The ordeal began Tuesday Am/Monday night.  Getting done with work at 1 am, stopping at the casino truck stop, I went straight to bed.  At 3:00, a loud dinging noise woke me up out of a deep sleep.  It took a few seconds of orienting myself ot the new reality - being awake long before I should have been or wantd to be - to understand that that dinging probably meant something.....bad.

Well, you can't ignore that noise.  It's loud, it dings about 3 times per second and it never stops.  I was exhausted.  It had already been a long, long day and only 2 hours of sleep and here I am having to somehow deal with this nonsense.

It was a DEF related problem. DEF is the bane of trucking existence. I won't go into detail, I don't feel like it for one - I'm quite well done, exhausted, lack of sleep 2 nights in a row.  And it's too much to go into in any great detail.  It's a system they created to reduce emissions, using it's own fuel system and different type of fuel than diesel fuel and when they break, they do a fine job of messing everything up. We'll go that far with it.

I got back into the sleeper, put ear plugs into my ears, turned the fan up on high, and tried to go back to sleep.  I'd get to sleep and it would just wake me right back up. I basically got no more sleep after that.  My phone started blowing up at 6:30 am.  What trailer do you have? Sorry to bother you this early - dispatchers having no idea what I was going through for I had contacted no one yet.

I have such and such trailer, but I have an issue going on with the truck.  And thus it began.  Phone call...after phone call....after phone call. Texts, unending texts.  

We have a phone number you call, not a division in the company, but a separate company that our company uses to take break down issues and find repair trucks or tow trucks.  I won't even go into all of that right now, I'm just too tired. I spoke with probably 10 different people, it went on for over 10 hours and they got nothing done in that entire time.  Only when I finally got cranky about it and started digging into them about their incompetence and the left hand not know what the right hand is doing did I get anything done. 

Later, after all of that, a different repair truck showed up, could figure out nothing as I predicted they wouldn't be able to, this is a dealer issue that peterbilt will have to diagnose - wasted $552.43 on that for nothing and then...they called a tow truck from 120 miles away to come fetch the truck. 

After the tow truck drive called me, I went to bed.  I got two plus hours of sleep and that was all I got until we got into Tyler, Texas at around 3:00 am.  2 nights in a row only getting a few hours of sleep, I was soo tired.  I just wanted to pass out somewhere. The tow truck driver dropped me off at a hotel complex.  I didn't bother to call my company, I would pay for it and demand repayment after.  I wasn't calling dispatchers or my manager at that hour of the day.  

The Best Western? Closest hotel I could walk to with a giant bag full of my stuff in it - I expect my truck won't be fixed anytime soon and wanted most of my gear with me - the doors were locked. There was a sign on the door saying their computers were down, sorry. The doorbell button was busted.  Locking the doors? To the main entrance? Isn't that illegal? what if there's a fire?  I know there are local health codes that govern such things.

So, I picked up my stuff and lugged it down to the Hampton. Hampton is expensive, I didn't want to spend that much money incase my company gave me trouble getting my money back. Just wanted a bed, sleep a few hours, get a hold of my manager, go home.  They were as expensive as I thought they would be. They wouldn't give me any discount, even tho it was already 3:00 am and they insisted check out time is 11:00 am.  Wow, just wow.  It really bugged me, but what was I to do? There was a Holiday Inn, but it was 1,000 feet away, I had no energy and that bag and other bag were getting awfully heavy.....

So, I paid it with a credit card and got the card keys and went to the 3rd floor.  I found my room, tried to use the card - nothing.  Pulled out the other card- nothing.  You just swipe the card in front of a reader on the door and it opens the lock.  I stood there a few minutes trying, thinking it's just me, I'm too tired, I'm not doing something right.  I finally went back down to the front desk, got the cards reloaded, went back up - again, nothing.  Same thing, stood there for several minutes.

Went back down, these aren't working. They did this again.  I went back up again,  Nothing.  Exasperated, exhausted and getting highly irritated, I just sank onto the floor for a while. I contemplated just going to sleep in front of the door.  I finally pulled myself up, dragged my @$$ down to the front office, this time with my bags, told them if they can't make their system work, I'm getting my money back and leaving.  

This time, the dude came back up with me.  I handed him the cards, maybe, just maaaybe, I'm not doing it right.  I can't possibly fathom how you can't do it right, but maybe.  He tried both cards, neither of them worked.  I wanted him to do that, to see that their system isn't working, it's not just an old man that can't do anything.  He had a wrist band that magically opens all doors, apparently, he swiped that let me in and I immediately went to bed.

But it was fitful sleep.  I was awake most of the time. It was mostly my irritation with how getting this room had gone down.  I was cranky, freely admit it.  I got up at 8:30 am, texted my manager, told him where I was and needing a ride back to Longview - about 40 miles away I think - and I got in the shower.  Went down for breakfast, got a plate, headed back to the room - only to be almost mowed over by an employee coming out the door, not looking before exiting.  I was just standing there waiting for him to exit the elevator...it was just another thing to increase my irritation levels because of lack of sleep and what had happened. 

I got back to my room, ate my breakfast and then replied to my manager's text about him having an Uber ready to order. He ordered it, I walked down past the front desk, told them while walking by that I didn't have any room cards to turn in, I was in room 307 and this is a horrible hotel.  The man looked at me...waaa, whaaat?  I replied: I don't have any key cards, I was in room 307 and this is a horrible hotel.

What can I do to make this better? Nothing, what can you do? I walked out front, waiting for the Uber ride.  I wasn't looking for freebies, didn't really care at that point in time, just wanted to go home.  About 2 minutes later this man came out, he couldn't just let it alone.  I suppose that's his job, find out what's wrong and try to fix it or explain it away, but I was not in the mood for it.  He asked again, what can i do to make this better? I don't even know what's going on? Well, what can you do?  Getting money back was the furthest thing from my mind. I just didn't care. This is how tired I was an how out of touch with reality I was in my thinking at the time.  

So I decided to engage him. Told him about the door, the price - which I wouldn't have minded as long as I had been offered enough time to get rested up, especially at that price.  The man almost running me over at the elevator.  I'll give the guy credit, he apologized more times than he needed to.  He went off how they had just had a 30k card system installed in the hotel and it wasn't working properly, they had made repeated calls to the company that installed it and - they didn't have anyone to come out.

He then went off on how people don't want to work anymore - now this I am hearing from all over the place.  From business owners and managers all over the place.   The government really screwed this one up and yes, that started with Trump and Congress at the time.  Pelosi and Biden aren't any better in this current dilemma, a lot of things were done to placate the citizens that shouldn't have been done. It's transforming our society into a different type of thinking about how much the government should be involved in our lives and whether anyone actually wants to lift a finger to pay for their existence.

10 years ago Socilaism was taboo. Now it's accepted and enough big mouths are propped up in the right places to make it appear that the whole country wants it! Nothing could be further from the truth, but I fear the damage is done.

Anyway, I heard him out, at least.  His apologies softened my tones with him, turns out he is the GM of that hotel and he probably didn't want me filling the internet with bad reviews, he offered all of my money back. I had to think about that for a minute.  Perhaps the point is better made if you don't take the money back. They you are saying things that you actually mean about the service and that you aren't just making things up to get freebies. 

I never asked for or even wanted freebies, btw.  I never hinted at it.  It just wasn't in my thinking.  It was my first time at a Hampton Inn and it didn't come off as any better than any of the other chains.  Holiday Inn, La Quinta, Comfort Inn  - the middle of the line chains - aren't any worse and several of them are much cheaper.  "When I say that, I am not referring to service, just the layout and quality of the place.  Comfort Inn easily matches it and it's usually in the 80 per night range, not the 127-139 per night range.  

Whatever the case, my Uber showed up, I got back to the yard and realized I had forgotten my paperwork out of the truck.  I will have to go get it tomorrow if the truck isn't fixed by then.  If the truck needs a sensor as our mechanic predicted it would, it might be up to 2 months.  That's supply chain issues and it's real.  Oh, I wasn't going back there to get paperwork today.  I was beyond burnout stage, there was no way I was driving clear back there for it.  

Of course, my manager told me at the shop that they "need you back" hinting that the day cab truck is available to use.  Did they ever fix it?  What do you mean? I mean it will have a bunch of codes pop up on the dash and then the power goes out.  The mechanic, over hearing us, barked out that Peterbilt had actually come to the yard and fixed it.

Ok, I'll use it then.  What else can i do? I literally could be sitting weeks waiting on my truck to be repaired. I just went through that with 14 days off for Covid, I can't afford that.  How do you know it will be weeks? Historically, our trucks sit over there a long, long time, no matter what the issue is, before they are fixed and ready to go.  On the good side of things, there has been an engine light on in my truck for months now, maybe they will find that problem as well. They will have to hook up their computer to it to find the codes and find out what's wrong with the DEF system anyways.  

So, I left the yard, drove by my property - absolutely no intention of working there today, but wanted to see if the water install guy had come out - no. Great!  I'm not calling him.  If he doesn't show up by Friday I might try to call and ask what's going on.  I don't need the water out there that bad, it can wait, I just wanted to get it over with and see if the city was going to give any trouble for getting a larger tap installed.  

Home, Taylor and I went out to a Japanese restaurant for lunch, then over to Game Stop, her aunt had sent money for the boys to get some stuff for - halloween I guess - and then to Walmart for prescription.  If you haven't figured it out by reading this blog for a while, Taylor and I are really good friends at this point. It's kind of grown over the years.  We like hanging out with each other. It's nothing sensual, sexual, whatever, it's just friends but it's more, at least in my view, than "just friends".  We like each other's company, that I can pretty much say with confidence. 

Regardless, I am home, she went to work, I'm hanging out with doggies, hoping that the exhaustion will catch up to me and soon so I can nap for a few hours.  I'm on one of those second winds - unwanted.  I don't need a second wind right now, I need all this sleep deprivation to catch up with me and zonk me out.  I'm going to watch reruns of the Big Valley and see if that will help it.  Take a nap with my big doggie laying next to me, lol.  He's in attention deficit, apparently, he's demanding it and I'm giving it to him lol.  Belly rub, ear rub, back rub, ear scratch, well if you have dogs you know the drill.

With that, Im offa here. Things I need to contemplate without all the demands of having to do this and that taking my attention away.

G'day.