THE ADVENTURES CONTINUE - DFO gets a truck and hops on Schneider's IC Choice Program

Well made the delivery in GA now about 20 miles from my next pickup. Not supposed to be ready until 1am on the 25th though so gotta do a little bit of sitting I guess. Will call when I wake up in the afternoon to see if it might be ready early, that would be nice.

OPERATION BUGPOCALYPSE 2014 was a success and I managed to murder every moth, cicada, and probably a few bats too tonight as their guts are splattered all over my windshield and mirrors. Never seen it this bad before, LMAO.

I'm always trying to force myself to take an honest look at things and what I'm doing good at and what I need to improve on. I guess I feel if I actually suck it up, say it by writing it down here, then I'm a little more inclined to hold myself to the things that I need to improve on.

THE GOOD:

I've been much better at not picking loads that swing by the house just because I want to go by the house. Usually this involves a lot of deadhead which costs me money.

I've been fueling exclusively at Pilot/FJ or OCs. You all know how much I despise truckstops and P/FJ seem to be the worst of the group so I used to avoid them like the plague and fuel at Hess or Loves or whatever smaller place would take my EFS card. But, we don't get the discount there, and its just STUPID to not take advantage of the discount if it saves me money. So I now suck it up and fuel at them.

I've been making much better use of my hours. Since I'm back to running nights, and by nights I mean ENTIRE nights, my shutdown time is usually around or after 5am, and this means there is parking available anywhere I go because someone, somewhere, has gotten up to leave by 4am at the latest. No more shutting down 3 hours early because I'm not sure if can find parking at 1 or 2am.

THE BAD:

I'm not driving 60MPH. I've found myself running more 65-70, usually around 66 or so. This hurts my fuel mileage a lot especially since my truck is geared low. I don't have a real excuse for it other than I find that I at least FEEL like I'm making better use of my time because I'm running more miles. I hate being bunched up with a lot of other trucks or 4 wheelers and at 60MPH it feels like that happens a lot. When I run faster I can be in my own little world in between the packs of traffic. But, like I said, really no excuses other than admitting yes, I am driving a little bit faster now.

I'm not saving myself money like I should be. For a while I was really good about stopping through at Wal-Marts and making my own sandwiches, etc., in the truck. That was back when I did a lot of 400-450 mile days, not 550-600 mile days. Now, I find myself just wanting to run run run and then stop and shut down. So I waste money on food from truckstops more.

It also comes down to admitting that I should be taking better care of myself. Those of you that have met me know I'm a skinny guy but that doesn't mean I'm healthy. I know I don't eat healthy, at all, and I know that it will catch up with me if I don't change my habits. I still haven't gotten around to installing an inverter for the microwave because I JUST HAVEN'T and I still haven't gotten a bigger fridge to keep decent food in because I JUST HAVEN'T.

So, definitely some stuff that I need to improve on but I do have to admit I have been happy with how I have been doing lately in terms of running harder.

I do get royally ****ed by the 1am to 5am restart rule though. I could have had a restart in from Monday as I was off for a little more than 34 hours. But because I shut down at like 4:30am and not before 1am, I'd have to sit around a whole extra day. It's just a stupid stupid rule that punishes those that want to run vampire hours and accomplishes nothing. That **** makes me so ****ing mad I've been screwed over by it so many times. Like this week, I'm having to play the roll the recap game which I frigging hate because it makes planning your available hours and loads so much more of a nightmare instead of just being able to run as hard as I can. ****ing bull****.

Anyway, rant over on that. Time for some Netflix.