Woof Woof
Can this even be considered the dog days of summer? *lemme go do a quick Google search to find out*
According to Wikipedia:
"Dog Days" (Latin: diēs caniculārēs) are the hottest, most sultry days of summer. In the northern hemisphere, they usually fall between early July and early September. In the southern hemisphere they are usually between January and early March. The actual dates vary greatly from region to region, depending on latitude and climate. Dog Days can also define a time period or event that is very hot or stagnant, or marked by dull lack of progress. The name comes from the ancient belief that Sirius, also called the Dog Star, was somehow responsible for the hot weather.
So, yeah welcome to the dog days of summer y'all.
Man it's been sweltering here lately. I'm not fond of weather extremes, especially not the heat, more especially not humid heat. And in the past few weeks it's been the latter loathed weather that pretty much the whole country has been dealing with. I'm sure there are a few places where it's comfortable but in my current state of sweating and misery, I have to believe that those places just don't exist.
So there.
I've been on time off for a few days and honestly, I wish I'd never had any reason to leave the house. It's too hot to move outdoors right now. For once I'll freely admit I wish it were winter. I'll slap myself for that later when I'm bitching about the cold, frigid temperatures and the havoc that winter provides. But as I sit in front of the AC and am still feeling beads of perspiration form upon my brow, I'm okay with that.
Now that I've gotten that off my chest, I suppose I should apologize to you for the confusion caused by my last post. I never meant to insinuate that I wasn't gonna do anything else, ever, with this blog. There were probably quite a good many of my regular and even more not-so-regular readers that were unaware of my "other" blog, which I'd started I guess around 6-8 months ago in hopes of kicking up an additional writing outlet. But after that amount of time and only 15 posts, it felt fruitless and so I canned it.
I will still be semi-regularly blogging here. I just won't be doing it quite as often as before, which is not saying much if you refer to the amount of posts I was making on a monthly basis since day one anyway.
So anyway, don't freak out... as long as I'm behind the wheel I'll have stories to tell. You just might have to wait a little longer to hear about them since I'm not toting around Internet access on a stick any longer.
So that being said...
Nothing really too awful exciting to report from the past few weeks. I had a couple of things to bring up though.
1) If you're at a shipper with really limited maneuvering space for half of its' docks and you're not in a hurry, try telling them you'll wait until one of the less stressful docks opens up for you to back into.
I pulled into this nightmare of a place a couple weeks ago and nearly cried when I was told which dock I needed to back into. It was tight for the day cab that I watched back in before me. My conventional was gonna be much worse.
I asked the shipping office manager if it was absolutely necessary for me to be at that dock, as some places will only load certain types of freight out of certain docks. Once he'd informed me that it wasn't required, I quickly asked him if he would mind letting me wait until there was a dock with more maneuvering room available. He said it might be a while, I said I'd be happy to wait.
And after spending a few hours watching other trucks struggle with the dock I'd gotten a free pass on, I was thankfully relieved when I finally got called to bump a less irritating dock. And to put icing on the cake, I set up and backed in with out having to do a single pull up or correction. Which made me feel good about myself. I knew I'd have ended up screwing something up if I'd had to bump that other dock, and would have NOT left me feeling good about myself.
2) When your a company driver and have put in for guaranteed home time so that you can fulfill your end of a doctors appointment by showing up, assume you're not gonna make it. More than likely, you won't. This is one of the biggest annoyances with being an over-the-road truck driver. It's nearly impossible to make AND keep doctor (or other) appointments. I'd had my most recent appointment schedule for a month in advance. I'd been assured that I'd be routed home the day before my scheduled appointment. I ended up having to cancel my appointment and didn't even make it home until the day after I was "guaranteed" to be there.
And oh joy, I get to deal with it all over again next month, for the date I had to reschedule my appointment for. I am not even gonna tell them to "guarantee" it so I don't have to get pissed when it gets all screwed up. I just scheduled off two days ahead of when I need to be home so I might actually make it on-time! haha
So that's what the past few weeks has taught me. Oh, and I should add that I've recently had the electronic logging unit installed in my truck and while the first few days I'm sure I screwed up a few times, I'm starting to get the hang of it and I actually think I can say I like it pretty well. :o) So yay!
Well, it's about time to finish relaxing and enjoying my time off. I have to hit the road again tomorrow. All play and no work makes a poor Gi-Gi... it's time to go make some money!
According to Wikipedia:
"Dog Days" (Latin: diēs caniculārēs) are the hottest, most sultry days of summer. In the northern hemisphere, they usually fall between early July and early September. In the southern hemisphere they are usually between January and early March. The actual dates vary greatly from region to region, depending on latitude and climate. Dog Days can also define a time period or event that is very hot or stagnant, or marked by dull lack of progress. The name comes from the ancient belief that Sirius, also called the Dog Star, was somehow responsible for the hot weather.
So, yeah welcome to the dog days of summer y'all.
Man it's been sweltering here lately. I'm not fond of weather extremes, especially not the heat, more especially not humid heat. And in the past few weeks it's been the latter loathed weather that pretty much the whole country has been dealing with. I'm sure there are a few places where it's comfortable but in my current state of sweating and misery, I have to believe that those places just don't exist.
So there.
I've been on time off for a few days and honestly, I wish I'd never had any reason to leave the house. It's too hot to move outdoors right now. For once I'll freely admit I wish it were winter. I'll slap myself for that later when I'm bitching about the cold, frigid temperatures and the havoc that winter provides. But as I sit in front of the AC and am still feeling beads of perspiration form upon my brow, I'm okay with that.
Now that I've gotten that off my chest, I suppose I should apologize to you for the confusion caused by my last post. I never meant to insinuate that I wasn't gonna do anything else, ever, with this blog. There were probably quite a good many of my regular and even more not-so-regular readers that were unaware of my "other" blog, which I'd started I guess around 6-8 months ago in hopes of kicking up an additional writing outlet. But after that amount of time and only 15 posts, it felt fruitless and so I canned it.
I will still be semi-regularly blogging here. I just won't be doing it quite as often as before, which is not saying much if you refer to the amount of posts I was making on a monthly basis since day one anyway.
So anyway, don't freak out... as long as I'm behind the wheel I'll have stories to tell. You just might have to wait a little longer to hear about them since I'm not toting around Internet access on a stick any longer.
So that being said...
Nothing really too awful exciting to report from the past few weeks. I had a couple of things to bring up though.
1) If you're at a shipper with really limited maneuvering space for half of its' docks and you're not in a hurry, try telling them you'll wait until one of the less stressful docks opens up for you to back into.
I pulled into this nightmare of a place a couple weeks ago and nearly cried when I was told which dock I needed to back into. It was tight for the day cab that I watched back in before me. My conventional was gonna be much worse.
I asked the shipping office manager if it was absolutely necessary for me to be at that dock, as some places will only load certain types of freight out of certain docks. Once he'd informed me that it wasn't required, I quickly asked him if he would mind letting me wait until there was a dock with more maneuvering room available. He said it might be a while, I said I'd be happy to wait.
And after spending a few hours watching other trucks struggle with the dock I'd gotten a free pass on, I was thankfully relieved when I finally got called to bump a less irritating dock. And to put icing on the cake, I set up and backed in with out having to do a single pull up or correction. Which made me feel good about myself. I knew I'd have ended up screwing something up if I'd had to bump that other dock, and would have NOT left me feeling good about myself.
2) When your a company driver and have put in for guaranteed home time so that you can fulfill your end of a doctors appointment by showing up, assume you're not gonna make it. More than likely, you won't. This is one of the biggest annoyances with being an over-the-road truck driver. It's nearly impossible to make AND keep doctor (or other) appointments. I'd had my most recent appointment schedule for a month in advance. I'd been assured that I'd be routed home the day before my scheduled appointment. I ended up having to cancel my appointment and didn't even make it home until the day after I was "guaranteed" to be there.
And oh joy, I get to deal with it all over again next month, for the date I had to reschedule my appointment for. I am not even gonna tell them to "guarantee" it so I don't have to get pissed when it gets all screwed up. I just scheduled off two days ahead of when I need to be home so I might actually make it on-time! haha
So that's what the past few weeks has taught me. Oh, and I should add that I've recently had the electronic logging unit installed in my truck and while the first few days I'm sure I screwed up a few times, I'm starting to get the hang of it and I actually think I can say I like it pretty well. :o) So yay!
Well, it's about time to finish relaxing and enjoying my time off. I have to hit the road again tomorrow. All play and no work makes a poor Gi-Gi... it's time to go make some money!
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