Animal Instincts
So I had a new experience when it comes to a load assignment yesterday. I was dispatched to pick up a load in Philly and was told it was going 1080 miles west to some place in Iowa. I was a little miffed at first because the load would put me late getting home for my time off by a day or two. But I was willing to make the sacrifice for the good miles. So I headed to the shipper and was hopeful that things would work out for the best.
After a series of semi-unfortunate and temporarily re-routed events I finally made it to the shipper and was docked and being loaded. While I waited, I made a few phone calls, caught up my log book, did a little trip planning and waited to be called in to sign the paperwork.
That's when it got weird. Apparently the shipper hadn't really consigned the load to anyone in Iowa, they just used a city in IA as a sort of "base command" location so that they could get the loads in the system, picked up by drivers and thus out of their way. The consignee wasn't designated until the load was actually being loaded, from what I gather. And my lovely run of 1080 miles to Iowa got cut short a couple hundred miles to put me instead in central Illinois. No biggie really, but it was a bit strange.
I was, however, relieved to see that I'd be a little closer to home in IL that I would have been in IA. Now I just had to hold on to the hope that there will be freight moving eastward that will get me home this weekend. I'd hate to have to disappoint my niece who is turning 5 by not being able to be at her first "big girl" birthday party.
In other news, today I saw the funniest exchange between a cow and her calf. They were standing side by side as the calf was feeding on mothers' milk when suddenly and with much ado, the calf stopped suckling, took a clumsy couple of steps away from mother and seemed to be sniffing the air. The mother then turned her head rearwards and seemed also to be sniffing the air.
My gathering is that the mama cow farted so loudly that it startled the calf... and then left a pungent odor about the air around them which piqued the curious cow noses. Of course that's just my assumption, made thanks to the body language presented during the situation.
....have I ever mentioned the baby bird that somehow became lodged in my "inside" grill on the front of my truck? I noticed it sometime back during the last throes of summer and attempted then to dislodge the dead bird from the grill with no luck. You'd think that if it were able to become lodged, it would thus also become dislodged. But no... not so much.
Today I thought of the baby bird who's life I cut short so many months ago and hoped that it would have decayed enough by now to be able to be easily removed from the grille. I made a new attempt but failed miserably. I suppose I should name the bird, become friends with it, or something. But it's hard to befriend something that is not going to return the favor.
Although, one could argue that since the deceased has hung around for so long, we have then passed the point of mere acquaintanceship and moved into the realm of friendship. I'm not quite sure that I want to be known, however, as the lady who makes friends with dead birds eternally lodged in the grill of her truck.
We do have to keep up some appearances, don't we?
After a series of semi-unfortunate and temporarily re-routed events I finally made it to the shipper and was docked and being loaded. While I waited, I made a few phone calls, caught up my log book, did a little trip planning and waited to be called in to sign the paperwork.
That's when it got weird. Apparently the shipper hadn't really consigned the load to anyone in Iowa, they just used a city in IA as a sort of "base command" location so that they could get the loads in the system, picked up by drivers and thus out of their way. The consignee wasn't designated until the load was actually being loaded, from what I gather. And my lovely run of 1080 miles to Iowa got cut short a couple hundred miles to put me instead in central Illinois. No biggie really, but it was a bit strange.
I was, however, relieved to see that I'd be a little closer to home in IL that I would have been in IA. Now I just had to hold on to the hope that there will be freight moving eastward that will get me home this weekend. I'd hate to have to disappoint my niece who is turning 5 by not being able to be at her first "big girl" birthday party.
In other news, today I saw the funniest exchange between a cow and her calf. They were standing side by side as the calf was feeding on mothers' milk when suddenly and with much ado, the calf stopped suckling, took a clumsy couple of steps away from mother and seemed to be sniffing the air. The mother then turned her head rearwards and seemed also to be sniffing the air.
My gathering is that the mama cow farted so loudly that it startled the calf... and then left a pungent odor about the air around them which piqued the curious cow noses. Of course that's just my assumption, made thanks to the body language presented during the situation.
....have I ever mentioned the baby bird that somehow became lodged in my "inside" grill on the front of my truck? I noticed it sometime back during the last throes of summer and attempted then to dislodge the dead bird from the grill with no luck. You'd think that if it were able to become lodged, it would thus also become dislodged. But no... not so much.
Today I thought of the baby bird who's life I cut short so many months ago and hoped that it would have decayed enough by now to be able to be easily removed from the grille. I made a new attempt but failed miserably. I suppose I should name the bird, become friends with it, or something. But it's hard to befriend something that is not going to return the favor.
Although, one could argue that since the deceased has hung around for so long, we have then passed the point of mere acquaintanceship and moved into the realm of friendship. I'm not quite sure that I want to be known, however, as the lady who makes friends with dead birds eternally lodged in the grill of her truck.
We do have to keep up some appearances, don't we?
Comments
I guess now when people ask if you have a pet on the truck you can say you have a bird. BOL
Wags & wiggles,
Bijou
Well I had to fart. When I did the dog woke up from a dead sleep, immediately jumped off my lap, and started frantically sniffing her own butt. :)
We laughed ourselves sick at her reaction.
Your story reminded me about an adventure I had involving killing off wildlife. It is "from the archives" and I recently added it to my blog again in your honor! You can find it under April 2008 at my blog.