Lounging around in a hotel room. Super 8 - not trashy actually, it was the closest thing to the Peterbilt repair shop that would take me in early - like many hours earlier than normal check in time. Otherwise, I would be at Comfort Inn.

Because of the fiasco at the yard and getting loaded yesterday morning, I completely forgot to put my clothing/toiletries bag into the truck before leaving the yard the second time heading up to Oklahoma.  Of course, it would be the one time I forgot that the truck also - broke down and had to be towed to Tulsa. 

I only know that something is wrong with the actuator/s that help engage the clutch when you push the pedal down. I came very close to crashing into a another truck at the Love's in Okmulgee last night when I went to push in the clutch to put it in neutral and hit the brakes to stop for the other truck.  The pedal would not go down at all, no matter how hard I pushed on it. At the time of panic and you are wondering what to do next, you are pushing very hard on that clutch pedal.

I ended up killing the engine, which probably wasn't too helpful to the system in itself but I had no choice.  I wasn't going that fast, at least, maybe 5 mph, I was just leaving the Love's after fueling up so I could get down the Indian Nation Turnpike, stop at the casino truck stop for the night, get some breakfast at the casino the next morning and then head back in.  

Anyway, the truck is at the shop and presumably they have or are looking at it now. They said it would only be a couple of hours before they could get to it - rather unprecedented in the world of Peterbilt repair facilities.  I'm going to wait til' around 3 pm and then contact the lead mechanic and see if they have contacted him with what the problem is and eta for repairing it.  If it's going to be too long - days - I suspect my manager will want me coming back. The company doesn't much care to pay breakdown pay, it's an hourly wage the entire time you are broke down.  

Fortunately for me, I had a dirty set of clothing I had forgotten to get out of the truck from the last trip - that is in the laundry right now, another hour and I will have fresh, clean clothes to put on. I've had the same clothes on for 2 days now, lol.  Otherwise, I'd be taking a Lyft to the nearest Walmart Supercenter and buying new clothes.  It's one thing to wear the same pants for 2 days, entirely another to be wearing the same socks and shirt that long.   

16 hours of breakdown pay so far.   I always measure how good the getting is by the average amount I get per day driving.  So if I left now, I"d have 3 days worth of driving pay - for 2 days worth of work. I'd actually love to have to spend the night here.  I notified everyone excepting my manager - he doesn't really like dealing with anything. My dispatchers would have let him know by now.  If I contact him, he's going to find a way to get me back and an overnight hotel stay with restaurants nearby is more appealing to me. But, I don't make those calls and I'm just waiting on word for what's next. 

Paid for a year's worth of the domain name for my RV park earlier.  Wanted to get that done. It's obviously nothing that anyone is chomping at the bit for or it wouldn't be available, lol, but that's the name I like and no one really suggested anything else - I was definitely open to other names as I'm not the best name-maker on earth - but no one said anything.  I think it's a good enough name and it's going to have to work.  I sent that info to the web designer.  

Now onto the disturbing news that came from the White House that has truckers riled up all over the place.  The issuance of directives from OSHA to force employers to force employees to get vaccinated or get tested once a week.  I feel that's an outrageous intrusion into citizen' personal lives, the government seriously has no right or mandate to be demanding such a thing. To inject a foreign substance into one's body should solely be the decision of the person getting the shot, NO ONE ELSE.  The only exception I can see is parents wanting kids vaccinated for things like polio.  

It's not like you can just "opt out" of work. Well, you can but what are you going to do? And now, they are considering making the same mandate for employers employing LESS than 100 employees. In other words, pretty much everyone.  If anecdotal evidence would serve any useful purpose, the truckers in the various forums I'm in are almost all saying no thanks with ensuing explicatives.  I do believe many truckers would quit before taking the vaccine tho.  I've been saying I will quit my job before I get that stuff injected into my veins.  

So, it was interesting to get a statement from our company's CEO, I believe it was, stating that the company has no intention, whatsoever, to force any employees to get the vaccine.  They kind of alluded to it in a previous email some months ago, but nothing that was this direct, to the point and explicit about it.  What they probably understand is they will lose a significant enough amount of their work force that would effectively shut down plants all over the place.  Hospitals getting their oxygen - might not get their oxygen.  I'm not really for that, but everything else can go, such as nitrogen, helium, Co2, a long list of stuff we haul.  

And apparently, there is an exemption for people that "mostly" work outside and aren't around others that much.  Well, truckers are sort of outside, in their trucks, definitely alone or with a co-driver and not much interaction anywhere, really.  Shippers and receivers mostly want nothing to do with truckers, just take or load the trailers and please leave.  In fact, many of them are quite hostile to truckers, not affording them use of restrooms and other facilities that they may have.  The towns they are in don't want trucks parked anywhere....this nation has become a rather hostile place for a truck driver and his or her truck.  

The CEO spoke of that exclusion and the idea that truckers are likely to be exempted from this mandate.  The CEO also spoke of lawsuits - of the like I already know about, states are either already filing them or have them ready.  The daily wire - Ben Shappiro media outlet - has vowed to take the feds to court and also refusing to comply regardless of the consequences.  That guy usually puts his money where his mouth is, the rubber meeting the road, he's going to back up his words.  Gutsy move taking on the government that has vast, virtually unlimited resources when it comes to court proceedings and actions.  

I do believe an injunction from a federal judge somewhere will occur quickly.  If the federal government can force us to inject liquid into our veins, what else will it be able to do?  Unbelievable powers to force their will upon citizens.   

And in better news, beyond the astounding losses the democrats were handed in the recent election, Pelosi and her bellicose, controlling and self-aggrandizing attitude has been put down yet again by House moderates who apparently are not in love with this reconciliation bill and want the CBO estimate on how much it's actually going to cost.  I was watching a video from a republican representative who put a huge stack of papers on her desk and informed everyone they had just given them to her and yet expected a vote on it without having time to read through it.  This is Pelosi's style and I am glad that finally some of these politicians are getting some back bone to stand up to it, even from her own party.  The infighting the democrats are engaging in may spell the doom of the bill altogether. 

Remember the "let's pass the bill so we can see what's in it" or similar statement she made a long time ago? Apparently that approach won't work anymore.  On the Senate side, Manchin is firmly entrenched in the idea that this bill will cause more inflation and have consequences that Americans aren't going to like.  He actually states he's representing the will of the people that elected him, not Washington bureaucrats, progressives and even citizens that are harassing him at every turn.  The man needs his own security detail, judging from some of the video I have seen.

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And of course they are now saying the truck probably won't be fixed until the end of next week.  That isn't good news.  I found this out from the mechanic and then my dispatcher calls me and tells me the same thing, when do you want to come back? One said leave today the other said leave Monday lmao.  I just said leave today - but that was hours ago and they still haven't gotten any rental car info to me.  Most of those places close at 6 and it's 5:09 pm. I have to be able to get there in time.....

I'm just going to leave tomorrow even if they get me the info in the next few minutes.  It's legit, if the manager dispatcher says it's okay, which she did, then I can stay the night here, collect more breakdown pay and then go home, collecting mileage pay while driving (on medium length trips, mileage pay pays better than hourly wage) . 

Oh, yes, back to the bad part: putting me in another dude's truck.  I drove that truck to the plant and back yesterday morning, it was disgusting.  The dispatcher was telling me how I could drive his truck and I said no thank you. Whyyyyyy? Because it's freaking disgusting, that's why.  Gross.  She said she'd get it detailed and cleaned out.  Well if she does that then ok. Apparently this guy got fired. I asked her, she said she had heard he is no longer with the company.  I asked another driver and he knew the whole story, but would only tell me he "was terminated" from the company.  Again, and as always, there is no job security with the company I'm working for.  I learned that not long after I started working there, I just play along with it and if the same happens to me? Oh well.  I won't be happy, I try to do whatever they want, but in the end, they don't care if individuals come and go.  

They should, tho.  They have a very hard time replacing drivers in this current driver's market. Doesn't really make any sense.