I picked up another load in Modesto (after dropping my empty at the
terminal and reporting it for maintenance and grabbing another empty)
and drove down to L.A. I stopped in the late afternoon so that I could
get up around 2am and arrive at my delivery at 6am (and not worry about
where the heck to park overnight in the city). It was snowing just
north of L.A. Totally not expecting that.
Delivered on-time and then dropped my empty at the terminal and headed to the driver's lounge to do some much-needed laundry.
I got a load out yesterday. It's going to Tennessee, which is in the
general area of home. Still very much hoping to get home for Christmas.
I was told that if you worked Thanksgiving, you were promised hometime
at Christmas. That is apparently total crap. I did put in for a few
days off at Christmas (at the beginning of November). Very much hoping
to get there.
I had to put chains on for the first time today. In Arizona. Totally
not expecting that either. Was delayed about five hours by heavy snow
and several wrecks ahead of me. So I spent my afternoon eating Gummi
Bears in my truck with my rust-stained Oompa-Loompah hands, which I'm
sure was somewhat less than sanitary. Baby wipes were no match for
rust. They did eventually get traffic moving, but very few trucks
bothered with chains (even though there were so many trucks either in
the ditch or on the road, just spinning their tires and going nowhere).
So every few hundred feet, another truck would get stuck or slide off
the road and the traffic back-up would begin anew. There were signs
coming up the mountain warning that chains and/or 4x4 were highly
recommended. There weren't any places to pull off and chain up though.
It was really hard to find a place to take the chains off once I got to
a place where the road had been plowed and no new snow was falling.
Any rest area or truck stop was full to the brim and the shoulders
hadn't been plowed, and weren't generally wide enough for a truck
anyway.
About the time I finally was able to get out of the mountains and find a
truck stop (the first few were way overcrowded with people waiting out
the storm), they closed the road. After I'd parked, but before I'd
turned of the engine, we got a qualcomm message telling us that I-40
East in Arizona through the mountains was closed because of weather and a
wreck. I'm surprised it took them that long to close the road.
About an hour before I stopped, I got this warning: headlight low beam
right short circuit. It wasn't dark at that point, so I figured I'd
check it as soon as I'd stopped. I have no idea whether that's a fuse
or a bulb issue or what. I looked at the fuse panel, but I don't see
anything labeled as headlights. There's no one in the shop on Saturday
nights, but there should be somebody there in the morning that I can
ask. I know absolutely nothing about headlights and I'm not driving it
this way because the last thing I need (or can afford) is a ticket. And
knowing my luck, the other headlight would decide to throw in with the
first one. Mutiny!
And so here I sit. I could do a lot worse than a truck stop with hot
showers, food and wifi. I could literally be stuck in a ditch
somewhere. Very glad I'm not. It's snowing here and in New Mexico. I
think I'm channeling the White Witch of Narnia. Winter seems to follow
me wherever I go. Always winter and never Christmas. Sorry, folks!
I got to watch the news while I was eating dinner. The school shooting
in Connecticut is just horrific. My heart goes out to them.
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