Area 51 Alien Center

          OMG I finally made it!  For five years, I’ve wanted a load that would take me up US 95 in Nevada from Las Vegas to Reno so I could go to THIS truck stop.  Last week, I finally got one.  (Thank you, Joey!)

          I don’t know if I believe in the existence of alien life.  I don’t know if I believe that aliens have landed on our planet and the government is denying it.  What I do believe in is the possibility.  For me, the idea of aliens is fun to think and speculate about, but I don’t believe I will have definite answers in my lifetime. 

          I’m a Trekkie.  My two favorite Star Trek episodes are the Next Generation episode where people from the 20^th Century are found cryogenically frozen and brought back to a state of consciousness where they find out they’re hundreds of years in the future and having to adjust, and the Next Generation movie, First Contact, where the crew goes back in time to when the Vulcans first made contact with the inhabitants of Earth.  (Told you I was a nerd!)

          Star Trek and portrayed aliens as mostly friendly, whereas most other movies portrayed aliens as aggressors.  I like friendly aliens better.

          A local resident was nice enough to indulge me and take this picture.  I talked to him for a few minutes and he told me he does this for travelers all the time.  I was there less than an hour, but I had a blast.

          What do you think about aliens?  Have they been here?  Are they here now, walking among us and we just don’t know it?  Am I a loon?

Is There Anything Good About E-logs?

          I’ve heard plenty of complaints about e-logs.  There hasn’t been a wide variety of complaints, what I hear is the same three or four complaints echoed by many people.  What I’m not hearing is much good about e-logs.  

          Is there anything good about e-logs?  Believe it or not, there are some advantages to e-logs.  The two main advantages that I’ve experienced are that they do the math for me and they “trained” me while I was trying to understand the changes in the HOS that happened while I was a stay at home mom.

          When I was on paper logs, I was a nightmare with my recap.  I’m a reasonably intelligent person, but I kept adding 7 days instead of 8 and couldn’t figure out why I had 10 more hours than I had yesterday when I drove 10 and gained 10.  My e-logs don’t get tired and make rookie mistakes.

          I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again… the 8/2 split rule wouldn’t have been anymore confusing to learn if it had been written in Greek or Swahili.  Once I finally got it, I realized I’d been making it a whole lot harder than it was… but until I had that “AHA moment,” holy guacamole!  Thankfully, my e-logs don’t try to overthink things like I do.

          A friend of mine (who drives for another company) told me that when he was on paper logs he abused them like crazy.  One of the biggest advantages for him is now that he has no choice but to run legal, he doesn’t experience the high level of anxiety about DOT asking to see his log book like he used to. 

          What about you?  What is something good that you’ve found about being on e-logs?

The Parking Problem

           

              I don’t know if the e-log mandate will ever prove to make us safer drivers, but if nothing else, it sure has shone a big spotlight on problems that most of us already knew existed.

          Parking is one of those problems.  I’ve been hearing for years about a driver shortage, but it sure doesn’t look like it at 7:00 at night when you’ve got ten trucks circling a parking lot and there are only three open spaces.

          I told my brother last week that if I’m parking after 7:00 pm, I’m more likely to head straight to a rest area than bother being one of those ten trucks.  I never used to go into a rest area after dark for safety reasons.  After being a local driver for over 2 years, he got to see what I was talking about when he filled in for a 3-day run that had him away from home last week. 

          It doesn’t help that the 5 major truck stops are owned by 3 companies that have made it nearly impossible for the smaller chains and independent truck stops to complete.  They’re slowly ceasing to exist, taking precious parking spaces with them.

          It also doesn’t help that so many truck drivers trash a parking lot and ruin it for the rest of us.  The parking lot of the old Pilot in Winslow has been available for us to park in for years, conveniently located right next door to a Wal-Mart.  I’ve bought more allergy medicine in that Wal-Mart than I have at home.  A few months ago, barriers were put up - keeping the trucks out.  I heard that the owner got tired of getting fined for trash on the ground and decided to close it off.  Thanks guys.

          States are closing rest areas due to lack of funding.  Exit ramps are lined with trucks that ran out of hours with no safe parking available.  I’ve never been one to park at the truck stops around the yard, my thoughts being I’d rather leave those spots for the drivers who aren’t less than 2 miles from their terminal. 

I don’t know what the answer is.  Sure, like everyone else, I’ve got some ideas, but no one is asking me.  For now, all we can do is the best we can do.

I Forgot About Safety?

                At a delivery last week, I saw a poster on the wall outside the breakroom with a cartoon drawing of a man with a bandage on his head, black eye, broken nose, arm in a sling and on a crutch.  On the poster it said, “I forgot about safety for one moment.”  That poster really ticked me off.

          I had this great post all worked out in my head then I decided to look up the word “forget” on the dictionary app on my phone.  (Yes, I’m that nerd that has a dictionary app on my phone.  A thesaurus, too.)

Merriam-Webster defines “forget” as”

    1.   To be unable to think of or remember (something),

    2.   To fail to remember to bring or take (something),

    3.   To stop thinking or caring about (someone)

I was all set to blast that poster right out of the water in this post until I saw the third definition.  And here I thought I was so smart.  BTW, the synonym listed for the word “forget” is “neglect.”  The first two definitions make forgetting sound like something that happens unintentionally, but the third one nails it.

Safety rules don’t leave our brains.  None of us (out of training) wake up in the morning not knowing we should do a pre-trip.  People don’t suddenly not know that they should lift with their knees, not their backs.  Seatbelts have been in motor vehicles for years.  None of this is new information.  I don’t know the exact number, but I believe that the majority of tickets, accidents and injuries would be prevented if people would stop neglecting the safety rules they absolutely do know.

To me, “I forgot” sounds like the beginning of a really crappy excuse.  It ranks right up there with “I didn’t mean to…” in my mind.  I’m a firm believer in being intentional and owning my crap.  When we use excuses, we rob ourselves of the opportunity to become better and no one buys them anyway, so why bother?

When I was in high school, one of my teachers had this quote up on her wall.  I have no idea who said it, but I love it and still quote it 30 years later.

“Excuses are tools of the incompetent.  Those who use them build monuments to nowhere and seldom amount to anything.”

Welcome To The Quitters Club

          I had my last cigarette on February 4th.  I haven’t yelled at anyone, cried, gotten road rage, or had to hide a body.  I think I’m doing pretty well.  I started smoking when I was 13.  I don’t feel old telling you that I’m 47, but I think I sound old when I say I’ve been smoking for 34 years.  I know, I’m weird.

          I spent a year talking myself into doing this.  No, I’m not doing it for my health.  If I was quitting for my health, I would have done it over twenty years ago.  My great motivation is that I’m tired of stinking like an ashtray.  The smell I used to crave so much has gotten quite offensive to me.    

          It really doesn’t matter what my WHY is.  What’s important is that I have a strong enough WHY to see it through.  There are plenty of solid reasons to quit smoking and I will reap the benefits of all of them no matter what my motivator is.

          I’m using a vape to quit because I know that quitting cold turkey turns me into a raving lunatic, I’m allergic to the adhesive on the patches, the gum and lozenges taste like pepper and I hate pepper.  This isn’t my first try, but this is the one I feel the most positive about.

          I started out at a level 6 nicotine and my plan is to cut down to a 3 on June 1^st, 0 in September and then on New Years Eve I’m going to pack up all my vaping supplies and be done.  I know my limits.  I know that trying to break the nicotine habit and the physical habit is a recipe for failure for me, so I’m doing it this way.

          Two people I know commented that everyone they knew that had tried to quit smoking using a vape went right back to cigarettes.  I can think of three people right off the top of my head that quit successfully using a vape, so I know it can be done.  I don’t believe in applying my “can’t” to other people’s lives and I don’t allow other people to apply theirs to mine.

          If you smoke, don’t worry that I’m going to be obnoxious to you about it.  I know that everyone walks their own path.  If and when you come to a place where you decide to quit, I will be your biggest cheerleader, but if that never happens, I promise to never forget what it felt like to “not be there.”

          Feel free to help hold me accountable. 

Do E-Logs Make You Speed?

          You would have to be a mushroom or completely uninvolved with the trucking industry to not be aware of all the uproar over E-logs.  There have been plenty of arguments against ELD’s: from the intrusive nature, to the ability of the FMSCA to implement the regulations, to whether ELD’s really make us safer. 

          One argument I heard recently was that ELD’s will cause drivers to speed more because there is more pressure to drive X number of miles within a time frame they can no longer manipulate.  This was an interesting idea to me because I drive a truck that is governed at 65 MPH.  There are only four places I can speed:

    1.   Construction zones

    2.   In/around cities

    3.   California, and

    4.   Oregon

     I can honestly say that E-logs haven’t caused me to speed, so I asked a friend who drives a truck that is wide open and just got on E-logs in December.  He said that he got tired of paying speeding tickets years ago - so no, he doesn’t speed - but on E-logs he feels a sense of urgency that he never felt when he was on paper logs.  He said he always feel like he’s “got to go.”  (And he didn’t mean potty!)

     I think it would be interesting to find out if the occurrence of speeding tickets issued to trucks goes up, but I hope no one decides to spend (waste) tax dollars to find out.

     As a Libertarian, I’m generally opposed to most Government regulation.  I’m not personally opposed to E-logs, they helped me a lot when I came to work here while learning new HOS laws, plus they do all the math.

     What say you?  Do you feel a sense of urgency on E-logs that you never felt on paper?  Have you found yourself more likely to speed to make up time lost in backups caused by construction, accidents or rush hour traffic?  Leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Time To Decompress!

           One of my qualities that makes me good at my job is my ability to be alone for long periods of time and not feel lonely.  I love my solitude.  I need my solitude.  I realized a couple of weeks ago that outside of this truck, I haven’t had any time to myself since March.  Every time I’ve taken time off since March, I’ve been doing something with other people. Don’t get me wrong, I like being around people but I also like my time alone to just BE… not running around, not having to hold up my end of a conversation, but to just BE.  That’s what keeps me sane (ish.)

          Today, a friend who takes his time off at his daughter’s house with her family told me: “I love spending time with my granddaughter, but I always make sure I get some time to myself.  I need that.”

          I was explaining to Tiffany that I’m feeling fried, so I want to put the blog on pause for two weeks and just decompress.

          I think we all need some time to decompress.  My dad used to go dink around in the garage, or go fishing or even just a ride in his pickup out in the country.  I ride my bike, or hibernate in my apartment and work on a puzzle, among other things.

          What do you do?  Drop me a line in the comments and let me know how you decompress.  Note: you have to be logged into a Google account to leave a comment.

Holy Cow, It's Cold!

          I didn’t realize how lucky I’ve been the past month until last Tuesday.  I skirted the cold front that came through over Christmas.  Then last week when another one came down, I was bouncing back and forth between Phoenix and Dallas on I-10/20.  Last Saturday I was running the A/C.

          My luck ran out on Monday when I was dispatched on a load out of the Dallas area to Northeast Indiana.  Holy cow, I didn’t realize it’s been so cold.  I mean… I know it has been because I’ve been hearing about it, but I haven’t had to deal with it, so it didn’t really sink in.         

          Tuesday night it was cold enough that I was able to idle the truck.  Our trucks will idle if the temperature is below 10 or above 100. 

          As long as we’re talking about cold weather… are you remembering to put Power Service in the reefer tank?  I worry about that more than I do the truck because the truck has tank heaters, but the reefer doesn’t.  When I was headed towards Dallas last weekend, I put PS in the reefer and topped it off because I knew it has been cold and I didn’t know what I was doing after Dallas.  Just trying to think ahead… makes life so much easier. 

My New Co-driver

                Last week I got a new co-driver from Tiny Tails Small Dog Rescue in OKC.  He is a pocket dog; I swear I have cooked chickens bigger than this dog.  He might weigh 6 lbs.

          I took this picture about 15 minutes after I got him.  He wasn’t quite sure what to make of this crazy lady who had just kidnapped him.  He came to the Rescue from the streets last summer.  Within a few hours, he decided I was okay.

          The lady running the rescue called him Bert… but I decided I can’t have a Bert without an Ernie, so I decided to call him Nacho, which was Bobby’s CB handle.  I figured it was appropriate… they were both little, old, feisty, Mexican guys.  Over the past 24 hours though, I have taken to calling him Einstein… after the genius peed on his own foot.  At least it wasn’t my foot, right?

          I guess he’s decided I’m a pretty okay mom.  We’ve been together for a week now.  He finally believes that when I leave the truck, I WILL come back.  He lost the battle over whether he should be allowed anywhere near the driver’s seat while the truck is moving.  We compromise about me sharing a bite of my food.  I’ve always had mixed emotions about having a dog in the truck, but it seems to be working out really well.  

A Few More Thoughts On the 8/2 Split

                My post two weeks ago about the 8/2 split was shared on the Freymiller FB page and the response surprised me.  The volume surprised me; not the content.  A few comments supported my theory that many don’t understand how the 8/2 works.  Most don’t use it unless the other option is a late load.

                There are three times I’m likely to use it.

    1.   When it’s the only way I’m going to make an appointment on time.  This has happened twice since I wrote that post which supports my belief in the Law of Attraction.

    2.   When I get either an 8 or a 2 unexpectedly, I will take the other to make the best use of my time.

    3.   When it will get me home (or to wherever I’m taking time off) faster.  A couple of years ago I ran 8/2 from the California Central Valley back to OKC on Thanksgiving so I would get back in time to watch the Macy’s parade.

          The 8/2 split is the only HOS law I have ever seen stir such a passionate response.  People seem to either really love or really hate this law.  I don’t understand what it is about the law that causes people to have such a strong reaction.  Maybe it’s older drivers (who drove for years under the old laws) who are resistant to change?  Maybe it’s the drivers who really struggle to understand how it works expressing frustration?  I think Freud would have a field day with this one.