How has Coronavirus affected you?

ALL walmarts have closed to public at night, however distribution rolls on in Searcy, we have a Sam's DC and a WM DC for this region there.

The one BENEFIT to our WM closing at night is ACTUALLY CLEANING the place including the bathroom. For once. And the best thing is stocking shelves to catch up. You did have to go early in the morning first thing to gain the products that will be gone again in a couple of ours.

However when Walmart changed to restrict souls by sqaure footage, everyone shifted to other stores that do not do that. Filled them right up with their money. People don't want to stay outside with a bunch of strangers for a hour or more. Literally do not have the time in life to do that.

Delivery to walmarts are by appt only. You will not be late, not even 10 minutes. They will throw you back out and tell you to return in 5 days. That destroys your income and that of your company related to future plans with that particular trailer.

And the same old parking issues continue on as they always have. In my day you could leave Jersey and have no parking for a big rig at all until North Carolina on a friday. We were used to it. Then we get creative. For example if I am a reefer, I pull into a grocery DC without gaurds and sleep in a truck line of reefers pretending to wait for a dock, then pull out. No one checks truck to truck. So you get away with it.

 

There is no sitting at restaurants anymore. Just takeout from the fast food chains inside truck stops.
My biggest issue is not being able to go home. Have a disabled husband who can't survive this virus. Can't chance bringing it home with me. So I stay on the road for now. Don't quite know what will happen.
Just taking it a day at the time. At least I am working. That's a lot better than millions of others not so lucky.

 

I bet your dad was a smoker,,,my dad told us all kinds of army stories, like when he and his buddies pee'd on the podium Hitler made his famous speeches. He was proud of his service. Now, my late ex-father-in -law, was in the Pacific, and according to my ex-wife, he NEVER spoke of his service. It wasn't until he met my dad and traded stories, that the atrocities he saw came out. They really took a pasting in the Pacific.
My life hasn't changed much, Walmart limits the people in the store, but I go early, the mask BS is unsettling, to say the least. Like a bunch of desperados ( or desperadas) walking around, like we're looking for a place to rob. And people are a LOT less friendly, I've noticed. Americans don't do well with masked faces, we rely too much on facial expressions. For most, the last time someone saw a masked individual, was on the news with an AK47 spraying lead.
Supply seems to have caught up some, at least in rural areas and a tip of the hat to the drivers and warehouse workers. All this just shows how unprepared we really are for "The Big One".

 

I went to Lowes to try to find some slotted screws for a blacksmithing project (phillips head screws don’t look right). A dude in a mask was sorting through his screw packets on a little ledge as I slowly walked up and down the aisle looking for what I needed. Every time I walked past him, he whipped his head around and leered at me, as if he owned a 6’ diameter bubble of space right in the middle of the hardware section.

 

I am dreading the moment where I am in public and I have to sneeze or something. Hasn't happened yet, but I gotta wonder what will happen if it does. Will I get tossed out of the store? Will I get arrested? Lol...

 

Most truck stop have fast food, so most driver get food to go already. TA/Petro was struggling to keep their restaurants open already. They started closing them from 10pm-6am before all this. I stopped this TA in Pennsylvania. Go inside and they closed the restaurant permanently till the covid 19 is over. I think this will hurt them more. Who wants to deal with this BS. I will drive across the street to Flying J or Pilot. They are open, the McDonald's is open also. So why bother stopping at these TA just to find out they only have convenience store and shower open.

It's shows how bad the service at truck stop restaurant really is like TA/Petro. When you can get a better food at McDonald's and it faster and cheapee and more convenient. You can order food on the app. Truck stop you have tip $3 for them to place your order and put in a bag , if you go to the full service restaurant.

 

I’m getting less sleep because our food grade loads are way up. So I’m putting decent money in the bank before I take an extended vacation. Traffic sure has been nice.

 

It hasn't been as bad as others for us, drivers who are driving some of the office staff are having things arranged for delivery while in the truck so they don't have to get out for food. Doordash and grub hub have been making good coin off of me.

The drivers at home are getting money from me, we have a few who are in the hospital, one very bad off but he had cancer and was infected by some clown coughing and spitting everywhere at a t/s. Others made a choice to work, they can go home anytime they want but chose to run the truck instead of sitting on their butts,

Offices are shut down except for the roving mechanic who is catching up on projects like my new car trailer he wanted to build. Im going there this afternoon to read through some papers.

My daughter is released from quarantine (she wasn't expected to live but thanks to the drug combination trump mentioned, she recovered very fast) and so is the rest of the house but no where to go so they are staring at the walls (sick of gaming and watching tv) or outside throwing nuff darts at the neighbor's dogs we have been watching for him since he can't get back home.

I feel for those at the stores who are on the real front line, they sometimes work without any knowledge of how to protect themselves and are pretty much shoved into the shadow of health care workers who are not being exposed to this virus like the cashiers and others at these stores. This morning I ventured out of the house to a Walmart to buy some milk, walked into the place, went down to the bathroom to find only cold water from those stupid electronic faucets, no soap innthe despenser and the paper towel dispenser jammed up. Glad I brought my own stuff.

There were protective screens for the cashiers but many were not wearing anything to protect themselves. I left, didn't even bother to get anthing, so I went to Kroger and it was just as bad, nothing to wipe carts with, nothing to wipe hands with and the cashiers were not wearing masks but had gloves on. Meijers was as bad as the other two, so I called one of the local dives asked the owner if she could order some milk for me and I will pick it up when I pick up breakfast.

By the way, most of the deliver services are great, instacart has been fantastic, everyone on the road we live on has one person doing deliveries for all of us and she has said it has been rough for those in the stores. Doordash has had issues, one of them is drivers picking up but not delivering, we've experienced this twice, with the food being picked up and taken home to the drivers family.

 

My orientation got delayed, so I’ve been catching up on my blacksmithing art projects: Damascus steel oyster knife, a forged barbados lily, and three forged irises. Maybe I should have taken that $5000 and bought a power hammer instead of a CDL, because it’s sure looking like the universe is against me.

 

I am currently staying home ,working on cars and projects ,that I Didnt want to "waste " my 2 days off on. Also working on my "Molson Muscle" ,quite a bit. Living off the Government "Teet".