An open book journey of Christopher William Klein
Greetings: I finished up school this past month and got a week of home-time. I got the rig for my Yoga swing in the truck and got a new freezer. Now I am just hoping for a decent month of miles!
Jump to the Current Post...Traffic Jam.
I had my target set for Commerce, GA. today but that did not happen. I was going to roll about 620 miles, but I got stuck in a two hour stand-still on I-85 South because someone was not paying attention and had a boom boom. That is okay because I have a 22 hour dwell on this load, so I shut down in Fair Play, SC. instead of Commerce, GA. It's all good. Tomorrow, I drop off just outside of Atlanta, then I head West on I-20, pick up in Alabama and head back to the middle of nowhere in Virginia. I really hope that it sets me up for something decent for the weekend, but we shall see.
I am still trying to find the perfect image of Lilith and Osparia. I just can't seem to get it quite right. Pfft.
I went back through my paper journal and this is the one year (week) annivarsary of when I started doing my coures in photoshop, Daz3D, Maya, and a few other graphic design tools. I think that I have really improved over the year. I have been doing about an hour a day on the graphics stuff. I still have about 60 more courses to go. Oye. But today, it was French, C++ and a few other things. I spent most of the day studying and even learned a bit more about computer forensics. Then it was a good dinner, and time to relax. Kinda boring, but not bad for a weekday!
...or I would have torn my hair out today.
Today was a hell day. It started out okay and I was able to get into the drop just fine. But it took forever to get unloaded, and then I had a long dwell before I could pick up in Alabama. Thank the stars that I rolled in early because they were doing "as arrived" processing and I still had to sit for more than three hours. By the time that I got out of there, I was running short on time and on patience. But it was all a snowball effect.
It is like Gaia, the Universe, or even Lilith is telling me to run right now. First, Keely's annivarsary has come, so I will not be getting the stipend from her hire. That hurts a bit. Then, a few weeks ago, they decreased the guarentee for the account that I am on by 250 miles, or $125. Then today, the next hammer, they have done away with the mentorship program, replacing it with the Training program, so that is another $75-$150 a week down. The long and the short of it is that in the past month, I have had my pay reduced by close to 20% without a reduction in duties. Add to that the fact that dwell, the time I have to sit and wait, has doubled, and miles have decreased, and things just suck right now. It is time to make some hard choices.
This is just the tip of the iceburg. The company treats us like children. The engine will not remain running when you are sitting unless it is over 101F in heat. I would like to see any monkey suit wearing executive sit in their office in that temperature for any amount of time. This is a cost savings measure because we lowly drivers can not be counted on not to waste fuel in attempts to stay cool or hot, depending on the season. It is just one more stone on the scales.
Then, I almost lost my temper TWICE in one day. And it was all over time. I sat for at least three hours, probably closer to four, before I got into a dock. Then I got cleared and there was a Schneider driver already moving into position to take my place. I had not even re-started the engine before he was laying on the horn. I had not pulled away, closed my doors, moved my tandems, or even noted that I was loaded through the tablet. He honked again. I looked at him, smiled, and went back to what I was doing. When he dismounted his truck, I had choices. My first instinct was aggressiveness. But when he came up and told me to "move your fucking truck before I pound you into paste". I dismounted my truck, gathered my inner strength, calls on the inner powers of darkness and light, and explained that if he did not go back to his truck and wait patiently that I was not going to do a thing to him, but if he was stupid enough to raise his hands to someone with their arms down at their side, while on camera, he could kiss his job goodbye. He looked up, saw the cameras, cursed, and went to wait while I took three more minutes to get out of the dock.
Then, a similar problem, but in reverse, at the Love's on I-20 near the pick up. Trucks were stacked three deep on the islands. I scaled, then there was absolutley no place to park, even long enough to grab my scale ticket, so I pulled into the fuel island. I was behind a flatbed, and the driver was older than Moses. But he was moving like an arthritic snail. That I can deal with, resepect for elders and all that. But after he fueled, took a clean rag out of his truck, wiped down his tanks, then the PUMPS, he started going around his entire truck, with his cloth, and cleaning everything. The lights, the sidewalls, the tires. All of it. I sat patiently. It was not until he grabbed a spray bottle and began to repeat the process that I was going to say something. But another driver beat me to it. I am not sure what I would have said, but it would not have been flattering.
This was one hell of a day and I do not want to repeat a day like this again. I am going to be late to my appointment in the morning and I was still waiting for a resolution to that issue when I went to bed.
My latest classes are on landscapes. No more portraits for a while. Well, I still have about 300 to edit, but the new stuff will be landscapes.
Even before the day started, things were weird. I had a series of strange dreams, including making a bed with a very skinny blonde with braces still in it. I have no idea who she was, or why I was making the bed, or even what bed it was. Weird. But she smiled, said nothing, and went back to staring off into space.
The work day was the focus of the day even though I had close to seven hours down. They were not very useful hours because I had to sit in the driver's seat. But I was able to bring the computer forward and do my next photoshop lesson. The results are above and I like them. I think that the wife will like them as well.
Speaking of the wife. It is time that she and I have a talk about the work thing. I do not believe that Variant is profitable anymore, at least not to the degree that it should be. They are tightening the noose more and more each day, looking for ways to line their pockets, and that means taking it from the drivers. This is exactly what they did with Swift and why no one wants to work for them. Hmmm. But on the plus side, I got a call from Robert Half today about a job in Collierville. It is an Apache / Tomcat sys-admit. I talked to Doug for a while, and even if it does not pan out, he is going to put my (updated) resume on the roster. There are several available positions that I would be eligible for.
The end of the day was a mad rush toward the Georgia state line. I grabbed the last parking space in the information center rest area, made some baked potatoes and then fell into a restless sleep.
...but not by much.
I rolled hard with a 600 mile run into Virgina to unload at Genesis. It rained all day and that made me grumpy. But the fun thing was getting to the reciever and finding out that it was like a Douglas Adams novel. I had to go down a side-street, turn onto a smaller side-street and then down an alley where I had to make a hard right turn up a hill, back into a dock behind me, all while avoiding obstacles on all sides. About as much fun as dental work. But I made it, did not hit anything, and got unloaded. Then it was down the road toward Richmond, or at least that area.
This is another place that the recent changes irk me off. They have done a reduction in pay to the tune of about 17% but we still have to follow the rules. The shipper for the morning requires an empty weight scale ticket because they don't have an onsite scale. Normally this would be no big deal because most shippers are near a scale. But not this one. It is 25 miles out of route, a total of 50 unpaid miles because the shipper does not have a scale on site, and the reason they require one? Because they ship so much and the product tends to be overweight unless they do it just right. Pfft. So I planned that for the morning and shut down in a no-name truck stop.
Today was all work and no play. By the time that I shut down, I had a few hours to do whatever I wanted so that I can time my pickup in the morning, but I had no drive to do anything. So I listened to canned music and just relaxed. Tomorrow begins my weekend run and I will have three days to go 600 miles, something that I can do in a day. So I have started a list of things to get done. Spoiler, I am going to drop off "the Awakening" for a day and do a short story. I have not decided which one yet, but it should be interesting. And I am going to explain my process for the models that I have been using in my art. Enough people have asked about it, so I will explain it. Yeah me!
...but easy enough.
I had an early morning pickup at a recyclying center in Virginia and that was a bit of a nightmare, but it did not take long to get loaded. I had to go 20 miles out of route to get an empty weight ticket, and then back to the same point to weigh after I was loaded. I was loaded properly, so I was on down the road. I shut down before I hit the turnpike so that I could get some rest and prep for an 11 hour run tomorrow.
Because of the rain, a rough load, but fast, and a bit of a headache, I shut down a bit early, before I hit the Turnpike and went to sleep for the night. I wanted to roll right at midnight which should allow me to have a 46-hour break. I could not sleep, so I got about seven things of my 27 part list done. If I get those all done, including the artwork re-names, and the creation of the Urban Exploration from Ohio, I get to try out that new software. But it is going to make tomorrow a bit hectic.
...20 miles to go.
I rolled out just after midnight and made a mad dash for Ohio, shutting down at Love's in Sidney. I was going to shut down a bit early in Dayton, but it was infested with Trump 2024 supporters and there was no way that I could spend 46 hours there without getting into trouble. So it was into Sidney, and then down for two days.
Something special if you are interested. Click the link below.
The Exploration of the Crown Inn: New Baltimore, Ohio.
This is my exploration of an abandoned motel in Ohio a couple of weeks ago. I really miss doing things like this.
Once I rolled into Sidney and shut down at the Love's, I took a two-hour nap. Then I got up and put my ass into gear. I had a 27-item list to get done, and this is the final thing on that list, updating the blog. My reward is a month's use of a piece of writing software to check it out, and that is what I intend to do tomorrow. The rest of the list had easy and hard items on it. I went through the budget that Laura and I figured out while I was home, and I know what I have to make to be able to get off the truck. I also updated my Resume and sent it over to Doug at Robert Half. I updated my profiles on 8 job sites, and updated them with the new resume. I cleaned the entire truck from top to bottom, cleaned my cooking stuff including the microwave and air-fryer, and went through ALL my artwork. I deleted about 10% of them because they were either repetitive or annoying. That leaves me with a total of 410 pieces, but about 20% of those are variations on a theme from the classes that I have taken for the past year. For instance, there are about 25 that are self-portraits, earlier in this blog, where I had to envision different types of filters and apply them for effect. Then it was time to relax.
For something new, I picked a random movie on a random service. It turned out to be "the Secret Garden", and I thought that I knew what to expect. But it was not THAT secret garden. It was a British Steampunk version. I have to say, I am hooked on Steampunk movies. Now I just have to see if there are anymore. I have also queued up "Blush" which is a coming of age, traumatic teen-years flick that is in French. I will watch that tomorrow in place of a French lesson.
Time to think. Time to plan.
I have a full day of rest today and all that I had to do for work is double check my paperwork. That makes for an easy work day. I did do a full inspection of both tractor and trailer, just because I have not done one in a very long time. I do my regular inspections, but I checked everything today and they both pass muster.
Many people question my life on the truck, so here are a few that show you what I do and how I do it
You have to start the day well. And it usually starts with a good breakfast, in this case, eggs on muffins with cheese, bacon, manderine oranges, and tea. Then I switch to coffee thanks to the Keurig.
I exercise every day and do my morning routine. But some of the more important parts are meditation and contemplation. For this, I have a yoga swing installed in the truck.
I can't take full advantage of the swing, but it is excellent for meditation.
Finally, I will take on some tasks that I have planned for the day. Right now, I am heavily into art and writing, as well as continuing my education. But I also have some fun on the side thanks to my Roku. Of course, you can see me hard at work here with Photoshop and my pen-tablet, the way that I create all this artwork.
The key to a life as a trucker is to never let yourself get bored, and to have what you need on the truck. I live in my truck, I cook, sleep, make coffee, and entertain myself, all within a space the size of a prison cell.
I worked hard yesterday, driving for seven hours into Sidney, Ohio and finishing my list of tasks. As a reward to myself, I made today a day without any obligations - only things that I wanted to do. I logged on to the employment sites I had registered with yesterday; they were all updated to my current location in Memphis. To top it off, Laura and the kids had put together a workstation for me at home - maybe they wanted me to stay permanently.
And here is the kicker. I got the new pictures done for the truck because people have been asking me how I do what I do. Now there is a visual representation! That being done, I had completed everything that I wanted to get done except for going through all 430 pieces of art and creating the new site for them. That will wait for now. So, the Maitlan's are taken care of, everything is in order (I am channeling my inner Beetlejuice if you did not get the Maitlan reference) and it was time for some fun. I did my writing subscription, fired up Microsoft Word, and got that, ProWriter, and Grammerly, all working together. But can you tell the difference? One paragraph for today was written using the helper programs. Can you figure out which one? When I re-read it all, I couldn't. But I do like the way that it works. The biggest issue that I have with Artifical Intelligence is that many people will use it as a replacement for actual creativity. I use it as a helper-program, helping me phrase my works with a certain mood, or for a specific audience. That being said, I got a pizza at Godfather's pizza, and broke into some of my short stories to see how well the program works. Then it was time to relax for the day with a Movie (Blush - in French) and some no-name classic horror movies.
Go..go..go!
I was out of Sidney right on time and hit the dock right on schedule. They were FAST. Pratt paper had me unloaded in under 30 minutes, and while they tried to clean out the trailer, they did a very poor job at it. I stopped at a Love's on Rt. 33 on my way to Columbus and swept out the trailer. It was not a big deal since I had a three hour window between drop off and pickup, plus travel time. I hit the second dock about 45 minutes early, but they put me right in a dock.
I just can't get my head together. I got a lot of responses to the updated resume, but MOST of them are the typical sales and insurance gigs that I usually get. But there are a few, a very few, that may be interesting. I am going to have to sit and look at them.
I talked to Keely today just to play catchup. She is doing well on the Tractor Supply account. Not bad.
Except for the excessive rain, it was a pretty boring day. I am back into the rut where all work and no play make me extremely boring. But that's OK because I can deal with boring right now. After rolling all day I was exhausted so I just shut down in a weigh station in Kentucky where I ate dinner and drifted off to sleep period this was a 14 hour work day so I was not going to waste a lot of time in trying to get into the land of morpheus
...Towards Cajun Country
This is the way the days are supposed to run. I was up and in motion right on time and headed South. I did not run into any traffic jams even around Birmingham AL, and I was able to pick and choose my place to shut down for the day. Aside from a little bit of rain, it was a decent day. When I shut down I was about two hours from New Orleans where I drop in the morning and for once I have no complaints. Let's see if that can hold through till tomorrow. In the morning I have to drop in New Orleans and then head over to the port and pick up sugar. Sugar runs are never fun. But we shall see. Open
So what is up with the header? Feeling pink floyd? Because I have the song “waiting for the worms” stuck in my head today. I have no idea why because I haven't listened to Pink Floyd in a very long time. But sometimes things just jump in there and rattle around, and today must be one of those days
For the most part, today was a work day with a little time to relax. I had about two extra hours on this run but I use them for meditation today. Tomorrow, is another day and I should be picking up my run that heads up into Illinois and once I get up there I should pick up my weekend run . I made myself hot sausage and noodles for dinner and put on a movie that I forgot probably before it was over.
...and out again.
It was an easy and rough day at the same time. I had some dwell between my drop and my pickup but that worked in my favor because a tire on the trailer was leaking and I could get it fixed without losing any time. I got into the first dock and they had me in and unloading within about half an hour. I got to the second dock, a sugar refinery, about 30 minutes ahead of time. But they got me in as scheduled, loaded up, and on down the road. I can't deal with that many Cajuns at once though. They just have a way about them. I hit the pilot to scale, and the intercom was not working. Of course, there is no way to know that, because there is not a sign. Oye. I finally had another driver give me the telephone number to call. But when I went inside to get my scale ticket. OYE. It was like being at an auction. Everyone was yelling at everyone else. And they were saying almost nothing. I got my ticket and got out of there.
I have been thinking about home more and more. And today, I took action. I started talking to people from Bartlett about what jobs may be available. There was some snarky comments, as usual, but there were a few good ideas. The Bartlett Police department is hiring for Patrol and Dispatch. There are a few daycab LTL companies that are hiring (all the time) and the big distributors like Amazon and UPS need dispachers. I also have to check out USAJobs.com. It is a criminal justice based website. I have not checked it out yet, but I will this weekend.
I rolled into Mississippi and had to weigh my options. I could have done another 100 miles, but that would have left me in the middle of Mississippi with no place to shut down. Both me and the wife looked. So I opted for a Love's in Flowood, MS, just outside of Jackson. That puts me about 585 miles from a decent stopping point tomorrow. I can do that. Dinner was pork and chicken, peas, and mashed potatoes. Then it was off to sleep.
...the Southern Coast to the Northern Lakes
It was a decent and uneventful day so I will take it. I rolled N all the way into Illinois before I had to shut down for the night and the day was decent so I have nothing to complain about today. Other than the usual. I'm really getting tired of copilot on the tablet. It is messing up more and more and I have a feeling this has something to do with the loss of much of our information technology department. There's nobody keeping this stuff up and that is never a good thing. But tomorrow I have an early morning drop and then a mid afternoon pickup and I will be headed toward Massachusetts.
I'm not sure which type of days I prefer - the ones that are uneventful or the ones that have something exciting happen. Today's big event was talking to someone from the Memphis Police Department about becoming a police officer. Unfortunately, it won't be possible due to the cost. While I feel confident that I could pass the Academy and excel in that role, the cost of $1000 to $6000 and 24 weeks without pay is a barrier. Apart from that, my day was uneventful. I drove around and later slept.
...Fun time!
Today was a bit more demanding than the preceding days, but overall it was a good day except for the traffic jam that disrupted my plans towards the end of the day. I arrived at the sugar plant early in the morning and everything went smoothly. I was on time, loaded and unloaded without any issues. Immediately after, I received a job to go to Indianapolis. I had to take a three-hour break due to the appointment time but it was an interesting experience which I'll describe in the personal section below. I arrived at the petroleum company, got loaded up, and even scaled properly on my first attempt. However, the biggest challenge of the day came when I left Indianapolis and headed toward the Ohio state line. Unfortunately, there was an incident that caused the highway to be closed. I had to be rerouted, which took over 90 minutes and completely disrupted my schedule.
I have been working on this one for a while. It is actually one of my first drawings that I have pulled in for cleanup and completion. I think it came out pretty well. I pulled it after watching a Xena. Go figure.
It was a very long work day, but during the three hour break that I had to take after fueling, I got to have interaction. I will not say that it was life changing, but it might be. At least in certain aspects of my life. While I was sitting there pondering 3 hours of boredom I noticed somebody playing a guitar. I have not cleaned my saxophone in weeks so I grabbed my violin and asked if I could join him. We both agreed that we were both horrible at playing and decided to jam for a little while. Without going into the full details, which I could do but don't really feel like it, we were joined by a flautist, a person with a hand drum, another guitarist that did not make that much of an impression and then the big daddy of them all, a bagpiper in full regalia. Granted he did see us playing there and tossed on his kilt and pack just for fun and he had one hell of an Irish accent. But how could this change my life? Because I have always hated the bagpipe. I've never considered why, but I have. Now that I've seen one up close and I've actually listened to one played by a skilled player, i love the bagpipe. It might become an obsession which would be very interesting. The rest of the day was mundane. Because of the traffic jam I got put between 90 minutes and two hours behind, which completely destroyed my plans. I shut down in the Ohio welcome center, finished up my latest artwork that i've been working on, and ate fish and shrimp with potatoes for dinner before drifting off to sleep.
I just can't bring it together.
I rolled about nine hours into Pennsylvania and had to shut down. I did not have a lot of options ahead of me, and that still puts me close to 300 miles from my drop. But if I had continued, I would have been stuck in a mom-and-pop or rest area for a day and a half. My mood is way to off balance for that kind of adventure. So I shut down in Mifflinville, PA and set myself up for a 34-hour break. I was able to get a decent parking spot and they have showers and salads, so I will take it.
Okay, this is pretty cool. Each weekend, I check my 3D and photoshop freebies. This week was a raven haired model AND a set of goth clothing. The difference is that it is computer generated realism. The only problem is that the wireframe has horrible proporations. The feet and hands do not match the size of the legs and body, and the head is askew. The skin texture is a bit grainy and the joints are not very posable. I like the finished product, but not if it is blown up too far.
I ran my 9-hour day and then shut down. I was going to head right off for a nap, but as soon as I pulled my break I was not tired. I love my wife, but sometimes I want to toss a live weasel at her! Today is one of those days. We have been doing the Colorado dance for about two years now, and today she mentioned in passing a "what-if" scenario about possibly staying in Tennessee. I don't know how much thought was behind it, but it sent me thinking. And me thinking when I am in a mood can be very dangerous. I have been rolling the euphoria of Colorado for a while, and I have never stopped to think of the logistics, not to mention cost, behind such a move. So, I jumped on Zillow, just to take a look. In three minutes, I found three homes that would meet our needs. I have TWO big concerns about the Colorado move. The first, of course, is the cost of such a venture. Not only is there the property cost, but the moving costs, the reclimation and renovation, and possible building on any property etc. The second is more of a family thing. I worry about the effect of taking Mom that far away from the family and the family support. As her health degrades, it could be more of a problem as things progress. And meditation did not help. I ask myself if I could deal with Tennessee if we were to get further away from Memphis. And if we were to make that choice, I could search for a more permanent employment situation at home. Too much to think about. I guess we have to take the time and talk about thing. I hate it when the rose-colored glasses come off. Sigh.
There are times when I am self-centered. I know, shocker isn't it? Today was one of those times. I took almost three hours and filled out applications for employment for everything from the trucking industry for day operations to executive positions and very large companies. All-in-all, I think I did another 30 applications. But those wheels run slow and it is now a waiting game. But when my eyes started blurring a bit, I sat back and closed them for a bit. I had a mini-dream about being young and being told how I would never amount to anything more than a trash man or a truck driver. Prophetic words from dear-old-dad, and I never realized how must those have stuck with me. Dad was that way, Marge was that way, Mom was that way, and even Peggy from high-school was that way. I never received a kudos or an atta-boy from anyone. Until Laura, no one every said that they were proud of me for anything. I have never realized exactly how much that has effected me over the years. Now I sit here with multiple degrees, far beyond anyone that ever told me that I was garbage, and I still hear their words, reaching out of the past and trying to drag me down. Damn I need a shrink. Actually, I don't, because I know quite a bit about psychology and understand how to face my demons. I just have to reach out and grab them. Then, in the aftermath of a mini-dream, I realized that I have been facing quite a few of these lately. Am I in the middle of a mid-life crisis? A crisis of faith? A crisis on infinite Earth's? Carpathian Kitten Envy? (ghostbusters ya'all, I haven't lost my mind). Self-reflection is good for the soul, but sometimes it is a dangerous minefield.
So, I was not tired, so I played with my new model, that you see above. Even as a freebie, I am not sure if I will keep it or not. I simply don't like the body proportions. But, once I had finished my list for the day, ate Hot Sausage and noodles, cleaned the truck, cleaned my Saxophone and tuned my Violin, I had some time to play before sleep. I re-visited the original model to see if I could "fix" the proportions. Here is what I came up with. This is the same wire-frame model, with a different texture for the skin, a different pose, and some of older clothes from the Maya program that I got to work with Daz3D.
...in good ole' PA.
34-hour break time, so that means it is time to review the past week, get paperwork caught up, plan the Monday run, and clean up the truck. I love the easy days.
My new classes for Photoshop are in landscape and architecture. This is one of my first real tries.
I will not be lazy on my 34-hour break is my mantra right now. I waste way too much time when I am down, and I am not going to let it happen. Don't get me wrong, I deserve to take a break now and then, but there are better uses of my time other than sitting in my cell and staring at something I can't remember five minutes later. So onward we go.
I am about four weeks out of the house so it is time to start getting things together for hometimes. That starts with reviewing the medical requirements and all. Do I have to do a Wong visit? Any other medical issues? The answer came back surprising. I audited my meds and I am still good for another cycle. I do NOT have to visit Wong this pass through and I have ordered my meds that should be ready tomorrow. I will have Laura pick those up and everything else that I need is over the counter.
I got a nice hot shower with about an hour of exfoliation. I am really starting to like that on my breaks. Then I tore into the list for the weekend. For a change, I got everything done and then settled in to watch a movie. I wanted something light, so I picked Evil Toons, a B-title with four porn-star like girls in a house with a deadly book. It was horrible, just what I needed to end out the weekend.
...better!
I have not had a good start to the week in a very long time. In fact, I cannot remember a good Monday in recent memory, other than when I was on home-time. But today was a decent day. I got into the lubricant dock first thing in the morning in Worcester, MA and they got right to me. I was unloaded in under an hour. I had not slept well, so I headed to the service area on the turnpike and took a two hour nap while I waited for the next dispatch. There was a five hour dwell on the pickup, but I snuck in a bit early after my nap and they got me right in a door in Attelboro, MA and I was on down the road. I grabbed a spot in a parking area on I-95 just at the Rhode Island state line and shut down for the day. All-in-all, not a terrible day.
There is one thing that I miss from being younger. Or should I say, that there is at least one thing. I miss authentic Italian Hoagies. Subway tries to re-create these, but they miss by a long-shot. And some of the other places have what they call Italians, but they just are not the same. Today, when I hit the service plaza, there is a little place called "Deangelo's" and they had Hoagies on the menu. It cost $11.01 but it was worth it, because it was perfect. That was one of a few very nice surprises today.
When I started with U.S. Xpress, I set some very lofty goals for myself. I wanted to read 3500 books using unabridged audio technology. I wanted to complete ONE master's degree and as of this last month, I finished my second one. I wanted to get a photo and art site set up, and that is just about finished. But I also set a goal of writing 500 words a day. I do this by using my voice recorder for one hour every day while I am driving. I have rarely missed that goal, even though sometimes, it takes a bit to transcribe them. The routine is that I round-robin through the 93 stories that I have on the drive and I work one each day. It might be an outline, a synopsis, character development, back story... whatever. But it was part of my ritual for the day. What I did not expect is that today, I added three days of dictation, and I hit a road block. I am DONE. I have 93 novel-length works that are ready for polishing. Of those, about 10 are submission ready once I toss them through the spell-check process. The others are story line complete, chaptarization complete, build complete. I just have to add some details and they are ready to go. Not one of them will take more than 30 days to flesh out. I pondered this, and then spoke to Abigail from my writer group. She is a literary agent, supposedly for King. (I have not verified this, just going by what she says) and she gave me the process for finding an agent. The first step will take place this next 34-break where I will choose one of these to take to completion, and I will go from there.
I was tired by the end of the day and I was headed toward the Baltimore / Washington area. I did not want to get stuck doing shutdown in that area. So I hit a parking area just near the Rhode Island State line headed South. It was a nice little quiet place except for the mating teenagers. Kind of a Lover's lane type of thing from what I could figure out. But they did not bother me, I did not bother them. I made some lemon pork with rice, onion and mushrooms and headed off to bed.
...I will take it!
The biggest problem about a straight run down I-95 on the East Coast is that you run throuh New York City, Baltimore, and Washington DC. All three of these areas are notorious for traffic issues. But the trucking gods and some celestial being named "BOB" were with me today. Why "BOB"? I have no idea, it just felt like the sentence needed something. Anyway, the Gods and Bob let me roll right down the East Coast with not a single backup. That has never happened before. Granted, most of the distance was a 55MPH speed limit, but I still made good time, rolling from Wyoming, RI, all the way to South Hill, VA. That is about 600 miles, and I ended the day with 3 minutes left on my clock. I will take it.
Even though it was an uneventful day, I was still very tired. This probabably has something to do with the weather. For most of the day it was either overcast, or raining. When I hit South Hill, VA, I had about three hours. I used that for some extra meditation and it got my brain into a nice central place before I drifted off to sleep. Things have been happening quickly and there have been a lot of changes lately. I am glad that I took a week off from the art and writing. But it does leave the ole' brain kinda in limbo. But that is okay, only about three days left, and I will be back at it.
...and it is not even in Frogtown!
There are times when I wonder what people are thinking, and today is one of those times. I did my driving thing and was able to get dropped off and reloaded, heading to Barrington, NJ. I ignored the dwell and warnings about early loading and headed into the shipper. They were very nice and got me loaded right away. And then I got the Call. Again, they are cutting the rate for CHR and combining it with the USXI dedicated system. They are putting into place a series of controls and rules that do nothing other than steal from the driver. They have, in effect if not actuality, cut the pay of anyone on this tour by a rate of $26,000 a year. And they have put a series of controls into place that pretty much assures that you will not get your "guarentee" each week. Then they are controlling home-times with a 3 week out, 3 day home schema. I wonder how long it will be before drivers figure out that this will kill the guarentee 1-2 weeks out of 3 depending on how you work it? Hmm. Needless to say, I am not happy about these changes. But I kept my temper. The new admistration is forcing out the old, to bring in the new. I can see this. They are making every mistake that Variant sent me to school to learn. They may save all kinds of money right now, but in the long run, no-one will want to work for the company- just like Swift. Sigh.
But I rolled until my time warning went off and shut down for the night in Toms Brook. Tomorrow is another day.
I was taking the week off from writing and art, but I had to let the muse move me. This is my rendition of the turmoil within my mind right now. The serenity of the scene is broken by the subliminal aspects of turmoil that lay beneath.
My mind is all over the place, but I think that I have come to terms with it. The work-issue is going to resolve itself, sooner or later, as is the home fires. They will come together. But I have to act right now instead of sitting back and being a spectator. Trust is broken at work. They are making way too many mistakes, and what scares me is that these are obvious to the UNTRAINED eye, so I am unsure what the trained professionals are trying to accomplish. It is like everything, and I mean everything in my life, is coming to a head. I turn to Lilith for guidence, and she, demonlike that she is, sits and laughs. It is a learning experience. Damn gods! Just once, how about a BIG RED BUTTON? Come'on dark one....bring it on!
...is that good or bad?
I made it into Barrington NJ first thing in the morning for my drop and it went well. I got to see some old friends and that was uneventful. And then the fun began. The run that they had me assigned to would not work because of time. So I scooted over to the travel America and shut down and took a nap. Finally I got a call from operations with a few choices. I will be taking a load to Ohio tomorrow morning. So there is a significant amount of dwell on this load. About 20 hours. But for now I am holding my tongue because they've reversed some of the changes, or at least clarified them. I'm getting the pay for 104 months tenure and I don't have to worry about stuff like over sleeping or taking breaks that are too long. The big thing is that they said there is no problem with me staying out for seven weeks at a time. So fingers are crossed and down the road I go.
I got to take a look into the past today by seeing some of my old friends from school. It was a very interesting experience, and I'm not going to say anything negative and I'm not going to say anything positive. All that I'm going to say about this event is that it gave me a better view of myself. It also gave me a glimpse into how I would have turned out if I had stayed where I was when I was younger. I like where I landed.
I was not able to run the assignment that they had for me because of time constraints, but fleet management found me a run going to ohio that drops off on monday so I will be able to get my final 34 hour reset under the current schema. In theory I will get two full days off and I intend to take advantage of them. I have a lot of stuff I want to catch up on. I tried to get Chinese food while I was sitting at the travel America on 295 but that was a mess. So I cooked up my dinner watched a movie and then headed off to bed. But I did not get 20 hours of sleep which is a good thing because that would indicate a serious problem. I listened to music and reflected. Self reflection is a good thing and by the time I went to sleep I was in a place of balance. Now I just need to stay there.
...Out of Jersey and Beyond.
This morning I headed over to my dock in Cherry Hill NJ and got loaded up without problems. It was a little bit rough to get to the location because the state of New jersey is not truck friendly. But that was nothing that I did not expect. I was able to get into the dock and get loaded and then back out of there within about two hours. I said a pretty lofty goal to make it within 30 minutes of my Monday morning drop by the end of the day, but that did not happen. Going from New Jersey to Ohio is a pretty easy run except that you must go through the city of Philadelphia and there is just no easy way to do that. I had three potential routes that I could take and all of them had problems. I finally picked the most direct route and that took me right through the heart of the city. Ironically, there was only a 15 minute delay getting through the city, but there were three accidents on the West side of Philadelphia headed outward. That caused about a three hour delay and put me behind so I only made it to the Ohio State line. But i can still make it work and get shut down tomorrow morning for my 34 hour break.
The universe is a very interesting place. The past three weeks, almost 21 days, have been one epiphany after another. The issues between work and my personal life have been monumental. I have not gone in to my weekend break yet, but I think I have come to a resolution on everything even without the intense meditation that I have planned. And the future is bright. But I'm not going to issue any spoilers today, we will just suffice it to say that i have a plan. In retrospect, everything could have trickled in over a couple months, but the illustrious powers in charge decided to drop them all on my head at once. And that is OK because I work well under pressure. So here is your only spoiler. Over the next two days I'm going to reorganize my life and come up with the grand plan. As anyone knows, if I put it in writing it must come to pass. And I have a blank sheet of paper ready to write. Stay tuned and see what happens.
...and done that fast.
Sometimes, thinsg are just easy. And work today was that. I only had to go 90 miles, then I shut down at the Etna, OH, Love's until Monday morning. The only hassle is the 10-hour macro that I have to send, but I can take it.
A full day off after a short work day gave me the time to finish up the sea-and-field scape that I started a few months ago. This is my current mood. Things have all dropped at once, now I am working to bring them together, like the land and sea.
I had the better part of the day off, so I worked a round-robin. First thing when I hit Love's is that I got some breakfast at Hardee's, a bacon platter, and got to play with the buzz-kitten. That would be a bumble bee that took perch on the body of a girl that is deathly allergic to them. I grabbed it and patted it's little head. I love Bumbles! Then it was time for a nice, hot shower followed by laundry. The personal stuff out of the way (the first thing on the round-robin) it was time for a nap. I set an alarm, then cut into the rest of the TODO list. Verify all passwords, sort and clear out the rest of the artwork, discarding the junk and things that I will never work or finish. Continue the story project, verifying all 93 of the stories. I worked my favorites list on the computer, updated the mini completly (or at least started the project, I am not sure it will get done by tomorrow or not). I finished reviewing all my French lessons for my annual review, cleaned the truck, worked the journals, worked Ancient and Ancient.NET, reviewed the changes for Triumph, cleared out more than 50 intense job applications, wrote a response e-mail to Sasha of AL1CE, charged my headset, razor and cameras, and finally cleared out all emails, including job emails, except for two to Laura for tomorrow. It was a decent day. Granted, most of that list, I am still working, but a nibble here and a nibble there.
The evening was relaxing. I chose some ambient music and reclining in my yoga chair with no duties or needs for the evening. I had my hot-chicken, listened to the music, and just allowed myself to drift until it was time to sleep.
...at least for work.
This past week, I got a call from operations, and they are, once again, changing the way the company works. I will not beat that drum that the new administration from Knight/Swift is doing exactly what they told us that they would not do. I will jot it down, then be on my way. But there are more changes. They decreased the guarentee rate, raised the per-mile rate, and took away the weekends off. Now I run 70 hours full out, reset, repeat. Or I run on recaps. So I can't count on free-time before I go home again. This is mostly because I know how to work my clock. We shall see what happens. I got the truck cleaned up, went through my paperwork, then set myself up for personal time for the rest of the day.
I continued with the round-robin. The Adobe update got interrupted last night, so I had to start it over this morning. That kinda sucks, but I am not letting it bother me. I finished up the employment stuff, and worked e-mail. Then it was time to settle in for the day, mostly working on writing. I put on my ambient music, and dove into writing all day. And I did what I said I was going to do. I worked the stories all day. A total of 10 hour to be precise. Now I know what the life of an author would be like. And I think that I like it.
...and heading West.
Back to work and rolling down the road. I hit the first dock right on time and they had me unloaded in under 15 minutes. Then there was a five-hour dwell and into the second dock. A fast load and on the road toward Iowa. An easy day except for the dwell, and that is getting on my nerves.
In my five hours down, I had five interviews for tech jobs. And they did not go well. I am behind on my programming skills, and I am going to have to look up Visual Studio 2022. I only know up to 2019 and there have been serious changes. Sigh. But I will get there eventually.
It was a very routine day with no mishaps or adventures, so I will take it. The biggest excitement is that Mia and Lindsey Stiringling are doing Phantom of the Opera together. Granted it is on August 25 and in Wyoming. But it is exciting none-the-less. I am hoping they have a pro video done of it. Those two together should be amazing.
Dinner was excellent. Steak, mushrooms and onions over potatoes. I made a sauce of boullion, steak sauce and spices to have sort of a gravy and it was yummy. Then it was time to get off to bed.
...It is the Iowa way.
I am headed towards Shenandoah Iowa. Even though it is an easy run, it Is a slow run. It is 45-55 miles per hour for 200 + miles across the farmland of Iowa. You can only look at so much corn and hay before you get really bored. But I do have my next assignment. When I drop this off tomorrow, I pop over to Omaha Nebraska and pick up a load heading down to Alabama. At least it is not Jersey. I will take it. Things are coming together a bit at work, but they still have to tighten up this dwell issue. If I figured right, I have about 20 hours wasted this week between long times between docks and dwell. With the reduction of the guarantee, that means that it is about 1200 miles that I am losing assuming 20 hours at 60 miles per hour. We round that down to 1000 and that is a LOT of money that I am losing because they are not running the loads tight. Shrugs.
I have been going through and deleting images that I don't like from the course from the past year. This one was actually on the chopping block to go away because I do not like it. It seems very mundane. But since I am traveling through Iowa, I decided to keep it, but this is the only place it will ever appear.
The Euphoria of recent events has worn off and I am back to my normal grumpy cat self. I had such a wonderful day on Sunday and then reality just had to smack me in the face. I found out that my computer skills are out-of-date and lacking, and I checked my tick marks, and I have put in close to 500 applications. I have heard back from five of them. That is not actually true, I have heard from quite a few more, but I do not want to be a cashier at Burger King or a stocker at Aldi’s for minimum wage. I believe that I may be worth just a bit more than that. But you never know, maybe not.
On the plus side, I did find that I can download the 39GB Visual studio 2022 that I am lacking, and I can do it for free. I don’t know if it is free to use, but it is free to download. I hooked into the Pilot WiFi and started that download, but it was still running at midnight, and it would fail now and then and have to be restarted. As of the end of the day, it was sitting at about 5%. Fun times. I found a lot of free courses on how to use it, so back to learning I go. And while I am at it, it is time to make a call to Arizona Global and find out where my paper is. I have that on the list for tomorrow.
Ending the day was okay. I shut down in a Pilot, because to get to Love’s I would have to go about 80 miles out of route. That would not be a good thing. Never try to teach a pig to dance, it wastes your time and annoys the pig. I slay me! Anyway. I hit the Pilot and was going to get some fruit, but before I could get over and grab some, he left for the day. Pfft. I don’t blame him, it was over 100F and I would not want to be standing out there all day. So I grabbed a Salad from Pilot and made my pork chop that I originally planned. It was yummy. I was going to watch the Fast and the Furious, but I was not in the mood to read the movie – it was in Russian. Pfft. So, instead, I put on some Mia Asano, Gingertail, Pink Floyd, and Viking Dirges (how is that for a mix?) rolling low in the background and took my first lesson, about 3 hours, on Visual Studio 2022. It is like learning a foreign language. But when you think about it, I guess it is. The core is still the same, CPP, C-Sharp, Python etc. It is the interface that is seriously different. The base remains while the wrapper changes, but that is what people want. Sigh. It has some interesting features though. Built in AI, AR, VR support. Voice support, etc. Oye,
...I will take it.
This was one of those clockwork day. I was able to get in and get dropped off, reloaded, and roll on down the road without too much drama. There was not even a lot of dwell between the runs, and that is always a good thing. The temperatures are rolling well over 100F right now, and it is just riding the cusp of being able to keep the truck running. I am really getting tired of being treated like a misbehaving toddler. I am wondering what it would take to make the company realize that when a driver is comfortable and not treated like some wayward child, that they work harder and more efficiently, not to mention tend NOT to drive their trucks off the road from lack of sleep. Lack of sleep being caused by sweating like a pig when the HVAC cannot keep up to outside conditions. But what do I know, I am just a driver. Pfft. MEOW!
Not a lot to tell about today. I am reading "61 Hours" by Lee Child, a Jack Reacher Novel, and it has been hard to pinpoint the bad guy. I can usually get them by the 10th chapter, but this one is a bit harder. I love it. I did a bit of work on my novel, and headed off to bed. How is that for a boring day? The excitement was my Asian Heat Chicken for dinner! That was yummy. I did answer all my employment emails, and that took a bit of time. But that box is empty again, until tomorrow.
...but not too hard.
I am a roly poly! Nah, just a rolly. I rolled down through Indiana, Tennessee, and into Alabama until I shut down in Falkville, AL., about 90 minutes from my drop in the morning. When I pulled the break, it was at 111F and that is one hot day. I pulled a newbie while I was parking and turned a bit to hard to one side and both my air-lines pulled loose, getting me an ovation from those watching. I took a bow, hooked them back up and got into a decent space. Not a terrible work day, but that was a bit annoying. I spent a bit of the afternoon trying to keep the cab cool, but I can take this day.
I pulled this one from the working archives and completed it. This is my representation of sadness. I think that I caught it well.
As soon as i was parked, I set off my Visual Studio download again. When I hit the hay for the night, I was at about 65% and still going. We shall see what tomorrow bring. I was moody as hell, had a horrible dinner of McDonalds chicken sandwiches without the bun over rice, and got some bad news. Lulu is not doing well. It makes me sad. But, through a bit of meditation and all, I figured out a slice of my negative mood swings. When I run this hard and get this tired, the old inner shield drop, and it is hot. The people around me, when I go into the truck stops and all, they are miserable. Duh, empathy. I figured this out toward the end of the day when I was getting ready to settle in for the night. I spent most of the afternoon trying to adjust my negative mood and I went into to get my tea for the night. I was standing next to this middle aged woman and she was noticibly crabby. I got crabby. She had an issue with the cashier that was treating her less than nice, I got ornry. Short story, the crab-woman was wrong. She could not buy cigarettes with her EBT card, which I am sure that she knew, and it pissed her off. As soon as she walked away, in a huff, my mood stablized, but there are residuals. Interesting. Now I just have to find a carnival side-show and go hang out with some clowns. Yeah, that will do it! But all-in-all, a decent day, though I did not get any more writing done. I will take it for today, and it looks like I will have the weekend off.
For good or for bad.
Today was a relatively easy day. I got dropped off in McCalla and then headed about an hour down the road to pick up some rolls of paper in Tuscaloosa, AL. Everything went by the book. I was a bit irked off that there was a 7 hour dwell between drop off and pick up, but they handled that in the back office before I even got the dispatch, and it was set to an open appointment. Once I was loaded up, it was rolling toward Kentucky. I could have made it all the way to within about an hour of my drop for Monday, if I had wanted to rush. But I was not in the mood, so I shut down mid-point and figured I would run closer tomorrow then shut-down for my 34 hour break.
I am just not feeling it. I was able to get work out of the way and have a bit of time to relax. But I could not relax. I shut down and then just stared off into space. I am a bit annoyed with Arizona Global because I have tried to call them now for three days and all the phones are set to "in a meeting". I am so ready to close that chapter of my life and get my degree. But I have to wait. Pfft.
...Break time
I love the easy days. I headed out two hours late, but I did it on purpose. I set my sights on the Love's in Sparta, KY, but I wanted to get there after the day started so that there would be parking. Apparently, that was not an issue. Plenty of parking, pulled in, about 30 minutes from my Monday morning appointment, and shut down for the weekend.
I pulled my break, checked my truck, then it was nap-time. Yeah for me. But now it is time to share an experience.
Seven years ago I came up with an idea for a story that I called "The Awakening", which is a story of Ospiria and Lilith (yes THAT Lilith - Adams first wife) and the exile from the Garden of Eden. How Ospiria saved Lilith and her children from the wasteland and then dropped the veil between the Earth and the Realm of the Fae. The story comes to modern times when the last two pure bred Fae are located, inherit a propery that contains the entrance to the Realm of the Fae, and the veil is about to be dropped, with the help of Lilith and Ospiria. The story took seven years to develop, and I have worked it almost every day for 13 months. Long story short, the story is done, except for proofing and tweaking. And I spent the entire day today doing the edit. The result is 68980 words and it is, pretty much, ready to go to the publisher. It will be sent over within the week. I have about 40 items that I want to address, but for a first novel, I think that I like it. I had it checked at a cost of $90 and it is original. Yeah me! I am excited. But by the end of the day, my head hurt and it was time for sleep.
...The Easy Days
Since I was on my 34-hour break in Sparta, KY today, the only work that I had to do was clean the truck. That was easy enough. I am about 13 days out of Hometime and I am very much looking forward to it.
I was still rocking a headache from working on my Novel yesterday, so I took today as a down day. I have enough time to meet my deadline next week, and after I put a couple of hours into the proofing, I am down to a punchlist of about 20 items. Granted, one of these items is re-writing a chapter because I don't like the flow, but I will take it. Then I listened to some music, and fired up the Roku. I found a reference to a musical episode of Star Trek: Strange new worlds. Sure enough, it exists. Now I am hooked on the characters and have to watch the series, something that I have been avoiding. But to watch that, I have to go back and watch Discovery, Picard, etc. So at least I know what I will be watching for the next year. Giggle.
A Monk calls out of the blue. No, that is not the start of a joke, like a Priest walks into a bar. It means that a Buddhist Monk called me to let me know that he had been given a message for me from the Universe. The thing is that I know this monk. He WAS Louis Nocito from high school. Of late, many old friends have been popping up out of the past. The message was that I am about to go from happy to content. At least in a nutshell. Louis was one of my best friends, and now he is Brother Michio and doing the vagabond thing in upstate New York. Funny world isn't it? We did the catch up thing and then it was time for bed. I am ready for some normality, but I will settle for contentment.
...eh?.
The title should be a clue for today. I am headed to the Canadian Border. I got dropped off, sat for about 90 minutes and then got loaded up right to the limit with some kind of feed or feed supplement. But the shipper did well. Perfectly balanced and heading out of Kentucky to the backwoods of upstate New York. I rolled as far as I could through Ohio and shut down in a rest area. This is going to be a long run and I was tired.
It was a very boring personal day. I did not have enough energy when I parked in the rest area to fire up the Awakening and do more editing. I made some pork and rice, and headed off to sleep. I am within 11 days of home at this point, and I am getting very antsy. The call from Louis, my high-school Monk friend is resonating with me, and bothering me, and I can't figure out why. "Be Patient...". Such an odd message from the Universe. Shrugs. But tomorrow is another day. I am, quite literally, heading to the Canadian border. And an overview of the area shows no mans land. This could be interesting.
...of upstate New York.
I only rolled about 8 hours today, stopping at the Love's in Waterloo, NY. This is the last Love's heading into the Northern area. I looked ahead and there is just nothing at all. I did a sky view and street view of my reciever, and it looks like a shack from a 1950s farming show. This could be interesting. I did get a pre-assignment for after I drop off though. Under 50 miles away from the drop and no dwell at all. Drop, then roll and pick up. I can do that.
I hit Waterloo, NY and shut down for the day. I wanted to work on the book, but I was too fidgity and dealing with a bit of a headache. That did not help at all. I have to get that done by this weekend and get it submitted over to the publisher. And see where that goes. I had an excellent dinner of peppered steak, mashed potatoes, and French cut green beans, then I did some meditation, music, and reading. I left myself plenty of time to sleep, but the dreams were very bad. Not nightmare bad, just people and subjects that I don't want to think about. C'est le vie.
...and the really ugly.
I rolled out of Waterloo right on time and still made it to my drop in Lisbon, NY. right on time. Then the annoyances began. Yesterday, I did an overview of the drop location and saw that it was a tiny, shack-like facility. I had Haylee send a message to CHR verifying the appointment. When I got to the unload point, there was no one there. Thankfully, there was a person at the business next door, in the same building, that had the phone number of the owner. Sure enough, the appointment was never verified. But he rushed right over and got me unloaded. It was only a 15 minute delay. But then the fun began. I cleared the load and headed to the paper plant in Norfolk, NY. and the GPS was wrong. It tried to send me down a no-truck route, and they appeared to be quite serious about it. So I had to go 15 miles down the road, turn around in the Lowe's, and come back. The dock was horrible. There was a one-woman show going on when I got there, and they were taking forever to load. They had three docks, with only one in operation. I had to wait. I was talking to a driver that came in right after me. He had a much tighter schedule. I gave him my spot. I finally got into a dock about 3 hours after I arrived. It was a pain in the ass.
I finally got loaded about 3 1/2 hours after I arrived and I was on down the road. I landed back where I started in Waterloo and I took one of the last parking spaces with plans to both fuel and scale in the morning.
Since I had three hours of downtime, I worked on "The Awakening". I have to have it done by this weekend so that I can send it over for to the publisher for review. There are 21 chapters, plus a prolog. I am happy with the prolog and chapter 1. Now I am working on Chapter 2 and beyond. Most of it is just tweaking. The storyline is solid and there are less than 100 errors in grammer and spelling out of 68,000 words. That is not bad I ended up getting through 2 full chapters, which leaves 19 to go for this weekend..
The evening went OK and I hit the loves in Waterloo with about 30 minutes left on my timer so that all worked out. I shut down and made my dinner and listen to some ambient music while I studied Visual Studio. It was a calm night. I acknowledge that I am headed into the Chicago area tomorrow and there is no real good place to shut down and then I am back toward Hazeltown Pennsylvania which provides the same dilemma. But that is something that I'm going to workout tomorrow. I have an extended delivery window for my Friday pickup that goes until Tuesday of next week which is way too long. Hopefully I will talk to operations tomorrow and get that resolved, but you never know.
...but I will take it.
Finally, just a bland, mundane day with no hiccups. I rolled from Waterloo, KY. to Goshen, IN. without incident and with little or nothing to report. Sometimes, you just need those down days to make sense of the world.
I am running about eight hours ahead, so I had 18 hours when I set down in Goshen. I should have worked on setting up the new month for tomorrow, but instead, I worked on "The Awakening". I am supposed to have that over to the publisher by Monday. And I still have 19 chapters to edit. Oye. But I did a bit of work on it, then settled in for some rest. I am burning out, hitting the wall, whatever you want to say. In other words, I need a break.
And here is the link to the September Blog. Fun times just around the corner.
Click for the September 2023 Blog