I only made it 240 miles today before I just had to pull over and sleep for a while.  Not feeling good - at all.  It's not that bad, but it's bad enough to just want to sit home and do nothing.  40 minutes worth of sleep in a rest area and I felt a little better - not that much but enough to get home.  

I read the trip sheet wrong - I do not have tomorrow off, I have to go back to Brownsville.  I decided to say nothing to my dispatcher about it, hopefully I have enough in my to get down there tomorrow, sleep, and get back up. Then I'll be off work for 5 days.  So yea, I'm just going to try and tough it out.  I've got 5 hours before I have to go to bed, then sleep, then get up later than normal - 10:30 appointment to load.  So at least the wake up schedule won't be gruesome.  

I did more study on these Sweet Gum trees.  They actually sell a machine that picks up the Sweet Gum balls - which are the nuisance part of the tree that everyone hates.  It's what I wanted to find out - is there something invented to pick them up? Yes, it's over $500 but it means I can keep at least some of them up and not have to worry to much about getting the balls up off the ground.  

Some strange stuff going on on the roadways today.  I caught glimpse out of my peripheral of a vehicle swerving in and out of traffic.  When I actually looked in the mirror, he was swerving over to an exit lane - passed a car, came zooming up to me and then passed me on the shoulder. He was going at least 100 mph.  Yes I honked at his stupid @$$, wth was he driving like that?  He stuck his arm out the window and flipped me off - weaved in and out of traffic ahead of me, flipping all of those people off as well.  I doubt they caught him, but I called 911 on his @$$. This was highway 59, not the Daytona Speedway, he was driving extremely erratically and dangerously.  

On another note, I was coming up on a vehicle so I got out in the passing lane to pass him, which I did. There was a truck in the passing lane - well behind me.  This is what some truckers do nowadays, they'll just sit out there in that passing lane and apparently trying to intimidate anyone from pulling out and slowing them down. But he was hundreds of feet back when I pulled out there.  So, I pull back over after passing the vehicle and what does this truck do?  He passes me and then cuts back in front of me - with maybe 2 feet between our bumper. I promise you I did not cut this dude off, at all.  It's funny, now that I think of it, these people doing this stuff? It's going to get flagged on this new artificial intelligence camera to the company.  They could, if they felt so inclined, turn that guy in.  

I doubt they will, but if that driver had tapped on his brakes, I would have rear ended him - but - the camera would have shown what actually happened.  So maybe I can give the camera a little bit of kudos. Not just that it's constantly videoing, but when something like that happens, it flags it and sends an 8 second video alert to the employer.  I'm not out there to start trouble with anyone, believe me. I"m just doing my job, working and trying to get the day over with - safe and sound like everyone else.  

And then another incident on the 610 West loop freeway in Houston.  I was coming up on this car - which was in the next lane over - apparently it didn't like being stuck behind traffic and just - cut right out in front of me. I'm used to this, it  happens 100 times a day.  I just let it go.  I was stuck behind this driver for a while as they were going slower than I was, but eventually, traffic cleared so I got over into another lane - where he cut me off again. I am still inclined to let it go, stuff like this can never end well, so I went over another lane where he tried to cut me off a third time.

Now, I'm wondering if this dude is trying to collect insurance money, for there was no legitimate reason for him to cut me off the second or third time.  Whatever the case, I came up beside the dude before he could cut me off and if he was going to ram the side of my truck, good luck with that.  After that, I got ahead of him and thought nothing more about it - until 10 minutes later he comes racing up beside me - but kept on going.  I'm just waiting for my company to tell me about someone that called in about a rude truck driver and then I will direct them to take a look at the video.  

Anyway, the day is over, thankfully.  And no big deal about tomorrow not being off from a home standpoint, I was going to go set the rest of those piles on fire. Turns out it's going to rain for the next several days, including tomorrow morning, not exactly favorable burning conditions.  I'll make enough money in these 2 brownsville trips to cover the week and then take vacation hours for the next pay period.  I'm hoping to feel better by Thursday as I really don't want to cancel this trip.  Not at all.