Tuesday, June 18, 2019

Lol.
I arrived at the yard today and walked into the office, one of the drivers about s*** his pants.  What, what, what are you doing here?  I mean, are you loading today?  Yup.  Welllll, what time?  2:30 appointment.  I dunno what he was thinking, but he was scheduled for the appointment before me. I had shown up early.  Well, he got up and went and got in his truck and took off.  He wasn't late or anything, but it was apparent I wasn't going to get to load early - at all.  20 minutes before my load time, I left the yard as well.  Like an hour and 20 minutes later. 

Lol.  Upon arriving at the loading rack, I was greeted with the sight of fully 4 trucks sitting there ahead of me. One getting loaded and 3 waiting.  It was already 2:30, I figured I would be at the plant until 6:30, I was off by 23 minutes on that guess.  At 6:07 pm, I finally got out of that plant and headed down the road.  That is a very late start to be attempting to get much of anywhere.  My only goal? Get south of Houston today.  Well it's past midnight now, so that was yesterday.  And  did!~ easily I might add, that late at night there is very little traffic on Houston freeways. 

So I'm toodling along, about 30-40 miles south of Houston, kablaaaaaaim!! Look out my mirror, sparks flying everywhere, was dark, couldn't see what it was but knew instantly it was a blown tire.  Of all things to have happen this late at night.  I was planning on driving another 100 plus miles down the road before I stopped.  I had no intention of making it to Brownsville - I'd have to drive til almost 5:00 am to do that. I just wanted decent miles behind me.

Instead, I was stopped on an overpass with very little shoulder room, got out, found the flat instantly, said the heck with this, got back in the truck and drove 45 MPH - minimum speed limit out there - until I got to the Love's travel center 12 miles away.  I kept my eye on the blown out tire the entire time. Any sight of smoke and I'd just  have to stop it on the side of the highway and have a service truck come out there. 

Upon arrival here started an unbelievable ordeal with my company in order to get the damned thing replaced.  Call this number, they send me to another number, which is a separate company that deals with breakdowns and tire blowouts.  I was literally fooling with this guy on the phone for an hour in waiting for him to figure out how to do his job.  He hangs up one me, calls me back 15 minutes later:  the Loves doesn't have the right tire, a service tech will be there in 90 minutes.  OMG.

How does Love not have a standard trailer tire? 11R 22.5 - it's a very common truck sized tire.  Of course, the answer is: my company insists on using Michelin only tires and Love's didn't have one.  They had 11R22.5's, just not Michelins. At that point? I gave up on driving any further today.  Then, the dude puts me on hold, gets back on.  Umm, can you move the truck somewhere else?  I mean, I could but I really don't want to.  Well, let me talk to these people again.  Just ridiculous amount of time to get a simple tire replacement accomplished.

And so now? It's past midnight, I have to wait that 90 minutes for the dude to get here to replace the tire.  I'm sooooo tired!  I'm going to go to sleep anyway. They have my number, they are going to call when they get here.








So, I started walking again today.Gonna try to do it every day for a while, just 25 to 30 minutes worth.  Took the dogs to a giant doggy park which is hardly ever used by anyone.  The dogs get to run their legs off and I get to walk a brisk pace in giant circles until the time is up. It's easier to walk the dogs off leashed in an enclosed environment than walking them with leashes. They get exercised much better.

I also started pumping iron again a few days ago.  Nothing serious or going on for hours, about 20 minutes worth.  My arms just started getting sore today.  Meaning I'm out of shape lol. But, I had to cross this bridge. I knew dieting, no matter how effective, would not be the end game.  Cardiovascular and muscle training needed to eventually be added to it. When I was working at Ferguson, I was getting a lot of exercise and lifting a lot of heavy items every day at work.  This job now - nothing like that at all. The worst I have to do is stand out in boiling heat or pouring rain to unload.

So, my arm muscles especially have deteriorated and I am not liking it.  It doesn't take much to pump them back up and keep them looking good.

Okee dokee.  2 things I don't want to do today I just scheduled.  Addler at 1:30 for heartworm shot and dentist at 3:00 to get this broken crown dealt with.  I'll be quite curious about whether they are going to try and make me pay for a new crown all over again - I'm still paying off the debt for all of that work from last year as it stands.  I just hate doing any of that stuff.  The dog especially - he hates needles and he growls at everyone once they stick him. That and the fact he almost always refuses to get on the scale.  They have to weigh him to determine how much heartworm medicine to give him.

Tho ballpark he's around 140 range right now.  He's been given too many treats lol and has gained some weight.  Another reason I wanted to get him and Aspyn to the doggy park, get them healthy again as well.

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The brined, smoked chicken turned out very nice. I was keeping a good eye on it. Not that I wasn't with the turkey last week. You can only do so much.  But I have come to the understanding now that with a large bird, you need a much larger smoker.  Where you can get the bird away from the heat of the firebox. This whole thing about smoking is a learning experience.  I also had a rack of pork ribs going on the propane grill side and those turned out perfect. Just had one burner on, keeping the temp at 290 degrees until it was done. Juicy, fall of the bone tender ribs. I had them around 190 internal  degrees.  It doesn't sound right, but with those types of ribs, you have to get them heated up internally, nicely, to get the tenderness you want when you bite into a rib and the meat falls off the bone.

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Tuesday morning. After not getting a run  for today - yesterday - I texted the interim manager. I've been off 3 full days, I need some work.  She said she had a run for me but there was no paperwork sent to her on it yet.  Going to Brownsville.  Cool, I thought, I have a decent run at least.  Until I found out it's a 2:30 this afternoon loading appointment. That's very late.  Brownsville runs are always 1st or 2cd load. The late load means I likely won't make it down there today for I am not one to drive til 2 or 3 am.  I have done it a couple of times, but I doubt today I will be doing that.  Drive til around midnight, stop somewhere for 10 hours, finish out the run, drop and hook up to a trailer if one is available and head back.  It will take 3 days to do this run.

It's been a week and a half or so since I was down there - and there were fully 5 empty trailers sitting in the lot. I have doubts there will be any detention time on this run unless they simply haven't brought up any more empty trailers - which is highly doubtful.  When possible, my manager will send a driver down there bobtailing (no trailer) and pick up an empty.  But she's not in for 2 weeks. It's whatever, I guess, to me, but it's going to be the only run on next week's paycheck, so that's going to suck without any detention. 

Oh, I found a boat! told them I would buy it - and - they sold it to someone else that had gotten their bid in on it before me.  Lol.  Happens every time. I just don't see the new ad in time before someone else sees it and snatches it up.  I would have gone 12 miles up the road, bought it, had it parked here.

Next time?  Lol, off to the races. 

 Sunday - early 20 minutes until departure time.  I don't much care for delivery on Sundays for it takes a while to get security to the ...