Gi-Gi Roxx - The Ravings of a Lunatic

No, my hope and change is not any of that Obama type nonsense either. It's gonna be real hope and real change and I have a feeling it's coming a lot quicker than I'd imagined. Things have not been looking good from where I've been standing. For the horizon is blurred in almost every direction. I see one clear, bright spot in the distance. I'm gaining momentum, now. And before too long the haze that has been surrounding me will be just a memory. Today marks a great occasion for me personally... I've made a major decision and will be quick to start along a new path, so long as the gate opens when I approach it. No... I won't be leaving my beloved truckin'. So don't fret! If the stepping stones are all in the right places, the future is bright and exciting and full of hope. Stay tuned....

Some follow up questions from anonymous #1: Have you been able to really (restfully) sleep, while at the same time stay enough on alert to sense when something is not quite right? I do sleep soundly pretty much every night in my truck, no matter where I am or what sort of noises surround the truck. My "bat sense" kicks in when there is a sound that is cause for caution or alarm, such as someone touching the truck. I've actually had someone slip and catch themselves on my cab and it woke me from my sleep. I peeked out to see a very embarrassed older gentleman hanging onto my truck for dear life after slipping on ice. And of course, if you're a frequent reader of mine, you know how quickly I get awakened by lot lizards. haha And does your employer allow you to bring a dog (whether or not you personally have chosen to do so?) ( this question also answers Bijou 's question, indirectly I suppose since I opted to use the words of anon instead ) My compan...

"anonymous #1" asks: 1) Do you feel safe when you're sleeping in the rig? When I got the keys and spent my first night alone in my truck I was nervous. I felt vulnerable . Alone. Afraid. I didn't know how easy it might be for someone to break in, and honestly still don't really know. I had visions of x-ray vision glasses and dangerous sex crazed thugs waiting anxiously for me to drift off to sleep so they could break in and violate me. Thankfully my paranoia subsided and I started taking some simple precautions and began to feel safer with each new night. One tip I have for helping increase your "sense of security" is to loop your seat belt thru the door handles and fasten them. Now this does not prevent someone who really wants to get in from getting in, but it does at least provide a hindrance to a criminal, giving you critical time to arm yourself with something and to call 9-1-1. Generally, the criminal would need a knife and narrow, strong arms to...

I have been thinking about opening myself up for questions and inquiry on both a personal and professional level recently. Today I decided I'd go for it. I am opening the floor to you, my readers, to ask me anything. Now, please understand that I have the right to refuse to answer any question I do no feel will be productive or at least entertaining. I am hoping for some really interesting questions, so don't disappoint me! I also would appreciate keeping things G or at least PG, in case there are young impressionable's reading this blog. I am anxious to see what you want to know about me and my life on the road. As questions come in and I have time to answer them, I will post them as individual blogs. So stay tuned... this should get interesting!

After thoroughly enjoying time off, I hit the road once again on Wednesday morning after a bit of a rough start. I arrived at my truck, threw all my crap in the cab and started a pre-trip (yep I still do them). My boyfriend walked along with me like he always does, getting in those last few minutes of quality time before I hit the road for a few weeks. Things were looking great down the drivers side and across the back of the trailer. I started up the passenger side and thought things were peachy keen. Then I thumped my number nine drive tire (right rear inner) to find it flat as a flitter. No air whatsoever was remaining in the tire. CRAP! I was supposed to be picking up a load by 15:00 in a town about an hour away, and it was already 11:00 at this point. I said my g'byes to my sweetie and sent him on his way while I climbed in the truck and dialed our emergency maintenance department to request service. I was surprised that I didn't have to hold for more than 3 minutes to rea...

Shew, finally in the home stretch. I thought it'd never happen. Patience and endurance pays off, I suppose. I woke up this morning sure that it was going to be a great day. And despite the fact that it had a rough start, it did turn out pretty darn well. I arrived at delivery point number two this morning with the remaining rolls of paper to be delivered with fifteen minutes to spare. As my luck would have it, however, the fifteen minutes would be used fighting with a trailer door that wouldn't cooperate and insane wind that coaxed said door into non-cooperation. You see, the trailer had a bum door latch at some point and it was replaced with a mismatched latch and rigged to fasten in place when the doors are closed. However, when one needs to open and secure the doors to be loaded/unloaded the mismatched latch didn't function correctly. The replacement latch was for a door with a standard latch much like the one kinda seen here on the right of the picture. Unfortunately th...

Well the good news is that I will be paid for all of the miles I had to drive to get the load, scale the load, go back to shipper, etc. But it was still not really worth the frustration for me. Plus, now instead of getting home like I was going to on Thursday it'll more likely be Saturday at best. Bah. As far as the weight issue goes, I talked to a couple of other people at the company last night and again today and learned that the load weights out of that particular shipper are common, however, our trucks and trailers are just heavier than most of the carriers that run through there. Most of the trucks coming and going while I was sitting there were day cabs, which are way lighter than our condo conventional cabs. After being emptied out and leaving, I headed back to the scale to see what my rig weighed empty. It was 34,060 at half tank fuel level. The load they wanted to give me was 46,695... do the math.. =80,755. So if our average empty weight is consistently around the...

Well, assuming things would possibly go smoothly proved a bad assumption today. I woke up excited to start my day. I had to pick up an empty trailer at the Wal-Mart DC in Lewiston, ME first and then head over to the Nestle Poland Spring Bottling plant over in Poland Spring, ME to swap the empty for a preloaded trailer full of water. That load was then to turn me south headed towards home. Of course, that couldn't possibly have happened.... nope. Not for me! No, what happened was the load I acquired was over gross. After scaling at a nearby truck stop, I headed back to the shipper to have them fix the problem. After being directed to a dock door and parking, I was left wondering what would happen next. What did happen next was a phone call from company headquarters with two company representatives and two of the shippers representatives to my cell phone. The call consisted of them asking me some basic questions regarding the load, the trailer, my tractor, the scale I used, e...

As I sat and blogged, chatted with online friends and generally wasted time just goofing I started hearing the sound I most love to hear when I'm waiting for a load... the beeping Qualcomm. It started shortly before 3 pm and left me delighted to see that I had a load taking me damn near directly to my front steps. It has brought me to Maine for the night where I shall patiently await the morning hours when I can make the rest of my journey towards my pick up destination. I'm not enthused about the weight of the load I shall have to bear back to the hills of West Virginia, but hey... it's gonna give me a fair bit of mileage to make next payday somewhat worthwhile. Apparently the load is going to be just heavy enough to be under gross, but I've been asked to make sure I have LESS than 3/4 tank of fuel at all times. This should be interesting! I will arrive in my home state and even get to spend the night in my bed on Wednesday. Thursday morning I shall wake up and ...

I don't know how it is with other companies when it comes to dispatching and load assignment information, but with my company there are instances like the one I'm about to describe where somewhere along the way the info gets either lost or really screwed up. It makes for frustration and aggravation and embarrassment. It can also leave someone, almost screwed. Just yesterday and the day before I blogged about the load I was to deliver at 10pm last night here in New Hampshire. When I received the load assignment I saw that the load was to be a driver hand unload (DHU). I had contacted my company to verify that this was accurate and to check to see if there may possibly be lumpers on site to do the work for cash. I was assured no lumpers were available and that I would be the one doing the work. I had resigned myself and had accepted it and moved on. Yesterday I took a nap from 5pm to about 7:30 pm hoping to be rested enough to have the energy to do the unload and then make it bac...

As I sit and wait to be able to deliver a load tonight at 10pm, I have been using my free minutes to read. I have a tendency to go through phases where I will read a boat load of books unable to satisfy my thirst for words. And then I'll have periods where I won't read even the warning signs on the highway (just kidding, of course). I've not been doing much reading for about two months now and have had about 8 books sitting in my truck waiting to be opened. Three days ago I finally cracked the cover of Fahrenheit 451 and finished it yesterday. After closing the back cover I spent a few moments contemplating all that I had just read. I generally try to do this so I can determine of the text of the book just emblazoned onto my gray matter is worth keeping for future use, worth holding onto for its moral or ethical values, or if it's something I just simply enjoyed ready and will store in the back drawers of my memory. I decided I needed to hold the file for this part...

Well I am not sure how far I will get into this blog post because I'm in a no idle state and therefore can't provide constant juice to my laptop. Without said juice, my battery will only last about two hours... of which I've already used about 50%. So here goes nothing... let's see how fast I can type! ha! So far, being plugged (and thence plugging myself in my previous post) in the Pilot Challenge Magazine has not yet increased flow to my blog. I'm not complaining, because as one commenter put it...now I'll have to blog more! And those of you who are devoted readers know how infrequently I've been posting of late, and you let me know all about it! ;o) It's not for lack of things to blog about, that's for sure. Everyday there is something new, some mini-adventure that I end up navigating my way through. I've just not had the energy to blog. I was pretty sick for just about the whole month of January. I'm feeling nearly 100% again and h...

I am not 100% sure what the impact of the following article will be on my life as a blogger... but I have a feeling that it will at least be partially positive. If you have found my blog because of this article, welcome to the madness. The article " BLOG IT " appears in the current issue of the Pilot Challenge Magazine, which is a free publication at all of the Pilot Truck Stops across the country (and where ever else there are Pilot stations). I didn't know anything about the article until a trucker friend sent me a text message telling me I was in the magazine. Of course, the next day I stopped and picked up my own copy and read the article. Enjoy it for yourselves and be sure that you also go check out all of the other awesome trucker blogs that are listed in the article. There is some really great stuff out there and I am glad to be a part of it all.

I have received a few messages of concern since I haven't posted in a little while. I've been pretty sick and when I've not been having to perform my job function I've been taking it easy and getting lots of rest. I am getting better but still have a ways to go, thanks to my weaker than normal immune system. But each day I feel a little better and before I know it I'll have forgotten I was even sick! (that is my hope anyway) I've not had a whole lot of excitement lately as freight has just been blah, but I assure you when I'm feelin' better and have some tales to tell I'll blog my happy little heart out. Until then, relax and enjoy yourselves.... and maybe click on one of the links on the right over there and visit a fellow blogger friend of mine. Any of them will do... they're all fabulous! Till next time... :o)