Friday, January 26, 2018

So, I get up this morning - hotel - slept pretty darn good, actually.  Sat around and watched endless news for a couple of hours and got their version of a continental breakfast. Quite limited affair, but a bowl of cereal, couple cups of coffee and a blueberry yogurt were good enough. Around 10:00 am, I called the shop.  Uhh, hey, I just need to know what your prognosis is for fixing that truck? I need to know whether to ask my manager for another day at the hotel?  Yea, your truck isn't going to be finished until Monday and possibly even Tuesday.  Oh.

Well that was a bit disconcerting. I'm going to sit in a hotel room for 3 plus days?  My mind wandered to what, exactly, is there to do in Tulsa?  But, I called my manager instead and told her.  Yup, well she ended up on a conference call about this situation.  But, that call didn't end. It was getting close to 11:00 am, get out of the room or not?  At 10 of, she finally calls me back after I sent her a couple of texts.  Well, they've got a truck for you at a rental place, here's the address, etc etc etc.  Take a taxi or whatever and get over there, get the truck, get to the repair shop, get hooked to the trailer and then send me and email address where I can send your logs for the last 8 days. 

I'm on electronic logging now, I ditched the log book as soon as I got into the newest truck they dumped me in.  Much easier.  So, I had to dig out all the hazmat stuff in the truck in the shop and my PPE gear - quite a lot of it - and find a way to get all of that stuff and my own stuff into a daycab.  A daycab doesn't have much space in it. No sleeper and and just the area in front of the passenger chair, on the chair itself and a bit of room to the side of it.  I got all that stuff in there, got my logs printed out and got up to the plant.  I am now in a 4th truck since starting at this place - I haven't been working there very long.  The plan was - or is - to deliver that load, drive the rental back down here - I made it home today after that - get another load Sunday morning, deliver it Monday morning and then?  I dunno what they'll do.  Have me wait until the truck is fixed or go get another load.  I guess it depends on what the shop says. 

It's a pretty short run - 324 miles each way.  You'd have to do a lot of that per week to get any money out of it.  No thanks.  I'll take one of those per week but I want a longer run to get the miles.  I'm slowly finding out that there are a great deal many more gravy runs than I know.  But, I don't expect to know anything, I just find the stuff out as I go along - mostly because my manager sends me on a coveted run that I didn't ask for but definitely not turning down. 

I want one of the mythical new trucks they have been talking about forever but have never shown up.  And then, don't even think about taking me out of it.  Or do so and I'll have some thoughts about moving on to greener pastures.  For now, I'll deal with all this moving around from one truck to another. It's going to get old eventually. Or they can leave me in this day cab and then they have to get me a hotel room every night I'm out on the road lol. 

Oh, did I say my friends are moving back?  I don't think I did.  They're desperate to get out of Georgia. They tried a personal loan, but that was quite a lot of money they were asking for and not so great credit.  Well, then his mom decided to offer them a loan.  That was a "selfish" type of thing, it's a much closer trip and doable for her to come visit them here. Georgia is MUCH further away.  I just texted her to find out the situation with the loan.  My friends living here - I can call them friends now - asked for 2 months advance notice when they are coming back.  Which is fine. I already told them I would help them get into a place if necessary. They always pay their rent on time, that has never been an issue.  I'd have to find a 3rd renter for the place, tho.  2 don't cover all the bills even if the rent is cheaper for the house than here. That might be an interesting proposition, considering where I live. 

Anyway, it's midnight and I'm still wide awake. This job is really toying with my sleep/wake cycle.  But that doesn't really bother me as much as this truck situation. And I guess they figure they can do that as long as I'm on 90 day probation. Well, month 3 is coming up. I believe the 12th of next month is 90 days.  I'm starting to get used to the job and all of it's rather strange nuances, but this truck situation? Nahhh. None of the other drivers are going through any of this. 

Alright well I don't like staying up too late. Messes up the next day, I have stuff to do tomorrow since it's only a day off and then back to work. 
















 Monday - afternoon The oldest was in a very bad mood this morning.  Out of character and amazingly, the roles were reversed. The youngest w...