The Mad Vacationer Strike Again!

Guess who is going on vacation again?  Yep, you guessed it.  This girl!  Back to Mexico, I go.

Last year on Thanksgiving, my brother called me and said, “let’s do something crazy for Thanksgiving next year and go on a cruise.”  Of course, I was all for that.  It’s a total win for me.  I get to be on a cruise ship and someone else will be responsible for cooking dinner AND doing the dishes.  Plus, the average daily temperature for Cozumel is 77 and Progreso is 87 next week.  Can’t beat that, right?

My friends have reacted with “you’re going on vacation again?”  Darn tootin’, I am.  I’m the mad vacationer this year.   Nothing wrong with that when you consider how many years I didn’t get to take a vacation.

I am going to have to settle down after this.  I told my brother that I’ve been spending like I’m in Congress the second half of this year.  First, it was the motorcycle, then vacation #1.  I bought a new car right before vacation #1 because my other one died and now vacation #2. He told me if I was spending like I was in Congress I would have earned 50, spent 250 and handed the bill to my granddaughter.  Good point, but still.  I don’t think I’ve ever spent like this.

Happy Thanksgiving, my peeps.  Catch you when I get back!

What Did She Say?

                I swear, sometimes I make my job way harder than it needs to be.  It’s my nerdiness coming into play.  I try to be detailed when I’m explaining something to a trainee while also explaining the “why” behind it.  Sometimes I go a bit overboard.  There have been times when I’m hearing myself talk and think “This is making no sense.  I’m confusing myself.  There is no way she is understanding this.”  I’m usually right.

          Really, this job is not rocket science.  If I were to boil it down to the simplest form my job description is this: To pick up and deliver freight safely, efficiently and on time. 

How do we do that?  There really are only four things we need do.

    1.   Know where we’re going.

    2.   Know how to get there.

    3.   Manage our schedules so we can get there on time.

    4.   Stay in communication with dispatch.

Obviously, a lot of information needs to be factored: Appointment times, Hours of Service, routing, directions, fuel stops, etc, etc.

Most new drivers are very surprised to find out that there is a lot more to this job than sitting behind the wheel.  Driving is what we spend most of our time doing, but it’s really the least of what we do.  A lot of mental preparation goes on before we can even start driving.  I know it’s very overwhelming for new drivers and it doesn’t help when they have a nerd trainer who makes it harder than it has to be.

Get Off Your Butt!

                About a year ago, I wrote a post about the challenges of living healthy on the road.  In the past year it has not gotten any easier, but I don’t think it’s gotten any harder, either.  I think the hardest part about living healthy on the road is overcoming my own complacency.  What’s easy to do is easy to not do. 

I’m not going to keel over today if I choose to spend my 30-minute break on Facebook as opposed to getting off my posterior and taking a couple of laps around the parking lot, but 10 years of sitting for those 30 minutes instead of getting some type of exercise will add up to obesity and metabolic syndrome, two conditions we can correct with some effort.

          Who loves you?  I have a hard time believing that there is even one of us who can’t think of at least one person who loves us.  When we neglect our health, we’re sending the message that we don’t care about the people who love us.  I heard Jim Rohn say “I will take care of myself for you and you take care of yourself for me.”

          I challenge you to take a few minutes today and ask yourself… who would be affected if I died today and how?  If I died today, no one would be affected by the loss of my income, but many would be by the mere loss of my presence… my kids, siblings, granddaughter, my friends… people would notice my absence and I’m willing to bet there are a lot of people who would notice your absence as well.

          Please, give this some serious thought and decide if the people you love - who love you, too – are worth getting off your butt for 30 minutes a day.