on a Monday.

I really should update more often, but the well's been pretty dry lately.  More will come when the level rises.

Lazy Sunday Posting

This week has been interesting.  It's been a series of twists and turns, ups and downs, spills, chills, and thrills.  I've gone from mind-crushing boredom to a serious case of the nerves, and today I get to rest as much as I can before we start all over again on Monday.

Work's been somewhat slow, but usually in the late mornings or afternoons there's a few runs that come in that I do.  I already know that Monday promises to be a busy day, and we'll see if that trend continues through the week.

Yesterday was the day I did something I never thought I would do after leaving the cooking trades: I cooked a meal for people that weren't family.  The whole deal came about on Wednesday, during a discussion about how Central Market was doing a promotion centered around grilling.  Ms. Darkstar remarked how we hadn't grilled anything since moving to Dallas (living in a second-floor apartment with no storage space for a grill), and one of our other group members said she had a patio area at her condo complex, and would be quite amenable to having us over this Saturday so I could cook up a fabulous meal on the grill.'

Having very little danger in my life, and a couple of Strongbow ciders in me, I agreed.

Our menu would be a simple one: steaks, grilled veggies, and then it got complicated: grilled pineapple.  We had a version of this at our favorite Brazilian restaurant, and I was game for the opportunity to recreate it.  Since there was no rotisserie available, we just used a regular roasting rack on top of the grill, to keep the pineapple away from the direct heat and avoid scorching it.  There was just the matter of coating the pineapple with the seasonings.

First, there was the matter of finding the right cinnamon.  I know, I could have used plain-old store-bought cinnamon (like McCormick's or whatever), but since I am a Penzey's fanboy after all, I went through my collection and settled on the Indonesian cinnamon.  It's similar in aroma to the store-bought, but has a more subtly sweet flavor and is not as sharp.  The online recipe sites we consulted were unanimous in using a syrup glaze on the pineapple, and that's what I decided to do as well -- I would cook up the glaze and bring it with me the day of cooking.

Saturday was spent, after the usual laundry trip and a visit to the barber for me, in a flurry of shopping.  First stop was the restaurant supply store.  I picked up a new 12-inch skillet, we found a pan deep enough for our pizza experiment (more on that when it happens), and a few other odds and ends.  We then went to lunch at the India Palace, which has one of the best lunch buffets we've ever had, followed by a trip across the parking lot to the Penzey's.  I picked up a small bottle of vanilla sugar for the pineapple glaze (yes, I could have just put vanilla flavoring into the syrup, but I'm trying to impress people here), and a bottle of a new spicing blend that we thought would be good with the veggies.  After that, we did our own grocery shopping, and had a couple of hours to relax at home.  If by "relax" you mean I cooked up the glaze, packed the things we would need, obsessed over every little detail, and pretty much became a basket case by the time we had to leave, then I was one relaxed dude, all right.

So, our steaks were little ball-tip cuts, not much like the ones we used to get back in Minnesota in terms of size or thickness, but they were fine.  I just did a salt-and-pepper seasoning on those, and prepped the veggies.  We had summer squash, zucchini, onion, and portobello mushroom all sliced, coated with the herbs and tossed with butter.  These went into a grill pan and cooked over medium-high heat, and once those were done, I did the steaks.

Everyone was unanimous in their opinion of dinner -- and it was pretty damn tasty, if I say so myself.  Now, it was time for the pineapple.  I had a whole pineapple, which I peeled and removed the ends, placed it into the roasting rack, basted it with the glaze, and slowly let it heat over medium- to medium-high heat until it just started to warm on the outside, turning and basting frequently.  Once it was heated, I sliced off the roasted part into a serving platter, put the pineapple back in the rack, and started the process anew.  It came out wonderful, and was damn near close to what we had at the Brazilian restaurant.  I managed to get three roastings out of the pineapple, which we served with a cinnamon gelato.

So, the upshot is I survived, and apparently I did quite well.  Maybe I'll attempt it again someday.

Today, I'm just taking it easy.  I've already made muffins, and after I finish up here I'll cook up some home fries, make a potato salad for dinner, bake a key lime pie for dessert, and if there's time, I'll make a batch of snack mix.

Enjoy your day.

And that's something!

Day Two of our outing has commenced after what was a very trying day, both on the personal and professional fronts.  Little Miss And That's Something! is flapping her overworked gums at a volume that should only be used at sporting events and for crying out loud would you just PLEASE SHUT YOUR FREAKIN' PIE HOLE ALREADY???

(Note: If you were expecting sunshine and lollipops, you came on the wrong day.  Snark will flow tonight along with the hard cider.)

Hallelujah, the volume has decreased.  I suspect more fluctuations are in the works in direct proportion to the amount of wine she consumes.

So, yeah.  About my day...

Today started out as another typical slow day, no runs scheduled, and only busywork in the warehouse to occupy my time.  My job was to use the forklift to place the pallets of finished goods on the stretch-wrapping machine, remove the wrapped pallet, place it in the shipping area, repeat until done.

At least I got to drive something.

This took about an hour and a half out of my day.  My next assignment was to take our trailers out for their annual inspections, which all seem to be at least a year or so over due.  Oopsies.  We're doing one at a time, and when the one is done, we'll bring down the next one.  So, I got to get away for a little while, picked up some hardware I needed to fix one of the trailers (minor fix, had to reattach the handle for the landing gear), and grabbed lunch.  Should have been a lark, yes?

Oh no, dear reader.  The plot thickens.

Let's backtrack a little bit, back to when I went to "school" to get my Class A CDL.  There was a substantial amount of money that needed to be repaid, and part of the deal was that once hired on, the debt would be repaid through your settlements.  Well, they really can't deduct from my pay anymore, and all I was waiting for was a simple phone call from these people to make an equitable and reasonable payment schedule and all would be good and there would be wine and cake and we would all dance the night away...

Yeah, right.

Apparently, their way of reaching an equitable and reasonable payment schedule is to turn everything over to a freakin' lawyer and have this poor schmuck make the calls these people are too lazy to make themselves.  Such was the call I received this morning.  I am pleased to report that this guy wasn't a total asshat, and an agreement was reached. They wanted full payment to settle the claim, but there's about as much a chance of that happening as me being able to self-pleasure myself orally.  Sorry for the visual.

With all of this rattling around in my head, I was given another delivery.  Simple enough -- six pallets, place is about ten minutes down the road, and after that a pickup a little further away.  Yeah, simple...

... until right before I was to load up, when they noticed that each and every case was overpacked.  By one item.  Which meant that each and every case had to be unpacked, the errant item removed, the cases sealed and re-packed, and the extras packed into new cases and stacked.  Which meant that all of the paperwork now needed to be re-done, and now everything was running behind.

Joy and rapture.

So, once again, from a totally slow day I managed to get another hour and a half of overtime, which will be a big help in getting the stupid student loan settled.  And now I try to relax, now that Miss Flappy Gums (among other appendages YEAH I WENT THERE) has left the building and a calm has descended over all, as I sip my cider and let today melt into memory, leaving tomorrow as a blank slate.

Highs and lows

It's funny how much difference a few days can make at my new job.  Last week, I had something scheduled for each day, and a few other things cropped up as well.  This week has be excruciatingly slow, to the point that I spent the better part of today in the warehouse helping out with odd jobs.

It's still better than being out on the road, because I still get to go home every night, and even though it was slow, with last minute things I managed to get an hour and a half of overtime.

We're out at our usual hangout on Tuesdays, and the place is jammed full of people.  One of the candidates for county commissioner is holding a rally, or perhaps a thank-you to his volunteer staff, or maybe even conceding, I really don't know because I wasn't paying attention.

It's hard to think of things to write within a crowded, noisy space, so I'll put this aside for now.  I'm hoping I can think of something more substantial for my next entry.

Do The Hustle

I have a big load.  It's being spread out over seven stops, of which my first is in Mississippi tomorrow afternoon.  I left my shipper early this morning and made it to Arkansas by noon, which is where I'm writing this post.  I guess the naps I had over the course of the day yesterday right up until it was time to leave weren't enough, because as soon as I got back to the truck after lunch, I crashed for a couple of hours.

My income tax refund came through earlier this week, and I got paid for the partial Arizona run I did, so after I got bills paid (couple of credit cards needed tending to) I splurged for a small vacuum for the truck and over the past couple of days I've been restocking my pantry with ramen soups, snacky-type foods, drinks, water (for the soups, of course), and whatever else I have the chance to get.  I must remember the next time I go back to the truck from home time, I need to pack some other spices.  Salt and pepper are fine, but the ramen needs more of a kick to it.  Oh darn, I guess I'll have to go to Penzey's and get some small jars of stuff.

Restocking is usually done when I have the money to do so, and lately that's been tough to manage.  In addition to personal things, I also have to buy things for the truck, like oil, coolant, antigel for the fuel in the colder parts of the country, and scale tickets (when I weigh on a certified scale away from the shipper to insure the load is of legal weight and distributed properly).  I get reimbursed for these things, but not until I am able to submit the paperwork and receipts, and after that there's usually a three-day lag until I get paid.  It makes managing things a bit tricky, and at times it's downright frustrating.

In contrast to the last time I was in these parts, today was a beautiful day.  The winds were a little fierce but it wasn't too cold and the sun was out.  I took this picture right around sunset.  I'm in the same truck stop I was in the last time I was here, because it has two things I look for in a stopping place:

• Plenty of parking, so even a tired, strung-out idiot like me can park the truck without hitting anything; and
• A restaurant that serves things other than disc-shaped patties of ground beef between buns with fries and sodas.

I'm feeling a little bit of a headache tonight, and I'm guessing it's because I had no coffee today and my caffeine level is getting low.  I've had food, so I'm sure that's not the cause.  I'll take some pain relievers before I go to bed and I should be okay in the morning after I have some coffee.  It's about four hours to my first stop on this load, so I don;t have to rush off right away and can actually get a decent breakfast in the morning.  If I'm lucky, I might be able to get a shower.  I only say that because they're remodeling the showers and don't have a lot available like they usually do, so even though I'll be up early, I won;t be rushing right out to the highway.

Have a great weekend, in case I can't get back online then, and be well until next time.

Taking the left turn

Once again, it's time for a reset of my clock, which means I get to sit and relax for about a day and a half.  Sometimes I get some wonderful views, other times I don't get to see anything other than the parking area of the truck stop.

The truck stop I'm spending my time at is on top of a hill, and below me the city of Albuquerque is laid out, row upon row of lighted streets, and in the distance, what I believe could be some of the downtown buildings.  I stood for a few minutes after dinner, just looking down at the lights below, another American city I've had the chance to spend a little time in, even if it was just on the fringes.

I've encountered many cities like that in my travels.  Boston, San Diego, Tucson, Philadelphia ... there's many others, but the story is the same for each of them.  I was only there because I had a job to do, no time for sightseeing or exploring.  Still, I consider myself lucky to have been there, as I consider myself lucky to see sights that up until now I could have only seen in a television show or movie.  I never for a moment dreamed that I would pass through the southwestern deserts of Arizona, Nevada, and California.  Nor did I even imagine I would see the sand dunes in southern California, or see mountain passes and open prairies up close and personal.

One of these days, I might get to actually put my feet in the Pacific Ocean instead of gazing upon it as I drive past enroute to pick up or deliver another load to parts unknown.  Or, perhaps I might be able to sit down to a lobster dinner in New England again, instead of having to be satisfied with the standard truckers' fare at the truck stop.  There's a lot of things that I would like to do, but the realities of the job won't allow it to happen.  And vacation? Please.

I can barely afford to sit and reset my clock.

No matter.  For now, I relax.  Work will return soon enough, and the frustrations and stresses along with it.  Where do I go from here?  Only my dispatcher knows for sure.

Westward, snow!

I can't begin to tell you just how much of a thrill it is to be back on the road yet again.  I can't tell you, mainly because I don't find it thrilling at all. I find no thrill in spending two full nights without heat in some quite cold areas, racing to make as much time as possible before any potential ice shuts down your travel route prior to delivery, or eating in restaurants that offer buffet items such as mashed "potatoes" and brown creamy "gravy."  (true story, saw it this evening at the place I stopped at in New Mexico.  At least the salad bar looked better than most of the ones I've encountered.)

As is typical of this time of the year, especially in the mountain areas, there's some snow in the forecast.  Looks like it will be a quick storm, and I'm hoping I can get moving at a decent hour tomorrow.  Moving west makes it a little bit easier, as the time zone changes make things earlier in that part of the world, and thus easier to find a parking spot.  And you know I'm all about the convenience.

I don't foresee any delays as far as my delivery date, so that's one ray of good news.

Although, if I had my druthers, I'd be with the one I truly love today, instead of in a truck that FINALLY HAS WORKING HEAT THANKS A BUNCH YOU JERKHEADS FOR MAKING ME WAIT TWO WHOLE DAYS TO GET THE DAMN THING FIXED, a bunch of miles from home, lonely as hell, with no entertainment other than "Life and Love, Redneck Style" enacted live in the restaurant a scant two tables diagonally away from me.  Special Guest Appearance by The Lyin' Drunk!

I'm offending myself, so it's off to the showers with me.  More when I am able, as usual.

Homeward, this time for sure! (Part 754878 in a series)

Greetings my friends.  I managed to make it to my drop in California with only a couple of hitches, namely the flat tire hitch and the burned-out low beam headlight hitch, unfortunately noticed by the member of the Arizona Highway Patrol.  So, once those were fixed, I made my way to my stopping point, amazingly enough right across from the drop point.  I settled in and waited for the morning.

I was bright and early for my delivery time, and to my surprise, all I had to do was drop the full trailer at the site.  Okay, no problem there, but there were no empty trailers from our company, so I had to wait until they found one for me to pick up.  Which they did.  In San Diego.

Off to San Diego I went, moving incredibly well over the mountains thanks to having no weight on my back end (and no trailer).  I got to the pickup point, got the trailer, and waited for the load that would, mercifully and hopefully, take me toward home.

No such luck.  I got a pickup in Brawley, California, heading to Denver.  I sighed heavily, called in for my mandatory talk regarding the specific load I had to pick up, and called my driver manager to notify him that I would need to buy a new load lock (one was still in the trailer I dropped back in Calexico), and to ask when it would be possible to head towards home.  He did some finagling, and amazingly enough, I get to have a 34-hour reset of my hours of service (which was necessary no matter what load I received as I had nowhere near enough hours to get anything moving), and then I pick up a load here, heading to Fort Worth.

Which is near Dallas.

Which is near home.

I have my fingers and toes crossed that, after delivering this load, I can finally bring the truck back and take some well-deserved home time.  For now, though, I relax, make my trip plan for the load (picks up on Wednesday and delivers Monday, plenty of time to run).  I may call the receiver and see if I can deliver early, if I'm in the area early.  I just pray I don't get repowered.  I may tell the one that tries to repower me that this is my home load, and unless they're giving me a load directly to Dallas, to go piss up a rope (although I'll put it in a nicer way).

I'll let you know how things go.

A whole week of Friday the 13th

I finally got some internet back, and since my load won't be ready until later tonight, I'm taking advantage of that to get some bills paid and get this caught up.  I think the last time I was able to write, I was in Connecticut. I am now in southeastern Alabama, waiting for my load to northwestern Missouri.  Oh, what a fun time I had in between.  Here, let me tell you all about it.

So, I made my way to Massachusetts for my delivery.  I was good and early, and had a little bit of a tough time backing in, but all in all that stop went fine.  I finished there, and picked up a load bound for northern New Jersey.  I got that, camped back in Connecticut for the night, and set off on my adventure early that morning.

Now, one thing I've discovered in my travels is that there are very few truck stops in New England.  Actually, there's very few all along the east coast for that matter, and if you don't get into one before thee sun sets, you are either hard-pressed to find parking, or there's simply no room at all.  All of the truck stops, and rest areas along the highway, are full to the rafters.  Bear this in mind, it'll be important later in the story.

Okay, we're in Jersey.  I need to back into this very tight loading area.  And so I did ... for about an hour.  A FREAKIN' HOUR.  And I still couldn't get in straight.  I was happy that I was able to get in to the dock door in such a way that they could finally get me unloaded.  Never mind the fact that I had another load booked against me before I had even gotten close to delivering this one.  SO, when I got close to being ready to unload, I opened the trailer doors and took out the load locks, setting them along the side of the building where they wouldn't get damaged.  Guess what got damaged.  And guess who has to buy two new load locks.  Preferably before I leave here to get my current load.

Off to my next pickup, a little further south from where I was, going to Virginia.  Western Virginia.  My hours of service clock is getting pretty low at this point, so the only option I had was to run the load straight in to the receiver and take my break there.  I was fortunate that I was able to take long enough of a break, because by the time they got me unloaded it was around midnight local time.  Forget trying to find a parking spot; I tried.  I parked on the side of the road near the truck stop to get some supplies (soups, snack foods, and drinks), in an area that was in no way marked as "No Parking."  I'm figuring out my next trip when I see a flashlight on my windshield.  Oh hey, it's a member of the local law enforcement, here to tell me that there's no parking on the road and I had better be moving before the deputy further down got to me to write me a ticket.  So, with no other option, I rolled through the night into North Carolina.

I arrived at the shipper with plenty of time to spare, dropped my trailer, and played the Where The Hell Can I Park game.  It seemed no two security personnel could give me the same answer and, as a result, I ended up moving twice before I found a spot I could stay undisturbed until my load was ready.  My load came ready later that night, I got approval to roll (this time), and off I went to Alabama.  According to the information I was given at dispatch, I wasn't due at the receiver until 6 am today.  NO problem, I thought, I can camp close, and roll in about an hour before the time I need to be there.  So, that's what I did, staying at this little hole-in-the-wall truck stop because there's nothing else available in that area.

Which brings us to today.  I rolled in as (I thought I was) scheduled, only to be told I was late.  They had the appointment time booked at 3 am.  Someone lied to me, and I don't know who, but it still rankled me all the same.  I got a door assignment, and surprise, there's already a trailer in there, with other truck taking all of the other available doors as soon as they came in.  This is not the way I wanted to start my day.  I finally got backed in to a door, got unloaded, and came down for my next load.  I have about two hours left on my clock for today, so when the load's ready I will have to go in, camp until midnight when I get some more hours back, and then run all night long again, at least until the limit of my hours.

I am tired, I am not feeling all that great from not being able to eat all that well for the past three or four days,  I am super frustrated, I haven't had a shower since at least Monday, and all I really want to do is go home.  And, because this is how my brain works when I'm super-tired and completely frazzled, I wonder if my "home" is now really nothing more than a place to sleep for five days or so before I have to drag my stupid self back into this truck and start the madness all over again.

I should try to shower, and then try to get more of a nap so I can be ready to run all night again.  Which I completely hate but have no choice, much like everything else lately.


So, until next time, farewell from Alabama, until the next time I'm able to write again.

Pleasant (hopefully) dreams

It's hard enough for me to get sleep when I'm under a load, mainly because I'm always afraid I'll not hear the alarm and oversleep, missing my appointment time and causing a service failure, which would be a bad thing to have on my record.  Not that I sleep well in the first place, as it's tough to get comfortable, but I'm hoping the pillow I bought ('cuz it was on sale) will help.

So, what I didn't need early this morning was the vivid nightmare I had about work.  Only it wasn't about the work I'm doing now, oh no.  This dream concerned the job I left.  It dealt with the aggravation and frustration I felt, and it really got to me.

Mainly because most of the frustrations are almost the exact same ones I'm going through on this job.

It seems strange to me how my current woes are manifesting themselves in what I left behind, and are projecting that instead of keeping things in the here and now.  Granted, I'm no psychiatrist, but if I were, I'd prescribe myself a lovely regimen of antidepressants and bill myself an obscene fee.

Most of my concerns are the same concerns most people have about their jobs, so it's nothing new or different, and I don't know why I am choosing to obsess over this in my dreams.  Maybe it's the anxiety of always having to meet new challenges every time I get dispatched -- different shippers and receivers, traveling over unfamiliar roads far from any comfort of home, the pressure of making an effort to be on time -- that could be sparking this.

All I know is, I'm doing okay out here as far as I'm concerned because no one's called to complain about how I'm doing things.  It's the old "no news is good news" thing, and it seems to be working well for me.  In a couple of weeks or so I'll be able to go home and de-stress for a bit, before starting all over again.

But, for now, I will attempt to get some decent sleep tonight.  I deliver early in the morning, and I have no idea what plans they have for me back at the home terminal.

Pleasant dreams.

Another post, because you can only twiddle thumbs for so long

I'm still on layover, waiting for my hours to reset so I can get moving once again. I have no idea which region I will end up in, I'm just hoping it will be one with no actively falling winter precipitation.

In a way, I think I lucked out not being able to take the last load, mainly because the entire way was snowy once you got up around Kentucky and into Ohio and north. And, to be truly honest, I can do without having to go to Maine at this time of year.  Try me in late May or something, but for the next few months I'll take a pass.

Yes, I do appreciate the irony of moving south to escape the harshest clutches of winter, only to get a job that is sending me right back into the worst of it.  I've been lucky so far, but I know my luck won't hold out forever. I foresee a lot of weather shutdowns and repowers in my future because I have absolutely no desire to drive in snow.  Granted, I won't be a total wuss about it, but it is nice to know I have the option to not go if I don't feel comfortable doing so.

I keep searching the local classifieds for a local driving job that I can do, and have submitted applications while I've had the free time.  Maybe something will come of it, maybe not, but at least I'm trying.

On the positive side: I'm somewhere warm, it's been lovely the past couple of days, and the rest has done me a world of good, along with allowing me to clean my "apartment" and get other things caught up.  I probably should have brought more videos, but I wasn't anticipating this much downtime.

Tomorrow, I should have my next assignment, and will be back on the road.  Tonight, I'll make the most of the relaxing I have left and figure out what the hell I'm gonna do for dinner.  Wendy's is getting pretty old and I'm not in the mood for soup.

Until I write again, be well and take care.

Time for a quick break

Here I am at a truck stop in lovely Houston, Texas.  And, more than likely, here I will be for at least another day or so.  This little break is necessary to reset my hours of service, and quite welcome after the past couple of weeks.  I did some checking and it won't affect where I need to be to move ahead to the next phase of my job.

I got into town yesterday, with plenty of time to get a decent break in before I had to deliver my load.  My appointment time was at Stupid O'Clock, which meant I had to be up and rolling by at least half-past You Gotta Be Freakin' Kidding Me.  I was plenty early to get through the check-in, and six hours after I arrived, I was on my way back to the truck stop.

Now, every day I send in a check call which lists my hours worked and my hours available.  I also have to send on how many hours I have left for the day when I am empty at a receiver.  By the time I finished and got parked, I had a grand total of five hours left for the day, after which I had to shut down until tomorrow to gain some time back.

Two hours later, I got a load assignment.  I had to be about five hundred miles away in Arkansas to pick up and be at the shipper by tomorrow morning.  The load delivered on Saturday in Maine.  While this was nice from a mileage standpoint, with the hours I had available to me it would have been impossible to do.  I called in and talked to the safety department, as I have to do to discuss a trip plan.  When the safety guy looked at my hours, he agreed there was no way this was gonna happen, and told operations that I need a 34-hour shutdown.  The nice thing about the shutdown is that it resets my clock back to 70 full hours, and gives me a nice rest.  The bad thing is I'm stuck at a truck stop in Houston, low on money (won't get paid until at least Wednesday, I sincerely hope) and with nothing to really do.  I might drag out the DVDs just to kill some time, maybe get some decent sleep as best as I can.

There's wireless access at the truck stop, and I can pop in and do internetty things.  I'll see what I can finagle for food (still have ramen soups and stuffing mix I can whip up) and fight the boredom as best as I can.

Until next time.

Another year over and what have I done?

I may not get another shot at writing this before the new year, so as long as I have some down time, I'll take a brief few moments to review the year that was 2011.

The start of the year found me doing the job I hated doing but had no choice but to do, which was the accursed   home medical job.  My prospects looked dim, I had nothing lined up or even looking promising, and I was quite miserable.  The wonderful ice storm in February made things even better, as it turned my usual 2 hour commute to work into an 11-hour odyssey to get back home before major and important body parts froze and snapped off.

A transfer to a closer branch rounded out the spring months, amid major shake-ups from the top down.  Where I originally enjoyed not being on call, that was changed abruptly, and since the old liquid oxygen delivery driver was about to return, I figured he could have his route and I'd take the non-liquid route.  At least, from an on-call perspective, it would make things a little easier on me.

That feeling baked away as the summer wore on, and by the end of it, seeing no other alternative, I made the fateful call.  In mid-September, I returned to school and by the first of October, I had my Class A CDL and a job as an over-the-road trucker.  I (barely) made it through the first orientation, more due to personality conflicts with the trainer than my lack of skills, and the shorter three-week training cruise with a fellow student went a little better, though not by much.

So, here it is the end of December, and I am once again out on the road, this time as a solo driver, doing the best I can with what little I get in assistance from the home office.  I am sitting on a load that will deliver late if I have to run it all the way through due to my low available hours, I feel thoroughly disgusted and unsure of myself, I'm pretty much flat broke until the payment for the last two trips I did comes through, and I can only pray that I will make it through this and gain the experience that will help me get a local trucking job.

And with that, I will close out the ol' blog for 2011 and wish everyone that reads this a very happy and prosperous New Year.  And, if you could spare some good wishes for myself and Ms. Darkstar, I would be very appreciative.

Happy New Year, everyone.

The calm between storms

I'm sure that most of you that read this blog are curious as to how my big adventure went yesterday.   I awoke early and did another quick check of the weather along my planned route, and figured I could be past the worst of it, so I set off at 6 am.  I managed to make it through mostly rain with a few flakes mixed in around Oklahoma and some freezing rain just inside Colorado, but it was still fairly warm and the roads were wet and not frozen, and I was able to continue on.  I hit a nice patch of dry roads before I got to I-70, and and I was happy that I had made it through before the predicted onset of the worst of the storm.

Unfortunately, once I got onto I-70, I ran into the freezing fog and drizzle.  From what I could see, I was there just as the roads were beginning to freeze, and I saw several accidents along the way, including a jackknifed tractor-trailer.  I kept my speed low and pressed on, mostly since there were no real safe havens along the way, and by the time I got to Denver, the roads were treated and passable.  I fueled and parked for the night, since I had an early delivery.  When I checked my truck over that night, there was about an eighth of an inch of ice on the mirror mounts and on the front of the truck.

I am now sitting in Nebraska, with another early-delivering load which I'm hoping I can deliver on time.  Looks like it's going to be another super-early day, and this time I'm going to see if I can get a proper shutdown to recharge a bit.  And of course, there's another storm due to come through by the end of the week.  I have no idea where I'll be by then, but I have a feeling my winter odyssey has only just begun.

It's time to shut down and get some sleep.  Good night.

Lazy days

Today is my lazy day, of a type I very rarely get to experience anymore.  It's not often that I get a day to do hardly anything, what with getting caught up on things I couldn't do during the week and general household things that need doing, so I'm making the most of this.  I have stew in the crock pot for dinner, later on I'll make a batch of biscuits, maybe watch a video or two, and get myself all relaxed for back to work tomorrow.

When I was younger, we lived in a fairly rural area and on weekends I would take the opportunity to just head off into the woods, or explore a field nearby the house, or just plunk down under a tree and watch the sky for a while.  Being isolated from everyone and everything, for however brief a time as it was, helped me recharge a bit and get in touch with me, which made it a lot easier to deal with things throughout the rest of the week.

I know that, realistically, I'm not able to do that anymore.  It is nice to just be free from responsibility for a bit, let things go and relax, and not have to be doing things that others are demanding I do.  I can set my own pace, my own schedule, and do what I want.  And, if what I want to do is nothing, even better.

I've been going through some things here that will factor in when I do future posts.  I'm hoping these will serve as a bit of a snapshot as to what I was exposed to when I was growing up and maybe provide a glimpse into the not-so-distant past.  I may work on that a little bit later, or perhaps I'll set it aside for another time.

After all, today's a lazy day.