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Tuesday, November 09, 2004

Tuesday, November 9th
Last evening, right before I crawled under the covers for a good night of sleep, the quiet Freightliner parked on my right pulled out and almost immediately a noisy Freightliner pulled in. That got me PO'd. On the one hand, it's no big deal who pulls in beside you and how long they stay. On the other hand, if, for example, you get two reefers (trucks with refrigerated units) on both sides of you, it can make it somewhat difficult to get a good night's rest. In warmer weather, you don't need the truck running (unless you need the air conditioning) all night.  Without your engine on, sounds get amplified rather quickly. With your engine on, it tends to drown out everything else except the vehicles adjacent to you. In other words, everything becomes a muffled racket. Over time, you get used to it. But, it does take time....Anyway, I was none to thrilled to have "Mr. hey-look-at-me-and-my-souped-up-truck-with-loud-pipes" pull in beside me. I could have brained the guy (or better yet, given him a lobotomy). So after 30-minutes of stewing about the situation, I fell asleep. That's cool--I did get some decent sleep--noise and all!

My wife called and said our upstairs neighbor was OK. It turns out that she was dehydrated from the virus that she had. At the hospital, she got a good doctor who instantly recognized what was occurring. You know, I have a great respect for doctors, but it seems that you hear more and more patients who are misdiagnosed (or non-diagnosed) the first time around. Frankly, I think between malpractice insurance worries and the sheer volume of new information they need to be on top of, they are bound to miss things. Anyway, our friend is on the road to recovery. Thanks God.

Talked to a driver today with my company and said he's been averaging over 3,000 miles/week. Wow. I told him that last week I drove just under 1,700 miles (the actual miles I'm paid for was even less than that). He mentioned that other drivers have not gotten the miles they think they should be getting. Hmm...I thought this country had a driver shortage. Perhaps it's sales. If so, the sales department should get their butt in gear! After dropping the load, I waited over 20-25 minutes to receive my next load assignment. That's unusual--I normally get an instant load assignment or even a pre-plan on my next load before I've delivered my current load. Maybe there is something to sales dropping the ball....At any rate, I'll need to seriously consider shopping around for another transportation carrier if I continue getting weak weekly miles.

TV reception where I'm parked for the night is atrocious (That would be zero channels of decent visibility--oh--wait a minute--there's one channel with a severe snow storm in progress). I've got the standard TV setup where the antennae on the outside of the truck serves as double-duty for both the radio and a TV (if you have one). I might have to invest in a better dedicated TV antennae. I don't want to go the dish network route as I don't watch a lot of TV. I mainly use it to both exercise (I've got a mini stair-stepper device in the truck) and to veg for an hour or so before crashing. Got any suggestions on what direction I should start out in? What are you using? Are you happy with your setup? Post it!

Oh yeah, get this, I heard again today that the Liberals amongst us (you know who you are) are considering banding together and seceding from the United States of America. Yep--the "blue states" (states that "went" to John Kerry in the past election) are going to seriously see if they can secede from the rest of the union (the "red" states that went to Bush). Ridiculous! This is a bunch of sore losers throwing a pity party. You lost--get over it. Go to "MoveOn.Org" and...well...move on! Who can honestly take this secession idea and believe it will happen? It won't. Why? Liberals talk a good game but fail miserably in actually walking their talk. In other words, they rarely deliver on their ultimatums, threats, and promises of what they say they're going to do (both good and bad). Hey did you also hear that some prominent US citizens of the Hollywood establishment have threatened to leave this country and inhabit some other country if Bush won? That too won't happen. Why? Well, Barbara Streisand said she'd leave 10-years ago if things didn't go the Liberal Way (due to Conservative viewpoints, elections, etc.). She's still here and will be here (sadly) for another umpteen years.  In a perfect world, Liberals would actually do what they say they gonna do (Buh-bye Barbara). Sigh...we can always still hope.

P.S. Forget the States. Color each of the Counties of each State and see how many went to "W" and how many went to Kerry. Can you say "Red Landslide"? Shhh. Don't encourage the Liberals--they might start a "Secede from your State" campaign. On second thought, since it won't ever happen anyway, why not encourage the Liberals to do so?! You heard it hear first!

miles driven = 439

6:48:37 PM       comment []    back to top

Friday, November 6th
The sunrise over Iowa was picture-perfect. If only I had a decent digital camera (Note to self: get decent digital camera. The kind that professionals would use if they wanted to as well as the point-and-click crowd such as myself). Dieseled-up the truck in 32 F. Brrr. Hey, I'm from Wisconsin, but the first good nip in the air still rattles your bones. Even the windsheild wiper antifreeze fluid in the buckets on the trucker fuel island had a thin layer of ice in them. Hmmm, hope they put the right fuel addititive in the fuel tanks. Don't want to deal with a clogged fuel filter this early in the year.

I delivered my load at one company and picked a load up at another company. What a contrast in friendlieness! The first company insisted in be on the loading dock while the truck was being loaded. Not only that, they had a punch-code lock on the exit door to the receptionist's office area where the front door was. I couldn't get out unless it was a national emergency! OK, I exeraggerate just a bit but I've never, ever experienced a situation like that before (who knows, maybe they hireex- felons for working in the dock area).  For example, I buzzed the receptionist to let me out to the truck and get my broom on the tractor so that I could sweep the trailer out after they were done loading. The dock foreman (a pleasant chap who happened to be a control dictator freak kind of guy) then walked into the dock area with some other guys. He mentioned casually that they have brooms in the shop and the way he said it hinted strongly that I should not take one step out the door. I acquiesced and followed him back into the dock area where he promptly ignored me and never produced a broom for me. In addition, the forklift guy who unloaded the trailer immediately closed the overhead door once the trailer was unloaded as if to reinforce the fact that no one should escape this place! In fact, now that I remember, the receptionist (who was helpful and friendly) came and told me that I needed to be on the dock floor after I had gotten back in the truck (she mentioned that the dock guy was a little quirkly about insisting drivers be on the dock floor while their trailers were being unloaded). Oh, and here's the kicker: I called the customer for exact directions when I was in the general area of where they were located. I talked to 3 people--the last person sent me to another warehouse 10-15 miles away which was the wrong one. After I finally found the right warehouse, it turns out I was 5-10 blocks away from it when I called them! Sheesh! Makes me wonder how they actually make a profit if they can't even direct a driver to the right warehouse (do they ship their products to the right customer address?)

The other company was very driver-friendly. They told me up front it might be an hour before they could load the trailer (it took over 3-hours at the other place; if I were at the controls of the forklift , the trailer could have been unloaded in under 45 minutes) I could walk all over the building even though there were signs "authorized personnel only" posted. (To get to their bathroom, you did have to walk through their entire loading dock/warehouse/office space to use it). The first company treated me as if I were a child. The second company treated me as an adult (People respond in kind to how they are treated either unconsciously or consciously). Just imagine if people actually followed "The Golden Rule!" No not that one (he/she who has the gold makes the rules). The other one--do as you would be done by (I.E. act in such a way to others in the manner that you would like others to act towards you). Wouldn't there be a lot less stress, whining, pointing-the-finger, wars, etc.? Well enough about company/people contrasts.

Managed to get to Dubuque, IA before calling it a night. Found a nice little truck stop near the banks of the mighty Mississippi.

miles driven = 470

5:41:47 PM       comment []    back to top