If you pay attention to the world around you, and this blog, you will notice first, that I have dropped the secondary header. It was becoming a pain to think of fun things to say. So now, I won't be snarky everyday, but I can still get my point across. Welcome to June.

I am ready for my close-up...

If you are old like me, you might get the reference. It has been used to death over the years. But what's one more time? Eh?
Right now, I am in Tunnel Hill, GA and I did my long-awaited video shoot for the Variant Full-Ride program. It is a really good program that offers free education to drivers, and their children. It does not include spouses, but I guess you can't have everything. It was supposed to take a few hour, but we rolled through it in one take for each scene. I only had to re-do a single statement. Not terrible.
Since I was in the Tunnel Hill terminal on food day, I got in line and grabbed a nom. I have now tasted my first Chick-Fil-A sandwhich. Someone will have to explain the hype to me. It is a breaded chicken on a bun with a pickle. My wife makes better chicken sandwhiches. I don't understand why people line up around the block for these things.

The rest of the story

I used the rest of the day as a reset the brain day. I really was not motivated to get anything done. I did get my two discussoin groups done for school and then listened to music before sleep. Tomorrow, I have to head to Ellenwood, GA to pick up a terminal transfer and take it over to Texas. Fun times.

Back on the road with an early start out of Tunnel Hill, GA, and picking up a terminal transfer heading out of Ellenwood, GA, toward Denton, TX. I got into Ellenwood, got hooked up, and made it all the way to Monroe, LA before I had to shut down. But the timing was good because I got to jump in on the Ambassador town hall. It was not really that exciting, but at least I finally made it to one of them. Usually, they take place either while I am sleeping or driving. Granted, I could log in with my phone, but I choose not to.

Trouble in LA

I was restless. This seems to be something that has popped up recently and it is starting to get on my nerves. I watched "Corpse Bride" because I was having trouble getting to sleep. So not the greatest day. My tummy is still doing flippity flops, but I am sure that is all the canned and fast food. That will be resolved next week.

I did take the time to assess where I am with my projects, and suffice it to say that I sucked during the month of May. I did not get too much extra studying done, I did not advance any of the stories, and I pretty much was a bump on a log. That is going to change this month, one way or another.

Okay, lovin' it is McDonalds, but that will come later. I could not sleep properly last night, and that made me oversleep by three hours this morning. Not really a big deal because I had an easy drop in Denton, TX and then popped down to Ennis, TX to reload for a slow roll toward Alabama. Big rolls of squishy stuff for a roofing company. Fun times. I made it all the way into Van, TX and shut down with about 30 minutes left on my clock. There is a double Love's here, and there was a Taco Bell. I have not had Taco Bell in a very long time. It was good when I ate it, but about an hour later, my stomach was letting me know it was a very wrong choice.

A relaxing run

I am very much not happy about this run. I will run out in the morning and get within an hour of my drop, but it does not drop for three days. This is not the way to make money. I could call and complain, or jump on Facebook and say nasty things, but I am just going to Let it Go. It is almost hometime and I am not going to get my panties in a bunch over things. It just is not worth it.

I did not oversleep today. I was rolling right when I expected to and made it to Eutaw, AL, about 30 minutes from my Monday drop. So I have time on my hands. I cleaned the truck, did class, got a Godfather Pizza and relaxed. Plus I got a bit creative.

Hello Tiffany

I would like to introduce you to Tiffany. This is my latest try at using Daz3D. I am very limited to what I can do because the program is model based and I have to use the wireframes that came with the program and the limited freebies that I have been able to find. It is funny, but some of the outfits and all cost more than their physical counterparts.

The world can be annoying

While I had time on my hands, I went through my social media and noticed something. I think that it may be time to back out of social media. Not because of all the negativity, or the bullshit posts by armchair warriors that think that they have a corner on the information market when they actually don't have a clue. Nope, the interface itself. I went through and counted to 100. Out of the first 100 entries on my timeline, there were 70 advertisements. I find that excessive. I usually just ignore them. But this time, I decided to take those that pop up a lot, and block them using the Facebook interface. There were about 10 that I find morally offensive, such as the "trump comes to Memphis, and Memphis loves trump" ones. So I blocked them, gave them a reason that I was blocking them, and then moved on. I even checked who the advertiser was. Most of the ones that I blocked were paid for by the GOP in their attempt to force their will on the people. Then I watched a 30 minute sit-com and reloaded Facebook. Guess what came back? You got it, all 10 of those advertisments that I blocked. So, I guess that Meta, the new Facebook, is teaming up with the powers of evil to forcefeed the American people something that will bring this country to its' knees.

Very few people know this, but a very long time ago, I was a sailor. Not on a big mast scooner, or anything that dramatic, but I did own a share in a sailboat. It was a 1982 Catalina 25 foot fin Keel that me and three friends picked up for about $2000. Why the low price? It was in a shipwreck and had a hell of a hole in the keel. I bought it with myself, Mike Costa, Mike Smith, and Kelli Morgan. We took it to Costa's backyard and spent almost six months when I returned from Germany repairing it. And the damn thing floated. Once we got the thing seaworthy, we all decided it would be a good idea to take it for a ride and see how much fun we could have. Ah, the draw of the sea. So, one weekend, the four of us hooked it up to Kelli's pickup truck and dragged it down to Wildwood, NJ, pushed it into the sea, and learned a valuable lesson. Check the damn weather! We almost pulled a Gilligans Island becuase we did not know that there was a storm coming in. We were only about 10 miles off shore when the storm hit, but it was enough to scare the hell out of us. We managed to get towed in by the Coast Guard and got a nice tounge lashing from the protectors of our seas. You would think that the experience would deter us. And for Mike and Mike, it did. They would not go anywhere near that floating barge of death again. Kelli and I bought them out. But that is not the end of the tale.

Kelli and I were friends. She was a little whisper of a girl, smaller then Jenny and weighed about 80 pounds soaking wet. At the time, I was still pumped up from the military, so we got some very weird looks, because she looked like a 10-year old girl, and I looked like I was abducting a child. It made for some interesting interactions, especially when we got the brillian idea to drag "KellCris", the dubbed name of the ship, down to Florida to give it another try. Bad move. We hit the Southern tip of Florida, dropped the boat after checking the weather, and we were of on our merry way. But this time, we were prepared. We had food, water, an emergency radio, extra sails and everything we needed for a few days at sea. Yeah, it could be fun. Right? Yeah, NO. We planned for, and intended, to spend about 4 or 5 days on the open sea. A small adventure. But on day four, when were were about ready to head back to port, we came face to face with the nightmare of the sea, a lack of wind. We were about 1600 nautical miles north of what could be considered "the Doldrums", but that is what it felt like. We bobbed for two days, not a lick of wind or a way to move. And our planning went into the briny deep. Food and water were quickly evaporating and things did not look good.
To shorten this, I did not eat Kelli and I never resorted to trying to drink seawater. The emergency radio was useless because, duh, always check your batteries, and we both survived. But it was a lesson well-learned. I have never been on a sailboat that small again, and aside from maybe a river or lake, I don't intend to ever do it again. Our friends thout that it could have been "amazing" or "romantic", but we were not like that, and even if we were, wondering if we were going to survive took any fun out of it. Granted, we were able to fish, so we had food, but water, ahhh water.
What does this have to do with anything? The past 72 hours have made me feel about the same. Stuck in Eutaw, Al waiting to deliver, with limited access to food, and little to do other than my studies, made me feel like I was back on that boat. This time, i did not have Kelli, but as you can imagine, by the end of our adventure, we had just about had enough of one another. This time it was just little old me.

Here comes tomrrow

Tomorrow morning, I will be heading into Tuscaloosa, AL and dropping off at 4:00am. At least that is what the order says. The reviews of the GAF plant are speckled with complaints, so I will cross my fingers and hope for the best.

The end of the day

So, what did I do with my last day of floating without wind in my sails? I read the rest of my book for criminal justice, reviewed the upcoming projects, watch a movie (Captain Marvel - again), and then took a refresher course on EH in Forensics General Studies. I have been looking for the time to take that course, and this seemed as good a time as any. It was about eight hours long. But I am back up to speed on general forensics.

I got my butt into motion right away and was sitting outside of GAF manufacturing at exactly 4:00am. Right on time. I got into a dock, unloaded in under and hour and was ready to roll. NOT. Sadly, my trailer that has been so good to me, decided that it was a good time to do something nasty to me. I lost the marker lights down one side of it. I put a call into breakdown, they sent me to Love's in McCalla, AL, which did not open until 7:00am. So I got to sit about 10 minutes from my shipper. They told me it could be up to 3 hours before they got me into a bay. Sigh, okay, I can still make the pickup. So I checked with them at 10:00am. Still going to be 3 hours to get into a bay because they had problems with the previous truck and were working on a solution. And, of course, they are running five employees down. Sigh. A call to operations, and I lose the run to Ohio. Too bad, so sad.

The test of patience

So, the story be told that I spent nine hours waiting in the parking lot of Love's for what turned out to be a fifteen minute fix. I did get a little bit frustrated, but I did not lose my temper by any measure at all. I knew that the problem with the lights was, but I did not have the materials and tools to fix them. I did send a nasty note to Love's corporate about the inability of the shop to manage workflow. They just had no idea what to do when things go wrong. What had happened was a driver brought in a truck, a bit older than dirt, and they had problems getting parts for it. So it sat there all day blocking the repair bay. Oye. They should plan for things like that.

My big laugh today

I usually don't share my facebook stuff here, but I have to share this one.
At Love's in McCalla, Al and I had an older gentleman, with an AR-15 over his shoulder tell me that if I support women's rights to abortion, Jesus has a special place in hell for me. I found that interesting. I smiled and asked him if he was aware of Matthew 26:52. He wasn't, but since I was a spiritual person, we could read it together. He retrieved his Bible, opened to the page, and went pure white, refusing to read. So I quoted it for him...
Matthew 26:52: “Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.” (KJV: 1918).
I asked if he was willing to surrender his weapons as spoken by Christ. He said that the Devil can use scripture to his own means. Kewl! I am the devil! Who would have thunk it?
My laugh for the day is complete.

The day endeth

You will notice the lack of spelling and grammar errors, assuming you are paying attention and want to wait to point out my faults until it works to your benefit. That is okay, I gave up being perfect a long time ago. But the spelling and grammar thing is that I am using a parser now to pre-process the blog entries. This includes spelling and grammar. So far, I like it. I also got my new lighting studio for Daz3D, a freebie from Dreamlight studios. I have not messed with it yet. But it is installed. Might be a nice place for Tiffany to play. Then it was time for dinner. I am down to cans and noodles in the truck. Not good prospects. I was going to get Subway, but the line was too long, and my patience was a bit frazzled. So, nuggets and fries from the big clown it is. Bad choice. It took them more than 20 minutes to put together nuggets and fries. But that was because the manager, obviously watching her service metrics, kept clearing orders before they were actually complete. There were several (angry) people screaming about their food and waving their receipts. I stood calmly and patiently. The last of my patience, I might add. After 20 minutes, when I was the only one standing there, and they appeared to have cleared all orders. I walked up to the protective Plexiglas and just pushed my proof of order against the plexi. I did not say a word, just stood there. And they got my food. The thing that pissed me off the most is that I waited more than 20 minutes, and I am pretty sure mine was bagged about five minutes after I ordered. Cold fries and nuggets. Oh the joy of clown food.

I got a good start to the day. I was up about three hours early and jumped right in. I got email done, finished my reading for school, installed my new studio for Daz3D and got my course discussions finished. Then it was on to pick up at Westrock and head North.

Then it got funky

I hit Westrock within 30 minutes of my pre-loaded trailer appointment, then things went wrong. They did not have the pre-load ready, so I had to spend about two hours in the dock getting loaded. As soon as I backed in, it started to pour, raining like the Gods themselves were having a bad day. Once I was loaded, I scaled in Jasper, TN and headed North. I shut down in Horse Cave, KY and had some beans and hot dogs for dinner. Not a great choice.

The evening

I am all caught up for school, so figured I would take some me time. I am running tight on time, and I am going to miss my appointment in the morning by about 2 hours. Nothing I can do about that. I watched my fellow truckers for a while, and everyone is on edge it seems. People are just angry as hell. I hate it. I watched my show, currently agent of Shield, then I was off to bed. But it was a restless sleep. I am not sure why, but I kept waking up. It does not help that all the fast food, canned food, and dude issues are causing me problems. But it is almost hometime, so I have that to look forward to.

I overslept a little, but nothing terrible. A seven hour run into the Chicago area and then waited to be unloaded at Westrock. That site is rough. They are running only one dock, with one unloaders that is doing both truck and rail-cars. And there was a line six deep. Oye. Not the greatest experience, but they were good at communicating the issues. Apparently the bottleneck was caused because a few trucks came in a day late. So I don't feel too bad for being 90 minutes late. It's all good. I did have one driver try to jump the line, but the dock master put him in his place, and that place was behind the rest of us. The fun part is that there is no place to turn around, so it took him about half an hour to get back, and two more trucks jumped in line. ROFL. All in all, it took about four hours to get into and then out of Westrock.

Adventures at Horse Cave

When I went to get my coffee and tea this morning before I left Horse Cave, KY, I was approached by a lot lizard. My spidey sense went off, but for once I was wrong. She was about a foot shorter than me, very tiny, short-shorts, halter top, no figure, and looked like she was about 12 years old. I asked her how old she was, and she said she was 21. I did not believe her. I called the Kentucky State Police about a possible youth-at-risk. They were right across the street and were there in about 2 minutes. Not a terrible response time. They arrested the young lady for solicitation, but they came by the truck and told me that she was, indeed, 21 years old. Go figure. They thanked me for keeping an eye out, but told me not to worry about the youth-at-risk as far as she is concerned. Interesting.

But what is next?

Finshed up at Westrock, it was time to find a place to set down. Normally, I would pop on over to the Markham terminal, make a nice meal, then shut down for the day until I learn what my fate will be. But alas, running with little or no food on the truck, I have to stay in range of edibles. But not THOSE kinds of edibles. I popped into the South Holland, IL Love's and I was early enough that there was plenty of parking. I grabbed a space, got a salad and made some broccoli rice. Then waited for the tell-tale sound of the next run, the home run. Alas, that is not to be. I have a pickup tomorrow morning at 0700 heading toward Washington, MO. That is just outside of St. Louis. And guess when it drops off? 1000 on Friday, 30 minutes after I am scheduled to be in Memphis. Guess I am not headed home yet. And it spiraled me right into a blue funk. That is a combination of things though. I know that this is logistics, and things don't always work out. But the food issue, the really wanting to be home issue. All of it. Sigh. I just lay down and closed my eyes. Spoiler for tomorrow. 10 hours sleep. That is NOT good.

It has been a very long time since I spoke to and with the Aythers. If you do not know me, that may mean nothing to you, but it is important to me. For the unlearned in Enochian, it is the same as praying, except that usually, the Aythers will talk back. Sometimes with visions or signs, sometimes with a voice, sometimes with a sledgehammer to the brain. As part of my meditation this morning, I opened myself up to their counsel. The answer I got was short and to the point. Basically, before success comes failure and the universe is testing me, not to see if I am worthy, but to see what I can handle. Wow, that is the first time the suckers have ever done the cryptic thing on me. What should have given me a little peace, just made me a bit more confused. Oye.

Amusing

If you have been following along, I am in the middle of a bit of a deep blue funk, mostly caused by diet, low miles, and a series of unfortunate events. But I still attempt to remain positive. And sometimes, there are little things that help. About three months ago, the wife purchased me a new set of sketcher sneakers. I put them in the truck and forgot about them. Being thrifty, as I can, I have been trying to stretch things. And this morning, I did my yoga and meditation and then went for coffee and tea. While walking back to the truck, my foot felt funny. I looked at the sole of my shoe, and ... well... there wasn't one. The entire bottom of my sneaker had taken the train leaving my foot exposed. I hobbled back to the truck, found my new pair, and now I am wearing them. Yeah for thinking ahead! But it really was funny.

Fighting the demons

As I have pointed out, for the past few days, I have been fighting the big-bad within myself. But it came to a head today. I got loaded up in Kankakee, IL in one of the most annoying tiny docks that I have been in in the past few years. Once loaded, I headed toward Washington, MO and my appointment is not until tomorrow morning. About two hours before I am supposed to be at home. I have a pre-plan assignment picking up at Needleys Landing, MO heading into Memphis, but I am going to get in tomorrow evening or so. That blows the entire day. I landed just outside of East St. Louis and ate Subway. It sucked by the way, I am just tired of that type of food. I don't know how drivers' do that all the time. After I ate, I lay down and went to sleep. I really think that I had the intention of sleeping for about fifteen hours. Luckily, my Freudian lizard brain kicked in and attacked my peanuts of pathos. Dreams of hunting myself, a war between the Ego, Id, and Superego. I was able to wake up and get my ass up so that I did not just fall deeper into a pit of my own design. And I am sure that you can tell by my tone that the ole muse has grabbed her whip and is leaving some nice mental lashes upon my mental back.

Ending the day right

I fired up some music videos that were NOT all gushy mental crap. They included Pink, Ava Max, Lindsey Stirling, Iggy Azalea, Bebe Rex ha and others. Basically all your angry chicks with attitudes. Later on, I added some Pink Floyd, Zeppelin, Rusted Root, They might be Giants and other more 70s-80s dude bands and it made for a nice mental cocktail to bring me a bit closer to center. So that worked out well. While they were caterwauling in the background, I got email, blogs, and class done. But I avoided the nasty dozen or more hour sleep thing. That would have been a bad thing. Once I cleared things, checked the drop off and pickup for the morning, then I could get a good nights' sleep within a realistic time. And in theory, tomorrow night, I should be at home, and I will head back on Tuesday instead of Monday.

It was going to be a good day. And then I got a message from Operations. My 7:00am appointment has been moved to 12:00PM. That means that I am doing a live unload, at least five hours from home, 2.5 hours after I am due in Olive Branch. But I am not letting it irk me off this time. I did contact Miranda, and they forgot about the pay for the video, so they are going to get that fixed. Maybe I won't have a peanut paycheck again this week, we shall see.
The runs for the day were okay, with a few hiccups such as being delayed at the first dock. It took 90 minutes to get unloaded because the dock-girl was on a break at my appointment time. At least that is what she said, nudge nudge wink wink. But I got unloaded, hit Neelys Landing, got the new trailer, and headed home.

Starting the Day

I was down in East St. Louis, MO for the night, and I took advantage of the extra time and grabbed an extra shower and got my paper done for school. One more week to go. I was going to finish up my discussion groups, but there were no responses yet to the second one, so I haev to make sure I do that while I am on Home Time. Things to do. Fun times. I will also have to do my two discussions and my final paper on Dahmer while I am home. Time is fleeting.

New courses

I got a new set of tools for lightbox and about a dozen how-to videos that I managed to get downloaded. Well, most of them. The internet was being a butt. But I got the Lion-share of them done. I found a site that has some popular fiction in French, and that is fun. It is an easy way to learn if you know the story. Interesting.

The end of the day

I got to Olive Branch right on time, and Rowan was about a half an hour behind me. I cleared out the truck, and headed home. I at a bite to eat and headed to bed. Let the hometime begin.

I have finally had a fruitfully and uneventful day. I got a decent, but short nights sleep and then got into motion. I was not really motivated, but I am on Home time and I am going to enjoy it dammit! I got a bit of cooking done, and got my bags emptied out. I did shopping and hung out with the wife. So life is good.

In other news

Since it was an uneventful day, I did have time for some extra meditation. I cannot shake the negative and it is really starting to get on my nerves. I figured that as soon as I hit the house, things would go all honkey dorey. But that did not happen. Home time, meditation, yoga, even creative outlets are failing me right now. At least it is just a snarky negative toward the world, instead of a depression. But snarky negative can be cumulative and draw other negatives. So I have to come up with a resolution. But that is for another day. Today, it is time to relax and catch you on the flip-side.

Boy, that title sounds both ominous and uncomfortable. But today is a get things done. I am sick and tired of this mood, and the hope is that if I burn through my home list, leaving tomorrow open to just sitting and doing whatever the hell I want, then the snark will fade into the distance and become a long forgotten dream.

Speaking of Dreams

I was up at 0200am this morning, after six hours of sleep. But I did not wake up with a cat staring into my face from six inches away. That was not just a random thought. That is what happened yesterday. Kitska is weird. Anyway, the dreams. Normally, I do lucid dreaming. I can always identify when I am in a dream and tell myself that I know that I am there, and what it is. Usually, I can then grab hold of the dream and manipulate the content. Lucid dreaming, I have been able to do it for a very long time. Recently, that is not the case. I can always identify that I am in a dream, but if I try to manipulate the dream, it always goes back to the path it was on. Normally, I would say that these are message dreams, signals from the Freudian ID that are trying to tell me something. But they are way too random and strange. Granted, it was a Colorado dream, which makes since because I had to drive through Memphis yesterday, and it just doesn't feel either like home, or safe anymore. People are just very angry. You can see it on their faces.
Anyway. Nice little home on a mountain, no problems yet. Sitting on a porch, watching the sunrise. Still no problem. Then a car comes in the driveway and Sean Connery gets out and tries to get me to join his religion, based on the story of 007 where he is God. Okay, weird, but not terrible, I ask Sean to kindly go away and then he does. No worries, back to the sunset. I return to enjoying the mountainscape and then Krystal Orchid, a cammy girl, pops around the corner wearing a thong and halter top asking to borrow a cup of sugar. Krystal is a young, brace-face cammi-girl with an attitude and I recently heard her interviewed on one of my podcasts, so that intrusion makes sense. Laura gives her a cup of sugar and she goes away, shouting over her shoulder that she is having a party later, in our backyard, and we are invited. Okay, weird, but elements I can understand. Then the party comes around. It is mostly cats and dogs, with a few aliens wandering around, and a robot that keeps asking for the time because his/her internal clock is broken and they have to get back early to take out the trash. Huh? Even for me, this is weird. I think that the strangest part is the inclusion of Krystal Orchid. She has got to be one of the most unpleasant adult entertainers out there. She is bratty, a bit air-headed, and annoying. Not exactly someone that holds my attention, except in a negative, judgmental way. Like I said, strange.

On with the day

I started in on the big list, getting cooking out of the way first. After losing my refrigerator last month on the truck, it is going to be good to have my food back so I don't have to eat fast food constantly. Not only is it expensive as hell, but it messes with the old digestion. I managed to get enough meals done, once I add the meatballs, to have a nice next run. I did lose my catfish because I left it sitting on the counter all day. After my brush with food poisoning let month, probably due to catfish, I was not going to take the chance. I think that I am good on food.

What else?

I kinda ran out of steam after the cooking. I still have stuff to do on the house, but that is going to have to be tomorrow. I got a headache and moody. Pfft. I did watch some repeat movies though. I don't like the new James Bond. He just isn't ...

My last day of hometime for about six week. It was hot, I was a bit lazy, and both the adults had quite a headache for most of the day. Not the greatest way to spend hometime, but better than being at work. Right? Yeah, that is right.

Caught up

All the food is cooked and I am ready to get back on the truck, whatever that brings. I am very hopeful that they will get things together and start pushing me some miles, but time will tell.
The food is cooked and frozen. The entertainment, including some new sleep music, is all prepared and I have set up all the stuff that I need for the final week of school. I still have to set up the new course, which should start late this week. But I have time on that. Fun times. But even though I am ready, I really don't want to get back to work tomorrow.

The Universe

So, the universe is trying to send me a message. It is coming through my dreams, but I don't seem to speak the language. Isn't that weird? I am having these really off the wall dreams, and I just can't get them to come together in anything that I can understand. Weird. I am considering adding a dream bubble to the block, maybe something in a nice pale blue. But I have no decided yet, because some of them really go off the wall.

I was up and in motion right on time and out of the door exactly when I expected to be. Then things got rough. I loaded everything into the truck, parked the jeep, and let operations know that I was ready to roll. Tick-Tock went the clock. It took them three hours to find me an empty trailer, one that was parked about 100 yards from me all morning, and then it was off to the races. I had an 800am pickup in McKenzie, TN at Cub Cadet, scheduled for a live-unload at TSC Mixing in Nashville. Of course the live-unload was for 1:00pm. I hit the distributor at 2:00pm. So you know what the means for the unload, right? And since I was late by six hour, I had to sit in the staging lot. OYE. What a way to return to work. Hopefully, it will get better.

Truck changes

I did get the new freezer installed and checked it a few hours after I started to run. All good for now. Everything fit perfectly and I am set for this tour of duty. Now I just need to get some miles under my belt. That is in the hands of the fates.

The Mood

The negative mood has not improved yet. I stopped in Jackson, TN to get fuel, and there was a truck camped on the fuel island. I saw him get out after he fueled, and got my fuel, then waited. After 15 minutes, I wandered inside where he was getting all kinds of food and stuff, and we talked about ignorant drivers that camp the fuel island while there are so many parking spots. He agreed with me that they are jerks. After another 10 minutes, almost a half an hour with him parked there, he finally had reheated things, bought things, and was ready to go back to his truck. My parting comment was that island campers deserve it when people pull their kingpins, mess with their loads, or their seals. Then I strolled, smiling, the my truck, sitting behind him. He did a pretty good pre-trip before he set out. Of course, I did nothing nasty, but I bet he thinks twice about camping like that again. The next person may not be so nice.

The negative pile

Negative does breed negative. While in the staging lot, waiting to be pulled into a dock and loaded, I finished setting up the truck. During the setup, I had to use my bunk ladder, which is part of the upper bunk. While stowing it when I was done, one of the catches jammed, and I had to give it a little nudge. In doing so, I managed to catch my finger between two rungs. And smashy smashy. So that hurts like hell now. And then, to top it off and make the day perfect, I did something that I have not done since I was 15 years old and in an abusive household. I bleed scratched my arm, where you scratch something so raw that you draw blood. Not real deep because I realized what I was doing. But this is reversion to an old bad habit. Not gonna happen. Time to get control of the old gray matter and once I am in a better frame of mind, make it clear to those in charge that things are brought into order or else. Oye. Normally I love a good confrontation, but right now, I am tired of them.

Ending the day

I finally got loaded as last truck of the day. Considering I had an 800am appointment, that is kinda funny. As I missed my 100pm unload, I called ops and let them know that I needed a new one. Operations confirmed that rolling in would be a bad idea because the site was already closed, so I tried to shut down at Love's in Holladay, TN. No luck there, all full. But the North 40 across the street had a space, so I shut down, made my meat sauce, and headed off to sleep.

I actually slept okay considering how irked off I was yesterday. So that is a good way to start the day. I jumped right into the day and got my morning routine done instead of ignoring it. Of course, the first thing that I did was communicate with operations, and I did not let it get on my nerves. I was told that the email for a new appointment had been sent with a request for 0800am but it is not confirmed. Then I asked if I should head over at 0800am and was told to go ahead and try it. I am sorry, people need to actually do their jobs in these cases. This receiver has strict rules about their deliveries, and I should not have to play cooler to pacify them because of mistakes outside of my control.

Go go go

Things are finally flowing. I hit the first dock and the live unload turned into a drop and hook because they were short-handed, needed the product, and I was late, due to no fault of my own. Then I hit Westrock and the live load was already loaded, so it turned into a drop and swap. A lot of time savers today, and that is a welcome thing.

Ah Thomas

Because of the running, I have little else to say today, but there are two more things. First, I am back into reading the exploits of Thomas Covenant. I am on White gold wielder, and I don't remember any of this at all. So it is a new adventure. Second, I had Lloyds BBQ for dinner, and it was excellent. One small tub makes two meals. Not terrible at all. So for now, see you on the flip-side.

I woke up late today in Bloomsdale, MO. I guess it is good because that is where I shut down, but I planned to have two hours in the morning to get things done. That did not work out. I wound up running out about a half an hour late, and I was still rushed. If I would have known how the day was going to turn out, I would have just stayed in bed and let the world pass me by. A little foreshadowing there for you.

The first part of the day

The drive from Bloomsdale to Harrisonville, MO was not terrible. I got to listen to about four more chapters my latest Thomas Covenant novel by Stephen R. Donaldson, and then I hit the distribution center. Went like clockwork. I got dropped off and had an empty nice and fast, and even had my pre-assignment waiting for me as soon as I cleared the load, then the trouble began.

Here comes trouble

I got to the Kansas City, MO distribution center, got my trailer and headed on down the road. All looked good during pre-trip, but about 15 miles into the run, going around Kansas city, right after the construction, the trailer began to drag to the right. I pulled into the first safe spot and called breakdown. I figured that maybe the rough road had messed up the alignment? No such luck. They sent me 30 miles in the wrong direction to Jim Hawk truck and trailer, and guess what! A nice broken hanger on the suspension. I am lucky I did not hit any more rough roads, because it was a 3 inch break in a 4 inch strut. One more inch, bye bye tandems. That would have been fun. It took almost three hours to get an answer, but tomorrow morning, assuming I can find an empty, we have to have the load transloaded onto a new trailer, at Jim Hawk Trailer, and I will be down the road. So I put my tail between my legs, tried the Flying J right around the corner with no luck, and headed four miles down the road to Love's. Even with a bobtail, parking was horrible. But I got a space, at some Asian chicken, and worked on my Dahmer paper.

So, the dreams

Okay, the dreams are really starting to get on my nerves. They are every night now and they are just so off the wall that I can't figure them out. I know that I have not been doing a lot of writing lately, or even drawing. Okey, I have not been doing ANY at all. I am wondering if my creative side is just bubbling over and trying to escape. Because these dreams are so far to the left and right of center that it is starting to really bother me. The fact that I can't take them lucid is disturbing as well. I can identify that I am in a dreamscape, but any time I try to change anything, I get met with resistance. Weird.

I started the day about 0430am with no clear plan for the day because of the slow responses yesterday. I got a good breakfast and took a look at the new course at Arizona Global.

A recap

Those things that have gone before. Yesterday I picked up a load heading down to Grove City, OH and before I was 15 miles out, my trailer started acting weird. When I picked the load up, I noticed a bit of a ding in the rim of one of the rear tires, and a new tire on the rim. I checked the suspension and all looked good. But I guess I did not look close enough. It seems that there was a stress fracture on one of the suspension hangers and I must have hit some rough road that broke it loose. I spend almost three hours as Jim Hawks truck and trailer finding out that they could not fix it while loaded, and today, they would Trans-load it, assuming I could find an empty trailer. Now you are caught up to where I was in the morning.

Taking the advantage

Last night, I finished up my serial killer paper and submitted it. That one is 40 percent of my grade, so I am waiting patiently. This morning, my new course, Ethics in Criminal Justice, became available. I downloaded the text, checked about 400 of the references, and prepped the discussions and assignments for the entire course. I am going to consider that time well spent. I think that I am ready to roll on this.

The Saga Continues

Alas, things did not go as planned, and it created more tension and aggravation as the day continued. Basically, I spent most of the day waiting, with no response from anyone. I inquired repeatedly and then just gave up, settling in to wait for an answer. The first answer did not go well. They sent me over to the GM plant to pick up an empty for the Trans-load. The empty was not available and the four other trailers on site were still loaded. Back to the Kansas City Love's. Then Jamie called me around 4:00pm and let me know that there was a verified empty at the Kansas city drop yard. I was able to get hooked to it, but by that time, and with traffic, Jim Hawk Truck and Trailer was closed for the weekend. I spoke to David in operations and we figured that I was probably down for the weekend. Since it was after 5:00pm, there was no place close to park. I told David that I would head about 50 miles out of the city, which was actually 30, and I shut down in Bates City, MO. I am going to call David first thing in the morning and we will go from there.

I started the day early with a good breakfast and finishing up my current course at Arizona Global. Then I fired up the next course and did the reading for the first week, viewed the recommended video, read a bit about David Hume and got the old brain into motion. I updated the blog for yesterday and got irritated with the FTP software, so I installed, updated, and upgraded FileZilla. I have been meaning to do that for weeks, but the time felt right. The biggest thing about using CoreFTP, a basic FTP client, is that it would not synchronize browsing or compare directories. So more than once, I forgot to select the proper directory and uploaded files into the wrong place. FileZilla fixes those problems, even though I have to select the options each time I open the program. I guess you can't have everything, eh?

The Resolution

I called into operations right at 0700am as planned and got the answer that I was expecting. There is no potential weekend solution to the trailer issue and I am stuck where I am until Monday morning. As I had resigned myself to this answer, it did not come as a big surprise, so I hunkered down and set about an early break day. I will not sulk and just sleep this time. I am going to get things done!

And I did not waste the day

My biggest fear when I am rolling on a negative week like this with excessive downtime, is that I really love to be left alone by people, but you can overdose on that. At this point, I have been down for more than 72 hours and with only limited human contact. It is grating on me. I cannot just sit and roll movies or series and I can't just keep reading. I have read my entire text for the new class on ethics and I have viewed quite a few multi-media pieces on the subject. I still have about 400 downloaded references to skim through. But at this point, it is mostly repetition. I also took the time to work on Ancient for a bit. I have not done that in a while, and it is back into my round-robin.

I am soooo not feeling it today, but I got my butt up and in motion. I spent most of the morning working on the new class, Ethics, for school. I had to read 550+ pages, and some of the references. I got my introduction completed and finished my first discussion question before I decided to take a break and eat my brunch. Corned beef with my havardi cheese on my little sandwich cooker.

of the day

Most of the day was spent reading my new Ethics text and listening to music and such. But I am in a space the size a prison cell, and little is going to brighten my dark mood other than movement. There is nothing around Bates City, MO to distract me, so I just have to bite the bullet and move on when the time comes.

Circles

One win for today is that I got to spend some time with the Sax, my drawing, and Ancient. I got a lot done on all of them. And I am getting pretty good at free-hand circles. I put all my drawing crutches, such as my straight edges, into my folder and zippered it up. It was a lot harder than you might think. I know that it sounds silly, but I am such a purist when it comes to creating, that working freehand is like an alien land. Funny huh?

I am sure you know the old Willie Nelson song, On the Road Again. Well, that is me. It has taken four days, but here we go. The past few days have been nerve racking. I have been stuck in Bates City, MO for four days, and there is nothing here. The only consolation is that there is a nice open field that was great for exercise, yoga, meditation, and self-reflection. Of course, that was until the temperature reached 115F. That was a bit of a bummer. Even my truck AC on both sides, the engine AC and the bunk, could not keep up with that. But I made it through it and we are into a new week.

On with the day

After going back and forth with Operations, I finally got authorization to break the seal on the trailer and headed back over to Jim Hawks Truck and trailer. And then, dum dum dum, I sat for hours. How many hours? Too many, but well over four. And part of that is because for the first two, they forgot that I was there. Yep folks, you read that right. The young lady in the office made all the arrangements, and then the shop person taking care of it simply forgot about me. Of course, this is because they are short staffed. Too bad there is not a 75 foot tractor and trailer parked in the middle of your parking lot...oh wait...THERE WAS. Sigh.

Using the time

Of course, I checked email and social media and all that. But that could not take up all the time, so I pulled out my sketch book and did some drawing. Just circles and boxes, and a cute little face. Maybe I will put it here, maybe I won't. It will depend on if I remember to grab the picture off my phone. I sent it to the wife. Everything is A-Okay. Yep, that is what I am going with for right now.

So, a question

So, they have been around forever, but now everyone is doing them. Funny videos of dogs and cats, people falling off ladders, slipping on ice, all kinds of weird things. But then, you are watching this, and the narrator has to pop their head into the frame to make a comment. I used to see them now and then, but lately, everyone is doing it. Kind of a LOOK AT ME type of thing where the world cannot survive without seeing their face. It used to be cute, or sometimes even funny, especially from Steve Harvey. But the ones now, they put their mug right in the middle of the action. Why is this? I am sure that there is a reason, or a movement, or a click that it feeds. I just can't figure out what it is.

The real state of me

The situation last week, and into today really has me thinking. With the Colorado move on the horizon, now is really not time for a change of jobs, unless it could transfer to Trinidad, OR was remote operation. But I really need to consider it. The lack of communications is killing me. This breakdown incident itself shows an utter lack of operational control. Finding trailers is difficult, but it should never take almost 30 hours to find one. If it does, then the driver should be sent to another demographic. Hell, I could have made it to the West Coast and back with the time that has been wasted on this. Then getting information. There has to be something better than asking the CSR for a resolution. I don't know what, if any, CSM platform the operations team(s) use, but it obviously doesn't work, because drivers should not have to beg for information repeatedly. At Dell, we had ownership of issues. Any issue not resolved immediately would require a technician to follow up at specific intervals, based on need. To allow me to sit for three full days, regardless of compensation or lack-thereof, is against business standards. I know that from the school that Variant sent me to. This is nothing that I have not said to management, but lately, it is like everything fall on deaf ears. The positive side is that with our orientation classes, about 40% or more of the new hires, are actually returning drivers. They have gone elsewhere and found that the grass may often be greener on the other side, but it is usually Astroturf. So, if I am going to think about making a move, it may have to be out of Logistics. Ahh the dilemmas that we face.

The final solution

No, i am not going all world domination and hate speech. The final solution to the day was that they got me transloaded, even though I really don't think that they did that good of a job. They seem to have had problems fitting it all back in. Oye. Thank the gods it was not closer to legal weight, that could have been a problem. But I got reloaded and on down the road. I drove for a few hours into Greenville, IL and managed to shut down in a Love's, even at 1030 at night. I lucked out. I was going to pull in for fuel, and as I hit the parking lot, a space opened up. Perhaps the universe is giving me a break. We shall see.

Today will be a short entry because I finally had a day that was pretty close to uneventful. I started out right on time and rolled into Walmart in Grove City, OH. I got my trailer dropped and by the luck of the Gods, I came out with an empty. There is a story there, but I am not going to tell it because sometimes you just have to accept that Karma will take care of you if you let it. As soon as I had my empty, I got a new load headed towards Virginia. And I knew the shipper, so it was all good even with a 10 ton bridge in my way. I got loaded up, then hit Zanesville, OH to scale, then on to the Salesville, OH rest area to shut down.

That's all?

Nah, I am not that boring most of the time. I did get some more reading down on White Gold Wielder, and I got my normal stuff done like Yoga, Meditation, French, and school. The only thing I added is that I am doing daily art lessons. I was going to upload my waiting drawing of a piece of machinery, but ...stuck on time right now. I will keep you updated.

I started the day out late. I got my final grades in the Psychology of Criminal Justice, not terrible, 99.67. Then I had some problems in French. I got stuck on one phrase and just could not get it right. Pfft. But I forged onward knowing that this was going to be a wonderful day. But ah, Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos always have a hand to play in life. If you are not familiar with the names, those are the Greek three fates, those that spin, dispense and cut, respectively, the threads of life that make up our tapestry. But I digress.

Avante!

I rolled hard and made it to my unload at Mercury Paper, only about an hour late, but they took me anyway. And to top it off, the dock was under 15 minutes. I had barely finished my paperwork when I got the green light. I cleared the dock and headed to Toms Brook to eat lunch and wait for the next assignment. Before lunch was done, I got assigned to pick up at Sparrow's point, MD headed toward Indy. Now why does that sound familiar? Oh, yeah, that is the waterfront in Baltimore. Groan. In other words, almost four hours in heavy city and beltway traffic to go 130 miles. Doesn't make me a happy camper. By the time I swapped trailer and headed out of the waterfront, I was running very low on time.

Let's add more trouble

Picking up at the Flooring Store, I expected no trouble. They are a professional site and I can scale on site, since they always run their loads heavy. That is really helpful when I am running low on drive time. Yeah, that is the perfect scenario. Until you see that they have the scales blocked off. Yeah, no scale, so that means that I leave Baltimore with 44K and no scale anywhere to be seen. Unless I go to the TA, on the beltway, out of route, with no parking during rush hour. I took my chances. But I got over the state scale with no problems. I will still scale tomorrow when I fuel in Hagerstown, MD, but the gamble paid off. I wound up going about 4 miles out of route to shut down. I was running low on time, and on I70 Westbound coming out of Baltimore, it is like a ghost town. There is a small, six space truck parking area in Mt. Airy, and I flipped around to grab the last space. Nice and quiet.

The drama

So, last week, I was down with a busted trailer for just shy of five days. I received assurances from both Katie and Brian in operations that I would be taken care of. It is obvious that my time is worth exactly $0 to the company and they have no problem leaving a driver stranded for the better part of a week for doing his job. The problem is that I brought a danger break on a trailer to the attention of the company and actually had it repaired. Lesson learned, leave it to the next driver. Of course, that is what everyone does, and I cannot. But at least I know why we have so many problematic trailers. I could rage against the machine, but as they are probably counting on, I am tired and have no fight in me for this.

Ending the day

As I said, I shut down in a East bound truck parking area with six spaces. Nice and quiet. A dinner of shrimp and I was off to sleep. I have to remember to pick up milk, bread, and water. I did not even realize I was running low until I ate heels of bread with my shrimp and checked for milk for breakfast. Oye. I need a new brain.

I started the day out just like I wanted to. I updated blogs, emails and such, and got my lessons done for Arizona Global and French. I got a good breakfast, and had time for exercise, yoga, and even a bit of Saxophone. So not a terrible start to the day.

And then....

So, I was gung ho to make this drop on time. The only real variable was that I needed fuel and because the scale was out of order at the shipper, I really needed to hit a CAT scale. I did not like the way the truck was pulling. Usually with 44,000 pounds, I have no problems on hills. So I headed into Hagerstown, MD. About seven miles out of route. I am very glad I did. Not only am I at 78,880 with no fuel, but the drive axles were overweight by 2700 pounds, AFTER adjusting the tandems. I can't fix that. I called Ops, and long-story-short, I am in Shippensburg waiting for authorization to remove the seal so that an outside company can reload the trailer properly. That does not change the fact that the Bill of Lading is wrong, but that is another problem all together. It may take a day to get this done. I don't expect to hear anything until morning.

Using the Time

Since I was down for hours, I got a few things done. I talked to both Mass Mutual and TransAmerica and found my retirement fund. Organix moved away from Mass Mutual, and in doing so, my money migrated to the new fund, the same one that is there from US Xpress. So that makes life a bit easier. I also talked to OPerations about the crap last week with the 4 and a half days down. That has been resolved, and fixed in such a way that I am not going to complain if I am down for a day on this load. As long as they don't drag their feet too much. I also did some art lessons, some extra French, and finished the Herbology database for Ancient. That took a very long time, but it is done now. Then it was time for some rest.

Today just sucked the big weenie. I waited for six more hours to get an answer to the overloaded trailer, and the final answer was that I should return to the shipper, 121 miles away, and have the load reworked. Of course, this poses a problem because of the three weigh stations between me and the shipper. So onto the phone I went. First I called operations and explained the situation. They transferred me to Safety who told me what I already knew. There is no power on Earth that can make me move a trailer that is illegally loaded once I am aware of the statues. Easy answer. Back to operations, then breakdown. I let them know the skinny and let them know that I was not going to move the trailer from Shippensburg. We will see what rusts first, me or the trailer. Breakdown worked on the rework, operations noted the account, and then I waited.

While waiting

This is going to be a bit intense, and should probably go into a rant box, but I leave it here for the world to see. I have been alive for 56 years. I have given blood, and flesh, and sanity to the United States of America. Even through the clown college of the previous administration, I have always stood in awe of the American Flag. Today, I am ashamed. The Supreme Court of the United States of America struck down Roe v. Wade, stating in one bold voice, that women do not matter. They imposed their idealistic beliefs on the American people and marginalized more than half of the population. They have fired the first shots in a war on women, the new burning times, that they just cannot win. Women are already starting to understand their power and how they are being treated. This is not a Handmaid's Tale where the feminine will just kneel to the will of man. This is going to be more like Resident Evil where they will stand and fight. And gods help those that stand against them. So every man that has to defrost hot dogs because there is no dinner, every man that has no touchy, no feely, no gentle word, Understand what you have done. Make no mistake, this is only the beginning, not the end.

The drama, act II

I finally got word from the CSR. Operations was instructed to tell me to go back, 121 miles, to the shipper for a rework. I was not happy with this decision, so I contacted safety that give me the rules and law. I cannot in any way be forced to move a trailer that I know is overweight on public roadways. Jack from safety told me to relay this information to operations and if they continued to insist that I return to the shipper, drop the trailer and walk away from the load. After another hour, I was removed from the load. There were no empty trailers at the Shippensburg yard, so another hour of waiting, and then I was sent to Lowe's just a mile away. The trailer that they sent me after was still in a door, but it was empty and they let me pull it, all good until....

The big until

Because of the weight of the previous trailer, I had been careful about fuel. My intention was to fuel at the terminal once I knew exactly what my weight was going to be because I was within a few hundred pounds of legal limit. But time makes fools of us all. It would have been an excellent plan, assuming that the pumps at the terminal were operational. Of course, they weren't. So, Shippensburg, PA, 3 gallons of fuel, and 31 miles to the nearest authorized fuel outlet. 31 miles in the wrong direction, I might add. I tried it. But it became obvious quickly that I was not going to make it. The result, I pulled off at an exit that had signs for diesel. I hit the Sunoco first, but their pumps were down, out of fuel. I went 1 mile in the other direction and found a Rutters with active pumps, but no way to get the truck onto the island. And then the engine sputtered. First time I have run out of fuel in a very long time. I was on a side road next to Rutters, facing a Tractor Supply store. I bought a fuel can, put 9 gallons of fuel into the tanks, paid out of pocket, and then a wonderful State Trooper, Officer Betty, helped me get out of the side road because it was closed off at one end and very tight. Then it was on down the road.

But what then?

It took so long to get the fuel that I lost my load from PA to NJ. Oh the horror, I don't get to go to Lakeland, NJ. But they reassigned me from York, PA to Front Royal, VA. I have run this one before, it is decent on both ends. Of course, the on-site scale at York was offline, but the product was only 38,575 (I can carry 46,000) so I figured I was good. I got fueled in Carlisle, headed to York, and then made the drop at the Family Dollar DC in Front Royal without issues. Last time I was at Front Royal, I watched a 3rd party leave with the last USX trailer and it cost me a day of hunting for another one. That was not the issue this time. There are more than a dozen of our empties there. I just had to get them yanked out of very tight spaces. Then it was time to break. One of the problems with this area is a lack of parking. I opted for the truck rest area on Route 66. I had to go about 8 miles and turn around to get to it, but it is nice and quiet. And that was the end of the day.

Sadly, this is an uneventful day. I got word first thing in the morning that I would not be picking up until Sunday morning, about 70 miles away. I headed over to Hagerstown, MD and shut down for the day and relaxed. I was not feeling well, so it was just sitting like a bump on a log and getting some extra sleep. Boring right?

Okay, this week has been pretty sucky. I have 20 hours left on my clock and I am down and out in Elizabeth City, NC. No freight moving right now and my week is done. I have a grand total of 1400 miles for the week. Looks like I am going to miss that 2500 mile goal again. Le 'sigh. I picked up in Maryland and the Tractor Supply Depot and dropped off at a store in NC, about 10 miles from where I shut down. Luckily, I chose to stop on the way here and grab a shower because I was not sure what I was doing after the drop. It is 75 miles to the nearest Love's, and more than 50 to the nearest Pilot, So I am down in a tiny little truck stop with six parking spaces and limited hours of operation. Oye.

My head hurts

I am not sure how it happened, but one of my Freightliner storage boxes popped open, and I did not notice it. When I want to stow my keys, I slammed my head into the open box, and it really really really hurt. Dammit. I even have a bump, but no blood, so I will be thankful for that.

Since I am down

Because I am down for yet another extended break, I am using the time to advance my French, do my Ethics course, do some drawing, work on the Astrology section of Ancient, and catch up on email. But other than that, it is just relaxing.

Today was nothing more than a hard running day, and thus, I am going to skip it. I am not in the best of moods, and I have always believed that if you can't say at least one thing positive, say nothing at all.

I have used the reference before, but it fits here again. Hell comes to Frogtown. Yesterday, I skipped my entry because it was just 11 hours of pushing things to the limits, ending up in Hagarstown, MD because I could not make it to a terminal transfer in Shippensburg, PA. And that is where today begins.

Things are too peopley

Last night, I shut down at Love's in Hagarstown MD, around 300pm local. The site was already full with no parking available. So I wound up parking in the middle of the lot with a couple of other rebels. I faced outward so there was a good chance that I would be good to go when midnight popped around. Ha, what a joke that was. I could not sleep, so I was up and in motion and found a CR England parked about 30 foot in front of me. Thankfully, my truck has reverse. Well, except for the person parked illegally on the closed fuel Island. It took a while to get one of them out of my way so that I could get into motion. But I rolled into Shippensburg.

Adventures in PA

I got to the terminal exactly when I said I would, 100am. There was no power and the entire site was dark. But I got dropped and then even found an empty trailer. The problem is, now it was about eight hours to my live load in Aberdeen. Not enough time for a break, even though I just finished one. So, I headed out, getting more and more aggravated and hit a rest area about an hour out of the pickup. And then the fun began.

More than proving grounds

If you know anything about Maryland, you know that Aberdeen is the home of the proving grounds where they test new military weapons. Sadly, it is also the home of a large industrial district just outside of a residential neighborhood. Driving the few miles in, through four round-about's, I was met with signs about no trucks or industry, and quite a few single finger salutes. They really don't like trucks. But I made it into Electrolux, right on time. A fat lot of good that did me. I got into the site at exactly 1000am and was still waiting to be loaded at 500pm. But it gave me time to think. A few emails out to the company and the ball is in motion. Things will change, or they won't and it will be time to move on.

Taking advantage

I did not sleep the entire time, but I did get a nap. Then it was off to the races. I did my reading for the week for school, sent a few irate emails, worked on Ancient, and got my two discussion posts done for the week. I have prepped the three-page paper that I have to get done by next Monday and I watched some South Park. I am fighting the blues, and I am very aggravated. I found out that since January 1 of this year, I have hit 2500 miles seven times. I am supposed to hit that every week. But, in my communications, I found out that Eric has been in Tunnel Hill, and there are significant changes coming in the next five to six weeks. Oh look, the lottery. (you get my meaning I am sure). We shall see what happens.

To end the day

I know that this one has been all over the place. Sorry about that. I have been doing quite a few different things at the same time. I finally got loaded out of Aberdeen around 530pm. I was well out of time by then. I talked to Stephanie in Safety and she explained the rules and authorized personal conveyance. I made it a few miles down 95 to the Maryland House travel center. I was all prepared to spend $20 bucks on a hamburger and fries, but alas, out of 6 eating establishments, 3 were closed. The place with the good pizza and burgers, the place with the good burritos, and the place with the seafood. But Nathans Hot dogs was open. I was ready to get a dog and just suck it up, then I looked at the prices. Seriously? $6.00 for a hot dog? And that is just a plain old hot dog, nothing special. How do these people sleep at night? So, back to the truck, some hash and a muffin. That will teach them to try and slip me the wienie. I put on my dangerous lucid dreaming music and drifted off to sleep. Tomorrow is another day.

I woke to a message from operations telling me to get my butt into gear to make on time delivery. Yesterday I sent emails to Jordan and a few others about miscommunication issues with the company. So I got to send another this morning. I had one hell of a window for delivery and had it timed so I would not have to sit on my ass waiting for my afternoon pickup. Pfft. Grumble grumble. And then the fun began.

The Fun

This is all a work post because that is all that there was today. I started out in Aberdeen MD, Ran through Perth Amboy, NJ where they did not have an empty trailer, down to Newark, NJ to our drop yard, Into Secaucaus, NJ, over to Pittston, PA and then finally to the mountain in Tunkhannock, PA to pick up Proctor and Gamble. It was one hell of a day. I ended at the little truck stop on the hill in Tunkhannock, PA with less than five minutes on my clock, and I grabbed the last parking spot. I ate some very nasty pizza and then was off to bed. Kind of a boring day, eh?

Another day of all work and no play to make Chris a sad boy. I headed off the mountain and took the 3.5 hours to get over to I81 headed toward Ohio. I really hate that run. It takes over three hours to go the hundred miles through the small towns. I pushed it hard, but I could not make the drop like I was supposed to. I ran out of time about 30 miles outside of Tipp City, OH and had to shut down at the Springfield Terminal. I have a pre-assignment heading back to York, PA first in thing in the morning, and the timing will be right, but it is going to be tight running on recaps.

Watching the world

I am amazed and horrified watching social media right now. I really thought we were headed towards a class war, but it look now, that we are going to have a gender war. People are just getting downright nasty now. And everything is being tossed out of proportion. But I am going to add one point. There is a Justice sitting on the highest court of the land, Clarence Thomas, who has overlooked something important. The purpose of the Supreme Court is to be the final statement on cases that come from lower courts. It is not their place to initiate legislation. They do not MAKE the law, the answer questions from those below them. Thomas is calling for reviewing previous laws, such as same sex marriage and contraception. This court is becoming a danger to the American people and the Democratic way of life....
Thank Lilith that we aren't in the middle of the January 6th cases where the righteous right would have to answer for their attempt to force a coup on the United States and take over this country, or it would be one hell of a distraction.... Oh, wait a second....