My new, final resting place

Oh, man.

I thought I knew stress. I've been a cop, a firefighter-paramedic, a pilot, a besieged federal manager, a truck driver, and an all-night radio announcer. Heck, I even survived an almost-foodless, sleep-deprived Hell Week.

But no. Not until now have I experienced real, life energy-sapping stress.

I don't want to be here. I want to be home with a dog.

 

Kind of like Chicago or Houston or pretty much any large city during "rush" hour.

 

I got a new DM; my previous one was fired. I wish the new guy wouldn't tell me to head to the next drop and hook as soon as my break is done. I did and arrived at 0830.

When I arrived, I learned I actually had a 1300 appointment. Time to start training my new DM...

But gently. He just gave me an 1,100 mile trip!

 

Well, this DM manages me differently than the last one. All the trips I got made my 70 run down to 1.5 hrs as of yesterday. I only recapture 6.5 hours tonight (though I do have several high-hour recaps coming up) but I have a critical load with a destination 8 hours away.

So he told me to stay put, reset my 70, then drive like a crazy man to make delivery before they close at 1500 tomorrow.

Can do, boss!

 

And then, out of the goodness of my heart, I agree to let him take that load away (it's ready at the brewery now, but I'm not) so another trainer can get his co-driver back to De Pere for a family emergency.

For $100, of course!

And I'll take his load tomorrow.

 

I made my delivery and am here in De Pere. I have been here with my Pete since Tuesday for a regular PM. Unfortunately for me, the Cummins engine threw a whole bunch of maintenance codes that the company's computer couldn't translate, so off the truck went to Cummins.

Today is Friday and I was just told the truck is still being worked on. Swell.

 

I hate getting to a shipper early, thinking I'm doing the right thing, and the guy at the gate says 'we won't let you in earlier than 1 hour before your scheduled time. See you later.'

And off I go to the truck stop for a 6 hour wait. Not 10. Not even 8. Six. And a 5-hour clock.

Woe is me. But to paraphrase @tow614, shut up and go back to sleep.

 

Well, the good news is the Jewel DC security officers at the gate had a record of my inbound load. The bad news is the receiving department's computer didn't. So here I sit.

How in the world does that happen? Good grief...and it will be a other night of traveling to my safe have out of duty time.

But hey. I have pre-plans to keep me running through Wednesday night!