The REST of the story – *edited*

Perhaps it is time to be a little less vague and explain the situation I find myself in and suffering from, from the beginning.

In the beginning, there was nothing but a singularity. Then this singularity compressed even further and exploded. Fast forward 10 trillion (or is that billion? I keep getting them mixed up) years…and 4 days…and you are at February 7th in Houston, TX driving a truck after leaving a delivery and headed for a town south of there so you can pick up your next load.

For some reason, the GPS had me heading onto the toll road and I wasn’t thrilled about that. So, I changed the routing, just a little, and was going to go through town to get to the freeway to get to my pick up. As I began to make the left turn to get on the frontage road – all of the Texas interstates have frontage roads – I was talking to Gina on the phone. As usual, I glanced in my mirror to make sure everything was fine and, holy moly!, my trailer has rubbed up against a box truck.

This, of course, depresses me. I’ve been driving for 7 and a half years…with about 15 months off in the midst of that in two separate occasions…and I’ve never had an accident while driving. So much for my clean record.

I take the pictures, fill out the forms, make the calls and then go pick up the load. I drove all weekend, made my delivery with time to spare and then found out that my dispatcher, Crystal, is out on vacation for the next week. But, the problem is that my QualComm decided to die on Saturday while going through the inexplicably bumpy roads of Louisiana. So, now I’m operating without a net…so to speak.

The rest of the week goes by uneventfully, except for the fact that my temporary dispatcher, Randy, is actually doing his job and preplanning me on trips before I’m done with the next one. It’s a dream come true for me. Crystal never knew, or learned, to preplan.

Fast forward to Monday and I’m making a delivery in Oshkosh, WI in the morning. The delivery goes well and the next load picks up in New London, WI at Sara Lee…turkey and turkey related products going to Tolleson, AZ. I get to the pick up and the security guard says that I need to sweep or wash my trailer out to drop it to pick up the next load. I, being the agreeable and laughable chap that I am, of course agree to the terms and head towards the wash bay.

There was someone in the wash bay already and I waited for him to finish. Once he pulled his truck out of the bay, I started to move forward, but realized that I couldn’t get the truck and trailer around the corner well enough to stop the front of the trailer from hitting the bay’s steel reinforced door frame. So, I backed up, straightened the truck as best I could, and then attempted reentry into the bay.

Everything went fine until the trailer door, apparently…I say apparently because it had done so in the more immediate past…became unlatched from the door latch to keep it open and swung out enough to catch that same steel reinforced door frame of the wash bay. Hence the reason why the next moment the trailer door was lying on the ground instead of being attached to the trailer like it is supposed to be.

I, as expected, freaked. This is two incidents in 9 days. I’ve lost my job. I know I have; now it’s just a matter of when I get canned and sent packing. And this began the slow, but inevitable, rise of my blood pressure.

I called Road Service; I called Risk Management; I called a friend. All to let them know what had happened and that I knew my job was gone. I even called my dispatcher, Crystal, but she was still off for vacation. So, Randy was the one who had to be told and he didn’t sound happy.

I explained everything to him and then told him that I knew I had lost my job, would he please get me through the house to be able to drop my stuff before he gets confirmation of my termination? He said he would try, but to go ahead and start that load heading t wards Tolleson.

The next afternoon, Randy, using one of his contacts in the Safety Department, found out that my suspicions were correct and that my job was going to be taken away from me. And, being the honest guy that he is, he told me so. And later on, it appears, much to his detriment.

Unfortunately, there was no one to take the load going to Tolleson from me (*side note* if you are working for a company that hauls food, you should be able to haul anything that the company hauls. Using religious reasons NOT to work is such a lame way to make an excuse in my opinion. *end side note*). So, I ended up in Tolleson (Phoenix) on Thursday morning.

This whole time, Randy has been forthright and honest with me and, while I am apprehensive about the outcome, at least I know what’s going on. He has also assured me that he was going to work on getting me through the house and not trapped in Ontario, CA which is the closest terminal to where I was at the time.

Thursday morning, I called in and Randy told me that I had two loads preplanned on me that got me from Phoenix to Green Bay, WI. Immediately, I became apprehensive because it wasn’t going through the house like I had been assured but we couldn’t get the details hammered out at that time. I told him that I would call him back at 9:30.

At 9, Crystal called me and asked, “How’re things going?” I told her what had been going on and told her what all had happened in the time she had been gone. In retrospect, I see now that see began lying to me immediately.

By Thursday evening, after listening to the lies coming out of my dispatcher’s mouth, my brain had taken to knocking on the inside of my skull, ever so gently, asking if it could get out. I decided to, in an effort to stem the knocking, to increase my blood pressure medicine by 50% (120mg instead of the normal 80mg I had been taking) and that helped somewhat. But by Friday about 1 p.m., my brain had gone from lightly tapping on the inside of my skull asking to be let out, to hammering with a jackhammer in an effort to remove itself from my head…and by force that it apparently deemed necessary.

All because these people thought it “best” to treat me like a mushroom. Keeping me in the dark and feeding me shit isn’t a good thing for my overall sanity.

All of which brings you current to the previous entry.

Yet, there is more. That’s right, there’s more for your reading pleasure.

Originally, I was to be home this weekend (I am home) for the reason that Gina and I spent really good money on tickets to see Jeff Dunham last night…which, as a side note here, was a REALLY great show and we had a great time.

So, the plan came down to picking up a load from Joplin, MO and bringing it to Olive Branch, MS, dropping it on the drop lot there and then leaving the truck there, with permission. However, on Thursday, about 1ish, I got a message via the QualComm that asked if I would be willing to take a load to the Atlanta area and then drop the truck in Forest Park, GA…justlike I offered the operations manager last Friday.

Gina, of course, flipped out and got highly upset. The arrangements that she made with her boss to leave work early to drive to Olive Branch to get me and my stuff were now for naught. Personally, I wasn’t that upset as I just had a feeling that something bad could’ve happened to me had I been able to leave the truck in Olive Branch. Something to the tune of a loss of my final paycheck, a serious black mark on my DAC, and charges filed against me for grand theft auto…and I’m not talking about the game.

The plan was to get the load on Saturday morning, drive to Atlanta, drop the trailer and truck at the terminal, and then ride back with Gina in our car on Sunday. Again, they weren’t having any of that. I was told, “You need to be at the terminal on Monday morning if we are to terminate you. But, you can drop the truck on Saturday and we would consider that you resigned…and that looks better for you.”

Hmm, “better for me how?,” is what I asked.

Her reply was, “You know you are getting terminated for accidents, don’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Well, it always looks better for you if you resign for those reasons. Either way, I need to know what you are going to do.”

Without waiting a heartbeat, I replied, “I’ll be there Monday morning.”

I know what they are trying to do. They are trying to get me to quit so that I cannot get the unemployment that I plan to file for. There are now bets being taken on whether or not I’m going to get fired on Monday. A few people think that they are not going to fire me and are actually going to give me another load…in the hopes that I’m going to quit.

As much as I hate to disappoint them, I’m not going to quit. I am going to let them fire me, get the unemployment compensation and then have a little time off to get some things straightened out here at home. My only issue is that I’m going to have to ride the bus from Atlanta to Memphis.

And I really hate riding on a Greyhound bus.

And now, you know, the rest of the story.

Till Next Time,

*edit* I titled this entry two days ago when I began it…not knowing that today would be the day I posted it. And, wouldn’t you know it, Pual Harvey, the man that coined the phrase, “And now you know, the REST of the story” passed away today. It’s very sad to read that after posting all of my complaints in this entry.

However, it’s been said that imitation is the most sincere form flattery and, if that’s the case, then be flattered Mr. Harvey. You deserve it always and forever. May you rest in peace.

Blessings.