PhotoCredit: Christopher Klein

Hey, I remember that company! That is a beat up Organix Recylcing truck sitting in a CAT scale. Of course, I had to text David Lyons and he was just amazed that one of his drivers was actually scaling a truck. From his tone, I have a feeling they have been having some problems. But you know what? Not my problem. I did let him know that when he is ready, he can come drive for Variant. Snicker.

The New Month has come

The new month is here, and I am hoping that the rest of the month goes just like today. I started out very early, around 200am and just rolled north. The route really sucked, but it was okay because there weren't any other drivers on a Sunday morning before dawn. It was a run up I-75 through Oklahoma and onto 69 into Kansas. I took a small break in Big Cabin OK and then headed into St. Joseph MO where I deliver tomorrow morning at 900am. I was shut down by about 100pm and got a small meal, a nap, and then a shower. The evening was playing catch-up on stuff and a bigger meal of a Tuna melt. I am running very low on food at this point, but I am less than two weeks from home and will work things out.

Taking it light

I was going to do a nice rant, a memory, and a Colorado addition, but I am choosing to keep day one nice and light and save the drama and heavy thinking for later in the week. I am running low on time at this point and will probably be dropping into a 34-hour break here shortly. I will save the drama for then, and spend the rest of the night watching a movie and relaxing. Good plan!

I think that I may have burned out just a little bit over the frustration of the past couple of days. I went to bed last night at 900pm and did not wake up until 530am today. That is unusual. I usually wake up at least once or twice from the sounds around me, be it other engines or the DClimate popping on. But not once that I remember. I do remember having an uncomfortable dream, but I was able to take it Lucid, though it took a few tries. I could manipulate it, but it would go back to the original theme. I don't remember what it was about, but I do remember that it could not be symbolic because it was well outside my wheelhouse.

Just another work day

All things considered, it was a decent day at work. I was at the JnJ controls dock about 45 minutes ahead of schedule, and they got me into the dock within minutes of my appointment. Then I headed 80 miles down the road to Clorox in Spring Hills KS. and picked up a loaded trailer. I was really running tired, so I cut my day short and shut down in the Pilot in Higgenstown MO. I really dislike setting down in pilots, mostly because of their policies and practices, but this was one of those "Any port in a storm" deals. I needed a break. I also picked up a new mentee, William. He called me after I was asleep and I missed his call. I left him a message and hope he got his problem resolved.

Another night with eight hours sleep. And I still feel as if I could use more. It is not lethargia, it is simply being tired. Weird I tell you. But I was up and in motion within 30 minutes of when I could drive, so there is that.

The Journey of the Journey

I am doing the mid-US state hop. At the start of my trip, I was in Missouri, and traveled through IN, across IL and into Ohio. I was originally going to set down in the Springfield OH terminal, but chose against that and set down in the Love's down the street. I was just not in the mood for being sidetracked. So it was a set-down and then a round-robin before sleep. Tomorrow, I should be in Bordentown NJ, right around the corner from my drop with a few hours to spare. I am pushing up against my 70-Hours at this point. I have just enough to make it into Bordentown and then I am out until midnight. Granted, I pick up like 12 then, but I really don't want to get stuck in NJ for my break.

I am pretty sure that I have not gotten to venture into New Jersey since I started driving a truck, and had a nice time. This time is no different. I rolled hard, and made it into Bordentown about 18 hours ahead of when I was scheduled to drop tomorrow morning. I set down in the Bordentown Love's, which is really the only game in town, other than the Petro around the corner, but that is an all-pay site. There are a few little mom and pop places, but that is like herding cats. Not really an option. I got in early enought that there was plenty of parking in the small lot, and they are done with the construction, but it is still a bit nasty. No worries, I stay in the truck anyway.

The Saga progresses

I talked to Kaitlan and we had a plan. I would sit on my butt for half a day and go into BJ's first thing in the morning. My thinking was that since I don't see a lot of BJ loads, there may not be a trailer there, and the day team could find me one. So, a nice meal, including some Baconator Fries from Wendy's, some noodles, hamburgers and corn, and then I watched one of my "on the drive" shows. I don't even remember which one. And then DriverTech went off. Sigh. Operations asking my ETA to the drop. I explained the plan, and my hours of service. But they preferred a "just after midnight" drop. So be it. Will that go well? I am betting not. But we will find out tomorrow. So off to sleep for me. Seen hours, well rested, and we shall see what Thursday brings. I am rolling recaps, so I can't really afford any boo boos right now.

I wanted to roll at dawn. I was asked to roll at midnight. I got to BJ's and, as anticipated, there was not an empty trailer. There was ONE USX trailer on the lot with a metal, rusted seal, but that was it. I was still dispatched over to Barnes and Nobel, and when I got there, limited hours of operation. They had an after hours number. No answer. No response from Operations by Fresh chat or through the USX app. I am a bit annoyed.

The resolution

The answer to this was that I sat on my bum until dawn. Then I headed into Barnes and Nobel for an easy pickup. I did not have a trailer, and the guard was rude as all hell. Really irked me off. He told me "You need to learn to not speak when your betters are speaking", As well as a few other odd things. I actually kept my tounge and did not react. I am pretty impressed with myself.

The rest of the day

So, it turned into a trashfire of a run at this point. I have until Saturday morning at 900am to get to St. Louis. If I had not lost that three hours, that is highly doable, but because I did, I am going to be pushing things to the limits. But it did give me time to talk to Tracy and Darius, sot hat is all good. The boy is doing well, and Gamer's Heaven is a big success. They are doing a convention at the Orlando Convention center next week, and their logistics answer fell through. I gave them a few pointers and we discussed some trival stuff and all. I am so proud of the kiddos. They are all doing well.

The sleeping muse

I have not really had any time for anything other than work and sleep, so even though I keep a creative work up at all times, I have not had time to do any of them. But with this roll into St. Louis, and a probable shutdown at that point, I will get back to it. I have another short story about ready to be added to the collection and another chapter of the political book on my voice recorder. Fun times.

The coming day

I am set down right near the Pennsylvania State line heading toward St. Louis. Just before midnight, I am headed out, trying to do 630 miles in a single shift through two or three major cities. That should be interesting. If I manage to pull this off, I will be out of 70 and that will be that. Setting down in St. Louis is not my favorite thought, but it is what it is. So I will take it. I hope to be able to reset the old brainpan and be ready to get my hometime run in place. It is almost that time. Just eight more days to go.

Take that, reverse it, ala Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. If you don't know what I am talking about, your childhood probably was not really filled with the amazing adventures of those icons such as Gene Wilder. You should fix that. But so, little time, so much to do is much more appropriate. And as you can tell by this introduction, I am going to go on and on and one, so brace yourself.

The hard run cometh

I knew that this was going to be tight. Spoiler, I made it. But not without a bit of anticipation. I headed out at midnight, with 640 miles to go. That is a tight run, but with no problems, it can be done. The first problem was I hit a beaver just East of Cinncinati. I caught it with the low bumper on the front of the truck just outside a rest area, so I stopped and checked the truck. Just to make sure there were not beaver parts in the engine. Looks like I only grazed him with the low hanging bumber, because after I checked the truck, I looked back and saw him shambling down the road. Good things happen, no dead beaver, and I did not catch him with the tires. I got back into the cab and my phone was ringing. Josh from planning called for an update. I let him know it was tight but doable. He started looking for a repower while I continued down the road. The thought was with NO traffic issues, I had an 18 minute window. As soon as I hit Sin-city, problem number one. The highway is closed with a suggestion to "Take alternate routes". But the detour was not well marked. I used my Google maps to get around it, but that would take me 90 miles out of the way. With reluctance, I started that way and would update Operations once I cleared the detour. DriverTech did something RIGHT this time, it re-routed me to a disused truck route and that 90 mile detour turned into about 12 miles. Still very tight. Then another detour near St. Louis. Oye! I made up enough time, I am not sure how, that I managed both detours and hit the receiver with about 40 minutes to spare. I have been to this place before. They were quick and easy and even had an empty for me. I got dropped, hooked and over to the Loves just North of St. Louis with 10 minutes to spare. Fun times.

De-Stress

I shut down, did post-trip and then made my fish with garlic noodles and mushrooms before I decided to use the rest of the day to just relax. I listened to some music, then went to sleep. Tomorrow is another day.

If you have been keeping up, you know that I am down in a 34-hour break, just North of St. Louis MO. I used most of the day yesterday as downtime and then went to sleep early. I was exhausted. But I jumped right in at 2:00am this morning. I woke up, was not really tired, so I plowed into the morning. I did my Yoga and my exercise for about three hours, then got a nice hot shower. I went back and forth on getting a Baconator Breakfast sandwich from Wendy's but they were closed due to staffing issues, so there was my answer. Then I spent the day rocking through my to-do list.

Musing the Muse

What the hell does that mean? It means that have been doing a lot of reading for the past couple of years, and I have noticed a pattern. My favorite authors are mostly evolutionary. You only learn this if you read their novels in chronological order. But it came to me as I was reading my latest Karin Slaughter novel. She has the same issue with writer evolution that I found in Laurel K. Hamilton. She started out as a strong writer with serious and well-written plot lines, and evolved into a Harlequin-esk smut dealer. Granted, I don't have any problems with smut, at least as supporting to the plot. But when the entire book becomes smut, with the plot there just so the main character can get a little summfin-summfin on every other page, it takes away from the entire experience. But to expand on this, Stephen King evolves, going deeper and deeper from thriller to shock value, with each later novel attempting to dig deeper into the negative aspects of the psyche. I even considered Asimov and the same thing is true. In his case, it was digging out the skeleton of the failed society in the face of automation and technology. So today, I promised myself that will not happen to me. I am not competing with myself.

The status of Ancient

I am more than 50% done with the rework of Ancient Pathway. It is going a lot faster than I anticipated. I am looking forward to completing the project. I did speak to Kat from Arizona Global, and they are expecting the final payment for my previous class, so I will be back in school at the end of the month. That may slow things down a bit. Plus I am going to have 3 days of hometime here in less than a week. I don't do any of Ancient while at home.

The State of the Day

I chose to take the entire day to work on creative projects. The biggest one was reworking, or at least starting to rework, the Treemom Herbology database for the website. That was one hell of an undertaking, so I rolled "The Bureau of Magical things" on Netflix to the Roku. Interesting day for me and as I put it to the wife, it makes me a pod-person.

I feel relaxed and accomplished. I was up nice and early and had time to get my Yoga and exercise out of the way. I am very hungry, but that is going to be a state for the next few days. I have to ration my food and do the fast-food thing for about six days. Not really loving in, sorry McD's. But I am in good spirits about it.

The day begins

I am always pensive about coming off of break, but I am usually sitting bobtail in some little Love's somewhere in the American Heartland. This time, I had a trailer and I was near a major city, St. Louis. So, this is a beer run for Busch. The appointment was 0800am this morning and only 20 miles away. But I know Busch. I was ready for problems with getting into a dock, appointements being messed up, weight being a problem. I was ready for it all. Better to be prepared...right? Well, none of that happened. I pulled into the St. Louis site, pulled onto the empty scale, and was assigned a door. They had me loaded in an hour, I got everything strapped down and pulled onto the outgoing scale. I was heavy but legal. The trailer was out of balance, but I know my stuff. I agreed to take it and adjusted the tandems off-site. Now, here is the fun part. I had only about 1200 pounds to play with and I was 1500 pounds over. I adjusted and moved to the Love's 30 miles away. Hit it the first pass and all was good. Time to get down the road. I have until Tuesday morning to get to North Carolina, so I shut down in Oak Grove KY. I had a bit of a headache, so I at my last two hamburgers and headed off to sleep.

Weird dreams

My dreams have been getting stranger and stranger. But they are lucid and non-symbolic, so we will chalk it up to just weirdness. And to think of it, it may be that I am concentrating a lot on my short stories for the collection. I want to get between 300 and 400 pages of shorts, so maybe the old brain is saying "HERE!". I have noticed that a lot of my ideas are leaning toward the Fay. Interesting since that was not one of my Genre until recentlly. Hmmm.

Back to normal

Right now, I am running out the week. I want to get back to taking pictures, being in school, having a routine. But that may have to wait until after this week, and home-time. I am feeling like I am pushing toward home right now. I need it. It will be nice to see the wife, the kids, and the cats. And get my medical card updated of course. But no time to worry about that now. On down the road.

So I started out in Oak Grove KY and Ended up in Dillon, SC. I was a bit out of route because this load is heavy and there were a lot of backroads and hills, so I used a lot more fuel than usual. I looked down and was under a quarter of a tank heading to the Atlantic Coast in North Carolina. Not a good thing. But I dipped down South a bit and fueled and then set down in Love's in Dillon. Not a terribel place and was able to get a very expensive salad. I added my brats to that and had a nice meal. That is always a good thing.

An overdue set of rants

I have been running so hard and working on other things and I just have not had time to sit down and scream and yell at the world. So I will take care of that today, because the world has gone nuts, and I really don't think that anyone is paying attention. But before that, I am almost to home-time, and I think that I am ready for a few days off. My dreams are getting weirder and weirder. This past sleep session was Mrs. Clause, skater boys, the tree of life, little animated mushroom creatures with sentience. It was disturbing. And I could not go lucid with it. I identified it as a dream about the time the skater boys entered the picture, but I could not grab hold of it. Weird.

" "

PhotoCredit: Christopher Klein

Look, Photos

I was able to grab these with my phone while I was in a dock at Adams Beverages in Wilmington NC. They caught my eye. The left one, is growth against the odds, and the right one is simple perspective. I think tossing the rails into Black and White worked well. I did not like it in color.

A bit better this month

Ten days into the month and I have really been keeping up with the blog. I am a bit disappointed that I have not had time to do pictures, but hopefully I will get that into the mix here soon. But I think that I have the rest down to an artform now. This may be an indication that I have finally, after about three months of trying, gotten into a groove. And I am headed home in a few days, so that is nice. I hope that I am able to maintain the aforementioned groove going forward.

A backroads tour

The day was a bit mundane. I started in Dillion SC and did a big ole cirlce up to Fayetteville, then back down, ending in Lexington SC. I am headed down to the Baton Rouge area in LA. This is probably my last run before home-time, unless they find me a load headed North that I can drop in Olive Branch. This 200+ mile run was a bit annoying. It was all NC backroads with construction and reduced speeds the entire time. I was tired and hungry, so that did not help. I hate being this low on food. But I finally got dropped at Adams, picked up at Campbells and headed South and West. I stopped back in Dillon, where I started, and grabbed a Gyro and curley fries. Oye what a mistake. The fries were cold and limp and the Gyro did not agree with me. I think that the sauce was old because it had a weird taste, like bad milk. Since it is cucumber and yougart, that makes sense if it was old. But I made it to Lexington, closed my curtains, and went to sleep for eight hours. So it is all good. I am about 670 miles from my target and I have until 1000am Thursday to get there. Barring breakdowns, there should be no problem. I intend to shut down in Gulfport MS in the morning. Not close enough to the bay to pay Homage to Papa Legba, but maybe next time.

I made it to Mississippi with 22 hours to spare so I set down in Love's and relaxed. I am very tired and I am ready to go home at this point. I don't know what tommorrow is going to bring, but it should be a short run back toward Olive Branch, or even a deadhead. So I took the time to meditate, exercise and Yoga my brains out. I got the meds ordered so they will be ready when I get home, and I have to make my appointment for my annual physical, but I can't do that until I know when I am going to be home. That answer is not ready yet. But we shall see.

Work on the site and other things.

I did a lot more work on the herbology database, but it is slow going. I am down to about 450 to go and that is going to take quite a few more sessions. I did some work on the shorts, and got a good plot set forth for another Fae story. Weird, I am rolling toward a lot of fantasy right now. Where's the horror man..where is the horror???

Home Plans

I will be home in the next 36 hours. And I have a lot to do. The big things are to cook, do my shopping and getting ready to go back out. Laura wants me to take care of the pool, and I am going to try to do that the minute I get home so maybe I can do some swimming. That would be nice. I would like to get at least one big thing done, but right now, the only real plans I have is to shut down computer two and possibly reset the home network. That would be an accomplishment.

Today is going to be a bit of a rant, because no amount of clapping will bring tinkerbell back to life today. I am having a bit of a problem finding my center right now, and it is all because of silliness. The day started easily and I made it into the Winn-Dixie drop with 15 minutes to spare. Jamie called me and assigned me a new Mentee, and I was signed in and ready to roll, right on time at the drop. They got me into the dock and had me unloaded in about 90 minutes. Not bad times. Then all hell broke loose. Just as I sent my empty notification, I got a message from operations asking me my status because I HAD to make the pickup at Smuckers that was scheduled for 1405 today. Note the time, five minutes after two. Must be one hell of a professional dock to schedule in five minute increments. So off I went and got there 45 minutes early. Then the fun began.

The first hump

This is a live load, except that it is not. You have to go into the site, drop your trailer in a door, and then go away. You have to park at the TA travel center 17 miles away and they will call you when it is done. That is 34 miles round trip and one hour of time that neither the company nor the driver is paid for. I brought this up to operations.

The second hump

The TA that they send you to sucks. Even at 200 in the afternoon, there was little or no parking, even for a bobtail. Granted, there is plenty of reserved, paid parking, but that is because about 3/4 of their lot is paid. And the center is nasty. Just plain nasty.

And the final straw

I did my part, busted my hump to make sure I was there on time. Went to where I was told, waited for the call....that never came. As of midnight, the trailer was of the status of being in a door and being loaded. They will call me when it is done. As of midnight, it has been 11 hours and according to some of the bobtails here, they have been waiting days. Sigh. This makes me wonder why I do what I do. This level of unprofessionalism is an artform. I am not happy

Fuel to the fire

I know that today is very self-serving, but this is worth mentioning. I am due for hometime tomorrow morning at 900am. Not just to relax and reset the old grey matter, but because my medical card is expiring. If something does not happen soon, I will be parking my truck by the side of the road and they can come get it. Not out of malice, but because I will not be able to leagally drive it. I have made Ops painfully aware of this. But as yet, nothing.

A final note

I did go for a nice nature walk yesterday and have a few pictures that the wife is going to love, assuming they came out. But I am not in the mind-set to get them off the camera and edit them yet. So maybe tomorrow.

Today is Friday the 13th, and it is living up to it's name. I had to get my medical exam done this morning to stay on track, but that did not happen. The reason that it is not happen is because I did not get home until close to midnight, when I was supposed to be home at 900am. This is because a pickup went horribly wrong. Yesterday I pulled into a shipper and had to drop a trailer and go 17 miles away to the closest truckstop and wait for a call. That call never came, and finally Operations had to get involved and the loading of 30,000 pounds of coffee took 25 hours. This put me in a horrible mood.

Who is to blame?

Where do we put the blame here? Sadly, it is a blameless issue. The product was not avilable. So instead of rescheduling the run, they let a driver sit for more than a day. This is part of the new way of logistics now. It just happened at a very bad time. I tried to get a local appointment near New Orleans to get my physical, but that was not going to happen. The only place that was close was CVS, and they were booked and not taking any more appointments. The nearest medical facilities were in New Orleans, 30 miles away. Even if I could have gotten in, there were no Ubers or Lyfts running. We may be in the middle of a pandemic.

A rant without the rant

I am not highlighting this as a rant though I probably should. Half or more of this country has lost their freaking minds. I am seeing posts, hearing stories, and seeing in person, people that think they are Marvel Superheroes becaus they are not vaccinated, don't wear masks, and they have not caught Covid. Have people become so tempered against science that they do not understand the lessons of Typhoid Mary? People, mask up, Vax up, and we will get through this. Just because YOU don't show symptoms, does not mean that you are not issuing a death sentance to those around you. Use your damn brain. End of pseudo-rant

I spent the morning shopping and the rest of the day cooking. My mood is stabalizing and I did not even take a nap even though I was up and in motion nice and early. Hey, maybe things are looking up. Time will tell.

I am supposed to be heading back to work tomorrow, but that is not going to happen because I have to get my medical card updated in the morning. So I will head out Tuesday, assuming everything goes well and I am able to get things updated with Safety. I hate waiting.

No waste

I did not waste the day. Most of it was spent doing home computer stuff. I got all my downloads complete, took down the secondary computer, updated all the systems and got the new laptop set up to print. It was a busy day, and of course, I cleaned as I went.

The mood

It has taken two days, but I was able to finally crawl out of the negative headspace. And that is a good thing because the wife had a terrible day at work, with nasty people yelling and cursing at her. That is never a good thing. But she handled it well, even if it did bring her down a bit. I ask everyone that reads this, we are in troubled times, do your best not to make anyone else have a negative experience. If you are having a bad day, then deal with it - don't take it out on others.

Revisiting the Muse

I have had quite a bit of time, but most of it was spent adjusting my mood. However, i did have time to get another 100 pages done on Ancient and do a bit of work on the shorts, so there is that. But things are really slow going. The muse is with me, but I am not sure she is doing her job as well as she could. I will have to talk to her about that.

Pictures

I do have some pictures to go up, but I have to drop them into the editor. I will get to it as soon as I can.

I was able to get into my medical appointment and passed with no issues. The rest of the day was spent relaxing, spending time with family and gearing up for work. Yummy dinner of steak with broiled broccli. All in all, a nice relaxing day. I think that I am ready to return to work now.

This is only a short entry. I was to the truck, right on time, and I loaded up in record time. I was sent to get a trailer that was not there, but I knew that there was one at Cummings, so I grabbed it. A quick jaunt up to Jackson TN, in the dock 90 minutes early and loaded before my appointment came around. I headed across I40 and stopped in Baxter at a Love's that I have never visited before. Aside from some jerks blocking a few drivers in, it was uneventful. So not a terrible day.

Not only did I face a 10 hour drive, but the world conspired against me. I was wide awake, which is good. I was able to make it into Maryland, get dropped, and even got a brand new trailer to pull out of here. I was watching my journey on Roger, and I kept getting sent to California, then it would disappear. I finally got a run going into the Dollar General DC in Zanesville OH. Since I know the situation in Southern CA right now, I am not going to say a word about it. There are six loads going into P+G right now, and no empty trailers. So may the gods help those drivers that are headed that way.

Computer issues

Yesterday, my computer hit the anniversary. Like clockwork, it crashed. But this time, I was able, after five hours work, able to figure out the problem. The Dell support system AND the McAfee antivirus were both trying to get me to buy their stuff. To do this, they run background programs that tell you that you are expired, and how dangerous this is. Sadly, both of them try to use 100% of the processor and drive to let you know how much trouble you are in. What does this do? Try pouring 2 gallons of water into a 1 gallon container, and you will know. It took a while to figure it out because even in safe mode, these programs take over. It is like a protection scheme by the Don of the Gambino family in New York. I finally got it worked out, but it was frustrating as hell.

A new journal

NOT! I paid for and downloaded a program from Timkel, that was supposed to be a massive and detailed journaling program. What it really is, is two 20MB pdf files that you annotate with yoru own software. Of course, this requires almost a Master's level of skill with PDF manipulation. I looked at the reviews, and I am sure that this company is garbage. Don't get me wrong, the PDF is well organized, and reminds me of the one that I started writing years ago. But without an interface, it is worthless. It does, however, give me some ideas. So I am not going to complain too much. Ya pays your money and you takes your chances.

I started the day by almost cutting my own throat. I grabbed my electric razor, and it ate itself. But I did not notice. The head fell apart and if I had put it to my face, about 72 tiny blades would have dug into the face. Wouldn't that be fun?

A bit on yesterday

Laura picked me up a heated lunchbox after talking to Eric about it. Damn thing is great. I was able to cook my shrimp and rice, with my special sauce, and it came out excellent. I am looking forward to seeing what else it can do.

I came into this day with hope and a gleem in my eyes that I would be able to take anything that was tossed in my direction. I may have been mistaken. I set out early and arrived just in time at the shipper, only to sit there for close to 2 hours while they loaded me. Not unheard of, but far from perfect. I felt more sorry for those behind me because when I left, they were stacked four deep waiting to get in. Then the fun began. Originally, the dispatch required me to fuel in Hagarstown MD before I set out. But I was just under a half a tank, and the lines were very long. So I looked at my driverTech route, and found a nice place in Cumberland MD. All good, right??? Yeah, until DriverTech changed the route on me as I left the shipper. But I made the choice and used the original route across I-63. It was a lot of hill, and I thought that I was heavy, which was another issue. I scaled in Cumberland, but if I had been heavy, there would have been nothing I could do - all was good. Then a backroads run into Zanesville, OH. I arrived with 3 hours left on my clock. Not great, but dealable. That is until Capstone Logistics, the lumpers, took FIVE HOURS to get me in an out. And two of that was preparing my bills after I had paid them for their low quality service. I am telling you, lumpers are a scam.

Time to think

This entire incident has me thinking. My first job was working on the farm with Dale Harris when I was 11 years old. But my first actual paycheck job was working for the Bulletin Newspaper of South Jersey. I would go door-to-door selling 13 week subscriptions to the paper when the headline of the one that I was handing them was that the paper was going out of business in EIGHT weeks. I had amazing sales! Why? Because I lied. I offered a double your money back process. Where they could submit a form and get double what they pay. And they beleived me! And through my younger life, I did a lot of this. Warehouse Merchandisers INC. out of Philly, Coupon books worth Thousands (they were worthless), over the phone. Half a dozen of these schemes. No wonder I had so much Karma to burn off. Then, of course, I met Laura, and through patience, she set me straight. And I think that I have burned off all that Karma now.

So what?

Well, the Variant ambassadors are doing a variation of these things. They are offering kickbacks, making unrealistic promises, and lying outright. It is irking me off, because I get to deal with these drivers in truck stops and shippers and all. They say "I was told". If I would shift to this tactic, I could make all kinds of money - but then I would have to look at Laura. I really don't think that she would judge me, outright, but it would be there, and I would know it. She is a good wife, and disappointing her, even for our benefit, scares the hell out of me. Weird.

More Colorado thinking.

I am thinking that we should set a goal of August of 2023 for our exodus from Memphis and move to Colorado. But before that, I feel that we should take the plunge and get a property. It doesn't have to be a big one, just a piece of the state. Something with local electric, and possibly a well. If nothing else, we can use it as our own private campground when we get there. Shrugs, who knows. It is just grumpy thinking.

I really did try to have a positive day, but of course, the universe has to toss a monkey wrench into things. I woke up wide-eyed and bushy tailed, and even got a chance to do my morning routine and then catch some extra sleep. A rare boon. I headed out of Pendleton IN toward I-70 and was not even irked when I found that the Highway was closed in both directions - I just detoured and only lost about 10 minutes. My drop-and-hook preloaded trailer was scheduled for 300pm EST and I pulled to the guard shack at 259pm. By the numbers, by the book, buy bonds! Okay, forget that last one. I was nice, I was polite, I was sent to the office. Uh oh, that is never good. I was informed that the DHL site did not have any empty trailers, so they would have to "live load" me. Big, professional dock with lots of workers, how long can it take? The answer is that it takes about FOUR hours. But ((I)) I had to put the trailer into the door. These docks are made for spotters, not sleeper cabs. But I got it in, then sat for four hours while they did their thing. Oye. I think what irked me off is that I saw four or five other Variant trucks pull in, drop their trailers, and then pull out loaded. It seems that lately, I am getting the shitty end of the stick on everything. I have looked at my Karma, and I don't think I have done anything that deserves Universal retribution. Huh?

Pluck your magic twanger froggy

The downtime since I got back on the truck this tour is silly. I have to tally it up, but I am finding that it has my muse working overtime. Right now, she, and I say she because she has only come in one male form, and that was only for a moment, take on the guise of a few different people, depending on the need. Thus far, Sean Connery, Rose McGowan, Cara Delevingne, Elizabeth Olsen (as the Scarlett Witch / Wanda Maximoff), and the voice only, of Roseanne Barr. Quite a group my mind has collected to fuel my creative ventures. Is it helping? I am not sure. But it is forward motion.

Annoyances

First and foremost is computer technology. My Dell contract expired as well as my McAfee license. So both of them have to send me a message on my desktop about every 30 minutes. And for the life of me, I can't turn these off, I could uninstall McAfee, but that does not stop the Dell box. Grrr. Anyother annoyance is something that I posted on social media. Subscription based software. Everyone out there that can sling a few lines together, feels that you should pay them for life because they wrote a program. I am seeing a lot of ads for authoring software that runs from $1.99 a month to $15.00 per month. And there are no weekely, monthly, or even quarterly updates. Just for the privelidge of using their software. I don't have a problem paying Adobe or Microsoft 365, because they constantly improve and upgrade their products. But these little guys - nope.

Broken Things

I think that I am plagued. Last week, I broke my poo cup, and dropped my straw brush, supposedly down the back of the fridge in the truck. Today, my headset went to that great electronics field in the sky. I fired up my old earbuds, they held power for under five minutes. I have replaced the cup with a tourist Indiana cup, and I am going to have to buy a new headset in the morning. Grrrrr.

The Journey

Well, that is why you are here isn't it? To follow the journey? I am in Ohio right now, heading into Upstate New York. I have about 37 hour to go 600 miles. I should be there today, and then I will set down for a day while I wait for my appointment. I have picked out a nice truckstop right around the corner from my drop point. Then I am hoping that the optimizer will get me out of that area. There is a hurricane inbound, and I really don't want to get stuck in New England or so. Ouch.

The day was not exciting, but that may be a good thing. I am only about a week out of home, and I am already feeling the road. Granted, that may be because I have had repeated extended waits at docks since returning. But I am in New York State now, just North of Albany, and I ended my work day with about 22 hours until my drop. I set down in a place called Scotty's Travel Center. They have a nice eatery, but I did not partake. I did, however, sleep. Too much actually. That is one of the things that makes me think about getting early road-burnout.

Education Update

USX still has not updated the payment for the final session for the University of Arizona Global. I am starting to get irked. It has been three weeks now, and I am getting a bit tired of this level of professionalism, or lack thereof. I have said it before, I will say it again here. If I were to do my job with the same level of professionalism as some of our docks, and some of our administration, I could be a danger on the road. It is a very sad sitaution.

No Dilemma

I broke down and bought a Timkel planner that was repeatedly advertised on Facebook. IT looked like a really awesome program that is an all-in-one planner with multiple levels of operation. Sadly, it was all hype. It was nothing but a PDF document without an interface. However, it tickled the muse, an because it is issued from out of the country, without warranty or copyright, I can use it as a base of an idea for a real program. So perhaps something good can come of it. I did give the company a chance to make it right, all they did was forward me another rudementary planner based on ONE NOTE by Microsoft. Very pathetic looking one at that. Added to my repository.

What next?

I don't deliver until tomorrow evening, right across the street. I am going to try to get my head straight and see what I can do. I have no pre-plan for getting out of New York. That is annoying

I spent the day sitting on my butt and sleeping. Then I dropped my trailer for offloading. The dockmaster was very honest. They are running VERY down on employees and it was going to take a while. He estimated a minimum of four hours. Probably more. I bobtailed back over to Scottys and went to sleep. All in all, not an exciting day. But I worked about 30 minutes and was not unloaded by midnight.

Feeling off

I have been feeling a bit off, and sleeping too much. I am sure that some of it has to do with this sitting and waiting garbage. I would not say that it is depression, but it is a moody. I am dealing. I took advantage of the ablity to sleep, but that is getting old and I have to knock it off. There has been a lot of waste time, and I have to stop that. By midnight, the trailer wasn't done, so tomorrow is another day.

I woke up, and before I even ate breakfast after an 11 hour sleep, I got a call that the trailer was ready. I headed over and got it and was dispatched right away, about 150 miles away to Kraft. The CSR made a mistake. The load was climate controlled cream cheese. We don't have Reefer trailers, so I could not pull the load. I let operations know, and let them know that I was headed to my fuel stop in Syracuse, about 80 miles away, because I was running low. By the time I set down and ate, they had me dispatched on a Tessy Load. Oye, those loads are interesting. You have to take your empty trailer to a collision center for inspection, and drop it then grab another. Hopefully, there will be one there that is inspected. Sadly, it is also a run-through load. Once I pick it up, I have to go 650 miles right through to PnG in North Carolina. Rough run. I can do a 30 minute break, but not a 10 hour. Interesting run. As of writing this, I don't know if there is a free trailer at the collision center, but I will find out soon, and the update will be below.

Too much sleep

I have been sleeping too much, so I got up and caught up on some stuff. I checked school, and the previous master's is still not paid. That is going to block me from restarting next week. I have to deal with that. Usually it takes them about three weeks once the bill is issued, and that time is up. I should have a 34 coming up soon, unless I run recaps, so I will deal with it then, or if I get stuck in a dock again. Fun times.

The remains of the day

No, this is not the mortal remains of some undead bride, ala "Corpse Bride", but the rest of Tuesay. I got to the Northside Collision center and there was a ready trailer, so that was good. I hit Tessy, and the load was ready, even though it was only about 1/8 of a trailer and under 6000 pounds. Oye. And then it was a flat out run toward North Carolina. I did not think that I was going to make it in time. And this is a spoiler for tomorrow, but I was right. But I ran flat out and did my best, the only thing that I can do.

This is only a short entry, because I am a bit irked at the situation. But I started out just as planned and rolled into the PnG just as I thought that I would. Then the fun began. I got the trailer dropped, and there were no empties. There were a LOT of trailers, but they were all still loaded. My computer showed one there that had arrived almost a month ago that was not offloaded. According to the guard, this is because of the signficant labor shortage on the docks. They just don't have the manpower. This is become a common theme. Docks are hiring at prime rates because of it, and still can't fill their workforce.

No worries - right?

In my bobtail, I was able to pop on over the the Love's and wait for them to send me an empty location. As of midnight, no response. Tomorrow is another day.

I am usually very good at control. Today, not so much. It was after 6:00am before i receieved a location for an empty trailer. The closest that they could find me was more than 100 miles away at the J.C. Penny in Statesville. I popped on over there only to be told that multiple tractors had come after empty trailers, and all have been told that there are not any. So I popped on over to the Love's at Statesville and reported my findings. The new Ops specialist kinda got on my nerves. When I reported the issue, she told me "respond to the message and tell them that there is no trailer there". Huh? What message? Who is "them"? I knew what she meant, but still...clarification people. It took another hour, and I was sent over to the Lowe's Distribution center. I told them that was not going to work, but it is only 15 minutes down the road, so off I went, only to be told that there are no empties available and all trailers on the lot are loaded. Back to Love's I went. But at that point, my patiene was at an end. My blood pressure was up a bit and I was feeling the first pinches of an axiety attack. Nope, not worth my health. Took myself off duty, reported that I was taking a 34-hour reset since I was running recaps anyway. And I set down for a day and a half.

So, What next?

We have some problems. They are problems that can be addressed, but it is going to take business acumen. And I am not sure that it is avialable. The company has grown too quickly, and we don't have the required assets to cover the new drivers. So this means that we, the professional drivers, have to beg borrow and steal to get what we need to do our jobs. Our golden boys are running long, OTR runs scooting over the mid-West and West, while the lion share of the drivers and trudging through the North-East wandering 400 or so miles at a time. Basically, if you won't drop to your knees and worship at the V-Alter, you get the triangle. And I have never really been an ass-kisser. Not going to start now. It is time to reassess my options. I am patient, but it may be running short. I will be off my break at midnight tomorrow night, I need a trailer, and I need a run. I have about 800 miles thus far for the week, and due to the delays last week, I was 300 shy of my 2500 miles. This coming week will be critical, then choices must be made. How is that for cryptic?

The Education front

As things come to a head, there is colleage. I was supposed to be starting my new class on Monday, but that is not going to happen because the company still has not cleared the previous account. It has been almost two months, with a month since the final invoice. So that is in a holding pattern now. It is very frustrating, because it is an excellent perk, but it is virtually impossible to get in touch with anyone from the program. I did e-mail Kat from Arizona and let her know what was going on. She told me to relax, new classes start in September as well.

The Personal Front

Laura and the kids spent 90 minutes in the garage with me on the phone, and we did a virtual cleaning of the garage. This is part of the Colorado move. Time to minimize. And not being there allows me to get rid of stuff that I would otherwise packrat. I think it is a pretty good thing. From listening to them work, it sounds like a bit space has been opened. And I will put the tools on the top of my TODO list for when I get hometime again. It is exciting.

It took more than a full day to bring myself into balance. It is difficult to point fingers and say "this is the problem" because right now, it is multi-faceted. There is work, of course, but there is a lot going on in the world that is adding a lot of weight the the situations of everyone.

The work view

This is a rough one. I really think that Variant has potential, but I have a feeling we may be dealing with a "too many cooks" scenario. We expanded by a minimum of 4x within the spae of a year, at least according to the numbers available. That would be fine is the materials required grew with the workforce. But that did not happen. As a result, there is a signficant trailer shortage, and often, drivers are stuck out here with nothing connected, waiting for fleet to "find an option". The frustration that this causes for the drivers is an issue. However, the drivers are part of the problem. The ambassador program is excellent for the ambassadors, however the way that it is designed, we are putting butts into seats. And these are not all top quality drivers, the original intent of Variant. Many potential recruits that I talk to see us as another version of Swift. And that is not good. We have some successful recruiters, but how are they doing it? I am brutally honest, and some of the questions that I am asked cannot be answered honestly without harming the potential for hiring. And then, talking to some of the incomming drivers, the job is not what they were told, at least as far as home-time, miles-per-week, and trailer chasing. It is disheartening, to say the least.

The Pandemic

We are in the middle of a pandemic. And where that is a bad thing, of course, there is something worse, and I am beginning to think that this may be intentional. There is a movement of a signficant amount of people that are fighting against the potential protection of the vaccine. Never in my lifetime, did I feel that I would see such a mass of people fight for the right to die. But I think that there may be something more insidious at work here. The world was coming together. The racial lines were blurring and we were finally making some headway against the lines of black and white (and others of course). Enter the pandemic and the vaccine. Now there are clear battle lines seperating large masses of the public. Once again, we are divided. It is almost like something is keeping internal battles going to distract us from something. But that is for the conspiracy theorists to figure out.

The School Issue

I was supposed to start back to school in just a couple of days, but that is not going to happen. The unpaid balance remains, and I cannot find anyone to talk to on this end, by hook or by crook. I did talk to Kat at Arizona Global, and they will get me in as soon as the issue is cleared, but it is just adding to the frustration. I wonder what would happen if I did my job with the same lack of enthusiasm and professionalism as those around me? Not that I could ever do that.

The Muse

I gave the muse a few days off. I just could not concentrate. But I have my voice recorder down and ready for the long drive ahead, and maybe we can begin another dialog. We shall see.

The past 72 hours have been fruitless. I am updating the blog, just so people know I am alive and well. I finally broke down and wrote ops after winding up in the Springfield Terminal after a fruitless search for an empty trailer. I don't know if that will do anything or not, we shall see. The final resolution is that I am going to pull a load from here to Shippensburg, and then, after a conversation with Ben of Freight management, I am supposed to pull FEMA loads for Hurrican Ida. We shall see.

For some political internal reason, I am not going to be pulling FEMA loads. I don't fully understand the issue, but there it is. So I dropped at P+G and was immediately dispatched to Lancaster OH. Huh? Yep, you read that right, 480 miles away. But I have an empty and I am on my way. It was too tight on time, so Katlin reset the appointment for Tuesday. That I can do. I even set down in the Love's in Zanesville for about 12 hours. Amazing that I was able to get a spot.

Headed to Oklahoma

The day started with no Columbian in Love's. This is the fourth or fifth where it was lacking. I wonder if we went to war with Columbia? And of course, I look to my left, where I have to pull out, and there was a truck, parked illegally, and blocking my way. Before I could do the bangity-bang on his door, he was up and in motion. Good for him. Then it was a 45 mile drive into Lancaster OH that took me through all kinds of tiny towns. This route really should not be in our DriverTech because of two difficult right turns. One goes under a railroad tunnel with about 9 foot clearance across, and the other is an almost impossible right turn, in the middle of a village, that required me to cut all the way to the left to make the swing. I lucked out, it was early, and there was not a lot of traffic. But I made the pickup just a few minutes behind schedule and they got me right into a dock.

The new month cometh

As you can see above, I have already posted the link for the month of September. But right now, as I write this, it is bare bones. I have to change the side-bar and the picture, but I will get to it. It is my birth month, and anyone looking to get me something nice, I will take a piece of land in Colorado. Or a Unicorn, yeah, that would be nice as well.

The food thing

Because it is the end of the month, I did my spot check. I am about 1/3 down on my cold food already. Not sure how that happened, but I think it was too much sitting time. Luckily, I have plenty of tuna, so if I change things up a bit, it should be fine. I grabbed an extra water this morning, but I have to restock my water, bread, and milk. Oye, life on the road. I did find the best way to cook noodles in the microwave though. It involves my microwave cup, a large size cereal bowl, and 15 minutes, in five minute increments. It went well with my hot sausage.

What's coming?

August has been frustrating as hell. Way too much down-time and way too much sleep. I am not going to let that continue. I have prepped "The Awakening", five short stories, plus a new one, and "Rebuilding America". I intend to work on them all. I have pulled five PDF E-books, and they are on my desktop, and I have my sax out and cleaned. September WILL be a good month, even if I have to beat it with a stick.

Home time

Everyone is rushing to get time in for labor day. Not me. I am only out about two weeks now, so I have to be out about another four or so. I have to talk to the wife about the next run home, and get some plans in place for what to do while I am there. Laura and the kids did a whirlwind on the garage, but that leaves the tool-shelves and the cubby to me (and them as well). So I have a feeling that is going to be it. I also want to grab the second shop-vac, asssuming we still have it, and modify the wand to hold a scraper. I saw this excellent DIY on removing popcorn ceilings. Yeah, that would make life easy.

Another work things

As I have stated, the first two weeks out have been like herding cats. It has been delays, long docks times, and long delivery times. In one case, I was given 46 hours to go just over 400 miles. I got frustrated enough to send this over to Donald. He was empathetic and, even though I asked him to keep it private, sent it to a few (dozen) admins. I got communication from Will, who addressed some of the issues, and told me the potential plans. We shall see what happens. I really like my job, and I would hate to have to leave over silly stuff. Plus, that Arizona bill remains unpaid, and I still don't have a contact for resolution. It is making me grumpy.

The mad dash

The day ended being loaded up and heading south as hard as I could. I set down with little time to spare, and checked with dispatch. This MUST be there tomorrow. So sleepy time, then into a new month. See you on the flip-side.