Bidding over, stress gone.

Last week we were bidding on routes for the next year. This is my first time doing this and I never realized how stressful it was. I couldn't sleep worth a damn all last week and the stress caused my eczema to flair up worse than ever.

I was the 64th to pick out of 65 drivers so I was really surprised when my first 2 picks were available. They both show as paying $500 and there's no Walgreens on either of them.

My third pick however wasn't good. I wanted a load that went out on Tuesday and when I called the latest updates it reported that there were several loads on Tuesday still available that would fit with my Wednesday load so I was kind of excited. When I called in to place my bid, the guy told me that there was only 1 Tuesday load available and it wouldn't work with my Wed. load. He said there was still 2 Monday loads left and I looked at my route book to see these loads...uggg! Both were horrible. They didn't pay much and they would take 20+ hours to complete but I didn't have a choice...or so I thought.

When I came in Thur. night for my load, I picked up the updated print out of the loads picked and I studied it and realized that there were still 2 loads available on Tue. that would work with my Wed. load. I talked to our manager and then we went to see the guy who is running the bid process. He remembered telling me there was only one load available on Tue. and it wouldn't work with my other load but he also added that there were 2 other loads, either would work for me. I told him I wanted to swap the Mon. load for one of the Tue. loads. The trans manager nodded his head in approval and the switch was made.

The Tue. load I got isn't the greatest but it's on the day I wanted plus it pays better than the one I thought I was getting stuck with.

I am happy now because I got 3 good paying loads for the week and a schedule I am happy with. Oh, and I have finally been able to sleep.

Route Bidding

So, it's that time of year again at my job and I'm finally getting my own routes again. Doesn't seem like a big deal but it is...really. When I first got my CDL and started driving for this company, I had my own routes. They were driver-helper routes meaning I was the driver (paid on a formula) and I had a helper (who gets paid by the hour). These driver-helper routes only work out good if you have a good helper, unfortunately since they are paid by the hour, many of them aren't in much of a hurry. There are a couple that would drag their feet to get 40 hours in 3 days and then have 4 days off. It's really not a good combination on time sensitive routes.

Anyway, I did this for 2 years and then I took a route that went to Georgia twice a week for almost 2 years. After this I was on whats called the extra board. With the economy bottoming out, upper management had to make changes. They eliminated loads by combining them, putting more stops on the trucks. In some cases it more than doubled the amount of stops going out on a single truck and it eliminated teams. This allowed them to lay some drivers off. Luckily I had enough seniority to dodge the 2 rounds of layoffs but not enough seniority to have my own routes. Being on the extra board sucks in so many ways it can't be described. You are always on call, you can't make plans with family or friends, you can't do anything other than sit by the phone and wait for them to call...or not. I can't tell you how many times I've argued and fought with them over this because you aren't getting paid to sit at home and wait for a call that may or may not come. There were many times, seems almost daily I was ready to quit.

Last October we got a new account and they did a temporary re-bid. I was the #2 guy on the extra board so I got with the #1 guy and we were able to put some scraps together and get a route. It wasn't a great route, long hours and fairly low pay but it was a schedule.

This morning started a new route bid that will last for a year. When I came back from vacation, I found that I had made the bid. I'm the second to last pick so I'm not expecting all my loads to be great but I should be able to pick 1 good load, 1 decent load, and 1 shitty load. I could be wrong and end up with 3 shitty loads but who knows.

I'm shooting for 3 loads, Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. That will give me Tuesday night off with my wife, Saturday (or Sunday) for me to enjoy my hobby, and Sunday (or Saturday) to spend with my kids.

I've tried to get my kids interested in my hobby but it involves 2 things that neither of them like very much...being outside and physical activity. Kids these days...but that can be another post for another day.

My time to place my first round bid is 8:45 tomorrow morning...wish me luck.

More bad luck

Apparently my bad luck didn't stop with my truck breaking down twice last weekend and having a tooth pulled Monday morning.

As I was driving back from the Keys Thursday I needed to make a pit stop at the service plaza, everything seemed normal. Once I got back to the yard I had to bee-line straight to the bathroom...not so normal.

I stopped at the store to buy something for dinner and while at the store, I started to feel very weak and hands start shaking. I knew this wasn't good but I pressed on.

I got home and went straight to the bathroom again. I kinda felt normal after that and continued cooking dinner. The wife and I ate (she called in sick to work Thursday night because of an infection) and I went down hill rapidly.

I started burning up with fever then I would be freezing and then cold sweats. This cycle was constantly repeated. Dinner came back up. I tried taking pepto bismo and it came back up. Even water at first wouldn't stay down.

For the rest of Thursday night and all day Friday, I was passed out on the couch, only waking up to go to the bathroom. I woke up this morning without feeling any better and decided to call in sick to work.

Now, I feel marginally better. Fever gone and no vomiting but still the semi-frequent trip to the bathroom although there is nothing to come out.

I've started eating crackers and so far so good. The wife is going to bring jello and Gatorade home when she gets off work. I've lost 11 lbs since Thursday and I'm sure it's mostly due to dehydration.

No pics to show on this post as I'm sure you wouldn't want to see them anyway.

The worst weekend I can remember in a long time

It started when I went to the beach Saturday to hit the negative tide (the tide goes out farther than normal exposing more of the beach) to do some metal detecting. I found some deep buried pull tabs, the old beaver tail type, a cool piece of sea glass, a piece of mystery metal that I'll have to clean up to identify, and one lonely clad quarter. No luck with the treasure hunting so I head home at sunset.

I'm cruising on I-95 at 70 mph and my truck sputters and dies, fuel pump went out. I coast over to the shoulder at exit 173, Malabar/Palm Bay. Thankfully I have a smartphone with internet access and I do a local search for towing companies, Luke's Towing was the closest so I give them a call. I tell them where I am and that I need to be towed to my mom's in St. Cloud unless they knew of a local shop that was still open at 7:30 on a Saturday night. No shops open and the towing bill would be $225. Not very happy but not much I could do.

I get to mom's house around 9:30 and discuss Sunday's repairs with my stepdad. Lucky for me, my brother's truck is there for my son to use when he has to babysit his cousins so I have a ride to my house where my medicine is, otherwise I would have just stayed at mom's.

My stepdad calls me up Sunday morning and thinks it would be easier to remove the bed rather than drop the nearly full gas tank. I agree because I did a little research online when I got home Saturday night and the majority of what I found said removing the bed was the best way to go.

Removing the bed was far easier than dropping the tank (we did this on his Tahoe 2 summers ago). The bed was kind of heavy but the 2 of us were able to do it. $290 later, my truck is back together and running good. I meet up with my mom and kids at the local fair and spend a couple hours looking at the exhibits. Driving back to mom's house for dinner, I get a loud bang followed by a continuous banging/grinding noise. My first thought was my u-joint went out and the driveshaft dropped.

Of course that wouldn't be the problem because it's too easy and inexpensive to fix. My rear end is finished, differential is toast. I pull into the parking lot of a small plaza and call my stepdad. He calls his friend that he loaned his car hauler trailer to and finds out that he is done with it so he can come pick it up. That saved me another towing bill thankfully.

This repair is beyond our knowledge and mechanical capabilities though so I take out what I need for work and the truck stayed on the trailer so my stepdad can take it to the shop in the morning. 

The mechanic takes the differential cover off and just as suspected, it is mush. If he ordered new parts and rebuilt the rear end it would cost about $2500. He was able to find a used one with a one year warranty for $800 and labor would cost $400, a savings of slightly more than 1/2 for a brand new one.

The truck is in the shop still as I right this and I'm still borrowing my brother's truck but hopefully I can get mine back by close of business Friday.

My hobbies

I briefly touched on one of my hobbies a few posts ago but I'll go a little more in depth now.

I enjoy going to the beach and metal detecting. Some may call it treasure hunting and that sort of fits the description as one man's trash is another man's treasure. I do most of my "hunting" at the beach mostly because there is a higher chance of finding goodies. I've done a little "dirt digging" but thats been limited to my parent's property.

I have quite a bit of money invested in the hobby and there is always that chance that I could find some gold jewelry or lost spanish treasure that will pay my investment back. Thats not why I do it though. I do it to relax, relieve stress, and get a little exercise.

Metal detecting requires money up front to get started in the hobby and you can stay at under $500 for a detector and other accessories but it can quickly get into the thousands with upgrades and multiple machines for different types of "hunting". I personally have about $3000 in just metal detectors, not including any of the accessories. All total, I would say somewhere around the $4000 mark and I plan on getting another detector for use in the water pretty soon.

Once you have the equipment to go metal detecting, the cost to participate in the hobby is minimal with batteries and gas to get to your hunting location. Like I said though, it can pay you back.

My other hobby is guns/target shooting.

For me, going to my parent's property or a shooting range and firing off a couple hundred rounds from one of my pistols, rifle, or shotguns is a quick way to relieve stress. I love to shoot but don't care much for hunting. I'm not some tree-hugging animal rights activist or anything like that, I just like to shoot and when you hunt, you can spend an entire day out in the woods without firing a shot. I'll let my step dad do the hunting and I'll gladly eat the kill but I'll stick with target shooting.

The down side to shooting is it requires a hefty cost up front and a hefty cost every time you want to shoot, bullets ain't cheap anymore. Shooting helps hone your skills though and keeps you current on your skills. If you're a gun owner whether it's for target shooting or hunting, it is a good idea to keep up on your knowledge and use of firearms. Even if you only bought 1 gun for home defense, you should go to a range several times a year to stay proficient with the weapon. Hopefully you'll never have to use it in self defense but if it ever comes down to it, you better know how to use it.

That's my thoughts for the day. Vacation is over and I didn't win the lottery so it's back to work tonight.

Vacation...over

Well, as per usual my vacation has flown by way too fast. I have one more shot at my redneck retirement plan before going back to work on Monday.

I don't really have anything to post about today so I'll leave you with this picture I took at the Osceola Parkway Walmart:

Yes, that is a guy wearing a skirt.