PhotoCredit: Christopher Klein

The new photos

The photos this month are not going to be mind-blowing. They show what I see out of the windshield every morning. And once in a while, some other things that I come across. This morning, I had a wonderful view of a garbage dumpster. But that is because last night, in a mad rush to find a place to shut down and sleep, I had to take what I could get. In this case, a poor parking space in the Campobello SC rest area. Not the greatest place to shut down, but it was something. And the back few was pretty interesting with the sprinklers going off. With a bit of luck, each morning, I will include what I see as I am drinking my beginning of the day coffee. People have asked about the life of a trucker, so here it is. Enjoy!

Rough but well met

Today was a bit of a hard driving day. I got into the Trimaco dock and spent three hours there because they had not pulled the order before I arrived, and then they had to take lunch before they could load me. But they were nice enough. The best thing is that they communicated during the entire process. The dock master kept me updated as to estimated times, and what was going on. This is something that I rarely see, and it made the extended wait tolerable. Once I was loaded, it was drive drive drive, all the way until I hit Dunn SC. I wish I had notes on that Love's and I never would have stopped there. It is a tight lot with lots of potholes and nasty workers. They are just grumpy as hell. But I got some sleep and was ready to roll down the road. The only problem was some really weird dreams about urban exploration.

PhotoCredit: Christopher Klein

Going too well

I knew that things were going too well since I got back from Home Time. I was bound to hit a problem, and they came in like an avalanch. I was a bit tired toward the trek to Pennsylvania, but I was able to push through and make my drop at Home Depot, and then the fun began. The first problem was my empty trailer. I was able to get dropped and connected to the empty, but it had problems. The big problem was that the inspection is two days out of date. Some drivers check this, others do not. I am one of those that do, and I make sure I take care of issues, not leaving them for the next driver. Usually, this is a pretty easy thing to do. A quick call to break-down, a text across freshChat to Operations, and only a few hours worth of delay. But that is not what happened today. Once I identified that the trailer needed to be serviced, I placed my call to break-down. The call was answered by a very new person. I told her that I needed an AVI (annual vehicle inspection) on the trailer. She did not know what that was. I am patient, so I saw an educational potential here and explained the issue. She jumped right on it, and had me set up with an appointment for Tuesday. Wait! What? Tuesday? It is Friday! Yeah, that is not going to work for me.I went to communicate the issue to operations, but the Variant Lite app, and the Roger Beta app, both will not work for chat. The system is stuck in DRIVING mode, which does not allow texting. No problem. I shut down the truck, restarted my phone and the DriverTech system, and then went to send the text. NO FIRE! The system is stuck. I will deal with that later. Time for a voice call, but I had to get to a shut down place first. I was going to hit the Pilot in Pittston PA, but that is small, cramped and nasty. However, I remember this area from before, and I headed five miles up the road to Petro. Why? Because they have a TA service center. Then it was time for the calls. I tried again to reset ROGER, but it is being a biatch! So call in time. I talked to Charles, we had a few laughs about the situation, and received a resolution. TA tomorrow morning. Ariel from Break-down called me a few minutes later and got the whole thing set up. It is going to be an extra ten hours down, and I will have to run hard to get back on track, but resolution HO! Chris don't wait 4 days for an inspection.

Worth repeating

We are trying to recruit drivers, and in doing so, we are spouting information about state of the art operations. The chat, our main communication lines to Variant, being down, is problematic. Through the call-in line, we are in the general pool. I feel kind of abandoned at this point. I am making due, but it is not making me happy.

PhotoCredit: Christopher Klein

Annoying but well

In logistics, there are few things that can easily get on your nerves. The first is mismanagement of the fleet from a corporate level, the other is when a driver fails to operate in a professional manner. Today I came across both of these. If you have been follolwing along, you know that I picked up a bad trailer. This is the boo boo causing the issues, because our database failed to tag the trailer as needing an inspection. Okay, maybe it did not move for a few weeks from the Home Depot DC? Nah, not likely, but possible. That is the fleet aspect, but it is also the driver aspect. Because during an inspection, the driver should check for a current annual inspection, and if they see it is coming due, notify breakdown. Someone dropped the ball on this one. Honest mistake or laziness? I don't know, but I do know that I spent an extra 20 hours of my time to fix it. Yeah me! I pat myself on the back. Grrr.

Into the hills

Random rant about the trailer failure concluded and I am on down the road. However, the pickup was in Tunkhannock, PA. Oye that site. We have dozens of trailers in there being loaded, but it is well in the hills of PA and off the beaten track. It is 25-45 mile per hour for 50 miles in and out. That will put some honey in your gears. But it was like clockwork, in and out with no problems, other than the amount of time. And once I hit I-80 I was bone weary with a long way to go. I wound up setting down in the rest area in Reynoldsville, pictured above, because there was some kind of incident Westbound and traffic slowed to a crawl. Since I could not make the deadline, I decided to avoid the delay and get some rest and try again this morning. Looking out, it seems clear, but you never know.

Ah the old brain

I still have not gotten my final grades for my last course. But those should be coming out any day now. I am really missing school. Granted, I do have my C++ book with me and I have pulled that down, and I have pulled out and cleaned the old Sax, so there is that. Once I get to a love's again, I will fire up EH Hacking and Zenva, and a few of the others. But it is not the same. I received the new catalog from Arizona Global, and where I intended to take Criminal Justice with a specialization in forensics, they have removed the forensics. Now you can only do prison systems or homeland security. I will have to think about it. But it would be nice to get back to the familar grind.

Using the time

Finally, I have pulled all my creative works out of mothballs and I am going through them one at a time and assessing them for short story, interest piece, or novel forms. Osparia is being stubborn and not talking to me, but the girls are. Since you don't know about the girls, I am going to keep them to myself for right now, but you may see a bit about them in the near future. However, to cut my teeth, I had a nice conversation and encounter with Sasaquan and she informed me that she was bored and wanted her story told. So that is on my whiteboard right now to hone and get ready. It is done, just need to edit it.
NOTE: No, I have not lost my mind. I am talking to my characters, but no, they are not directly talking back to me. I have not slipped quite that far yet. But Sasaquan should be going up on the writing section of Triumph Media shortly. I am not sure if I will get the audio version done anytime soon, I have to find someone that will work cheap, or do it myself. And I did not bring my MIC on this run.

PhotoCredit: Christopher Klein

A dollar short...

The pictures are actually from the fourth of July, and there is no "through the windshield" shot for today because I did not check it after I took it, and I accidentally set to long exposure mode on the camera, and it blurred the picture. Sorry. But I will include these two as a backup prize. One of the people is obviously me. The other two are Ben and Keely. I will let you figure out which is which, it should not be that hard. Ben is a Variant driver with a rich history and interesting life. Keely is a UsXpress driver in Springfield for an upgrade to finally get her truck. I just met Ben, and I have known Keely for a long time via social media, and got her hired into US Xpress with the intention of getting her into Variant as soon as she jumps through the appropriate hoops. I think she will do well.

Trucker Hell

Yesterday I headed into the Springfield terminal after my drop at Meijer. I was preplanned down to South Carolina, but had that cancelled because I thought I may have a coolant problem. I dropped almost two inches in my storage tank overnight. That is never a good thing and wanted to have it checked. I got to the shop and explained the issue, and it is the secondary tank, and all I have to do is keep an eye on it. It is probably the weather and as long as the primary tank does not lose coolant, I am good. So I set my PTA for this morning, had a nice meal at Texas Roadhouse, and some good conversation and then back to the yard to get some sleep. Sadly, that led to two additional hours of sleep and put me behind for the day. I was able to play catchup and get into West Virgina, do my pickup of a pre-loaded trailer and drive all the way into Michigan, setting down about 30 minutes from my live unload for tomorrow morning. So everything worked out. I even made it to a Love's in Capac, MI with some extra time to get some rest and make a meal. Woo hoo for me.

Some Weirdness

I would make a joke about things being eerie on Lake Erie in Michigan, but I am next to Lake Huron. I shut down with the heat at about 107 and went to sleep. When I woke up about 10:00pm, I was almost in pancick mode, and there was no reason for it, at least not that I could see. That was until I opened my curtains. The area experienced a power failure and in all directions it was darkness. And it was almost silent, which is very unusual for a truck stop. Only a few engines were running off in the distance. It was unnerving. But the funny thing is the environment. I turned on my headlights, and they did not cut through the gloom. The air is so clear that there are no floaties to cause reflection. It is really weird. Sound is dampened, light is surpressed, and it feels unnatural. Really a weird situation. I liked it and disliked it at the same time, and people were standing outside huddled in groups, all looking nervous. It was kind of funny, but not in that HA HA way.

A General Update

I am back to my writing, which feels good, especially when I pop onto situations like the power outage. They feed the starving muse. But the big thing is school. I am back to my original choices of Criminal Justice or Psychology, and right now, I am thinking Criminal Justice with a specialization in homeland security. I would really like the forensics, but that is built into the justice course now with crime scene investigation and all. The only thing that is missing is the pathology portion, which is now part of a medical degree, and we are not going there! I would go for Lawyer before I would go for Doctor. And that is just not in the cards. Other than that, things are running smoothly. I am down to about 10 hours remaining on my 70, but I have some recapping coming up. We shall see how things pan out.

PhotoCredit: Christopher Klein

When last...

When we last left our rougue wanderer, he was headed into Michigan, about 40 miles East of Flint. Don't drink the water! Okay, maybe that was just in Flint, but still a good reason to grab some bottles. I set down nice and early, with 15 hours until my drop and got caught up on a few things. I restocked my water and breads and settled in for the night. But alas, the monsters come out at night. In this case, it is very interesting thing that when the electricty goes out in a Loves in the middle of nowhere, a few miles from Lake Huron MI, the area becomes really spooky. Fun thing about the air quality is that there are no particulates in the air, so turning on the lights of the truck did nothing to clear out the gloom But that was all yesterday leading into today. The early morning found our hero surrounded by a bunch of big strong truckers, jumping at shadows. The light would not penetrate, and even the sound of the engines was muffled. It was like a Stephen King novel. And then morning came. With the coming of the light, the electricity was back, which brought back the bold nature of everyone, and they were using it. Sadly, they were using it on the manager and operators of Love's, because the network was down. But this was unrelated to the blackout overnight. They could not sell fuel or food or anything. McDonalds was operating, because they are seperate from the Love's, but people would wander through the closed doors and give the staff a hard time. But I did find something interesting out. It seems that Love's may be virtual. They could not even make coffee. What does the network have to do with coffee? Interesting.

Back to the grind

I am running low on time for my HOS-70, but I made into my live-unload right to the minute. Not terrible considering that I got up for a few hours last night, then set an alarm in the truck that did not go off. But I woke up myself within a few minutes of when it should have. So, like I said, in the dock at 700am local, right for my appointment. Too bad the information in DriverTech was wrong and the plant does not open until 830am. But that is okay, I was able to take the picture above and write, to this point, before they were ready for me. Ahh the trials and tribulations of trucking.

PhotoCredit: Christopher Klein

What the?

Okay, this is a multi-day post. This is not because i have gotten lazy, this is because the days have run together. Mostly because I have not been feeling well. I am pretty sure that it was just a bit of a stomach thing, but I am feeling much better now. (could you hear the Gomez Addams voice?). So I made the choice to combine the mundane days here that had quite a bit happen, but mostly related.

The school thing

I am done with my Masters degree in business organziation and that is excellent. I am ready to jump into Criminal Justice, but there have been a few pitfalls. The first being that when I called HR to make sure that I was on the list, they told me that the program had changed from a Full Ride program, to a 40% discount program. I was not happy about this at all and gathered my forces to do battle! But in the end, it was an untrained HR representative that was quoting the spouse program, not the driver and kids program. So I talked to Kat at Arizona and we are going to communicate on the 19th and begin the new process. But that was not the end of the saga. Today, the 9th, I got an email from the school stating that they are not going to release my diploma because of the outstanding balance. I figured that it was a self-pay granduation fee, or something like that. Nope, it is $3108 that has not been paid through the plan. I have an email out right now, but I am very much not in the mood for this argument, so it will hold until Monday. What I want to know is WHY do they always send things like this out on Friday when there is nothing that people can do about them for over two days? Do they not understand the amount of stress and worry that this puts on people? And it happens in many things like software updates on the Variant system, truck automatic updates, etc. They really need to knock it off.

The work thing

Work is another story. I was running balls to the wall there for a while, hitting docks back to back and run run run. And then I had to take a 34 hour break. Soon as I was back at it, the optimizer is keeping me rolling. I would be doing well, and about an hour down the road from where I am, if I had not gotten pulled in for an inspection, level 1, at the Kentucky weigh station. I passed, but it blew my delivery to Amazon and put me behind. So I had to set down in Waddy KY, about an hour from my drop. And of course, I have no Drivertech Communication here, so I have no idea what is next on the list. I may hit Amazon and shut down for the night, or I might be headed to Mars. No one knows.

The creative thing

Finally, I have pulled all my writing. I put "the End", and the catgirl story into the editing - short story pile, and I have organized the others. I am breaking them down by short story, novel etc. I have my recorder (thank you Laura) and I am bringing things into line. I am going to pull a Stephen King and connect all the stories in some way, I just have not decided how yet. But it should be fun. I am thinking about three more days, and I should be working on something fun. For now, enjoy the journey!

PhotoCredit: Christopher Klein

The days blur.

Today, I am going to start out with something really weird. I think that I may be reversed from normal people. While I was on my 34-hour reset, I noted that my blood pressure and sugar levels where on the rise, just a bit. They just did not want to come down. I was relaxed, for the most part, and while not stress-free, I was at least in control. I had time for some extensive exercise and meditation, and that should have helped a bit. But it didn't. Now, I am running high-stress levels, which you will learn about in the next paragraph, and my BP and sugar have come into line. What's up with that? Like I said, I am backwards.

The Universe is a bitch, and wants to prove it.

Right now, it is like the universe is saying "Hey, let's toss a few things at him and see what he does with them." Where I don't mind a challenge now and then, there has to be some breathing room. I am dealing wtih a few things. Normal things, like work, are expected. I am running stacked right now. I pulled into Edwardsville, IL. Last night, dropped my trailer, and of course, DB Sheck didn't have an empty. Well, that is not true, they had about a dozen of them, but they are not giving them up because they may need them for outgoing runs. No problem, I am used to that from some of these larger companies. But what I did not expect was that as soon as I sent my Bobtail request, I received informaton for the next load. They had me Bobtail into P+G headed down to Wilmer TX. I never had that happen before. So I was dropped and loaded again within about an hour. Not terrible. But there are other things that are irking me off. Arizona Global will not release my Masters degree because there is an outstanding balanec of $3108 on my account, and I can't do a thing about that until Monday. Then I did my monthly check of the investments, and it appears that my Mass Mutual account, which was bought out by Empower, is rolling a zero balance and I have no access to it. And you guessed it, I can't do a thing about it until Monday. But I have decided, if I get that figured out and it is just some simple mistake, I am pulling that money. I do not like Empower, and this is the last straw. I will take the monetary hit for early withdrawl and either move it over to my current retirement account or hand it to the wife to do with as she will. But all of this has me stressed. And I don't like being stressed. And the final nail in the coffin is looking at the optimizer. If nothing changes, I am looking at a four-hop pre-plan going all over the South and ending in Orlando FL. And that is really NOT good, because I am rounding 70,000 miles on my truck, it is almost time for my preventive services and I really don't want to do those in Jacksonville, FL. But we shall see what we shall see.

The attack of the Muse

It did not take three days. I have all my stories sorted and prioritized. The next one up is CAT. It is a heartbreaking story of an almost feral kitten that is picked up by animal control after the momma gets killed. Laura sent me over a picture of Mooshie so that I can include the picture with the story as tribute to the Moosh. I think it is fitting. The only problem is that I may be too sensitive right now with everything that is going on. I cannot read the story to edit it without tearing up. I am either a really good writer, the story is really good, or I am a pansey. Could be a mixture of all of them. Once I finish CAT, I am going to work on THE END. That story is the best way to do inclusive stories across the board. I am working on figuring out how to do that now.

The Picture thing

I was really excited about the idea of doing a picture a day through the windshield, but that was ill-planned. Damn the front view is boring. So I am going to stop that as of today. I am going to do my beest to find somethign interesting each day. I am not sure how well that will work out, but you never know. The picture today was a truck stop in some unknown state, mostly because I can't remember where I took it, but that is one old truck. I am pretty sure it is as old as I am. But it has character... hey, like me.

Ah life

Finally, I have started the social media update, so you can look at the sidebar if you want to follow. But it is mostly the same thing across all platforms. Just different audiences. I like the MEWE "I am doing this right now" and I am thinking of incorportating that into this blog. Maybe a table each day that shows what I am up to. Like my reading, I just finished "I will fear no evil" by Robert A. Heinlien. Not his best work and really weird. But I like weird. I had oatmeal, cheese, cinnimon baegle and cheese for breakfast. I have Halsey - Colors playing while I am typing this, and I am in Strafford MO headed down to Wilmer TX. My current project, as listed above, is the short story CAT, dedicated to Mooshie and I pulled and cleaned my Saxapohone so that I can practice when I stop this evening. My current studies are C++ and I am working through my college level book for the third time before I move on to Java.

Right now, days are blurring together. Just more hard-running and then sleep. My negative mood continues, and there is not a whole lot I can do about it right now. I should be setting down for 34 here soon because the optimizer is keeping me stacked. But still, not getting great miles. I don't think that I will get my 2500 this week, but I should be close. We shall see.

""

PhotoCredit: Christopher Klein

The sound of drums

A little better, I mean a LITTLE.

I started out right on time and got myself in order to hit DHL discount tires right on time. I hit the shipper right at noon, my scheduled appointment. Too bad that they don't even start loading until 200pm. And the shipper requires a high quality lock, something that no one was aware of. So I popped over to the Pilot down the street and tried the new Wendy's Bourbon and Bacon burger. I won't be doing that again. It tasted okay, not great, but repeated on me for hours. Shrugs. Maybe I am getting old.
I did get a chance to call Mass Mutual and Arizona global and got through straightened out. With Mass Mutual, somehow my account was moved, without my knowledge or consent, to Nationwide. I have to figure out what to do with that. I don't like the idea that someone was able to do that. But it is locked down now. As for Arizona Global, it is just a statement delay. I should have my degree in a couple of weeks. Here is hoping.

""

PhotoCredit: Christopher Klein

A nagging feeling.

I am really not liking today. It went okay and all, but this final load before my break has me jumpy. I made it in to discount tires and that went well. I got there within 15 minutes of my scheduled time, and there was even an empty trailer, and it was a 2 series, meaning it was brand new. But I did not get to hold on to it for long. I had to pick up at Clorox. And because the Universe is a funny one, the trailer that I picked up was a little bit older than Jesus. It took me close to an hour to break the tandems loose so that I could move them. The entire time, I was on the phone waiting for breakdown until they finally hung up on me. That kinda irks me off, but I was able to get the pins aired up and moved them. When I left there, I was about 1500 pounds over on the rear of the trailer, but I eye-balled it and held my breath. I rolled into Tunnel Hill for the night and did not hit an open weigh station. Tomorrow is another day. I am running VERY tight on time. I really hope that this Dollar General DC live-unload tomorrow goes well so that I can make it into Horse Cave KY and shut down for 34 hours. If not, I may get grumpy.

Remember - Never again

One of the biggest annoyances when when I stopped for coffee and tea at the Love's in Emerson GA. What a nightmare. I now have that site on my NO NO list. IT took well over an hour to get in, grab my stuff and get out. Most of it was caused by inconsiderate drivers parking where they should not park and doing things that they should not do. That site is poorly designed and overcrowded.

I hate it when I am right!

I got up after about six hour sleep and took the time to do my laundry and go bug operations. But everyone was busy as hell, so I scampered off and planned my day. I figured that with a 600 live-unload, and only about 200 miles to go, I might sneak in early by leaving Tunnel Hill at noon. I am very glad that I did. The day turned into a disaster. I made it out of Georgia and through Tennessee wiht only a few delays, and even got fuel in Christiana TN without issue. I was running VERY tight on time. I hit Dollar General with 2:07 hour left on my 70 hour clock. seven more minutes and I would have been outside of company protocals. But I made it to the guardshack. Then things fell apart. I did not have a proper confirmation number, and even though I was more than 90 minutes early, I checked in exactly on time for my 600pm appointment. Then I waited another two hours before the FOUND me a dock, for my appointment. What is the point of appointments if the docks run that far behind?

An old friend

I did run into Tugboat from MSES. He is driving for a private company called E2 and doing quite well. He is making more than I could offer him at Variant, so I did not even try. We talked for a while while the dock was trying to figure things out.

PhotoCredit: Christopher Klein

The Photo

This dude pulled in next to me in Love's. I could not resist snapping the picture, with his permission of course. I removed the identification of the company because I don't have a release for it. But he has a really cool co-driver.

An update on life

The past few days have been a blur. I have been all over the North East, and ended up in Horse Cave, KY. with under an hour left on my 70. But I chose to take the day and sit back and relax and get some stuff done. I have been in a rancid mood lately, and it has been starting to grate on my nerves. But then I thought about it and figured that perhaps the bad mood has been feeding the bad mood. So I put all the junk to the side and used the day to get accomplished. I am about 18 hours from the end of my break and it is almost dinner time. Steak and fish tonight, and I am looking forward to it.
I answered all the sitting emails and cleared out a massive amount of spam and all. I found out that I am eligible for Sigma Beta Delta because of my grades in school, so that puts me in Sigma Beta Delta and Alpha Chi. Now, I just have to figure out how to use this big-ole-brain to my advantage.
I started to watch Mortal Combat, but I was not really in the mood, so I am playing ambient music and finishing up a few things, then I think that I may watch either IT by Stephen King or Crawl. But I am not really sure if I am in that kind of mood. Perhaps something a bit lighter. I will decide in a while.

PhotoCredit: Laura and Willow Klein

Pretty Kitty

Mooshi was a kitty that was found by a relative. Mooshi came to live with us, but at only a few months old, ate a small bead that lodged in the intestines. We lost Mooshi and it was a terrible loss. The story below, written in the 1990s and revised this month, is dedicated to the Memory of Mooshi.

CAT

WARNING: I write horror and cute things. This is neither. If you have any kind of heart, this will make you cry. It makes me cry, and I have read it more than 100 times. If this touches you, adopt a furbaby, give a little money to a local no-kill shelter, or find another way to help. With all that is going on in this world, our furry friends stand by us - we should stand by them.

Cat had been born under a house on March fourth, 1994. She was a cute little kitten with big brown eyes and tiger-striped fur. She lived the first eight weeks of her life in Chester, Pennsylvania, and from her vantage point, she could see everything that happened in the back of a row of houses and a children's playground. Every day, her mother would trek outward into the world in search of food, and Cat would play with her four brothers. She liked to watch the backs of the houses because she could see the doges that lived there. They scared her but at the same time filled her with intrigue, as long as they remained in their pens and did not come looking for wayward kittens.

First, there was the house on the corner that was a fenced-in yard held holding an ancient bloodhound. Its dirty fur and scared body told the stories of many a hunt and days in the sun. But it was now too old to make the catch and the master retired it to a small, unclean backyard. Every few days, the master of the house would fill a bowl with kibble and another with water, and the Bloodhound would ravenously eat its feast. Cat was happy that she had her mothers' breast to sustain her needs. The poor Bloodhound was on the verge of emaciation, and Cat would not like to join it.

They also fenced the second yard with hurricane fencing. Behind the cool steel, there were the ever-watching eyes of a sleek Doberman, aways standing at the ready and vigilant. He would run back and forth along the perimeter of the fence to thwart any passersby that might think of entering its territory. Every night, the master of the house would throw a knuckle bone to the Doberman and say a single word, "Guard!" The Doberman would take its place at the house's back door and protect it while his master slept. The Bloodhound would watch enviously as the Doberman would feast on the knuckle.

It was the third yard that put terror into the heart of Cat. Tied to a post in the middle of the yard was a black and white American Staffordshire Terrier, sometimes called a Pit Bull. Covered with the battle scars from many times that his master forced him to fight for his supper within the dog ring. The master of the house was a burly man with hands of iron and the cruelty of all the hate in the world. He would bring smaller animals for the dog to play with. Cat would watch as the master would toss a smaller dog or a cat within the reach of the dog. The Bull would lunge after the smaller prey, hoping to get the animal within its bite before the heavy steel chain would yank the dog back Sometimes the animal would escape the vicious circle and run terrified into the night, bounding over the short wodden fence. When this would happen, the master of the house would raise a thick stick and bring it crashing down on the beast. He would yell that if that happened in the ring, the dog would be dead. But most of the time, the smaller animal would fall victim to those powerful jaws. The dog would have his meal and the master would smile, appeased, and treat the dog to some fresh hamburger laced with gunpowder to make the Terrier meaner.

One afternoon, Cat watched her mother go out on the hunt and noticed that she did not return right away as she usually did. Suddenly, with grim horror, Cat knew the reason. The master of the Pit Bull kicked open the back door to his house and held, outstretched in front of him, the mother cat. He gripped the mother tightly by the nape of the neck so no matter how much hissing and clawing she did, there was no way for her to twist and attack her captor. The man swayed the cat in front of the Dog. "You want this? C'mon dog, show me you really want it..... Want a little kitty to play with?"

The dog jumped and snarled, its cackles on end as it watched its' toy dangling in front of him. Tossed into the air toward the middle of the circl, mom cat landed on her feet as the dog made a move toward her. Her powerful muscles in motion, her claws dug into the hard-pack soil as she bounded toward escape with terror in her eyes. The dog pounded toward her as her powerful legs gripped into the hard earth, a snarl passing his powerful jaws, driving her away from the edge of the circle and safety. The mom cat drove outward and almost made it, but as her front paws cleared the edge of the circle, she felt the ripping shock as the bull dug his sharp fangs into her hindquarters. She had no choice, but to turn and fight. With the natural instinct of the feline, she twisted at the spine as only a cat can. Her weapons extended, knowing she would only get one chance, she struck. But, making her mark, that one chance would be all that she would need. Her talons met their mark as they dug deeply into the eye of her assailant. The dog howled in pain and for a moment lost his grip on the mom cat. But the jaws had done their damage. Crippled by the attack, she dragger herself with her two good paws toward her waiting family under the car. She expected, at any moment, to be recaptured by the master of the house. But he was too busy with his injured champion to worry about her.

"Now Look what you did, you stupid Dog!! " he bellowed. "How are you going to fight with only one eye?" Anger filled his voice as he brought his belt down on the back of the dog again and again. But he made a fatal error in his judgment. In his anger over the fight, he took one too many steps toward the vicious creature. The Pit Bull, seeing the opportunity, brought his heavy jaws to bear on the master digging deeply into the masters leg. The man screamed out in pain and retreaded, beating on the head of the dog to get him to release his grip. The man retreated into the house, screaming as he went. He returned with a long aluminum bat gripped tightly in his hand. "Bite me, will you?" he bellowed. The dog saw the man coming and as he entered the circle, the dog launched himself upward toward the master. But he was not fast enough for the man. One swing of the bat and the attack was foiled. Again and again the man brought the bat to bear on the now helpless dog until Cat was sure that the monster was dead.

The mom cat lay with her kittens suckling her. Her now useless legs lay behind her like so much useless meat. The kittens watched as a black and white car pulled down the alley. They looked at the crumpled dog and the man. A bigger car came and loaded the man into the back and the red lights and a loud whistle filled the air as it pulled away. The offices inspected the dog and found that it was still alive. One of them made the motion of a gun with his fingers pointed to the head of the monster, but the other officer used the radio in the police car, shaking his head.

The sun was just going down when Carol heard her pager go off. She quickly dialed the number to the SPCA answering service and wrote an address on a pad of paper. She kissed her husband and put a piece of carrot in her mouth as she explained that there was an injured dog in Chester. Her husband protested about the area, but knew that they had this argument too many times. She was going to go, and that was all that there was to it. Carol was unafraid of the areas in Delaware County Pennsylvania, and her husband knew it. When an animal was in trouble, Carol would respond, no matter what.

It was not long before Carol pulled into the alley where the officers were waiting. She bent down and checked the dog and found that it was barley breathing. She wrapped the animal in a blanket and tried in vain to enlist the help of the police to help her load the dog into the back of the Animal Ambulance. The officers explained it was not part of their job description and left the scene so Carol could load the dog alone. She struggled with the heavy body of the dog until after some effort, she loaded the animal started to open the door to the ambulance just feet from where Cat was watching. A light "meow" escaped from Cat. Carol stopped and listened for a moment and Cat froze with terror. Cat knew that the two-legs were cruel and heartless.

Carol bent down and looked under the car, staring right into the eyes of Cat. "Well, hello there." Carol said to Cat and her kin. Carol thought for a moment. She saw the wounds on mom cat and all the kittens that were huddled against her. She had to make a judgment call. They dispatched her for a dog, not cats, and with the low budget of the SPCA, they had to watch what they did and where they spent money. Her heart got the best of her and she knew that there was no way that she could leave all the kittens under the car with a wounded mother. She carefully loaded mom cat into one kitty kennel and the kittens into another. Once they were all loaded into the dark cubicles in the back of the ambulance and Cat felt the truck go into motion. Cat could see mom cat in the carrier next to her with her eyes half closed, panting heavily. Then the motion stopped and Carol removed the carrier that held the mom. There was some hushed conversation and then they were in motion again.

Soon, the truck came to a stop again and Cat watched the door open. The carrier jostled and she could see two men moving the limp body of the Pit bull out of the truck. Cat and her brothers trembled, not knowing what was to come. The kittens, put on a counter and watched, listened as the men and Carol talked about the incident. She explained the entire experience, and said that the dog had died in transit. Mom cat was going to be held by the vet for a few days, but had feeling in her damaged legs, and the outlook was good. One man looked into the cage. "Feral?" he asked Carol. She peeked in at the kittens and explained that they were wild and scared, but she did not feel that they were feral. The man smiled and carried the kittens to the cat wing of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Over the next week, "Caf' watched as adults and children would come in and look for a new pet. There were so many to choose from. Right across from her was "Miss Pritti”, a beautiful Persian. She found a home quickly. Below her there was a set of Siamese kittens. The owners explained that they were great cats, but they did not want that many cats in the house and the owner was sure that they would find a home. Then there was Cat and her brothers. Her brothers left her quickly to their new homes, and she knew it was only a matter of time until she would as well. Life in the SPCA was so much better than life under the car. Cat even saw when mom was brought in and put across from her. One of the workers said that they had found a sponsor for her and she quickly went to a new home. But there were so many others.

Every morning after her brothers left, there were two people that would come through and look in each cage. The first one would come by and look at each cat, think for a moment, look at the information on the card on the front of the cage and then either put the card back or put a red check on it. The second girl that came had the food bowl. Cat liked this girl because she would put a red and white bowl of food in each cage and then she would come and play with Cat until it was time to take the bowls away. Cat would wiggle her tail and pounce toward the girls hand. She would bite playfully, never too hard, and the girl would laugh and rub her belly or scritch between her ears.

One morning, as Cat looked over all the filled cages around her, she saw the card woman' coming. She looked at Cat and grabbed her card. She returned it with a red check mark on it. Cat waited patiently for her food and some play, but nothing happened.

Cat was euthanized.

No photo today, unless that changes before I put this online. But I doubt it. Last night, I spent a few hours in a dock doing a pickup heading into Dollar General in Bethel PA. and then I will be gearing up for preventative in Shippensburg. I am not looking forward to this. I have no idea why I always get routed to Pennsylvania for doing the truck stuff. But this is the way it is. I drove long and hard and set down just outside of Dandridge at about 200am. I actually managed to get a legitmate parking space when I pulled in, even at that time. Weird. And this morning, it was like a ghost town. Except for the RVs heading in and our on short little breaks.

The creative muse

If you are reading this, you will probably see that I have finished the story of CAT which is right below today. Now I am working on a revision of the 13th witch, that will appear in a collection of short fantasy and horror stories. I have chosen about 20 shorts that will go into that, and I think that is my best option right now, because I just can't get the novels into motion. The characters simply are not speaking to me. But you never know what may or may not happen.

Ah the day

Today was a bit rough. I had to drive hard to make my appointment at Dollar General in Bethel PA. Even rolling outright, I still missed by six minutes - but they took me anyway. The Dollar General Yard was a mess. There was no room for anything. The drop lot area was full to overflowing, and drivers had been just dropping trailers whereever they wanted to. I pulled out an empty and then backed my loaded into the spot. The guard thanked me for my professionalism. Isn't that fancy? Then it got interesting. I figured that, since I had limited time left, I would go a bit out of my way and set down in the weight station on I-81. I scoped it on the way in and there was plenty of parking. But alas, DriverTech foiled me, as it decided to take me for the scenic tour of the PA area near Schuylkill Haven PA. This 25 mile trek had hard turns, double parked personal cars, switchbacks, tight roads and 9% grades both up and down. Quite a bit of fun to save a few miles. By the time that I got onto I-81, I was 30 miles from the weigh station that I wanted and headed the wrong direction. So, I hit the first area going north. A disused PA-DOT weigh station in the middle of nowhere. It was very quiet when the cars were not passing and gave me a decent nights sleep. Now I am prepping to pick up in Tunkhannock PA and head down to Norfolk VA. P+G to a Military outfit. Not really my idea of a fun time. But I have a feeling my next run is going to be back to Shippensburg for preventive maintenance. That should be fun.

PhotoCredit:Christopher Klein

The Photo

I saw this trailer while I was dropping off my empty trailer at PNG and it struck me as funny. I see what they did there, a biblical reference without an actual biblical reference. Creative lil cusses aren't they?

Hell comes to Tunnhannock PA

Today did not exactly go as planned. I hit Proctor and Gamble within minutes of my appointment, even after braving the rolling hills of Pennsylvania, and I was pretty proud of myself. This is a popcorn run, under 500 miles even with the deadhead. But the fun had just begun. I checked in and they let me know that the load, a drop and hook, was not ready yet, and it would be "a bit". Long story short, and bleeding into tomorrow, that BIT, turned into a 22 hour wait. They were short staffed, had call-outs, and did not have the product that was headed down to Norfolk. Le'sigh. So I dropped my trailer, grabbed the above picture, and backed into bobtail parking for a bit. But I did not let it get to me. I used the time to clean the truck, organize my thoughts, get school set up since I am expecting a call from Kat tomorrow and did a few other things. I got some exercise, did some yoga, including a new pose, and reset the old grey matter. I have a feeling that if I knew now, what I will know tomorrow, I would have demanded to cancel this run and just head to Shippensburg. There is a spoiler for you - things got really messy. But for today at least, I just took it with a grain of salt. The Goddess can be a mean old bitch when she wants to, and I am pretty sure that someone peed in her cheerios today - and she took it out on me. But you have to take the bad with the good, right?

Okay, so I have tweaked the nose of a god and fogotten to run. I have a feeling that the god in question may be Loki, because no other all-powerful being in history could think up stuff like this. I finally got my trailer, after 22 hours of waiting, and was actually feeling pretty good about it. Perhaps that was my mistake, taking the postive road. I communicated with operations and let them know that there was no chance in hades of making the 400pm delivery time. No worries, they reset me for 1015pm. It was tight, but I can do this.... I can do this....I CAN DO THIS... And you know what? I did this. I rolled into the Norfolk site at exactly 1015pm local. Too bad the CSR did not actually reschedule for this time. It was set for 600pm, a time I could not have made without breaking the laws of time and space. And we don't do that, because it rips a hole in the fabric of the universe. So, I hit the site, the guard looked at me like I was nuts, but let me in anyway. I talked to the dockmaster who told me that I was 4 hours late and had to come back in the morning and they MIGHT be able to work me in. No worries, a bit frustrated, but the site has courtesy parking and the guard pointed to it! Easy peasy! Well, until the yard mule came by and said "nope, we need the spaces, go away". Yeah, it's a thing. Norfolk VA. Midnight. Three truck stops, all pay, all full. Boot and tow notices on every parking lot, quite a pickle. Call to Ops, Call to safety. "drive in violation and get to safe haven". Yeah! NOT! Headed out and made it about 50 miles, pulled onto the first off-ramp that was not a jughandle and went the hell to sleep. 30 seconds violation! I am NOT happy about this bullshit. The CSR misrepresented the delivery time, and the on-site parking leaving me in Norfolk VA with no options at midnight. Made me grumpy. I am still trying to have a positive attitude, but I am keeping my eyes open for Loki!

Yep, I am sure it is Loki that is messing with me. Operations was able to get my appointment in Norfolk reset. I talked to safety and they bascially told me not to worry about last night, it was one of those unavoidable things, and I have a pretty decent record. So I timed everything right, headed back to Norfolk, and then the fun began. I don't know what it is with some of these towns! Headed through Suffolk, VA, Portsmouth, VA, and Norfolk, the daylight traffic signals are set so that you hit every one of the 3-minute red lights. It took over 90 minutes to go 20 miles, stopping at every intersection. Luckily, I gave myself almost two extra hours and arrived within 10 minutes of the appointment. Or so I thought. Too bad they did not have the appointment. It made me grumpy. I explained the situation to the guard and the dockmaster, and they got me in. It took under two hours to get me offloaded, and I was on the road again. It is good to be out of Virginia, finally.

WEll, that did not go as planned. I busted my butt and rolled into Shippensburg, deadhead, at about 200am. The shop was closed, so I did my best to cat-nap and stay awake until the shop opened so that I could get in for my appointment. The guard actually arranged for me to keep my trailer, which is weird, but did not matter in the end. I spoke to Kathy who explained that my appointment was 400pm yesterday, and never updated. There was nothing they could do. So I communicated with Operations, took a good 7 hour sleep and then headed over to Church and Dwight. Thank the gods for my natural charm. My load was not ready, I counted to 10, explained things, and because I was not ignorant and irate (like everone else) they pulled me to the head of the line. It was a VERY heavy load, about 79,200 but I was able to balance it and get on down the road. I have a few days to get to Georgia, but should be there very early. I am running very low on my 70, and will be running recaps before I hit the Tunnel Hill terminal for my MONDAY appointment. That should be interesting.

The creative stuff

I finally have a list that includes the Colorado plans, a book of short horror / fantasy stories, a political commentary, and a fantasy novel. I have a timeline that lines up with school, which I will be starting back on August 31, and plans for the Memphis House. I am getting everything organized into writing. I am including the Yoga studies and Ancient Pathway as well. I have been in one of those deep-blue funks, and it is mostly because of misinformation and such, and I am not going to let it beat me. Time to drag myself out by my CAT-claws and start hissing and spitting at the universe. Watch out world - the cat is awake.

Do you get it?

Southbound and down is from Smokey and the Bandit. I love that movie with Burt Renyolds. I will have to watch that one of these days, but for now, there are other things to do. I ran hard last night and made it into Greenville, VA. I set down for the day, and when I got up, with about two hours to spare, I realized that I had run out of drinking water. Groans, that has not happend since I started with Variant. Then I set up for my hometime on the 13th of next month, and looked at the calendar and clock. Dammit! I miscalculated. I am an hour short for today, so I have to roll earlier than intended. I was originally going to make mexican rice, grab my tortillias, add some cheese, salsa and beans, and cook them up. Look at that, Burritos! And I was going to freeze some of them for later. But that takes like 90 minutes. PFFT. I don't have that kind of time. So Chicken it is going to be. I am beginning to hate fast food. Weird, right?

Nothing ever goes as planned

So I rolled hard with a plan. But you know what they say about plans? I don't, so if you do, you can tell me. But I can tell you this, this did not go as planned. I rolled hard and rolled into the 23rd, but things did not work out. The reciever in Fairburn changed their hours, and of course, I got there when they were closed, with no hours remaining. I had to go to ground. Tomorrow is another day, and I am not sure what it is going to bring. I have to get this truck in the shop, but I am rolling on recaps. Not a good thing. We shall see what happens.

The receiver in Fairburn recently changed their hours, and of course, I got there when they were closed. After my recent communication with safety, they made it clear that I should not set down on a roadway. Even in an industrial park. The information on the order says that there is a truckstop right down the road. There is. It is a TA with all paid parking, all of which is currently reserved. I headed to Love's in Hogansville, about 30 miles down the road and talked to operations. They put a plan in place that will get me some miles, and still get me to Tunnel Hill. Except that I was not scheduled in Tunnel Hill. I was scheduled in Olive Branch. OYE. That is fixed. But we are working on the best plan. Right now, I am sitting at about 1000 miles for the week, but at this point, I will take the hit on pay, get the truck finished up, then try to run 8 hours a day for the next three weeks. I can run hard, run recaps and still make it home, and maybe make some money. That would be nice. Waiting for an answer.

The answer cometh

After quite a bit of going back and forth but a plan developed. Working with Operations, we figured that it would be a bad idea to try to roll recaps and still make it back for my shop appointment on Monday, so I dropped at the reciver and headed right to Tunnel Hill for the "weekend". I get a 34-hour reset and I am going to try to sneak in early for my shop appointment. It was a bit rough going to get to Tunnel Hill due to traffic, but I made it with a bit under an hour before I would run out of time. I managed to get some exercise, a shower and a meal. Then I made plans for tomorrow and set down for some sleep. I am not really happy about the extra time down, but all-in-all, I think it was the best plan. With a bit of luck, I can complete my "to-do" list and start out fresh, maybe Monday morning.

Down for a bit but that is okay.

I managed to get a decent amount of sleep. More than 8 hours out of 15, which is something new, especially since I did not wake up with a headache. I have a bit of a sinus thing going on and my teeth continue to hurt like the devil, but I am adjusting. I cleaned the truck, got laundry done, and spoke to the shop. They think that they can get me in tomorrow morning, a day early, and I should, with a bit of luck, be back on the road in time to get some more miles for this week. I am about 18 days from home and I am almost out of cold food, but I have a plan for that for today. I am taking what remains and I am going to make about 3 weeks worth of meals. They will not be the greatest, but they will keep me going until I hit home and will clear out some of my older stuff.

The food update

I did have a decent day, so I managed to get about 15 meals prepared. But I was a bit annoyed during the process, so I did not make my pizza pockets or my burritos. But the reason is below. I was able to get some excellent food packs done, and I should be good until home time in just under three weeks.

The Storyteller

This is where it gets weird. While I was concentrating on cooking, a 36 year veteran of trucking wandered into the driver lounge and started just talking to people randomly. At first, he was talking to a driver trying to watch the movie "Bumblebee" on the main TV. The storyteller jumped in with all kinds of technical and Fandom facts about the autobots and decepticons, most of which were incorrect. Then he, for no reason, began to babble about his ablity to swim to great depths and great lengths, because at 8 years old, his father tossed him off of a tugboat in the middle of the ocean and told him to swim or die. These were of course, shark infested waters, and he was able to swim the 8 or 10 miles to shore. He moved to another driver, a female, where he talked about the history of hysteria and how it is only a female illness brought on by the feminine curse. A partial truth, because the WORD hysteria has feminine roots. But other than that, he was way off. When she lost interest, he moved to me and asked the obvious questoin, about IF I was cooking. I replied simply YES, but that was not enough. He broke into conversation first about the Nile river, and how many people do not know that it exists ONLY in Egypt, and it is actually the Red Sea, not an actual river, and when I did not bite on that one, he bounded into information about how the Kings used Mammoth Elephants to build the pyramids, something else that no one but him understands. Aside from my YES response to the food question, I remained silent. He was looking for debate, conversation, argument. Luckily, none of us were willing to bite and he wandered off. I saw him on the way out in a heated debate with one of the security guards about how gunpowder was not actually created in China, but in the United States during the Civil war - proof of American Superiority. OYE with a lot of VEY.

A relaxing but interesting day.

I had a little trouble getting to sleep last night, and had some late night conversations with two new drivers that were seriously lacking in sepecific operations of the company. Mostly to due with message communications and load policies. But I got up and in motion early and hit the shop to find status. They can get me in early, but only at 400am tomorrow morning. That is better than I expected, but not nearly as good as I hoped. Things worked out well though. I spent some time in the driver lounge and McGyver, one of the Variant drivers did the BBQ thing. He cooked burgers, dogs, and sausage. There were quite a few people that wandered in and out and the Storyteller was there, but people were ignoring him directly.

A day of rest - mostly

Most of the day was spent resting. I updated most of my social media sites, started to get things in line for school with a bunch of reading material and the courses, listened to some music, and watch some movies. I watched the 2016 LGBTQ film "Below her Mouth" and it was a bit disappointing. It was nothing more or less than softcore pornography with a limited storyline. Erika Linder, in the lead role, does okay, but other than that, the storyline was just not there for the most part.

Relaxation yeah!

I was finally able to get into a semi-positive mood, but it took more than two days. That is not a good thing and I am hoping that it will hold until morning. I am looking forward to getting back onto the road, hopefully tomorrow. But for now, I am in a positive state of mind. I am due into the shop at either 400am or 600am tomorrow, and since there are no real problems with the truck, things should be decent. Tomorrow is another day.

True to their word, the shop tech was knocking on the door just after 400am. I really did not think that they would get me in that early, but I took 15 minutes and packed up my stuff, something that I should have done last night, and headed over to the shop. Once I turned the truck in, I hit the gym, did my yoga, meditated and grabbed a quick shower. My mood continues to improve. I am even regaining some of my snark, as you can tell by the included rant box today. Oye.

Communication and community

Since I cannot be in the truck while they are working on it, I grabbed three bags and hit the driver's lounge. Before anyone was in there, I was able to use the gym, do my Yoga and grab a shower. Then I set my computer up and started doing "stuff". I spent some time with McGyver, Scott and a few others, and then the new trainees came through. I talked to a few of them, doing the "I am being nice" thing. And then Ariel brought a group of a few Operations trainees through. She gave me devil eyes when I tried to scare them off by being my usual charming self. But by the end, I have quelled any fears I may have created and all was good.

No wasted time

I am on a roll today. I was able to blow through the entire Celebrations directory for Ancient and I am working on Correspondence. I have the three books formatted and in their own directories, with bare bones outlines in place. Then I set up and refined the entire Criminal Justice course, so I am ready to roll at the end of August when school starts. The 18-month plan / two-year plan is in place and in effect. Now I just have to get back on the road and make some moola to pay for it all. I have less than 1000 miles this week, and only two days left. Oye.

Not the greatest end...

The truck was out of the shop in record time, and I did not see that coming. So I jmped in the bunk and told Ops that I could roll about 800pm. Sure enough, a pre-assignment and a trailer location, right on time. Then things got yucky. I headed over to get the trailer, more than 2 hours away, and close to the shipper. But the GPS took me right to a Snieder trailer. I searched the entire yard and not a single USX trailer on the yard. I let Logan know and then took a nap. It was tomorrow before I was told to Bobtail in - but that is for tomorrow - because it gets better.

Nothing ever goes as planned...

...It's a hell of a notion. Styx fans will appreciate that. So, when last we left our hero, he was napping after a failed trailer pickup. It took about three hours for Logan to flip the switch and send me in to Autozone. I never did get a statement to bobtail in, and asked for one, but he was busy as hell, so I talked my way through the gate. Then the fun began. I was there, and so was our new driver, Jeremy Youngblood - nice guy. He was concerned about the load, and when I looked at it, so was I. A whole load of battery cores. Liquid loaded. So they are corrosive. The Bill of Lading says that they do not require Haz-mat or placards, but each of the 19 pallets has a class-8 sticker. Hmm. We both refused the loads and left. We talked for a while and waited. I got another nap. I got confirmation that they ae NOT haz-mat, picked them up, scaled them on site, after a bit of annoyance, and moved on down the road. I have until the 19th at 500am to get them to Texas. I am about 18 hours away, so it should be okay.

Clarification receieved.

I don't know what happened to Youngblood, but I got my clarification that this material is not Haz-mat. Funny, I used to haul this exact load out of Tradabe, and it was always required to have Class-8 placards, caustic. But they sent it to me across driver tech- in writing, so down the road I go. It made for a rough run though. These are heavy, so they loaded the trailer tight. Luckily, the shipper has an on-site scale, it took a few goes, but I got it balanced and got to Love's in Commerce to shut down for the day. Not the greatest sleep, having bad dreams and kept waking up. I usually sleep like a log. Once I got up and in motion, it was a hard run to Texas. Originally, I expected to have about 8 hours extra on this run, but that is not going to work out. Now I am fighting the clock to make it to Southern Texas by 0500am on Thursday. I had to run tight, with a few micro-breaks tossed in. But it is all good.

Stay tuned

Make sure you tune in tomorrow - I am traveling through the adopted home of the Loa!

PhotoCredit:Christopher Klein

The Photo

Traveling through Lousiana, you can almost feel the Loa all around you. I half expected to see papa Legba standing by the side of the road, and me without a long cigar and whisky to pay homage.

A hard running day

Today was not too exciting. It was simply a run for the border. And by that, I mean Mexico, or almost. I drove, slept, and then drove again to try to make my 500am appointment in Laredo TX tomorrow morning. Will I make it? Only time will tell.

A personal note

I am only a bit over two weeks from home-time, and I really need it. My mood is a bit blue and I feel like I am spinning my wheels. I finished my collected works of POE and moved on to Red Prophet by Orsen Scott Card - but it is not helping at all. Time is droning along. I am ready for a reset. I am still working on Ancient, and I am on a roll, but even that is not making me feel accomplished. Home-time! Yeah!

Made it

It was not easy, but I made my 500am appointment in Laredo exactly on time. The dock was fast and efficient. I was in an out on a live load in under an hour. I even had a pre-plan right out of the same location, but the trailer was not ready, so I headed over to the Love's for a break. The pre-plan is only about 160 miles, so hopefully, once I get offloaded, there will be something a bit better available.

Swing and a miss

Sometimes, things just do not go as you planned. I hit the dock right on time this morning, but I was running very low on time. Ops got me a load out of the same place, but it was for noon. It was not ready at 600am when I cleared the dock. It would be ready at noon. Very blunt. Okay, no worries. I communicated with Ops, and told them I could do a 10 and then return at 500pm. That would be great, except the site closes at 400pm. Ooops. I am not upset. There are a lot of drivers here with the exact same issue. So I am here outside the facility until 500am tomorrow, then headed to San Antonio. Once I clear that, if nothing changes, I will be picking up in Waco TX and heading back to Lousiana. Fun times, maybe I will get to try Boudin Balls, and commune with Papa Legba after all. We shall see.

Something interesting

I am highly amused by this industrial park. Every site has a sign that says "No U-Turn" followed by a fine rate. They range from $250 - $300. Good to know that these companies support those that pay their bills. But more interestingly would be to turn every one of them in to the IRS because they only take CASH. Yeah, that would be funny as hell. But seriously, I can understand where they are coming from, after all, they pay premium for their properties, but to extort drivers, that is bad Juju. Imagine what would happen if every logistics company were to take note of these companies and then adopt a policy to NOT do business with any company that has the U-Turn policy. Things would change fast, wouldn't they?

Where goeth thee muse?

Here is a quick update on the creative process. I am working on three written works right now. A political commentary, a book of short horror stories, and the novel "The Awakening" staring Lilith and the Queen of the Fae, at least in the beginning. I have roughed out all three of them and even have three shorts in editing now, all complete and ready to go, once they are checked. Very cool. With the awakening, I have most of the book mapped out, but still need a climax. With the political book, I have to weed through my idea because right now, it would be longer than War and Peace. Can't have that. Time to clip and snip a bit. But at least I am on track with them. Fun times.

The other muse

I finally found the time to take out and clean the Saxophone. Now it is sitting here begging to be noodled. And yes, I shall noodle. At least I will once I finish my Yoga and do my exercises for the day. I got up late and was not really feeling it, so I figured I could skip a day. Bad boy! BAD!

Another day, another set of shiney pennies to rub together. The day did not start well. The area that I am in has very spotty SATcom so it was not until I moved that all the messages came through. And they did not make sense. My pickup yesterday was delayed due to hours of service for both my driving and the operation of the company that I was servicing. So I could not make my drop on time. Operations was going to fix that, but instead of updating the time, I got a second pre-assignment with different numbers, from the same location. But in the end, I think that we figured out what was going on. The order was for a pre-loaded trailer, howerver, the trailer number is the empty that is attached to me. They don't have any of our empty trailers. So I was back in line, first thing in the morning, only to find out that they do not do SHIPPING until 900am. So that is another four wasted hours. And then it happened. I received a new appointment for delivery for 1100am tomorrow. The live-unload is about three hours from where I am, so by the time that I finish, I will have been on this 153 mile load for more than 50 hours. That comes out to about $1.50 an hour. It irritates me.

The final outcome is that the load was already picked up, so I headed over to loves, begging to stew in my own juices. Tristin from planning called me about a load that was supposed to pick up tomorrow, right around the corner, but he was getting it moved to today. Yeah, I should not have believed that. I headed over to CWS, right around the corner, and then sat there for seven hours. I finally got loaded, but with no time left, I am stuck by the side of the road. All in all a frustrating day. But I did get a lot of creative things done until my patience finally wore out on me.

I set down overnight just outside the shipper, and woke up to pounding on my door. Or at least I thought it was pounding, because there was no one there. So either I was dreaming it, which is not impossible, or someone was able to move really fast - because I have line of sight in all directions. But it was only two hours until drive time, so I figured I would get up and in motion.

But things came through finally for the day. I got some personal stuff done, headed over to the scale and balanced without a problem and I was on my way up the road. I was going to set down in Anna TX, but that was a cluster(you know). The Anna Love's is small, only about 56 spaces, but more than 2/3 of them were taken up my four-wheelers, RV's and of all things - motorcycles. And it is not like there was not normal parking. No problem, I had a backup plan - over to the Anna TX Flying J. Except that now well over half their parking lot is now reserved. This is one of the reasons that I avoid Pilot and Flying J, they have become a serious money grubbing greed site. Their prices are going through the roof and they are coming close to converting to all-pay parking. They don't understand why they aren't as popular as Love's, Petro or TA. Well, now they might figure it out...

The mood

The mood has not improved. It is treading water at this point to maintain. It is not sleeping any further to the negative, but it is getting hard to stay where I am. The Yoga and exercise is helping greatly. Just need to get past the hump. Working on the writing, the Sax and Ancient is helping as well. Go go gadget brain...