Today - turned out much long of a day than I even expected it to be.  It started before midnight, when I awoke out of a bad dream.  I don't hardly ever have that happen, it was odd. The dream was odd too, I remember, but I can even remember what the dream was about now. I got over that quickly and fell back asleep. Maybe an hour later, loud thunder, woke me up out of a dead sleep. And, that thunder went on for the rest of the night....and no I did not get any sleep.
I have ear plugs and a box fan to drown out noise, but they didn't do anything with that noise. About 3 am I realized I wasn't going to be getting any sleep.  I still tried, doze off and baaam! loud thunder.  4:45 am came around, I got up dreading today. Just absolutely dreading it.  3 hours total - at best - of sleep - coupled with having to drive all day long after spending hours at the plant

I drove to work. It started raining heavily about a mile away.  By the time I got the car unpacked and into the truck and the truck hooked up to the trailer and did my pre trip inspection? I was literally soaking wet. From head to toe.  Embrace the misery, I thought to myself, it likely isn't going to get any better. And it didn't. The air line hose and electrical power line setup the mechanic had fixed on the side of the road? Doesn't work with this old trailer I was hooked to. The lines were literally laying on the catwalk.  But, I was wet and I was running out of time.  They don't like you being late over there.

So I drove over there, confident nothing would happen in that short of a period of time to anything, got all the junk you have to do to get into that plant, get weighed and get to the loading rack and then, the dude kindly offered me some tools to fix the setup. It took 30 minutes of standing out - yet again - in the pouring rain.  Freshly drenched, I got that set up taken care of.

My Monday was today.  I fought sleep for hours.  When I finally got to 6-1/2 hours of driving, I pulled into a rest area, set the alarm and fell directly asleep for 30 minutes.  I couldn't stay there long, the plant eats up your available hours, the only way you're going to get 600 miles in and is to push yourself all day long.  Subsequent days usually are easier.  This particular trip is drop and hook, no layovers just get it done and leave.  So tomorrow will be a rather long day as well, in trying to get as much done as possible.

So, off again. Rain, rain, rain.  Figured out where I was going to stop before my hours ran out and headed that way.  Unfortunately, I somehow missed the exit.  Probably because of driving rain and a bunch of cars hitting their brakes for unknown reasons and distracting me from getting off the highway.  I looked and saw another "truckstop" a few miles up the road.  I have an app. I was running out of time.  At that exit, I had 12 minutes left before I was in violation.  Well, the truckstop was nothing more than a regular gas station with 2 diesel pumps.  There isn't any way on earth a big truck with a 53 foot trailer could pull through there.  I got through because I have a much shorter trailer.  But there was nowhere to park.

No worries, I thought to myself, I'll park in that huge, empty parking lot where I saw another truck parked.  I got to the entrance, "absolutely no truck parking, Big Daddy J's towing" will be there to pull your truck out of there.  Lovely.  9  minutes left on the clock. I put it in on duty mode instead of drive mode, so it would at least show I had time to do a post trip inspection.  Gas station there with a big side lot, truck fit easily in there, out of the way.  But, I went in an asked. Sure, you can stay there a few minutes. But if you stay there too long, the cops will fool with you and make you move.

I was out of time, I hit off duty on the thing a minute before I was in violation.  I didn't want to do this tonight, but I ended up driving across the street, pulling into the Red Roof hotel parking lot and getting a room. The reason I didn't want to do it is because it's just 10 hours.  I mean, I can stay longer and I might just do it.  My 14 hour clock doesn't start until I hit the "on duty" field and hit enter.  Just that I wanted to get this trip over with as quickly as possible. Meaning I was hoping to get it done in 3 days instead of bleeding over into the 4th.

But I'm wasted tired and the only reason I'm on here writing this is because my head is buzzing from all of this sleeplessness. A lifetime of experience with driving like this and this head buzzing? Don't even try to go to sleep until it fades away.  I have to do things that require thought and will eventually make me sleepy.  I guess writing in my blog about my day isn't especially thoughtful, but it engages me at least.

So, I'll probably not get up until 7, when I should be getting up at 5am.  The delivery isn't actually until Tuesday morning, but at this place, they'll take it whenever you show up.  I've got to get some sleep tonight.

Ahh, well, that's that.  I am finally starting to get a bit sleepy.  I've been here about an hour and 15 minutes now.  the other nights I'll have to spend out here will be in the truck.

Oh, I did go and buy stuff for the refrigerator in the truck. Various lunchmeats, a half gallon milk, orange juice, coffee drinks, a gatorade, a couple of waters, cheese and condiments for sandwiches. The fridge is packed.  It's also a very good refrigertor.  I initially turned it all the way up the first time I used it and it froze the leftovers I had in there.  Today, I started it at 3 setting - halfway up. Everything in there is very cold.  Not freezing, but not far from it.  There is a small freezer, now that I understand this thing is chilly, lol, I can actually get a couple of ice cube trays and make ice in there.

The only thing I am not sure about is if I can just leave it on even when the truck is off and I go home.  Cause I would rather leave the stuff  in there than have to unload it every time.  The concern are the batteries. But, the thing stays so cold and with it packed, I don't really think it has to run that much. As it stands, it's going to spend the night in the parking lot without the truck running.  But it's cold out, my version of it anyway, it's 41 degrees and likely going down from there tonight.  So definitely not really going to have to run that much.

Anyway, my focus at the moment is on getting these moves over with.  My room to other side of house, current people to new house, old friends back into house.  It isn't just getting physical items moved - tho that's a big part of it- it's also calling all these different companies to get all of this different stuff turned on, preferably the last day of this month.

And there is the cleaning I want to have done in the house before they come back.  I was intent on getting the flooring refinished in the living room, but that is turning into an ordeal just finding someone to do it that I'm letting that one go for now.  It would have been nice, yes, but just no.  I could do that myself but I have very little free time nowadays and by the time I get to free time, I'm worn our from running around all over the place. This is a 2 thousand mile run.