I'm baaaaaack!!!!!!!!

Gimme a break; I just died from the Plague a couple days ago. These things take a little time to get over.

 

Chicken soup is the elixir of life itself.

Stupid Plague is fighting back and won't let go. I don't want to die again; I just died last week. It's exhausting.

 

$#@&!! Flu bug. It's been days now and the fever has only just broken. I'm weak as a kitten and feel like I've been in a bar fight. And lost. It wasn't any worse than any other bugs I've gotten; they all suck. I think it's just that this meat suit is taking longer to recover from these things.

People put so much emphasis on stuff for the meat machine they're walking around in. They'll kill for stuff to please their own flesh. They'll wear out the meat in a lifelong pursuit of stuff. They'll claim that what happens to their soul isn't anybody's business but their own.

Ran into a guy like that the other day. I wanted to rattle his skull and tell him he's got it backwards. You ARE a soul. You HAVE a body. When you realize that your thinking changes.

Unfortunately I never got the opportunity to speak to the man. He had big important things to do.

As meat suits go, mine's not the worst one could end up in. But when my ride is over, one thing I'll be glad not to deal with any more is the flu.

Fie on you, flu.

 

Hack, wheeze, cough, cough, snort, honk, snoot, aaooga.

 

Due in Lenoir City tomorrow morning. About 450 miles out, so gonna find out if overnight at facility is an option.

Emissions light coming and going--between that and the newly discovered water leak that drops directly on The Hot Chick's head and the aforementioned issues, it's time to get routed back to Indy and the truck doctor.

 

So far they're keeping me moving. I'm knocked out of qualification for wage lock for week one because of idle time (had to run truck because batteries were drained--I asked and it doesn't matter). Fortunately the metrics are set for weekly evaluation and this week it looks like I'm doing fine. Except I can't see the score card for this week til next week. 'Cause weekly evaluation schedule. It will be interesting to track my metrics and tune my driving habits to come into compliance. I can already tell I'm letting the truck pick up too much speed on the downhills. Also need to get used to the 13 speed; have caught myself running 60 in 11th on a few occasions which has hurt my top gear percentages and my fuel economy. Current mpg is around 7.75 overall.

 

My fleet manager is a guy named Kyle. He is young and seems competent enough, but comes across as aloof and/or distracted. Also he's not very good about getting back to me with info sometimes. Have asked twice about overnight parking, got a prompt promise that he'd find out and get back to me, then nothing. I've called his desk after hours and gotten better service from the night dispatcher. Hot Chick stared open mouthed at the phone and asked if we were really getting better service from after hours dispatch than daytime was giving us.

I'm going to give him a little more time but if I can't get info from this guy then he's too busy for me and I'll go to the section chief and get put on somebody's board who can handle another driver. We'll see.