Well, I posted a day and a half ago's post - just now actually.  Got busy when an empty trailer showed up - I get distracted at that point. Put everything up, let's get moving.  That was around 4:00 pm yesterday (Thursday). I figured to drive to south of Houston and stop for the night. It would have been a 3 am night if I had tried to drive straight through and there wasn't any need to do that. 

100 miles into the run, I got pulled over yet again by a Texas State Trooper.  No rhyme or reason, she was wanting to do a roadside inspection.  I didn't bother to tell her it was less than a week since I got inspected last.  I figured I was good for an inspection, let's do it.  So, that passed, the only drawback is how much time it takes.  Even a short inspection will take a while because they have to do a lot of inputting into their computer in their cruisers. 

After that? I stopped at a place in Robstown - maybe 50 miles down the road - another driver told me about it in Brownsville, it was worth the stop.  It will become a regular stop from now on, actually.  Just incredibly good food!

After that, I figured the time to get to the truckstop just south of Houston.  And then, a 10 hour break and then what time I would be heading out. Ummm, no. It would have been around 8:00 am, just when things are getting shi*** for traffic in Houston, so I decided to drive through Houston and find a place north of there.  It was quite the drive north of there before I found a place. Midnight I was done, but better than 3:00 am. 

After arriving at the terminal, I heard my manager yelling at the top of her lungs, in very emototional manner, at someone on the phone.  She had the door shut but it was quite clear she was very unhappy with someone. I figured a higher level manager, because one thing I heard clearly was: "I give you my input on what we need to do but you never listen!!!". She was crying and screaming at the same time. 

She had texted me before she went in there about my next load - a worthless Houston run, which only helped that I could back under the trailer and get it ready for Sunday. It's either a whole day wasted - starting early morning to get there in time or 2 days wasted - get there the day before and not have to get up at 2 am.  It will be 2 days wasted for me, I'm not getting up that early in the morning for this run. Sunday I will go over to the plant, get loaded, head to Houston, stop a truckstop near the plant and head over the next morning. Avoid rush hour traffic as well. 

Well anyway, after that I had walked into the office, some other drivers were in there, we were all chatting when all the screaming started.  Ouch.

After getting home? She texted me asking to confirm I had received the dispatch for the Houston load. Yes ma'am, are you okay?  She was like, huh? I explained we heard her "talking" to whoever, it was carrying through the door. She called me and we had a lengthy discussion.  I'm on her side, tho, I don't have to like some of the loads I am getting to understand that she does her best.  It could be better if she could keep better track of what drivers are where and when they are getting back and dispatch loads accordingly. I don't say anything to her about that anymore, it doesn't help anything. 

It turns out they were wanting to get rid of 2 trailers.  She was standing firm on the point that we don't have enough trailers as it stands.  She said we can get rid of one trailer - it's in very bad condition - but the other one? We are not getting rid of.  Another interesting piece of news is that the Mapleton run is coming back, as early as March, maybe even sooner.  That run, when added with everything else, helps keep us all busy. Without it - and another run in Illinois that we probably will never get back as they switched to getting their product through railcars - we aren't near as busy as we used to be.  Now, it turns out, there are 3 trailers - old ones but in good shape - that are sitting somewhere that could be converted to ethylene - that was a product of her call today, they are going to work on doing the conversion and getting them into our yard. 

I learned alot of things today that I didn't know, actually.  Not going into all of it, just too much information and not likely that interesting.  But one other thing are drivers that take too long of breaks.  3 or them, or more maybe, that are close to retiring.  One foot out the door, they don't really care if they get back with trailers quickly, which hurts the rest of us.  I like a day off between runs. If I've been running hard for a while, a couple days is good. But 3 or 4 days?  No thanks. 

So, it's Friday evening. I have the rest of today, all of tomorrow and not needing to be to the plant until 1:30 pm on Sunday off.  Bad weather coming in a bit here. Likely tornadoes and preparing for power outage.  Why? Because every time a bad storm comes through, the power always goes out.  So at least get the candles out!