Ohhh what a week

So we return from our Thanksgiving weekend camping trip. Life is good as we head for home. However the closer we get to home the more I feel like I am starting to come down with something. By the time I get the trailer backed into the driveway, all I want to do is rest. I never even unhooked it. I parked it, drained the fresh water and all the lines (freeze protection) and went in the house.

By 6pm I knew I was not going to make work on Monday. So I called one of my dispatchers at home and let him know I was going to sit out Monday. I loaded up on Nyquil and hit the sheets about 730pm. I slept fairly well until about 8am. I ended up sitting out Tuesday as well. Just was not in the cards.

Wednesday I returned to the working class. Not feeling 100% by any means I knew I could function and get the job done. Poor proper planing ahead of time by a couple of dispatchers led to one of the worst days I have had in a LONG time.

Up @3:30am, out of the driveway before 5am. Spend 45 minutes digging out a usable trailer in our yard. Then be at our rail facility by 7am to load. On the road for Hubbard,Oregon by 730am.
I make a pit stop in Castle Rock,WA for a bit to eat and thump the tires. All is fine.

At 11:15am I pull through the South bound scale on 99E in Hubbard,OR. On come the park light. I meet the scale master about 1/2 way between the scale house and my truck. He says I have a flat tire. We he was right. However it was more then a typical flat. It was a ruined driver tire with a 3" wide x 3/8" think piece of steel through the face of the tire. Well at this point I'm "out of service" for almost 3 hours. Only 5 minutes from where I was supposed to deliver.

I get the tires replaced and the load delivered. I call in and head for our facility in Vancouver,WA where I am to meet another of out trucks that has went and loaded my North bound load for me.

Arriving @ Vancouver I find Harold (he drives my other truck) in the yard (pouring down rain no mind you) trying to trans-load some material for the driver that is still out loading my load. I jump on a fork lift and we work on this load. By the time we got done, it was almost 630pm and we were SOAKED to the bone and COLD. Needless to say I was out of hours at this point and was not going to make it home. To top it off the driver with my load was no where in site. So off to a motel I go with no change of clothes and a bad attitude.

I got a room and was able to sleep maybe 4 hours in very small stints between coughing and the noisy heater in the room.

My 5am wake up call comes and I feel more tired then when I arrived at the motel 10 hours before. I shower and head back to our Vancouver facility. The load I am to bring North in now in the yard. I proceed to tie it down and head for Auburn,WA where my first drop is.

By 11:15am I am in Auburn dropping 6 of the 24 units on my trailer. This went well! Things must be looking up! I finish off the load by delivering the balance to our Seattle warehouse. Then to our main yard for fuel and tomorrows dispatch.

Once in the main yard I turn in my paperwork. Giving the out of service citation from the prior day to our safety and compliance dude. The I hand in my motel bill to the boss. He comes uncorked thinking a flat tire from road debris is in no way his fault. Well no it's not, however it is not my fault either as I don't run crap over for the heck of it. Had it been a trailer the situation would have been the same. I would have been out of service and a tire would have to be replaced. Keep in mind the lease I have with them states that the company pays for all flat repairs and that I pay for tire replacements on my equipment.

Well after some harsh words and a little yelling I finally convince him that even if I didn't have a flat, I would still have run out of hours. Because the trailer I needed for the North bound load was over 2 hours behind me (due to poor proper planning by dispatch) and I would have never made it back to Vancouver with the load before the truck that loaded it for me. So in the end I would have still been out of hours in Vancouver and in need of a motel room. Hind site being 20/20 I think the boss was pushing my buttons. I have known him for over ten years and we know how to push each others buttons! Some of the people I work with will roll over and let other walk all over them. Me and a few others will not. Unfortunately my boss is one of the few that does not like to roll over very easy!

Well now its Friday and I am on the verge of another chit house day. I have been trying to get a load loaded for almost 2 hours at this point and can't see being en route to Portland for at least another hour.

The bonus to being gone one night unexpectedly is the wife and puppies were happy to have me home.