Sick

Stayed home from work today due to strep throat. I have been fighting this for a couple of days now, but this thing needs to run it's course without me working 12hr days, so I'm taking my antibiotics and trying to get some rest. We have had two new guys start at work, which is relieving some of the workload from the rest of us and that's a good thing. Rumor has it that there are three more people training and coming to our store in the next few weeks, my guess would be one out of the five will stick around for any length of time. That seems to be about normal.

It's raining really hard here right now. Thunder and lightning and all the fun stuff. I think I picked a good day to call out sick!

I just wish I wasn't really sick...

well well...

OK, so it's been a while since I posted here, my bad. I spent seven months out of work before I found a job driving for a local lumber company. I have been there for almost a year now, and am finally getting my financial house back in order.

Trust me, paying for a wedding AND leaving one's job at the same time is very poor planning...

Of course the good news is that I'm driving again and I get to be home at night, both of these things I love, the not so great part is I'm driving straight frame class B trucks, and I have to unload them by hand. I'm glad the overtime is good because heavy lifting in extreme heat and cold really sucks, never mind snow and rain...

So I am going to try to get back into the blog again, it feels a little like an abandoned child to me and that makes me feel guilty!

Summer's almost here, be careful out there on the roads!

Too much time on my hands

Well, the wedding was fantastic, the Florida honeymoon was fantastic, and married life is treating me well. With that said, I left Schneider after all the wedding hoopla determined to find something closer to home to earn a living.

This has not worked out so well yet...

Work is slim pickins' right now. I had expected this, but not quite to the extent that it really is. I have spent the last month and a half looking for work and have come up dry so far. Even the part time work hasn't panned out yet.

The money is all gone, and thank God Linda is working, because that is the household income at the moment. GRRRR My timing has not been so great for leaving my job, but between the low miles, and the driving to PA to get to my truck, the cost was getting out of control.

I'm determined to be home at night, and not be in a sleeper cab anymore, that is a rough life that I never intended to do forever. Linda and I had agreed to 1yr of over the road driving, and I actually spent 18 months out there, so my objective of OTR experience was fulfilled. The obvious problem now is that the economy is soooo bad that everything is slowing down. No need to preach to the choir about this problem, y'all know the tune!

Anywhoo, I'm getting back to the job searching, and will try to keep the posting updated!

woo sa...

OK, Having cleansed my political "colon" of it's bile, and having another payday come, let's get back to the truckin' stuff!

After a slow start, I have been able to log some miles this week, including a bunch of HAZMAT miles, which will pay well. Who would of thunk that concentrated carwash chemicals would be considered hazardous? EEEEK! giant bubbles on the highway! No matter...it's good for the paycheck, heck anything will be better than the last few checks!

I also had the chance to drive a Kenworth T2000 that belongs to an owner/operator. He an I were both stuck in PA last weekend, and we ended up hanging out for a while, it's the truck in the center of the photo. Very cool ride!




Schneider also gives me a new pair of boots every year, very nice of them yes, but it is to help eliminate slip and fall accidents. We can pick from many different choices from the "boot truck" that shows up on site. This year I went with the Michelin's. Who knew they made boots, er, who knew some company in China makes boots and stamps Michelin on them. Anyhoo, they are very comfortable, steel toe'd, and should see me through the winter.


Being a company driver usually means I hook to a lot of trailers during my three week on the road. Drop and Hook is the term used for picking up a trailer at one point and droping it somewhere else. I will normally hook to three or more trailers in a given week. These last two and a half weeks I have hooked to only two trailers. Most of my freight has been live loaded, meaning I take an empty trailer somewhere, back it up to a dock and have it loaded, or unloaded, while I wait. This is more time consuming for me, and therefore not as profitable, but with freight being the way it is, I'll take what I can get. It's just very unusual to use the same trailer for 11 days.

Did I mention I got my truck back? During my "vacation" weekend I got back to normal.




Just another tight loading dock in MA.






I'm looking forward to getting home for the wedding. I'm excited to see family and friends that I haven't seen for a while. Currently I'm in Seville OH with a load that takes me to PA on Monday morning. From there, it looks like I will be shutting this circus down for a while and heading home.

Lets see....show up on time....don't say no.... I got this wedding thing covered!

Find me in the middle...a little to the right

Man, it seems like everyone in the blogosphere has a lot to say about politics these days. How does everyone become such a political expert every three and a half years, and then expect that everyone, no make that anyone, really gives a damn about what they have to say about it.

Funny political system we have here, but it is the best system out there. Freedom of speech, God bless it.

So in my best non-narcissistic way that I can muster for your consideration, here is my "OFFICIAL POLITICAL RANT" entry. Do it once and shut the hell up about it.

I believe in God and the separation of church and state.

Anything that can be done by the private sector can be totally screwed up by the Government.

Government oversight on portions of our society is critical, read: financial, transportation, education, energy, food and health care. I'm sure I've missed a few, but it's my rant and I'm allowed.

The private sector will progress faster than Government regulations, making them old and outdated before anyone notices. "There is never a problem until there is a problem".

Tom Allen has done more damage to the state of Maine over the last 10 yrs than global warming.

We were all ranting 8 yrs ago about how the "outsider" George Bush was going to be a fresh start after being exhausted with all the Clinton scandals, bringing decency back to the white house. Or how Clinton was going to bring change to the White House after "Bush 41", or how Regan was going to bring change after the Carter administration. etc...etc...Why do we all have 7.5year memories??!! SSDD.

I didn't like Baldiacci at first, but I have gotten used to him now. He got handed a bum deal from the start, and played a pretty good hand with it.

I would vote for the Palin/Biden ticket just like I would have voted for the Cheney/Liberman ticket. Why do the VP candidates interest me more than the top of the ticket?

I don't have a horse in this Prez. race, but I am voting for Collins and Snowe for as long as they want to run for office. Chellie Pingree? See Tom Allen rant above.

The more abusive we are on our politicians the worse the caliber of the candidate. Human nature I know, I know...

I struggle with the argument that the country can evolve, but the Constitution cannot, although I still believe the Constitution is not an evolving document.

Abortion is murder.

My last paycheck was $33.00, and I got a wedding coming up soon. Guess I'm getting a little edgy.

Have a nice day!

After a few hectic days at home working on wedding plans, and an unexpected brake job on the car, I'm back in the truck. The problem is, I have a big orange tractor with no big orange trailer, this is not a cash generating scheme. Freight is REALLY slow right now, I mean beyond slow.

It's the kind of slow that makes me think something is wrong with the economy or something...huh.

My tractor was lent out as a loaner while I was on my time at home, and it hasn't returned yet, so I am in a loaner while mine works it's way back from wherever it may be. I don't take all of my stuff out when I park for home time, but I do take out most of the important things. Fortunately I have myself setup in my temporary digs well enough to run for the week. I have asked my team to just run me for as long as they can before returning me to PA and swap into my "Proper" truck.

Besides, I've snagged another auto tranny to play with. Maybe the novelty will wear off soon, but I do enjoy driving these things. Much less cruise control work!

Slow Start

The problem with getting paid by the mile is that when the wheels aren’t moving, I don’t get paid, period. Sure there are detention payments, and token amounts of money that are nice little extras when my paycheck needs a little pick-me-up, but the real pay in this job is rolling miles down the highway.

The second issue is the “how I roll” so to speak, which is three weeks on the road, five days at home. This makes for three good paychecks, and one crummy one. Again five days with no miles makes for a crummy paycheck, and I accept this with the offset of three better checks.

Now, it doesn’t take much thinking to realize if I have my five days at home, and then the truck breaks down, I’m in a world of hurt on the paycheck side, and this is what has happened to me this week. I had put the truck in the shop before I went home for a bad starter, it wouldn’t stop cranking over even if I took the key out! Five days later I get back in the truck and go on my merry way. One day on the road, the starter won’t start the truck, DOA I had to have a very large wrecker come…twice… and give me a pull so I could pop the clutch and get going. Not my bill, but it took hours out of my day.

Leaving the truck in the OC in Carlisle, PA I was able to get a loaner truck for a couple of days. A vacationing driver had parked his rig at the OC. The cool part was it was an automatic transmission. Having driven Eaton 9 and 10 speed sticks for many years, I have nothing to prove to anybody about my shifting, and can honestly say I LOVE this thing! It is actually a hybrid of an automatic and a manual. There is a clutch and actual gears shifting around in there, so unlike a normal car, One doesn’t just hop in, put it in “D” and hit the highway, a few hours of training are required, more down time, but it adds another arrow to my experience quiver.

Where's the shifter??!!

I ran a couple of short hauls with “auto orange” but knowing I had to return to Carlisle to drop this truck off and get mine back meant no good miles coming my way until this musical chairs was done.

All in all, I ran about a thousand miles last week, which is WAY down from a normal week for me. All this happening right after time spent at home. All this happening a few weeks before the wedding, All this happening when Samantha made it home with Jarrid (the youngin’).

Glad I bought an extra box of pop-tarts for this run, because that’s about all I can afford to eat right now!

Laredo

Well, I'm currently stuck in Laredo, TX waiting for a load to get me out of here. Laredo is a hard place to explain, it is much better experienced. Laredo is on the southern part of Texas, bordering Mexico and it's sister city Nuevo Laredo on the Mexican side.

The truck to car ratio here must be about 4:1. Between the US carriers bringing things to the border, the companies that shuttle the trailers across the border, and the Mexican drivers who make the deliveries on their side "of the fence", it is a semi-city if there ever was one!


There is really only one way in and out of here, I-35. Because of this, I have to wait for a load that is coming north from Mexico back into the states to get me rolling again. With the economy being a little slow, Laredo has become a FIFO location, First in First Out, there are about 40 Schneider trucks here ahead of me, so I wait my turn. At least I can shower, clean up, eat, and hang out online.

I have mentioned the food here on my previous postings, the locals will park their somewhat homemade kitchens outside of the OC's and cater to the drivers with fantastic Mexican food.
Taco Bell's got nuthin' on these people!

Well, I'm gonna brave the heat and go check the computer in my truck for a work order, hopefully, I'll be out for here soon!

Crazy Weather Night

We had a huge weather front come through the Chicago area last night. The storm went on for hours, especially the lightning, quite an awesome sight.

So Far So Good...

Well. I'm over half way through this run without incident (knock on wood) I am keeping my run time more under control, and am trying not to stress over the lost bonus check. Water under the bridge, so to speak...

I am just finishing up a run that had me in Oklahoma for several days. I can tell you from experience that it is HOT down there right now! It is one thing to be somewhere hot and go inside a building to beat the heat. It is a very different world sitting in an aluminum cab sitting on a blacktop parking lot trying to keep your cool. Although idling the truck is discouraged due to fuel use, big trucks burn about an hour a gallon at idle, I ran the truck for many hours trying to get a good nights sleep. This is a little unproductive for me due to the fact that I don't sleep well with the truck running, but I sleep even worse when I'm in a puddle of my own sweat.

My trip out took me through Joplin, MO again. This time I had a chance to walk around a little bit. I couldn't find a retail type store for the Chrome Shop Mafia, I'm sure there is one, but walking around a lot in 103 degree heat was not my idea of a good time, so I grabbed a photo of their sign. I swear this is the rig they used to "ambush" some of the original Trick My Truck participants.

Joplin is a nightmare to drive in. There are four major chain truckstops, and at least two small local ones with the "Mafia" in the middle of all of it. Everybody and their couzin Cooter are trying to see this place, so there are rv's, semi's, minivans, and cars full of people all trying to occupy the same place at once, kinda like driving in Atlanta or NYC, jeez... Makes me glad to be back near Chicago!

Back at It

Well, greetings from the road. After spending some well deserved time at home, I'm back in 'da truck trying to make a buck or two. Many thanks to Mom and Dad for coming to pick me up in PA, it was an enjoyable ride home. Now that I'm "commuting" to work, I hope to take advantage of some back roads I've been dying to check out on the way home, It's hard to putter the back roads when driving 70' long and 13' 6" high!

Linda and I went camping for a three days. We went to a campsite in Old Orchard Beach, which is about 15 minutes from our home, but it felt like a million miles away. Yes it rained, but we were prepared, and stayed very dry. Like all Maine weather, just wait a minute and it will change. The rain passed through very quickly.

It was nice to break up the routine for a couple days. I had forgotten how much I enjoy camping. Both of us were in need of some decompression after my last disaster of a run. We both agreed that this needs to be done more often. We have tossed around the idea of a small pop-up camper being a good upgrade from the tent, but time (read: money) will tell. Until then we have a very nice 6 man tent setup, which is perfect for two people!

Finding my wall...and hitting it

Writing is an art, no doubt about it. One either continues to write and gets better, or one doesn't write, and watches the skill atrophy. I remember watching an interview on TV with Billy Joel saying he practiced songwriting and playing the piano every single day, just to keep getting better. I, for one, believe he has succeeded and will probably continue to improve.

Looking at my last few posts I notice my writing has kinda sucked for a while. My life balance has been a little out of kilter lately, drive...call Linda...sleep...drive...call Linda...sleep...etc, and everything else has suffered, including the writing of the BLOG.

I have been on the road for ten straight weeks this time. My last time home was only three days, which obviously means I drove for four days that week. The fatigue is settling in, along with the homesickness, I'm getting a little cranky, and am beginning to make little mistakes that have added up to blowing my quarterly bonus. So much for the extra money I could have really used...

I lived in Utah for four years about a decade ago. I stayed until I felt in my heart of hearts it was time to go home. It was a fun place to live, but it wasn't home. After ten weeks on the road those same feelings are creeping back into me. I've been away for too long.

It's hard when the biggest reason for being out here is to make the bonus check bigger gets out of balance with the reality that (1) One can only do so much before One needs a break, and (2) I'm not eighteen anymore, and the time between those needed breaks seems to be increasing...

I have successfully defeated my whole purpose for being out here this long.

Back to the balance thing. Lesson learned, I guess... I'm getting myself reset to a three week out, five days at home after this run. It involves my leaving my tractor in Carlisle, PA and driving home, which I bet is the biggest commute to work you have ever heard of, but it increases my home time, which I guess has been the whole point of this post, is becoming more important to me that chasing the elusive "more money". As I have just proven to myself, again, to much of anything is self-defeating.

Hey! Look! an update!!

I'm still chugging along out here, I made my delivery from Washington state to Michigan on time (2200 miles! $$$), this should make for a 4000 mile paycheck this week. Let the good times roll.

I have learned the hard way that five weeks on the road, then three days at home, then another five weeks on the road is not good for my disposition. I am working on doing my three week runs again wit five days at home. Five days is enough time to get home, pass out for a day, do something for a couple days, then spend a day getting ready to hit the road again. Three days compresses this schedule into a mad dash with no "me" time and that is unacceptable.

Funny story time, as you may recall, I swapped trucks a couple months ago and left my remote controls for my TV and DVD player in the old truck. I figured "old orange" would be left to rust in peace in PA, and I could just pick them up next time I ran through the OC, well I haven't been back to PA since I picked up the new truck so I had basically written off my remotes, bummer...
Fast forward to last week, I'm in our drop lot in Seattle WA, and look to my left, there is my old truck! with a couple of guys in it! I couldn't help but walk up to them and ask if they found my remotes in there, and if they still had them, Yep, they had both of them!

What are the odds that I would see my old truck on the opposite coast, and that the new drivers would still have my remotes! Good thing it was a nice day, I probably would have been struck by lightning next!

Anyhoo, time for bed, I'm off to WI tomorrow with a bunch of car parts.

Iowa isn't all underwater

Well, It's been so long that it would be impractical to give you the last month and a half, so let's try and work from the not so distant past and go from there. I am at an I-80 rest area near Victor Iowa where I am bedded down for the night, man I love rest areas with a web connection! It is safe to say from my run through Iowa today that the state is not all drowning, it has been a blue sky day from Illinois to Des Moines where I delivered 45,000lbs of synthetic rubber to the Firestone plant this afternoon. Next stop, Washington state.

I have been to two OC's in the last six weeks on the road, so connections to the Internet have been non existent, My adventures in NYC and Virginia Beach will have to be updated at another time, but I have been logging some really good miles out here, and that is the whole point of this kind of job. The home time thing is really getting to me lately, and I doubt that this is going away any time soon. I've been home for three days in the last seven weeks, and that is just not enough time out of this tin can.

Another "Trick my Truck" I saw in our West Memphis OC last month

Pretty run through Arizona last month.

They make this stuff in Texas across from the Ocean Spray cranberry plant, love this stuff!

I'm beginning to realize my BLOG posts aren't as long and witty as they were about six months ago, nor are they as frequent, for this I apologize. For as much of the country that I have seen, and am quite comfortable running in now, I am being dispatched in new directions away from my "normal" routes. This is good because it pushes my boundaries, and I always think that is a good thing, but it is requiring more time to trip plan, and more brain power to put it all together without driving off the road, there's not as much left of me at the end of the day right now. Oh yeah, and something about a bad economy that has really tightened up my delivery times not leaving as much fluffy times for things like this.

That's a shame because I like blogging, and keeping a record of the big 'ole world out here, ao I will keep trying to bang the keys whenever possible!

See ya on the highway!

Pointed towards Colorado...that's west

Just a quickie update before I hit the hay. I decided to splurge for the 4.95 that the truckstop charges for a day on Internet connection to get a few things done online. I'm in Omaha Nebraska for the night, and the weather is overcast and windy. This is not one of those places I like to stay put in what with it being part of tornado alley and all, so I will be glad to push out of here in the morning.
Today marks my one week in the new truck. I have logged a little over 3,000 miles this week, and still like it. I have found some things that bother me, but nothing is perfect, and I will adjust to my new surroundings. Funny how things we call discomforts at first just become no big deal over time!
Schneider doesn't have much of a presence in the Midwest, so my next few days will be truckstop days. I'm fine with that, but Pilots are my preferred choice due to keeping the truck fueled (I really dig Sapp Bros. but they are few and far between) and there aren't as many Pilots out west. This can make fuel a bigger part of the driving equation, miss a fuel stop and it could be two hundred miles to the next one! I, for one don't feel like "pushing the pumpkin" anywhere...
No new cool pictures yet, I really have been keeping super busy. For those in the know, I have not taken a 34hr restart in the last 22 days, and I have been dancing on the edge of my 70hrs for a while now, but I haven't been over it. I have a great relationship with my dispatch team, and they have given me just as many miles as I can legally run. Nice to see some good paychecks again. You know...for that October wedding! :)

Out with the Old

Cash or charge??

Jeez...

I finally get my mojo back to do some bloggin', and I get busy, really busy! I've been running hard for the last 18 days straight with no slow down in sight. For the moment, I have stolen a couple hours at our Seville OH operating center (OC) to go to the grocery store and reload my food stores, take a shower, and do some much needed blooging!

Of course, every computer program on the laptop has noticed the Internet connection, and everything is trying to live update at once, so this could take a little while to actually post! I'm going to do a big brain dump here since I don't know when my next update will be.

The big change has been my time at the operating centers, where it web connection is free. More of my time has been spent at truckstops due to a restructuring of the way we are fueling our trucks. One can only assume that Schneider has struck a "killer deal" with the Pilot chain of truckstops, because that is where they are telling me to fuel now. The good news is I get free stuff using my frequent filler card, the bad news is a lack of a free web connection...

Anyhoo, I was fortunate enough to get a different truck! I had to swap into it while I was delivering a load, so is was a mad dash to take everything out of one truck and put it into the other. Comparing this to moving out of an apartment is not far from the truth. I spent over six hours moving stuff, and only now am I realizing I forgot the remotes for my tv and dvd player! grrr.... Everything else made the transition just fine though.

"New Orange" has roughly 380,000 miles on it, this is around 530,000 FEWER miles than "Old Orange" which had at my last count 907,000 miles on the clock. Holy crap! what a difference a half a million miles makes! My "new" truck is a 2005, and has all of the interior trim, the lumbar support works in the drivers seat, and the bunk has a box spring and a much firmer mattress! Not only am I more comfortable driving, but my sleep has improved as well. Then there is the drivetrain, the FYI the break-in period for a truck like this is about 300,000 miles, so this girl is just hitting her stride! The engine is super quiet, and the gearbox is so tight, I'm having to readjust my shifting technique! That is a good thing. Anyone who has spent time in an OLD tractor can appreciate the upgrade!

Let's see, in the last week, I have gone from GA to AR to WI to OH to GA to AL to OH, or something like that. Funny how small the country becomes after doing this job for a while. This is a nice place I loaded at in WI. Granted, backing into the loading dock door I am at here is a little tight, what with the river and all, but hey, it's a pretty place on a sunny day!

OK one more story before I hit the hay. I was at a truckstop in Birmingham the other night. There are a lot of down and outs that hang out at most truckstops begging for money or something to eat, and a good portion of the time I will give them something if they really look the part, so this guy flags me down after I have spent the last dollar in my wallet and asks for a buck or two. Being broke, but remembering I still have a Canadian five from my last run up north, I offered it to him, if he was really hard up he could make this thing work. He takes it, looks at it, and says "no man this must be something special for you or somethin'' and hands it back to me! Wow, even the bums don't want Canadian money! Seems funny now that it is probably worth 10.00 American or something absurd considering our current exchange rate!

Of course, I'm thinking I have finially found some "bum Kryptonite"! I'm gonna use that trick again!

Writers Block...Or somethin'

Well, I'm back from a month of honestly not giving a damn about the BLOG. My apologies to anyone who listens to my rants and raves, it has been a roller coaster of emotions for me lately. Funny thing is, I have been collecting photos and ideas to write about, but as the song goes "my give-a-damn's busted".

April brought not only my birthday, but also my one year anniversary with Schneider.I had promised myself, and more importantly, Linda, my Fiance' that this would be a one year commitment to over the road driving. I have had my CDL since '87, but there aren't many well paying local or regional jobs for someone without over the road experience, hence the OTR job.
The problem is that I really love what I do, at least for now, and don't let anyone kid you, first year pay for truck driving is not great relative to the trucking world. Linda and I have had many conversations about what my next move in life should be, we both agree that more time at home is a must no matter how this happens it HAS to happen for both of our sanities'.
We figure the smart move is for me to stay put for right now. It's a good job with benefits and a solid company. Not every trucking company can say that right now!

Secretly, I'm lusting to drive flatbed for TMC mmmm shiny black Peterbilts!

Secondly, April was, quite honestly, a crappy run for me. I got stuck at a truck stop in Arkansas for three days waiting for a load. No load no pay... Then I got stuck in New Hampshire for a day and a half to deliver a load. Wheels ain't turnin' I ain't earnin'.
A slow economy and trying to get a load home to Maine compounded to kill my miles last month.

Have I mentioned Linda and I are getting married in Oct? $$$$$$$!

The good part of my down time in AK, was a chance to read a fantastic book I received for my birthday "A New Earth" by Eckhart Tolle. It was an Oprah book club recommendation, which made me cringe, but I have honestly taken a lot of information out of it. It is a deeply spiritual book for those so inclined to such reading.

My truck rolled over the 900k mark on the odometer, that was exciting! I wish I had written down the mileage when I first started driving it, but I have driven about 120k miles this year, which is respectable for a first year over the road, I hope to do at least as well this year.

Currently I'm at our OC in West Memphis, Arkansas taking my break for the night. I had walked over to a local Dairy Queen for a Blizzard, and while waiting in line a well dressed middle aged black man was waiting in front of me and we struck up a conversation. (If you haven't heard on the news the National Weather Service recorded 10 tornadoes in AK this weekend) In the usual small talk of strangers he asked me how I was and I asked him the same. He leaned in to me and told me how he had just lost his house and possessions in one of the storms this weekend. His wife had been in the house while it was being destroyed by the storm, but she walked away without a scratch. "So I feel pretty good!" he said to me with a big smile, and a small tear.

That's what finally made me want to sit down and BLOG a little.
Sometimes everything we all do on a daily basis needs to be put into perspective, and this was it for me.

Thanks for the B-Day messages!

Yep, another year has come and gone for me. I'm at home for the moment getting ready to leave for another two week run tomorrow. My home time schedule is changing from three weeks out and five days at home to something like two weeks out and three days at home. This is not by choice, but the powers that be don't like my old schedule, so it is changing. Company drivers gotta roll with the punches sometimes. Besides, it will give me more frequency of time at home, and that is a good thing. Three weeks gone is a long time, so I'm ready to mix it up a little.

I passed my HAZMAT test, now I just have to get through the background check and the fingerprinting, which cost something like $85.00, so this will be taken care of after my next paycheck. This should help bring more miles to me, and I think I'm ready to run HAZMAT now. Looking back on my last year on the road, I think it was a smart move not to tackle that until now. It's not like I'm going to be carting toxic waste or anything, but there are very strict rules about this kind of driving around big cities, and I for one really want to keep out of jail. I hear the food is awful, but the health care is fabulous!

Anyhoo, I'm feeling much better than I did last week, so I'm going to try to keep up on the old BLOG better than my last trip out. Miles are picking up, and that can only mean that the first quarter is over YAY!

Be safe out there.

Phoning it in...

Still feeling crummy, so here is a video from a few days ago, as I listen to it, I think I hear my cold coming on!

Howdy...

Wow, I really need to update the BLOG!

This has been an unusual run for me, not a lot of time with an Internet connection nor a lot of time for being colloquial.
After five wonderful days at home, I hit the road with my usual load of paper heading out of Maine, this time to Ohio. Due to this being the first quarter of the year, and the crappy economy, my runs have had more urgency put on them than last years. I can tell that the sales and dispatch teams are working overtime just to keep the wheels rolling. My current drive schedule has me running late into the night, and as anyone who understands DOT regulations on driving will tell you, once you get into a driving schedule, it is hard to get out of it. I, for one, do not like driving at night especially after driving all day. I don't mind driving early in the morning darkness and finishing up my day while the sun is going down, but that is not happening at the moment. Oh well, my wheels are still turnin' a lot!

I go for my HAZMAT endorsement test on April 10, hopefully that will go well. My ace in the hole at the moment is I don't mind running Canada, that is usually good for some extra miles, the HAZMAT can only add to my collection of loads. I already have my tank endorsement, so who knows... maybe I'll go for Schneider Bulk division...Nice pay raise there!

On top of all this, I have a head cold going on which is making life more difficult, but it is the season what with warmer days and cooler nights, this is the time of year when my ass gets kicked around by a cold.

This to shall pass...