Very glad I didn't try to swap trucks yesterday.  I wouldn't even have gotten out of the Ryder truck rental place in time to get back to the dealership to get "my" truck.  I'm still very disappointed after being told by numerous beings in this corporation that they were getting 10 new trucks to find out yesterday they aren't getting any  new trucks, they had been given to "other" people and that was that.  Change that, I wouldn't have even made it TO the Ryder place after all the rigarmaroo at the Volvo dealership. Without going into all of that stuff  and ready to leave, I get a message on the screen on the dashboard about a light that has an open circuit.

I assume this means a burnt out bulb.  I checked all the lights, but admittedly didn't check the brake lights.  Yet, anyway.  They make it next to impossible to do that without having someone else out there looking at them.  I found something to prop the Johnson handle down enough to engage the trailer brakes, enough to turn all the brake lights on.  Sure enough, the passenger side brake light inop.  I was treading the waters of not having enough hours for the day to sit around waiting or "authorization" to buy a freaking sealed light and then have someone install it, so I just bought the thing and installed it myself.

The days of hotel stays are over.  Unless this truck breaks down again. What I found utterly hilarious is that the only thing wrong with it was the clamp that blew off the hose.  Yup.  I mean, I took pics of this shit and sent it to my manager who sent it to the dude that is supposed to "know everything".  Not my truck, not my money. I document everything with pics, if they want to ignore that, that's on them.

Wait, I shouldn't say over completely. In situations where I find myself having to sit for 15 plus hours, I likely will find my own place and it's whatever.  I guess I'll have to get used to this truck - or go find a new job, cause' they could care less about broken promises of new trucks. I didn't ask for a new truck, btw this came from them at the get go. I guess I good sign should have been that after orientation, they didn't even have trucks for us to drive.  Still, this thing has over 500 k miles on it, it was sitting in a yard for them to get rid of it, not for some new driver to have to come along and take. And now, these other 2 new drivers are going to get stuck in old trucks from the teams that got the new ones.
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Saturday.  Day off.  Been doing laundry literally all day long.  Lots of back log in that stuff.  Put together my new office/computer chair.  I'm also going to buy a nice, new computer desk and also a dresser/chest of drawers set.  I found one that I talked down to $250, very nice looking set but I don't have the time to go up there and get it.  It's about 60 miles from here.  Well worth the trip, just no time today. I have too much to get done around here and then, off to the Port again tomorrow. That's Cheniere.  I don't really want to be sent there too often, tho.  I hope she doesn't make a habit out of it.  You make no real money on that trip. Other drivers warned me about it, but after actually doing one of those trips, I can see why.  It's basically a waste of time.  I mean, if I can do it in one day, then fine.  But last time, too many obstacles put in my way to get that done.

I'ts probably around a $300 trip, so yes, one day.  But, regardless of when I get back, either tomorrow night or Monday morning, it will cost me Monday of getting another load and getting out on a hopefully longer run. I'm making a minimum of $300 per day at this job, some days much more than that.

Well. Anyway. Upon looking at the closets in the tractor more closely, the one that is really narrow is a hanging clothes closet.  Which would be fine in some other setup, but not in a tractor where space is limited.  that closet could have been made much wider and accommodate for many other things than just hanging your clothes up in there.  Like a refrigerator?  I can keep my clothes in a duffel bag, thanks, I need the space for other things.  Volvo messed up on that one.

Uhh, I guess I'm stuck in the thing, that has an automatic transmission that I totally despise. After being in the rental truck and shifting gears, I didn't want to go back to this thing.  I found out at the rental place that they actually - allegedly anyway - have a thing on commercial licenses that's added if you aren't "qualified" to use a manual transmission.  The whole trucking industry is being transformed into something totally unrecognizable.  People that can't shift gears?

More and more stories about driverless trucks. They're coming.  I don't know when they will take over the industry, probably years down the road, but it's going to put a lot of people out of work.  Millions and millions of people aren't going to have a profession anymore.  So what's my take on this? I can't stop automation.  I can't stop technology.  I don't trust driverless trucks for several reasons but they are hell bent on putting them out there.  It's coming, sooner or later.

They can do most of the work I'm currently doing.  Excepting at places that the driver has to unload - but that can be accomodated for.  I just don't know.  I'm getting too old to try and switch to something new.  Well, not really.  I could if I were forced into it.   If I were ask my company right now if they were going to do the driverless route when it becomes available, they would probably say no. But given the opportunity? Sure, those trucks will cost a LOT more, but you aren't paying a driver and giving him/her benefits.

It's kind of sucky, really, that they are hell bent on going that route.  I just have to accept it's coming and what am I going to do about it?  Nothing.  I'll drive until they don't need me anymore and then?  I dunno.  Maybe I'll have property by then and can raise a small herd of cattle.  I was in an Uber today, the dude is older and doing it for extra income. But even that is going to go away to driverless cars.

This technology is being tested, it's only a matter of time.  The only question that remains in my mind is: will they allow this technology to transfer over to hazmat? And I can guarantee you, they don't have anyone at gas stations that can unload those trucks. There are situations I can think of where automation isn't going to work. Or, it will work to get the product there but after that, unless they also are going to have robots, it's going to need a human being to fulfill the rest of it.

Funny we're in an age where humans are being factored out.  I'm not 20.  I don't have my whole life ahead of me.  But, I will adapt if I have to, I'll figure something out.  Just kind of scary, really.  To think that in the near future, probably anyway, millions and millions of people's line of work will be eliminated.

Yes, I got the load to a place near Tulsa.  I fortunately didn't have time to stop and get "my" truck out of the shop. By the time I hit Tulsa, it was too late. Both the shop and the place to return the truck to close at 5, no way in 40 minutes I would have been able to get all of that done. Drop the trailer at the shop, get my stuff out of the tractor and into the other one, drive the tractor back to the rental place, have them check it out, sign off on it, get an Uber to take me back to repair shop, finish up and leave? Naaah.  So, I'm back at the hotel I was in last time I came up here, a Candlewood Suites place. Replete with a very nice Mexican food restaurant in front with excellent food and reasonable prices. 

I don't feel bad, at all, about another company paid hotel night, for all I've gone through being here, I'm fine with it.  I actually don't mind sleeping in that truck, it's the only good thing about it.  The engine runs all night long with that humming sound I am used to and the minor vibration just lulls me to sleep.  

Basically, the 10 new trucks was a fairy tale. Those trucks were given to teams.  I mean, we've been told since we started orientation, well no, even before that, that they were getting 10 new trucks.  So, no new trucks, stuck in this old thing with 500k miles, I consider them to have lied to me.  But, what trucking company doesn't.  They'll all say stuff to you to get you in there and then, boom.  Uhh, yea that's not going to happen.  Thanks.

I'm going to have to figure out if I can deck this old pile of trash out or just - what?  I have to do something with it.  

Well, it's not any better news for the other 2 new drivers.  They are gong to be dumped into someone else's old relics as well.  One of the trucks has a hole in the side of the sleeper.  I'm just confounded that a company with their reputation would be treating new drivers like this.  It's one thing to make promises you can't keep, it's another to not only not keep that promise but go to the entirely other end of the scale of it, in this case, not only not new trucks, but junk  trucks on top of that.  Stuff that was sitting in a yard somewhere, ready to be sold off at auction.  

Oh, I got a call from Marie tonight. She's the lady that went up to PA after I did.  We talked for over an hour on the phone.  She's really cool.  We went over everything. She was flabbergasted about our truck situation. You have to realize, all the drivers besides us new ones are driving newer Peterbilts in excellent condition.  

Ugh. I"m getting off of here. This kind of talk is depressing, think I'll focus on something else.  

Well that was an interesting trip. Got to the plant at 4:30 am, checked in, to the scale, checking in again, to the loading rack - problem with the trailer.  That was the start of a long day. My birthday to boot. And, I was exhausted because I didn't sleep well - nothing new there but trying to run 14 hours on 3 hours of sleep is pretty nightmarish, actually.  I finally get another trailer over there, started heading down to Brownsville.  But sleep was calling. I guess an I can say fortunately my 30 minute break was coming up already because it took so long to get that ordeal taken care of.

I passed out and woke up 20 ,minutes later. Can't say I felt like heaven, but it was enough to push me through the rest of the day, getting down near Brownsville,  but not enough hours to actually get there.  I'm paper logs, I could have cheated but, no.  It's not worth it.  New company, good pay, great immediate manager.  I'm sticking around if they'll keep me.  Corporate managers, however, different story.  No, change that: the same story irrelevant of where you're working if it's a large, publicly owned company.

So, I get down there the next morning, which was yesterday, give the paperwork to the yard dude, drop the trailer and wait. I see one of the other drivers that went through orientation with me and we talked for about an hour.  He was both happy and unhappy. Huge paychecks, but a lot of bs.  After listening to him for a while, I came to understand that he hadn't gone through near the ordeals I have been through, but I left that alone.  He had been waiting there for 2 days for a trailer to show up.  Well, you get paid an hourly wage for doing nothing.  He's like me, tho, he wants to get home.  I'm getting a bit less attached to that tho. I need the money, being out on the road isn't wonderful, but it's not going to kill me either.

Well, unless I get into an accident and the trailer blows up, or I get covered in the liquid and instantly freeze to death, or around the liquid pouring out of the trailer and suffocate.  Lol, this is what a long time driver informed me about this chemical a few days ago.

Finally, a trailer comes in, he takes that one, of course.  Another showed up 2 hours later and that was mine.  But, you see, I do pre trip inspections on any truck I get into or trailer I'm about to haul. I'm not going to just not see damage to something and then - later on - get blamed for it. Screw that.  So, I slide the 5th wheel under the trailer and locked it in.  Got out, took a look.  Kingpin locked, but what is this?  A huge gap between the 5th wheel plate on the tractor and the plate on the trailer it snugs up against.

I unhooked, pulled out.  The plate on that trailer on the passenger side bent down.  I mean, how does that even happen? We're talking about thick, solid steel.  The rest of the truck may be lessor with steel thickness, they aren't playing around when it comes to the trailer plate, the king pin or the 5th wheel.  There is a lot of weight and torque when taking off and slowing down in that little area. I was perplexed at that, but the trailer comes up from Mexico. Who knows what they did down there. I took photos and sent them to my manager. I want this documented and I want management to know this is the situation, how would you like to proceed?

Cause' honey, I have never seen anything like that on a truck, and I have been driving since 1985.  Conventional wisdom is that the entire mating surface of the 5th wheel should be snug up against the trailer plate. No gaps and certainly no portions where you can see daylight through the other side.  I was worried about stress on the kingpin.  I contacted my manager who asked another driver.  Ugh. I don't need another driver's opinion, he doesn't know anything more than I do, and I probably know more than he does because I did trucks mechanics earlier in life.  He's telling her: Oh, yeah, I had one like that. Get under it and bring it!

I informed my manager of my trucking experience and my knowledge of trucks and that this isn't normal, is probably unsafe and what to do next.  Well, I got it from her to go ahead and pull it back. Not too worried because it's not under load, no liquid in it, light trailer.  Got back to the yard.  Had a great conversation with her for at least an hour.  But, she called several people and eventually this dude is on the phone on speakerphone.  She's talking to him and he immediately comes to the conclusion that the driver is at fault. Me.  Oh no, it's not him.  He contacted me while he was down there.  I told him to go ahead and pull it up here.  Oh.

THIS is exactly why I go through the trouble of documenting this junk before I pull anything, anywhere. Because you will be automatically blamed, doesn't matter if someone else did it, unless, you take pics, send them to your manager and understand that you have permission to pull the thing back.  If something happens, point to management.  Tho that doesn't excuse me if something did happen.  I didn't think the thing was going to break off of there, the kingpin that is, not being under load.  But, I was sure to try and at least get a mechanic with knowledge of this stuff out there to take a look and either give an approval or say, uhh, no, this needs to be fixed.

I'm guessing the latter. No mechanic in his right mind is going to say, yeah, that's cool.  He's going to say, no, this is unsafe, could eventually cause a crack and then a break, it needs to be fixed. That kind of repair is huge.  I mean, a lot of man hours put into it cutting that entire plate out of there and installing a new one.  But that's not my problem.  I don't care what it costs them. I didn't create this and more importantly, I'm not going to absorb the blame for someone else's bs.  If I break something, I will own up to it. Rare, far and few between and always something caused by the road (rocks, tire treads that I didn't see at night driving, etc.).

So, that dude got off that kick and my manager, thankfully, fully backed me up. In fact, when she was outside on the phone with them - I stayed inside to finish paperwork as I already knew what it looked like and had thoroughly explained it to her and 2 different people on speakerphone - she told me she had told them she wished she had 10 drivers like me.  : )  That's a pretty good compliment : )  I'll take it.

Anyway, they are having a mechanic come out to take a look at it and I have washed my hands of it.  Meanwhile, I got home and Donnie texted me the number for the dog groomer he takes his dog to. Yes, I had asked a few days ago.  So I called them.  Honey, when do you want to bring him in?  lol, I can't say I don't like it when strange women talk to me like that haha.  Anyway: Do you have time today?  Oh yes sweetie, bring him in.  : )  8 minutes later, we're there. Didn't expect the kenneling stuff tho.  He has never been in a kennel, I have never needed to. He's a good doggy. He'll sleep all night long in my bedroom, alone, in his or my bed - whichever he chooses - while I'm gone.  He won't chew the entire room up - which Danes are well known to do when left alone like that.

Well, the entire place erupted into dog barking.  I didn't understand at first those dogs weren't barking at Addler, they were barking at me.  I mean, some of them howling, others really upset that I was in there.  Lady that runs the place explained without my asking they aren't used to being around men. I kinda wondered if men hadn't abused them to make them so terribly unhappy with a male human walking into the place, but I kept that to myself.

I left him there, comfortable with the place after inspecting the back yard and it's fencing. Solid, 6 feet tall, one gate with solid metal, he's not getting out. And anyway, he was standing at the door, wondering why the hell I had left him out there.  After going home, a call an hour and a half later: We got him alllll cleaned up : )  I could feel the smile over the phone.  Okay, I'll be there in less than 10 minutes.

Went straight over there, he was laying on the floor, one of the ladies was using a dremel on his claws.  I knew he would love it after seeing the entire place is run by ladies.  They immediately reported a big gouge on his hind leg.  He doesn't like baths. I knew this before taking him in there. But, I gambled that if these nice ladies were doing it, he would fall in love with it.  Well, when they got him in the bath tub, he jumped out of it - Addler is very agile, considering his size, you wouldn't think he could do such things - and scraped it up.  It's an open wound, yes, but it isn't bleeding and considering the situation I left him in, I didn't really think it that big a deal.  They were swooning over him tho. "He's such a sweet doggy".  And other statements like that. Made me feel good that the dog behaved himself and acted his normal self at a strange place with people he doesn't know, didn't try to bite any other dogs and behaved himself.

Well, but he's not used to being bathed, is he?  Uhh, no.  I've bathed him with a garden hose and he doesn't like it.  I figured to try bringing him in a place like this with loving people and warm water and people that do this on a daily basis and see if it works out.  Did he behave, can I bring him in again?  Oh yeeeesssss.  That's when I learned about the instant taking they had to him haha.  Well how much do I owe you? $25.  I was taken aback. The bigger the dog, the more they charge, everywhere else I"ve been.  I gave them $10 extra for putting up with his initial bs of jumping out of the tub and really, it's going to take longer to wash a larger animal, right?  I just thought they deserved more than that.  I was thinking at least $60 to be honest, I never asked them how much they charged, I just knew this dog stinks and NEEDS a bath, haha.

Well that's it for me.  I got back at 10:45 from the run this morning. spent an hour and a half visiting with my manager.  Got home, took the dog to the bathhouse and now? I'm just chilling, as the younger generation likes to put it.  I have zero plans for the rest of the day.  I haven't been sent the info on where I'm going tomorrow morning, tho it sounds like Brownsville again, I just know that it's probably going to be an early start and I will want to go to bed early.  Brownsville - enough of those runs - equals a very healthy paycheck.

I may have sealed my fate with doing run after run, but we did talk about my living situation and my need to make as much money as I can right now to get my peeples into a decent place.  I really do need to get some serious money up to pay for that and still be able to get ahead. I want to be able to afford that without it leaving my finances drained.  And then, get some money saved up and starting making payments to pay down credit card debt.

Anyway, I think I'll mosey out to the living room and see if there's any good movies on.  I was going to have it turned on in this room, like this week I was going to do that, but now that my friends are moving back, I'll be back in my old bedroom and it already has a satellite receiver in there, so I'll just wait. TV isn't that important to me, but I really like to watch the news.

I think that's it.  Oh yes, called today about rolling over 401k. Not really happy this company uses Wells Fargo. I'm not a fan.  I like Prudential where it's sitting now, but I obviously can't dump money into it being with a different employer.  It would be a waste of time starting from scratch with a different employer, the power of whatever money I already have in there pays off for dividends.  So, I"m going to transfer it.  I'm not hearing that I am going to be released after 90 days, I am NOT happy that I am in an old truck, neither are the other 2 drivers that are about to be dumped into even worse trucks than the piece of shit that I was in until this rental truck, but going to back to that abomination soon. I don't count myself lucky, either.  We were promised at orientation that we were getting new trucks. We were then told that maybe some of the new drivers would get the new trucks and we would get their "old" ones. I would HAPPILY take one of their "OLD" trucks over this shit they are putting us in.

Well word is in for tomorrow's run. Going up to Oklahoma. Return the rental to it's proper place, lol and get the fixed truck that I'm apparently being stuck in forever and then make the delivery up in Barnsdall. Or, if not open, make the delivery and then come back and get the truck. Whatever the case, the days of living in hotels is over for now.  I love hotels : ).  I can't say they're better than home, but they are sure as heck better in most ways than a sleeper in a truck.  However, this particular truck doesn't have an APU, so I have to run the engine all night long and I can tell you, the vibration of that engine puts me right to sleep : ) 

G'nite. 

My Birthday

It started at what I thought was 3:15 am. Got up, took a shower, got out, petted my doggies, looked at the clock. It was 3:00 am.  What? Okay, the alarm for 3:15 am was still green, meaning it would have gone off. I must have accidentally set another alarm?  I dunno, but I took my pants off, set the alarm for 3:35 and went back to bed. The reason I did that is because I didn't get a wink of sleep. Well a couple of hours worth, which basically equals nothing.  I have no idea. I was awakened by the dogs growling at something, they stopped and then I tried to get back to sleep.

It never happened.  I got out of bed at 3:35 am, petted my doggies again, then got out the door.  Got the truck at the yard, went to the plant.  Went through the entire process of getting in there, getting weighed, going to the rack.  This place is huge and everything has a process.  Then I had to wait for the dude to come out to the rack. He has me position the truck to where he wants it. He got busy, I started putting on all that gear I have to put on.  Fire proof clothing, steel toed boots, gloves, eye protection and a hard hat replete with a face shield and ear muffs.

I go to put the key into the box. You can't even leave the key in your truck, obviously they have had some braniac truck drivers in there doing stupid things. Such as taking off when the hoses are still attached to the truck.  Hey bro, we have a problem here.  He goes to show me the lever for an emergency valve that has to be pulled out to fill the truck. The cable is broken. 

I thought, I got up at before 3:00 am to get my ass over to the yard and get everything done to find out this trailer is broken? And this is my birthday?  lol  I call my manager: please drop it at National. A place that fixes trucks.  Take it to National.  Don't leave it there, she calls me back - after I had already dropped the trailer - bring it back to the yard.  I'm feeling like HELL at this point. My head aching from not getting enough sleep and all this s*** going on.  Back to the yard.  Text the manager: these are the trailers here.  Oh, yes, LE001.  Take that one.  Unhook, rehook, more paperwork, back to the plant, go through the entire process again.  Get to the drivers shack and yes, I passed out in the chair for a while. 

That was actually helpful, but not nearly enough to recover almost an entire's night's worth of sleep - poof, gone into the thin blue air.  I get out of there, drive down the road for 90 miles, and take my 30 minute break in Nacogdoches. An ancient truck stop, perfect place, I didn't need fuel. Literally passed out again, only to wake up 20 minutes later.  Went inside and got breakfast/lunch. Got back on the road.  Drove for 6 hours straight but i was fighting sleep.  I ended up pulling over into a parking lot right off the side of the highway and passing out yet again for 15 minutes.  That was enough to get me down here - about 55 miles away from the drop point.  I didn't have enough hours to make it down there legally and my company not a fan of going over hours. 

They put me up in a hotel for the night. I'm still in a rental truck so they would have had to done that. But, on my birthday and out here alone, I would have paid for it myself if they weren't required to do so.  Holiday Inn Express. Nice enough, A bit too "modern" for me in the furnishings and paint style, but, it's clean, has  a very wonderful looking queen bed and a 48inch flat screen TV with, get this, almost ALL of the movies channels on Direct TV!

Well, that's about it.  I'm on my second movie.  But I am going to bed soon. I hope to get some serious sleep tonight. That would be a nice Birthday gift!

I did ask.  Can I have Sunday off?  Monday is my birthday but my "peeples" want to celebrate it with me on Sunday. Okay, I didn't mention Superbowl Sunday, I want to be home for that.  I'm not a fan of either team but I'm rooting for the Eagles.  Just cause' mom says she'd like to see them win. If Steelers were involved, the whole family would be rooting for them.

So, she said, well, I'll see what I can do.  She is under pressure to get the loads given out.  And now that I can unload these trailers, a whole new world has opened up in terms of new places to go, but also puts me online to take other, senior drivers off line for them to go home and have off time.  I know, I'm new, Oh well. My only "complaint", which it isn't really a complaint, but these other 2 new drivers haven't learned how to offload yet.  If they got dumped into that world as I was, this would take  some of this off of me. I want to work and make money, yes, but I want a couple days off here and there as well.

So, I have 2 days off - actually 2-1/2 days considering I got home today around 2:00 pm, but I will pay for it. I will have to get up at 3:00 am Monday morning to be on the scale at 5:00 and get loaded after weighing out.  And then, drive all day long to Brownsville. It's a great run money wise, but getting up that early?  Ugh.

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Okay, a bit has transpired here since yesterday.  With my friends moving back, they were asking Rene if she wanted to earn some extra money and watch her boys after she finds a job.  Great opportunity for Rene.  Something she can do, something she likes to do and she'll be over here a lot.  She already said she would make dinner for everyone while watching the boys.  So, I'm not losing my personal chef, lol.  She's really good cook.

I started looking for places for them. Just to see what's out there.  It's still too early to start looking for a place tho.  I mean, it's April 1st they have to be out of here.  Most places aren't going to hold a house for that long and I'm not paying rent for an empty house.  I'm going to be working a lot - hopefully anyway - to get enough cash up for the deposit and get utilities turned on. They will continue to pay their rent, but it will go to me and they will hopefully have a nice place to stay.  We'll see what happens.

It's really working out much better than I had thought tho.  I mean, with her being over here watching the boys during the day and cooking, she's not only making money, she's also doing something with a little more purpose in life.  Not to mention she LOVES to cook.  If we're all here at the same time, that's 7 people to cook for.

But, James is going to truck driver training school and then OTR.  He'll be home at most every 2 weeks.  Maybe 3 weeks out.  That's my experience with OTR and I doubt it's changed much. In fact, I'm sure it hasn't cause I've seen all the ads and even applied at a few of them a while back.  I dunno. He's got young kids and he won't be home much.  I can't judge him tho, he wants to provide for his family.  ATT isn't cutting it for him.  I dunno if he'll make more right off the bat with trucking, but eventually he'll make a lot more.  In fact, I told him that if he keeps his nose clean for a year and doesn't have any accidents and keeps away from getting tickets, I could recommend him to where I'm working.  If I'm still there, lol.

Not that I don't want to be there, but 90 day probation still isn't up yet.  So, Just kind of hanging over my head until that goes away.  I intend on staying there for at least a year if possible.  Just taking it a day at a time.  Been through quite a bit in the short time I"ve been there, I hope they see that..I was sent a text yesterday saying I hadn't turned in my mileage from a particular trip and that the only way I get paid is if I do so.

I explained that that was the trip the truck broke down, I got distracted by trying to get the thing towed, getting it to Tulsa and then dealing with this tow truck driver damaging the truck at the repair shop.  Not like it was a worry free day.  My manager replied:"well can you get it?". It being mileages.  I replied, no, the truck is in the shop, I have no access to it.  Further, the axles were removed, so the odometer reading wouldn't show the 140 miles the truck was towed.  I did have the mileage for the rental truck starting at that facility, going up to the plant and then back to our yard, so they just took that, added the miles it takes to get from the yard to the repair shop and that was that.

I was wondering what she would say to that.  She said, dang, well she'll (corporate lady) just have to fill it in.  After I at least could give the rental truck readings that was good enough for her.  I do like my manager, she's a caring person.  She has a lot of stress trying to get the loads taken care of and still trying to appease to drivers wanting time off.  What would really help is if these 2 other new drivers were to be thrust into the world of having to unload such as I was. Then, they  could also be sent to these places that nobody wants to go to.

I dunno, but the main objective was that Brownsville would be completely covered after getting 3 new drivers.  I dunno if that's true or not.  I do know I'm going down there Monday and I am hoping she'll get me back in that Marriott. That is a great  hotel!  But a "lessor" place would suffice.  Just nothing like Motel 6.

Funny that Motel 6 used to be my go-to hotel. It was cheap, it was good enough for a night's sleep and that was that.  But over the years, a lot of their properties I had been to had deteriorated.  Paint outside, ripped furniture, stains on carpeting, mold in the shower.  I haven't been to one in quite a while.  I've seen that they have started taking over existing hotel properties versus building and entirely new hotel.  Some of them - look - nice.  But I dare not go back into one. Their once great prices - which is what attracted me to the places in the first place - aren't so great anymore, either.  I remember seeing them as low as $15.99 back in the day. $19.99 Then the price went up and up and up.  To the point now, they are not longer the bargain they once were.  And for the money? I can pay $20 more and stay at a much nicer place.

I haven't had much time to post anything.  Work, find a hotel, go to sleep. Work, go home, get up early, go to work. I mean, my manager is dumping me with stuff as soon as I'm done with what I'm doing. Not a bad thing, not complaining - too much - but this morning, ugh.

See, I got home last night at 8pm.  I knew I should have gone to sleep earlier, but I had a ton of paperwork to fill out and I needed to do laundry.  I mean, in the last 8 days I've made over 4 grand.  I'm not boasting, I'm just saying that all this work is adding up to incredible paychecks - at least by my standards, dunno about anyone else. Such as that dude at the Marriott.  Can't imagine making millions of dollars a year to go to work and travel around all over the place. Yes I know there is more to it than that, a lot of headaches I'm sure, but still, the money would make up for it in my world.

So I stayed up til 10:30 getting everything done and spending time with doggies and finally going to sleep. But 4:45am came around and the alarm clock went off literally in my ear. Had it set up on my Iphone.  I bolted upright, looked around in the dark, dazed and confused. Wait, I"m supposed to have today off, aren't I?  I was in shock that I had to get up for the third time in a row in the last 7 days to get to the scales on time at the plant.  I didn't even take a shower - don't worry I took one the night before, lol - but I was totally OUT of it.

I was in the middle of a deep sleep and would have easily slept for 3 more hours.  What's funny right now is that it's almost 10:00 pm, a complete replay of last night except I don't have to be at the scales in the morning. That's because I"m stuck in Lufkin, Texas.  Not enough hours to get back to the yard.  No biggies, at a nice Comfort Inn. Not as nice as that Marriott - a rare treat - but it's not a dump.  It took the entire morning for me to fully wake up.  I was out of it. Now? I'm wide awake and waiting for sleep mode to kick in, but I can tell ya, I'm not getting up early in the morning. Probably get up around 7 and leave by 8, after having whatever version of breakfast and coffee they are serving here.

So, today marked a few hallmarks for me. First, the dreaded Cheneire run and second, unloading out of these small trailers. They are not set up the same as the big, long,  new ones. Not that I haven't pulled the small trailers, but this was the first time I had to operate everything on the truck side, they won't even touch the truck.  That's plant rules, probably insurance regulations, who knows, didn't ask, delved myself full into it.

But not without a call to the curmudgeon.  The grumpy old man I like to call him.   He goes around complaining about everything.  I swear I've seen him 5 times since I've started working here and all 5 times he was complaining. The worst was when he stormed into the manager's office  - I was sitting in the "break" room right there - and started complaining about new driver pay. This went on for fully 40 minutes.  He said "Take me off the call list!",  which is the short list Ann (manager) gave us new drivers to call people if we have questions. 

So when I saw Ann giving me the number for him last night -I was wanting to ask questions about these trailers, I'm not going into this without somebody filling me in on the nuances of how to operate everything,  I was like, huh?  I didn't say anything to Ann, she wouldn't have given me his number if he hadn't of agreed to it after the fact.  So I called, braced myself and - he's a really nice guy!  Knows  his shit too.  We talked until my phone battery ran out and I had to get off.  My main questions were about building pressure in the tank.

See, these places we go to, the truck tank has to be at a higher pressure than the facility's huge tanks - ranging in size from 40,000 gallons to a million so far.  You have to pump the product into  their tanks, not their tanks pumping product back into our tank.  On my way to the facility, I called him.  Umm, this is ben b, Ann gave me your number, do you have a moment to answer some questions? Is it cool that I called you?  Oh yes, he says, Ann told me you would be calling me today.  Alright, I thought, good start at least.  Not "don't call me" s***. lol People's attitudes amuse me, that's what I can say about that.  I watch people having hissy fits and melt downs and I find great entertainment in that.  Because, most of it is over petty bs.  I have to grant them that to them, it obviously isn't petty to them, but it is still entertaining to watch.  \

This is why I like going to malls on Christmas.  To watch the family meltdowns. Just sit on a bench, in a couple of minutes, you'll see and hear it lolol.  Well anyway, my main questions were about building pressure.  These coils are fickle about that.  If crank the valves around to many times, the ethylene will flood into the coils, freeze up and block the tubes.  What you want is a constant flow going throw there so the outside air can heat it up and turn the liquid into vapor, which goes into the tank (the coils are underneath the trailer), which pressurizes the tank.  I literally had no idea how many turns to turn both the vapor and the liquid valves feeding into and out of the coils. 

Well, this guy has been doing this for 20 years, he has some knowledge about it.  Like, expertise.  And he freely shared that expertise over the phone to the point that I was amazed that he was willing to go that far with it considering his words with Ann in that office.  But, his real issue was that he had been overlooked for the Safety Officer position that had opened up, but only because he didn't know about it, and only because he doesn't get on the internet.

How many people do you know that don't have smart phones or get on the internet? Well I can tell you there are at least half a dozen people working here that have never owned a smart phone or a computer in their entire lives.  They don't even have email accounts.  I don't really blame them. They aren't stupid people, they are down to earth people and hold very interesting conversations  I'm really not that sold on this internet stuff.  At least, not to the amount of time us humans are spending on it and taking away from the stuff we "used" to do to entertain, amuse, stimulate or otherwise console us, that was much more palpable, real life and had much more satisfaction at the end of the story.

Well, I arrived at this plant in Cameron, Louisiana, though it's not really that far into LA.  You travel over a bridge from the Texas side and there you are.  This place was strange. I expected a guard house at the entrance - and there was an elaborate one there for sure - shut down and not being used.  This is a multi billion dollar plant - with dirt roads lolol. I cracked up driving in there, asphalt ended abruptly and there it was, lovely, dirt roads.  I just drove until a got to a guard shack.  Uh, you are going to have to turn around and go into that gate right there.  Okay.  I turned around, got there and they told me, you are going to have to turn around and go back to that dude that told you to come in here and get a visitor pass from him. Note: I informed the first person I had never been in there before.

So, I go through the process of turning around again.  He's like: see that brown building down there? You need to go in there to get a pass. Okay.  I drive down there, park in a lot 500 feet away because that was the only place a truck would fit, walk there and this lady is pulling out.  "Do you need a badge"? Yes.  Well I"m leaving for the day. You'll have to go over there and get one from the security checkpoint.  Really? I've been to 3 people already and they don't have this shit down? 

But hey, I walked clear over there got inside and found a Keurig coffee machine! With boxes and boxes of unopened containers of the pods you put inside them.  I laughed it up with the guards, they offered me coffee before I even asked.  I love that Keurig coffee.  So, that was a high point for me for the day there. The simple pleasures of life.  I waited for about 20 minutes - watching armed security guards - yes they had pistols on their sides and Kevlor body armor on - walking around. Didn't bother me, I wasn't there to start trouble. 

Okay, I finally get to the unload place, bypassing a lot cause it's getting late and who wants to read all of that anyway . It was at that point - having to hook up the hose - remember, they won't even touch that truck - that I realized I didn't know a few more things that I needed help with. These people are looking at me like, have you ever done this before? Well yes, not that much but never with these trailers.  They didn't care.  I called the dude up again, asked him several questions, got my mind oriented and got busy.  Built the pressure up to 84 pounds - which is alot for these trailers - but that's what they wanted.  It's the pressure the pushes the product out of the trailer and into their system. 

After getting everything hooked up - and sighing a big breath of relief that I had actually gotten this old thing to work - we all stood around and chit chatted. I mean, there were 5 of them out there for this, doing absolutely nothing. Only one dude, quiet, reserved, knew his stuff, was interested in making sure the process was right, the rest of them were young dudes, full of testosterone, talking shit and well, I kind of got out of that.  I'm not really into that kind of talk. The "my penis is bigger than yours" kind of thing. 

A couple of hours later, the trailer was empty, blew down the pressure, I was out of there.  I was proud of myself, really, for doing something like that without anyone supervising me and being successful at it. But I did text Ann and told her that Gary - the other driver - had been a very big help and very grateful for it.  I believe in giving credit where credit is due. He definitely deserved some credit. I would have ended up freezing up the coil lines and having to try to figure out where to set the valve on my own.  That might have taken hours, to be honest, of hit and miss.  He gave me a baseline and it worked perfectly  They guy has been there 20 years, I figure if he wants to have a new position - now it's driver training - I can at least give him a boost for the fact that he perfectly described what needed to be done. 

So now, I'm at a hotel in Lufkin Texas.  I drove out my hours to get here.  It's like another hour and a half or so back up to the yard.  These trucking companies are big on keeping your hours legal, which is why they are in love with the new electronic logs. But, these rental trucks? No electronic logs in them. Don't know how they are going to adapt when it's a forced situation.  I also have curiosity to the greatly hyped driver-less trucks that are coming.  I figure this job is fairly secure for the time being.  Maybe not forever, but they don't currently have robots that can operate the truck side of unloading.  And my willingness to spend to weeks in hell up in Pennsylvania, New York and Massachusetts gave me the new options for sending me wherever.  There are runs that go for thousands of miles out there. I don't ask for anything, I'm the newbie, I let Ann decide what and where. But, she's totally fair and I figure if I'm willing to take the shit runs along with the gravy runs without even saying anything about it, that should help my situation.

As it stands, I'm well ahead of the other new drivers because none of them have unloaded trucks yet.  Their day is coming.  I can say that first time is pretty stressful.  Highly flammable, explosive, 130 below zero and if a tank did rupture, you better get out of there if you can because that stuff will suffocate you. But the other driver today related a story to me about a driver that had had a truck overturn.  He tried to outrun it, this driver was on the scene, ran him down and told him: you can't our run this stuff. If it blows up, you can't run far enough to get away from it blowing you up with it.  That's kind of a chilling effect, I guess, but at this point in my life?  I care, but I"m not phased by it.  I'm more interested in still getting the feel for curves and turns in a tanker - really would like to not roll one over, thanks.  THAT is where the trouble begins  Well, accidents too. 

Okay, well, I can see another late  night for me.  I am not going to apologize for staying up late after a 14 hour day.  I don't have to get up early, if I go to bed at midnight, I'll get up at 8. I can tell ya I am not setting the alarm and I'm turning off the ringer on my phone.

Dang, I just remembered. Got caught up on the stuff that happened in my face today. The text came: I am giving them 60 day notice.  My friends are moving back from Georgia, reclaiming their home and my other friends - the ones living with me, will have to find new accomodations.  So, she gave them the notice, I think I am going to go home tomorrow to a sad house. They like it there, we have a good situation....but they knew it was a 2 year deal.  I'm going to help them get into a new place, hopefully close by. They don't want to move far away if they don't have to.  There are houses for rent in town, just have to find a 3 bedroom with at least 2 baths.  Not impossible to find - but the extra bath costs a lot more, I am finding. 

Okay done with this one. Other things I want to do and then go to sleep.

So I get to Marriott Courtyard in Brownsville earlier.  I didn't ask for a high end hotel, at all. I just wanted  a bed to sleep on.  Remember that I am still driving a rental truck, that has no sleeper and therefore no bed.

I was sent down to Brownsville today. I reminded my manager last night of the need for a hotel. She said contact here wherever I ended up today (not sure why she didn't think I would end up down here) and she would get me a room.  So, 14 hours today.  It's not just driving. It's getting the truck loaded, getting on the road, 1/2 forced break, fuel, hills slowing the truck down, traffic in Houston. 

Oh!!!! I saw the most insane accident I have ever witnessed today!  This dude driving a very nice pickup - pulling what I guessed to be about a 25 foot long trailer.  Whatever caused the situation to start, I'm not sure.  It was just him in that accident, I think he hit the center concrete divider and that's what caused the trailer to shoot out sideways.  Whatever the cause, I watched this truck literally get booted up into the air, do an almost 380 degree turn - IN THE AIR - and the LAND ON HIS OWN TRAILER!!

I was coming from the other direction so I didn't stop.  But I did see the guy try to open the door to his pickup and then ? He slumped back on his seat and that was the last I saw of that.  I don't think he died, he just got messed up in being slung around like that.

Oh, well anyway. I mean, I drove all day long.  I got to the yard down here, dropped the trailer and then went over here to the Marriot.  Tractor only, I'll pick up the trailer in the yard in the morning.  Anyway, this dude behind the counter - really nice guy, not faulting him at all for this situation - looked up my name. Oh yes, I was talking to her earlier.  She said something about you having a CLC card?   I'm looking at him dumbfounded, I'm sure. What is a CLC card? It's a corporate card to make purchases.  Uhh, no, I don't have that.  My manager was supposed to take care of all of this.

I mean, I pushed it all day long to get to a hotel so I could get to a room and watch the entirety of the SOTU.  That's State of the Union Address - Trump.  After trying to call my manager numerous times and texting her, I gave up. Do you mind if I just go sit over there and have a beer or something? I really wanted to see the SOTU.  I gave up on that, but these people came behind me and set me down at a table at the lounge and walaah. This table had it's own 36 inch flatscreen tv, they turned the thing on and there was Trump, greeting people on his way in

So anyway, I wanted that beer.  There was a dude sitting up at the bar, alone, no one else around.  Is there anyone working here?  He smiled and said he could get me a beer if I wanted one.  Umm, he didn't look like a hotel worker, but what the heck.  About the time he was going to do it, the bartender showed up.  Well I started talking to this guy about politics since it was the SOTU and was all into that.  Well, I got up from there and went back to the table to watch the SOTU, he came over, uninvited, to watch it as well. Have a seat! No, he said, I 'like standing, I sit too much.

We talked back and forth for quite a while.  I was a little bit amazed to find out this cool, laid back dude, probably in his 30's, casual dress, was the CEO of whatever company, supplies custom tools to auto manufacturers to install certain parts into new vehicles that robots don't, apparently, do.  He never actually said who he was, he just went back behind the bar and helped himself enough times that I got the feeling he was more than he was coming off as. The encounter was interesting because he didn't come off as a rich "snoot". Just a laid back person.

Anyway, I never did get a hold of my manager, though I tried repeatedly, and finally just paid for the room myself. I was pretty disappointed that I was facing such a scenario yet again with this company, tho..  It's a $179 room, I asked because I considered just paying for it myself.  I was like, ohh. Well, the dude said he could bring the price down for me.  Why? I wondered.  Why were they giving me free food, beer and a lowered rate?  Well whatever, I didn't say that to them, I just was having fun, but inwardly, a but upset about all of this nonsense I have gone through with this company. They have good intentions, they just don't follow through, or, they simply don't have their act together.  I have jumped through numerous hoops for them, I would like to wish that they could at least get their act together. 

Well, I paid for the hotel.  I wasn't about to go looking for a place after working 14 hours and I had had a couple of beers, so totally illegal to drive a commercial vehicle even if only a tractor or the fact that it was only a couple of beers.  Not worth it. 

It was an hour and a half later my manager finally contacted me back. Texting. I had called her - several times.  Then I ended it with a text.  She got the situation resolved and I asked them at the desk, is this going back on my card? 

Welp. It's 11 pm.  I spent hours in that lobby.  I mean, I was starving and went back down there and asked this very energetic bar tender if she had any food. Why, sure! I have leftover stuff from the happy hour, would you like some? I made it myself! It's really good! Why yes!  She brought me a big plate of it, another beer and said no thanks for paying for it.  Ohhhhhkaaaayyyyy!!  I let her a nice cash tip after eating and drinking and here I am, in the room. 

I'm really trying to make this job work. But there have been so many negatives.  I think the worst part of it, for me, is that I"m in the 4th truck since starting here less than 3 months ago.  Obviously I'm not going to be staying in a rental truck and certainly not one without a sleeper and have to pay for a hotel every night.

Well whatever. Long day, tired, going to sleep.

So, I get up this morning - hotel - slept pretty darn good, actually.  Sat around and watched endless news for a couple of hours and got their version of a continental breakfast. Quite limited affair, but a bowl of cereal, couple cups of coffee and a blueberry yogurt were good enough. Around 10:00 am, I called the shop.  Uhh, hey, I just need to know what your prognosis is for fixing that truck? I need to know whether to ask my manager for another day at the hotel?  Yea, your truck isn't going to be finished until Monday and possibly even Tuesday.  Oh.

Well that was a bit disconcerting. I'm going to sit in a hotel room for 3 plus days?  My mind wandered to what, exactly, is there to do in Tulsa?  But, I called my manager instead and told her.  Yup, well she ended up on a conference call about this situation.  But, that call didn't end. It was getting close to 11:00 am, get out of the room or not?  At 10 of, she finally calls me back after I sent her a couple of texts.  Well, they've got a truck for you at a rental place, here's the address, etc etc etc.  Take a taxi or whatever and get over there, get the truck, get to the repair shop, get hooked to the trailer and then send me and email address where I can send your logs for the last 8 days. 

I'm on electronic logging now, I ditched the log book as soon as I got into the newest truck they dumped me in.  Much easier.  So, I had to dig out all the hazmat stuff in the truck in the shop and my PPE gear - quite a lot of it - and find a way to get all of that stuff and my own stuff into a daycab.  A daycab doesn't have much space in it. No sleeper and and just the area in front of the passenger chair, on the chair itself and a bit of room to the side of it.  I got all that stuff in there, got my logs printed out and got up to the plant.  I am now in a 4th truck since starting at this place - I haven't been working there very long.  The plan was - or is - to deliver that load, drive the rental back down here - I made it home today after that - get another load Sunday morning, deliver it Monday morning and then?  I dunno what they'll do.  Have me wait until the truck is fixed or go get another load.  I guess it depends on what the shop says. 

It's a pretty short run - 324 miles each way.  You'd have to do a lot of that per week to get any money out of it.  No thanks.  I'll take one of those per week but I want a longer run to get the miles.  I'm slowly finding out that there are a great deal many more gravy runs than I know.  But, I don't expect to know anything, I just find the stuff out as I go along - mostly because my manager sends me on a coveted run that I didn't ask for but definitely not turning down. 

I want one of the mythical new trucks they have been talking about forever but have never shown up.  And then, don't even think about taking me out of it.  Or do so and I'll have some thoughts about moving on to greener pastures.  For now, I'll deal with all this moving around from one truck to another. It's going to get old eventually. Or they can leave me in this day cab and then they have to get me a hotel room every night I'm out on the road lol. 

Oh, did I say my friends are moving back?  I don't think I did.  They're desperate to get out of Georgia. They tried a personal loan, but that was quite a lot of money they were asking for and not so great credit.  Well, then his mom decided to offer them a loan.  That was a "selfish" type of thing, it's a much closer trip and doable for her to come visit them here. Georgia is MUCH further away.  I just texted her to find out the situation with the loan.  My friends living here - I can call them friends now - asked for 2 months advance notice when they are coming back.  Which is fine. I already told them I would help them get into a place if necessary. They always pay their rent on time, that has never been an issue.  I'd have to find a 3rd renter for the place, tho.  2 don't cover all the bills even if the rent is cheaper for the house than here. That might be an interesting proposition, considering where I live. 

Anyway, it's midnight and I'm still wide awake. This job is really toying with my sleep/wake cycle.  But that doesn't really bother me as much as this truck situation. And I guess they figure they can do that as long as I'm on 90 day probation. Well, month 3 is coming up. I believe the 12th of next month is 90 days.  I'm starting to get used to the job and all of it's rather strange nuances, but this truck situation? Nahhh. None of the other drivers are going through any of this. 

Alright well I don't like staying up too late. Messes up the next day, I have stuff to do tomorrow since it's only a day off and then back to work. 

Well, an extremely long day, as it turns out.
I left early for the plant to get the trailer loaded. 
Got a quick bite to eat after that and headed north.  Up in Paris, I stopped for 50 gallons of fuel - loaded heavy, didn't want to add much weight by putting in too much fuel, but I had to put some in there at least.  I got up to this ridiculous turnpike called the Indian Nation Turnpike.  I call it ridiculous because the road is terrible and you are paying to drive on it.  I mean, if you are going to run a toll road, that damned thing should at least be a smooth ride?!!

Whatever.  I got 38 miles down that road and KABLAAAAAAM!!!!!  I thought I had blown out a tire, it was really loud.  I pulled over, got out and walked around the truck.  No tires blown.  All tires in excellent condition, in fact.  Got back in the truck and fired it back up.  A loud whirring noise from under the hood.

Well, I don't drive Volvo tractors and I saw no latches on the thing.  How do you open the hood?  I actually had to look up a youtube video to find out how.  There is a latch inside the truck underneath the steering wheel you pull. That's it, just pull it and it opens up. WAY easier than any other truck I've dealt with.  Well I found the culprit quickly: Line blown off the turbocharger, oil spewed all over the place, I wasn't even guessing: blown turbocharger.  Oil doesn't come out of them in that hose, lol, if there's oil, there's trouble.

I took a pic, sent it to manager, who didn't reply so I called her.  I'm walking around trying to find a place to get enough signal strength.  This is Indian reservation and my experience with being on them - which is not a little - is that you usually don't get any signal strength once you're well into it and in some cases, they have their own cell towers and no one else's are allowed.  If you want cell service, you have to buy their cell service and they won't even allow other carriers to use them for roaming and higher fees. 

Oh, forgot, I tried to drive it before calling anyone.  Well, take that back, I tried putting the hose back on and then driving it, just to make sure I wasn't making an error in judgment here. But I knew.  That thing wouldn't get up over 25 mph.  I got up the hill, coasted down to the bottom to an exit ramp and then pulled over into an area with ample room. Still next to the Turnpike, but 10 feet of space.  I'm not a fan of being broke down anywhere any more.  I mean, I never have been anyway, but people in this age don't pay attention to their driving.  I don't trust anyone else on the road, I have no reason to after all the carnage and wreckage I've seen in the last few years. 

So, calling her started the process - a very long process. I saw on a map that the next town was 35 miles down the road, I looked on Google and found truck repair shops there, amazingly enough.  But, that's not my problem.  this company has a corporate department devoted solely to this stuff.  The first question was could I limp it there? No.  Minimum speed limit is 50 mph.  No way I was going that fast and I don't want to get involved with DOT out there with a limping truck hauling hazardous materials, thanks. 

So, they decided to sent out a mechanic and try just rehooking the line. The thing had blasted off of there with a hose clamp, I knew that wasn't going to do anything, but, I'm not going to say anything, either. It's their call.  Their money, let them deal with it the way they want.  40 minutes later, this very old wrecker shows up. I've never seen anything like it.  this truck was so old the metal had rusted away showing the insulation inside on the sides of it.  They had taken foam insulation bottles and tried to fix the fenders, the doors, the entire truck was in terrible condition.  How is this even legal? I thought.  It got worse - but that portion of the story in a moment. 

But - at least - they did have the sense to call a wrecker. I have serious doubts my company had any idea who they were calling or what they were getting me into . 2 dudes get out of the thing, they were cool.  I dunno, just that old thing took me by surprise.  Looked like some ghost of a truck that had been resurrected and needed to be put down, lol.  Well, they were trying to get authorization to do the tow, but started dismantling the thing anyway.  I was on the phone - a lot - talking to managers and people in the company and people in another company that our company uses to deal with break downs. After 3 hours, the truck was hooked up, the thing was ready to go.

And yes, I told them straight up what they were hauling.  It's explosive, highly flammable and extremely cold.  Just in case that's gonna throw you off.  This guy wanted the business, quite obviously.  Freaked him out at first, visibly, like, really? Yeah.  We won't have any problems but I wanted you to know in advance before this goes anywher.e  He was looking at the tires, well there isn't any weight on it anyway.  Umm, no, that's not true. This truck wasn't loaded to 80 thousand but it's still up there at 75 thousand. 

He's just looking at me and was asking questions about it the entire trip - 135 miles worth.  I can't imagine what that tow bill must have cost.  The real shocker, however, at least for me, was yet to come.  We were well down the road when he looked at me and said:, did you know I was just in the hospital because of a heart attack? 

Now that freaked me out more then me telling him there is explosive chemicals in the trailer.  Or at least, IMO it did.  How do you have stints put in your lines and start driving a truck again 2 weeks later?  Is that even safe?  I can't possibly imagine it being so.  I thought about that the rest of the trip.  When we finally arrived in Tulsa, got the truck in the yard, the dude that runs the place - it was closed btw, he just showed up because I called and said we were coming before they all went home for the night - he told the tow truck driver to back the thing up to the top of the hill, he wants that trailer well away from everything - yes I told that guy too.  I'm not keeping secrets about this stuff.  No one is going to come back at me and say I didn't tell them. 

Well, this tow truck driver and his worker had hooked the connections up to the springs, not the axle.  After he had been backing up a while, he stopped.  My trailer was going off all whack because his truck, my tractor and then trailer. I told him to pull forward to straighten it out and then start backing again.  Wellllllll, when he did that and then put it in reverse again, the stinger - the thing that connects the to the truck to tow it - slid all the way back on the springs, causing unknown amounts of damage to the underside of the truck. Radiator fluid came gushing out, that's for sure.  So now, the problem went from a blown turbo charger to whatever this tow truck did to it and add to that the fact that the shop said they have several trucks ahead of me.  Lol.

After yet another call to my manager - they aren't going to let me stay here overnight, I told her. Yes, I asked the dude, yes I knew what he was going to say, yes I wanted him to tell me I couldn't so I could get the company to pay for a hotel and yes, she did get me a hotel.  I told her the closest place I saw was a Microtel.  Valerie actually got me started on these properties the first time I went up to meet her and spend a week with her.  I liked it.  It wasn't perfect but it was a good deal.  Ann was like, well I don't know if they have that on the corporate hotel list.  I mean, okay whatever works. This one is a mile away is all I'm saying. The rest of the hotels around are much further away from what I was told. 

She called me back -just as we were leaving the Volvo place - with the info.  Hotel room paid for.  Just one night tho.  Yeah, well, I have my doubts that truck is going to be fixed before I have to check out of here, but we'll see.  I don't blame them for only paying for a night at a time, tho.  This deal here is going to cost thousands of dollars in the end.  I just had to laugh when I saw the radiator fluid dumping all over the place.  Not because it was damaged, but just because the day was going.  She said, well, maybe this is a sign that truck isn't for you!  Yes, please find something else for me, thanks. I didn't say that, I just thought it. I don't want to be stuck in this thing forever. 

Well, that's it. I'm at a hotel.  It's got a 44 inch flat screen tv with Cox cable.  It's got a microwave, and fridge.  And wifi of course.  I'm getting paid to sit here. I really can't complain.  I like hotels : )

My new bed is coming tomorrow. I was hoping to be home for it, but turns out even without a broke down truck no way I would have made it back in time. 

Well, I'm getting off of here. Long day, getting sleepy. 

For the first time in a long time, I was able to pay almost all of next month's bills in advance. The only ones not paid are not due yet and aren't showing.  That isn't but a few of them.  That is a wonderful feeling.  I'm buying some things that I have put off for a long time before I start paying my debt down. I want it down to below 30% of my credit.  It's currently somewhere around 35%.  I think a couple thousand dollars thrown at it will take care of that problem. That will cause a rise in my credit in a few months after I do that.

The elusive 90 day probation period  is the only thing really holding me back from paying down debt.  I'm spending some money on things I want, but I'm also keeping a reserve in case that dreaded "worst" thing happens, they come along, do a review and tell me my services are no longer desired at their company.  I'm doing my best to get everything right and not complain about anything.  Like this truck I am in now. It isn't the worst thing on earth but it's older and the sleeper is smaller than newer models. Meaning there isn't room in the very narrow cabinets in it to put a refrigerator in it.

I was talking to the manager about it. It's yours if you want it.  Well, this thing is dinging me for running the engine all night long, I told her.  It doesn't have an APU in it so the only way to run cooling/heating is to idle the engine.  If a company doesn't provide an APU in the truck, that is the only way to keep it cool or warm in there. I was up in 30 degree weather in Ohio.  Not the coldest on earth but would you want to try and sleep like that?  I didn't say that to her, that's just my thinking. I also told her about the narrow cabinets and no room for a refrigerator.

In my mind, if you're going to be out 2 or 3 nights, you want to be able to bring some food with you and eat that instead of this junk food they serve at many truckstops.  Well, most truck stops really. It isn't really good for you to eat that much of that on a consistent basis and the only way out of it is to have a fridge stocked with leftoevers and lunch meats and whatever suits my fancy. It's also much cheaper to bring your own food. 3 days on the road I can spend $70 plus on food. I can get by with half that price tag or even less with my own stuff. A small microwave would also be good.

That rental truck I was in before was perfect for that.  It had huge cabinets with outlets in them for your appliances and it had a bunk bed - that I wouldn't need but used for my clothing.  I'm just thinking this claim of new trucks is either not realistic or they are so far off in the future that I have to figure out how to get used to this truck in the here and now. I'm still unhappy that I was put in this thing but the 2 other new drivers are still in their rentals.  I haven't said anything about it, it's just my feelings.  The money I'm making pretty much offsets everything, but that isn't going to last forever. I need a permanent truck - like all the rest of the drivers have besides us newbies - that I can deck out and know that I am not going to get slip-seated and put into yet another truck. That gets old, quick.

Anyway, I just made $1,200 or more in that 4 day run.  Tomorrow morning, I'm back up to the place in Oklahoma that I've been to twice now.  As long as they get it unloaded in a reasonable amount of time, it's a 2 day trip. Leave tomorrow, come back sometime Friday afternoon or early evening. That's around $400 to $500 depending the length of the wait.  A nice, small town restaurant right across the street from the plant.  We don't have to stick with the truck, they do all the unloading. And last two times, it took 3 to 6 hours to get unloaded.  It's all detention pay and I'm not going to make any more money by getting back quicker so might as well get it for all it's worth.  They don't even make you get out of the truck at this place while unloading, or turn off the truck. It's pretty cool to be able to take a long nap, get something to eat and not have to sit in a hard chair for hours.

As for this 34 hour reset.  I spent yesterday after I got back doing nothing.  Then today, I got up early, started cleaning my room and taking care of business.  I actually never made it to Walmart, now that i think of it. Oh well. I can deal with a 2 day trip without getting what I needed.  Anyway, I got online, started checking out mattress sales, found some good ones two towns over and headed that way.  I tried out a lot of beds. They wanted to sell me $1,500 and $2,000 beds, of course, but I wasn't biting on that. That would have meant going into debt for a bed, nothing I was interested in doing.

They also kept trying to insist on memory foam, but after I laid on several of those beds for enough time, I knew I wouldn't like it. I'm used to "traditional" beds and that's what I wanted.  So, they got me onto several of those. I picked one out, negotiated the price down a hundred bucks and that was that. They are bringing it Friday, hauling off the old bed - but not the one I'm using. The one we need to get rid of Rene is using and it's a piece of junk. She will get my bed - which is in far better condition.  I already have the comforter and sheet set for the new bed thanks to mom's Christmas present.  Just haven't had the time to get over there to Longview and get this done.

Alright. I've been wanting to do that for a long time now.  I got out of there, went home, doing laundry.  I dont have to be up near as early as the last run, which I'm thankful for. I am really not a fan of having to get up at 4 am to be on the scales by 6 am.  Which, it turned out, they actually wanted me on the scale at 5 am, meaning I would have had to get up at 3 am.  I think for future reference if they want me there that early, I'm going to get the truck and trailer over to their parking lot and sleep there for the night instead of trying to do all of this so early in the morning. But being there by 8? No problem. Start the day at 6 am and I'll be there on time.

So, I just ordered 5 new Henley shirts online. I like Henley's, they work for a lot of different types of things you want to do and they aren't radically expensive.  I have let my "wardrobe" go for a long time, mostly because my previous job wasn't paying anything and I couldn't really afford to buy new clothing.  As much as I hate the idea, a trip to the mall is in order to get even more new shirts.

So, that's it for now.  I think I"ll go to bed relatively early.  I have decided to get up at 5:45 am so I have ample time to get to the scale on time to get loaded. 

My 550 miles cashed and trashed. Meaning I got it over with.  Got up early - 5:15 - fueled the thing up and only stopped for mandatory 30 minute rest.  I was trying to get here as fast as possible to enjoy maximum time in this old motel.  Well hey, I didn't want to spend $100 on the hotel across the street, this was less than half that price.  And frankly, not bad!  44 inch flat screen TV with Direct TV, nice functioning AC/Heat unit (definitely heat at this time of year) fully ONE place to park a truck, a refrigerator, microwave, clean carpet, nice firm bed, funky bathroom haha but i can deal with that. 

In fact, the only thing that threw me off was the parking lot. It's a U shaped affair and I didn't see any place to park a truck contrary to their listing.  So I called.  I booked a room there but I don't see a place to park a truck?  Oh yes sir, right next to the dumpster.  Hey, if they want that big old thing in there, I don't care, but I was definitely asking first before pulling in there. 

Heck ya. I'm totally enjoying this room. It was $46 with tax lololol.  Watching the Jags V Patriots.  I'm afraid the Patriots are going to make a come back and win this one. They seem to do that a lot.  Next up after this one, Vikings v Eagles.  I'll root for Eagls.  Not a Vikings fan at all.

Anyway, I've got some decisions to make.  I want my new bed.  My mom gave me a $300 check at Christmas and I"m going to spend all of that and then some on a new bed, not a used one.  Not even sure what to get.  I"ve never bought a new bed, but I hate bed bugs and just want something I know no one else has slept on. Not that that's a big deal.  Next, thinking about paying down my debt to the 30% mark. That's what they claim is the max amount you should have - before it dings your credit.  After that is just paying everything on time, or at least not letting it get past 30 days due.

I keep thinking about a newer vehicle, but I keep getting held back by this 90 day probation. It seems like it's taking forever.  And I dunno if they do some kind of evaluation at the end or what?  The only thing I've been told is "you're doing good" by my manager.  I'm just tired of driving this old car.  I'm going on 10 years in this thing now.  That's long enough.  The question is, save the money up and pay cash, or get into a loan?  Well, just something I'm pondering at the moment. 

At 5:00, get up, get out of here, get to the plant and - do my first Ethylene unload.  They're dumping me into it now that I got the initial learning experience under my belt.  "They're very helpful".  I hope so, but I have this in my memory now.  Hook up the 2 lines, build up the pressure to whatever they want it at, open the vapor valve slightly - they equalize it, close that and then open the fill valve all the way. Then they just let it go, you hear all this pressure go swooosh! into the truck's tank.  Then, open the vapor valve up all the way and stand there and keep the pressure up.  I think Ethylene is 60 pounds. The LNG was 40 pounds. 

I'm no longer fretting it.  It is what it is. They just tell you what to do, their only deal is they don't want to touch the truck. They don't want the liability.  And they don't want us touching their plant controls.  Which is fine by me, lol. 

Rene's birthday today. I sent her an Amazon gift card - but she didn't get it at first. Amazon is loaded with anything on earth you want to find, I don't think she realized that.  Took a while to work through that.  So I'm waiting to hear if she found something. \

Well, I'm just relaxing.  I've got 3 more luxurious hours to just sit here and vegetate, and then off to bed and then, off to the races tomorrow. Cause as soon as that truck is empty, Im right back on the road and getting as many drive hours as I can in to make sure I can get home by Tuesday night.

So.  I got out of the truck down south after getting unloaded - and I mean directly after getting unloaded, just pulled off the scale to get out of the way and then take a look at everything - and saw this huge "ding" in the back of the trailer on the side.  I was shocked.  I started thinking about the entire trip. Nowhere on that run was there anything that could have happened to cause that kind of damage in the location it was at.

I literally dwelled on that from yesterday late afternoon until this morning around 10:00 am when I got back to the yard, went directly to the manager's office, sat down and told her what was going on with the trailer.  Oh, yes, she replied, is it on the passenger side on the back of the trailer?  Why yes, yes it is.  Gary Lewis - the guy that started all kinds of s*** with me for asking him a simple question - backed into a - whatever, I don't remember what she said since waves of nerves started leaving me.

I"m still on 90 day probation, another month or so to go.  Something like could likely get me hitting the road to find another job.  I'm like, ohhhhh, okay.  Well I gotta admit it got me going.  But I had thought about the entire route there - this damage was obviously caused by backing into something, I hadn't backed up the trailer the entire trip down there.

Anyway, that over, she said I'm on the scales early for the first load tomorrow. Okay - that IS early, btw.  In fact, so much so I'm going to take a nap in a few.  The load is going to somewhere in Ohio, I don't have the specifics yet.  I think the first load is at 5am?  I don't remember but when she sends me the text with the info on it, I'll know.  The day starts an hour and a half before that.

This period paycheck wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be.  Not near the amount of the last one, but considering the last one shocked me into numbness, I'll take this one.  It's 3 times the amount - well more than that 3-1/2 times the amount of my paychecks at Ferguson.  I'm getting all kinds of stuff done I had put on hold, so tho I'm getting a lot, I"m spending a lot too.  That will gradually slow down, but then, I'll start dumping money to pay down credit card debt.  Once I get it down to less than 30% of credit available, then I can think about some other things I'd like to do. _____________________________________

That was..yesterday?  I'm sitting at a Love's Truck stop in ...  Matthews, Missouri.  Heading to Stryker, Ohio. I should be there by mid afternoon tomorrow - providing I don't have any more issues with this truck or trailer.

The truck - I pulled up on a railroad scale this morning - it's the only level scale in that plant - and it showed the steer axle at 13, 640 pounds. That's 1,640 pounds over weight for that axle. I was not over gross on the entire truck, it was less than 79,000. But you can't pull into a weigh station and think they are going to let you go being that far over weight on the steer axle.

Anyway, I figured to fix the weight issue by sliding the 5th wheel back, effectively putting more weight on the drive axles and taking weight off of the steering axle. Problem? I pulled the  valve - it's pressurized air operated mechanism on the 5th wheel - and found out there were huge holes in the tub that supplies the actuator the pressurized air. 

Well anyway that set in motion having to call my manager, find this place, get them to fix it and replace a missing mud flap and then, finally get on the road. Well not so fast.  That fifth wheel hadn't been moved in a long, long time.  IT took forever to get it to loosen up so I could slide it forward and backward.  But it was so touchy, it would either slide all the way forward or all the way back before I could slam on the brakes and get it to stop.  It took another 45 minutes in a parking lot to get it where I guessed it would be close.

After that, drove to a Love's about 90 miles up the road, weighed it - the front axle was still 280 pounds overweight, but I was close! I had to try 2 more times - well I wanted to try 2 more times to figure out what the weights would be at different positions. 

Finally got out of there and drove almost 7 hours straight without stopping, until I was forced to stop for the day. On a "normal" day, I might have gotten another 100 more miles down the road.  Actually, even more than that if I'm really pushing it. I would have done it today, too if I hadn't had all these problems, so I could get to Ohio early tomorrow and just get a hotel room and hang out for the day. But it looks like I won't be there before 4 tomorrow after noon - not sure if it's worth a hotel to stay until around 5 am and then have to get up and go unload.

Oh, and that's what this is all about. I am being thrust into the world of unloading these Ehtylene trucks now.  I've already done LNG, almost the same exact set up but different pressures. The point is that learning how to unload opened up a lot of new potential for much longer runs.  Get a 2,000 mile run and maybe a 600 or more mile run every week and I"m sitting pretty.

Well I was going to write more, but I woke up at around 2 am last night. I don't know what work me up, but when I did, I started panicking.  Lol.  How come the truck isn't running? Where is the vibration? Is the truck broke down? I was looking around in pitch black - which turned out to be my bedroom. Lol again.  I just had it stuck in my mind that I was in the sleeper of the truck, not the bed in my bedroom.  So anway, maybe more tomorrow. I'll have plenty of time haha. 

Sitting at a truckstop for the night in Cleveland, Texas.  Took the plant way too long to load the trailer this morning and then another hour and a half for paperwork (which usually only takes 10 minutes).  No worries, I get paid for all that waiting.  Then, down to La Porte, Texas - just outside of Houston to the east of it - to make the delivery. 

I was pretty amazed at this operation.  Not because it was so great, quite the opposite, because they lacked even the most basic of safety protocols (hard hats, fire proof overalls, even steel toed boots and eye protection apparently not mandatory).  These people were in regular street clothing.  The real surprise, however, came at the end.  I had to unhitch the tractor - this is the only protocol they have in place here for safety - so I went all the way around and parked so I could watch what they were doing. I wanted to be ready to hook back up and get out of there and get as many miles as I could before my time ran out. 

Well, the pressure apparently was too high, so they just started releasing the vapor right there, at the plant!  Like what?!!  Every other plant I have been at, they have sensors installed. If the product gets near those sensors, alarms go off, the plant automatically shuts down and there is a lot of trouble ahead.  In fact, that happened up at UMASS after I left there. A driver from our company let the pressure build up wayyyyyy to high - to the point the safety valves went off automatically when it passed 70 PSI.  Sirens, automatic shut down, police and fire automatically called through some system they had set up. 

Well anyway, I got out of there just in time to hit Houston traffic, so I lost about an hour's worth of driving time.  I've still got almost 3 hours of driving to get back up to Longview.  Even so, I should still be able to get there by around 9 am and have a whole day at home for the most part.  Unless my manager sends me out on another run as soon as I get back, which I hope not cause I forgot some stuff for this - truck.

You see, they got rid of my rental truck while I was gone and had this old behemoth brought in from where ever. It's got 500k miles on and the worst part, it's got an automatic transmission  I like them in cars, I despise them in trucks. The last time I drove one, which was 15 years ago, the thing was an abomination.  Well, I had to change my tune a little with this thing.  It is quite clean in side - much better than the other trucks I have been in recently. It still needs a good vacuuming and the carpet is dirty, but not near as dirty as that thing I was driving up in PA/NY/MA.  It's in good condition though. The paint is good no body damage, the interior is mostly intact.  And, it doesn't even have a hint of cigarette smoke smell that I can detect.

But, the thing was a pain to figure out how to drive.  In fact, this morning, I backed under a trailer and it wouldn't budge.  I went over the lines, the hookups, the truck and valves 5 times before finally coming to the conclusion that the cold must have something frozen up in the trailer brake/air system.  I got under another trailer and - sort of took off lol.  Pretty much took me all day to get used to driving this thing.  I just wished I could have had enough time to get at least another hour down the road.  But, these trucks have Quaalcomm and that means everything you are doing with the truck is visible by corporate safety department.  You just don't get away with stuff like you used to be able to long ago with 3 or 4 or even 5 log books.

Anyway, tomorrow is payday, meaning it comes into my account tonight. I'm a bit nervous about this one.  I just didn't get the miles like I did on my last paycheck.  I have no idea what it's going to be, but I am quite sure it will be nothing even close to last paycheck's numbers. Plus, health insurance is going to start to be taken out, so I think it was $150 per paycheck. Speaking of miles, this run I am on now is pathetic. Round trip it's not even 500.  Wouldn't be bad, I guess, if you could do it in one day, but the time it takes to load these trailers and unload just eliminates that possibility. 

Moving on.  I had 4 full days off. I didn't really want that much time off, but I had to get the car and the Jeep registered and they were closed all the way up until yesterday at noon, same with the bank. Bad weather here shut down schools, government and even a lot of businesses shuttered their door and had employees stay home. 

When I left this morning, Addler knew exactly what was going on. He just sat on is bed giving me this extremely pathetic look lolol.  Gave him a hug but this trip isn't going to be that long. 

And, I got a call today from my friends in Georgia. They have been chomping at the bit for some time now to get out of Georgia and get back home - home being where I'm living.  So, last week they were saying they were planning on coming back in August if it were at all possible. Today, they are applying for a loan and hoping it will go through so they can move back in two months.  That was a bit surprising.

I thought I had at least til' August to get used to the idea of switching things around that drastically. From 2 older people to 4 younger people, 2 of which are a baby and a toddler, one of which has a very healthy set of lungs.  I'll have to move back to my old room - which isn't that bad but it needs some things.  Namely, a window ac/heat unit and new carpet. I intend on getting a new queen bed here very soon.  I would have already done it but time and motivation have held me up.  I have had so much other stuff to do that I just haven't had time to hook the trailer up to the Jeep and drag it over to Longview to see if I can find a deal . 

The thing I have really gotten used to is Rene's cooking. She cooks every day.  This is something she wants to do. We don't really do much on the cooking realm, she does all of it.  So, obviously, I'm going to miss that.  She also takes care of my dogs.  So, I'm going to ask them if they are going to get a place with a fenced yard, cause if they do, I can drop them both off at their new place, wherever that may be, on the way to work and then I know the dogs are well taken care of - versus being left outside for 10 to 12 hours per day to get into trouble.  That's pretty much what dogs do when they are left alone for a long time, they get into trouble. 

Well, I'm starting to get sleepy and I want to get up as soon as my 10 hour mandatory break is over and get rolling.

I'm finally home. Uneventful trip, besides the huge line at security checkpoint to get to the airport's gates.  That was utterly ridiculous.  I showed up early, thank goodness, because I didn't want to get caught up in any snafus.  The potential was the rental car company - but they dealt with that in short order and got me on a shuttle quickly.  Second could have been checking in baggage - and I ended up having to shell out yet another $60 to have my bags checked, but I'm going to turn that into the company for reimbursement.  Now THAT line - to use all of those kiosks - took quite a while. There were literally a hundred people in there at least waiting to use one.

And it becomes obvious that people aren't adept at using those things, so each person or group of people takes longer than it should.  Tho I'm not faulting those people. Not to mention there are endless screens you have to scroll through to actually get your boarding passes and get your tags for your luggage.  The only kind thing I have to say about it is, it gave me an option to change my seating.  They had me set up to sit in the middle again, and I was not doing that even if I had to pay to get a window or aisle seat.  Well, turns out, there were plenty of window seats available - for free - so I changed that.

But after that? The security line. We were in it so long I became friends with a complete stranger haha.  We talked about our companies, what we're doing there, etc.  They had a beautiful doggy going around in circles sniffing people for drugs, I am assuming.  Or bombs? I have no idea.  It stopped and sniffed at me for a while, but I assume that's my dogs. I'm certainly not a drug user and have never had a bomb in my possession in my entire life - and don't plan on acquiring any.

After that was done, finally through all of that junk and waiting for the plane.  This was an Airbus. A big, long thing. Not the double decker, but much bigger than Boeing's 737.  I can't say that I had ever been on that kind of aircraft before and I can tell ya, I was much happier on it. There were 2 inches beyond my rather long legs that normally would have been cramped up in the seat in front of me on a 737.  That was a super nice benefit.  THIS time, I knew to download the app for free inflight movies - go-go something or another.  Quite a few movies on that list, too, it wasn't a short, limited list. I hadn't seen the newer version of Planet of the Apes, so I watched that one.

___________________

Much later. We have all decided to go to Chili's to watch the first half of the Steeler's game. I'm hoping they come out of the gate kicking @$$.  I'd really love to see them get another ring in their repetroire.

....well that didn't turn out so great. Perhaps next year.  Amazing the Steelers could have such a great record and then get their butts toasted by a team running for a wild card.  The way stuff goes in the playoffs.

Anyway, I"ve spent a wonderful day at home.  Slept in.  Got a lot of stuff done. Went to Chili's. Had an excellent, smoked steak dinner at home. Visiting with my doggies.  I hate to stay off the road too long, but I have to stay out until Tuesday when the banks and more importantly, the court house is open so I can go re-register my vehicles. Slip of the mind, saw it too late and right when I was leaving for PA.  I don't even know if there is a truck at the yard for me now. They took the rental truck back.  I'm going to get a bit tired of getting thrown around from one truck to another to another.