Nordakota Again...

Even a stopped clock is right twice a day. I somehow managed to stumble into some luck and ended up with a load headed for Fargone, ND. I delivered the load without incident. The unloader was motivated by the fact that it was Friday night, he was young, and his shift was ending real soon. I love it when the planets align on a full moon night and give me the green lights and following winds. It just makes things easier to get done.

Now I am at home and have the honey do list and the rest and relaxation list and the home schedule that takes over when I am home and not under the rule of the incompetent and the petty losers that run my company. I would rather clean the gum off the bottom of theatre seats than be associated with these clowns for more than I have to. I am laying the plans of my departure as I am writing this.

Well, It is off to the races. be safe, Dedication:/-

Here We Go Again With The Same Stupid S***

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Like A Coffee Can Tumbling Down A Hill (And I'm Inside)

I just seem to end up in these situations. The load is always without enough time to run and when there is the time to run it, some needle dick in customer service always wants me to do him a favor or a shag that always seems to benefit someone else. I have no idea why, but I picked up a load bound for happy go lucky San Antonio, Texas. More specifically, H E Butts of HEB grocery store fame. I always get a chuckle out of that name for some perverted reason. Sounds simple enough, but why in all stupidity did someone bother picking up this load in Gainesville, Florida and then take this load all the way down to the Tampa yard. Seems just a bit out of the way.

I lit a small fire under my driver manager today by simply requesting to be directed to the Missoula yard with a rather vague qualcomm message. He first sent me a message to call him but I was tired and went to sleep. I guess he couldn't handle all the suspense so around noon, when I was at the apex of REM sleep, he rang me on the phone. I decided to be just a bit less vague with him on the phone. I did however, insist on the routing. Rule number one...if you are going to pick a fight, have the element of surprise and have plenty of advantages at the ready. When I get to Missoula, this Felix the Cat just might open a big bag of tricks and either get some things ironed out, or I will get the kinks out of this situation for good.

Really, I just feel that the company has been rather unresponsive to my request for a larger sleeper truck. I do after all spend quite a bit of time in there and they don't. It has been several months since they have first been notified of my concerns and now is the time. If I am not headed to Missoula after this load, I will simply put in short notice and get the heck off the stupid ship jimmy boy. Too many other operators that have no need to rip off drivers and lie to them.

Funny thing is that I am sitting in the San Antonio, FL Flying J and I am headed to San Antonio, TX. God I must be bored. Dedication :}

Virginia is still for Idiots

Virginia is still here and I am here to leave my urine stained mark on the state that makes me laugh the most with the general goofiness that exists here. It has been 2 weeks since I have typed in the hallowed pages of this blog because I took some needed time off and have decided at least temporarily to suffer on the ravages of the stupid ship Jim Palmer Retard.

I will enter more on this as I get more sleep and can comprehend average syllables in a more effecient manner. Time for sleep/dedication

Catching Up In Ogalalla

Well, it has been a few days and during that time for some reason I have been shuffled around it seems in an effort to make up for all the stupidity of this last month. So much time had been wasted from all the incompetence that my driver manager Brett had the nerve to tell me that I would have to stay out longer to get past the 11 thousand mile mark for the month. I used to get 13 thousand with Crete with 6 or 7 days off during the month and I have only had 3 days off in the last 8 weeks and he acts like I am the one not pulling my weight. I feel that it has gotten to the point where I am getting really tempted to get very rude with these people. There is, at least with Brett, a real lack of concern about the drivers well being. There are people working for this asshole that have wives and children and are struggling through these relationships because all Brett has on his mind is his bonus and his concerns and his image and how he measures up in the political scheme of things at Jim Palmer Trucking.

I have been ranting about this company long enough, I feel and I have decided that for starters, there really is no future with such an inconsiderate bunch of inbred morons. I am taking a week off as soon as this load delivers and I drive home 250 miles from that delivery point. This is a delivery that could have taken place on Saturday but Brett felt the need to send me all the way to western Colorado to do some of his shit work that he likes to do so much. Better clean your nose off old friend as you will have me around no longer. I have several companies to choose from. The priority will be ease of dealing with the company and home time. This staying out over 30 days is for the birds at least with this company. Shoot, if I had stayed out 30 days with Crete, I would have a small fortune to spend with my time off. Not at Jim Palmer. They are too dumb to take advantage of the time a driver is away. I had so much time wasted. What a mess.

I am talking to a guy that has a set lane or lanes that he likes to run and can set me up with a triangle shaped run that offers me through home time with time off every 2 weeks and at a higher rate than jimmy ripoffs will pay. More on that later. I suppose I will have to change my header and make some adjustments to my ranting. I can still rant about Jim Palmer and their own brand of stupidity as that never seems to end. I have a year of good material about them right now and it just seems that the stupidity is never ending. I love job security. Gotta go for now.

West Memphis Armpit

Actually, I am at the Flying J, which is more like an armpit with some generic deodorant added. It is not quite like my experiences at the TA west Memph. I pulled in to the TA at about 9 am on a Sunday to grab a shower and roll on my merry way towards California. I had grabbed all my gear and headed out to the building to turn in my fuel stub for a shower and I noticed a black gentleman getting out of a car and walking sort of towards my direction. I nodded at him as I passed and kept walking. As I passed the car, I got a bad feeling because the guy in the car was staring at me really hard. I grew up in the Los Angeles area. When a complete stranger is giving you eye contact, that means that either he is looking for a handout or that something is about to happen. Either way, it is not necessarily for your benefit. I noted this and approached the fuel desk. I handed the fuel attendant my bag and said "guard this for me" and ran out the back entrance. I skirted the trucks on my row in the back and came up right between where my truck was parked. I already had 911 punched in my phone and hit send as I caught the guy breaking into my truck through the lower vis window on the passenger window. I chased the guy all the way back to his car and they took off and I read the licence number to the 911 operator with the description and the direction they headed. Keeping your eyes open towards the surroundings pays off. If I had been the typical person, I would have lost my belongings or my truck. I had to put duct tape over the partially popped open window for a bit but my truck and my stuff was safe. That was 1998 and I was with Crete back then. If anything, there are more cameras monitoring the lots but, the real question is; is there anyone watching? Chances are, the cameras might help when a crime has already happened and will do little else. Keep your eyes open and you will not have to rely on the facade of security that exists in the truck stops these days. The police did catch the guys in the car. The police really acted as though they could care less and since the window was not broken that there was not much to act on. The police really are of no help unless they perceive it that you will complain in their area and cause them some trouble. Chances are, you do not live there and will not be treated the same as a local taxpayer would.

I am delivering this tater load to Birmingham tomorrow at 0500. Birmingham is a place that is just as miserable as West Memphis. I was going to a grocery warehouse at the same period of time as the truck break in. I was at a traffic signal about 6 blocks from the warehouse when a guy approached my truck. It was common at the time for lumpers to try and drum up some business if they knew where you were going. He hops up on my drivers side step and lifts his shirt and there was a small caliber pistol and he was demanding my money. I reached down and grabbed my bowie knife with the 11 inch blade. He got agitated and started to reach for the gun so I struck him in the chest with the knife. He fell and I drove off through the red light. I called the police and told them what happened and the one cop replied that it looked like there really wasn't a victim as far as he was concerned. I left it at that content that I was fortunate not to have been shot.

Here I Sit Broken Hearted

I was in striking distance. I had the oil and washer fluid topped off. My log book was done and legal. Some days it just doesn't pay to get out of bed. As I have said in the past, my truck was having some sort of battery trouble. Seems that the battery was fine. It was the starter, which stopped working for me at 0730 this morning. I called breakdown and they are sending a gentleman to help me out within the hour. I had been keeping the truck running because of the problem but she shut off on her own for me and wouldn't turn over. Broke down in Belgrade, MT. At least I am here in the Flying Jacko where I can play on the computer and go to the bathroom and the coffee is hot. I have been broke down on US 50 in Northern Nevada and that was a 6 hour debacle, waiting in the heat with no air conditioning wondering whether I would get rear ended or not. That is certainly no picnic. I would call myself fortunate at this point. I just can't bring myself to relax knowing that this load is really hot and time is something I don't have.