My Fantasy Land

Apparently I live in a fantasy land and have a strange affection for inanimate objects, which I give names to.

Honestly.

I'm okay with that.

If you're not... perhaps you should find another blog to read.

.....anywhoodles!

I was supposed to be in Carlisle to get acquainted with my new truck on Wednesday. I have to take a quickie training session and then take the truck out for a test drive. I'm nervous about it because as hard as I try, I still feel deep down that I don't really want an automatic big truck. I want to at least give it the good ol' college try, though. So I shall and we shall see how it goes.

In the meantime, I've had a crappy couple of days. I've been barely eeking by with just enough hours to get a little bit of work done each day. Yesterday I delivered a load in St. Louis... AFTER waiting for 2.5 hours for the SLPD to arrive to get me out of a jam.

Retardo directions in which St. Louis'ers don't understand left from right, get me lost a little. Well not really lost, I knew where I needed to be, too late. So I kept going in the direction I was facing until I could find a place to turn around.

Of course, the place I would choose to turn around, didn't actually have enough space for me TO turn around. I ended up parked on a dead end street, facing the dead end, stuck between two different sets of railroad tracks... which were both very busy.

The intersection I'd turned left at had a traffic light. From where I was I couldn't even trigger the light to change without straddling the railroad tracks for a few moments. Then, I'd have to do something nearly as dangerous as that, by backing into the intersection so I could get out of my jam.

This was the only way out. And it was NOT safe to do alone. So I called 9-1-1. (I know I know... apparently I name things, live in a fantasy world, AND call the police too much)

Three calls to emergency services and two and a half hours later, two sweet officers arrived, did the three minutes worth of duty necessary to help me out of my jam and get me on my way. The whole time I was less than 8 blocks away from where I needed to be and I am so grateful that they were patient and understanding considering my predicament.

Delivery made I headed to our terminal in Edwardsville, IL on the north east side of the St. Louis metro to pick up my next load. I dropped my empty trailer, grabbed the loaded relay trailer and made my way east ward.

I delivered my load this morning in Morris, IL and then headed towards getting my next load in Joliet. It was a hazmat load, which instantly put me on edge. I am always nervous about hazmat loads because of the potential for disaster.

I got to the shipper and docked right away. The crew began loading my trailer. Nearly 1/3 of the way full they noticed that the metal reinforcement that is about 12-18 inches tall and runs around the base of the walls in the trailer had a "snag" in it. It was bent and jagged and could have easily punctured one of the drums of hazardous material.

CRAP!

After a series of phone calls it was determined that I needed to leave and go find a trailer free from disastrous defects. So the crew unloaded what they had just secured in the trailer and off I went.

The replacement trailer was peachy keen and defect free. I was back at the shipper in under 30 minutes. Which actually surprised them more than it surprised me.

Finally I was loaded and then realized that I'd exhausted nearly all of my allowable hours remedying the debacle and was directed to drop the load at our Gary, IN terminal for another driver to take the rest of the way to it's destination.

Fine by me.

But that leaves me with only about 10 hours to work tomorrow, which will only get me a little closer to our Carlisle terminal where my new truck awaits my arrival, patiently. I presume I will still get there on Wednesday, but I have a feeling it won't be in time to take my scheduled training and test drive. So that stuff will probably be postponed until Thursday.

So it goes.