Been a long time since last post...duh, 1 1/2 years. I have been at home since June 2012 with a torn rotator cuff. Happened over time on the truck with it first occuring in June 2011. It became very bad when hurt it again while in Columbus, OH. The company had a terminal in Columbus and they sent me to a company doctor at a clinic. I had to stay in the truck on the yard almost a week going to the doctor until I finally said this is bull and told them I needed to go home instead of living in the truck 1000 miles away. Well company would only pay for a bus ticket, and that left all my gear on the truck sitting in Columbus. I had to rent a car at my expense to get home and drive the distance with a bum shoulder.
When I first hurt the shoulder I was in Seattle, WA. I'm glad I didn't try to go to a doctor up there the year before. That would have been a long drive home. Cost me $900 for the trip home from Columbus.
Everything had to be OK'd before each step taken by the claims adjuster. So it was see someone, get a referral, wait 1 to 2 weeks, do next step, get referral then wait 1 to 2 weeks. I was home 2 months before I got the surgery on the shoulder. Glad the pain wasn't excruciating. That came after the surgery. I never went through such pain. They did a nerve block before the surgery, when it wore off 12 hours later gremlins began banging on my shoulder with a chisel and hammer. I was on a morphine drip that I could push every 6 minutes. Didn't work at all to ease the pain. Very bad night...
Finally got home that evening and began 3 weeks of wearing a sling with a large pad that held my arm out from my chest. Also began a month of no sleep. I have been averaging 2 to 3 hours sleep every night. My rehab has finally been OK'd and now start that the end of the week.
After 84 days on FMLA with the company I was "voluntary resigned" from the company I worked for. Didn't like that too much. Now I am unemployed until I am able to pass a DOT physical. That will take anywhere from 3 to 6 months by what I read on it. This will be a long road.
Monday, September 10, 2012
Saturday, April 16, 2011
2 month post
My how time flies. Was having problems with posting my pictures on the Picasa viewer since I changed out hard drive and upgraded and kind of got my goat. I had worked resizing the pictures to post here since the originals are huge and take up space, and the things wouldn't transfer from my computer to the viewer. Hacked me off after all that work, so let it slide. Still have a lot of pictures to post, but haven't wanted to spend all that time to redo everything. I'm sure it is something I haven't done right, couldn't possibly be the computer's fault.
Winter is about over, still cool here in the north east. I'm in Erie, PA today and will leave here about 2pm to drive over to Liverpool, NY for a delivery at a grocery warehouse at 8pm tonight. Woke up to high (44 mph) winds this morning with gusts to 60. Had to chase down my cap once. I had my cap on and my hood up over my head and tied under my chin. When I got down out of the truck my hood turned into a parachute and cap went byebye. Almost hanged me. Got the cap about 100' feet away, a wonder it didn't go further. Tucked the hood away and just held on to the cap. Dry the rain off once I get inside.
The winter for me was not as bad as last year's. Bad enough though. Seems to be shaping up to a very harsh summer too. I wonder what they blamed weather extremes on before they had names like LaNina...Pinta and Santa Maria.
Will try to get back into a routine here. Just writing to myself anyway it seems, haven't heard one person ask where my blog went. I guess that makes it a public diary of a non interesting job. But remember, you won't see or touch a single man made object that didn't come to you by truck.
Winter is about over, still cool here in the north east. I'm in Erie, PA today and will leave here about 2pm to drive over to Liverpool, NY for a delivery at a grocery warehouse at 8pm tonight. Woke up to high (44 mph) winds this morning with gusts to 60. Had to chase down my cap once. I had my cap on and my hood up over my head and tied under my chin. When I got down out of the truck my hood turned into a parachute and cap went byebye. Almost hanged me. Got the cap about 100' feet away, a wonder it didn't go further. Tucked the hood away and just held on to the cap. Dry the rain off once I get inside.
The winter for me was not as bad as last year's. Bad enough though. Seems to be shaping up to a very harsh summer too. I wonder what they blamed weather extremes on before they had names like LaNina...Pinta and Santa Maria.
Will try to get back into a routine here. Just writing to myself anyway it seems, haven't heard one person ask where my blog went. I guess that makes it a public diary of a non interesting job. But remember, you won't see or touch a single man made object that didn't come to you by truck.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Feb. 2011
Guess I'm going to a monthly blog now. I get out here lately and it is just running all the time and just don't remember to update this any. No sense in going into all that have done in a month's time.
I just came out of El Paso toing to De Kalb, IL. I am in Santa Rosa, NM for the day and will leave around midnight when I pick up some hours and head on to Illinois. I picked up the load going to El Paso out of Lindstrom, MN last Friday. That morning I was in Black River Falls, WI, and it was -15 degrees. Clear skies though and no wind. The wind is what makes it unbearable. By that afternoon it was up to 30 degrees in Minneapolis, and going to get a little warmer each day over the next week.
By the time I get up to northern Illinois they are supposed to have a few rain showers, that is a lot nicer than seeing more snow. I am hoping we will see a gradual warm up now and that the Artic blasts are subsiding. That one storm after another is grueling.
I have some pictures to upload, but the Picaso picture viewer is screwed up for some reason. I haven't gotten it to work right since putting in the new hard drive and upgrading to Windows 7. Keep working on it and try to get them on here soon. I have pictures from back last October.
I just came out of El Paso toing to De Kalb, IL. I am in Santa Rosa, NM for the day and will leave around midnight when I pick up some hours and head on to Illinois. I picked up the load going to El Paso out of Lindstrom, MN last Friday. That morning I was in Black River Falls, WI, and it was -15 degrees. Clear skies though and no wind. The wind is what makes it unbearable. By that afternoon it was up to 30 degrees in Minneapolis, and going to get a little warmer each day over the next week.
By the time I get up to northern Illinois they are supposed to have a few rain showers, that is a lot nicer than seeing more snow. I am hoping we will see a gradual warm up now and that the Artic blasts are subsiding. That one storm after another is grueling.
I have some pictures to upload, but the Picaso picture viewer is screwed up for some reason. I haven't gotten it to work right since putting in the new hard drive and upgrading to Windows 7. Keep working on it and try to get them on here soon. I have pictures from back last October.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Missing Appointments
One of the nono's in the industry.
After the delivery in Dayton, TX I went into Houston and picked up a load of Budweiser Beer from Anheuser-Busch. It was going to the distributor in Little Rock, AR and needed to deliver the next day, Monday, before 2 pm. Not really a problem, I had plenty of time. Just so happened, a really bad snow storm clobbered northeast Texas and Arkansas that evening.
I ran into it in Jefferson, TX between Marshall and Texarkana. Nothing but really slick ice. It took 2 hours to travel approximately 50 miles. I pulled into a weigh station in Queen City, TX south of Texarkana at 10 pm and just went to bed. I figured I would be off my 10 hour break at 8 am, and be able to deliver the next day before 2 pm. Gave me 6 hours to go 170 miles. Next morning it was just snowy slush by time got off break, the curve ball I got was I had a flat on the trailer. I called breakdown and they went through 6 tire companies before they found one that would come out, and that wasn't until around 12:30pm.
I made sure dispatch knew I could not make the appointment and why. This absolved me of being guilty of a missed or late appointment. Not late if valid reason and you make sure dispatch knows what is going on...all the time...called COMMUNICATION. This is something that dispatch only uses one way. I don't get this in return. They figure my needing information is not necessary. Like...do you have any loads? how long you want me to sit here double parked waiting for you to tell me something? can I move somewhere else? HEY YOU STILL UP THERE? All communication being done with the Qualcom satellite system and not on the phone, and them never answering a question, you wonder sometimes.
Got to a truck stop around 5 pm that evening, about 36 miles from the customer. Seems I-30 in Arkansas was nothing but ice. Traffic was at a stand still and there were about 10 trucks for every 1 auto on the road. Once I found a parking place in the very rear of the truck stop, I went in and ate. Place was so crowded it took 1 1/2 hours to get back to my truck. They had closed the interstate and trucks had flowed into the place and you couldn't move. All the aisles and spots were filled.
The next morning I lucked out and got out a back way after some trucks beside me took that path out. It was a little dirt road that went out through a pasture to the service road. There was still ice on the road but I made it to the customer in a little over a hour. There were seven trucks there ahead of me waiting to unload too. Seems they were closed on Monday because "they" couldn't get to work.
It took 6 hours to get unloaded and then went over to Stuttgart, AR and picked up a load to Hannibal, MO, no problems with the roads by then. From Hannibal I picked up a load later that night out of the same plant going to a grocery warehouse on the west side of Minneapolis, MN. Then at 1 am the next morning I traveled out about 100 miles west of Minneapolis to pick up a load in Sleepy Eye, MN (who names these towns) going to Green Bay, WI on Friday. Next morning picked up a load down the street from where I delivered going to Galesburg, MI. Then into Battle Creek, MI 14 miles away to pick up some rolls of paper going to LaPorte, IN 115 miles away and delivered that afternoon.
They deadheaded me from the northeast corner of Indiana all the way to Indianapolis to pick up a load sitting on the yard there going to Pacific, MO and I got over within 60 miles of St Louis, MO that evening. Was another load of rolled paper.
After that load was delivered the next morning, I was sent to our drop yard in East St. Louis, IL to wait for a driver bringing in a load to be delivered in Madison, WI the next morning at 4 am. He was bringing up the load from Tulsa, OK. Well, the information I got was he would be there at around noon and was asked if I could get the load there on time. I asked if the customer had overnight parking and they said yes. The reason for that is there are no truck stops in Madison, if I could get into the customer that evening before I ran out of hours for the day I would be there for ontime delivery the next morning.
I had until 9 pm that night to get there, if I got the load by noon I would not have a problem making it. That took in to account the following.: it was 360 miles and I could in normal conditions make the trip in 6 1/4 hours driving. I needed 1/4 hr. to fuel, and there was a snow storm brewing from northwest Illinois on into Madison. To be safe, I needed 7 1/2 to 8 hours to make the customer. If the driver got there at noon I would need 1/2 hour to swap out and had about 1/2 hour left to play with.
This is what I took into account when dispatch asked if I could cover the load. At 1 pm the driver had not showed. I sent 2 messages to dispatch beginning at 1:15 pm that we were going to have trouble if he didn't show. Finally they told me he should be there about 2 pm. I told them right then I could not make it on time. He showed up right at 2 pm and they offered me the load. I again told them it wasn't possible for me to get there on time. I was going to be forced to take a 10 hour break before I got to the customer because he was late. Leaving at 2:30pm I would have 6 1/2 hours to make the customer. In dry conditions I might have tried it, knowing the weather I told them no way. I KNOW how long it takes me to get somewhere, I KNOW about adding a little time to take care of the unknown. When dispatch asks me for an ETA, I take all of this into consideration and add another 1/2 hour to it. This driver's estimate of arrival was off 2 hours on a 7 hour trip. It cost them an on time delivery. The driver told me when I asked him, "I wasn't that far off". Dumb..s!!
For me, I got another load of Bud out of St Louis that night. It was supposed to be ready at 9pm, wasn't ready until 2am. That was ok, because it gave me time to get my 10 hr break in while waiting and got detention time to boot. I delivered that load in Batavia, OH with a 2 pallet drop in N. Vernon, IN. According to the load information I was to drop the Indiana pallets on Wednesday and the rest of the load in Batavia on Thursday morning. The Batavia customer called dispatch wanting to know if could get the load to them the same day, and dispatch asked me. The customer closed at 3:30 pm. With good conditions, I figured I could probably be there at 2 pm. I told dispatch 3 pm. It gave me time to play with and didn't raise expectations. Made it there at 2 pm, everybody happy.
To end up they gave me a load out of Keebler on the east side of Cincinnati that was supposed to be preloaded and ready to go to deliver to Montgomery, AL. It wasn't. They load the trailers at their plant and bring them to a drop lot where we are waiting on them. They told me at the drop lot it wasn't even scheduled to load until 7 pm. It was currently 3 pm. My load info told me it could be picked up from midnight until 7 pm that day. More detention and I'm in the sack. I am currently in Montgomery and delivery appointment is at 2 pm today.
After the delivery in Dayton, TX I went into Houston and picked up a load of Budweiser Beer from Anheuser-Busch. It was going to the distributor in Little Rock, AR and needed to deliver the next day, Monday, before 2 pm. Not really a problem, I had plenty of time. Just so happened, a really bad snow storm clobbered northeast Texas and Arkansas that evening.
I ran into it in Jefferson, TX between Marshall and Texarkana. Nothing but really slick ice. It took 2 hours to travel approximately 50 miles. I pulled into a weigh station in Queen City, TX south of Texarkana at 10 pm and just went to bed. I figured I would be off my 10 hour break at 8 am, and be able to deliver the next day before 2 pm. Gave me 6 hours to go 170 miles. Next morning it was just snowy slush by time got off break, the curve ball I got was I had a flat on the trailer. I called breakdown and they went through 6 tire companies before they found one that would come out, and that wasn't until around 12:30pm.
I made sure dispatch knew I could not make the appointment and why. This absolved me of being guilty of a missed or late appointment. Not late if valid reason and you make sure dispatch knows what is going on...all the time...called COMMUNICATION. This is something that dispatch only uses one way. I don't get this in return. They figure my needing information is not necessary. Like...do you have any loads? how long you want me to sit here double parked waiting for you to tell me something? can I move somewhere else? HEY YOU STILL UP THERE? All communication being done with the Qualcom satellite system and not on the phone, and them never answering a question, you wonder sometimes.
Got to a truck stop around 5 pm that evening, about 36 miles from the customer. Seems I-30 in Arkansas was nothing but ice. Traffic was at a stand still and there were about 10 trucks for every 1 auto on the road. Once I found a parking place in the very rear of the truck stop, I went in and ate. Place was so crowded it took 1 1/2 hours to get back to my truck. They had closed the interstate and trucks had flowed into the place and you couldn't move. All the aisles and spots were filled.
The next morning I lucked out and got out a back way after some trucks beside me took that path out. It was a little dirt road that went out through a pasture to the service road. There was still ice on the road but I made it to the customer in a little over a hour. There were seven trucks there ahead of me waiting to unload too. Seems they were closed on Monday because "they" couldn't get to work.
It took 6 hours to get unloaded and then went over to Stuttgart, AR and picked up a load to Hannibal, MO, no problems with the roads by then. From Hannibal I picked up a load later that night out of the same plant going to a grocery warehouse on the west side of Minneapolis, MN. Then at 1 am the next morning I traveled out about 100 miles west of Minneapolis to pick up a load in Sleepy Eye, MN (who names these towns) going to Green Bay, WI on Friday. Next morning picked up a load down the street from where I delivered going to Galesburg, MI. Then into Battle Creek, MI 14 miles away to pick up some rolls of paper going to LaPorte, IN 115 miles away and delivered that afternoon.
They deadheaded me from the northeast corner of Indiana all the way to Indianapolis to pick up a load sitting on the yard there going to Pacific, MO and I got over within 60 miles of St Louis, MO that evening. Was another load of rolled paper.
After that load was delivered the next morning, I was sent to our drop yard in East St. Louis, IL to wait for a driver bringing in a load to be delivered in Madison, WI the next morning at 4 am. He was bringing up the load from Tulsa, OK. Well, the information I got was he would be there at around noon and was asked if I could get the load there on time. I asked if the customer had overnight parking and they said yes. The reason for that is there are no truck stops in Madison, if I could get into the customer that evening before I ran out of hours for the day I would be there for ontime delivery the next morning.
I had until 9 pm that night to get there, if I got the load by noon I would not have a problem making it. That took in to account the following.: it was 360 miles and I could in normal conditions make the trip in 6 1/4 hours driving. I needed 1/4 hr. to fuel, and there was a snow storm brewing from northwest Illinois on into Madison. To be safe, I needed 7 1/2 to 8 hours to make the customer. If the driver got there at noon I would need 1/2 hour to swap out and had about 1/2 hour left to play with.
This is what I took into account when dispatch asked if I could cover the load. At 1 pm the driver had not showed. I sent 2 messages to dispatch beginning at 1:15 pm that we were going to have trouble if he didn't show. Finally they told me he should be there about 2 pm. I told them right then I could not make it on time. He showed up right at 2 pm and they offered me the load. I again told them it wasn't possible for me to get there on time. I was going to be forced to take a 10 hour break before I got to the customer because he was late. Leaving at 2:30pm I would have 6 1/2 hours to make the customer. In dry conditions I might have tried it, knowing the weather I told them no way. I KNOW how long it takes me to get somewhere, I KNOW about adding a little time to take care of the unknown. When dispatch asks me for an ETA, I take all of this into consideration and add another 1/2 hour to it. This driver's estimate of arrival was off 2 hours on a 7 hour trip. It cost them an on time delivery. The driver told me when I asked him, "I wasn't that far off". Dumb..s!!
For me, I got another load of Bud out of St Louis that night. It was supposed to be ready at 9pm, wasn't ready until 2am. That was ok, because it gave me time to get my 10 hr break in while waiting and got detention time to boot. I delivered that load in Batavia, OH with a 2 pallet drop in N. Vernon, IN. According to the load information I was to drop the Indiana pallets on Wednesday and the rest of the load in Batavia on Thursday morning. The Batavia customer called dispatch wanting to know if could get the load to them the same day, and dispatch asked me. The customer closed at 3:30 pm. With good conditions, I figured I could probably be there at 2 pm. I told dispatch 3 pm. It gave me time to play with and didn't raise expectations. Made it there at 2 pm, everybody happy.
To end up they gave me a load out of Keebler on the east side of Cincinnati that was supposed to be preloaded and ready to go to deliver to Montgomery, AL. It wasn't. They load the trailers at their plant and bring them to a drop lot where we are waiting on them. They told me at the drop lot it wasn't even scheduled to load until 7 pm. It was currently 3 pm. My load info told me it could be picked up from midnight until 7 pm that day. More detention and I'm in the sack. I am currently in Montgomery and delivery appointment is at 2 pm today.
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Another Sunday
Made it through another week. Went from Las Vegas up to Salt Lake City. Had a Wednesday delivery and got in there noon Tuesday so I went by the terminal in North Salt Lake to see if they would work on the battery problem on the truck.
I had let Kansas City shop work on it 3 days after I got the new truck. They went in and checked and charged the batteries and found no problem. They were going to put me in the Freightliner shop the next day but they had a 3 day wait to get in. I had to run with it.
I thought they would put me into Freightliner there in Salt Lake since that was the plan before, but no. They did the exact same thing they did in KC, checked the batteries. After 6 more hours waiting they had just changed out the batteries and pronounced it fixed. I spent the night on the yard and .... no it didn't.
What was happening was the truck has 2 sets of 4 batteries. The primary set runs the truck and all the plug ins and lights inside. After sitting for 2 hours at night they were shutting down as the truck went into preservation mode to keep the batteries from running completely out. It does that when the voltage reading on the batteries get to below 12 volts. The bunk heater and one or 2 lights inside the bunk run off the secondary set of batteries and they were working just fine. Which is good since I have been in very cold temperatures, but my fridge wouldn't work more than 2 hours once parked, I couldn't idle truck because it won't idle more than 39 minutes to keep the fridge working, plus I couldn't work on computer or watch tv because the outlets were shutting off. Once I idle the truck everything would work for a hour or 2 and off again. Biggest problem, to keep the fridge working overnight I have to get up and restart the truck every hour or two. Couldn't get much sleep that way, so wasn't keeping anything in there that would ruin.
Next morning I went in and told the shop it didn't work, it was a new crew, I went and delivered the load and then returned for them to work on it again. This time I got a mechanic that knew what he was doing. He found a solenoid that was supposed to control which batteries to charge. It was set to charge the secondary instead of the primary set first. Now works fine. All in getting someone who knows what they are doing.
Today I am in Baytown, TX and deliver just after noon at a Sams Club DC in Dayton. Nice and warm 60 degrees yesterday, now a high of 38 today and 20 mph winds. I guess the stuff followed me from Utah!!
I had let Kansas City shop work on it 3 days after I got the new truck. They went in and checked and charged the batteries and found no problem. They were going to put me in the Freightliner shop the next day but they had a 3 day wait to get in. I had to run with it.
I thought they would put me into Freightliner there in Salt Lake since that was the plan before, but no. They did the exact same thing they did in KC, checked the batteries. After 6 more hours waiting they had just changed out the batteries and pronounced it fixed. I spent the night on the yard and .... no it didn't.
What was happening was the truck has 2 sets of 4 batteries. The primary set runs the truck and all the plug ins and lights inside. After sitting for 2 hours at night they were shutting down as the truck went into preservation mode to keep the batteries from running completely out. It does that when the voltage reading on the batteries get to below 12 volts. The bunk heater and one or 2 lights inside the bunk run off the secondary set of batteries and they were working just fine. Which is good since I have been in very cold temperatures, but my fridge wouldn't work more than 2 hours once parked, I couldn't idle truck because it won't idle more than 39 minutes to keep the fridge working, plus I couldn't work on computer or watch tv because the outlets were shutting off. Once I idle the truck everything would work for a hour or 2 and off again. Biggest problem, to keep the fridge working overnight I have to get up and restart the truck every hour or two. Couldn't get much sleep that way, so wasn't keeping anything in there that would ruin.
Next morning I went in and told the shop it didn't work, it was a new crew, I went and delivered the load and then returned for them to work on it again. This time I got a mechanic that knew what he was doing. He found a solenoid that was supposed to control which batteries to charge. It was set to charge the secondary instead of the primary set first. Now works fine. All in getting someone who knows what they are doing.
Today I am in Baytown, TX and deliver just after noon at a Sams Club DC in Dayton. Nice and warm 60 degrees yesterday, now a high of 38 today and 20 mph winds. I guess the stuff followed me from Utah!!
Sunday, January 2, 2011
New Year
I know, long time no see. No way I can fill in everything since last post.
Computer went out on me after the last post. I had a hard drive ordered and when I got home for Thanksgiving I was able to install it. Also upgraded to Windows 7 and like that a lot better. Seems to be running a lot faster now, thank goodness. Was getting to be a real pain.
On the third of December the company brought me in to the Lincoln, NE terminal to turn in my truck. I had 498,000 miles on it. They didn't have any new ones there so I was given a rental car. I had to clean out the old truck, including scrubbing it down to save me $125 from paying the company to do it. I left out Friday night the 3rd headed to Columbus, OH in the car to get my new truck at the terminal there. Well, the office there forgot to leave out the permit book so I could go on to work. Had to wait until Monday to get the permits and go back to work. Monday was the 6th, my birthday, and a new truck.
It has a lot of bells and whistles on it. It has more insulation which makes it a lot easier to stay warm, the bunk heating and cooling is battery operated, meaning I don't have to idle the truck to stay warm or cool. There are 2 sets of batteries, one for the main system and the second set for the bunk. I have been in -5 degree temperatures and the batteries run the heater all night long and stay plenty warm with it on low fan. The heater is sort of a diesel fired unit, I guess sort of like the electric batteries work the fan and fire the diesel and it warms up, or something like that. They call it a SmartStart...smartfart...or something.
It has two sets of curtains that run on tracks. First one runs around inside the windows, then I have large insulated curtains that close off the bunk from the cab. Amazing difference in the morning when you pull back the insulated curtains to start up the truck...ooohh baby, it's cold outside!!
The seats are swivel, where you can swivel them to the side. The one on the passenger side won't swivel more than about 10 degrees because they mounted the qualcom bracket on the side of the seat. What a waste of money. The driver seat can only swivel 90 degrees if I get up slide it all the way up, then swivel it about 45 degrees until it hits the seat belt bracket and misses the curtains behind the seat, then have to slide the seat all the way back so it will barely squeeze it around the side of the belt bracket. Have to set there quite awhile to make it worthwhile, but the seat is really comfortable and floats. Truck is so tight that have to really slam the door to get it to shut or crack the window first. Never had a class 8 truck that tight inside before with no air leaks.
Anyway, it is a nice truck and about to learn how every thing works. Tried to get the info from the mechanics, but they knew less than I did.
Had a vacation over Christmas and tore out the bathroom. Worked hard pretty much every day except Christmas Day. Got the walls insualted, 2 new insulated windows installed, the shower out and back in, toilet back in, new subfloor down and tiled. Still a lot to do, but not enough time as usual.
Back to work and ended up picking up a load New Year's Eve going from St. Louis to Las Vegas, NV. I had to run I-70 all the way across, and that meant going over Vail in Colorado. I had to really push to be able to get to Denver with enough hours to get across the mountains and out near Grand Junction. Once heading up the mountain from Denver it is 140 miles before you can find a place to park a truck. Plus had to get there Saturday afternoon with enough time to get over that afternoon while there was no chain restriction going over Vail pass. I just barely made it, the restriction went up a few hours after I got over.
Well, here I set in Las Vegas, snug as a bug in a rug. At least it is around freezing. Coming out of Grand Junction, CO this morning at 5 am it was -20 coming into Utah. Thought I had made a wrong turn and ended up in Canada.
Computer went out on me after the last post. I had a hard drive ordered and when I got home for Thanksgiving I was able to install it. Also upgraded to Windows 7 and like that a lot better. Seems to be running a lot faster now, thank goodness. Was getting to be a real pain.
On the third of December the company brought me in to the Lincoln, NE terminal to turn in my truck. I had 498,000 miles on it. They didn't have any new ones there so I was given a rental car. I had to clean out the old truck, including scrubbing it down to save me $125 from paying the company to do it. I left out Friday night the 3rd headed to Columbus, OH in the car to get my new truck at the terminal there. Well, the office there forgot to leave out the permit book so I could go on to work. Had to wait until Monday to get the permits and go back to work. Monday was the 6th, my birthday, and a new truck.
It has a lot of bells and whistles on it. It has more insulation which makes it a lot easier to stay warm, the bunk heating and cooling is battery operated, meaning I don't have to idle the truck to stay warm or cool. There are 2 sets of batteries, one for the main system and the second set for the bunk. I have been in -5 degree temperatures and the batteries run the heater all night long and stay plenty warm with it on low fan. The heater is sort of a diesel fired unit, I guess sort of like the electric batteries work the fan and fire the diesel and it warms up, or something like that. They call it a SmartStart...smartfart...or something.
It has two sets of curtains that run on tracks. First one runs around inside the windows, then I have large insulated curtains that close off the bunk from the cab. Amazing difference in the morning when you pull back the insulated curtains to start up the truck...ooohh baby, it's cold outside!!
The seats are swivel, where you can swivel them to the side. The one on the passenger side won't swivel more than about 10 degrees because they mounted the qualcom bracket on the side of the seat. What a waste of money. The driver seat can only swivel 90 degrees if I get up slide it all the way up, then swivel it about 45 degrees until it hits the seat belt bracket and misses the curtains behind the seat, then have to slide the seat all the way back so it will barely squeeze it around the side of the belt bracket. Have to set there quite awhile to make it worthwhile, but the seat is really comfortable and floats. Truck is so tight that have to really slam the door to get it to shut or crack the window first. Never had a class 8 truck that tight inside before with no air leaks.
Anyway, it is a nice truck and about to learn how every thing works. Tried to get the info from the mechanics, but they knew less than I did.
Had a vacation over Christmas and tore out the bathroom. Worked hard pretty much every day except Christmas Day. Got the walls insualted, 2 new insulated windows installed, the shower out and back in, toilet back in, new subfloor down and tiled. Still a lot to do, but not enough time as usual.
Back to work and ended up picking up a load New Year's Eve going from St. Louis to Las Vegas, NV. I had to run I-70 all the way across, and that meant going over Vail in Colorado. I had to really push to be able to get to Denver with enough hours to get across the mountains and out near Grand Junction. Once heading up the mountain from Denver it is 140 miles before you can find a place to park a truck. Plus had to get there Saturday afternoon with enough time to get over that afternoon while there was no chain restriction going over Vail pass. I just barely made it, the restriction went up a few hours after I got over.
Well, here I set in Las Vegas, snug as a bug in a rug. At least it is around freezing. Coming out of Grand Junction, CO this morning at 5 am it was -20 coming into Utah. Thought I had made a wrong turn and ended up in Canada.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
This week
This is getting hard to keep up with when I'm running so hard. Working 12 to 14 hours every day 7 days a week, usually when I shut down I don't really do much. Been sitting awhile today and catching up on some TV shows on my computer. Glad they starting streaming the shows on their station web sites. Since they came up with all digital signals I haven't been able to pick up anything with my TV. Sitting in a parking lot, every vehicle that passes cuts the signal even when you have a strong one. And strong ones are hard to get. Time before last when I was home I took the TV out all together. I just use my computer to watch the shows on there that I like. Not that many of them anyway.
NCIS, Chuck, CSI NY, Bones, Blue Bloods, Hawaii Five-0, Human Target (when it starts up again), Burn Notice on USA is good. That is about it with a few sitcoms like Two and a Half Men thrown in. Middle on ABC is also a good one. At least on the computer when I am shut down I can catch up with them when ever I have the time. They keep them on the site usually for about 3 to 4 weeks after the original air date. Now, as long as my computer holds up. If I get in an area that has a weak signal then I won't be watching anything. Has to be a good strong 3G signal to work.
That is my idle time. Don't really do much surfing on the internet anymore unless trying to find some information. Use Google Earth a lot to view customers that I am going into, especially if it is for the first time. That is a big big help.
After NC I went to Valdosta, GA with a load, then from there over to Austin, TX. Out to Uvalde, TX for the first time and picked up a load of deer corn going to a Walmart DC in south Louisana. Then picked up load from Georgia Pacific going to Georgia Pacific in Palatka, FL. Then a load out of GP there going to New Albany, MS. I was offered a load to Omaha, NE which I really wanted because it was good miles, but I did not have enough hours to deliver it legally, so had to turn it down. Don't get offered 1400 mile loads often.
Picked up a load near Tupelo, MS this afternoon and going up near Indianapolis, IN to deliver tomorrow. Having to wait until 2 am to head that way to build some hours. Have just enough to make it up there tomorrow around noon then will have to sit until Wednesday to move again.
NCIS, Chuck, CSI NY, Bones, Blue Bloods, Hawaii Five-0, Human Target (when it starts up again), Burn Notice on USA is good. That is about it with a few sitcoms like Two and a Half Men thrown in. Middle on ABC is also a good one. At least on the computer when I am shut down I can catch up with them when ever I have the time. They keep them on the site usually for about 3 to 4 weeks after the original air date. Now, as long as my computer holds up. If I get in an area that has a weak signal then I won't be watching anything. Has to be a good strong 3G signal to work.
That is my idle time. Don't really do much surfing on the internet anymore unless trying to find some information. Use Google Earth a lot to view customers that I am going into, especially if it is for the first time. That is a big big help.
After NC I went to Valdosta, GA with a load, then from there over to Austin, TX. Out to Uvalde, TX for the first time and picked up a load of deer corn going to a Walmart DC in south Louisana. Then picked up load from Georgia Pacific going to Georgia Pacific in Palatka, FL. Then a load out of GP there going to New Albany, MS. I was offered a load to Omaha, NE which I really wanted because it was good miles, but I did not have enough hours to deliver it legally, so had to turn it down. Don't get offered 1400 mile loads often.
Picked up a load near Tupelo, MS this afternoon and going up near Indianapolis, IN to deliver tomorrow. Having to wait until 2 am to head that way to build some hours. Have just enough to make it up there tomorrow around noon then will have to sit until Wednesday to move again.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Hometime
After Nebraska I took a load to Knoxville, TN and then one over into South Carolina, then back to Jackson, TN, and then one out of Memphis to Houston to get me home for hometime.
Spent some time trying to get Pat's computer working. Since Windows7 jammed things up, I tried formatting the drive and reinstalling Win7 to free up some space, still froze up on scans. Even after cleaning Norton antivirus out of it. Then reformatted the drive and reinstalled Vista back on the machine. Thought might be the Win7 program, but not the problem either. Still freezing up now and then. It picks its own time to do it.
Will probably try to get a new hard drive for the thing next time in. One in it is 2 years old, and I'm beginning to believe that is the life expectancy of HD's. One in my laptop is little under 3 years and it is getting blue screen couple times now over 2 weeks. Last time it did that, hard drive finally gave it up a month or two later.
Rebuilt some fence around back yard by moving the gate off a couple of untreated posts that had rotted out at the ground. Still suffering after using those post hole diggers. There was a time that I used them things all day long. Still suffered, but got 10 times as many holes dug. Only dug 3 holes this time. Although the first hole could count as 3 since I broke one blade hitting a root and didn't know it. Dug for 5 minutes and wasn't getting very deep with it until I looked at the end of the digger. It was split up the middle and one side curled under. Dry as the ground was, it was like chipping at concrete with a plastic spoon, except the diggers were about 10 or 15 lbs. The second set I started using were a lot better except they were about 20 lbs because they were the ones dad had welded steel handles in to to keep from breaking the handles. Just need a gorilla to use them.
I left back out this past Saturday and had to go up to Ashdown, AR to pick up a load of pulp going to a paper company in Canton, NC. Was a long way to go to pick up a load, right at 200 miles. Not even a high dollar load. Low on loads where I was I guess. Sitting near Asheville, NC and will deliver at 6 pm tonight.
Spent some time trying to get Pat's computer working. Since Windows7 jammed things up, I tried formatting the drive and reinstalling Win7 to free up some space, still froze up on scans. Even after cleaning Norton antivirus out of it. Then reformatted the drive and reinstalled Vista back on the machine. Thought might be the Win7 program, but not the problem either. Still freezing up now and then. It picks its own time to do it.
Will probably try to get a new hard drive for the thing next time in. One in it is 2 years old, and I'm beginning to believe that is the life expectancy of HD's. One in my laptop is little under 3 years and it is getting blue screen couple times now over 2 weeks. Last time it did that, hard drive finally gave it up a month or two later.
Rebuilt some fence around back yard by moving the gate off a couple of untreated posts that had rotted out at the ground. Still suffering after using those post hole diggers. There was a time that I used them things all day long. Still suffered, but got 10 times as many holes dug. Only dug 3 holes this time. Although the first hole could count as 3 since I broke one blade hitting a root and didn't know it. Dug for 5 minutes and wasn't getting very deep with it until I looked at the end of the digger. It was split up the middle and one side curled under. Dry as the ground was, it was like chipping at concrete with a plastic spoon, except the diggers were about 10 or 15 lbs. The second set I started using were a lot better except they were about 20 lbs because they were the ones dad had welded steel handles in to to keep from breaking the handles. Just need a gorilla to use them.
I left back out this past Saturday and had to go up to Ashdown, AR to pick up a load of pulp going to a paper company in Canton, NC. Was a long way to go to pick up a load, right at 200 miles. Not even a high dollar load. Low on loads where I was I guess. Sitting near Asheville, NC and will deliver at 6 pm tonight.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Nebraska
Sitting in Lincoln today. Bringing some toilet paper to the Sooners...
I have the best intentions of doing this every day but has become a weekly output, and catching some down time. I don't deliver this load until 14 hours from now and have 2 drops. One at Sam's Club here in Lincoln at 11 pm tonight, and another in Grand Island at 3:30 am.
From Findlay, OH, I went up the road to pick up a short load over to Joliet, IL which I dropped on Tuesday morning. Then got a load that was supposed to be picked up on Monday going to Temple, TX for a delivery on Wednesday at Walmart. I had to hustle on that one. Ended up driving 7 hours straight without stopping in order to get down to St. Robert, MO by 5 pm Tuesday after picking up the load. That was when my 14 hours ran out. From St. Robert I figured I could just make it to Temple to deliver the load on Wednesday in my alloted 11 hours driving time. If I hadn't gotten that far on Tuesday, I would not have been close enough and would have been unable to deliver to Walmart on the scheduled day. That would have been a service failure and a no no. Problem was, since the load was not picked up on Monday and they gave it to me on Tuesday morning, it was left on my shoulders to figure out how to get it there legally. Only way I could make it work was to drive 7 hours straight after picking up the load and not stop for any reason. I made it to St. Robert at 5:05 pm.
What put it all in doubt was the fact that the preloaded trailer I picked up at General Mills had a broken pin on the slider for the tandems. Another company driver who was there at the mill, had to set under the trailer and hold the pin out while I inched the trailer back in order to get it legal. That cost me a hour of time doing all of that and resulted in the 7 hour push to make it work.
Delivered the load next day OK, then was given a load to pick up in Waxahachie the next morning going to Olive Branch, MS outside of Memphis. I picked the load up at 5 am and the preloaded trailer I picked up had the exact same problem as the one I had picked up in Illinois. This time I drove up to our shop outside Dallas and let them fix it. Took about 2 hours and I was gone on to Memphis for a Friday morning delivery. On I-30 east of Dallas I watched a CRST truck going west bound take an exit too fast. Looks like he left the road tried to over correct and he flipped the entire tractor trailer 180 degrees and on to its side. He ended up facing the way he came. Not sure whether he was taking the exit too fast or just left the road at a high rate of speed.
I delivered that load early and then spent the rest of the day making a double pick up around Memphis going to Big Lots DC in Oklahoma. The load didn't deliver until Monday night so they let me drop it on the Memphis drop lot and I picked up a load from Kellogg's early the next morning. The preloaded trailer was missing a lug nut on the right front wheel. I had to swing by truck stop in West Memphis to get one put on. It took them 2 minutes to put the $0.79 lug nut on the wheel, and then 1 hour to figure out how to bill my company $37.95.
I delivered the Kellogg's load in Minooka, IL outside of Chicago at 1 pm on Sunday, and then drove over to Elwood, IL to get a preloaded trailer going to Nebraska. No problems with this trailer. Yet...
I have the best intentions of doing this every day but has become a weekly output, and catching some down time. I don't deliver this load until 14 hours from now and have 2 drops. One at Sam's Club here in Lincoln at 11 pm tonight, and another in Grand Island at 3:30 am.
From Findlay, OH, I went up the road to pick up a short load over to Joliet, IL which I dropped on Tuesday morning. Then got a load that was supposed to be picked up on Monday going to Temple, TX for a delivery on Wednesday at Walmart. I had to hustle on that one. Ended up driving 7 hours straight without stopping in order to get down to St. Robert, MO by 5 pm Tuesday after picking up the load. That was when my 14 hours ran out. From St. Robert I figured I could just make it to Temple to deliver the load on Wednesday in my alloted 11 hours driving time. If I hadn't gotten that far on Tuesday, I would not have been close enough and would have been unable to deliver to Walmart on the scheduled day. That would have been a service failure and a no no. Problem was, since the load was not picked up on Monday and they gave it to me on Tuesday morning, it was left on my shoulders to figure out how to get it there legally. Only way I could make it work was to drive 7 hours straight after picking up the load and not stop for any reason. I made it to St. Robert at 5:05 pm.
What put it all in doubt was the fact that the preloaded trailer I picked up at General Mills had a broken pin on the slider for the tandems. Another company driver who was there at the mill, had to set under the trailer and hold the pin out while I inched the trailer back in order to get it legal. That cost me a hour of time doing all of that and resulted in the 7 hour push to make it work.
Delivered the load next day OK, then was given a load to pick up in Waxahachie the next morning going to Olive Branch, MS outside of Memphis. I picked the load up at 5 am and the preloaded trailer I picked up had the exact same problem as the one I had picked up in Illinois. This time I drove up to our shop outside Dallas and let them fix it. Took about 2 hours and I was gone on to Memphis for a Friday morning delivery. On I-30 east of Dallas I watched a CRST truck going west bound take an exit too fast. Looks like he left the road tried to over correct and he flipped the entire tractor trailer 180 degrees and on to its side. He ended up facing the way he came. Not sure whether he was taking the exit too fast or just left the road at a high rate of speed.
I delivered that load early and then spent the rest of the day making a double pick up around Memphis going to Big Lots DC in Oklahoma. The load didn't deliver until Monday night so they let me drop it on the Memphis drop lot and I picked up a load from Kellogg's early the next morning. The preloaded trailer was missing a lug nut on the right front wheel. I had to swing by truck stop in West Memphis to get one put on. It took them 2 minutes to put the $0.79 lug nut on the wheel, and then 1 hour to figure out how to bill my company $37.95.
I delivered the Kellogg's load in Minooka, IL outside of Chicago at 1 pm on Sunday, and then drove over to Elwood, IL to get a preloaded trailer going to Nebraska. No problems with this trailer. Yet...
Saturday, September 18, 2010
My, my...
How time flies...
Another week gone through and a hard one. I got into KC terminal and picked up meds, so that worked out. Went on over to Trenton, OH to deliver my load on Monday morning at 3 am. On Sunday I found a trailer tire going down and it had a nail in it. Tried to get it fixed at a TA truck stop, but the nail was too close to the sidewall and they couldn't. We always carry a spare on the back of the cab in a tire rack so that the company doesn't have to buy one on the road. I had just picked this one up at the Dallas terminal 4 days before since I had used the last one just before going home. I had made a special trip by the terminal just to get a new spare and it paid off.
From Trenton they sent me up the road to Richmond, IN to pick up a load of fish food going to Emporia, KS. On the way over I made a special trip back by the KC terminal to pick up another spare. They didn't have any. The tire man came a hour later that usually drops off new tires and picks up the bad ones. I checked with them again and for some reason they still didn't have any. Said to myself right then that was going to be costly. It was the first time in 6 years I ever went by a terminal and couldn't get a spare.
Dropped the load in Emporia on Tuesday and went up to Topeka to pick up a load of cat food going to Nashville, TN. Dropped that load Wednesday and then they gave me a hot load out of Springfield, TN that was already late and needed to be in Atlanta at 7 pm at a Kroger grocery warehouse. I told them I could not make that appointment and they told me to do best I could. I drove up and got the load, took a hour to get there going back up through Nashville. Load of Ole Yeller dog food. They wanted to know when I could be there and I told them 8:30 pm. It was out on the southeast side of Atlanta and I had it figured too close, but I was going to run out of hours at 9 pm and had to get there or not get there at all. I had to stop and scale out the load and got held up 20 minutes because of a line at the fuel desk at the truck stop was lined out the door. Of all times...
I got there at the customer at 8:50 pm. That 20 minutes....even though I was late they got me in the gate in about 15 minutes. I guess they needed that dog food. Whole country is out of work, but the dogs, cats and fishes are eatin'.
Got lucky and found a spot out on the street to park after unloading to sleep. I had to go over east of Atlanta in the morning and pick up a load from General Mills going to another grocery warehouse in Elloree, SC that delivered that afternoon. Found a tire on my tractor that had a leak in it. I couldn't find a nail or anything but it was low for some reason. I got the load picked up by the appointment time and since I had some extra time I stopped at a TA truck stop to get the tire repaired. Well....it was not fixable...and no spare. They had to buy a tire and they weren't happy. Guy in breakdown had the gall to tell the man at the TA shop to go out and check my tractor and make sure I did not have a spare. That statement right there tells you how much respect a truck driver gets. Like I didn't know I didn't have a spare or not. I'm still a little hot about that one. I was standing next to the guy at the counter when he read the email from our breakdown department out loud.
I still don't have a spare and not making any extra trips out of the way to get one any time soon...
I needed a shower but by the time they got the ok on the tire and got it on the truck I had to go on to make delivery. The load had so many different types of canned goods on it that it took them 8 hours to unload, sort and count in the load. It was midnight by the time I was done, they let me sleep on the yard. I had told dispatch I had to get some sleep since I had been at the customer 8 hours and only needed 10 hours sitting to be actually legal to work another 14 hours, they wanted me to take another load right then. I had not slept good the last night so I said I had to get some sleep first and I could go at 6 am. Two hours after I laid down, they beeped me with a load offer that didn't pick up until noon that day and here it was 2 am. Dummy...
Was a load of, GUESS WHAT...dog food...going to Walmart in Cullman, AL. That was delivered at 5 am this morning and then picked up a load of plumbing supplies going to Lowes DC in Findlay, OH. Got until 8 am Monday to get there, so I'm sitting outside Louisville, KY until about 3:30 am Monday and then will drive on up there. It's not dog food though, them loads are heavy.
Another week gone through and a hard one. I got into KC terminal and picked up meds, so that worked out. Went on over to Trenton, OH to deliver my load on Monday morning at 3 am. On Sunday I found a trailer tire going down and it had a nail in it. Tried to get it fixed at a TA truck stop, but the nail was too close to the sidewall and they couldn't. We always carry a spare on the back of the cab in a tire rack so that the company doesn't have to buy one on the road. I had just picked this one up at the Dallas terminal 4 days before since I had used the last one just before going home. I had made a special trip by the terminal just to get a new spare and it paid off.
From Trenton they sent me up the road to Richmond, IN to pick up a load of fish food going to Emporia, KS. On the way over I made a special trip back by the KC terminal to pick up another spare. They didn't have any. The tire man came a hour later that usually drops off new tires and picks up the bad ones. I checked with them again and for some reason they still didn't have any. Said to myself right then that was going to be costly. It was the first time in 6 years I ever went by a terminal and couldn't get a spare.
Dropped the load in Emporia on Tuesday and went up to Topeka to pick up a load of cat food going to Nashville, TN. Dropped that load Wednesday and then they gave me a hot load out of Springfield, TN that was already late and needed to be in Atlanta at 7 pm at a Kroger grocery warehouse. I told them I could not make that appointment and they told me to do best I could. I drove up and got the load, took a hour to get there going back up through Nashville. Load of Ole Yeller dog food. They wanted to know when I could be there and I told them 8:30 pm. It was out on the southeast side of Atlanta and I had it figured too close, but I was going to run out of hours at 9 pm and had to get there or not get there at all. I had to stop and scale out the load and got held up 20 minutes because of a line at the fuel desk at the truck stop was lined out the door. Of all times...
I got there at the customer at 8:50 pm. That 20 minutes....even though I was late they got me in the gate in about 15 minutes. I guess they needed that dog food. Whole country is out of work, but the dogs, cats and fishes are eatin'.
Got lucky and found a spot out on the street to park after unloading to sleep. I had to go over east of Atlanta in the morning and pick up a load from General Mills going to another grocery warehouse in Elloree, SC that delivered that afternoon. Found a tire on my tractor that had a leak in it. I couldn't find a nail or anything but it was low for some reason. I got the load picked up by the appointment time and since I had some extra time I stopped at a TA truck stop to get the tire repaired. Well....it was not fixable...and no spare. They had to buy a tire and they weren't happy. Guy in breakdown had the gall to tell the man at the TA shop to go out and check my tractor and make sure I did not have a spare. That statement right there tells you how much respect a truck driver gets. Like I didn't know I didn't have a spare or not. I'm still a little hot about that one. I was standing next to the guy at the counter when he read the email from our breakdown department out loud.
I still don't have a spare and not making any extra trips out of the way to get one any time soon...
I needed a shower but by the time they got the ok on the tire and got it on the truck I had to go on to make delivery. The load had so many different types of canned goods on it that it took them 8 hours to unload, sort and count in the load. It was midnight by the time I was done, they let me sleep on the yard. I had told dispatch I had to get some sleep since I had been at the customer 8 hours and only needed 10 hours sitting to be actually legal to work another 14 hours, they wanted me to take another load right then. I had not slept good the last night so I said I had to get some sleep first and I could go at 6 am. Two hours after I laid down, they beeped me with a load offer that didn't pick up until noon that day and here it was 2 am. Dummy...
Was a load of, GUESS WHAT...dog food...going to Walmart in Cullman, AL. That was delivered at 5 am this morning and then picked up a load of plumbing supplies going to Lowes DC in Findlay, OH. Got until 8 am Monday to get there, so I'm sitting outside Louisville, KY until about 3:30 am Monday and then will drive on up there. It's not dog food though, them loads are heavy.
Friday, September 10, 2010
Land of OZ
Feel a little like Dorthy with the truck shaking and rattling, and hopefully not rolling, around. Heavy thunderstorm passing through. Up in the morning and back on the yellow brick road in Topeka, Kansas. Coming out of Denver where I had 3 drops on Thursday of air conditioners. All these things that Eric and Jamie are missing and loving in Saudia Arabia. Loving a/c's and missing the rain.
I had to wait until this morning to pick up my load in Golden, CO. I have a load of packaging from there going to Miller/Coors Brewing in Ohio. Got to package that stuff up after you brew and bottle it. Wasn't aware that Miller and Coors were attached, missed something somewhere. Or just forgot maybe.
The being sick as a dog, feel sorry for the dog that was that sick, it threw me out of routine getting ready to leave home. Found out the day after I had left that I had left my bag with my medications sitting in the kitchen. Bummer. I had to wait until I got dispatched in Denver to see which direction I was headed so I could get Pat to over night it for me. A risky move since I have had loads cancel on me before, and I had to wait overnight to pick up the load the next day. Seems to be working out though, she over nighted the meds to the Kansas City terminal and they are in there on Saturday morning from 8am to noon. I should get in there around 8am in the morning and get them picked up. Was a hard $52 to give up, but eating at Cotton Patch, well I ought to bill them for it.
I had to wait until this morning to pick up my load in Golden, CO. I have a load of packaging from there going to Miller/Coors Brewing in Ohio. Got to package that stuff up after you brew and bottle it. Wasn't aware that Miller and Coors were attached, missed something somewhere. Or just forgot maybe.
The being sick as a dog, feel sorry for the dog that was that sick, it threw me out of routine getting ready to leave home. Found out the day after I had left that I had left my bag with my medications sitting in the kitchen. Bummer. I had to wait until I got dispatched in Denver to see which direction I was headed so I could get Pat to over night it for me. A risky move since I have had loads cancel on me before, and I had to wait overnight to pick up the load the next day. Seems to be working out though, she over nighted the meds to the Kansas City terminal and they are in there on Saturday morning from 8am to noon. I should get in there around 8am in the morning and get them picked up. Was a hard $52 to give up, but eating at Cotton Patch, well I ought to bill them for it.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Still....
...among the living!!!
Been a little remiss, I reckon I'm keeping everyone guessing if anyone actually still reading it.
Had to get into our Dallas terminal this past week to renew my physical. I had wanted to go home on Monday so I would be back on the road by this past weekend. Don't care to be home on the holiday much since I can't get anything done. They didn't get me to the terminal until Wednesday, so I got my truck serviced while I was getting my physical done. I liked this doctor, he believed in the cattle chute method of physicals. Waited for over a hour to get in the office and wasn't in there 5 minutes.
I delivered the load I was under at 2 am Thursday morning and thought I would go home, but dispatch had other plans. They needed me to pick up a load that had been dropped on the yard and deliver in Houston late that night. That wasn't bad enough, but had a flat on the trailer had to fix before heading home and I didn't get there until 3 am Friday morning.
After about 5 hours sleep I got up and tried to straighten out the home computer. Come to find out the Norton anti virus had not done a full scan since it was installed after I left a month ago. Every time it tried to scan it would get up to a certain point and freeze the computer. Somewhere at the point where it was scanning for viruses. Got on chat with Norton and it ended up taking 14 hours. It was 3 am Saturday morning before I went to bed and it was still messed up. I had gone through 5 different techs, then a supervisor and lastly an engineer. They were all bald by the time I got off. Then engineer finally told me he would call me back in 24 to 48 hours. Well 72 hours came and went and so did I, had to go back to work, but not after getting back on chat and giving some poor tech what for. They can't speak English, they don't know what a time zone is, and they repeat the same play book every time you chat with one. "Rest assured we will solve your problem". Well they ain't done it yet. Today I got 2 different emails from a supervisor and I had told them to call Pat after 3 pm because she had a doctor appointment this morning, they called at 10 am.
Sunday I came down with a virus or food poisoning. I blew out the toilets in Kmart, Sam's Club and Walmart before made it back home to work on ours. I hadn't been that sick in years. Managed to go back out today with only half the things I normally take with me since cut my grocery shopping real short Sunday. Spent rest of day Sunday and most of Labor Day in bed.
Been a little remiss, I reckon I'm keeping everyone guessing if anyone actually still reading it.
Had to get into our Dallas terminal this past week to renew my physical. I had wanted to go home on Monday so I would be back on the road by this past weekend. Don't care to be home on the holiday much since I can't get anything done. They didn't get me to the terminal until Wednesday, so I got my truck serviced while I was getting my physical done. I liked this doctor, he believed in the cattle chute method of physicals. Waited for over a hour to get in the office and wasn't in there 5 minutes.
I delivered the load I was under at 2 am Thursday morning and thought I would go home, but dispatch had other plans. They needed me to pick up a load that had been dropped on the yard and deliver in Houston late that night. That wasn't bad enough, but had a flat on the trailer had to fix before heading home and I didn't get there until 3 am Friday morning.
After about 5 hours sleep I got up and tried to straighten out the home computer. Come to find out the Norton anti virus had not done a full scan since it was installed after I left a month ago. Every time it tried to scan it would get up to a certain point and freeze the computer. Somewhere at the point where it was scanning for viruses. Got on chat with Norton and it ended up taking 14 hours. It was 3 am Saturday morning before I went to bed and it was still messed up. I had gone through 5 different techs, then a supervisor and lastly an engineer. They were all bald by the time I got off. Then engineer finally told me he would call me back in 24 to 48 hours. Well 72 hours came and went and so did I, had to go back to work, but not after getting back on chat and giving some poor tech what for. They can't speak English, they don't know what a time zone is, and they repeat the same play book every time you chat with one. "Rest assured we will solve your problem". Well they ain't done it yet. Today I got 2 different emails from a supervisor and I had told them to call Pat after 3 pm because she had a doctor appointment this morning, they called at 10 am.
Sunday I came down with a virus or food poisoning. I blew out the toilets in Kmart, Sam's Club and Walmart before made it back home to work on ours. I hadn't been that sick in years. Managed to go back out today with only half the things I normally take with me since cut my grocery shopping real short Sunday. Spent rest of day Sunday and most of Labor Day in bed.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Colorado
I got into St. George, UT Sunday afternoon and it was 105 degrees. Won't be cutting back on my idling time that day. I delivered the first of 4 drops in St. George on Monday morning. I was carrying vinyl siding. When I first started carrying these loads out of Ennis, TX they were all loaded on the floor and it would sometimes take up to 8 hours to get unloaded. Now about 50% of the loads are on long 10' pallets that can be pulled off pretty quickly.
After unloading I drove up near Orem, UT and spent the night and I had 3 drops beginning Tuesday morning. Orem, West Jordan and Ogden. I had all 3 drops off in 4 hours. I was then offered a load going to Riverside, CA, and they then took it back about 5 min later. I guess they realized that my truck was not a California truck. California keeps passing laws about clean idling trucks and APU's (auxiliary power units, a small generator that runs on diesel and cools and heats your cab. It only uses a fraction of the fuel that idling your truck does). No one can keep up with them. You buy a rig all outfitted out so it will be legal in California, and 2 years later they change the law and make what you just spent $120,000 on obsolete. My company went out and started putting the APU's on all their trucks back in 2007, and within a year California said they weren't good enough and started fining trucks that were using them for cooling their cabs in the 100+ deg heat. Now the newer trucks have a battery system, but those will go dead in 8 to 10 hours and you have to idle the truck 3 hrs to recharge the batteries. Can't win.
They gave me a load from Ogden going to a drop in Parker, CO and final drop in Colorado Springs, CO. Would hope to see David when get in there, but being a work day and I deliver at 8:45 am, I will most likely be unloaded and on way to pick up another load before noon. Same thing happened last week when I went in to Springfield, MO where Merna lives. No time to stop long. Do better if can visit when I am passing through a town than when I deliver to one. We don't wait for the next load to come along very often.
After unloading I drove up near Orem, UT and spent the night and I had 3 drops beginning Tuesday morning. Orem, West Jordan and Ogden. I had all 3 drops off in 4 hours. I was then offered a load going to Riverside, CA, and they then took it back about 5 min later. I guess they realized that my truck was not a California truck. California keeps passing laws about clean idling trucks and APU's (auxiliary power units, a small generator that runs on diesel and cools and heats your cab. It only uses a fraction of the fuel that idling your truck does). No one can keep up with them. You buy a rig all outfitted out so it will be legal in California, and 2 years later they change the law and make what you just spent $120,000 on obsolete. My company went out and started putting the APU's on all their trucks back in 2007, and within a year California said they weren't good enough and started fining trucks that were using them for cooling their cabs in the 100+ deg heat. Now the newer trucks have a battery system, but those will go dead in 8 to 10 hours and you have to idle the truck 3 hrs to recharge the batteries. Can't win.
They gave me a load from Ogden going to a drop in Parker, CO and final drop in Colorado Springs, CO. Would hope to see David when get in there, but being a work day and I deliver at 8:45 am, I will most likely be unloaded and on way to pick up another load before noon. Same thing happened last week when I went in to Springfield, MO where Merna lives. No time to stop long. Do better if can visit when I am passing through a town than when I deliver to one. We don't wait for the next load to come along very often.
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Update
Been a little busy over last two weeks. I got home and had nothing but doctor appointments. I had to travel to Houston on Tuesday to have a CAT Scan of my ear. I had one last year and discovered the ear canal on my right ear had started closing up again. The doctor wanted another this year to compare the pictures.
Had a visit to my family doctor on Wednesday, hadn't seen him since last year and he figured I better show up before he rewrote my prescriptions again. Then back to Houston on Thursday to see the ENT. He was pleased in the fact that the pictures were the same as last year, so it wasn't any worse. Still don't hear very good out of it though. Nothing much to be done, going through that surgery again would not be much fun.
I spent rest of the day Thursday and most of Friday trying to install Windows 7 on the home computer to upgrade it from Vista. It upgraded fine and did some installs on new drivers. Had 31 updates from Windows that downloaded. Then shut it down and went to bed Thursday night. Got up Friday morning and computer wouldn't boot up at all. Just sat there and beeped at me. Got on line chat with HP tech and after a bit he told me the Windows 7 needed minimum of 1 GB RAM to boot properly. So off to town to get a 2 GB RAM to stick in the computer. Plugged it in and still didn't work. I had to go back to work so like the sucker I am, let Pat call Geek Squad to come out and get it started. They said on the phone would be $130 to come out and get it going. He came out on the following Wednesday and since I had pulled out the 2 GB RAM with the intention of taking it back, he stuck it in the computer, started it up and then informed Pat that since he had installed hardware it would be another $20 charge on top of the $130. So tax and all he got $160 left and the computer froze up. Every time Pat turned it on it froze up again. Got Pat to call Microsoft and they ran through a custom install, lost the programs but got it started up. Complained to Best Buy and Pat got a $20 gift card since no one informed us they were going to charge extra for the 2 second installation of the RAM chip until after he installed it. Then I spent a couple of hours on the phone with Pat last night talking her through reinstalling anti virus and a driver for the printer and now, finally, the computer is up and running with Windows 7 on it. For all I spent upgrading it, I could have added $100 and bought a new tower that had Windows 7 already on it.
I left out on Saturday going back to work. Got a load out of Tyler going to Knoxville, TN and got to stop by and visit Mom at Charlie's. Got fed.
Delivered on Monday and they surprised me by sending me all the way to Kennesaw, GA to pick up a load to deliver Tuesday night to a grocery warehouse in Brookhaven, MS. I made it to Meridian that Monday evening with the load. I got up early and drove on over to Brookhaven. I did not deliver until 11pm Tuesday night so I had to set all day. Another one of those time where I lay down in the afternoon and try to nap before a late night delivery. Never works and didn't work that day either. It took them saps until 5:30 am to get me unloaded.
They sent me over to Monticello, MS about 20 miles away to pick up a load at Georgia Pacific going to Springfield, MO. I drove up to Harrison, AR in the northwestern corner before shutting down for the night. I was up 38 hours before finally getting some sleep. Don't like doing that, but since I can't take naps in the daytime, it happens every time I get a late night delivery.
I delivered the load in Springfield the next morning and was sent up to Meta, MO to pick up a load of dog food going to Tractor Supply warehouse in Waco, TX. Meta, MO is just south of Jefferson City, MO and there is no easy way to get there in a truck. Forty miles of very narrow curvy Missouri roads.
I delivered the load in Waco Friday afternoon and then got a real good load. I was sent over to Ennis, TX to pick up a load of vinyl siding going to Utah with 4 drops. The first on in St. George, UT. This is at the very southern tip of Utah and I had to drive over to Flagstaff, AZ and north on US-89 up to Page, AZ where I crossed over Lake Powell. Beautiful area that I had never seen before. Not much green, but a lot of red and grey rock. This is the heart of the Navajo Nation. There are roadside stands every 10 miles or so where they sell their wares.
Taking a lot of pictures, which I do more of when I see new things. Will post these in a few days.
Had a visit to my family doctor on Wednesday, hadn't seen him since last year and he figured I better show up before he rewrote my prescriptions again. Then back to Houston on Thursday to see the ENT. He was pleased in the fact that the pictures were the same as last year, so it wasn't any worse. Still don't hear very good out of it though. Nothing much to be done, going through that surgery again would not be much fun.
I spent rest of the day Thursday and most of Friday trying to install Windows 7 on the home computer to upgrade it from Vista. It upgraded fine and did some installs on new drivers. Had 31 updates from Windows that downloaded. Then shut it down and went to bed Thursday night. Got up Friday morning and computer wouldn't boot up at all. Just sat there and beeped at me. Got on line chat with HP tech and after a bit he told me the Windows 7 needed minimum of 1 GB RAM to boot properly. So off to town to get a 2 GB RAM to stick in the computer. Plugged it in and still didn't work. I had to go back to work so like the sucker I am, let Pat call Geek Squad to come out and get it started. They said on the phone would be $130 to come out and get it going. He came out on the following Wednesday and since I had pulled out the 2 GB RAM with the intention of taking it back, he stuck it in the computer, started it up and then informed Pat that since he had installed hardware it would be another $20 charge on top of the $130. So tax and all he got $160 left and the computer froze up. Every time Pat turned it on it froze up again. Got Pat to call Microsoft and they ran through a custom install, lost the programs but got it started up. Complained to Best Buy and Pat got a $20 gift card since no one informed us they were going to charge extra for the 2 second installation of the RAM chip until after he installed it. Then I spent a couple of hours on the phone with Pat last night talking her through reinstalling anti virus and a driver for the printer and now, finally, the computer is up and running with Windows 7 on it. For all I spent upgrading it, I could have added $100 and bought a new tower that had Windows 7 already on it.
I left out on Saturday going back to work. Got a load out of Tyler going to Knoxville, TN and got to stop by and visit Mom at Charlie's. Got fed.
Delivered on Monday and they surprised me by sending me all the way to Kennesaw, GA to pick up a load to deliver Tuesday night to a grocery warehouse in Brookhaven, MS. I made it to Meridian that Monday evening with the load. I got up early and drove on over to Brookhaven. I did not deliver until 11pm Tuesday night so I had to set all day. Another one of those time where I lay down in the afternoon and try to nap before a late night delivery. Never works and didn't work that day either. It took them saps until 5:30 am to get me unloaded.
They sent me over to Monticello, MS about 20 miles away to pick up a load at Georgia Pacific going to Springfield, MO. I drove up to Harrison, AR in the northwestern corner before shutting down for the night. I was up 38 hours before finally getting some sleep. Don't like doing that, but since I can't take naps in the daytime, it happens every time I get a late night delivery.
I delivered the load in Springfield the next morning and was sent up to Meta, MO to pick up a load of dog food going to Tractor Supply warehouse in Waco, TX. Meta, MO is just south of Jefferson City, MO and there is no easy way to get there in a truck. Forty miles of very narrow curvy Missouri roads.
I delivered the load in Waco Friday afternoon and then got a real good load. I was sent over to Ennis, TX to pick up a load of vinyl siding going to Utah with 4 drops. The first on in St. George, UT. This is at the very southern tip of Utah and I had to drive over to Flagstaff, AZ and north on US-89 up to Page, AZ where I crossed over Lake Powell. Beautiful area that I had never seen before. Not much green, but a lot of red and grey rock. This is the heart of the Navajo Nation. There are roadside stands every 10 miles or so where they sell their wares.
Taking a lot of pictures, which I do more of when I see new things. Will post these in a few days.
Monday, August 9, 2010
Something to Ponder
THE ANT AND THE GRASSHOPPER
This one is a little different… Two Different Versions... Two Different Morals!
OLD VERSION
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.
The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.
Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.
MORAL OF THE OLD STORY:
Be responsible for yourself!
MODERN VERSION
The ant works hard in the withering heat and the rain all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant
is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.
Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while he is cold and starving.
CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN, and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled
with food. America is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?
Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper and everybody cries when they sing, 'It's Not Easy Being Green...'
ACORN stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house where the news stations film the group singing, “We shall overcome.” Then Rev. Jeremiah Wright has the group kneel down to pray for the grasshopper's sake.
President Obama condemns the ant and blames President Bush, President Reagan, Christopher Columbus, and the Pope for the grasshopper's plight.
Nancy Pelosi & Harry Reid exclaim in an interview with Larry King that the ant
has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and both call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair share.
Finally, the EEOC drafts the Economic Equity & Anti-Grasshopper Act retroactive to the beginning of the summer. The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the Government Green Czar
and given to the grasshopper.
The story ends as we see the grasshopper and his free-loading friends finishing up the last bits of the ant’s food while the government house he is in, which, as you recall, just happens to be the ant's old house, crumbles around them because the grasshopper doesn't maintain it.
The ant has disappeared in the snow, never to be seen again. The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident, and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the ramshackle, once prosperous and peaceful, neighborhood.
The entire Nation collapses bringing the rest of the free world with it.
MORAL OF THE STORY:
Be careful how you vote in 2010.
This one is a little different… Two Different Versions... Two Different Morals!
OLD VERSION
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.
The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.
Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.
MORAL OF THE OLD STORY:
Be responsible for yourself!
MODERN VERSION
The ant works hard in the withering heat and the rain all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant
is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.
Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while he is cold and starving.
CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN, and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled
with food. America is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?
Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper and everybody cries when they sing, 'It's Not Easy Being Green...'
ACORN stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house where the news stations film the group singing, “We shall overcome.” Then Rev. Jeremiah Wright has the group kneel down to pray for the grasshopper's sake.
President Obama condemns the ant and blames President Bush, President Reagan, Christopher Columbus, and the Pope for the grasshopper's plight.
Nancy Pelosi & Harry Reid exclaim in an interview with Larry King that the ant
has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and both call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair share.
Finally, the EEOC drafts the Economic Equity & Anti-Grasshopper Act retroactive to the beginning of the summer. The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the Government Green Czar
and given to the grasshopper.
The story ends as we see the grasshopper and his free-loading friends finishing up the last bits of the ant’s food while the government house he is in, which, as you recall, just happens to be the ant's old house, crumbles around them because the grasshopper doesn't maintain it.
The ant has disappeared in the snow, never to be seen again. The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident, and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the ramshackle, once prosperous and peaceful, neighborhood.
The entire Nation collapses bringing the rest of the free world with it.
MORAL OF THE STORY:
Be careful how you vote in 2010.
Saturday, July 31, 2010
This Week
Been busy. After Metairie, LA I picked up a load of imported coffee going to Cincinnati, OH. From Cincinnati picked up a load of plastic bottles going to Harrisonville, MO just south of Kansas City, MO.
Then got stuck, they had loads that would get me home for home time, but I didn't have the hours to get them delivered by the appointment time. Ended up getting a load (after being offered 3 different loads I couldn't deliver) that picked up after midnight Friday night going to Houston. Doesn't deliver until Monday so a lot of time wasted. Wouldn't have been so picky but have a CAT Scan on my ear that follows one I had last year for a comparison. Had to get in by Monday in order to drive back to Houston to get it done on Tuesday morning. Ended up losing money this week by not moving much over 4 days.
Ever now and then I get low on fuel on these trips. Everything is done by computer when you get your load assignment. When you report in that you are empty you also let them know how much fuel you have. Their Fuel Solution computer system assigns you fuel stops along the way on your next load. The computer is a little ignorant when it comes to head winds, or heavy loads and mountains though. Sometimes I have to call my home terminal and request an extra fuel stop. It is imperative that you stay on top of your fuel mileage and know how much you are burning. I have become pretty accurate with it over the years.
I have a digital reading on the dash that gives your miles per gallon read out, which is an estimate that is rarely right on the money but at least within 5 gallons or so usually. The fuel gauge is all but useless. It does OK until it hits a 1/4 of a tank. Then the orange warning light comes on and the gauge drops like a rock down to the "E" within a hundred miles. This gets a little disconcerting to say the least. The digital readout saying you have used approximately 140 gallons and the gauge says much more. I have two 100 gallon tanks on the truck. You can only get 95 gallons maximum in each tank, then as a rule you can only pick up all but about 10 gallons out of each tank. So that is 170 gallons of usable fuel. I have run down to 160 gallons once. Didn't like the feeling much since the gauge had been sitting on "E" for almost 200 miles. Normally I never let myself use more than 150 gallons without getting fuel somewhere. I think I did that one just to check and see if I could have a heart attack. Didn't work.
Then got stuck, they had loads that would get me home for home time, but I didn't have the hours to get them delivered by the appointment time. Ended up getting a load (after being offered 3 different loads I couldn't deliver) that picked up after midnight Friday night going to Houston. Doesn't deliver until Monday so a lot of time wasted. Wouldn't have been so picky but have a CAT Scan on my ear that follows one I had last year for a comparison. Had to get in by Monday in order to drive back to Houston to get it done on Tuesday morning. Ended up losing money this week by not moving much over 4 days.
Ever now and then I get low on fuel on these trips. Everything is done by computer when you get your load assignment. When you report in that you are empty you also let them know how much fuel you have. Their Fuel Solution computer system assigns you fuel stops along the way on your next load. The computer is a little ignorant when it comes to head winds, or heavy loads and mountains though. Sometimes I have to call my home terminal and request an extra fuel stop. It is imperative that you stay on top of your fuel mileage and know how much you are burning. I have become pretty accurate with it over the years.
I have a digital reading on the dash that gives your miles per gallon read out, which is an estimate that is rarely right on the money but at least within 5 gallons or so usually. The fuel gauge is all but useless. It does OK until it hits a 1/4 of a tank. Then the orange warning light comes on and the gauge drops like a rock down to the "E" within a hundred miles. This gets a little disconcerting to say the least. The digital readout saying you have used approximately 140 gallons and the gauge says much more. I have two 100 gallon tanks on the truck. You can only get 95 gallons maximum in each tank, then as a rule you can only pick up all but about 10 gallons out of each tank. So that is 170 gallons of usable fuel. I have run down to 160 gallons once. Didn't like the feeling much since the gauge had been sitting on "E" for almost 200 miles. Normally I never let myself use more than 150 gallons without getting fuel somewhere. I think I did that one just to check and see if I could have a heart attack. Didn't work.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Weekly report
About all I get to now adays...
Delivered over in Alsip, IL, then loaded just north of there at Northlake, IL going to Menomonie, WI for the next day. They sent me from there over to Green Bay, WI to pick up a load from Georgia Pacific going to a grocery warehouse in Monroe, MI on south side of Detroit. It delivered at 1 am Thursday morning. Love those.
There was a truck stop 3 blocks from the warehouse so I was able to get in there in the morning and park and try to sleep before delivery. Got lucky and got 4 or 5 hours before getting up. It took them 3 hours to get me unloaded, wasn't busy they were just slow. From there I drove down to Lima, OH to pick up a load from Procter and Gamble going to Procter and Gamble in Pineville, LA. This load was supposed to be ready at 8 am when I got there, but they had problems and it was 1pm before I finally got the load. That was fun since I had been up since midnight. I got down to Louisville, KY though and went straight to bed. Got up early as soon as my 10 hour break was up and drove hard down to Brookhaven, MS. I needed to get as far as fast as I could because it had to be delivered before 4am on Saturday morning. The 5 hour delay getting the load messed me up on being able to take my time.
Getting up at midnight Friday night, I made it into Pineville with about 30 minutes to spare. They loaded me out of the same plant going to Cleburne, TX on the south side of Ft Worth and it had to be delivered same day. So had to hot foot it over there. Wasn't hard drive since I did get a good night's rest before hand for a change. Once I dropped the load at Walmart, I drove a mile away and picked up a load of insulation from Johns Manville going to Metairie, LA for Monday morning. Stopping at the terminal south of Dallas and waiting to get my truck serviced this afternoon. Hopefully....
If they get me in tonight then I will drive on down to Metairie tomorrow and park until Monday morning.
Delivered over in Alsip, IL, then loaded just north of there at Northlake, IL going to Menomonie, WI for the next day. They sent me from there over to Green Bay, WI to pick up a load from Georgia Pacific going to a grocery warehouse in Monroe, MI on south side of Detroit. It delivered at 1 am Thursday morning. Love those.
There was a truck stop 3 blocks from the warehouse so I was able to get in there in the morning and park and try to sleep before delivery. Got lucky and got 4 or 5 hours before getting up. It took them 3 hours to get me unloaded, wasn't busy they were just slow. From there I drove down to Lima, OH to pick up a load from Procter and Gamble going to Procter and Gamble in Pineville, LA. This load was supposed to be ready at 8 am when I got there, but they had problems and it was 1pm before I finally got the load. That was fun since I had been up since midnight. I got down to Louisville, KY though and went straight to bed. Got up early as soon as my 10 hour break was up and drove hard down to Brookhaven, MS. I needed to get as far as fast as I could because it had to be delivered before 4am on Saturday morning. The 5 hour delay getting the load messed me up on being able to take my time.
Getting up at midnight Friday night, I made it into Pineville with about 30 minutes to spare. They loaded me out of the same plant going to Cleburne, TX on the south side of Ft Worth and it had to be delivered same day. So had to hot foot it over there. Wasn't hard drive since I did get a good night's rest before hand for a change. Once I dropped the load at Walmart, I drove a mile away and picked up a load of insulation from Johns Manville going to Metairie, LA for Monday morning. Stopping at the terminal south of Dallas and waiting to get my truck serviced this afternoon. Hopefully....
If they get me in tonight then I will drive on down to Metairie tomorrow and park until Monday morning.
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Up the Pipe
I delivered to General Mills and then got another load out of the General Mills warehouse 15 miles east of there going up to Indian Trails, NC to a grocery warehouse there. I delivered it at 6 pm the next afternoon. Liked this grocery warehouse, they had me in and unloaded in 30 minutes. No lumper to mess with, just did their job. Wow, an anomaly.
Once unloaded they gave me a load sitting on their drop lot in Greensboro, NC 110 miles away that needed to deliver to York, PA asap. I still had to take a break before delivering it, so I only got up into southern Virginia before I went ahead and took a break. I was only picking up 5 hours to work with at midnight and only had 4 hours left for that day, so I couldn't work more than 9 hours total over 2 days anyway.
Friday morning I got up and drove back road up to Richmond, VA and jumped on I-95 going up to north of Baltimore. I call it the "pipe", running up 95 through Richmond, DC and Baltimore all in about 3 or 4 hours. Depends on severity of traffic. Going into DC there was a 30 mile backup going south, glad I was going north. It was only noon on Friday, where all them people were going was beyond me. Got around DC and headed up the 30 miles to Baltimore and there was an accident on the south side and another 4 mile backup, glad I was going north.
Made it up to York about 2:30 pm and dropped the load and was finally given one out of the Church & Dwight facility that I had just dropped in going to the Chicago area. My directions said it was not supposed to be ready until 9 am on Saturday which means I had to leave and there was no place for me to park for 30 miles. On a hunch I stopped by shipping office and found out they had just finished loading the load and it was ready to go. She had just brought in the paperwork for it, or dead tree. There were over 50 pages in the bill of lading. There were that many different products on the truck and it had 7 different P.O.'s.
I got out of there with it and it allowed me to get about a 140 miles up the road. I shut down for a day so I could restart my hours, and will get up Sunday morning and drive the 540 miles over to Gary, IN, and have a fresh start for the delivery on Monday morning.
Once unloaded they gave me a load sitting on their drop lot in Greensboro, NC 110 miles away that needed to deliver to York, PA asap. I still had to take a break before delivering it, so I only got up into southern Virginia before I went ahead and took a break. I was only picking up 5 hours to work with at midnight and only had 4 hours left for that day, so I couldn't work more than 9 hours total over 2 days anyway.
Friday morning I got up and drove back road up to Richmond, VA and jumped on I-95 going up to north of Baltimore. I call it the "pipe", running up 95 through Richmond, DC and Baltimore all in about 3 or 4 hours. Depends on severity of traffic. Going into DC there was a 30 mile backup going south, glad I was going north. It was only noon on Friday, where all them people were going was beyond me. Got around DC and headed up the 30 miles to Baltimore and there was an accident on the south side and another 4 mile backup, glad I was going north.
Made it up to York about 2:30 pm and dropped the load and was finally given one out of the Church & Dwight facility that I had just dropped in going to the Chicago area. My directions said it was not supposed to be ready until 9 am on Saturday which means I had to leave and there was no place for me to park for 30 miles. On a hunch I stopped by shipping office and found out they had just finished loading the load and it was ready to go. She had just brought in the paperwork for it, or dead tree. There were over 50 pages in the bill of lading. There were that many different products on the truck and it had 7 different P.O.'s.
I got out of there with it and it allowed me to get about a 140 miles up the road. I shut down for a day so I could restart my hours, and will get up Sunday morning and drive the 540 miles over to Gary, IN, and have a fresh start for the delivery on Monday morning.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Hoosier State
I spent the night at the Indianapolis terminal last night because I had an annual review that had to be filled out, along with watching a safety film. Took me a little extra time, but I only had 160 miles to go for my delivery and my load information said I could deliver up to 1 pm.
I got about half way up to Nappanee, IN and I stopped to call the customer to get directions since this was a new one. Should have called the day before, turns out that they stop receiving at noon instead of 1 pm. So I had to push it harder and I got there with about 15 minutes to spare.
Leaving Atlanta it was in the 90's and just hot. When I got up to northern Indiana it was rainy and 68 degrees. Kinda nice. Going north to south helps the spirits sometimes on the heat and humidity. Of course it works in reverse in the winter time.
After unloading my load of insulation at the mobile home manufacturer, I ran 40 miles east to Kendallville, IN to pick up a pre loaded trailer going to Covington, GA. Yep back to Atlanta. Can't get them loads like that in the winter time. The trailer only had 5 pallets of packaging on it going to General Mills. Cereal boxes I believe. I will deliver this one at 3 am Thursday morning.
I got about half way up to Nappanee, IN and I stopped to call the customer to get directions since this was a new one. Should have called the day before, turns out that they stop receiving at noon instead of 1 pm. So I had to push it harder and I got there with about 15 minutes to spare.
Leaving Atlanta it was in the 90's and just hot. When I got up to northern Indiana it was rainy and 68 degrees. Kinda nice. Going north to south helps the spirits sometimes on the heat and humidity. Of course it works in reverse in the winter time.
After unloading my load of insulation at the mobile home manufacturer, I ran 40 miles east to Kendallville, IN to pick up a pre loaded trailer going to Covington, GA. Yep back to Atlanta. Can't get them loads like that in the winter time. The trailer only had 5 pallets of packaging on it going to General Mills. Cereal boxes I believe. I will deliver this one at 3 am Thursday morning.
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