I'm home. I haven't yet made the trip to the grocery store so the cupboard is bare. So what the hell do I want for dinner? I could go to Wendy's and get something. It's only about a half a block from here. I could order pizza. Here the choices open up some. Papa John's or Hungry Howie's? What kind? Pepperoni? Cheese? Hawaiian? I could order Chinese, but they require a minimum $15 order for delivery and I don't think I'm THAT hungry. I do have a bag of brown rice in the cupboard an...

When I arrived at my delivery point this morning there was a guy there and naturally I thought he was the one waiting to unload me. I spoke with him and he showed me where to back the truck so the crane could access the load. No problem. Once I got into position I got out to remove the chains and supervise the unloading. The guy said to me "The nigger will be here in a few minutes to unload you, you aren't in a big hurry are you?". Needless to say I wasn't too impressed with this guy. Afte...

I finally made it home around noon today. This morning's delivery went smoothly, without any problems or hitches at all. That kinda makes me nervous, but hey ya takes em where ya gets em. I called in to dispatch to let them know everything was delivered, I was empty, and I was heading for the house. They asked how long I planned to stay home this time so they know what to lood for load-wise. I asked they try to find something that picks up on Monday. That means they'll probably find someth...

According to recent super secret studies, President Bush's policies have led to war in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Lebanon resulting in the use of so many explosives that it has caused the atmosphere to heat up resulting in a heat wave throughout most of North America. A recent poll conducted in a local tavern proves that 70% of Americans believe that Bush's policies have resulted in the current high temps in the nation. That number rose to 95% if the pollster was buying a round. The same po...

Just a quick one as I take a very brief break on my way to my final stop. I made my way through the Alabama woods and into Florida yesterday. I found a small truckstop in Mossy Head, FL where I spent the night. I am very curious as to how that name came to be, but am also not sure I want to know. More fun to let the imagination run with that one. This morning I made the delivery at the airfield and made my way back to the interstate to begin the final leg of the trip to Melbourne, FL. Gett...

So far so good. I got the first stop delivered this morning and while it was a bit of a pain, it went pretty well. When I got there the guy looked at the machine which is fairly large and said that he really didn't have much (read any) experience unloading them and asked if I would mind doing it. Ok, I don't get paid to unload someone else's stuff for one thing, and I never operate a customer's equipment for another, so my answer was a no. But I did tell the guy that if he followed my dire...

I rarely look at the rankings but tonight I noticed that my nonesense bullshit is at #6. How does this sort of thing happen? With so many people writing stuff that is thoughtful or important, how does my silly assed minutia rank at all? There is something seriously wrong with JU's rankings.

I'm spending the night in Lebanon, IN. There just accidently happens to be a bar next to the truck stop here and I mistakenly walked into it. Cosmic kharma and all that ya know. It's one of my regular stops so I know some of the people there, especially the bartenders, and try to behave in a more or less civilized fashion. I had a few beers and some conversation there and everything seemed perfectly normal to me so I really don't see why the press is making such a big deal about the place....

Lasst night I ran into Wayne. the senior driver with the company for whom I work. The whole right side of his face was swollen and seriously bruised. It looked to me like someone had put a boot to him. It turns out he was in the process of chaining down a military truck when his binder slipped and whacked him in the face. Ouch. It takes a lot of physical strength to chain down a load like that and there is a certain amount of risk involved. In his case the bar slipped while trying to force...

I finally got that unstable load of utility trailers delivered Thursday. I was never so glad to be rid of a load in my life. Sure enough there were some minor damages (less than I had expected). Mostly just scratches in the paint. Luckily the guy said he was used to that and expected to have to touch them up anyway so my perfect no damage claims record remains intact. After unloaded I started heading for the yard. On the way I stopped at a truck wash to have the dust, dirt, and bugs remove...

This load of utility trailers is a royal pain in the ass. They are stacked two high and to call the load unstable is an understatement. I am making very slow progress as I have to stop about every 50 miles to retighten the traps and chains because these things keep shifting around no matter how tightly I bind them. The first one to shift was the one on the top rear. It slid over to the right about a foot and I was afraid it was going to come off the trailer before I could get stopped. I re...

After getting unloaded at the Army base yesterday I was sent to Paris, TX to pick up some utility trailers destined for WI. When I called the place for directions I learned that they were actually out in the boonies kinda sorta but not really close to Paris. I also learned that they knock off at 3:00PM. Doesn't anyone work until 5:00 any more? There was no way I could get there in time to be loaded before 3:00, so I went to the only fuel stop with truck parking in Paris and set my brakes f...

I did a fair bit of driving today and have made it to West Memphis, AR. I'm still a good 4 1/2 hours from my destination and so will get an early start in the morning, but at least I'm within easy reach at this point. My hip has been giving me some trouble for the past few days and last night it kept me awake a good portion of the time I should have been sleeping. Socrates knew something was wrong and kept coming to check on me. He's gotten to where he now normally either gets in his bed o...

I had bought a collapsable pet carrier for Socrates a while back. I really hadn't done much with it, just left it in it's plastic cover and stashed it in the truck. Today while eating lunch I decided to break it out and see how difficult it was going to be to train Socrates to go into it and tolerate being inside it. He'll need to be in it whenever I put the truck in the shop to be serviced. I took it out of it's cover, opened it up, and set it up so that it remained in place. I then just ...

This morning I slept until 8:00. I awoke around 6:00, said screw it, and went back to sleep. I needed it and I feel rested today. I cashed my paycheck this morning and then took the truck to the Western Star dealership to get an estimate for the repairs from the rookie hitting it in the truckstop. It turned out that has to be done at the body shop which is located in another town and isn't open on the weekend. I'll have to make a point of getting there one day during the week. While I w...