Misery Loves Company

This week was one of those weeks where I question my career choice and find myself wanting to toss the keys in a pit and walk away.

Sunday started innocent enough. My first load was a drop in Tyler, TX. A friend was heading the same direction so we ran together through Oklahoma. All was well til we left Muskogee. That's when I discovered my A/C stopped blowing cold air. By the time I hit Sulpher Springs, TX I was miserable. I bought a fan at The Pilot and noticed my APU had stopped working as well.

I dropped my trailer in Tyler and got to the Pilot. Then began the longest night of my life. At one point I realized the fan was draining my batteries because they were weak. So now I am idling a truck, blowing hot air. I might have a heat stroke at this point. About 2am I go in the mcdonalds and buy a shake and enjoyed the A/C inside for an hour. I tried the APU again and this time it worked. Made a HUGE difference. Apparently the APU would get hot and shutdown so I just ran it on a lighter setting and it stayed on.

Monday I knew I wouldn't have a reload so off to the local Volvo shop where I would sit for eight hours waiting on repairs. Next up I had a load picking up 40 miles away going to Houston, TX. I get to the shipper and I am truck number 5 in line. This was at 6:30 pm. I find out that a truck that was lucky to have a dock had been there since noon. Incredible. At 1 am I was finally loaded. Monday night I drove until I got dangerously tired and pulled in for the night.

Tuesday I wake and head for Houston. Made decent time. I was unloaded in 20 minutes. But I was now waiting for the nest load assignment. Only an hour later I was told to head to Brenham, TX to load in the morning. Drove to a truck stop 20 miles away from the shipper and went to bed.

Wednesday I only had 400 some miles going to Broken Arrow, OK for a thursday am delivery. Finally the week was getting better.

Thursday After Broken Arrow I was picking up in Okmulgee and it went to the yard in Springfield. Then just to make sure I wasn't enjoying my job too much I had a load of scrap paper going to the woods in Louisiana. Made it as far as Little Rock, AR and hit the bed.

Friday about 1pm I arrive. I am truck number 9 in line and truck one had been docked since 7am. AAARRRGGGHHH!!! I was looking at another long customer time. It's a good thing my next pick up was 24 hours because I didn't get to the next shipper until midnight. I was loaded with another heavy paper load that went back to the yard. Now that I could have used a long load time so I could sleep I was loaded in an hour. Go figure.

Saturday was spent dealing with 45000 lbs of paper on the beat up old roads of Louisiana, and the winding mountains of Arkansas. I made it the yard spent and burned out.

Why did this week suck? Well it shouldn't take six hours to load empty beer cans. It shouldn't take eight hours to unload 18 bales of scrap paper. Add that with my mechanical problems I am spent.