Going solo, and Gary Larson was right.

The first solo went well. I was on the road for about 11 hours, and spent maybe an hour of that actually handling pods. Long drive.

Lincoln, California looks like the SimCity LARP. The entire place seems to be under construction, and you can almost see the pattern of green, blue and yellow squares indicating which areas are zoned for what. Made finding our customers a bit difficult, since none of the streets we were looking for were on the map!

How it worked was Chris and Junior (in one truck) and I (in another truck) convoyed up to Lincoln carrying to pods to be delivered. After we dropped those, Chris went to Stockton, and I picked up an empty from another address in Lincoln. My first time doing this with no supervision at all, and I made it happen. Go me.

Al the way back to the Bay Area, I was paranoid about the pod. Did I just hear a chain move? Look in the mirror, did the pod shift? I pulled over at a truck stop to double-check (which is recommended on long trips anyway) and everything was tight, but still..

Today, I remember my CDs and the CD player!

Oh, driving up and back we passed numerous dairy farms and cattle ranches. Thousands of cows, but no people in sight. I think the cows have eliminated the humans, and are planning to march on our cities. Fear the cows! Gary Larson was right!

Truck 50-4..

is mine.

Today I spent most of the day doing shuttle runs from our overly-full Hayward warehouse to the not quite so full Fremont warehouse. Tedious, but it gave me more wheel time, and I got paid for it.

I did remember the cd player (kshandra's Rio with the tape deck adapter) and brought the following cds with me:

Iron Maiden - Live After Death
Barenaked Ladies - Rock Spectacle
Judas Priest - Angel of Retribution
Metallica - Some Kind of Monster (EP they released for the film. Mostly live tracks. I live performances prefer over studio recordings.)
Grateful Dead - Nightfall of Diamonds
Weird Al Yankovic - Running with Scissors
Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention - Just Another Band from LA

This weekend I need to pick up a cd wallet so I can carry more cds with less bulk. Live After Death is going to be a regular, I think. I managed to time the "We shall never surrender!" In Churchill's speech to the moment I hit the freeway, so the guitar intro to Aces High came as I accelerated to 65.

Luckily, I don't have to work Saturday, so madelineusher won't kill me. Or swear at me in Japanese.

Speaking of swearing, I'm doing a lot more of it these days. But because customers are often watching me work, I've been forced to modify my usual arsenal of invective. I've been using "bitch" a lot; mostly under my breath and directed at any equipment/terrain features/other drivers that annoy me. When I need to swear out loud, I use "pig." For example, if Podzilla decides to wander away from the track I am guiding it on, I may shout "straighten out, you pig!" No one can claim that pig is offensive in this context. (I even had a Muslim client get quite amused at my choice of words. He taught me the Arabic word for pig, but I've forgotten it. aurictech, care to help out?)

I was up late last night, and didn't sleep well. So my plan is a couple of beers, some sort of food, then bed.

Oh, an aside. I'm thinking about creating a "work" filter in case my reading audience isn't thrilled with constantly hearing about my love affair with a three-ton hydraulic lift named Podzilla. How many of you would prefer not seeing work-related posts?

Memeage: Getting to know you...

snagged from dandelion_diva

Chances are people you don't even know are being introduced to your journal every day, either randomly or through someone else. In addition to recent entries, people can get to know you better by what you posted in the past. With that in mind post a link to your entries on this day exactly six months ago, nine months ago, and a year ago. If there was no entry on that day, link the closest date.

Well, I was quite talkative on February 18th...

Only three things to say on November 18th, 2004

A year ago? I was doing a meme

Another meme!

Just because I'm drunk and Nethack is bad when played drunk.

1. Go here.
2. Pass it on.
( my answers )