Good Night From II

This weeks pay check was over $1600 take home. Taxes really killed me this time.

The hold up wasn't on this end, but at my terminal.
Anything over a certain amount has to be approved by the terminal manager, and it was sitting on his computer waiting.
One phone call was all it took, though. And now all pay requests are put through promptly.

 

I'm at the Pilot on US 322 in PA. Didn't notice the name of the town.
I ended up sitting all day Monday, then I get a call Tuesday morning asking if I'm ready to play. (Larry's term for work, lol)
I said yes, and mentioned that I had a home time request in for the 18th in MN. He said to take this load and he'll see what he can do for the home time.
A couple hours later I had a pplan for Augusta, WI for the next day to get me home. It's only about 100 miles away, so I should be able to bt if there isn't a load out of Bush that I can grab and t-call at Inver Grove.

Larry is expecting me back after home time, and I'll oblige if I can get a load back.
I'll do it for another month or so, if it lasts. By then I'm sure I'll be going stir crazy and want the 48 back.
And I don't really want to be here during winter. They probably wouldn't either because I avoid chaining at all costs.

 

No chaining on this account. The DC shuts down if the weather gets that bad.

Regardless, PennDOT keeps the Interstates nice and clear. New Jersey, on the other hand...

They'll probably run you until Christmas, then send you back out on National. Heck, they'll send a bunch of us non-surge out OTR in January.

 

Sitting in Lancaster, I've tried updating my PTA with mac34 three times with no update. I might as well get the rest while I can. The psychiatrist checked my BP yesterday and it's worse now than 3 months ago. Lifestyle, stress, diet, and gods know what else. I knew I shouldn't have quit smoking.

 

Thanks Jamie, that's good to know.
Then I guess I'll stick with it as long as I can stay sane. Being in a little box gets to me.

Getting this home time right when I requested it really helped.

I'm planning one more in late October to see my girls in Denver, but running through then until January is no problem if I can avoid driving through heavy snow and ice.

I know, I'm a wimp.
I can't seem to handle a big rig in those conditions as well as I can a 4 wheelie. It was fun in a car. Slide around a bit and correct for it, and keep going.
But it seems in the truck all I do is slide, no matter what I do.


It's a shame that big trucks don't have decent tires for those conditions. Or that I can't just get in a huge parking lot or empty road to practice sliding around with a trailer behind me.



I didn't grow up in a snow area. I was in the Bay Area, CA.
When I started driving I would imagine all the different things that could go wrong to cause an accident, and I would think of ways to prevent it.
I would try to find ways to practice moving the car correctly for such times.
That involved a lot of driving up in the mountains on snow and ice, on gravel roads, etc..
I can't do that now.

So now I am a chicken, because I can't test my vehicle to the limits of what we can do together.

 

Today is starting off well . While doing pretrip to my truck to go across the street to Costco and see if they repaired my trailer last night found that someone slashed both my air hoses!! Gladhands are gone. So irritated.

Sitting at the T/A waiting for repair. I sure hope my trailer is fixed when I go into Costco. I need to delv that load today in MN to catch my other stacked load out to Utah.

 

Trainee made a delivery in north Dallas this morning, turning into something of an ordeal finding the customer...

.... then off for a live load at the Sears DC in downtown Dallas. With a few confusing Qualcomm nav reroutes along the way we finally got there and it turned out to be a drop and hook. Then promptly the QC Nav routed us to an entrance to the freeway that is closed, so we had to go through city streets for a while, rerouting, and made it finally onto the TX-114.

On our way to Denver area by way of Amarillo and Dumas, TX (love that name). Already stacked with a load from Golden to Virginia. Maybe this pay cycle I'll finally get actual team miles instead of the piddly 3000 mile weeks since we went team.

 

Taco day at Lancaster!

 

Last night at home. PPlan picking up pallets in Columbus and down to Pineville and already stacked thanks to Command. PU 15K 60 miles away and another 1150 miles for Wednesday morning. A nice little $1.49 mile. Like these loads. Got my DOT done and had to replace a steer tire. That hurt with only 6 months left on the lease. You know that I put on the cheapest, Samson.