rant

ok, i've vented....i'm better now....bring on the weekend!!.....

cincinnati

tgif......one of the hazards of running the way we do is that you tend to loose track of time.....even tho you date your log every day, the days tend to run together sometimes and you, or at least i, do forget what day of the week it is......i guess it's because we aren't waiting anxiously for friday to come so that we'll be off for the weekend......but this week i can truly say i am thankful this is friday....this has been such a hectic and frustrating week......wednesday was the worst.......i hate to admit it, but i have a trucker's vocabulary......i try really hard to keep it reigned in, but it's hard to do when you're in an enviornment of hearing it constantly......at customers, on the radio, in the truckstops......one of my top resolutions on jan 1 was to work on at least toning down the trucker talk, and after wednesday i can say that i have probably come close to depleteing my entire year's alotment of cusswords, so i should be virtually profanity free for the rest of 09!......back in my extension homemaker days i took a number of classes on dealing with difficult and diverse people and several times in my trucking career i have had to put those lessons to use, but none so much as wednesday.....we attempted to deliver in cincinnati wednesday morning.....when i pulled into the customers lot i had a bad feeling about it....it's one thing to not be able to get straight in a customer's dock, but when you can't even pull on their lot straight, you kinda know it's gonna be bad.....i won't go into all the gory details.....let's just suffice to say that it got down-right ugly....to the point i asked for my paperwork back, informed them i got paid whether they took their crap or not and sealed the doors back up on my trailer........we did end up delivering it at another business's dock who told us, rather disgustedly, that they have to unload that customer's freight all the time because of the condition of their lot..........following that fiasco, we headed north towards dayton, where we were going to pick up another load that evening, and stopped just outside of cincinnati at the pilot for a shower and a sandwich......now, we eat subway on the average of 3-4 times a week......all over the country.....coast to coast....top to bottom......brad almost always gets the philly steak and cheese footlong.....four trays of meat...he has them put three on the sandwich and takes the fourth to go in the tray for babygirl.....well, evidently the women at subway are related to the guys at the customers we had just delivered at coz they proceded to tell us they could not do anything like that.....excuse me???????????????it's not like we were asking for something extra or difficult.......when i explained we always got it that way so we'd have a little treat for the dog, 2 of the women told us they were gonna send out a company-wide email informing other subways that it was against company policy to divide the meat that way......what????????????....i was like, yeah, i'm sure an email from the two of you are gonna scare the bejeezes outta them........still reeling from the nastiness of the previous stop, it took all the strength i could muster to keep from going over the counter ......i'm pretty sure that brad thought he was as close to seeing me open up a can of whoopass as he'd ever been......what ever happened to the customer being right.????...about keeping the customer satisfied.....?????.
......i told brad i think we need to stay away from southwestern ohio for awhile......i know you're probably shaking your heads.......looking back on what i've written, i get it if you don't get it....i guess it's one of those things where you just had to be there......although i really wish we hadn't been.......

welcome to my blog....i've wanted to start one for along time now, and was inspired by a facebook friend and fellow truckdriver to jump in and give it a try.....i hope you enjoy riding along with us from day to day....."us" includes me, ruth ann....my husband, brad and our "alternative child" , a 9 & 1/2 lb min pin named babygirl......we drive a tractor and trailer for us xpress, a fairly large trucking company based out of chattanooga, tn and we run all 48 contiguous states and canada, hauling a variety of freight from fed ex to electronics to farm equipment to farm products to victoria's secret....very diverse....always interesting.......

today we are running thru pennsylvania on our way to cincinnati, ohio. ...we loaded in swedesboro, nj.....this is a light load, about 20,000 lbs. and we are always happy about that!....we have been in alot of snow lately and although the roads are clear, the temperature keeps dropping...(it's down to a balmy 18 right now) and we have snow flurries....

we've been riding along listening to all the inauguration events on cnn.....this is some day for america.....i say that, not because i'm a big obama supporter, but because i am 'so not' a bush fan......i am happy to see a democrat back in the white house.....he was not my choice....i'm still a hillary girl....but we have him now .....and i hope that everyone will pray for his success at keeping even half of what he has promised to do for our country.....i am willing to tuck away my misgivings about him for now and give him the benefit of the doubt and a chance to prove that he is more than just a good line of rhetoric......i believe it is our responsibility, as americans, to offer up our support with an open mind and a faithful heart to our leaders, as well as it is also our reponsibility to keep vigil that they remain honest and true to the promises they made to us.....
however it plays out, it is certain that the next four years will be an interesting ride.......