I have to admit that I sometimes get an - eerie - feeling about hauling this stuff.  Ethylene that is.  I'm mostly comfortable with it now, tho with a serious dose of respect, but there are times when you start thinking about the 40,000 pounds of volatile, explosive, highly flammable cryogenics you're hauling down the road  I can't quite explain the feeling, but it's almost like dang, am I going to blow up today? type of thing. 

It crept into me today.  I think it was the workers at the plant, started talking about it's volatility and it's rating compared to other highly flammable and explosive things such as gasoline.  Or one of the plants I go to. They used to just treat it like unloading a truck full of water - which I thought a bit crazy. And then one day I went in there and they literally shut the entire road down with cones and caution tape from both directions.  "Why are you doing that?".  "Well we read about this stuff after being warned about it's flammability.  We didn't realize the potential for disaster while unloading it".  And things of that nature. 

It didn't help that I watched a video on one of the trucking groups I'm in - they post all kinds of different stuff in those groups, much of which has nothing to do with trucking - where this dude pours 5 GALLONS of gasoline onto a pile of rubbish.  I already knew what was going to happen before it happened.  I frequently start fires for burning grass and brush in the open pit we have in the back yard with gasoline.  I put a layer of stuff down, then pour the gas over it, and then dump a bunch of stuff on top of it and then, a little more gas and a trail about 20 feet long of gas to light it with, stay out of harm's way.  But I don't even put a quarter of a gallon of gas on there, I know what will happen. I light the trail on fire and back up even more before it hits the pile. There is always a thump sound, as the gas ignites underneath.

It works very well.  The leaves and branches will burn even if they're green.  Anyway, this guy doesn't even try to light up a trail leading up to the pile, he just lights a piece of paper on fire and throws it onto the pile which instantly explodes.  The next thing you hear is this dude gasping for breath and the guy that's taking the video asking him several times if he's okay?  The guy doesn't say anything. The video ends, no idea whether he was hurt or just had the wind knocked out of him, but standing that close to that explosion? I assume he was hurt.  That's just sheer stupidity right there.

I got past that feeling after a couple of hours, just have to clear the mind and get peace back.  Yeah, this gig pays a lot of money but there's a certain amount of risk involved with it.  But I'm good now lol. 

Anyway, I was third load this morning, one of the loads before me was a Brownsville run as well.  He got down here long before I did and fortunately for me, he was forced to back under the only empty trailer there.  Meaning I get detention pay. He won't, since there was a trailer there.  I mean, I'm not gleeful he didn't get the D pay, I'm just glad I am, lol.  Especially after the Houston trip, gag. Just trying to make some decent checks here lol. 

I had thoughts of having my SUV towed out of the yard and over to a shop while I was gone on this trip.  Just get it done so I don't have to be without a vehicle.  I dunno.  It's running enough to get home.  Just sucks dealing with it.  I don't need a vehicle breaking down all the time.  Not that it's done that, but the last deal was a $1,200 strut job on it.  Not cheap and I don't want to start getting nickle and dimed with this thing.  If it's going that route much longer, I'ma dump it and get something else.  I really should have thought about this a bit better tho, I could have dropped it off in the town my work is at yesterday and have it ready by the time I got back. 

 Well I'm going to bed lmao. It's midnight. No trailers will show up until 11:00 am at the earliest but I need my old age beauty sleep : )