Long day. Didn't help that I didn't sleep worth a poo bears bad toilet paper.
It was drive up to the yard, sit there for 3 hours getting acquainted with people and waiting on a mechanic to do his inspection of the truck, 45 miles east to a washout facility to pick up a trailer and then back home. It's the sleep stuff that gets me. If I don't get a decent night's sleep, I'm just fighting through the day with fatigue and just doing things to keep myself attentive.
Back to my yard at the property, parked the truck, took note of the fact that I am going to have some serious work to do to make that area behind the shed accessible for turning that truck around, noticed the new dog dung trash can was already completely full and overflowing - that was odd. I just put that thing out there 2 days ago, actually a day and a half ago. It's not a huge trash can but to see it that full already?
So I took the bag out, put it in the big trash can and put a fresh bag in there.
The New Jersey lady came out of her trailer as I was getting out of my freshly parked truck. I didn't know you drove big rigs?! 37 years of it.
Taylor came and picked me up, thankfully, she is in her own hell with that baby causing her constant pain. They are going to induce it with some kind of drug to come out early. Like a few weeks early, but she still has a couple weeks to wait until they can do that. Home, no dinner, got out the pork chops, made that, mashed potatoes, gravy and corn - simple, quick and filling. Did dishes, made lunch for tomorrow even tho it's a late start, one more thing nixed off the list of things to do.
Trust me when I say that although that sounds like a lot, and frankly it is, I don't have near the energy to do that every day for the next 11 days that it would take to carry that out on a daily basis. Because yes, I am to work for 11 more days and then get a weekend off. I'm pretty sure I can't keep that kind of schedule, but we'll see. Tomorrow, for example, is just drive to Lufkin, load and come back. That's not even 4 hours of driving total for the day.
Today was an oddball because of having to go up there for a trailer and to meet everyone and get the truck looked at. That won't likely happen again anytime soon. I very much do not like Arkansas 2 lane highways, only because the speed limits are mostly 55mph. Feels like you're barely moving.
And when I got to the wash out place, I didn't know what I was doing and had to ask the workers. So, you leave that lid open like that? Yes, the inside of the trailer has to dry out. Oh. But we can do whatever you want...nooo, no no, I'm learning here, new to washouts, I just needed to know it's okay to drive down the road with that lid opened like that. Yes, they do it all the time.
The Lufkin trip will not always be as fast as tomorrow should be, that's because you have to take the trailer to a washout before you go to the plant to load. I won't have to do that since I just picked the trailer up at a washout up in Arkansas. They suggested that I drive 50-100 miles and then pull over and close everything up. I didn't do that, I just drove it back to my property and will deal with it in the morning. I think it's the idea that it should all be closed before you arrive at the shipper.
I will never have to load trucks, I will likely always have to offload. Wednesday, I will follow another driver up to the plant in Gurdon to have a one day training session. That should be all it takes. Actually, I have it down now that I had what they want done explained today. The last part that I was struggling with is easy now.
They want you to chase out the product with air, water, air just like you would do if you're pumping off. Why? I don't know, it only adds a few minutes to the process, not a big deal... once you get to the final part of air pressure in the delivery line, you just go close the plant valve. You already closed the internal and hand valve on your trailer. The rest is just putting everything away. The idea is to get everything out of the delivery line before putting it up at the plant. The next person comes along and doesn't have a heavy line loaded up with product sitting in there. Makes sense, but they don't do that at all with the Oregon drivers unless it's a pump off.
I'm learning. Lots more to learn, there is yet another plant to load at and a different plant to offload at after I get this one down. Then, it's alternate between the two as dispatch need arises. The only difference between the offload plants is the other one you have to use your own hose. Which looks like a true pain because the hose is on a rack mounted to the back of the truck and you have to get that hose way up high to get it over the rack and then strap it down. Those hoses are heavy.
I think the only thing I'm really objecting to right now is this idea of working 12 days in a row, if you count today, which you would. And doing that all the time. 12 days on, 2 off? That's a bit much.....BUT...if I"m home a lot that helps. It sounds like, at least with this Lufkin/gurdon run, that the first day doing Lufkin is a pretty short day and the second day, not a lot more. Gurdon is only 2 hours and 15 minutes from here. It's up there, deliver, and back.
Just the first time will take many more hours because I will be with the guy delivering his load and then he will come with me delivering mine. Same product, same plant, just a training day. Get this training junk over with and really, this isn't a big deal - I think. Probably gets old doing the same thing over and over, just gotta keep in mind that I have an end game here.
But I can't really determine how the end game plays out until I see a "normal" paycheck. This next coming paycheck won't be normal because it will be that 2,700 mile trip and a few days from working in Oregon.
If I'm calculating this correctly - my mind is jumping all over the place right now - it really shouldn't be more than 6-7 hours per day with 8 at most on any given day. That is nothing in the trucking world.
Meanwhile, I just had to write an owner's draw check from the business account and pay myself. Yes, I got a nice chunk of change for the first paycheck from this company, but it's almost gone already. This was my financial state of affairs that took a huge hit from these excessively high electric bills. As I said a month ago, and a few months ago, I knew September was my deadline and that I possibly could make it going into October. I was spot on with that and I had actually predicted that many months before I ever got there.
So, these new RV'ers hadn't even left yet when I get back today. They have no idea what they're doing but they definitely enjoyed my park, they told me that in no uncertain terms and the lady said she hadn't slept so well in ages. That's all she did, sleep, take the dogs out to do their thing, back to sleep. Hey, I ain't judging people's vacations, I'd absolutely love to be able to sleep like that!
Anyway, I just went incognito to check out my website and book a site. There is a field you can click that says "view terms and conditions". It says plainly you have to be out by noon unless you call us first and ask if you can stay longer, and then, if the lot isn't going to be used, you can stay until 3:00 pm, after that, you will pay another night's stay. The catch here is this: You must click on the field that says "I have read and agree to the terms and conditions" before you can finish the reservation.
I said nothing to them. Let some other RV park that is strict about it's rules confront them, I felt it unnecessary considering I didn't have anyone else coming in and they had had such a nice, relaxing stay. Why ruin it for them? Leave on a negative note? What possible good does that serve? The only way I would have said something is if someone else came in - for their lot - and called me telling me their lot is already taken. Huh?
I guess you could call today a productive day, yes it was. I'm just concerned about the toll it might take having to work every single day for almost 2 weeks, even if it's a light schedule. I'll miss church this coming weekend as well. Not a fan of that idea at all.
Oh, there's probably $300 worth of quarters in those machines at the park right now. I opened one up and was shocked to see the thing almost completely full. I get paid on the 22cd, I think I'll wrap those quarters up, deposit it into my account and give it to James. I own him for the drywall work. I started paying him last paycheck, it would be nice to get him paid up. That way he isn't going to hesitate about asking him to do other stuff as it arises. I can trust James to do things right. I don't have to worry whether he'll half-@$$ something, he never does anything without a calculated thought of doing it right the first time regardless of how long it takes him to do it.
I did not pull the quarters out. I had nothing to put them in.
That's it. I don't know how I can have all of this energy after doing everything I've done today. I am not tired now that I think about it, hopefully that will change after I get myself into bed and turn something on on the tv. I don't have to get up early, that's a beautiful thing. I can only hope I can get a decent amount of sleep tonight. Like, go to bed at 10:30, get up at 7:00 am, get stuff done, get out of here, get the Lufkin stuff over with. I should be home between 5:00 and 6:00 pm if my thoughts about how long it should take are correct.
Should be close. I did a large number of these loads in Oregon, same stuff here as there, over and over. It's about an hour - hour and 15 from start to finish. I'm not going with that other guy to do this. I'm not loading the trailer so it's just a matter of finding the entrance, finding the scale and tell them I have never been in there before, what do I do now? No different than the myriad of different new places I went into with the previous job. Giant plants, send someone to escort me or give me a map.
Expect when I arrive to question that I'm at the right place and getting the correct product. My anxieties about how all of this works are starting to fade. It's completely new to me, but the training has been good and I've been exposed to it over and over. The only thing that sucked was the fatigue, lack of sleep and yes, I tell them that when they ask. How was training? I tell them about that horrid bunkhouse, how they can believe that anyone can get a decent night's sleep in that abomination and why they subject new drivers to such nightmarish conditions.
Lol, well, that is probably going to stick with me forever. When some of the reviews said things like: "Run, don't walk, run from this place" they weren't far off. You can't expect decent help when you are putting people through such a wretched, vile, nightmarish process. I'm not 20 years old, thank you very much.
With that? I bid you a good evening, lol. I'm not depressed about that experience now, I'm still paying for it tho. I doubt you ever truly get caught up on losing such a large amount of sleep. I told the new manager quite bluntly that I will never stay in that place again. If there was some reason they wanted me to go back for some training or whatever, it will be a hotel or it will be nothing.
Oh, btw, it's Christmas at Walmart! and a lot of other stores, lmao.
G'nite.
