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.

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.....