Gi-Gi Roxx - The Ravings of a Lunatic

Somehow I've exhaused my Karma. I'm currently sitting in a hotel room in.... yep... you guessed it... TEXAS. I had a good morning, I got a good start. I picked up my empty, headed over to get my load. Backed into a dock that upon first sight frightened me to death. But I nailed it and surprised myself, smiling all the while. I got loaded in about an hour, two hours less than anticipated and was on the road towards home. I made it 68 miles to where I was going to scale my load to make sure I had my weight distributed properly when my good day came screeching to a halt. The air system on my truck jacked up and after applying the brakes several times and setting the air brakes to park... I ended up stuck... unable to move. Blocking a fuel pump at a truck stop.... for over 6 hours. Seems the air dryer or the air compressor fried itself and rendered me unable to do move. So I called Emergency Maintenance (EM). I sat on hold for 45 minutes then got disconnected, never speaking to a s...

In a comment on my last blog my friend commented on how karma might play a role in my life after having donated the flour to folks who needed it instead of just throwing it away. Kinda funny since I felt the full presence of Karma this morning when I woke up to call in and see what my next assignment was going to be. I talked to "T" my dispatch planner asking him what he had in store for me today. He had a load picking up 11 miles from where I am now.. and going straight to Columbus Ohio. Halleluia! I am going to be leaving here shortly and heading over to get my empty and then to get my load. Then hopefully at some point later in the day, I'll finally be leaving the state of Texas. I am so happy I could sh*t. .....I am also in the Holiday mood thanks to the guy parked next to me BLARING the local station that is playing All Christmas, Till Christmas. Things are looking up and my spirits are higher than they've been in the past few days. Which is saying a lot actu...

I'm getting tired of Texas. Today I woke up, blogged a small blog and got on the road to San Antonio. I arrived at the TA where I fueled and showered and grabbed a bite to eat. Then I headed over to Converse to drop my empty and pick up the load I was relaying across town. I get to the consignee about an hour and a half early and they take me right in. I went to the dock area I was told to go to and I get nearly backed in when I hop out and open the trailer doors. I bet the look on my face was priceless. I know the looks on the faces of the lumpers I'd hired to unload my trailer were priceless. The jackass that hauled the load from it's origination point in Joplin Missouri to the drop lot in Converse apparently didn't know how to drive a tractor trailer. Or he was just a dumbass who didn't care. Flour was the food product in the trailer. Gold Medal All Purpose Flour. And it was all over the fricking place. The skillz it took to f*ck up the load THAT badl...

I'll be leaving this rest area shortly to head on up to San Antonio where I will: 1) stop for fuel and take a shower. 2) drive two miles to the next exit to another truck stop where I will drop my empty trailer and pick up a loaded one. 3) drive 16 miles to a consignee to get the full trailer unloaded, which will allegedly take 5 hours. 4) probably drive back to the first truck stop where I will take my 10 hour DOT break. Number 4 may have additional stuff before it... who knows. I just hope that things go well today and that I am able to get a little closer to being out of Texas. Wish me well!

Can't someone do something about me having to be in Texas? I went to Pharr, TX this morning. No one there spoke english. When I arrived at the place I was to deliver my load I found about 12 "spaniards" standing in the drop lot watching a guy in one big rig drive around in circles in the lot TOWING another big rig (just the tractors mind you). There were two guys in the front seat of the tractor being towed by a very rickety and rusty chain just a'hooting and hollering like they were at the carnival on the most thrilling ride of their lives. It was strange... very strange. I made my drop and got the hell out of there. I made it about an hour south of San Antonio (home of the Alamo) with an empty trailer which I will drop in exchange for a loaded trailer that someone else left at a lot in Converse, TX. I will take that load a whopping 16 miles to the place where the delivery is to be made. I will be "live" unloaded which means I will take a nap or watc...

I forgot how much I loathe the state of Texas. And honestly, I'm adding Louisana to the list too. People there were so friggin rude! Sheesh, whatever happened to southern hospitality? Or does that cease once you cross the Mississippi border into Louisana? Let's just say I've had a tough day. It started off with the cashier at the Petro I stayed at last night being just downright RUDE while processing my purchase of coffee. Then, I get on the road and get close to Baton Rouge where I-10 takes a detour for whatever reason. I start on the detour route and turned on the FM radio to look for some tunes to get my day going better and shit if the National Weather Alert system wasn't fogging up the airwaves. Yep! Severe thunderstorm warnings for most of my Louisana drive... including possible Tornados. Frick... frick.... frick. Ok... so I am following the detour along with all the other traffic and the rain starts. Just a light sprinkle at first... then a full blown freak storm...

Well, just to let you all know... I did survive the horrible chinese food incident. Not even a hint of the explosive diarreah that I half expected to be awakened with in the middle of the night that night. Thank heavens! That would have made misery that much more miserable. I did end up waking up sick, but in a different way. I don't believe I'd blogged since I fell ill with this nasty head cold just days after I came back out from my last time at home. I talked with some of you online so I know a few of you were aware of how sick I was the other day. Well. It got worse. Much worse. On Nov. 16 I spent the whole day at the Schenider Carlisle, PA Operations Center attempting to rest and recouperate my system. I was suffering greatly from a head cold which I believe was given to me (with love) by my niece. I'd had a touch of a sore throat on the 14th, the a little bit of the sniffles on the morning of the 15th... by evening it was full on head congestion and sinus dra...

I should've known better. My brain was sending up smoke signals... Warning! Warning! Danger! Do NOT pass Go, Do NOT collect $100. But did I listen? No. So there I was standing at the counter of the Flying J "Magic Dragon" viewing my choices of un-authentic, industrialized pseudo chinese food. A young man with a name tag that read "Ahmed" asked me if I needed a moment or if I was ready to order. I felt pressured... I had been ogling the entrees at the "Magic Dragon" for a few minutes, even though deep down inside I knew I should probably stick with pizza or something off the convenience store shelves instead. But the mounting pressure I felt to order or get lost caused me to spit out an order for "Fried Rice, General Tso's Chicken and one eggroll to go, please." I was done for. I knew it. But I'd committed and was already fishing for money in my pocket. Stoopid, Gi-Gi. Just stoopid. I just didn't have any idea what I'...

Multiple Day Blog... LONG... seriously. Grab some popcorn and a brew or two because if you're sitting down to really read this one, it's gonna take a while. It's a compilation of three days worth of blogs which I'd been keeping on my laptop while I was without access to the internet. Enjoy. =================================================== Nov. 7, 2007 - It was a dark and frigid night in Minonk, Illinois..... I am shut down for my required 10 hr. DOT break here in Minonk. I have no idea what the town looks like, if it is much of a town, as it was pitch dark when I arrived... at 5:30pm. WTF!? I hate this whole day light savings crap where the government makes you turn your clocks back in an attempt to save energy. It doesn't help, if you think about it. I mean, sure businesses close earlier in the day (same hours but with the time change it's early in the daylight/night time hour continuim thingy) so they are in theory saving energy. But what about all ...

Greetings, on my way back to Wisconsin. I made my delivery, early actually, in Oklahoma City yesterday and spent the night in a rinky dink truck stop on the outskirts of town. I did get to enjoy a nice dinner at a Sonic resturant where the waitress actually wore her roller skates and served me very gracefully and graciously. I had to give her a fairly good tip since she did don the skates. I noticed that she was the only one wearing them. And she moved like she lived in them. Which, perhaps she did. One just never knows. So anywho. I made my way here to Joplin, Missouri take my 10 hr DOT break before I hit the road once more to finish out my trip to Wisconsin. This time I'm going to Tomah, WI. I passed it on the way to Menomonee the other day. Actually the facility I am delivering to is right off the interstate and I recall seeing it as I drove thru there. So I don't think I'll have any problem finding my way back. Not really looking forward to going back into th...

The sun is slowly setting. I've been sitting here at the Sullivan, MO Flying J truck stop since about 4pm, but it feels like it's been much longer than that. I had a quick bite to eat, browsed the movie section and bought two, at $3.99 each! Score... I'll be settling in in a bit to watch one of them at least, "Encino Man". Yes, the great 90's flick with Brendan Frasier and Pauley Shore. I love those guys... but I am a great cheese freak. I was making a mental list of movies I wanna search for from the 80's and 90's as I was driving today. I'd like to get most of the John Candy collection eventually. Flicks like "The Great Outdoors" and "Summer Rental". Those were great. Anywho. So I last blogged from the hotel in Indy. Since then I drove to Wisconsin where I stayed the night at a truck stop in Black River Falls. Beautiful place by the way. Then drove to Menomonee, WI where I made my delivery and turned tail to the ea...

Hmm...where to begin. I suppose I should get the bitching out of the way first thing.... I realized the other day while looking at my pay stub from my week in Canada that I got majorly ripped off. They didn't pay me for neary 450 miles because the dumbass I dealt with during my "single lane dirt road" incident didn't put something in the computer right and basicially it looked like I never drove from Leval to Cobden and then Cobden to L'Assomption. So I called my manager, while she's still my manager, and asked if there was anything she could do and what I could do in the future to prevent this sort of thing from happening. I hope she can do something... that's like $150.00 I didn't get paid. Ok, so you're probably wondering what I meant when I just said "while she's still my manager". Well... here it goes. I was so happy when a couple weeks ago I was notified that I'd be back with my original manager because of "restructurin...