attitude adjustment time
Here I am farther east than I'd ever like to be, with intentions of heading further east in the morning. Such is the life of a professional driver eh? Got 4 hours and change of driving in the morning before my drop, then 3 hours to my next load, then I gotta grind out the balance of my 11 heading west again. 1600 miles west - woohoo! I still enjoy the driving, but man this shit has really gotten to me lately. I was in a total down mood for a couple of days and couldn't snap the fuck out of it. Talking with the BGF was more whining and bitching than actually talking 
So here's why.
A few days ago I found myself in Meridian Mississippi, 7 and a half hours into a fresh load. Awesome drive time, awesome load. Got a break for a pee and a coffee, got back on the highway, and promptly broke down. The truck, not me. Without going into details, I had to walk the shoulder of the highway for 3 miles to get a cell phone signal. The tow truck picked me up then we picked up the truck and got towed down the road a bit to a dealership where I spent the night and bulk of the next day. Finally got another trip and had more electrical problems with the truck, so I ended up in a terminal for maintenance. That ended and I waited the rest of that day for a trip. And I did some math.
Did I do this one already?
I might have. She's got a great voice. Anyway I heard the song again when searching for a station while the consignee unloaded me one tiny little piece at a time and figured I'd put it up here. Took the bastards 4 hours to do what they're supposed to do in less than 2. ALMOST couldn't make my next pickup on time, but I did. Now here I sit in a tiny little truck stop in bumfuck nowhere. Thinking maybe I'll go get a Sonic burger or maybe not. Trying to get stuff done on a client's web but hitting a mental wall so fuck it - I googled Ms Perri's video.
Almost forgot about that thing 
Got about 1500 paid miles so far, and of course a wee bit more logged. The 3 Rs of truck driving: Regulations, Restrictions, Rules. Follow all of 'em and you get to keep you job. The 3 Ds of truck driving: Don't kill anyone, Don't crush anything, Deliver on time. Do all of 'em and you get to make more money tomorrow. The 3 Ts of truck driving: Tits, Tits, Tits. 
Here we go!
me, by me, via cellphone Beginning of a great adventure, or just another day? Both I guess. I mean, I've been after this truck driving thing for quite a while now and seriously want/need to get out of factory work, so maybe this is like something big ... for me. OTOH it's just another day. The earth, moon, planets, sun, stars, and me - we're all just one day older and one day closer to our own personal end-game. Yeah. Just another day
FINALLY got my training done to my satisfaction. Backing up a tractor trailer is not something that comes easy to me. Driving is no problem - it's just 70 feet of vehicle checking in between 30 and 80 thousand pounds. But putting it into the space it belongs is the tricky part. Dunno how many hours and miles with Werner, then hours and miles with Swift. Much better company now, but I think Werner treated drivers better. Anyway something like 530 hours on the drive line so figure roughly 29,000 miles? I got almost all the data, just haven't done anything with it.
First trip solo: Phoenix AZ to Snowflake AZ with what is alleged to be 43,684 pounds of stuff. Dunno what stuff, not supposed to talk about it anyway, and the weight is probably not accurate. They gotta get me an empty, then I go trade an empty for a full then drive off to Snowflake then trade a full for an empty. Thus begins the game: drop & hook, drop & hook, drop & hook. Repeat until I don't need money anymore.
Oh and me and Lori are an item again