Sorry, I stared at the screen for a sec going "well gee, what shoul the title be?" lol. I'm weird yes I know. Do I care? nope, because I have to amuse myself somehow. ;) So lets see, whats up? Me? not much. Didnt really accomplish "TOO" much today. Got to my delivery this morning by 8am, was there for probably like, 4.5 hours before i got unloaded, had to go to the nearest Loves Travel stop to fuel which was probably 30 minutes away, but I was in dire need of fuel, food and a restroom break so it was worth the drive. Plus it was in the general direction I had to go anyway for my next load. I fueled, grabbed a $5 foot long, and hit the road towards my pickup which was still a two hour drive from where I was at. For the sub, I got a foot long meatball on wheat. Of course, after I bought it, I immediately started driving, and I had two thoughts going through my head for a while as it layed there on the seat next to me. I thought "dang I'm hungry!" followed by "i wonder if i could pull off eating this sub while driving without making a huge mess!"
I say making a huge mess because I have this bad habit with meatball subs to be lenient with the meatballs and let them sneak out of the sub. Not really, I don't "let" them, but they always find a way out, they're sneaky those lil guys! lol. After a while, i still had over an hour to go to get to my pickup, and so I decided I would try. Thankfully I managed to be able to eat the sub without losing any of it on myself *kings to me!* ;)
So I went to the pickup, of course I didnt wash the trailer out *because sometimes I cant afford to pay out of pocket for it, so I have always just gone straight into the customer and 99% of the time, they have not care. Sometimes they have made me take it to a truck wash to get sprayed out, like if i'm getting ready to haul a load of meat or something. Tonight they had me put it in the dock, then they had me come inside and go in with a broom to sweep it out. They also had me wear not just a hair net, but a beard net also. I just thought about that and thought "dang! I so shoulda taken a pic to upload!" but alas, I didnt think about it. I had other stuff on my mind. Like for instance, by this point, my 14 hour clock had already gotten below 5 hours. The trip from the pickup to indiana where I'll drop my truck off and get a greyhound ticket home, is like, 950 miles, so my hope today was to be able to get the load, do at least half today, and get to indiana tomorrow. But by the time I got out of the customer, I only had like, 2.5 hours left, and so I took off, drove just over 2 hours, and then pulled into the first travel plaza i came across. FIgured, "hey, MickyD's, why not." Was just sitting in the drivers seat browsing facebook for about 45 minutes first, then went inside. As I went in, this busload of like, 20 girls from a soccer team or something was coming into the mcdonalds. I thought "i'll use the restroom, then get my chips and gatorade to see if I can avoid the huge crowd." When I came back into MickyD's, it was only like, 10 minutes later and I was almost expecting to still be in a huge crowd, but to my surprise all the girls team was gone.
I asked the girl running the register "What did they only get french fries or something?" She was like "heh, nah, they all got like a $1.00 cone." So I proceeded to order, I was going to get the chicken selects, and when she asked "what sauce would you like?" I said "ranch please" and she did this inhale and goes "ohhhhh.. i'm sorry, we're out of ranch." I was like "well what do you have?" She goes "barbeque, chipolte, honey mustard." I was like "Hm. let me get the combo with the chicken blt sandwich and a tenpack of nuggets, do you guys carry honey?" She was like "oh definitely!" So thats what i did. When I typed "honey mustard," I for some reason typed "honey money." NOt sure why i did that, but that'd be some sticky money!
So instead of getting to indiana tomorrow, I have like, 8.5 hours till I will hit the road again, I'll drive as much of the 850 miles remaining, then stop for another 10, then drive the rest. So I estimated to Erin that I'd hopefully get to indiana by early on wednesday, If I get there early enough, I may be able to catch the 11AM bus to the greyhound station. Otherwise, 3pm is the next one. I figure, as early as I can be on the bus home, the better. ;). Speaking of the upcoming job, I spoke to someone at JBhunt today about the orientation on monday, and was told that I just gotta check into the hotel in NJ by any time sunday, and just tell them I'm with JBHunt, and the room is payed for, and he made it a point to mention "Oh and single occupency too." I was like "sweet, I was half expecting to have a roommate." He was like "nope, not at that one." Cool stuff. I guess with England during both the school, and the upgrade process, I had a roommate each time. During the upgrade, I had this roommate that was apparently still a week out from getting his licence, and he had this lil "pep talk" with me about how "i'm sure we're both here to change our lives, and I wont mess with you, you dont mess with me, " or whatever, until i mentioned that I was already licenced and was upgrading, he was like "oh, well cool! sorry man, you just never know, there are a lot of these guys that really couldnt care less!" I was like "oh i know what you mean!"
So to backtrack a bit, today at the pickup, this other england driver was there, and i was parking beside him. I hadnt set up properly because of where I was at before, and when I came in, I think i bumped his mirror that is up on the corner of his hood *used for being able to see your blind spot easier" because his driving partner pointed it out to me. I didnt say anything at first to the actual owner of the truck, but went inside to figure out what I needed to do with my trailer, and the owner of the truck comes in and goes "we gotta do something about the mirror bro." I was like "yeah i know, Im sorry about that, let me see what I can figure out." Because when I bumped it, the mirror cracked, so he was like "first major bump I hit, its going to break completely." So he and I were talking about if we could figure something out between the two of us without reporting it, and I was able to get an express code for a com check for him. I figured, it was such a small incident, wouldnt be worth points on the licence, and since he was willing to figure something out between us, I was like "sure, that sounds good." Otherwise I would have written him a check for the $75 we thought it might cost to fix, and asked him to hold it for two weeks till I hopefully get my first paycheck plus the sign on bonus.
To top that off! the trailer I was getting had one number difference from the paperwork i had, so i went in and told them and he was like "yeah its the right trailer, I just put it in wrong, but I loaded it myself, so let me change the number really quick." So he did, and then the trailer didnt want to cooperate with me as far as hooking up to it, so I was out in the 100 degree heat cranking this thing away, and about 45 minutes later, finally FINALLY I was connected, and I was drenched, heat exhausted, and seeing spots. I pulled myself back into the cab with the AC blasting, and must have easily went through a quarter gallon of my water bottle. After I did the water, I definitely started to feel better after a while.
So forward tracking again! tonight on facebook there were a few funny posts, like pictures or what not, and people making smartass comments. LIke the picture I saw that erin and I both made comments on was this guy, apparently ran from a cop, jumped out his window, and ended up hanging from a phone line, and the pic shows him completely naked and the female cop at the window with this look like "omgosh." Then a bunch of us making smart ass comments like "full moon on a wire" or "but I thought we could just hang out!" or "But mom I swear dad said he does this all the time!"
Yes it is stupid in a way, but a little laughter each day is good for ya. Sometimes if I'm chatting with Erin, or my cousin Mary, or there have been times where I was being quite a smartass to Ashley. lol. *sorry :P* some days are definitely different and better than others, some days I'm the usual smartass self :P. I dont plan it! lol.
So yeah, i really wish I had taken a pic of me all funky with the hair and beard net and safety goggles. lol . That would have been a keeper! :D
In conclusion, I was thinking recently about how when I get back home and end up home nightly, and off 2 days a week, I will still be a few weeks out from the end of my current school class, and with only two left *including algebra.. ugh, not looking forward to that again!*.. I may try to give the CLEP test a shot for algebra. I havent done it yet because out here, I'm rarely home, and when I have been, I was always broke so I couldnt. But it may be possible, and if I pass, it gives me credit for the class and I wont have to take the actual class! So Ash, fyi, for your nursing stuff in the future, keep CLEP in mind because you can test out of classes and not have to actually take the class. I'm sure you already knew about it, but I just thought I'd throw it out there for ya just in case. ;)
On that note! I will call that a night. Gonna finish my nuggets and fries and the orange drink, and do my prayers and bible reading for the night. Tonight's chapters are 2 Kings 5, 17, and 22. There are often times when I read the chapters from the study plan, and I end up going further in that chapter because what I'm reading intrigues me a lot. Other times it still intrigues me but I stick to the study plan. Fun stuff! On that note, I wish you all a good evening, God bless, and Good Night!
C
Monday, August 13, 2012
Sunday, August 12, 2012
Not long now!
Hey all! Well i just finished my post on xanga. Yes yes, that's right, i'm posting in two blogs currently. We'll see how long I can keep that up! I guess it really depends on how much is on my mind, how much I want to talk about, bla bla bla, yada yada yada. LOL! The funny thing was I started that xanga entry with the intent that I would not make it that long. But of course, it ended up much longer than I planned. LOL!
So let's see if I can do a completely new entry here without re-covering what I covered over there. *gonna take some work ;)* So, let's see. It is currently sunday, 8/12/2012, and I'm just inside of Texas from Arkansas. I'm about an hour away from where I'm delivering to. My appointment time is at 7 AM tomorrow, and I got parked here around like 4 this afternoon. The road I'm just off of is basically a two lane highway all the way to the customer from the interstate I got off of. I could have stopped at a truck stop on the interstate and then got up earlier and continued in the morning, but I had a method to my madness today. I thought, I wanted to get as close as possible before stopping so that I limit how much i drive in the morning. That way, I'm hoping.. HOPING! that I can get loaded tomorrow some time and be on my way towards Indiana to turn my truck in so i can catch a greyhound to head towards home. Yeah, big plans, I know, but I'm looking forward to the change! With everything that has happened recently, and still the lack of paychecks driving for england, you could say I'm looking for to positive change. Dont get me wrong, I would do what I'm doing for the next 2.5 years if I had to in order to own this truck and make the big bucks, but God opened up an opportunity for driving for a local company making really good money, and being home every day, so I couldn't pass it up. I could have become a trainer and I would actually have made more money than the new job will pay, but I would still never be home much, and honestly i'm worn out with being away from home. Could I do it? Absolutely. I will do anything and everything the Lord requires of me, and if He wants me to be away from home for years struggling before things looked up, then I'd do it. Thankfully He has led me down a different path that not only involves me doing this job, but being home more and being able to build our financial situation back up and get it on track.
Either way, what matters is God is responsible for it all. He's kept me going this far, and opened up the new opportunity, and I know that I just have to constantly praise and glorify Him no matter how good or bad things seem. Things can always get worse, and although it's so easy to put God on the back burner when things seem awesome because we get the mindset "we're so great!" It isnt US that's great. It's HIM! And if we don't give him the credit he deserves, he can just as easily put us back down into tough times. I guess that's why they say you should not only love and honor and glorify God, but should fear Him as well because He wants to bless us, but he wants us to obey Him, and if we don't, he will just as quickly let our lives temporarily fall apart to the point where we think "oh Lord please forgive us, please help us!"
In both good times, and bad, whether we're super happy, or super stressed to the point of wanting to give into temptations, or bang our head against a wall, or whatever, the one thing we must ALWAYS do is kneel and give it all to God. He can lift us up, and He loves us and is always there, but we have to come to Him. I can only wonder what we must look like to Him when we are trying to do everything and handle stuff emotionally on our own, and i can imagine God looking down on us thinking "i'm here, hello!!! come to me and I will help you!!!! Why are you trying to handle this alone!!!!" lol.
Heh, yeah, as we don't know God's plan for us, or what we are supposed to do (or at leats I don't know as far as my life goes), who knows what God is really thinking some times. All I have focused on especially more so lately is trying to live according to His word, trying to be the best person I can be in His eyes. I've noticed in life, I feel better over all, happier, not depressed at all, less stressed, and just a sense of peace especially when I'm trying to live to please God. The flesh is weak, and there are always temptations out there for us to look at or think, when I say "think", I'm talking about, someone hurt you, and you find yourself thinking of things you'd love to do to them out of anger, when we should still love them and forgive them. I struggle with that part. At least at first. Especially when the person who hurt me is someone that I care about such as a good friend, for a little while I first go through the denial stage, going "what did I do? Why? Please talk to me! Tell me please." *not saying I'd be saying those, but that'd be what would normally be said in denial. More like, denial because you just cant believe that things went that route. The next phase is the eye opening stage for me, especially recently. Because there's a reason for everything that happens. God is in control of everything, and there is probably something He wants us to learn from that experience. Even when I got a ticket recently for being overweight for this bridge I crossed, I was freaking out but I still went in back, kneeled and prayed saying pretty much "God I don't know what I'm supposed to learn from this experience, but I figure everything happens for a reason and so I pray that you'll give me the strength to handle this situation and that you'll continue to shoulder the weight of the world with me."
I keep getting distracted because I write a paragraph or two because I've got country music playing on the radio as I sit here in the sleeper bunk writing this blog, in between responding to texts from Erin. So if suddenly part of a sentence switches to a different point and you're like "dafuq?!" I'm sorry! I'm trying to make sure I keep everything flowing in order, but I'll be the first to admit, i'm scatter brained sometimes, so I tend to go off topic sometimes, or sometimes when I'm talking to someone especially out here on the road, I'll be talking to someone and suddenly its like my mind goes "flatline" and i'm like "huh, I cant remember what I was trying to say......" lol. Sucks when you know what you're hauling, but you're tired and you get to the counter where you're checking in, or in this one time about a week and a half back when I was in Cheyene, I was at the port of entry and the cop goes "so whatcha hauling..." I looked down at the counter and went "shit..... I know it but I cant, its like on the tip of my toungue" LOL. That was literally the end of my trip that day, so all that was on my mind after driving for 10+ hours was to get parked and relax.
Thankfully he was like "where you delivering?" I was like "walmart dc" he was like "here in cheyene?" I was like "yes sir," and he was like "great, have a good night" I guess i'm ok since i was delivering locally..lol..
So lets see, not sure what else to really cover tonight. I will go for a bit and see if my mind comes up with anything more as my fingers continue to punch the keys. So I was on this two lane highway going to the customer. I'm about an hour out, and I would have driven all the way if i knew more about this customer as in if they have space on their parking lot for trucks to come early and park. Sometimes customers will have room and let you come early and just wait. Most of the time though, if you get there too early, they send you away and say "come back ___ before your appointment time". Sucks when its walmart and i showed up 2 hours early and they were like "go to a truck stop and come back 30 minutes prior." I was like "oh, really? ok." I thought "well that sucks." Usually an hour or two before your appointment most customers will let you check in. A few of them were very strict about 30 minutes or so before your appointment time.
So today as I was driving the last like, 280 miles *i had like 350 miles left when I stopped yesterday afternoon*, I tried calling the customer to see if i could find out more about them so I would know if i could come straight in to the customer tonight and just park till morning. But I'm guessing they are closed on the weekends cuz i got their answering machine and they said receiving times are 7-2 monday through thursday, so I thought "i can risk it and go straight in and hope there's a place to park close by, or i can keep an eye out for a safe location within like 60 miles out." So, I figured that would be the best option, so here i am, about 55-60 miles away, and I came up on this huuuuuuuge open parking lot, had 3 seperate buildings, looked like an outlet mall location, but it also looked like it had long been shut down because the building exteriors were in disrepair, so I thought I should be pretty safe parking here. So i pulled in, went down by the building, swung around and parked near the back right corner of the lot facing out towards the highway. I figure, not "close" to the highway, so if cops or whatever pass, i'm less likely to attract their attention. I've been pretty blesse so far with parking in open places like this an not having cops come and tell me that I have to move. I figure, I'm very attentive to things like if there are "No Parking" signs, or "No Tresspassing" or "Private Property". Although like, friday or something, I parked in an empty sears parking lot. I was actually headed towards a walmart super center because I hoped there'd be room for me there, and i came up on this empty sears lot which was huge, and there was another truck parked there already, so I pulled in, went around the back, circled around and parked where I was out of the way, not seen by passing traffic very much, and in an area that first thing in the morning, I could get out easily and head over to the truck stop.
it wasnt too late when i delivered that night, but the truck stop close by was fairly small so even by like, 8pm when I got there, it was already full, so I scrambled with my truck stop app on my phone trying to find a place I could go. Thats the problem with these small highways and backroads is there arent many places we can park unless we find open lots like this. That's why I tried to trip plan so that I'd only be doing this stretch for a lil while. Otherwise I was on the interstates most of the way out here.
So since I'm finally starting to fun out of things to talk about *i know, surprising right? :P* I'll close up with this. I deliver at 7 am tomorrow, and i'm hoping to get loaded first thing towards indiana right away so that no later than wednesday, I can be dropping the load there and turning in my truck and be headed towards home on a greyhound. I guess lately there are times where it feels even more overwhelming out here as far as being alone goes. The good ol life of a trucker ;) love the job, but God help any truckers that come out here solo that don't have anything with them to keep them busy like a hotspot on their phone with a computer, or handheld video games or something. OMgosh, I could only imagine. Especially on those deliveries where you sit at the customer the entire day or longer. Without anything to do, you're options would be lay around and sleep or just sit and do nothing while you wait to finishing loading or unloading. That would suck! I've usilized my PSP a few times, mainly watching the movies (or UMD-universal media discs).. I'm still up in the air as to if I will eventually trade my psp and games and movies in for the newest version of the PSP. It looks cool, but what I don't like is i'm almost POSITIVE that I will end up with less games and stuff. It doesnt sound right to me to trade 4 games in and 4 movies, and my system and maybe hopefully come out with the new system and 1 or 2 games. Maybe it wouldnt be that bad, but thats what i'm afraid of.
So anyway, on that rambling note, I hope you all are well. I will talk to you all again next time. God bless, take care, be safe, be good, and ta ta for now!
C
So let's see if I can do a completely new entry here without re-covering what I covered over there. *gonna take some work ;)* So, let's see. It is currently sunday, 8/12/2012, and I'm just inside of Texas from Arkansas. I'm about an hour away from where I'm delivering to. My appointment time is at 7 AM tomorrow, and I got parked here around like 4 this afternoon. The road I'm just off of is basically a two lane highway all the way to the customer from the interstate I got off of. I could have stopped at a truck stop on the interstate and then got up earlier and continued in the morning, but I had a method to my madness today. I thought, I wanted to get as close as possible before stopping so that I limit how much i drive in the morning. That way, I'm hoping.. HOPING! that I can get loaded tomorrow some time and be on my way towards Indiana to turn my truck in so i can catch a greyhound to head towards home. Yeah, big plans, I know, but I'm looking forward to the change! With everything that has happened recently, and still the lack of paychecks driving for england, you could say I'm looking for to positive change. Dont get me wrong, I would do what I'm doing for the next 2.5 years if I had to in order to own this truck and make the big bucks, but God opened up an opportunity for driving for a local company making really good money, and being home every day, so I couldn't pass it up. I could have become a trainer and I would actually have made more money than the new job will pay, but I would still never be home much, and honestly i'm worn out with being away from home. Could I do it? Absolutely. I will do anything and everything the Lord requires of me, and if He wants me to be away from home for years struggling before things looked up, then I'd do it. Thankfully He has led me down a different path that not only involves me doing this job, but being home more and being able to build our financial situation back up and get it on track.
Either way, what matters is God is responsible for it all. He's kept me going this far, and opened up the new opportunity, and I know that I just have to constantly praise and glorify Him no matter how good or bad things seem. Things can always get worse, and although it's so easy to put God on the back burner when things seem awesome because we get the mindset "we're so great!" It isnt US that's great. It's HIM! And if we don't give him the credit he deserves, he can just as easily put us back down into tough times. I guess that's why they say you should not only love and honor and glorify God, but should fear Him as well because He wants to bless us, but he wants us to obey Him, and if we don't, he will just as quickly let our lives temporarily fall apart to the point where we think "oh Lord please forgive us, please help us!"
In both good times, and bad, whether we're super happy, or super stressed to the point of wanting to give into temptations, or bang our head against a wall, or whatever, the one thing we must ALWAYS do is kneel and give it all to God. He can lift us up, and He loves us and is always there, but we have to come to Him. I can only wonder what we must look like to Him when we are trying to do everything and handle stuff emotionally on our own, and i can imagine God looking down on us thinking "i'm here, hello!!! come to me and I will help you!!!! Why are you trying to handle this alone!!!!" lol.
Heh, yeah, as we don't know God's plan for us, or what we are supposed to do (or at leats I don't know as far as my life goes), who knows what God is really thinking some times. All I have focused on especially more so lately is trying to live according to His word, trying to be the best person I can be in His eyes. I've noticed in life, I feel better over all, happier, not depressed at all, less stressed, and just a sense of peace especially when I'm trying to live to please God. The flesh is weak, and there are always temptations out there for us to look at or think, when I say "think", I'm talking about, someone hurt you, and you find yourself thinking of things you'd love to do to them out of anger, when we should still love them and forgive them. I struggle with that part. At least at first. Especially when the person who hurt me is someone that I care about such as a good friend, for a little while I first go through the denial stage, going "what did I do? Why? Please talk to me! Tell me please." *not saying I'd be saying those, but that'd be what would normally be said in denial. More like, denial because you just cant believe that things went that route. The next phase is the eye opening stage for me, especially recently. Because there's a reason for everything that happens. God is in control of everything, and there is probably something He wants us to learn from that experience. Even when I got a ticket recently for being overweight for this bridge I crossed, I was freaking out but I still went in back, kneeled and prayed saying pretty much "God I don't know what I'm supposed to learn from this experience, but I figure everything happens for a reason and so I pray that you'll give me the strength to handle this situation and that you'll continue to shoulder the weight of the world with me."
I keep getting distracted because I write a paragraph or two because I've got country music playing on the radio as I sit here in the sleeper bunk writing this blog, in between responding to texts from Erin. So if suddenly part of a sentence switches to a different point and you're like "dafuq?!" I'm sorry! I'm trying to make sure I keep everything flowing in order, but I'll be the first to admit, i'm scatter brained sometimes, so I tend to go off topic sometimes, or sometimes when I'm talking to someone especially out here on the road, I'll be talking to someone and suddenly its like my mind goes "flatline" and i'm like "huh, I cant remember what I was trying to say......" lol. Sucks when you know what you're hauling, but you're tired and you get to the counter where you're checking in, or in this one time about a week and a half back when I was in Cheyene, I was at the port of entry and the cop goes "so whatcha hauling..." I looked down at the counter and went "shit..... I know it but I cant, its like on the tip of my toungue" LOL. That was literally the end of my trip that day, so all that was on my mind after driving for 10+ hours was to get parked and relax.
Thankfully he was like "where you delivering?" I was like "walmart dc" he was like "here in cheyene?" I was like "yes sir," and he was like "great, have a good night" I guess i'm ok since i was delivering locally..lol..
So lets see, not sure what else to really cover tonight. I will go for a bit and see if my mind comes up with anything more as my fingers continue to punch the keys. So I was on this two lane highway going to the customer. I'm about an hour out, and I would have driven all the way if i knew more about this customer as in if they have space on their parking lot for trucks to come early and park. Sometimes customers will have room and let you come early and just wait. Most of the time though, if you get there too early, they send you away and say "come back ___ before your appointment time". Sucks when its walmart and i showed up 2 hours early and they were like "go to a truck stop and come back 30 minutes prior." I was like "oh, really? ok." I thought "well that sucks." Usually an hour or two before your appointment most customers will let you check in. A few of them were very strict about 30 minutes or so before your appointment time.
So today as I was driving the last like, 280 miles *i had like 350 miles left when I stopped yesterday afternoon*, I tried calling the customer to see if i could find out more about them so I would know if i could come straight in to the customer tonight and just park till morning. But I'm guessing they are closed on the weekends cuz i got their answering machine and they said receiving times are 7-2 monday through thursday, so I thought "i can risk it and go straight in and hope there's a place to park close by, or i can keep an eye out for a safe location within like 60 miles out." So, I figured that would be the best option, so here i am, about 55-60 miles away, and I came up on this huuuuuuuge open parking lot, had 3 seperate buildings, looked like an outlet mall location, but it also looked like it had long been shut down because the building exteriors were in disrepair, so I thought I should be pretty safe parking here. So i pulled in, went down by the building, swung around and parked near the back right corner of the lot facing out towards the highway. I figure, not "close" to the highway, so if cops or whatever pass, i'm less likely to attract their attention. I've been pretty blesse so far with parking in open places like this an not having cops come and tell me that I have to move. I figure, I'm very attentive to things like if there are "No Parking" signs, or "No Tresspassing" or "Private Property". Although like, friday or something, I parked in an empty sears parking lot. I was actually headed towards a walmart super center because I hoped there'd be room for me there, and i came up on this empty sears lot which was huge, and there was another truck parked there already, so I pulled in, went around the back, circled around and parked where I was out of the way, not seen by passing traffic very much, and in an area that first thing in the morning, I could get out easily and head over to the truck stop.
it wasnt too late when i delivered that night, but the truck stop close by was fairly small so even by like, 8pm when I got there, it was already full, so I scrambled with my truck stop app on my phone trying to find a place I could go. Thats the problem with these small highways and backroads is there arent many places we can park unless we find open lots like this. That's why I tried to trip plan so that I'd only be doing this stretch for a lil while. Otherwise I was on the interstates most of the way out here.
So since I'm finally starting to fun out of things to talk about *i know, surprising right? :P* I'll close up with this. I deliver at 7 am tomorrow, and i'm hoping to get loaded first thing towards indiana right away so that no later than wednesday, I can be dropping the load there and turning in my truck and be headed towards home on a greyhound. I guess lately there are times where it feels even more overwhelming out here as far as being alone goes. The good ol life of a trucker ;) love the job, but God help any truckers that come out here solo that don't have anything with them to keep them busy like a hotspot on their phone with a computer, or handheld video games or something. OMgosh, I could only imagine. Especially on those deliveries where you sit at the customer the entire day or longer. Without anything to do, you're options would be lay around and sleep or just sit and do nothing while you wait to finishing loading or unloading. That would suck! I've usilized my PSP a few times, mainly watching the movies (or UMD-universal media discs).. I'm still up in the air as to if I will eventually trade my psp and games and movies in for the newest version of the PSP. It looks cool, but what I don't like is i'm almost POSITIVE that I will end up with less games and stuff. It doesnt sound right to me to trade 4 games in and 4 movies, and my system and maybe hopefully come out with the new system and 1 or 2 games. Maybe it wouldnt be that bad, but thats what i'm afraid of.
So anyway, on that rambling note, I hope you all are well. I will talk to you all again next time. God bless, take care, be safe, be good, and ta ta for now!
C
Thursday, August 9, 2012
Almost time for a change in pace
Well, again, I apologize for the length of time that I have been away. I guess depending on how things are going, and how busy I am, I get really lazy at times. A lot has happened over the past 6 months or so *havent looked at the date of my last post so I'm not sure how long its been, but i'm pretty sure not that long*. Not sure if I will be able to cover everything in this entry, but I will see what I can do. Still lazy, so that might pose a problem. LOL! Well, for the past 7 months, I have been driving as an Independent Contractor for CR England. My lease is up in the next 18 months, and then my plan was to then start making payments for the next year after that to "own" the truck. Owning my truck basically would mean that i'd make over $800 extra on my pay checks because 500 was for the truck payment each week, and then probably over $300 on top of that because of the 14 cents variable mileage that england charges right now, that they wont when I own. So that was what I was looking forward to. Over the past few months though, I've reconnected with God, and am constantly trying to do even better. Some days are easier than others, but what I've learned through me studying God's word, and praying constantly, and worshiping him to the best of my ability, giving Him all my strength, loving Him with all my heart, soul, mind, and all my strength. There were days when I had just delivered, it was late at night, and I had a pickup for that night right afterwards, and so I was like, "i'm going to push myself, i'm giving you everything I have Lord, I'm giving you all my strength till I get to the point where I literally crawl back in the back in my sleeper and go to sleep.
I starte devoting as much time as I possibly could to giving it to God. I try to study in my bible every day. Some days its harder than others. Take last night for instance. After telling Ash that I was sorry for whatever I did, or didnt do, or whatever, and that I was going to go offline on the chat programs for a while because I was having trouble holding on to a friendship that she seemed to let go of by completely ignoring and not wanting to talk to me, but that I would always be here and all she has to do is text me asking me to come onto yahoo or whatever and I will come on, but that the ball is officially in her court. I still cant explain what happened between she and i because one day it seemed like things were fine, then a day or two later she was refusing to talk to me and said she was bothered, so meh, I figure, God is in control, and he knows what he is doing. Ashley in my life bonding with me a few months back pulled me out of a dark place while out here alone on the road, and I constantly prayed for her and her family and from what I've heard and noticed *and i cant say 100%* but it sounded to me especially recently that things have improved between her and her family drastically, and so I have faith that God has been working in her life.
So anyway, moving on, as I figure its a life situation that isnt worth focusing on right now because as far as I can tell, its something that I can not change, and also, you cant focus on the future if you are looking at the past. Also, I figure, the way that Ash and I were brought closer as friends was so sudden and out of the blue, that neither of us understood why it happened like that, the only thing we could explain it was that God had a reason for it. And the falling out recently was just as fast as the coming together, and for a while during my drive shift the other day, I was actually heartbroken for a while until suddenly it was like God opened my eyes and I realized that He is in control of everything, and that obviously there is a reason for everything that happens, and obviously He used Ash to ground me and help me pull back to God, and He used me through my renewed and stronger than ever faith to send constant prayers Ash's way for her and her family. And now a new path is layed out for me and apparently its time for me to embrace that and keep moving forward. Not everyone that God brings into your life is brought into your life permanently. God brings people into your life for a little while to teach you a lesson, to help you grow, or to show you why you need Him so much. So, do I consider Ash a friend? Always. I've known her for a while, and werent always as close as we became months back. However, I told her that I would always be here for her if she ever needs me *which is how i am as a friend*, and I figure, if God's plan for us is for us to not talk anymore, then it'll be so, but if He plans for us to reconnect as friends then it'll happen, so instead of worrying about it, I'm just moving forward and walking in faith!
So onward! so, being here here on the road alone has been tough. I'd say it has been a really big challenge for me. Thank you God for the strength to do it! I knew being away from my family would be hard, but being away from my family, putting in long hours, no days off really, while at the same time, not making much money at all and having trouble to pay the bills, which usually resulted in Erin and I butting heads because of money. Over the past couple months though, things have still been tight, but with my ever growing faith in the Lord, and trying to better myself as far as ways of thinking, things I was into, etc, that I was slowly trying to change for the better in God's eyes. So, over the past 4 weeks, I receive 3 job offers to drive for other companies. One was with Sneider, out 6 days, home 3 days, which sounded good. The big problem was the local yard i'd have to get to here in pa is 2 hours away, and that would have been a problem, so at first, I didnt share the news with erin because I wasnt feeling it, and didnt want to fight about it. I wanted to keep working hard and keep having faith and figured if it was meant to be, eventually God would present an opportunity that when I saw it, I would go "wow, there it is!" Well after turning down that job, I got a call from USA Trucking, and that was home 4 days a month, and i thought "thats not too bad," but still didnt feel right about it. Then got a call from JBHunt, and this one was out 12 days, home 2 days. I thought "that's not too bad either," but I couldnt bring myself to decide, I kept thinking "i really hate to leave england, I dont want to give up what i've worked hard for with my lease, and love the idea of owning my truck.
So, come this last sunday, God acted on my heart and I suddenly thought "ok I either need to take a company driver job with another company, or I need to become a trainer with England." I really wasnt feeling like I wanted to be a trainer, but i was willing to, but I felt more strongly about the JBHunt opportunity. So the next morning when I hit the road, I called jbhunt and talked to the recruiter that had called me and wanted to talk about the 12 days out, and 2 days home. He explained that there was another job possibility that just came open an hour earlier that normally I didnt qualify for because the job normally required 18 months experience, but it had been changed and I qualified now. I was like "well tell me about it if you would please." He was like "its local" i was like "really... thats good, what else?" He was like "home nightly, two nights off per week, salary around 54,000 and you'd average about 1,080 per week, sometimes more from what other drivers have told me." I was like "wow. That sounds great. One question, is there a sign on bonus?" he was like "yup, $1,000 sign on bonus." I was like "dang.. That sounds too good to be true!" He was like "its for real man! Are you interested?" I was like "I'm definitely interested!" It felt like God had reached out, padded me on the shoulder and said "see? arent you glad I hardened your heart so you didnt jump at the other opportunities that came up the past few weeks? Glad you trust and have faith in me now I bet eh?" I remember, after talking to the recruiter, then being transfered to the lady running my background check, I stopped at a truckstop because I saw it had Long John Silvers and I havent eaten at one of those in years! When I got my food, and got back to the truck, before I got back on the road, I went in back, and knelt in prayer to thank God for not only hardening my heart against the other offers, but for his blessings in our lives, and that I knew things would work out and be ok, that I just had to have Faith and Trust in Him.
Ever since that day, I got a ticket from a cop for going over a bridge that i was too heavy for *I didnt realize it*, and while the cop was writing the ticket, I was shaking *I seem to always be shaky when I'm dealing with cops giving me a citation. I dont know why. I was sitting in the driver seat while the cop was back in his car writing the citation, and my leg was shaking something fierce. I was like "wow, cmon!" while i tried to put my hand firmly on my leg to help it stop shaking. Then I got up, climbed in back, and knelt down in prayer basically saying "Lord I give it all to you, all my worries, cares and stresses, and yes I'm freaking out right now, but I know that there is a reason for everything, and you are in control,and obviously there is something you want me to learn from this, so I give it all to you Lord, and will do whatever you want me to do.
So, right now I'm sitting at a TA (travel centers of America) here in Ohio. I'm sitting for a 34 hour reset till tomorrow morning. I got some good sleep last night and this morning, I got up at 5 AM and went in to submit my trip packs to payroll before they would come in for the day, and then I came back out to the truck, studied my bible for about 40 minutes, and then went back to sleep. Didnt get up till about 11, but with my awesome amount of sleep lately *sarcasm :P * i've noticed if i sleep late, i still can go to sleep at night without problem. Then I went into the truck stop, ate brunch first at the restaurant inside ta, which basically i had what they call the "long haul breakfast" which is a bisquit and gravy, 2 sausage patties, hashbrowns, french toast, and two eggs. For a while, most ta's i ate at *which wasnt "often" but i tried to whenever i could*, they would actually offer you a 2nd helping for free. like, any part of your meal you could order 2nds, or thte whole thing if you wanted. I did order 2nds a few times, usually more bisquits and gravy, and sausage. One time i got extra hashbrowns. When I first started eating at that restaurant, usually i would end up getting the cat fish fillet dinner, but what can I say? I'm more a breakfast guy. I loooooooove fried fish, but the breakfast with the bisquits and gravy, hashbrowns, eggs, and french toast and sausage patties beats that meal ten times over. Gonna miss that kind of breakfast being back home because unless we go to ihop, there's not too many places that you can eat like that, but at the same time, there's chinese at home which I havent had in forever and I looooove chinese, so I'm looking forward to that occasionally.
So in conclusion, yup, many things changing very rapidly, but they are changes that I am welcoming with open arms. I'm looking so forward to them. In fact, lately, especially after the change God brought between Ash and I, I've been looking even more forward to turning the truck in and going home and starting the new job. That is going to be wonderful. Its been about 2.5 months or so since I was home last. I hadnt planned on being able to get home for many many more months, and I was willing to do it, willing to do whatever God wanted me to do, work as hard as I could to give everythign I have to God and just glorify him and not complain, but thank him that i was in fact working, and that Erin was in fact working, and that we have a house with a landlord that is gracious enough to work with us as far as the rent has gone and not kicking us out, and the bills have been gracious enough to work with us so that we wouldnt get shut off, but would do the best we can, and now things are about to change, bills will get caught up on, things taken care of, our landlord appeased, and things just improving over all. So, Thank you Lord for your constant work in our lives, and I will contrinue to reach for you and lift your name up on high. On that note, I will talk to you all again next time. I wish you all a wonderful day, God bless you, and see you again soon!
I starte devoting as much time as I possibly could to giving it to God. I try to study in my bible every day. Some days its harder than others. Take last night for instance. After telling Ash that I was sorry for whatever I did, or didnt do, or whatever, and that I was going to go offline on the chat programs for a while because I was having trouble holding on to a friendship that she seemed to let go of by completely ignoring and not wanting to talk to me, but that I would always be here and all she has to do is text me asking me to come onto yahoo or whatever and I will come on, but that the ball is officially in her court. I still cant explain what happened between she and i because one day it seemed like things were fine, then a day or two later she was refusing to talk to me and said she was bothered, so meh, I figure, God is in control, and he knows what he is doing. Ashley in my life bonding with me a few months back pulled me out of a dark place while out here alone on the road, and I constantly prayed for her and her family and from what I've heard and noticed *and i cant say 100%* but it sounded to me especially recently that things have improved between her and her family drastically, and so I have faith that God has been working in her life.
So anyway, moving on, as I figure its a life situation that isnt worth focusing on right now because as far as I can tell, its something that I can not change, and also, you cant focus on the future if you are looking at the past. Also, I figure, the way that Ash and I were brought closer as friends was so sudden and out of the blue, that neither of us understood why it happened like that, the only thing we could explain it was that God had a reason for it. And the falling out recently was just as fast as the coming together, and for a while during my drive shift the other day, I was actually heartbroken for a while until suddenly it was like God opened my eyes and I realized that He is in control of everything, and that obviously there is a reason for everything that happens, and obviously He used Ash to ground me and help me pull back to God, and He used me through my renewed and stronger than ever faith to send constant prayers Ash's way for her and her family. And now a new path is layed out for me and apparently its time for me to embrace that and keep moving forward. Not everyone that God brings into your life is brought into your life permanently. God brings people into your life for a little while to teach you a lesson, to help you grow, or to show you why you need Him so much. So, do I consider Ash a friend? Always. I've known her for a while, and werent always as close as we became months back. However, I told her that I would always be here for her if she ever needs me *which is how i am as a friend*, and I figure, if God's plan for us is for us to not talk anymore, then it'll be so, but if He plans for us to reconnect as friends then it'll happen, so instead of worrying about it, I'm just moving forward and walking in faith!
So onward! so, being here here on the road alone has been tough. I'd say it has been a really big challenge for me. Thank you God for the strength to do it! I knew being away from my family would be hard, but being away from my family, putting in long hours, no days off really, while at the same time, not making much money at all and having trouble to pay the bills, which usually resulted in Erin and I butting heads because of money. Over the past couple months though, things have still been tight, but with my ever growing faith in the Lord, and trying to better myself as far as ways of thinking, things I was into, etc, that I was slowly trying to change for the better in God's eyes. So, over the past 4 weeks, I receive 3 job offers to drive for other companies. One was with Sneider, out 6 days, home 3 days, which sounded good. The big problem was the local yard i'd have to get to here in pa is 2 hours away, and that would have been a problem, so at first, I didnt share the news with erin because I wasnt feeling it, and didnt want to fight about it. I wanted to keep working hard and keep having faith and figured if it was meant to be, eventually God would present an opportunity that when I saw it, I would go "wow, there it is!" Well after turning down that job, I got a call from USA Trucking, and that was home 4 days a month, and i thought "thats not too bad," but still didnt feel right about it. Then got a call from JBHunt, and this one was out 12 days, home 2 days. I thought "that's not too bad either," but I couldnt bring myself to decide, I kept thinking "i really hate to leave england, I dont want to give up what i've worked hard for with my lease, and love the idea of owning my truck.
So, come this last sunday, God acted on my heart and I suddenly thought "ok I either need to take a company driver job with another company, or I need to become a trainer with England." I really wasnt feeling like I wanted to be a trainer, but i was willing to, but I felt more strongly about the JBHunt opportunity. So the next morning when I hit the road, I called jbhunt and talked to the recruiter that had called me and wanted to talk about the 12 days out, and 2 days home. He explained that there was another job possibility that just came open an hour earlier that normally I didnt qualify for because the job normally required 18 months experience, but it had been changed and I qualified now. I was like "well tell me about it if you would please." He was like "its local" i was like "really... thats good, what else?" He was like "home nightly, two nights off per week, salary around 54,000 and you'd average about 1,080 per week, sometimes more from what other drivers have told me." I was like "wow. That sounds great. One question, is there a sign on bonus?" he was like "yup, $1,000 sign on bonus." I was like "dang.. That sounds too good to be true!" He was like "its for real man! Are you interested?" I was like "I'm definitely interested!" It felt like God had reached out, padded me on the shoulder and said "see? arent you glad I hardened your heart so you didnt jump at the other opportunities that came up the past few weeks? Glad you trust and have faith in me now I bet eh?" I remember, after talking to the recruiter, then being transfered to the lady running my background check, I stopped at a truckstop because I saw it had Long John Silvers and I havent eaten at one of those in years! When I got my food, and got back to the truck, before I got back on the road, I went in back, and knelt in prayer to thank God for not only hardening my heart against the other offers, but for his blessings in our lives, and that I knew things would work out and be ok, that I just had to have Faith and Trust in Him.
Ever since that day, I got a ticket from a cop for going over a bridge that i was too heavy for *I didnt realize it*, and while the cop was writing the ticket, I was shaking *I seem to always be shaky when I'm dealing with cops giving me a citation. I dont know why. I was sitting in the driver seat while the cop was back in his car writing the citation, and my leg was shaking something fierce. I was like "wow, cmon!" while i tried to put my hand firmly on my leg to help it stop shaking. Then I got up, climbed in back, and knelt down in prayer basically saying "Lord I give it all to you, all my worries, cares and stresses, and yes I'm freaking out right now, but I know that there is a reason for everything, and you are in control,and obviously there is something you want me to learn from this, so I give it all to you Lord, and will do whatever you want me to do.
So, right now I'm sitting at a TA (travel centers of America) here in Ohio. I'm sitting for a 34 hour reset till tomorrow morning. I got some good sleep last night and this morning, I got up at 5 AM and went in to submit my trip packs to payroll before they would come in for the day, and then I came back out to the truck, studied my bible for about 40 minutes, and then went back to sleep. Didnt get up till about 11, but with my awesome amount of sleep lately *sarcasm :P * i've noticed if i sleep late, i still can go to sleep at night without problem. Then I went into the truck stop, ate brunch first at the restaurant inside ta, which basically i had what they call the "long haul breakfast" which is a bisquit and gravy, 2 sausage patties, hashbrowns, french toast, and two eggs. For a while, most ta's i ate at *which wasnt "often" but i tried to whenever i could*, they would actually offer you a 2nd helping for free. like, any part of your meal you could order 2nds, or thte whole thing if you wanted. I did order 2nds a few times, usually more bisquits and gravy, and sausage. One time i got extra hashbrowns. When I first started eating at that restaurant, usually i would end up getting the cat fish fillet dinner, but what can I say? I'm more a breakfast guy. I loooooooove fried fish, but the breakfast with the bisquits and gravy, hashbrowns, eggs, and french toast and sausage patties beats that meal ten times over. Gonna miss that kind of breakfast being back home because unless we go to ihop, there's not too many places that you can eat like that, but at the same time, there's chinese at home which I havent had in forever and I looooove chinese, so I'm looking forward to that occasionally.
So in conclusion, yup, many things changing very rapidly, but they are changes that I am welcoming with open arms. I'm looking so forward to them. In fact, lately, especially after the change God brought between Ash and I, I've been looking even more forward to turning the truck in and going home and starting the new job. That is going to be wonderful. Its been about 2.5 months or so since I was home last. I hadnt planned on being able to get home for many many more months, and I was willing to do it, willing to do whatever God wanted me to do, work as hard as I could to give everythign I have to God and just glorify him and not complain, but thank him that i was in fact working, and that Erin was in fact working, and that we have a house with a landlord that is gracious enough to work with us as far as the rent has gone and not kicking us out, and the bills have been gracious enough to work with us so that we wouldnt get shut off, but would do the best we can, and now things are about to change, bills will get caught up on, things taken care of, our landlord appeased, and things just improving over all. So, Thank you Lord for your constant work in our lives, and I will contrinue to reach for you and lift your name up on high. On that note, I will talk to you all again next time. I wish you all a wonderful day, God bless you, and see you again soon!
Sunday, June 17, 2012
home time :)
Well i made it home for home time. I'm definitely liking 6 days off versus 4, because it feels so much longer even though its only 2 days longer. But when you're gone for 2 months, taking 6 days off feels so much better than 4 days. I cant explain it. So, i've got one more day off, and then tuesday morning i'm back on the road. And this time, i will have my cooler so i shouldnt need to idle my engine as much as long as I have the ability to get a bag of ice to fill up the cooler. That should be interesting since I have never used it yet. It's been sitting here at the house for almost 7 weeks because it showed up on our doorstep the day after I left. I was like "oh that just figures!"
So while home, there was at least one thing i needed to take care of. I had experienced some medical issues that had people concerned. I have been having neck and shoulder spasms and one time it went to a migraine that made me black out. I've also had other issues like, my hand suddenly going all spastic and twitching up a storm with my fingers moving half an inch back and forth... freaked me out when that happened...
But I told erin I wanted to get in to see a doctor when home for hometime, and I promised Ashley I would, so I really wanted to for the both of them. Erin because I know she worries, and Ashley because I promised her and wanted to keep my promise. When i did get into a place, it was an urgent care clinic that will see you for anything non life threatening. So I get in there, and they told me what one thing did i want to get seen for, so i said "shoulder and neck spasms that lead to migraines."
So, the doctor said "i'm going to prescribe you muscle relaxers. You can also take motrin for pain. This kind of thing should get better and go away within 2-3 weeks. However, if it does not, it will actually get worse and you will be back here to see me again. So, i got my script of muscle relaxers, which i take 1-3 every 6 hours. Plus he told me stretches to do at least a few times per day. Then something else happened that made me concerned. Last night, erin handed me my fathers day card,and i read most of it but then got to the word "Tons" and i couldnt figure out what the word was. I thought i just couldnt see it, so i went into the kitchen with more light, and after a few more tries, i finally figured it out. I thought the word was "lots" and then the next morning i read the card again and i could tell it was obviously tons. I was like "i dont know why i couldnt figure that out yesterday." THen today, Teagen gets out of the back yard, and so thinking that he was one block over, i walked down the street, past the bar, past my truck, and i turned up the block i thought he was on, and one of the residents on that block was like "is that your husky?" I'm lke "yeah, which way did he go?" and they were like "he went up that way, hop in i'll give you a lift up to where he is." So i was like "sure!" So we drove about a block to where he was, and I got out and got teagen on the leash.
So, i get him on the leash, and I walk half a block to what i was certain was county line road, and i take a left, and i go a block and suddenly i'm looking around and i'm lost. I am like "where the hell am i?" I didnt recognize a thing. So i backtrack, and realize "how am I on spring ave?" So I walk back, and took another left on the actual county line road, and ended up having to go a few blocks and then turn down aubrey. I the whole way thought "i dont remember going that far away from the house, i went one block over, and about a block and a half north, yet I went 2 blocks down *not even to where i started* And i walked all the way back home thinking about how I'm really not that old and shouldnt be having these issues. Makes me a bit concerned, but while i'm on the road i will just remain alert and aware to how i'm feeling and if i'm easily forgetting stuff, etc, and if so, then maybe when i come back again i will have to get in the doc again to have them see me about the other stuff.
Anyway, its late and i'm tired and keep zoning out so i better go!
talk to you again soon!
C
So while home, there was at least one thing i needed to take care of. I had experienced some medical issues that had people concerned. I have been having neck and shoulder spasms and one time it went to a migraine that made me black out. I've also had other issues like, my hand suddenly going all spastic and twitching up a storm with my fingers moving half an inch back and forth... freaked me out when that happened...
But I told erin I wanted to get in to see a doctor when home for hometime, and I promised Ashley I would, so I really wanted to for the both of them. Erin because I know she worries, and Ashley because I promised her and wanted to keep my promise. When i did get into a place, it was an urgent care clinic that will see you for anything non life threatening. So I get in there, and they told me what one thing did i want to get seen for, so i said "shoulder and neck spasms that lead to migraines."
So, the doctor said "i'm going to prescribe you muscle relaxers. You can also take motrin for pain. This kind of thing should get better and go away within 2-3 weeks. However, if it does not, it will actually get worse and you will be back here to see me again. So, i got my script of muscle relaxers, which i take 1-3 every 6 hours. Plus he told me stretches to do at least a few times per day. Then something else happened that made me concerned. Last night, erin handed me my fathers day card,and i read most of it but then got to the word "Tons" and i couldnt figure out what the word was. I thought i just couldnt see it, so i went into the kitchen with more light, and after a few more tries, i finally figured it out. I thought the word was "lots" and then the next morning i read the card again and i could tell it was obviously tons. I was like "i dont know why i couldnt figure that out yesterday." THen today, Teagen gets out of the back yard, and so thinking that he was one block over, i walked down the street, past the bar, past my truck, and i turned up the block i thought he was on, and one of the residents on that block was like "is that your husky?" I'm lke "yeah, which way did he go?" and they were like "he went up that way, hop in i'll give you a lift up to where he is." So i was like "sure!" So we drove about a block to where he was, and I got out and got teagen on the leash.
So, i get him on the leash, and I walk half a block to what i was certain was county line road, and i take a left, and i go a block and suddenly i'm looking around and i'm lost. I am like "where the hell am i?" I didnt recognize a thing. So i backtrack, and realize "how am I on spring ave?" So I walk back, and took another left on the actual county line road, and ended up having to go a few blocks and then turn down aubrey. I the whole way thought "i dont remember going that far away from the house, i went one block over, and about a block and a half north, yet I went 2 blocks down *not even to where i started* And i walked all the way back home thinking about how I'm really not that old and shouldnt be having these issues. Makes me a bit concerned, but while i'm on the road i will just remain alert and aware to how i'm feeling and if i'm easily forgetting stuff, etc, and if so, then maybe when i come back again i will have to get in the doc again to have them see me about the other stuff.
Anyway, its late and i'm tired and keep zoning out so i better go!
talk to you again soon!
C
Sunday, June 10, 2012
ohio bound!
So my current load delivers in ohio. First off, I will start by saying, yes I know, i know, it's been a while since my last blog. It's not that I haven't "wanted" to blog. More that I got pre-occupied with other stuff like school, chatting on oovoo, or some days I get stopped for the night and only have the strict 10 hours off before I gotta take off, so I literally stop, do my homework, eat, go to bed, wake up, drive, rinse and repeat. :P
So, let's see, i have no idea where i was at last time I blogged. So, the last few trips, let's see, I went from cali, to missouri right near kc. It was about 40 minutes away and harry offered to drive down so we could meet up and have lunch. I was like "sounds great harry!" I believe that was the day I requested not to get a load till the following morning because I had driven two nights straight and was freaking exausted! So I went from there, over to pa, was there for just under a day before heading out from there to head down to Laredo, TX. Then from there, I headed up to St Joseph, MO, which I found out was about 55 miles from Betsy and Harry, and my hours were getting down low, so I talked to betsy and harry and they really wanted me to come stay with them for at least a day if possible, so I took a 34 hour reset, parked my truck at a truck stop that apparently is only like 5 miles away from lake quivera, and harry picked me up. It was an interesting weekend, they were swamped so most my time was spent just hanging around the house, getting online, etc... Friday night, I went out to a Tae *not sure if thats how you spell it* restaurant with Betsy. It was really good. Got this noodle dish with rice noodles and brocoli, and beef, etc, with soy sauce and we shared an order of pot stickers. It was funny cuz the waitress said they were spicy, but betsy asked for them to be dumbed down as far as spice goes.. I think the spice was in the 'sauce', cuz eating just the potstickers I was fine, but betsy was covering hers and she was like fanning her mouth.
I was like "im not catching any kick at all", but after diping one or two in the sauce, i went to make another comment and it was like BAMN! I was like "OH there it is!" fanning my own mouth.. Betsy was like "yeah!" LOL. But then i tried a potsticker without, and i felt fine, i was like "i think its the sauce!"
So, saturday, betsy was busy, but harry got some what free that day and went golfing and wanted me to tag along with him just to hang out. I was like sure why not. It was fun, we talked about erin's and my financial issues right now, as well as a bunch of other stuff. That night, we grilled steaks for dinner, with corn on the cob and salad. Betsy literally nuked "one" potato. I was curious. She said when she started it that if harry didn't want it, or wanted to split it with me, that was up to him. I was like "there's only one?" She was like "yeah, i dont want a potato, but you guys can figure it out. :)" I was like "ok" and harry said he didnt even want a potato anyway... so i was like "score!" lol
So that night, betsy ran me back to the truck. I did a local delivery for cre, and then i basically ended up sitting till monday till i got loaded.. They sent me back to laredo again, but i wasnt there long. they sent me right away from there, up to arkanss, and they tried to send me back to laredo, but I messaged my manager about my hours and having home time coming up and he swapped me with another driver so I was headed east instead. Here I sit in Ohio, where i deliver tomorrow morning, and then i will get a load somewhere to pa and then head home for 6 days.. Cant wait!
On that note, I will try to not wait so long next time. Talk to you guys again soon!
So, let's see, i have no idea where i was at last time I blogged. So, the last few trips, let's see, I went from cali, to missouri right near kc. It was about 40 minutes away and harry offered to drive down so we could meet up and have lunch. I was like "sounds great harry!" I believe that was the day I requested not to get a load till the following morning because I had driven two nights straight and was freaking exausted! So I went from there, over to pa, was there for just under a day before heading out from there to head down to Laredo, TX. Then from there, I headed up to St Joseph, MO, which I found out was about 55 miles from Betsy and Harry, and my hours were getting down low, so I talked to betsy and harry and they really wanted me to come stay with them for at least a day if possible, so I took a 34 hour reset, parked my truck at a truck stop that apparently is only like 5 miles away from lake quivera, and harry picked me up. It was an interesting weekend, they were swamped so most my time was spent just hanging around the house, getting online, etc... Friday night, I went out to a Tae *not sure if thats how you spell it* restaurant with Betsy. It was really good. Got this noodle dish with rice noodles and brocoli, and beef, etc, with soy sauce and we shared an order of pot stickers. It was funny cuz the waitress said they were spicy, but betsy asked for them to be dumbed down as far as spice goes.. I think the spice was in the 'sauce', cuz eating just the potstickers I was fine, but betsy was covering hers and she was like fanning her mouth.
I was like "im not catching any kick at all", but after diping one or two in the sauce, i went to make another comment and it was like BAMN! I was like "OH there it is!" fanning my own mouth.. Betsy was like "yeah!" LOL. But then i tried a potsticker without, and i felt fine, i was like "i think its the sauce!"
So, saturday, betsy was busy, but harry got some what free that day and went golfing and wanted me to tag along with him just to hang out. I was like sure why not. It was fun, we talked about erin's and my financial issues right now, as well as a bunch of other stuff. That night, we grilled steaks for dinner, with corn on the cob and salad. Betsy literally nuked "one" potato. I was curious. She said when she started it that if harry didn't want it, or wanted to split it with me, that was up to him. I was like "there's only one?" She was like "yeah, i dont want a potato, but you guys can figure it out. :)" I was like "ok" and harry said he didnt even want a potato anyway... so i was like "score!" lol
So that night, betsy ran me back to the truck. I did a local delivery for cre, and then i basically ended up sitting till monday till i got loaded.. They sent me back to laredo again, but i wasnt there long. they sent me right away from there, up to arkanss, and they tried to send me back to laredo, but I messaged my manager about my hours and having home time coming up and he swapped me with another driver so I was headed east instead. Here I sit in Ohio, where i deliver tomorrow morning, and then i will get a load somewhere to pa and then head home for 6 days.. Cant wait!
On that note, I will try to not wait so long next time. Talk to you guys again soon!
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Illinois
So this one will be fairly short because I'm really tired and need to get to bed soon. However, I can't help myself because watching my shows on netflix or hulu is too tempting. I know there are times that I should just go straight to bed especially when I have to drive when I wake up, but there are things that either I really want to do, or I have to do. Wants for instance: I'm currently watching the series "hero's" on netflix. Pretty awesome series! If you haven't watched it, I highly recommend it. People that have different kinds of abilities such as flying, time travel, it's an A+++ in my book! Other wants, posting blog entries, and chatting with friends and family on facebook.
Have to's: School work. I guess technically it is a "choice." I don't "have" to do my school work online, but I do really want my degree and in order to get that, I 'have' to do this. It's ok though. Since i'm only in one class at a time and not two, I'm finding it much easier to keep up. Lately I have felt like I would fall behind (even though I didn't fall behind.) However, I felt like it because I didn't get much done at all. I had the past 4 nights where I drove through out the night because of the way the load was. I ended up picking it up friday night to deliver from cali to missouri, and I ended up having to drive the night shifts to get it there on time. Otherwise I would have been late. So I get to the walmart distribution center in Harrisonville, MO, at 3:45AM, and then I finally left there at 7:30. I went to the closest flying j, parked, and did my inspection and put myself listed off duty. I was dragging so bad. I messaged my dm and said "hey, I'm having a major issue right now because of lack of sleep. I'm in no shape to drive for a bit, please do not reload me today. Instead, please reload me tomorrow morning so I can get some rest and recoup."
Well, he did reload me the next day, but not when I wanted. They gave me a load 2 hours away that was picking up at 4AM. I was like "damnit." So I tried to sleep through out the day, but had difficulty. I think it's safe to say I didn't sleep at all that day. I did get to meet up with my father-in-law Harry, which was really nice. So I literally layed in bed for 2 hours, not able to get to sleep, but feeling so tired. There have been quite a few days lately where I am broke and cant afford to really eat hardly at all, and I wonder if lack of nutrition can have a side effect or poor sleep. I'm sure it does! Seems like whenever I can get decent meal, like tonight I had gotten paid from CR England, and so I got some Chester's Chicken and okra, and then just about 30 minutes ago before getting online to do my homework, I went inside, got two gatorades and some nachos w/cheese, and then before starting my blog, heck, before finishing my homework, I'm sitting here on my bed, with the laptop on this lil pull out thing I use kind of as a counter for my computer, and I'm really drowsy. It's like "wow, I have felt exhausted, wiped out, tired, but not like this for days to the point where I know if I change into my sleep clothes and lay down, away I will go. I cant wait! But first, had to do homework and then come on here, and normally i would turn my trip packs in for payment by wednesday night, but with the holiday this week, our week was shortened and we have to turn all trips in by tonight at midnight instead. made for me having a short week. i think close to 2,000 miles. Just under it actually, which means maybe not much or any of a paycheck this next week, but hopefully I can hit 3,000 for the following week and make a $600 pay check.
So anyway, I'm going to call that it for tonight! Talk to you all next time!
Have to's: School work. I guess technically it is a "choice." I don't "have" to do my school work online, but I do really want my degree and in order to get that, I 'have' to do this. It's ok though. Since i'm only in one class at a time and not two, I'm finding it much easier to keep up. Lately I have felt like I would fall behind (even though I didn't fall behind.) However, I felt like it because I didn't get much done at all. I had the past 4 nights where I drove through out the night because of the way the load was. I ended up picking it up friday night to deliver from cali to missouri, and I ended up having to drive the night shifts to get it there on time. Otherwise I would have been late. So I get to the walmart distribution center in Harrisonville, MO, at 3:45AM, and then I finally left there at 7:30. I went to the closest flying j, parked, and did my inspection and put myself listed off duty. I was dragging so bad. I messaged my dm and said "hey, I'm having a major issue right now because of lack of sleep. I'm in no shape to drive for a bit, please do not reload me today. Instead, please reload me tomorrow morning so I can get some rest and recoup."
Well, he did reload me the next day, but not when I wanted. They gave me a load 2 hours away that was picking up at 4AM. I was like "damnit." So I tried to sleep through out the day, but had difficulty. I think it's safe to say I didn't sleep at all that day. I did get to meet up with my father-in-law Harry, which was really nice. So I literally layed in bed for 2 hours, not able to get to sleep, but feeling so tired. There have been quite a few days lately where I am broke and cant afford to really eat hardly at all, and I wonder if lack of nutrition can have a side effect or poor sleep. I'm sure it does! Seems like whenever I can get decent meal, like tonight I had gotten paid from CR England, and so I got some Chester's Chicken and okra, and then just about 30 minutes ago before getting online to do my homework, I went inside, got two gatorades and some nachos w/cheese, and then before starting my blog, heck, before finishing my homework, I'm sitting here on my bed, with the laptop on this lil pull out thing I use kind of as a counter for my computer, and I'm really drowsy. It's like "wow, I have felt exhausted, wiped out, tired, but not like this for days to the point where I know if I change into my sleep clothes and lay down, away I will go. I cant wait! But first, had to do homework and then come on here, and normally i would turn my trip packs in for payment by wednesday night, but with the holiday this week, our week was shortened and we have to turn all trips in by tonight at midnight instead. made for me having a short week. i think close to 2,000 miles. Just under it actually, which means maybe not much or any of a paycheck this next week, but hopefully I can hit 3,000 for the following week and make a $600 pay check.
So anyway, I'm going to call that it for tonight! Talk to you all next time!
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Cali =)
So here I am in good ol, Hot As Hell, Cali. =) When it gets to triple digits, it's way too hot! Makes me look forward to getting home again even more because my cooler/ac thing was delivered the day after I left this last time. Figures eh? So, I'm settling for idling my engine, especially during the 12PM to early evening part of the day because you know how during the summer heat, the afternoon is the hottest. At least when I have my cooler, I can just fill it up with ice, put the lid on, turn it's lil fans on and it should help for a good portion of the day. Might go through more ice during the hottest part of the day, but that's ok.
So I brought this load down from Idaho (right above utah), and in order to make the weight legal, I had to have my rear axel of my trailer back a little bit farther than the "technical" legal length for california. I had come through cali once a while back with my tandems a little bit further back and I didn't have issues. Luck of the draw sometimes I guess because this time the state troopers were all out in force. In fact! It made me come up with a joke!
How Many State Troopers does it take to pull over ONE truck driver?
Answer: Four! At least according to these california troopers. I swear, I get into californnia, and after a few hours in the state, I go through this "check point" where basically they check your bills and then say "ok have a nice day." By the time I got there, I looked in my mirror and realized I had not one, not two, not even three, but FOUR california state troopers all behind me, all with their lights flashing. My first thought? Oh shit! Not sure what I did! But I'm going to jail!
Come to find out, they were all pulling me over because of the tandems being too far back. So I received a "citation," which I'm not sure how much the fine will be because the officer said i will find out through the court. The court date is set for like 2 months from now, but I thought I heard him say I could call too instead of actually having to "be" here in person. I have this "legal" plan I pay for with my other benefits and basically it's meant for this exact situation where I contact my legal people, and i can have a lawyer go to the court hearing in my place so that I don't have to go. So, I'm going to probably be doing that. The funny thing was, I told the officer that with the tandems all the way forward to the cali legal spot, the weight on the back was 2,000 pounds over weight. But he still told me before I left after the citation that I needed to move the tandems forward to where they should be. Sad part was, I was only an hour from where I was supposed to deliver. So, knowing that I was overweight and that if I went through one of the "scales" along the interstate, that I would be stopped 'again' and would get stuck for a while, probably have to have someone from england come out to adjust the load, but I would also probably get a $7500 fine or something like that. I don't think the tandem issue is a wopping fine like that, but overweight is a huge one. So I decided if I saw a scale for the last hour, i was just going to bypass so that I wouldn't have to worry about it. If I do that, there's always the chance that a trooper might come after me, but there's the chance that nothing would happen. So I arrive here in San Bernadino, CA, to my destination 6 hours early and they were like "here's the address to the nearest truck stop. Come back at 1AM."
Of course, I couldn't because my time ran out before that, and I let CR england know the deal and of course they just said "we'll see what we can do. if we can get it covered, we will let you know." Funny how they are very quick to call me if they need a local delivery done but then when I'm here, and cant make it on time, I don't even think they try to find a local guy to come take the load over. Makes me think maybve I should not be very quick to take locals for them. Give and take ya know. If you want me to help you out, help me out too.. or "scratch my back and I'll scratch yours." lol.. So I got up early this morning, went over there by 7, and the guard was like "we stopped receiving deliveries by 3 AM." I was like "i didn't get hours back till after 5." So she was basically like "go back to the truck stop, and have your dispatch reschedule for tonight." So i have been hanging out here all day. I left the truck for maybe a total of an hour to go inside, use the restroom, buy another gallon of water (since mine was almost out), some rasberry tea, I payed for another night of parking ($7.00 permit, versus them ticketing me $50.00 if I didn't.) Those little bits are big dents in the bank though when I only have like $50.00 or whatever to last me, and so I might buy a $5.00 sub from subway, and spend the $7 on parking, and then snack and drink water in the truck, and make it last that way. Although I still feel broke, I feel "ok" considering the fact that I 'can' go inside and get something small if I need to. I've noticed as long as I have a bag of chips, some beef jerkey, my peanuts, and water, I'm usually managing ok. I'm not eating a whole lot some days, but i'm doing ok.
So in conclusion, I was hoping they would reschedule this drop for tomorrow night so I could sit for 34 hours and do a 70 hour reset, but they rescheduled it for tonight. So, reluctantly I will go over by 8:30 (its a 9 appointment), and deliver. Then depending on the time on how quick they unload me (also since I already have a parking permit good till 4pm tomorrow), I will probably come back here and see if I can get a space. I've noticed that it doesn't really fill up, I'm thinking that the "having to pay for parking" probably scares people away. It would me too if I wasn't able to afford to pay $7 for a night to park. At some truck stops that charge, especially out on the east coast, they charge you $20.00 per night. With that cost, I usually will just find an open lot or an on ramp or travel plaza and put that $20.00 towards 2 half way decent meals, or 4 smaller ones. ) So on that note, I will call it a night!>
C
PS. I haven't done a "video" journal on my phone for months. Tonight I did one, and it got to almost 30 minutes long, and I had to do a 2nd one because before I could finish, I bumped a button and it ended the video. So I did a 2nd video diary thinking "I'll just cover what I meant to close with," and hell, that video ended up being almost 25 minutes. I just kept rambing and talking, and then I'm like "ok, I'm REALLY going now, although I could go on for the next hour or so." I think that probably is from the fact that I'm out here alone for 6 weeks straight and really don't actually get to "talk" to anyone really. Erin and the girls when I first came out here used to call and video chat a lot, but the past month or so, i mean we "talk", but it's a lot less than it used to be. Sad, but I know that part of it is probably because Erin is busier now with doing cake orders and her job. :)
So I brought this load down from Idaho (right above utah), and in order to make the weight legal, I had to have my rear axel of my trailer back a little bit farther than the "technical" legal length for california. I had come through cali once a while back with my tandems a little bit further back and I didn't have issues. Luck of the draw sometimes I guess because this time the state troopers were all out in force. In fact! It made me come up with a joke!
How Many State Troopers does it take to pull over ONE truck driver?
Answer: Four! At least according to these california troopers. I swear, I get into californnia, and after a few hours in the state, I go through this "check point" where basically they check your bills and then say "ok have a nice day." By the time I got there, I looked in my mirror and realized I had not one, not two, not even three, but FOUR california state troopers all behind me, all with their lights flashing. My first thought? Oh shit! Not sure what I did! But I'm going to jail!
Come to find out, they were all pulling me over because of the tandems being too far back. So I received a "citation," which I'm not sure how much the fine will be because the officer said i will find out through the court. The court date is set for like 2 months from now, but I thought I heard him say I could call too instead of actually having to "be" here in person. I have this "legal" plan I pay for with my other benefits and basically it's meant for this exact situation where I contact my legal people, and i can have a lawyer go to the court hearing in my place so that I don't have to go. So, I'm going to probably be doing that. The funny thing was, I told the officer that with the tandems all the way forward to the cali legal spot, the weight on the back was 2,000 pounds over weight. But he still told me before I left after the citation that I needed to move the tandems forward to where they should be. Sad part was, I was only an hour from where I was supposed to deliver. So, knowing that I was overweight and that if I went through one of the "scales" along the interstate, that I would be stopped 'again' and would get stuck for a while, probably have to have someone from england come out to adjust the load, but I would also probably get a $7500 fine or something like that. I don't think the tandem issue is a wopping fine like that, but overweight is a huge one. So I decided if I saw a scale for the last hour, i was just going to bypass so that I wouldn't have to worry about it. If I do that, there's always the chance that a trooper might come after me, but there's the chance that nothing would happen. So I arrive here in San Bernadino, CA, to my destination 6 hours early and they were like "here's the address to the nearest truck stop. Come back at 1AM."
Of course, I couldn't because my time ran out before that, and I let CR england know the deal and of course they just said "we'll see what we can do. if we can get it covered, we will let you know." Funny how they are very quick to call me if they need a local delivery done but then when I'm here, and cant make it on time, I don't even think they try to find a local guy to come take the load over. Makes me think maybve I should not be very quick to take locals for them. Give and take ya know. If you want me to help you out, help me out too.. or "scratch my back and I'll scratch yours." lol.. So I got up early this morning, went over there by 7, and the guard was like "we stopped receiving deliveries by 3 AM." I was like "i didn't get hours back till after 5." So she was basically like "go back to the truck stop, and have your dispatch reschedule for tonight." So i have been hanging out here all day. I left the truck for maybe a total of an hour to go inside, use the restroom, buy another gallon of water (since mine was almost out), some rasberry tea, I payed for another night of parking ($7.00 permit, versus them ticketing me $50.00 if I didn't.) Those little bits are big dents in the bank though when I only have like $50.00 or whatever to last me, and so I might buy a $5.00 sub from subway, and spend the $7 on parking, and then snack and drink water in the truck, and make it last that way. Although I still feel broke, I feel "ok" considering the fact that I 'can' go inside and get something small if I need to. I've noticed as long as I have a bag of chips, some beef jerkey, my peanuts, and water, I'm usually managing ok. I'm not eating a whole lot some days, but i'm doing ok.
So in conclusion, I was hoping they would reschedule this drop for tomorrow night so I could sit for 34 hours and do a 70 hour reset, but they rescheduled it for tonight. So, reluctantly I will go over by 8:30 (its a 9 appointment), and deliver. Then depending on the time on how quick they unload me (also since I already have a parking permit good till 4pm tomorrow), I will probably come back here and see if I can get a space. I've noticed that it doesn't really fill up, I'm thinking that the "having to pay for parking" probably scares people away. It would me too if I wasn't able to afford to pay $7 for a night to park. At some truck stops that charge, especially out on the east coast, they charge you $20.00 per night. With that cost, I usually will just find an open lot or an on ramp or travel plaza and put that $20.00 towards 2 half way decent meals, or 4 smaller ones. ) So on that note, I will call it a night!>
C
PS. I haven't done a "video" journal on my phone for months. Tonight I did one, and it got to almost 30 minutes long, and I had to do a 2nd one because before I could finish, I bumped a button and it ended the video. So I did a 2nd video diary thinking "I'll just cover what I meant to close with," and hell, that video ended up being almost 25 minutes. I just kept rambing and talking, and then I'm like "ok, I'm REALLY going now, although I could go on for the next hour or so." I think that probably is from the fact that I'm out here alone for 6 weeks straight and really don't actually get to "talk" to anyone really. Erin and the girls when I first came out here used to call and video chat a lot, but the past month or so, i mean we "talk", but it's a lot less than it used to be. Sad, but I know that part of it is probably because Erin is busier now with doing cake orders and her job. :)
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