Well here we go.
This morning, I texted the manager up here.  Done at UMASS, do I head back to UGI?  I wanted to actually do at least one more run to get a bit better paycheck. But he texted back, contact me after we're done, let's talk about the next steps.

Well, that was a dead giveaway to me that it is time to go home.  I gave it a 99% chance anyway.  So, I called him and sure enough, that was exactly the plan.  I got you a rental car to drive to a hotel and then to the airport for tomorrow. I just need you to go to Lancaster with me to get a tractor from a dealership.  New truck, not bad. Not for me obviously, he just wanted it transported back to the yard for whoever's going to get it. 

Now, before I get sidetracked with anything else, I can guess how this is going to go, based on his words after he said everything else.  We're going to drive to Lancaster, it's an hour's drive from here. He's going to try to talk me into coming back up and stay for several months, with home time at whatever intervals he prescribes. Okay, I had to throw that out there and see if what I'm thinking will come to pass.

Because...first off he wanted me to stay when I said I needed to go home.  When I gave him a respectful reply-  unfortunately I can't because of this, that and the other thing - he said ok.  But, today, he flatly stated that he would like me to come back up after I get whatever I need to get done at home - done.  I don't know how this company operates, but I'm getting a feel of it.  I dunno. I really don';t want to do it. I have a nice set up going there now.  I get sent out for 2 or 3 days and then I come back to Longview with the truck and then I go home, at least over night, sometimes for a day and a half.  Any way about, I always get to go home afterwards. 

That obviously isn't a happening event up here. It's life on the road baby.  You live in the truck, you get a hotel here and there, you don't go home.  I mean, local drivers get to go home, but not me.  The perplexing part of this is, my manager said she hired us because they were expanding their contracts and they needed more drivers.  This is why I'm going to go in and have a conversation with her about this.  Where do I stand?  What do you expect of me?  What do you expect me to do in this situation? 

I thought I had this clearly defined from her from the get -go - and maybe it really is, but I need to hear this from her.  From what I have heard, your direct manager has the final say in whatever is going to happen. 

So anyway, this morning.  Lol, I knew when I pulled into that hotel parking lot and seeing the "exit" that there would be issues come this morning.  I was on the top/3rd floor of this Econolodge.  I'ma telling you, for the money, it's an excellent hotel. It was sooo quiet. I never heard a single other person on that floor the 20 hours I was up there. Not even staff.  Just wonderful.  Comfy bed, I slept like a log, had a lot of bad nights of sleep to make up for. Tonight will be another of those nights.  I'm half tempted to rig something up to keep the gas pedal pushed forward a bit and just run the engine all night long. At least I would sleep. 

I was looking out the window of my hotel room and looking at the exit. It's basically an L turn.  I was like, I am pretty sure I can't make that turn without driving out into that thick drift of snow on the side.  Well I went out there this morning, heck no!  I would have had to drive over deep snow, over the landscaping and into the next driveway over. 

Well, the only other way out was the way I came in  - but in reverse.  It was a tight turn in and then around the curve into this small parking lot.  It was hard enough coming in here, I dreaded trying to back out, especially since they had driven 4 foot rebar into the ground all over the place at the curb edges.  I tried to take 3 of them out there were definitely going to be in the way, no dice. I ended up backing around that mess. It took 5 tries before I finally got the trailer headed towards a parking lot on the other side of a very busy road. That was the next challenge, getting out into traffic.

Well no worries, I saw a gap in the traffic on my side of the street, I quickly got the truck out there, blocking traffic. Then it was just a few seconds before a patient driver stopped and waved me out from the other side.  It didn't take that long, but by the time I got the truck on the road, there were at least 20 cars backed up either direction.  I have to tell ya tho, for the price, I would do it again if I had to. 

Anyway, after Lancaster tomorrow, I get into a rental car, I think I drive to a hotel near the airport and then spend the rest of tomorrow doing nothing - but in a hotel so I"m cool with that.  Then Saturday at whatever time I get on plane do Dallas and then catch an connector to Longview.

I'm getting tired and I have stuff to do to get ready.

Well, I knew I would end up here early in the day - and I knew I wouldn't want to spend 21 hours in a truck with absolutely nothing to do.  If I ever get my own, permanently assigned truck in this company, it's going to get set up with whatever I deem necessary to make it un-boring for extended periods of waiting times.  However, those long waiting times elsewhere I get paid for. Sitting around up here, I do not.

The weather has warmed up substantially, so the number of loads they need up here has dropped accordingly, meaning much less to do.  They no longer need us up here, they have enough of their own drivers to cover this work.  This was what all of this was about - to cover for drivers that needed  time off and for resets for drivers that had run out of hours.  Looks like that is all wrapped up, as an email is sent out daily with everyone on it and what they are assigned to do.

Anyway, I found a cheap - but fairly nice - hotel a few miles away from the University and am camped out here until tomorrow morning.

I have not been sleeping well in that truck. The mattress is very uncomfortable - too thin, old and worn out and the APU doesn't run constantly.  It turns on and shuts off all night long.  It wakes me up frequently.  I've never had a truck where the APU doesn't run the entire time you  have it on. Pretty crappy design.  I'm probably waking up 10 times per night, at least.

So, when I got into this hotel, I watched the rest of a movie that was on, drew the blinds and fell asleep - for several hours.  A fire truck coming by woke me up.  I was startled.  I had no idea where I was. I looked at the clock and thought, what the heck, I"m hours late for the pickup this morning!  It took a minute of looking around to understand that - that is not the case at all lol.

I'm kinda dreading getting out of here in the morning tho.  I saw a truck in here the other day, hence the reason I pulled in here.  But getting out?  That truck could move it's tandems forward and make a much tighter turn.  My are stuck at the very back of the trailer and they aren't sliding tandems.  I was looking at the exit and wondering how I was going to pull that one off, lol.  Not to mention this hotel put up rebar on the turns to keep vehicles from pulling over it.  Well, 3 of them are going to come out of the ground in the morning - it is running over 2 feet of snow, there aren't any plants and it will do nothing to whatever landscaping that is already dead for the winter underneath it.  But to swing wide enough, I'm going to have to go out into the snow on the other side and I'm just not sure how that is going to work out.  Well, I have no choice in the matter : ) I'll get it out of here one way or the other.

So anyway, it's Wednesday night now.  I've got 3 more days, I think, of hauling here and then I get to go home.  I want to finish out the week just so I can get a decent - or some resemblance - of a paycheck. I am definitely not making the money here that I do hauling out of Texas.  There are many cons to being up here, the money being the biggest one of them. 

Anyway, I don't really feel like talking about goals, future and current things elsewhere.  Just gonna chill.

So. I let the text from my manager go.  Didn't reply with anything, I just figured I would wait this out.  So, sometimes I write out my thoughts here, not anything I actually said to anyone.  Well today, I find out her best friend from child hood passed away. The 2 were, as explained to me, very close.  So that explains her not responding to me yesterday.  I wouldn't want to deal with work, either, in such circumstances.  I wrote her a text expressing my condolences and then she wrote back a thank you for that immediately.

Oh, I found that out from my new buddy in this company: a 60 something year old lady that has a great sense of humor. We hit it off the first time we met.  She's married, lol, we're just friends.  We talk on the phone every day tho, since I came up here. 

Anyway, I got a text from the manager up here.  Uhh, he wanted to know when I would be back at the plant in PA?  I replied I'm guessing around 4:30.  Much longer than it should take, but the mountains here slow you down and the speed limits aren't that great either.  Cops everywhere, not worth the risk.  I then gave im a reminded about my 2 weeks being up as of Saturday.  He asked if I would stay longer or no?  I gave him my version of a story - a true story - and said I couldn't stay out any later than Saturday.  He said cool, he'll work on getting me home. 

I don't live in Pennsylvania.  I agreed to being out up to 2 weeks at a time with this job, that is in writing, when I started.  I agreed to 2 weeks up here. It's going to be over as of Saturday. 

And let me say something here, this situation up here? Misrepresented.  There are no babies, children or older folks that are going to freeze to death up here if we didn't come and help.  This is what got me going in the first place.  I have the text, it says that.  When I got up here, I find out it's a huge university.  Yes, it's colder than frostbite up here.  But, there aren't any babies, children or senior citizens at this university. Well there may be some older folks, who knows. But, it's the holidays, the students aren't even here. 

The lady driver has been working at the company for 6 years.  She is going home as well. We were really only brought up here to deal with this unbelievably cold weather.  The minus zero stuff.  That was causing them to need to take up 4 loads per day, they didn't have enough drivers to cover that.  Well, the temps now came up to the 30's range and the orders for the fuel have gone down to 2 load per day, with the demand for Friday down to 1 load. 

Anyway, that's that.  I have no qualms telling anyone that I want to go home. Yes I miss my dogs. I miss my bed. I miss my home surrounding.  I don't  care if anyone else doesn't like this, I'll my life the way I want to live it.  I'm currently living in this little box.  It's old. It needs a complete cleaning. The carpet is dirty.  I don't even have a freaking blanket.  Somebody was smoking in this one, too. Not near as bad as that other truck, but it still smells in here.  And tomorrow, I"m up at the plant at 5 am, but the delivery isn't until 9:00 am the next morning.  I'm calculating 21 hours of sitting around in a truck waiting to make a delivery. 

Walk a mile in another man's shoes.....

I just posted last post.  I had left it as a draft and wasn't able to get back to it.  Figured post that, even tho not finished, and start fresh.

Well first, I left my power cord for my computer in the motel room.  I could kick myself.  I scoured through that room this morning making sure I wasn't leaving anything behind, but, I left something behind lol.  I called them, they have it, I'm going to stop in there tomorrow morning and pick it up.  Of course, that means I have limited time on my laptop tonight, which is fine, I can do my writing, put up the post and shut it down, use my Iphone for everything else.

So, today, I wanted to verify my going home this weekend.  I sent my manager a text, I need to go home this weekend. I'm willing to work through Saturday, etc.  Hours went by and then just now, I get a message: I'm going to be off until Monday.  Etc etc etc.  This is a text she sent out to everyone.  But I tried to contact her well before the work day was over.  I'm not staying another week.  I'm just not doing it. Or, if they try to force me to, they will be putting me up in a hotel every single night after the first 2 weeks are over, which will be Saturday.

I just can't believe she just decided to ignore it.  That doesn't give me a good feeling. Like they are going to try to pull a fast on on me and try to keep me up here longer.  I agreed to two weeks, it's in writing.  Well, anyway, I'm going to wait until about Thursday and then I'm going to talk to the manager up here about it.  He can get the same thing done she can, but she is my direct manager and takes responsibility for paying for hotels and airfare and such.  We'll see what happens. I"m a bit anxious about that because I really want to go home. I really do not want to stay up here another week after this one.   I'm getting home sick.  I've already been gone 10 days.  It's just too much for me to think of staying up here another week. 

Anyway, I think about Thursday is a good day to start talking with the manager up here about it, maybe even Wednesday.  I told him from the get-go that I was here for 2 weeks.  That discussion was brought up the first night I arrived. I wanted to make sure he knew that this was not an indefinite assignment.  I'm doing them a favor, thanks.

So, venting that out of my system.  I needed to get that off my chest.  The lady driver that came up after I did is also not liking it up here, at all.  She's got a bit better situation tho. She is in a day cab (tractor that does not have a sleeper) so they are getting her a hotel every single night.  I would be much happier if that were my situation, instead of being dumped in this old truck with all kinds of problems with it.  I can deal with it, I guess, but not indefinitely.  I'm just going to have to stand my ground on this one.  If they "beg" me to stay, I might agree to it, but with the string attached that I am staying in hotels, not this piece of s***. 

Right now? I'm sitting at a travel plaza off a toll road.  I had thought these places have truck parking. Sure, like enough for 10 trucks, maybe.  I pulled in here running out of hours.  I will have to take a pic of where I'm parked. I sat in the front of the truck for an hour to see if anyone would come out and object to where I"m at.  There are trucks parked all over. I would have stopped 30 miles back at a truck stop if I had known this. I wanted to get as far as I could up here so I wouldn't use up a lot of hours. I'm stuck here for like 15 hours. 

Oh and that's the other reason I don't like being up here: not enough miles.  I did over 500 today, not bad but not great.  Other days have been less than 500 and that's not good at all.  Sure, we get stop pay and detention pay up here, but you still have to rack up the miles to get a decent paycheck. 

And the final thing that really gets to me: eating out all the time.  It just makes you fat.  There aren't a lot of "healthy" choices at a McDonald's, the only thing at this travel plaza.  I don't have time to stop and eat along the road, you lose too much time.  It's a rat race in the trucking world. You have to keep moving as much as possible. The only time you stop is to load, deliver, fuel or take mandatory 30 minute break. Other than that, you are going going going trying to get the most out of your 11 hours driving/14 hours of on duty service every day.  The faster you get done, ,the faster you are off the clock and saving those hours for the rest of the week. Hence the idea of getting further up the road today. I can only hope and pray that they don't come out here knocking on my door telling me to move. There is nowhere to move to except on down the road. 

Alright, well at least I was able to get my clothes and my bed sheets washed before coming back out here.  That's a plus. 

I'm trying to decide whether I want to go into anything else.  I'll tell ya what got me going on getting home: Rene (lady roommate) sent me about a 5 minute video of Addler today.  She said: "Where's daddy" and he started romping around all over the place and going to the side of the house to look at the street and see if daddy is home. Of course, daddy is 1300 miles away in a strange, foreign place that daddy doesn't want to be in.

I mean, it's hard to really think about the things I want to do when I'm sitting in the sleeper of a truck that far from home.

Okay, well the other fresh bit of news is that Taylor and James (my friends, who own the house I'm living in) are contemplating moving back in August.  I don't know what happens in August, but he is thinking about getting his CDL license and going OTR. ATT is not really doing him any favors. They lay people off in that company frequently. They reassign them to different regions - or lose your job.  Meaning, get up, move the entire family and there ya go. 

But OTR? With a wife and 2 young children?  That doesn't really sound like a great plan to me.  Sure, he can make money, but at what cost? At least I'm not married and my son is out of the house.  I could live in a truck if I wanted to - I don't haha - it really wouldn't affect too many people. But his kids are very young - 8 month old and a 3 year old - who turned 3 today.  I dunno. I kept my mouth shut about that plan.  They have to be free to live their lives the way they want to. For some reason, he wants to go OTR. 

OTR has none of the allure it once did.  Trucking used to be lightly regulated.  You could drive, drive, drive and no one to tell you you couldn't.  You could get off the Interstates and check out the back country.  There are a lot of things that are different now, but the over-regulation is the biggest part of the problem with trucking today. Big Brother government wants to control you.  Granted there are a bunch of idiots that have no business driving trucks that are getting into the profession. But why do we all have to suffer over a few that make stupid mistakes or plain out doing stuff on purpose? 

I'm done with this one.  My mind is just cluttered with thoughts that have no useful purpose I need to kick back, refocus and get myself motivated. 

Well checking the trailer the pressure had risen more than I expected.  Had to blow off 8 pounds - which doesn't sound like much until you think of a tank that holds 10,000 gallons.  I'm going to have to go out yet again and check it again before going to bed.  I'm pretty much a bit on the overload side when it comes to safety with this stuff.  Any of it, it's all cryogenics and it's all highly flammable.   Anyway, I'll be checking that through the weekend.  I have until Monday morning, basically What time Monday morning I don't know, I'm guessing I'll be given an early slot to get loaded which will mean getting up really early  Pay for this time off, I suppose, but I'll take it however I can get it.
________________

That was around 8 pm last night.  3:30 am, I had to get up and go check it again. I might have just let it wait until later in the morning when I got out of bed, but this trailer seems to be having problems. And sure enough, up to 31, blow it down to 20 again and then, at around 9 am, blow it down from 29 to 20 yet again.  I contacted the manager up here - is this normal?  No, we'll have to check it out when we this all slows down.  Just keep doing what you're doing and it will be find.

Okay.  I fully expect to have to blow the thing down at least 3 more time before I leave out of here tomorrow morning.  It wouldn't be such a big deal, but a check of the temp a while ago pegged it at 12 below zero.  Since then, the temp has come up to 3 degrees. In my world, that is still bitter cold, especially with wind chill taking it down to well below zero.

And, attempting to stay in this room another day, I was informed that I would have to change rooms.  Well, turns out the change was for the better.  I ended up at the back of the hotel on the first floor instead of the front of the hotel on the second floor. Well where I'm at now is close to where the truck is.  And, someone wasn't having a good morning.  I was out there releasing pressure and watched a brand new looking GMC pickup back up into a late model Toyota.  That ordeal cost them a couple of hours, it appeared.

Well other than that I'm starting to consider getting into a much newer - and nicer - vehicle.  I'm not the biggest fan of car payments, but if my paychecks stay anywhere even remotely close to what I got this week, affording the payments and higher insurance rate won't even be an issue.  Something like a 12k pickup and try to get a 3 year loan on it.  I'm not going to do that right away, I still have to make sure I pass their 90 day probation period which is a bit over another month off and I want to see a few more checks before I make a decision.  In fact, tho, if I get enough checks like that one, I won't need a car loan.  I'll have enough cash to just buy one outright.

____________________

Another lapse. I took Uber to Chili's. I'm now finding out that Lyft is cheaper. From now on I'll compare the prices on any given trip. On Uber, the price can change every time you click on it.

Well here's the current deal.  I added up my hours for the last 7 days including today, trying to calculate what I would have left for tomorrow and came up with 6 hours available. Not unusual considering it will have been 7 days working.  Tho tomorrow will only be about 3 or 4 hours worth to deliver at the plant 15 minutes from where I'm parked.  Dive truck stop, great diner.  Don't quite get that, but it is what it is.  Only place anywhere near where I"m delivering to park. Well actually, I can park outside the gate where I'm delivering, but no food there!

Anyway, after figuring out available hours, I told the manager up here - I currently have 2 managers now. 1 is Ann my regular manager and then this guy up here giving me info what to do next.  Ann still has to do my paperwork tho, even tho it's a different division of the company she is doing it for.  Which is cool, she is very thorough and will make sure I get all the money I can make.  Oh, well I told the manager that and I now have a 34 hours reset coming after delivery tomorrow.

That means that I have a day and a half off, basically, to lounge around and do nothing.  I don't get paid for it, but I've had enough of this for one week and that's the norm for the industry: work your ass off all week and then take a break. 34 hour resets are something the feds came up with. You can do them, but they are voluntary.  Usually, it's better to take the reset than the try to keep driving, you run out of hours and have to shut down long before you get ot where you're supposed to be.  Most companies just make drivers take the reset, doesn't other me a bit.  I don't want to work 7 days a week and more so, it's freezing freaking cold up here.  It's zero degrees right now and the wind chill going down as much as 35 below. My truck wouldn't even start this morning.

I got up this morning - and my goodness staying at that hotel was so nice - got out there and the thing wouldn't start.  I tried plugging in the engine heater for 45 minutes and still wouldn't start.  Finally gave up on it, went to the Freightliner shop next door, asked them to come over and jump start it.  Company couldn't pay for it, so I shelled out the bucks - though I will definitely get reimbursed.

Anyway, while I tried heating up the engine, I walked up the hill to the restaurant to get a bite to eat.  I mean, it was 7 degrees out but the wind was fierce and blowing right into my face. It felt like my face was burning.  I found out later the wind chill was 20 below.  I'm not used to this kind of weather, but excepting for my face, I've been keeping warm.  I brought extra heavy duty winter clothing with me, I have stuff in my closed for just such occasions.  I was so glad I went to the trouble of bringing that heavy coat.
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Okay that was last night, Friday night to be exactly. It was frigid, bitter cold this morning when I got up.  The APU heater was struggling to keep up with it, even with the curtain closed separating the sleeper from the cab. I was at the dive truckstop but with the nice diner.  I decided to get up early and get some breakfast and drink several cups of nice, hot coffee.  That really helped.  Because when I was offloading the methane, their bottom fill valve froze and we sat there - a long, long time.  Out in the cold, out in the blowing wind, it was miserable.  I endured it, but I was longing to get it over with and get into this hotel. 

Well, the hotel was another story.  I mean, they didn't offer me anything.  I just decided that whether they offer or not - my company that is - I"m getting a room. If I don't get reimbursed, oh well. I mean, this company is great in some ways - really not that great on information sharing in others.  I don't know what they will do or not do.  Anyway, I went through all the usual hotel sites for a cheaper rate, but I eventually came in to the hotel itself after pulling the truck into this rather small parking lot and asked them.  A king sized bed for $93.  The internet price on all of those sites was at least $110!

So that's where I am.  I got a very nice room, with a king sized bed, 44 inch flat screen tv - though I have yet to turn that on, tv doesn't do that much for me anymore - a nice computer table, microwave, fridge, coffee pot.  I'm set.  Laundry room is just down the hall, intend on doing 2 loads of it before I leave here. I was going to do it today, but I"m so worn out from all of this ordeal here. I just ordered delivery.  It's far too cold to walk the mile it is to Texas Roadhouse.  I could call an Uber, but I simply don't feel like it. I just want to relax and kick back.  Maybe tomorrow I'll Uber it, it's 6 bucks each way.  After a 4 thousand dollar paycheck, I don't see a problem with spending a bit for comfort purposes. 

I was told that the weather was going to get better and then get bad again. Well I'm looking at a 10 day forecast for Amherst.  Cold today and tomorrow, Monday it warms up.  60% chance of snow on Monday, but that doesn't bother me. It's the temps and the wind chill that has been sending me to an early grave.  I'm looking at the rest of the week and I see nothing that warrants this idea that it's going to get cold again after Sunday.. If it's in the 30's, that is much more bearable than the unbelievable ice cold temps that have been going on ever since I got here in all 3 states that I have been travelling in.

So, to me, it's all good.  I won't be back on the road again until early Monday morning - that will suck but I'll deal with it.  I have the APU unit running on the truck - it uses minimal amount of fuel and I filled up 67 miles away from getting here. Figured better safe than sorry.  The APU runs the heat (or cooling) and it also recharges the battery  I left it at 65 degrees. Not toasty but not freezing either.  It doesn't need monitoring. However, the trailer? I"m going to have to get on my winter gear here in a little while, trudge out there and see what the pressure is at.  I have a feeling I'm going to have to blow off some Methane before this is over.  I parked that truck well away from any and everything just in case that happens.

If the pressure gets too high - 70 pounds - there are safety valves that open up and blow it off automatically Uhh, they don't want that to happen.  It forces the trailer off the road and into a shop to service the safety valves and more importantly, those valves apparently - more often than not - won't shut down after they open up.  It's really an emergency thing, you should be dealing with it long before that happens.

I'm learning is all I can say.  At least they do have safety valves. The alternative is the tank blows up and people probably die, including me.  I never assumed hauling hazmat was without risks.  I just knew it pays a lot more money and that assumption - but backed with a lot of research - turned out to be true.  Honestly, I'm more fearful of rolling the thing over than some sort of fire or explosion. 

Okay, after I got this room, I did text my manager.  I thought it lame this "temporary" manager up here didn't offer anything. But perhaps I'm supposed to go through my own manager, I really don't know.  I just said hey! I got a room, I dunno if the company pays for it but if they do, great! If not, I'll just tack it up as to the cost of coming up here. 

About an hour later, she replied a lengthy text: we do NOT expect you to do a 34 hour reset in a truck.  We always get rooms.  Especially in those circumstances. If you want to, next time, call me and I will prearrange a room, prepaid for you.  Now that sounds like a plan to me.  Well, heck, I only paid for one night, I"m going to ask her to have the second night paid for in advance and then I am only out a hundred bucks or so.  Now that I have that settled.....I haven't had to do a reset away from home working for my manager.  She makes it happen I"m home long enough to get it. 

Now then, Rene - lady roommate - is sending me videos of Addler.  I haven't been gone this long from him - ever.  Not 8 days.  And yet 7 at least to go.  This particular experience will ride with me a long time.  First being away form home - already knew I hated that - but also memories of frigid cold temps.  I can only say I'm very glad I brought all my heavy winter gear, I would be over at Walmart right now or somewhere, buying stuff if I didn't have it.  Okay.  Well, that's it.  For now.  I've got more, but I"m putting all this junk on and going out and checking the pressure on the trailer.

I'm at a hotel in a town, if you can call it that, named "Tunkhannock", in Pennsylvania.

The situation started today with a known fact: a blizzard or blizzard like conditions are coming, will be here by morning.  I got up this morning at the Love's Travel Center in Canaan, New York and there was nothing besides the snow already on the ground from a previous storm, that I did not and did not want to partake of.

I got the truck fueled up, got on the road. 10 miles up, light snow. A few more miles - heavier and then - driving snow.  But it had just started so the roads were still decent.  But, by the time I got up to Amherst, it was a full fledged snow storm, roads were covered with snow, people were driving 10 miles an cause' they have no clue and I was pushing an appointment time.

Got there on time tho.  Stood outside for an hour and a half making the delivery, got out of there and knew the roads were going to be bad.  It had been snowing sideways for hours now, the snow was filling in our footsteps shortly after we imprinted them into it. 

Miserable driving conditions. That's what I will call that.  I mean, you couldn't see asphalt.  Snow plows weren't keeping up with it and people were literally stopping their vehicles in the middle of the Interstate.  Now why the hell would you go do something as stupid as that?  Cause they were terrified, that's why. It was an intense storm and driving in it was no fun. It took 2-1/2 hours to go 70 miles. 

I got back to the loves, fueled up again and got down the road.  When I got to 87, the roads were "clear", a heckuva lot better than what was on the Massachusetts Turnpike. I amped up the speed, let's get this over with.  Cruised on over here - here being a small town in PA - and started looking for a place to park.  Found a couple, but I thought, I'm going to have a 17 hour layover, I'm getting myself a hotel.  After 5 days of this nonsense, I was ready to get out of the cold, get into a nice room and just relax in a comfortable bed.  I got a deal at $60.  This whole wing of this old hotel is brand new.  New furniture, new carpet, new everything.  Stupid people that trash out hotel rooms haven't been in this one - yet.

Well, it's still an hour and 40 minutes until i have to be at the plant to load up with methane.  There's a restaurant 500 feet away, I'm contemplating whether to brave the 4 degree temps and the bone chilling wind to go get a cup and maybe a couple of eggs or something.

Well, that's it for this one. I'ma enjoy the rest of my time here. 

Well, here I am again at the same diner/truckstop I was at a few nights ago. Like for New Year's Eve.  they have some great food here.  But, when I came here New Year's Eve, there were hardly any trucks in here at all. Tonight? I drove around in here twice looking for a spot and finally just parked, partially blocking a lane. Went inside, had some great food and conversation.  Cool place.  I sat in there for an hour and came back out and just sat in the driver's seat, hoping someone would leave.

Would rather not stay in the "lane", tho this truckstop is a dive. Not a branded name truckstop, at all lol.  The "Travel Center" is half the size of any convenience store you might find and nothing is marked for parking lanes.  Just find a spot . Anyway, a truck came whizzing out of the hole it was in and I went whizzing right back into it haha.

So what's new?  I'm just biding my time, getting through this one day at a time.  A couple days before 2 weeks is up, I'm definitely telling them it will be time to go home.

_________________________________

That was last night. Got too tired to do anything but go to sleep.
Now, I'm back in Canaan, NY at a Love's Travel Stop.
I pulled in here thinking I was going to find a place to park - not.  I found a "space" that had had snow piled up but maybe, perhaps I could get the trailer backed in there. Well after a couple of pull ups, I had the thing lined out to get back into that space - but - I hit the unpacked snow and started losing traction.  Yeah, I said the hell with that. 

I pulled around front to leave and low and behold, a place where trucks prolly aren't supposed to park but other trucks there, I pulled in the last remaining spot.  I've been here for several hours and no one has said a word to me, so I'm here for the night.

I got the thing shut down, got the APU fired up and got the heater going in the sleeper and then went into the store - I need a shower.  I have several free showers on my Love's card.  I don't have to pay for them but I literally haven't had a chance to take a shower in 3 full days - yup, disgusting.  I got into the shower room - it's quite large just for a shower.  I mean, considering being stuck in a truck, it's rather "luxurious". I got into that hot shower and just stood there for 30 minutes.  It felt so good to just get away from all this fiasco that has been going on with this ordeal coming up here. 

I mean, on top of everything else, I found out a blizzard is coming through here tonight or tomorrow morning.

How did I find out?  I'm sitting in the driver's seat, waiting for the truck front heater to heat everything down so I can turn on the APU - it takes a while between the two - and here comes this SUV buzzing up, parks right next to me, gets out and goes up to the dude that is offloading his tanker full of diesel into the underground fuel tanks. The SUV didn't have anything written on the side so I just thought they were friends.  But, they didn't talk long and then the came directly over to me, this one dude with a huge video camera in his hands.  They knock on the door, so out of sheer curiosity I opened the window. What's up?

Hey, we're with whatever news agency, I wish I remembered what they said, can we do an interview of you?  Well I guess, what's up?  How do you feel about the blizzard coming in?  What blizzard?  I heard there was going to be some snow but just light.  Nah bro, up to 16 inches of snow.  I looked on my Iphone on the weather app and it shows anywhere from 4 to 18 inches depending on what part of this area you are in, PLUS, 35 degrees below zero wind chill factor coming into tonight or tomorrow morning.  WTH. 

I didn't sign up for this.  I haven't been in this kind of cold in years.  I really can't even remember the last time I was in zero degree weather, nothing recent that's for sure.  I started cutting it up with them. Yup, I had both of them in stitches.  What's to fear? They got me, the got the front of the truck, the side of it and the rear of it on film. Albany news station. Whether any of it makes it on there, unknown. Maybe a 2 second blurb, who knows.  Maybe not at all. They take 30 minutes of video and put 5 seconds on lol.  Whatever the case, umm, were they exaggerating? According to the newscast I just watched, not really.  Not to where I'm going anyway. \

I just got off the phone with a lady truck driver who also was sent up here from the location I'm out of.  She was disgusted.  They originally told us freezing babies and senior citizens, we get up here and find out it's - a university.  Well send the kids home and shut the place down, it's a holiday week anyway, there aren't any classes being held.  Not that simple, obviously, even if you send people home, you can't shut the heat off to everything and you can't shut all that stuff down without a major, time consuming ordeal to fire it back up. 

I'm just curious as to what I"m going to wake up to in the morning.  Nothing? 8 inches of snow? The alleged 35 below with wind chill factor? Who knows. I intend on getting up earlier than I need to to get to the place on time if possible.  Like I need to be there by 9 am.  It's almost 11 pm now.  I figured get up at 6:30 am, see what's going on, get the fuel filled up and get up there. It's 67 miles from here, just over an hour's drive - under normal conditions.

Well, I would go on but I really need to get to sleep. I've been on the phone and texting people literally for hours now.

Happy New Year's!

Well, sitting for the night at a Pilot truck stop somewhere along I-90 in New York.  Not New York city, btw, have absolutely zero desire to drive anywhere in that place. Not too far from Boston at the moment.  Oh heck, I just looked, I haven't written a post in a while now.

I haven't had time. You see, on Saturday, coming back from Oklahoma, our manager started sending out text messages to everyone.  We have a situation in Pennsylvania and we need a driver to go up there and help out. I knew I would be "targeted" for any such things cause I'm the newbie, but she actually asked everyone.  Just that a lot of the old time drivers are reluctant to do much of anything beyond what they normally do.  They want to be home all the time - which I fully understand, but there aren't any runs that have you home the same night.

She asked for replies by noon, so I replied.  We talked back and forth and I finally, reluctantly, agreed.  I mean, I knew Pennsylvania was cold, I grew up there, but I didn't remember how cold this entire region can get.  I woke up to -4 this morning.  Anyway, she said she would find out if they could use a person that doesn't have any experience with LNG - Liquid Natural Gas.  I didn't hear back from her.  Until maybe 3 hours later. And there she was, sending out mass texts again.  I didn't reply with anything - but how bad that sounds, the situation.  I was told that people would be without heat in some community somewhere if she couldn't find drivers to go up there.

I simply agreed to do it.  Okay, brace yourself, Ben, this is two weeks of being away from home in frigid winter conditions.  That was Saturday evening that decision was made, Sunday afternoon I was on an airplane to Philadelphia.  Philly has no great draw on me, I had an aunt that lived here long ago, she died, long ago.  I think I had some other relatives that lived there but they left the area.  It's all the same to me anymore. No matter where you go, there is going to be something "wrong" with the place.  Too hot, too humid, too cold, wildfires, tornadoes, hurricanes - you get the point.  

I asked a lot of questions, I was given very little info.  The info I was given, I found out, was completely wrong.  

I mean, the problems started at the airport. The plane landed we taxiied off the run way and then we - stopped. And we sat and sat until the pilot come on and said: "sorry folks, there is a plane stopped in front of us.  It isn't communicating with anyone and we don't know why it's stopped. It's in the way of getting to the gate we need to go to so we are going to have to wait until it moves".  45 minutes - 45 MINUTES  later, that plane finally moved.  

Anyway, the manager had come down to pick me up, he wasn't ecstatic about the wait but he could have just stayed home until I told him the luggage was beginning to get tossed out onto the conveyor.  

Long story short - for the first day anyway - I didn't get to bed until 1 am.  We - another driver from somewhere else - were given a crash course on nothing, because as it turns out, this dude really didn't give us much of any useful information at all except this is your truck, tomorrow morning you are going to hook up to a trailer and go up to a plant to load and then over to UMASS. Both of us drivers just looked at him and then each other.  We have no clue how to do this stuff.  Considering that type of product it is, would be nice for some kind of training.  

I was getting pretty uneasy about this.  So the next morning, the manager sent down a driver that knows his stuff.  He gave us a crash course.  Connect the two hoses here, open this and that valve, open that valve over there to build up pressure.  I asked a lot of questions since he was willing to answer.  At least I had some kind of knowledge about what I would be doing.

Fast forward, we get to the loading plant and another driver showed up with us.  He was knowledgeable enough.  He showed us how to do the paperwork - something the manager didn't do - and then said the manager was going to have him meet us at the LNG plant.  Ok. I drover over to UMASS - I had no idea I was going to a University, I was informed it was a community and that old people and babies alike would be freezing to death if we didn't get this product there.  

Well I got there late last night and the experienced driver told me about a truck stop near the delivery site.  So I went there and there is this old fashioned diner at the truck stop. Like walking into the 60's.  It was very cool, actually, excepting for the screaming teenagers at a table.  Unsupervised, definitely not even 18 and making a lot of noise.  

This morning, I find out the experienced driver's truck broke down and he won't be making it to help us unload. Great. I have a bit of head knowledge about what I'm supposed to do, I have no hands on training whatsoever.  So I get there, do everything I was supposed to and then the plant tech opened up the valves and let'er rip.  Only to have this almost 300 below zero cryogenic start to pop out of the vent stack.  Shut it down, shut it down, he was saying, so I closed the valves, this stuff pouring onto my jump suit.  I was like, what the heck?  So I get the valves shut closed and then this guy didn't know what to do.  

So, I got on the phone and called the experienced driver, who didn't know what was going on and directed me to another driver that does know what's going on.  He asked a few questions.  Well are all the valves shut?  Yes.  What about the bleeders?  I dunno, I'll go out and check. And sure enough, one of the bleeder valves was just barely opened - trust me I didn't open it, I wasn't doing anything with that stuff that I wasn't told to - and it was venting through the vent system.  

This has really been the day I have been dreading with the Ethylene that I haul, having to unload.  Welp, I got my feet wet now.  I don't care anymore, I'll unload whenever, if I mess it up, tough.  Today's mess up only cost a bit of time, nothing else.  

Alright.  Well I'm stuck here two weeks and that is the extent of it, for I will forcefully ask for a flight back home after that time period is up if it isn't offered.  

Oh, and yes, this place is the University of Massachusetts.  It's huge.  It's like a city within itself, replete with high rises  including 4 dorms that look like high rise apartment buildings.  I guess cause that's what they really are.  They have their own water treatment plant, electric substation and this huge plant that uses the LNG to heat everything.  And there was the problem. It is an unusually cold winter, the LNG is getting used up in massive quantities, the plant that normally feeds it through a pipeline is shut down and it's only us trucks that are the gap between either keeping the place heated - or not.  I doubt there are dying old people or freeing babies there, but it was a nice story to get people up there. 

The problem - the drivers that do this run have been going at it so long, they haven't had time off in over a month.  Some of them had to be on their 34 hour reset.  UMASS was basically saying get wit the program, we NEED this LNG.  So, the company has put out requests to all 10 other of the divisions to send any available drivers.  

I'm getting sleepy. I know it's early but I haven't gotten much sleep in the last two nights and I didnt actually mind the manager calling me saying that they won't be there to load me tonight, find a place to park, get on your 10 hour break, get up at 3 am and get over there as fast as you can.  At the plant today, I overheard the conversation: we have at least enough to last us through tomorrow morning.  WTH.  4 truckloads of this stuff delivered there today and it's only enough to make it until tomorrow afternoon?  How much money do they spend on this stuff every year?  I just don't believe them. 4 trucks delivered today is 40,000 gallons, give or take a couple thousand.  But, who am I.  I'ts definitely cold out here - around zero degrees.  

Oh well.  Anyway, I went into the Pilot a while ago and finally found what I had been looking for: a freaking pillow.  $6.99 for a small "travel pillow" but I'll take it over the nothing I had last night. I brought my sheets with me cause I figured there wouldn't be any, but there was no room to take a large pillow. Or even a small one.  My bags were cram packed with bare minimum I figured I would need to survive in the cold, have enough clean clothes to last at least a week and all the other stuff I would need.  1 large suitcase and a duffel bag cram packed.  

Belated Merry Christmas!

My Christmas Post - didn't post.  Oh well.
Starting a new one.
Well Merry late Christmas!!
So, well Christmas was great.  We had a smoked Rib Roast, some potatoes, salad and chocolate cream pie.  Great day, really.

But, I had to get up early to be at the yard early to get to the plant - early - to - drive all day long.  Story of my life.  562 miles one way, 562 miles back. Add onto it the trip to get food after I got to Brownsville. That is a drop and hook thing, you take a loaded trailer down there, you pick up an empty.  This time, there were 2 empties there. One of our other drivers - no idea who- was backed into a corner in the tractor only, not hooked up to either trailer.  Guessing those trailers came in after that person went to bed. 

I was actually kinda let down when I saw those empties there. I was really looking forward to another one of those deals like the trip I made to South Carolina where I had to wait overnight and got a hotel room.  I can justify a hotel room if I'm making $500 just waiting there for a trailer.  Oh yes, I can and will.  But, I got up at 7:00 am after 10 hour mandatory break, got on the road and got back here.

However.  I was informed that I needed to be on the scale at 7:30 am.  I have no qualms with my new manager, but obviously she is taking advantage of the "new guy".  I can say that because that isn't happening with anyone else except the other new drivers.  They get at least a day off in  between loads, unless there are hot loads that have to be taken and us newbies aren't available. 

Well I'm supposed to be in bed by now, but, I can't just come home, eat, say hi and go to sleep an hour later.  I guess I could, but after being out on the road, I want to relax, get on the computer,  check things out inside of a bedroom, not the inside of a sleeper. 

It doesn't matter, really. Tomorrow is a shorter run. It's less than 6 hour drive and doesn't have to be at the plant until Thursday morning. If I get tired while driving, I have ample time to pull over, take a half hour nap and move on.  I sometimes do that, too, if time permits.  The place I"m going to tomorrow is notorious for taking it's sweet old time unloading. Like 6 hours minimum.  I'm hoping to make it home Thursday night, but if they take too long, it will be moved to Friday morning. I"d like at least a day off after this next trip, but, I won't refuse whatever they/Ann asks me to do.  You don't make points by telling them no. 

I found out after getting there last time that the plant I am going to tomorrow has a restaurant right across the street from the entrance and yes, they encourage you to go over there and eat. This particular plant also doesn't make you get out of your truck.  Meaning if you are tired, you can just sleep. I can get out my computer and do my thing.  I can leave the property altogether and do whatever - within walking distance.

Lol, small town. Barnsdall, Oklahoma.  I believe it's on or near Indian reservation.  Whatever the case, obviously this plant is the town's livelihood.  It makes wax products and the stuff I haul is an intricate part of wax making.  I'm prepared for the long wait now that I know about it - nice if they at least told us newbies about stuff like this in advance.  I am hoping it doesn't take more than 6  hours or it will be another night sleeping on the road somewhere on the way back. Not the end of the world, I suppose, but home time is precious to me.  Vacations - another story. Then I don't want to be home, but driving for a living is not a vacation. 

Anyway, I'll get there early tomorrow. I'd come home several hours but I can't bring the trailer home and now way in hell am I leaving a trailer with that stuff anywhere but perhaps at the yard. 

Well, the tired buzz is catching up to me.  I could go on other topics but, not today. 

Merry Christmas Eve!

I'll tell ya what.  I was sweating it on a trailer showing up from Mexico on a holiday weekend, especially Christmas. Yes, folks, Mexicans celebrate Christmas, too, and they want to be home with their families for the occasion much as anyone else that loves this particular holiday. But, there's money to be made. I mean, I am going to get 15 hours of detention pay for it, so not the end of the world and frankly, I wouldn't care if they weren't going to show up for days.  Except on Christmas. perhaps a few other special days too, but particularly Christmas.

Oh, BTW, it's 1 AM. I'm "never" up this late.  Oh, yes I am after I quit the 12 year job. That job after it was brutal in terms of late night runs that had me up til the wee hours of the morning or had me getting out of bed at midnite, 2am, etc.  I'm so glad I didn't stick with that place.  Screw that junk. 

I had my choice, not given by the company, they don't care how I do it.  But I could have driven straight through today and get this over with, or stopped somewhere, take the 10 hour break and get back Saturday around - noonish I'm guessing.  I figured I would decide once it got late (for me) and dark - which is not my favorite driving time. If it's dark, I don't want to be driving.  But the closer I got to home, the more awake I became, at least tonight.  So, I drove on through, got to the yard, dropped the trailer and this time, drove the tractor home.  I don't need my car, I have my Jeep here and it work perfectly fine. It's not summer and hot - the AC doesn't work on it, I will get that fixed eventually, in fact, I will likely use the Jeep as a trade in on a pickup at some point, or, give it away to someone that needs reliable transportation. It still needs some work, but after I fix all of that, I may offer it to my son.  He may or may not want the thing, I dunno, but I will likely offer it to him first. 

I drove the tractor home because I am going to vacuum the thing out. And save the money on fuel going to and from the yard.  They company doesn't care, I asked.  It's a nice looking rig, too : )  Not some eyesore like the last company haha. 

Well, I got home at midnight and had already determined I would likely be staying up to 2 am, that's the way it's going to roll for me.  I don't just go straight to bed, almost never, unless I am exhausted. The unfortunate problem I'm having right now is that I'm wide awake.

Anyway, this morning, getting up and seeing no trailer for us sitting there, I found a dude that had come in to check pressures on the tankers.  It's a transition yard from Mexico to the US.  Much of the stuff has to be checked at regular intervals.  I was glad to catch him while he was there, cause' he wasn't there long.  Hi there, do you know if any Ethylene trailers are coming up today? Why yes, he said.  What time do you think it will arrive here? Umm, about noon to 1.  Okay, thanks!

So what did I do? Went to Denny's to drink some coffee and eat a light breakfast.  After that, I went to an ATT store to get a charging cord. Admittedly, I had replacing my phone on my mind, the thing has been screwed up ever since I took it in to have the screen replaced the first time and I was getting tired of it.  So, upon entering an empty store - everyone was at the mall I later found out - I asked for a charging cord. I stood there after looking at that cord. SOOO sick of the issues with this phone.  And totally regretting that I didn't buy the insurance.

Unnm yeah, I was there, I had time, I just did it. Got an Iphone 8, replaced the Iphone 6 and wow, this phone is very nice!  Love it.  No huge operation changes, took a little to figure out a few things, but it works! And I am paying the monthly insurance fee.  I learned my lesson on the last phone, pay the insurance. If you got to an ATT store with a messed up phone, the first thing they are going to do is look up in their system as to whether there is insurance on it, because if there is, you don't have to wait to send the phone into the repair facility, they'll just hand you over a new phone. 

Then, after we got through with the first phone, I was informed that ATT was having a 2 for one deal.  Buy the second phone "almost free".  Well, it's just pay the monthly payment on it for 3 months and then ATT pays it off after that, on a monthly basis.  So I opted to go for it for giving it to Mark and Lynnette.  I bought them an I phone 4S a while back,  which they are still in love with. Apparently the junk phone they had before - government paid for - was a piece of shit. 

Long story short: got a new phone, had to drive over to the local mall to get the 2cd phone, which was a total mess. The entire parking lot was brimming full - Christmas shopping. I got in and out of there in a hurry. When I got back from all of that, the drivers from Mexico had arrived and had just unhooked.  Got there perfect timing.

Ohhh! And when I arrived last night, this beautiful doggy greeted me after getting into the yard. I mean, let me pet her and yes- it was scraggly looking so I gave her some of my chicken dinner.  In fact, I gave her half of it.  And the biscuit.  She scarfed all that stuff up.  It was dark - so I didn't see her teats hanging down. I bid her a good night after petting her a while and got back into the truck to get on the internet.  A few hours later, I got out to do some business, haha.  Well, she showed up out of the blue, with two pups trailing her.  Yup, that;'s when I looked much closed to see her obvious state of post-natal condition lol.

The little puppies came right up to me, scratching on my jeans and wanting attention - or food - I didn't know which so I gave them attention since I had given all the food to mama. 

Anyway, I now have the hiccups and I'm getting seriously tired 

I will get rid of the hiccups and go to sleep. 

Well, here I am, in Brownsville, Texas. 
I drove straight down here after getting the truck loaded. Only stopped 15 minutes for fuel and 30 minutes for required HOS/Hours of Service break. I got lucky in Houston - it was well before rush hour and I only hit a snag going out for about 5 miles.  Last two times weren't snags. They were hellacious, bumper-to-bumper traffic for 30 miles, at least. 

I didn't know if other drivers were coming down here or not, but last time I was down here, there weren't any trailers available and you can't leave until one is brought up from Mexico.  I figured I'd get here as fast as possible and snag one if there was one here, guaranteeing my trip home in time for Christmas.

Well, it turns out, the dude that was getting loaded in front of me when I arrived at the plant this morning was also being sent down here.  Well he was 2 hours ahead of me, because that  is - at the very minimum - how long it takes to load one of these tankers. We me in the parking lot as I was dropping the trailer.  He beat me here, he had seen me waiting and must have asked the manager if I was also coming down here, he hightailed it here.  He has a friend that I saw driving back up from Mexico.  That dude informed him I was on the run down there, best get there for the only empty trailer that was available when I left.

So, he got the empty - and I am stuck here for unknown length of time. There could be an empty here before I wake up in the morning - or it could be days. Or, as the other driver feared, it's the weekend and the verge of Christmas, may not be one here until next week, after Christmas. I know it's only Friday night and Christmas is 3 days from now, but I have heard of drivers since I came to work here having to wait here for days for a trailer to show up. 

Any other time of the year, I really could care less. For the money paid in detention time, which basically just means you are getting paid by the hour for waiting, it's worth waiting.  For as much money as it is, I will probably make getting a hotel room a habit on any occasion where I have to wait more than the 10 hour break, unless it's only by a couple of hours.  I'd do it tonight, but I have no idea about when one might arrive.  Definitely spend the night in the sleeper and hope beyond hope that there is a trailer sitting here in the morning or whoever shows up that runs the place has good news that one is on the way up.

Ugh, I have to go set up my inverter, computer battery almost dead. And I may have a LOT of time here, lol.  Jeopardy music begin....Okay. Done. I bought an inverter not realizing it has battery clamp hookups.  Well it didn't show it on the package. I bought the smallest one they had, which was still pretty high at 750 watts. I'm just powering a computer. Anyway, I have to go hook the thing up to the truck's batteries outside and run a cord into the truck. Not a big deal, really, but a permanent truck wil have one permanently installed.  I'm just hanging out until 90 days are up and see whether I make their cut. Their safety department is pretty anal about everything they want.  They can't track me right now, which is probably driving them crazy.  This is a rental truck, if they want a satellite link, they have to install one. They aren't going go dump that kind of money into a rental unless it's a long term situation, which it apparently is not.

Tho by now, by their statements, I should have already been in a company truck. No worries for me, this thing hauls @$$, has lots of power and is huge.  I have this truck parked in the back of the empty trailer parking lot, perched with a view of the entire place. If an empty shows up, I will see it come in, or if I miss it while sleeping, Ill see it in the morning.  Oh, and I have scrubbed this thing out, for the most part. Still some hidden areas left to go. Still a faint smoke smell, but nothing as atrocious as when I first stepping into this thing.

Okay, well, my main concern is getting home and when that will happen. I am on detention pay right now. As soon as I get here, if there isn't a trailer available, it's detention pay until one shows up.  That's guaranteed 10 hours right off the bat.  I could wait all day tomorrow and not bat an eye. Well I would just get out of here and do something, not sit in this truck.  The trailer is dropped, waiting for drivers to come up and haul down into Mexico. There has to be drivers on their way, they don't have us hauling this stuff to sit in a lot.  The other driver from our company is backed under the trailer that could have been mine if there had been any way to beat him here. But a 2 hour head start is impossible to beat unless the driver likes to stop a lot. 

I'm just going to hold out hope, A lot of trailers are brought filled up with Ethylene on a consistent basis down here. 

It's getting late, I'm tired.  Time for bed.

Wait, I wrote out 3 paragraphs and they disappeared.  Like, that hasn't happened to me in a long time on here.

Oh well. Let's see here.  Well, I spent Wednesday driving about  6 hours and then the rest of the day in a hotel.  It's not hindsight, but I would have preferred a bit "better" hotel room.  I just couldn't find a place that had truck parking besides this place. I mean, the room was clean - sort of - but their version of remodeling was to overlap paint, overlap texturing and generally have a room that smelled bad for some reason.

I slept though. I turned the fan setting on on the window unit and put in my ear plugs and fell into deep sleep. Something woke me up around 3:00 am, but I managed to get back to sleep yet again after that.  So, I found a Panera Bread company place in the huge mall behind me this morning - I needed coffee and this cheap hotel wasn't giving any either in the rooms or the office.  I got my nice cuppa and headed back to the plant.  I was told to go through a back gate, that had another gate and another gate, all 3 of which would have to be unlocked.

Okayyyyy.........Well whatever.  I got back there and some dude was standing afar off, next to the giant Ethylene tank, that sucker went at least 80 feet up in the air - but the dude that escorted me in gave me hand motions.  Pull up there, back in there.  Then,. 2 guys from Airgas showed up in a pickup truck.  I was slowly backing around this stuff to get into the hole. The dude walks up - you need to get your rear trailer tire slid up next to where that guy over there has his shoe.  Okay.  Didn't bat an eye. The other drivers have been coming in here forever, they apparently wanted to test the new driver.  This new driver has been testing his backing skills for decades - for the fun of the challenge.  I've backed trucks up for literally miles. And into places they didn't think it could get in there.

And I can honestly said I nailed it. Right next to his shoe, stopped just short of running over it. Got out, all the PPE garb on, hiya gents, how we doing today?  But, they had it wrong.  Their hose wouldn't reach the drain tube on the truck. I almost laughed at them, but thought better of it.  Be nice, Ben, even if they're playing bs games with you, I thought.  Me making fun of them would likely get back to the company, so I seriously bit my tongue, got in the truck, pulled up about 40 feet to get it into position and there is this dude with his foot again. Pointing down at it.

Rednecks. I got that sucker right there, yet again. I got out, yet again and then, these 2 guys that know everything couldn't figure out how to get the air driven float valve to raise up.  I can't say that I knew either, I'm new to this, these guys have been doing this for years. . After I sat there and watched them fooling around with everything, I got in the tractor, called Ann, asked her to give me the phone number of someone that knows how to operate this thing. Well, Gary is right here. Gary - does know everything about this stuff.  I dunno how long he's been doing it, but if you need to know something, call Gary.  Gary gets on there - there are two valves on the trailer.  One on the back right side and one on the front left side. You have to open both of them to allow those floats to rise up.

Floats don't rise? You ain't emptying the trailer.  So, I got out, pulled them open and walaah.

These 2 dudes were good ole boys.  Not bad people,  in any way shape or form, but definitely rednecks and definitely of the "good ole' boy club" nature.  I'll give them credit, besides not knowing how to operate the truck trailer, they knew what the hell they were doing on the plant side of it. I asked a lot of questions, cause' that was one thing they seemed to enjoy doing.

I got much more of an understanding on how to operate that truck today than I have anywhere else.  I don't necessarily have to know how to operate the plant side of it, I'm finding out.  In fact, contrary to claims, the guys said the drivers have never operated the plant side of the operation. How long did it take you to learn all of this? I asked. 3 years.

It doesn't take 3 years to learn that stuff.  There isn't that much to it. I admit I don't understand all of it yet, but no-one is training me.  I'm just trying to learn off the cuff.  But there are X number of valves and there is only so much that needs to be done. There is more waiting than anything.

We were starting to wind this operation down when Ann called. I "missed" the call, cell phones not allowed in the plant, but was obvious people were doing that in their vehicles.  I went inside the truck.  "Are you finished unloading yet?  Did you leave the plant?".  No, we are getting close to done but not sure how long before I get out of here.  "Oh, well I'm trying to figure out driver resources here.  I have a load going down to Brownsville. I told them after we hired new drivers that I wanted all the Brownsville runs they have."

This wasn't bad news to me, I mean, I am not getting a day or two off, but I need to get some cash flowing here.  And not only that, I thought, if I take this run, I should be setting myself up to be home on Christmas.  I hate to see Renee home alone on Christmas.  I don't want to be somewhere out on the road on Christmas, either.  But I knew that was a real possibility when I signed up for this job and I'm the newbie. It's likely she couldn't find other drivers because they are taking time off.

I didn't agree right away tho. I was concerned about my hours as was she.  Is there enough time to get back there, get the required 10 hour break and get to the plant by the prescribed time?  What's the latest I can get there? 7:30 am. See, when these orders are placed, they are placed on contingent of the driver being at the plant at X time.  There is a time factor. These particular plants don't run without Ethylene. They seem to have reserves, but they don't want to use them.  Yet, they rely on rail to bring this product to them.  But, when the rail doesn't show up - they are on their own time and can take up to a month to deliver - they have to have it hauled in via truck. Which is usually next day service.

After I thought about it for -- a short period of time -- she intoned that she has 10 minutes to give them an answer, if she can't do it, they go to someone else - I said yes, I should be able to get this done.

And here I am.  I have to get up int 7-1/2 hours to get to the yard, hook up to a trailer and get to the plant. I'm supposed to be there an hour early, but I already told her after she said the latest was 7:30 am - when I'm actually supposed to be there - that I wouldn't make it until 7:30. Good!

I was going to drive the tractor home tonight to save on fuel costs.  But, my car drives a lot faster and I wanted to get home, lol. And, it's time to go to bed : )

This particular trip's saga moves on.  I was informed, after driving another 7 hours today to get here, that they weren't fixing to unload me until 7:30 am.  What?  It was 1:15 pm this afternoon.  I'm going to sit in a truck for 18 hours.  I don't think so.  She said, yup, we don't unload excepting early in the morning.  Look, sweetie, I know ALL the drivers from your company.  Her to me, that is, I wouldn't talk to a security guard like that, if they don't like it, they gonna get pissed and you are going to be on their "list".  I wasn't starting trouble, lol, just offering the info that was given me.  Okay, honey, I'll be back tomorrow at 7:30 am : )

That's about the time I decided to get a hotel room. Nothing fancy, but clean, a shower, a bed and free wifi, some TV to watch the news and basically some room to not make me feel like I'm in a little box.  I can spend 10 hours in there mostly sleeping, but not 18.  Screw that.  I kept trying to call and text my manager, tho, before I did that.  Like, some specific instructions? Some strings she might try to pull to get it unloaded?  But she wasn't answering. I could get her into so much trouble for that, lol.  This company wants a manager available 24 hours a day, regardless. No, I won't do that, hahah, just brought back the memory in Amarillo at orientation.

One of the drivers said he couldn't get a hold of her and I said the same thing - but we had NO idea how that was going to play out or that that was even an issue.  I'm used to having a manager you can't get a hold of.  Her boss went livid.  I mean, they blew this up into a huge ordeal.  I was like, wow! No, please let's just calm down! That wasn't intended to get her into some kind of trouble! That's the only reason I said that, no way I would turn her in. In fact, there is a lot of stuff going on that corporate has policies against, but hey, that isn't my issue. Some of the stuff these companies want you to do is really some serious control issues.  I'm not going into details here, however, not worth it.  Not that many reading this blog but it is public, not private.

Anyway, she did finally call back. Well, I just wanted to let you know I'm stuck here until tomorrow morning. Okay, thank you.  You are getting paid for the time you have to wait. Oh really?!!!!

After that call, I figured it up: 18 hours of detention pay.  That's almost $400 for sitting around doing nothing.  Hotel justified, Im at an Econolodge.  Got it on one of the hotel sites for $46.  Not bad, not great. Get what you pay for, but there are no whores in the parking lot and there are no roaches running around. Whether there are bed bugs or not remains to be seen. The flooring is brand new, 46 inch flat screen tv, nice bathroom, working heating/cooling. Microwave and fridge.  Not bad for that kind of money. I mean, there are better hotels here, but none of them had a place to park a truck that size.  This trailer I'm pulling is a monster. MUCH larger than the other trailers in the yard. Apparently my manager has a problem finding people that are comfortable with that thing. The tandems are at the very back of it, meaning very wide turns, having to swing way out to not take out curbs, lights and people.

Speaking of trailers, need to go check the pressure. This ordeal is keeping me from home, but the pay negates that.  And being in a hotel room further alleviates that.  If they don't keep me more than 3-1/2 hours in there tomorrow, I can get home tomorrow night. Otherwise I will be sleeping out on the road somewhere in Louisiana.  Anyway, that's what's going on. A 2 day trip turning into potentially 4 days, but it's enough money with detention that it all pans out.

Now, my oldest brother and his wife sent me a Pepperidge farm gift pack!  That is absolutely amazing considering the tensions going on between us earlier this year after dad died.  And his sickening statement that really, really pissed me off. I'm not really trying to mend anything with my middle brother, he has written my mom off and that is inexcusable. I don't want to say may he rot in hell, but I'm definitely in the arena of go jump in an icy cold lake, and that is putting it much more nicely than the thoughts that actually come with it.

How do you write your parents off?  Mom is sweet, loving, gentle, kind.  Just an overall wonderful person.  There isn't anything in her at this point in her life that anyone would find offensive.  Yet,  my asshole middle brother has decided to go the same route with her that he went with my dad.  Nope, I want nothing to do with him. I don't want to talk to him, I don't want to see him online - anywhere, nothing.  I'm not even doing this again.  I don't get it and now, I don't care if I don't get it.  He can stew in his own juices. He won't be there for Christmas at my oldest bro's house, I have been invited but I doubt I will be able to go. I wish I could, tho. Even just fly in the night before, go and fly back that same day.

Whatever. Life goes on.  Just trying to think when I might just ask for 3 days in a row off. I've gotten 2 without asking 3 times now.  Certain things I don't want to do, and one of which is make myself look like I don't want to work just coming into a job. 

Welp, I'm going to fix myself to get to thinking about heading to bed.  I don't have to be there until 7:30 am, it's only 15 minutes away from here.  I was looking around when I drove into this town.  Where can I park a truck if I need to? Once  you've been to a place, you know where you can and can't park.  Until then, it's just guess work. Helps if you get there daytime so you can see around.  This hotel stuck out because a truck was already parked there.  Not a single other hotel in this town - and there are a lot of them - that I saw anyway-  had truck parking.  Not that that is surprising, I've had my issues trying to find parking places as it stands.  Some hotels are truck friendly, many are not.

I dunno what else.  I mean, I'm just waiting to see what I'm going to be getting for paychecks after all the orientation and traveling stuff isn't showing up on checks, and this next one, coming Friday, will be that.  I dunno how good that one will be, but the next one after that? At the rate I'm going, it will be fatter than any check I've had in a long, long time.  Again, I could kick myself for staying at Ferguson so long.  I get loyal to a company and I invent excuses not to leave.  It will get better, I keep thinking, but it didn't. It just kept getting worse.  That manager can literally go screw himself, what a total a-hole. 

At the home front, Donny is heading to Dallas to spend Christmas with his uncle.  Rene is staying home and I hope to be there Christmas Day, for it would really suck for both of us if the house were empty.  I am definitely not guaranteed Christmas Day off. .The only thing I am given is $140 for the day whether I work or not. If I work, that's on top of it, if not, that's what I get.  For as much money as they are paying us here, one would think they would give a bit more for a holiday, but I'm not going to complain about it.  I don't want to be on the road on Christmas Day is all I can say about that.  If they have me out before or after, fine, I can deal with it.

Rene made her wonderful fruitcake- it really is, I despise fruitcake but this stuff is good - and gave me 6 loaves of it to take to work and a plastic container full of home made cookies.  The loaves aren't that big, lol, it's just that it looks like a miniature loaf of break. It's soft, tender and the fruit in it is totally drunk with rum, also soft, not hard and very tasty. 

She is now home alone.  But, she has 3 dogs to keep her company and numerous firearms to protect herself.  Firearms courtesy of me, 2 of the dogs my courtesy as well.  Addler does, however, get very cranky after I"ve been gone too long.  That's the report I hear.  He would have expect me back today, certainly tomorrow. 

I dunno what else. There's more, but I'm getting sleepy.  Bedtime. Not the longest day today, but I woke up foggy this morning and it hung with me half the day.  I could have slept for a couple more hours.  I thought I had to get her ASAP, as the paperwork states. Obviously, they didn't need it as bad as the paperwork says they needed it. I was really getting cranky - why have to wait around here for a day and a half because of someone else's bs? ...until I found out I get paid for it. That took alllllll of that away.  I have been hanging out in the hotel all day long, only left to get something to eat and go check the trailer a couple of times.  Pressures have to be recorded on a graph.  Every 5 hours. But I have been checking this load more frequently because of the issues at the plant.  If that pressure relief valve goes on the trailer, that's it.  It just keeps going from what I'm told.  High dollar mount of product vented into the air and a trailer that will need serviced because of it.

Not that that would have been my fault if it did occur. But not one is going to tell me I didn't do due diligence to go out and check the thing frequently.  I'll have to get up in the middle of the night to go out and check it again.  Which I don't like, but I wake up every night anyway, so not that big of a deal.

Okay, I'm getting off of here. 

It's - uhhh - Tuesday night.  I'm at a truckstop in a very small town named Calhoun, in Louisiana.  This truckstop is rather obscure, I only found it because I was hungry one day on my former job and decided to get off the highway and see what's here. Turns out, a large truck parking lot, a convenience store, diesel fuel aisles for trucks and a restaurant that puts up some pretty good food.  It's a go to place if having to stop in this area that I know there will be room for another truck, which at 7 pm on any given night, is not necessarily true at any of the big truckstops.  It's very much likely that they are already completely full and  good luck finding a place if you are almost out of hours.

This is why you see trucks parked on off and on ramps or wherever they can find, really  Drivers want to drive out their full hours and only leave enough time for the post trip inspection and to find a place to park, which means half an hour at the end of the day at most.  I've chiseled it down to 15 minutes at times.\

I didn't make it very far today.  I got the call for this run last night, be on the scales at 6:30 am.  Okay. I was there and I got to the rack where the truck is loaded, got the truck loaded up and then.....everything went south.  This dude comes walking in with the key to my truck - they take them away from you when you park the truck now. Undoubtedly, some idiot/s came along (truck drivers) and took off with the hoses still hooked up to the truck, causing untold amounts of damage and putting the entire plant at risk of explosion.  This is the world we live in today.  If one person screws up, everyone pays for it. I suppose it's always been that way, but I really don't believe to the degree we see it today. 

Well I got sidetracked but worth noting.  He didn't give me the key and he went to the back office where the manager is.  This office is a 40 foot long, explosion proof cargo container.  Anyway, they talked for 20 minutes and then he came back in, sat down on a chair.  Ummm, can you back that big long thing in front of that rail car over there? Gesturing to a near impossible backing maneuver that I agreed to without hesitation instantly - I love a challenge. 

But it wasn't really that hard and I didn't even have to do a pull-up to correct the angle.  And there it was, parked in front of this rail car. The rail car is full of the same chemical we are hauling and also was rejected by the plant it was sent too - too hot.  Not exactly sure yet all of this terminology, but it means that it is getting too warm because it was in the car too long and is now heating up, causing too much vapor and therefore causing too much pressure. It was the pressure they didn't like and they had no way to cool it back down.  Send it back to the plant. 

It was explained to me that there is a "travel time life" for this chemical. It is down to the hour.  One trailer might say 1,771 hours and another less than 1,000. It depends on the trailer and the insulation used - but now they have jackets of space between the inner tube and the outer shell. They draw the vacuum down and that insulates it.  I'm no expert, just explaining it how it was explained to me.  Anyway, those hours mentioned are how long this stuff can travel before it begins to heat up.  And once it does that, it starts turning to vapor and the vapor causes pressure and yes, there are pressure limitations to any of these truck trailers or even the rail cars. 

What they decided to do was pump the stuff into my trailer and see if it would cool down - which it didn't do. The pressure went WAY up high.  Like, no thanks, I'm not hauling that high, though I never had to say that, they determined that before I even knew what was going on.  You can assume that I am asking a LOT of questions to anyone that knows anything about this stuff and how it is handled. 

The day went to hell after that.  I mean, I can handle waiting, but for 10 hours? I was going stir crazy.  They were waiting on another specific truck to show up to pump half my trailer's worth of ethylene into and then pump plant made ethylene into the rest of it to see if that would work. They wanted to deal with this rather than burn it.  Oh yes, they have those giant burners you see at some plants standing way up in the sky.  Well it turns out, that truck never showed up and the dude started making phone calls, first to Groendyke (100% sure if you have spent any time on an Interstate you have seen their trucks). The lady said no, that's not on our list. Then to my manager. I was sitting there listening to all of this.

The guy said, well, do you have a trailer to be loaded for Baker for the 19th? No, she said, but she started looking. Nope, I have one for today, the 20th, but I didn't have one for the 19th.  Well, the problem with that is that today IS the 19th, not the 20th, she had her days messed up and I can only imagine the mess she must have had to clean up with that one, besides what happened here today. Anyway, she found a truck to come get loaded. Well I dunno what that driver was doing, but it doesn't take 2 and a half freaking hours to get to that plant. 

The workers eventually gave up on it and hooked the rail car up to my tanker through their rather elaborate system of pipes and it...took...forever. Hour after hour.  Driver after driver coming in, getting loaded on the regular rack.  I was getting tired of talking. I mean, I like to talk, but these drivers would get in, sit down and start it up. This went on for 10 solid hours.  I was dead. I didn't sleep that well last night, it happens often enough and I don't even care anymore except making for a long day and likely not wanting to talk to 10 different people for that length of time. But, I didn't want to be rude and we are in this confined space. You are not allowed to walk around the facility unless you are using a port-a-potty or going to the designated smoking area.

Whatever. They finally called it good to go. Are you sure? Cause' I sure has heck don't want problems on the road. Yup, the pressure is holding steady.  I was a bit nervous about that, but I left that area, went to their scales, weight out at 77,940 pounds, parked to go get my paperwork from inside but instead went to the back of the trailer, opened up the doors and looked at the gauges. 33 inches and 22 pounds of pressure.  The pressure is what I'm interested in, I don't care about the inches.  I don't know if I should be, but that's just the liquid level.  Nobody cares about that, it's the vapor pressure that is the concern. Cause' honey, if it gets to a certain level, the release valve will open and it won't stop. Not only do you lose a huge amount of money into the thin blue air, the trailer has to be put out of service, sent into a shop and a large bill attached to repairing it. I'm looking to avoid that at all costs. They would rather you find a place away from civilization or at least any people and vent it.  It's highly flammable, explosive I am told and a cigarette butte thrown out a car window can ignite it. 

Moving on.  I have a little while left. I was trying to figure out where to connect my new inverter, couldn't find anything, couldn't find anything on the internet besides a bunch of people that want to make videos to assert how much they know but impart zero knowledge to you and then decided to just hook it up to the main batteries so I can run my computer.  Turns out the computer's power cord reaches that far.  I couldn't fire this laptop up. It was at full charge when I shut it down so I'm a bit perplexed how it got to zero power. 

Anyway, I did end up visiting my friend in Atlanta on Saturday night, on the way back from a plant. It worked out well for my hours of service.  I didn't have to be back by any particular time and I knew I wouldn't be back before Sunday evening, so what the heck. The toddler remembered me after about 5 minutes.  We hadn't seen each other since they left - which has been over a year now.  It was very cool to hang out with them, I took them out to a steak house and we had a great time for a couple of hours.

The problem, however, was the places she said I could park a truck? No truck parking signs everywhere.  These were within a stone's throw of her townhouse.  Uhh I didn't say I was there on texting, I just started driving around, looking for a place.  It was Saturday night, surely there must be some business, somewhere, that is shut down for the weekend. I struck gold when I turned into an industrial park - the entrance directly across the street from 6 Flags delivery entrance.  I drove through there once and found a huge place for trailers, but no trucks in there and green lights flashing at dock bays. Meaning to me I couldn't park here.

My second run through, I saw a "truck entrance" at a Christian day school center. Huh? I drove in there. A bunch of trailers in the back, but the entire place was deserted.  I had found my parking spot.  It was cold enough outside - 34 degrees - the entire trailer iced over. This stuff is 130 degrees below zero, it is going to greet outside cold weather with open arms. Taylor, can you come pick me up? She was there in 2 minutes. I had found a place only a quarter mile from her house. 

I got to their place, greeted everyone, and then we went out to eat. It was about a 3 hour visit. Much too short, but I couldn't spend the night, I needed to stay with the truck.  You have to check the pressures every 5 hours, and anyway, I was leaving early.  6 am. She wouldn't have wanted to get up to take me back there, she has a routine with those kids and I wanted to respect that. 

It was a great visit, it was so good to see them, I can only wish they can come back sometime soon. It will be a whole different lifestyle than what I have now, but that is the lifestyle I was living with before they left. 

Okay.  I"m running out of steam and so much I want to write. But, the next shocker for me: my brother actually texted me, thanking me for the Omaha Steaks! I just can't go into all of that right now, but I will say that he went into the fact that he is a juror on a case about a man that left his 2 year old son in a car in Phoenix in the hot summer for 2-1/2 hours. The kid died.  My bro would only give me info that the news has already reported, as such as he is bound to do so.  Didn't try to pry him for more info, I thought cool, he's actually talking to me.  I might expand on all of that on a future post, but it's past my bedtime now, which isn't a big deal.  I can go to bed an hour late and be fine the next day.

There's more, much more actually, but this fatigue has suddenly caught up with me. I learned long ago, when you get hit with that? You have a window of opportunity to go to sleep. Maybe half an hour or so. If you stay up beyond that, you are likely not going to have a very good night's sleep. It's taking me time to get used to the feel of sleeping with a truck engine on, but I am not going to turn the truck off either when it's hot, warm or cold. Right now, it's muggy and warm outside, which is amazing being we are in December.

Well, Merry Christmas to whoever reads this and I will post again soon.

I've been short on time for posting. I could have earlier today, but I was busy getting stuff done. As it stands, I was called at 9am - after getting home from a 3 plus day run - to go to a run to Illinois. I would have taken that run, too, but I had stuff going on at that moment I was trying to get rectified. I didn't refuse the load, just the manager said she had someone else that might could take it when she called me.

I said, cool, if he can't do it, I'll take it.  She texted me 10 minutes later: he took the run.  Good, because I spent the day getting stuff done and in a little over 7 hours from now, I have to get up and get off to the plant to get loaded and take it to a place in Alabama. From my estimation, it's a 2 day run. And at the rate I'm going, I can see where 80k plus per year is easily obtainable. I'm ready for a permanent truck, tho.  Well, I'm ready to get through the 90 day probation period first.

If they find me acceptable, then I want my own, brand new truck and put in a refrigerator, microwave and a coffee pot. Or at least a refrigerator and a coffee pot. I don't have to have a microwave but it would be nice for reheating leftovers that I could take with me and store in the refrigerator. I would be taking the truck home at that point. I might bring the current one home anyway, I didn't do it this time, either because I wanted to - get home. My car goes much faster than that truck, lol.

And, tomorrow, I will be in anticipation of the new ELD - Electronic Logging Device - rule, of which my rental truck doesn't have.  I can be cited for not having one.  I can do nothing about that.  Well, I could go buy my own, but I think the company should fork out the money for a "temporary" device that would deal with the issue.  Just have to make sure my log book is in order, which I'm going over tonight.  

Well wait just a minute.  They actually have a smart phone app for it.  No kidding.  I am downloading one now as I type this.  If this works, it's better than having just a paper log.  And there it is. An electronic log on my smart phone. Should have figured. Not telling the company, no need to. They should have dealt with this. The rental company should also have something on board to deal with this nonsense.  

But if I get pulled over and checked, there it is, magic. If they don't accept it, see ya in court.  Tho supposedly they are going to give leeway until April. We'll see about that, DOT officials act like gods.  They think they can dictate the world to truck drivers. Which is why so many are opting out of trucking, this shit here will do away with a lot of drivers. Yes, you can bend the rules. Nobody cares. If you are wide awake, alert and focused, nobody gives a damn about government regulations. They lord themselves over us because they can. And because one truck driver somewhere had a horrific accident, so the entire industry should pay for it.

Whatever. It's just driving. How many of you can get pulled over and have your vehicle put out of service because of bs?  Or get ticketed because something in your paperwork isn't right? This shit was nonexistent in the 80's. Even the 90's not so much.  I'm tired of it, but it's my line of work and I have nothing else.  So I have to deal with it.  

Oh well. Much more I want to write about, I simply don't have time. I need to look over my log book and make sure everything is good, fill out paperwork for tomorrow's run and go to bed.