Omaha, NE

I haven't been able to catch most of the presidential candidates' debates, but from what little I've been hearing from snippets via NPR I've only heard from the Republican side.

I wish I could be catching more. But the funny thing is one report mentioned something about how McCain and Romney aren't worried about Guiliani because they think he's not going to win because of his liberal views on abortion and gay marriage. However, at one debate Guiliani mentioned something about 9-11 and he got the crowd behind him. That's awesome. That's like his "San Dimas High School football rules."

Like, "...unlike my opponent's pro-choice views."

"Well, uh, since 9-11 happened, seems as though any choice is the right one."

"Fuck! He pulled that card again!"

Guiliani: 9
Romney/Mccain: 0

Guiliani: "Next"

Princeton, IL

I'm starting to get this good attitude towards Chicago. I don't hate it as much and am glad to be going there a lot since I like the city itself and Margaret & Jeff live there and there's a terminal there and I'm getting to know the city while it's not snowy and detoury so if I'm still driving come winter, it won't be as bad as last one.

There's a certain thing with certain cities where I'll either have good luck or I have bad luck. Very rarely do I fall somewhere in between. An example would be my last stint in Los Angeles. Another example would be my last visit to Chicago.

I had a delivery to Aurora, IL to drop the trailer there and pick up an empty one and head to a pick up down the road by 1200 and deliver it to Pontiac, MI the next day. My plan was to drop the load, head to the other one, get loaded, then head to terminal to shower, eat, get provisions, and call Jeff to see what he's doing.

What actually happenned was that I went to drop the load and they tell me they have no idea what delivery it is that I have and to call my dispatcher, which I do but he's busy so during a period of two hours I talk to several different people and they re-set my delivery for the next morning at 0700. Fine. Only they want to know if I can make it to the next appointment I had to which I tell them I cannot as I would need an empty trailer and if I need to look for one, in Chicago, it could take at least two hours and then I'd have to go there and that time is in just over an hour at this point.

So they tell me to hold tight and see what's going on and they send me a message that says to drop the trailer at the chicago terminal. So I'm wondering what about the next load but leave just because the sooner I get there the sooner I can find out what the fuck's going on.

I get there and call my fleet manager who I actually get ahold of. He tells me the next load is not on me anymore and I ask since I'm not on anything now, if I can keep the load I have and deliver it the next morning so I don't have to spend the next 10 hours looking for an empty trailer for whatever load I get next. He said he'll see what he can do.

So I'm in limbo, which I hate because I'm a nervous wreck in situations like that. i can't read, I can't do anything until I know what's going on. I don't like not being in control of what's going on.

We shower, go get groceries, and season two of "Arrested Development." Of course I don't get to do the load so I have to drop that trailer and look for another one, which there isn't.

I let him know and he kindly found one for me at a place 12 miles away. Dice! The other thing is that the next load is at 1100 the next day 12 miles away from the terminal with two pick ups and heading to Oconomowoc, WI. Nice. Everything finally seems to be falling into place.

All this good luck made me forget about Chicago not being signed well and the fuck-head drivers and then the rest of the bad lucks just rolls its way in.

I wake up early the next morning and decide, "Oh, I'll just do a quick run to get the trailer, since it's only 12 miles away, then get back, brush my teeth, eat, and get some coffee, then relax until my runs come.

Of course the 12 miles takes an hour to get to. On top of dealing with the fuck-head Chicago drivers who laws and logic either don't apply or they don't give a fuck.

so I get to the place and there's a sign that says, "Jewel/Osco drivers only. All other drivers use 15th Ave entrance." So I go to 15th avenue and am looking for signs to the place as I didn't have any directions for that one and it's not as if it's just on the side of where I was; it was a few blocks away and you can't see the place from that street.

Of course there are no signs so I have to use my navigational skills to follow in the direction of the place, geographically. I see a bunch of trucks in a line and go there, hoping it's the place because I have no clue, as there are no signs and it's a little off from where it should be, but yet still is in the right possible area.

It ends up being the 15th Avenue entrance so I wait in this long, moving like molasses line, and, like it always happens when I'm in a long, slow moving line, right when I'm about to get to the front, a security car comes up and asks me if I'm picking up an empty trailer. I say yes. He informs me that I'm in the wrong line and I should go to the other entrance. The one I first went to that said it was for Jewel/Osco drivers only. There was no mention of anything like, "Unless you're picking up an empty, then use this entrance."

so I go there and they check me in and send me to another check in like the bureaucratic fucks these places tend to be. After 15 minutes there he tells me where to go on the map I'm holding and says and uses his pen to direct me where to go. The directions are along a red line with an arrow that a fucking four year old, retarded foreigner could've navigated with. Then he says, "If it's empty you can take it. If not, you can't." This pissed me off for two reasons. 1) After an hour and forty-five minutes I may not have an empty. 2) If it's still loaded, why the fuck would I take it? What am I going to do, push all the freight out with my small broom and sneak out?

It was empty and that part turned out fine and so after three hours, I'm back at the terminal, hungry as fuck and needing coffee badly. We get back and head in to get some breakfast. I got a big coffee and a huge breakfast and went back to the truck to map out my run.

The pick-up is 12 miles away and the second one is right down the street. So my new plan is to get the loads and come back to the terminal, shower, and call Jeff to see what he's doing.

I get to the shipper at 1045 for my 1100 appointment. After signing in and waiting 15 minutes for someone to finally acknowledge me, I'm helped. She tells me that the pick-up number I have is for a load that's already being loaded to another driver from another company and that I should call my dispatcher and find out what's happenning.

I call him and he's busy and I can't get through so someone else helps me and tells me he'll call me back. A half hour later I call and he answers again and says that that department must be out to lunch and to wait until after 1200 and call back. I wait until 1230 and call back and get to the department and she acts surprised like this is the first they've heard about this, so I have to explain everything all over again.

She calls the shipper and talks to someone and conference them in and they said, "Go in and talk to Gail. She said they figured out what was going on as soon as you walked out but you never came back in."

This pissed me off. I said, "Are you kidding me? That was over two hours ago and I'm sitting right in front of their door. They couldn't have run out while I was walking out or come out to tell me!!!!..."

They said to go back in and I did and got even more pissed when I found out they only had to load one pallet. This is dumb. My next pick up was for 1300 and it was now 1320 and they closed at 1400. I had to go there and got there at 1430. I was loaded and done by 1400. If someone at the fucking detention center at my company was there and not their whole fucking entourage going to lunch at the same time, some fucker could've told me to go to the second shipper while they figure out what's going on at the other place and it all would've worked out well. Or if some bitch at the first shipper had sense enough to walk outside where I was parked right in front of their windowed door where the other office workers kept coming out to smoke then they could've told me then.

After all this shit, we decided to just get the fuck out of Chicago and battled the holiday traffic/regular chicago traffic/Friday traffic and crawled out way to Wisconsin.

I had a huge doughnut this morning and it was great. I didn't see any eclairs until later. It was in another case. It was $2.50. it was the size of my head, no kidding. I should've gotten it.

Carlisle, PA

Congrats to a one Mario Alderfer and Kathy Lowell on their engagement. At least as far as the last time I had talked to either one of them they were both still dating so I feel that it is safe to assume that it is to the other that the engagement is with. This is via a photo-text message from Kathy with a photo of an egagement ring on a hand that says, "We're engaged."

I was back in Chicago the other day and probably will again soon. Delivering a load tomorrow in the always pleasant New Jersey. Nothing like East Coast traffic through Philadelphia and the New Jersey Turnpike.

Speaking of the snowy egret, after Don Imus made that infamous comment about the Rutgers Women's Basketball team, the New Jersey Governor scheduled a meeting at his house or office to get an apologetic dialogue going between Imus and members of the Rutgers team. The Governor (or maybe it was the mayor of that town. I'm not sure, but I could find out) didn't make it, however. He was involved in a hit and run accident on the New Jersey Turnpike.

Not really a hit and run. But a truck did something wreckless that cause another car to swerve and hit the Governor's car and the got hit and the truck kept going. The Governor was seriously injured but has since recovered. The funny thing is that the Governor was issued a ticket for speeding and not wearing his seatbelt.

I was reading a biography of Joseph Smith entitled No Man Knows My History which is essentially the history of the Mormon church and it's a really in depth biography of him and the history of the church. It uses actual documents and stories and affidavits and mentions where things are based on skeptical accounts or rumors. It has everything to support the Mormons but things against them as well. It's funny because there was recently a thing on PBS about the Mormons as well and was this book and more, as it went into more details of the whole church history and its stance today.

It mentioned the book I was reading and the author of it was the niece of former church prophet David O. Mackay and she got excommunicated for the book.

That was one of the many things I didn't like about the church, having been grown up in it, was that you aren't allowed to question. Also, anything against the church in anyway was just because the people writing or saying things about it are against Mormons on a whole so they are biased and only the books and accounts put out by the church are reliable sources. Outside sources are okay as long as it's for the church.

I never really delved deep into it, but I always wondered, if the Mormons are always saying that their church is the one true church, why would they be afraid of the members questioning the church and researching other churches? If it were the true church, they shouldn't care because in the end wouldn't it lead them to their church?

If it's true, why would they hide certain things and deny other things and why would they prevent you from researching things? It's rather suspect to me that you are to believe this church to be true but cannot question why.

I like to know things for certain and just like researching anything I am interested in, I like to get both views, for and against, and then make my decision. I always hate one-sided opinions because you cannot truly understand whatever you're believing in if you only know one side. That's the problem with America as well. That's why I dont' watch Fox News to be informed. Only for entertainment. Being "Fair & Balanced" doesn't mean that because you have a view from both sides that means you're non-biased, because to be non-biased you have to be fair in letting both sides speak their views and hear them out.

And I'm not trying to break new ground with the views expressed here, it's just what I've been thinking about recently reading that book and seeing that documentary and my mom expressing to Jeanne about Mormon's and how I am a Mormon, even though I rarely went to church in high school because I scheduled myself to work on Sundays and haven't consistently gone to church then until now (I have gone several times like when I'm back home and am there on Sundays and when my brother and I went for some reason to satisfy my mom like five years ago, two times or so, and when my mom sent the missionaries to our place in LA and we humored them for a while until they wouldn't stop coming over and when we moved and someone sent them to our place and we just ignored them.

That was actually fun because once I was cooking dinner and I was listening to a Black Flag record, playing rather loudly, and the door knocked. I peeped out the eyehole and saw that they were missionaries. I didn't answer the door and turned the stereo down. The knocking persisted for 10 minutes. I kept laughing to myself. They finally left. This happened several more times (though not always while cooking and listening to Black Flag) with myself and my roommate and they finally stopped coming.

Well, I'm outs. Gonna watch something. I'm recording a MD and maybe will watch some "Henry Rollins Show" tonight. Saw the one with Chuck D and Jurassic 5 last night. Good shit.

Great Week

I was just told that some lady killed herself by jumping off the bridge onto the interstate. No dice.

On the happier side of things, despite Paul Wolfowitz resigning...I'm glad he did. I just don't like the guy so any discomfort that comes to him is happiness to me. He should've known better anyway, doing something like that and not thinking that a conflict of interest would ever come up. I'm sure, just being him, he did know and I just like the idea that anything he does is suspect.

I'm not one who likes when people die, but it was somewhat of a good thing to hear about Jerry Falwell. One less asshole spreading oppression and hatred cleverly disguised as God's word and forcing all that shit on everyone and brainwashing American citizens who eat that shit up with no sense of irony whatsoever. Two birds with one stone would've been a truer act of God. You know, Pat Robertson (elbow nudge).

Chicago, IL

In Chicago again. I'm not that against here anymore, especially since there's a good sized terminal here and a drop yard in Joliet and a big truck stop in Gary, IN. I like the terminal area and it's close to Jeff and Margaret, in case we're stuck here for getting the truck fixed or something.

I got a drop in Jersey due Monday morning and so I can take my time getting there. My plan was to pick up this load at the terminal and head out and just take my time. I ended up having to do some training videos that take an hour each. At least I got them done and I can still do either four or five hours of driving tomorrow and the same the next, or I could do a long haul tomorrow and a small one Sunday. We'll see.

Just ordered some Chinese. Steamed vegetables, Crab Rangoon, & this seafood medley. Thought of calling Jeff to see what they're doing but got a bunch of personal stuff to do and am a bit exhausted, so may just get the paperwork, bills, laundry, recording, writing, and some reading out of the way and then watch a movie and go to bed. Or something. Got to map my run and see where I want to get to by tomorrow and/or the next day.

One more week until home time.

Seymour, IN

Jukebox: "Harmony in My Head" Feburary 13, 2007

The only thing that's keeping my sanity in check right now is that I'm listening to Henry Rollins' B-Day radio show with his ever-impressive guest, the one and only Janeane Garafalo.

Right now is a demo version or live version of "Sheena is a Punk Rocker."

I'm trying to get directions/maps for the runs tomorrow and it's so slow. It's taking an average of 20 minutes per page. Tomorrow's run is a bunch of pick-ups ending up droppping off in Hammond, IN, which, pretty much, is a suburb of Chicago. I've been in Chicago a lot recently. Jeff and Margaret took us out to dinner the other night. Great night, just what we needed. It gets hard living the interstate lifestyle.

Anyhow, our cooler broke the other night and we got another one. The new one doesn't seem to be working, which is no problem except that we just bought a bunch of food that may go bad. If it's not cold in the morning, I'm going to exchange it.

I've been hitting the books a great deal and am happy about that. I got new ones to look forward to. It's such a great feeling.

Pittsboro, IN

Man, oh man. Can I catch a break sometime? I would like to think that through the laws of average that I could get a good streak in here somewhere.

After a rather relaxing weekend in Concord, NC, we were back on the road and got a quick, short run to unload and then another pick-up heading to Indianapolis, IN.

I got to the first drop-off early to get a good start on the day, which started off rather good. Only to be informed by the receiver that I'm supposed to have a scale ticket, which is something the person who picked the load up should've done prior and after the shipper and left it with the trailer upon dropping it off. But as it is, mother fuckers cannot follow simple instructions so I was left to find a scale, which the closest one happened to be 40 minutes away with no traffic.

Luckily, after the asshole who told me what I needed to do and left, a cool guy came and told me of a place he worked at down the road that would scale me there. It was about three miles away and saved me a lot of headaches.

I got back to be unloaded and it took them two and a half hours, thus backing me into a tight spot for the next pick up which is 130 miles away and giving me two hours and 15 minutes to get there, which is possible with no traffic and at top speed all the way.

Of course there's construction, get pulled into a backed up weigh station, travel through small cities on the highway, and pull into the wrong place and slowly have to back out of there.

I picked up the load a half hour late and need to scale and there are no scales nearby or on the way before the scale houses so I have to back track, luckily, there's one in South Carolina that wasn't too far off track. Once done, I struggle my way to the truck stop for the night through the North Carolina/Tennessee mountains which is non-stop incline/decline and windy turns for about 8 million miles.

Finish the day, shower, relax.

Next day I start early to drop off early and get a load out of Indianapolis. Everything goes fine until the driver side steer tire blows out. I held the wheel straight and gassed it and got it safely to the side of the interstate. I message the company that I need roadside assistance and they tell me to call the road service people and let them, the office, know when I'll be back on the road and if I'll make the delivery on time. No problem, I'm about two hours from Indianapolis and the deliver isn't due until one but they got it extended until two at which time the place closes, but it gives me four hours, so if it takes two hours for someone to come here and fix it, I'll get there right on time.

It takes me one hour to get through to road service. Then a half hour to set up the deal. Then an hour and a half for the road service guy to get there. The whole thing took up the entire four hours and now had to wait until this morning to deliver. I get close to Indianpolis and stop for the night. Through this whole mess, I forgot to change my availability which I had set for this morning at 5AM, so when I return from my shower, I have a pre-plan for a pick-up the next morning (today) between 8 & 9 AM and delivering in the heart of Chicago at 1730.

This doesn't work because my delivery can't be delivered until 8am at the earliest and needs to be unloaded and could take up to two hours or more. Also, I would be out of hours at the time of the delivery and even if I'm just dropping the trailer it would push me back, not to mention it's fucking Chicago and traffic there is insane, also not to mention that the truck stops and oases there fill up like by three or four pm. I mention this to the planners and they extend the pick up time to 12pm which I could do, but I ask them if I could deliver earlier else I will not have hours. It then took two hours for them to take the plan off of me, which they didn't even notify me, I had to call them and they said, rather non-chalantly, "Oh, it's been taken off you."

Finally, I can get some sleep. Went to bed, woke up early and went to the restroom to pee, brush my teeth, and wash my face. Open the bathroom door and there's a trucker there, shirt off, pants down to the ankles, and he's washing his notty bits. And when I open the door he's doing his thing and I just say hey and go pee. He didn't even flinch. I guess he's been doing it a while and it's just something he doesn't feel shy about. I wouldn't either if it were like a public shower, like a communal one, like at the gym, but not in a bathroom sink of a public restroom. I don't know, maybe I'm just getting my panties in a bunch.

So I'm here now and waiting for a new load. Gonna read some and do something, I guess.

Concord, NC

On a day off, sort of. It sucked because after having home time and then our truck being in the shop all weekend last weekend, we finally got another truck and spent the day moving stuff into it. Then we got a load to Florida, which was great aside from the fact that the air-condition didn't work. Not only did it not work, but after a while it starts blowing hot air.

This is not fun, especially going through 90-110 degree weather. It did this wierd thing, though, like on a rainy cool night, the air worked, but during hot weather, no dice. It was hard during the day and forced us to have to shower every night, all of which we had to pay for, and all our bottled water turned into hot water, which sucked. Then you can't sleep at night. You can't open the windows all the way, for safety reasons, and the vents allow little to no air to come through and if you turn the air (or fan, rather) on, it starts blowing hot air. So all night, you're sleeping naked and trying not to move at all, but any attempts at anything fails miserably and you're just like a wet sponge on the sheets waking up every hour and drinking tons of water and then having to pee, which became a good thing because I'd be so hot and sweaty and ready to pass out that I'd just throw my boxers on and pee outside the truck and the outside weather and wind would cool my wet body. Then back in the sauna to get five minutes of sleep.

So I got it so that we'd be routed to a terminal and get it fixed, which it is now and hopefully stays working because I hate having downtime because you're not getting paid and it's just like the last month at the other company where we were in the shop for days at a time every week and didn't make any money.

On NPR the other day, they had this fucker reviewing Spider-Man 3 and I don't know who this chump of a fuck is, but he gave it a bad review, which anyone's entitled to, but one of the reasons was that he pointed out at the absurdity of Peter's mental conflict and not knowing how to deal with it and the only way to deal with it was through an alien suit and dabble with the darkside a little. And aside from making it seem rather ridiculous a story line, he made it seem as if Sam Raimi and his writer's were so bereft of ideas that they came up with that ludicrous story line.

Uh, someone give that dumb fuck a comic book and tell him that that's in the goddamn comic and not just some fucking dumb-ass Hollywood, pulled-out-of-a-hat movie plot.