Lol. The plant used another driver and I as guinea pigs this more.  See if they can load 2 trucks on the rack at the same time. It sort of worked.  Got to talk to this other driver that's been at the company for awhile about this particular run I'm on since I've never done it before.  He expressed the idea that if you "don't mess around" you can get it done in 3 days. 

I've encountered this phenomenon with other drivers in this company. Perplexing.  They stop a lot while on the road, they don't necessarily get a lot of miles done on any given day and it seems as if they aren't interested in making money.  Just the bare-bones minimum.  I dunno, but for me?  Once I get out on a run, I want to get it done as fast as I possibly can - meaning drive all day long after the truck is loaded until I either run out of hours or come to the understanding that I might have to quit a bit early to find a place to park.

The variable on this run - according to him - is that it can take anywhere from 2 to 6 hours to unload the truck.  6 hours?...geeze. I need it done tomorrow in no more than 4 hours to be able to get home on Sunday and enjoy a nice, steak, Easter Sunday dinner.  Won't be the end of my little world if  I don't get home Sunday, but it would be nice.  I'll get holiday pay, an extra $170, for driving on a national holiday. 

So, the dude whose truck I am in now - he quit the company a month ago - is already back with the company lmao.  The grass was dead on the other side of that  fence.  My manager asked me last night to leave his bag - it's got all this expensive fire-proof clothing and equipment in it - in the office.  I assured her without her saying anything about it that he was not getting his truck back.  He quit, tough, eat it, deal with it.  She agreed, lol, wasn't even going to ask.  Anyway, upon arrival at work this morning, early, she was there. 

Good morning Sunshine! What are you doing here so early?  Just behind in work. And for whatever reason, decided to go into the subject, unsolicited and frankly, not exactly wanted of colonoscopy.  You know, where they stick a camera up your @$$ and take a look at your innards?  I have resisted it because I don't want a camera up my ass, I don't want people standing around making jokes about it and I have other diseases in my family lines that I am basically in fear of, colon cancer isn't in our family lines. We have far worse shit - Alzheimer's all over the place. Which would you rather die from - losing your freaking mind to the point you can't even remember who you are much less your own family or offspring? Or some cancer eating your innards away until you - die from it's complications? I'd rather be blown up  than get Alzheimer's.  That crap has taken alot of people out in my extended and close family lines. 

I'll never understand my dad dying of that disease when the Bible says that God gives us "the power of a sound mind".  It clearly states that in the Bible.  He served the Lord his entire life and then what, go out not even remembering who his own son was?  I'd seriously rather have a bullet in my brain than go through that.  Note: I'm not suicidal, at all. But I've given a lot of thought about this devilish, nightmarish disease called Alzheimer's and there are a thousand other ways I'd rather go out than forgetting everything in my life and everyone that was important to me in my life.  That's a disease from the pit of hell.

Uhhh, yeah, moving on.  Okay I'm totally sidetracked now that I started thinking about all of that nastiness again.  Some of the stuff that goes on in life is utterly pathetic and shitty. 

Shifting gears.  I made it almost 600 miles today, I could have gone another 30 or 40 miles further, but the truckstops available in that range were listed as "some spots". At this time of day, "some spots" - that's a generality of how much truck parking is available - can disappear and be listed as "lot is full" in a matter of 10 minutes. I've seen it countless times.  I calculate - always - the next day and the rest of the trip as to whether I should risk going for it or stopping a little short at a place where I have a 90% confidence that I'll find parking.

I opted for confidence and wasn't let down. 

Now then, DirecTV. They have the worst customer service on earth, I can guarantee you that. 20 plus years of dealing with them, there isn't any other service that has consistently horrid service as ridiculous as they do.  I wasn't let down looking at $196 and change being taken out of my account this morning. $116 to $196 in one fell swoop. NO email, no notation on my account online about it, but just "Hey, we're going to screw you up your ying-yang and you're going to like it!". 

I got this guy in customer loyalty this morning who obviously knew nothing.  He had no customer relation skills and kept saying the same thing over and over: do you like your Showtime channels?  I immediately told him I wasn't going to argue with him, I wasn't going to consider having less programming and that his "offer" was to bring it "down" from $196 per month to $132.  I mean, this dude wouldn't listen to me.  His offers remained the same and I said 3 or 4 times: get the price back down to $116 or I"m going to switch to Dish Network.

I wasn't lying, either. I was fully prepared to switch over. This guy wouldn't change his offer and wouldn't shut up.  I finally hung up on the dude.  So what does he do? Calls me back! I was looking up the number for Dish Network, I didn't want to talk to him or anyone else from that company. And I flatly told him so Why are you calling me? I didn't ask you to call and yes, I hung up on you.  He went into the same stupid s*** all over again.  Get off my phone!  This time he said fine and he hung up. 

So now, I"m not considering whether to get Dish, I'm already there with that one. Get it, get a much better deal and screw DirecTV.  So, while I'm doing that, this dude calls again!! WTH  Oh, well I talked to my manager and she had listened to the conversation and said that she could give me - $110 per month and a $100 credit. He then profusely apologized for his obnoxious behavior on the phone so I caved and agreed  to it. That's on the rental house out here.  The house in Phoenix, I just remembered, Dish just upped the rate there by $20 and I forgot to deal with that.  No mood to do that tonight, I'll call them tomorrow.  They just do this stuff and they don't bother to even give you a notification about it.

But I will give ATT credit - they own DirecTV now - ATT gave me 35 gigs of "bonus" data last month - of which I never came even close to using, and they did it again this billing cycle!  I dunno how long this is going to last, but I'm streaming all kinds of stuff while on the road.  Watching movies, yes! 

I didn't sleep well last night and didn't get enough hours from the start of it to begin with. The sleep bug has hit me and I'm getting offa here. This engine vibration along with the sound of the AC fan humming makes me sleep better in this truck than the setup I have at home.  The bed vibrates all night long. That may not be for everyone, but it just amazes me, haha. 

G'nite.

Well here we go.  I figure 3 day trip, I have never been to this plant before but it's only like 50 or 60 more miles further up north than Mapleton, Illinois.  I can basically just do the same route excepting near the end staying on I-55 instead of taking 155 up to Pekin.  The point being I know where I"ll end up after today's drive is over, or at least have some idea of the region I'll be in. How far I make really depends on any given day. How long it took to load at the plant, if there were any traffic snarls, weather, etc.

I'm not really happy I didn't get those plugs all in yesterday since that box is going to be sitting there 3 or 4 days, but then again, I got quite a lot done considering the time frame I had to work with.  I wouldn't have done any of that stuff, tbh, if I had known I was going out today.  Just drench the boxes with water and hope for the best.

Meanwhile, DirecTV zapping it to me yet again.  This time, instead of adjusting the bill for one extra receiver, they for some reason decided to add $69 to the bill. Looking at the bill itself, it doesn't show anything but a higher cost for the same package.  I get so sick of the games directv plays, and it hasn't gotten any better - actually worse now - since ATT took over.

Well whatever, off to the races!

G'day.