The start of my first year with Swift.

Can we say PUCKER factor...lol. I can't imagine being sideways in one of these things. It amazes me to see truckers blowing by me on black ice, cars off the road. Glad you made it through. I go really slow on snow and ice. Maybe I'm just way to cautious but I'll live with it.

 

Here is something I just learned about. I had read about Layover pay but didn't know how it worked. I asked about it and I qualified for it. My DL said it wasn't automatic. You must notify him/her when you qualify. It pays $50 for each 24 hour period you are available but not dispatched.

Things to ask you mentor about..take notes.

 

Thanks...lol

The water...in short...NO, not really. As things would have it, the temp has warmed a bit and everything thawed out. Now we have at least 10 hydrants on the place. Only a few of them were working during the cold spell. Now they all work. I shouldn't complain, at least I don't have to dig any holes this time. I wanted to tear out part of the ceiling in the barn aisle, we live in the apartment above, the wife didn't want me to mess with it now. She's figured out a way to thaw out the drain. It's funny to watch but it works. Bottom line, no plumbing this time home. Probably do it this spring or summer.

I was excited to go out and help cleaning stalls. I wanted to give her a break from taking care of 35 horses. I had dug out some ice cleats for her boots as it's a skating rink around here. We got them on and it was great. I promptly walked over to the tractor, slipped on the ice and slide clear under the tractor. She didn't see, she heard it. Another year older and I may have broken my hip. It's just bruised now.

It's great to be home, I can't remember being this happy even when I came home from overseas. I've decided to not try and stay out for three weeks. I'm putting in my home request for two weeks and expecting to be out for three.

 

Something for the new folks.

If you are like me, when you get home the last thing you want to do is hear from work. I don't have good cell reception here so I turned off my cell phone. Last night I drove into down and turned on the phone. I had a preplan waiting. It's good for me as I pick up on the morning of my first day back and head to Reno. Of course no one answered the phone at Swift so I had to fire up the truck to respond over the qualcomm. The strange thing is, they gave me directions to the drop yard from my house. That came on the qualcomm with the preplan.

If you get your preplans via text msg and you want to get load offerings, don't turn your phone off. I didn't think they would throw me a bone on my first day off. That's what I get for thinking.