Flying South

As usual, there were "technical difficulties" on Monday during the pick ups ... I arrived early at the 2nd appointment ... so they made me an hour late for the 3rd, 4th, and 5th appointments. I was supposed to be at the 5th appointment by 4:00 p.m. I arrived at 5:00 p.m. ... Vitality Foods is vindictive when it comes to late arrivals. They said, "You will have to wait out on the street. We will come get you." I checked after 2 hours and they said again, "You will have to wait." 5 hours after arrival, they put me in a door ... an hour and 10 minutes later (11:10 p.m.) they gave me my paperwork and said I could go. The street was deserted ... no cars, no other trucks ... nothing. Appointment 6 was to have been at 6:00 p.m. ... closes NLT 9:00 p.m. So I picked it up at 6:00 a.m. on Tuesday ... and was 5 hours late for the appointment in Indianapolis. Which they didn't load after I paid them $100 for being late ... because they said the trailer was too full and they wouldn't move anyone else's pallets ... unless I paid them $10 per pallet ... expecting $200 so they could unload past the dry section and bulkhead to get into the frozen section where they would have to put their product.

And the load for next week is canceled ... flash impression ... I got the impression we weren't getting another load.

NOW FOR THE FUN STUFF:
I was fueling when another truck arrived ... a red Vovlo, from Council Bluffs, Iowa. The name of the company was "Old Buzzard Express" and the truck number was OU-812 (for those who don't get it ... pronounce each letter and number seperately) GROAN! But true!

A lady who worked at the highest levels of the U.S. Dept of Education ... wrote an interesting book on the dumbing down of America ... click on the link and go read it for free ...
link

There's a fascinating store called "Rosebud Antiques" in La Grange, IL that I drove past on Monday ... what got my attention was all the antique bicycles out front ...
link2

More gardening

Here's a shot of the garden mess ... we planted more than the square footage will sustain without getting overgrown. YES, we now have crook-neck squash. In fact, we'd better pick one today before it really gets huge. Little tomatoes we've got ... one white egg plant ... lots of basil ... and the squash plants are covering everything they can ... while the tomato vines go racing across the grass.

Delivery Appointment

Ha! Ha! You'll love this ...

I arrived in Jacksonville, FL last night for my usual Thursday morning delivery. This morning they tell me I am NOT on the schedule ... inside, I hear that I was supposed to have been here yesterday morning (Wednesday). NOT POSSIBLE.

I had a pick up on Tuesday morning at 0800 a.m. I arrived and checked in at 0745 ... they finished loading at 1018 ... and I got my paperwork at 1045. I drove for 3.75 hours before stopping for half an hour to fuel, get a sandwich, and go to the bathroom. I then drove for 6.25 hours to lower Alabama (657 miles total for the day) ... arriving at 2130/ 9:30 p.m. ... that leaves only 15 minutes of driving time out of the 30 minutes of work time left for that day. Add the 10-hr sleep period ... takes us to 0730 a.m. Central time on Wednesday. It takes an additioonal 5 hours to drive to Jacksonville, FL ... arriving NLT 1230 p.m. (1:30 p.m. Eastern) ... which is about 2 hours too late to deliver on Wednesday. Who in their right mind scheduled that appointment for Wednesday? ... someone who thought I have a 100 mph truck and there are no speed limits on the highways?

Adventures in Trucking

Heading North up I-65 near the AL & TN border ... I started hearing advertisements on the CB radio for the "Boobie Bungalow" at TN exit 6.
South of Nashville, two motocycle riders were heading South ... when in the middle of moderate traffic ... one of them popped a wheelie and drove 100 feet with the bike almost vertical.
Monday it took 15.5 hrs to deliver the peanuts ... then drive all over Chicago to pick up from 7 locations (really just 6, but the 1st location was the wrong address on my paperwork ... they redirected me to their other plant ... 15 miles away ... in morning "rush hour" traffic). Then drive on to Indianapolis, IN (for an early Tuesday morning pickup there) ... Monday was a LONG day.

Yes, the people who scheduled the appointments for Monday knew that it would take longer than the legal 14 hrs to do the delivery (0600 a.m.) and pickups (last one scheduled at 1800/6 p.m. but realistically didn't happen until 2100/9 p.m.). Then a mandatory 10 hr rest period ... There is no way you can get from the NW Chicago area (Itasca) to the SE corner of Indianapolis by 0700 a.m. Central time ... and be legal (that's why drivers call the D.O.T logbooks ... "comic books"). By rights ... I should have been parked at pickup site #5 from 8 p.m. until 6 a.m. ... then drive to Itasca on Tuesday to pick up #6 ... then Indianapolis would have to be rescheduled ... probably for Wednesday ... followed by an illegal 18 hr drive to deliver in Jacksonville on Thursday ...
Just no winning some days ...
Intermittent blasting rain storms on the way South.
:-p

Fire Ants!

Friday, when I went to pick up this load of peanuts ... part way there I had to pick up my feet off the floor because I was being swarmed by fire ants!!! Seems the spot where the truck was parked for a week, was in tall grass that reached up to the sides of the fuel tanks. The little buggers thought that was a highspeed roadway to a wonderful place. There were thousands of them. I blew a hundred or so out using the air hose while loading. Then held my feet off the floor all the way back. Liberal doses of Amdro and Hot Shot Roach & Ant spry seem to have made them disappear somewhere ... maybe they are just waiting in the walls ...

There was a tall skinny person I talked with today who has been suffering with pain in his hip and down his left leg for the last 3 weeks. TIME FOR ACCUPRESSURE! I recommended Bonnie Prudden's books ... 1) Pain Erasure ... 2) Myotherapy. I'll bring him a bodo next week for his use to relieve the pain.