On The Road: Thanks for ... ??

Phase Two of my training has begun, and I am currently sitting in a truck stop just west of Flagstaff, Arizona.  Although I don't remember packing them, my usual assortment of doubts has crept in, leaving me to wonder what I got myself in to, and more importantly, if there is indeed a way out this time.  Naturally, as is the custom and as it's always been since I first started the training school, information has been flung at me hard and fast, and time will only tell how much of it has managed to stick to the walls of my brain, such as it is.  If I knew at the onset that things would be this weird, and after talking to drivers for this company, knew that this is de rigeur and part of the status quo, I would have never come here.

Too little, too late.

Thanksgiving is this Thursday.  I'm many miles from those that I consider family, and while this isn't by any stretch the first Thanksgiving I've had to work over my years, it will be the first one where, at the end of the work day, I will not be able to go home when the work is finished.  This, like most things I've experienced, will be a big first for me.  No, I'm not handling this well, thanks for asking.  The gentleman at the Subway where I had lunch remarked on the "slow end to the workday," and all I could think to myself was: Dude, at least your day has an end.


I still look at things differently than I used to, and of all the things I took for granted, going home at the end of the work day is one of the things I miss most.

My luck continues, unfortunately.  Not counting the general screw-ups (because I am technically still learning), I find myself thoroughly disenchanted with the company I work for.  We have a load that is supposed to be delivering at it's first offload point at 2 am tomorrow morning about 650 miles from where I am.  We (my co-driver and I) told the company several times, going through the phone system and a flurry of satellite messages, that there was no way we would be able to make the delivery time because, thanks to having to log all of last week's classroom time as on-duty time, we would not have enough hours to make the trip.  We told the dispatchers, we told the department who's responsibility it is for this type of load, and we told our driver manager.  All of whom sent their reassurances that they would work on getting someone else who had the time to get the load where it had to go.

Which is why we are currently sitting in the middle of nowhere, with nothing around us but the rugged Arizona hills, with absolutely no hours left on our clocks, unable to move the truck even if we had to.  I've not heard a word from anyone at the company since I spoke to them before we rolled out earlier this morning.

Thanksgiving time, so they say, is a time to reflect on your blessings and the things you're thankful for over the year.  As it stands now, I can honestly say, with all conviction and truth, I have absolutely nothing to be thankful for, nor do I feel particularly blessed in any aspect of my life.  I'm not all that optimistic about the next year, or the ones after that, either.

And don't get me started on Christmas.  That's a rant left best for another time.  Maybe next month.