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When I started today, I was looking forward to one more day of work, then a two-day weekend.
13 hours later, I had a four day weekend, a double incentive on an extra job, and my boss pledging that the next time a job comes up in the mountains, he'd take it himself.
Yep, four straight days of having to negotiate ridiculous roads, hairpin turns, and piling on the mileage on the truck. But today took the cake and led to me getting the lavish praise and rewards I so richly deserve.
The day started out promisingly enough. I came in an hour early because we're still low on empty "A" containers. Since I was the only driver to do so, John gave me a sweet run. Five jobs, starting after I pick up the A from Hayward.
1. Deliver the A to a customer in San Jose
2. Pick up an empty A in Saratoga
3. Deliver that one to San Jose
4. Take a full pod from Santa Clara to the warehouse.
5. Run over to Redwood City, take another full pod to the Hayward warehouse.
This is a good day, even with the fifth job requiring me to cross the bay during a storm. Did I mention the storm? Major winter storm walloping the area. Mostly missed us, except for the Santa Cruz mountains.
Ah, the mountains...
Anyway, I'm just finishing my last job, when John calls me. Junior has gotten stuck in Ben Lomond, on Hillside Ave. Remember Hillside? Trying to pick up the last pod up there, he almost sent Podzilla into a ravine. So the rest of us had to cover his other jobs.
The upshot was that after nine and a half hours of work, I was handed another assignment. In a town that manages to be somewhere beyond the ass-end of nowhere in the middle of a howling Pacific storm! Now company rules state that a driver cannot be forced to take an extra job after eight hours, so I was offered a four day weekend. Ghods, but I'm a sucker.
Once loaded, I had two minor problems. No fuel in Podzilla, and very little in the truck. Getting those handled consumed most of an hour. Then there was the massive traffic jam in Los Gatos caused by earlier accidents up the road. By the time I reached Highway 9 in Felton, night had fallen and the rain was coming down in buckets.
"Highway 9" is a glorified 2 lane road, by the way. I follow it north from Felton (Feel free to Google Map this route if you like. I started in Fremont on Boyce Road and took 880/17 into the mountains) through Ben Lomond into the tiny pissant wide spot in the road called Brookdale. Where I find my turn off.
It was paved, sort of. That's all I can say for Berkeley Way. So in the dark, in the rain, I drive until I found the address.
And began to cry. Because, as it turned out, I needed to back up this street to get into position to drop this pod.. and there was no way in hell I would be able to to turn my 34-foot truck around on this tiny ass road. So, I begin backing up.
Remember the whole darkness and rain thing? Imagine trying to maneuver down an unlit, narrow road, in reverse, using only side mirrors.
I stopped a lot.
After a quarter mile, and one hairy turn, I found what I was looking for, a side "street" that I could get into and turn. So I could repeat the entire backing up process going the other way.
In the dark and rain.
Finally, after 57 years, I was in position to drop the pod. Now, another driver had been there earlier, and assured me there was room. Silly me, I assumed that meant we'd be putting the pods side-by-side. Nope, they would be lined up, on the driveway. A driveway which narrowed considerably. Let me just say getting my lift back on the truck was yet another adventure.
Depending on which side of the pod I was on, I was either walking in mud, or standing in a newly born stream that soaked right through my shoes. On the drive back, I drove barefoot, with my socks drying on the defroster vents. Luckily, my truck has a very good heater!
Speaking of driving home, I missed a landslide that closed 9 by mere minutes, and for most of the drive was driving by Braille. I could barely see the road. The only good things were being able to hold onto KPIG's signal far down the Santa Clara side of the mountain, and having Channel 104.9 play the Ramones.
So i now have four days off. I plan to sleep.
13 hours later, I had a four day weekend, a double incentive on an extra job, and my boss pledging that the next time a job comes up in the mountains, he'd take it himself.
Yep, four straight days of having to negotiate ridiculous roads, hairpin turns, and piling on the mileage on the truck. But today took the cake and led to me getting the lavish praise and rewards I so richly deserve.
The day started out promisingly enough. I came in an hour early because we're still low on empty "A" containers. Since I was the only driver to do so, John gave me a sweet run. Five jobs, starting after I pick up the A from Hayward.
1. Deliver the A to a customer in San Jose
2. Pick up an empty A in Saratoga
3. Deliver that one to San Jose
4. Take a full pod from Santa Clara to the warehouse.
5. Run over to Redwood City, take another full pod to the Hayward warehouse.
This is a good day, even with the fifth job requiring me to cross the bay during a storm. Did I mention the storm? Major winter storm walloping the area. Mostly missed us, except for the Santa Cruz mountains.
Ah, the mountains...
Anyway, I'm just finishing my last job, when John calls me. Junior has gotten stuck in Ben Lomond, on Hillside Ave. Remember Hillside? Trying to pick up the last pod up there, he almost sent Podzilla into a ravine. So the rest of us had to cover his other jobs.
The upshot was that after nine and a half hours of work, I was handed another assignment. In a town that manages to be somewhere beyond the ass-end of nowhere in the middle of a howling Pacific storm! Now company rules state that a driver cannot be forced to take an extra job after eight hours, so I was offered a four day weekend. Ghods, but I'm a sucker.
Once loaded, I had two minor problems. No fuel in Podzilla, and very little in the truck. Getting those handled consumed most of an hour. Then there was the massive traffic jam in Los Gatos caused by earlier accidents up the road. By the time I reached Highway 9 in Felton, night had fallen and the rain was coming down in buckets.
"Highway 9" is a glorified 2 lane road, by the way. I follow it north from Felton (Feel free to Google Map this route if you like. I started in Fremont on Boyce Road and took 880/17 into the mountains) through Ben Lomond into the tiny pissant wide spot in the road called Brookdale. Where I find my turn off.
It was paved, sort of. That's all I can say for Berkeley Way. So in the dark, in the rain, I drive until I found the address.
And began to cry. Because, as it turned out, I needed to back up this street to get into position to drop this pod.. and there was no way in hell I would be able to to turn my 34-foot truck around on this tiny ass road. So, I begin backing up.
Remember the whole darkness and rain thing? Imagine trying to maneuver down an unlit, narrow road, in reverse, using only side mirrors.
I stopped a lot.
After a quarter mile, and one hairy turn, I found what I was looking for, a side "street" that I could get into and turn. So I could repeat the entire backing up process going the other way.
In the dark and rain.
Finally, after 57 years, I was in position to drop the pod. Now, another driver had been there earlier, and assured me there was room. Silly me, I assumed that meant we'd be putting the pods side-by-side. Nope, they would be lined up, on the driveway. A driveway which narrowed considerably. Let me just say getting my lift back on the truck was yet another adventure.
Depending on which side of the pod I was on, I was either walking in mud, or standing in a newly born stream that soaked right through my shoes. On the drive back, I drove barefoot, with my socks drying on the defroster vents. Luckily, my truck has a very good heater!
Speaking of driving home, I missed a landslide that closed 9 by mere minutes, and for most of the drive was driving by Braille. I could barely see the road. The only good things were being able to hold onto KPIG's signal far down the Santa Clara side of the mountain, and having Channel 104.9 play the Ramones.
So i now have four days off. I plan to sleep.
