Looking for Job

Monday, January 12, 2009

Looking for Job

We are doing fine. I am still working to get the compensation for expenses for my trip home that CFI promised. After a week of them telling me that it was in the mail they then informed me that they were waiting to get any deductions in before paying me.

I have signed up for unemployment but haven’t heard anything from that.

I have been having a difficult time sleeping. I had gone through having dreams but they seem to have stopped. I am now just anxious about what to do. I am applying for some local driving jobs with ht local city and county highway departments etc. Most of these are long shots but some have had some promise. I am also considering going to school for drug and alcohol abuse counseling. I have some avenues there that are promising. In the mean time I am working at completing my home remodeling.

There are things that I miss about driving. I didn’t accomplish all that I wanted to there. But at the same time when I see the weather reports I am glad that I do not have to deal with the issues of that. I am glad that I did the driving and got to cover as much of the country as I did. I would probable be a better driver now after the accident. I would get for not driving in dad weather. I guess the Slim-Fast got to Seattle so that everyone can start their new years resolution to lose weight. Everywhere I go stores have the display to remind me of my last trip.

Home

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Home

We got home last night at 11:30. I was a very long and hard trip. The roads were extremely bad through Oregon, Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming. Through Wyoming the winds were 60+ MPH and we saw lots of trucks blown over (Bad Driver), sometimes 3 or 4 in a row. The blowing snow made visibility almost none existing. In Utah there were more wrecks that you could count. It had snowed, then rained, and then snowed again and got cold and frozen. It made the roads covered with several inches of ice. After getting to the east side of Wyoming we ran out of the snow so we headed south and went through Colorado and Kansas to the terminal in Joplin Missouri. In Joplin I went to safety to settle for expenses for getting home. All that they would obligate themselves for was the cost of a bus ticket to get the driver home. Since the buses were not running (they started running Monday after I had reached Joplin) they agreed to pay the hotel cost as well. For your own knowledge they canceled everything as soon as I had my accident, my health insurance, the flex spending card, my access card. All money left on my flex spending card I lost even thought they had deducted it from my pay. I I didn’t get a ticket but CFI fired me anyway. I don’t have any hard feeling against CFI (the low life SOBs – kidding). I understand the system but it sucks and I choose not to be a part of it. Also because I was fired I don’t qualify for unemployment benefits.

I had chained but the roads had cleared. It had warmed up and the sun was shinning. We had driven for an hour on dry roads but it changed quickly. I suddenly found myself in an unfortunate combination of circumstances. I do believe that it could have happened to any driver. I am 60 years old and have been driving since I was 16 (not trucks) but about everything else and had never had an accident. It isn’t because I hadn’t earned one. I rode bikes for years and when I was young I also never took off from a stop on both wheels. I have had luck on my side as well as a lot of you that haven’t had an accident. A lot can happen very quickly. Just before we stopped for the night in Utah we passed a wreck involving a Semi and a car. I saw no damage on the semi but the car was off the road on its top. While eating the waitress said that it was a local girl in the accident and they didn’t expect her to make it. Who do you think is going to be at fault? This is what I don’t want to be involved with. It is a serious responsibility to be a driver.

We finally were able to make good time and get home. Over all we had 2500 miles to drive and it took us over a week to get home. We are glad to be home and into warmer weather. I don’t know what I am going to do. I really don’t want to go back to engineering.

We got a Car

Friday, December 26, 2008

We got a Car

I got a ride to Boise with a guest at the hotel where we were staying. I got the car and drove back to La Grande to get Shelly and our stuff. We left this morning and headed toward home. The roads have been bad. I-84 was closed at the I-86 junction so we went North on I-86 and then down I-15 to Ogden, Utah where we are spending the night. The roads here are horrible. We didn’t make very good progress today. Weather reports and the road condition for tomorrow are not good.

Christmas Eve

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Christmas Eve

I haven’t blogged for awhile. A lot has happened. December has been a slow month. We had not gotten a week of over 1700 miles. In a two week period we had 5 restarts. We had made it down to Laredo where we were 106 on the board ant it took us 3 days to get a 700 mile load to Savanna, Ga. We then went to Spartanburg, SC, and then we went to the GM in Lake Orion, Michigan with a load of tires. Again we got stuck at the Taylor Terminal in cold weather and finally got a load out of less than 400 miles to Indiana. Then we went to Huston. After getting a load of 780 mile from Huston that we picked up on Thursday to be delivered in St. Joe, Missouri on Monday I called my dispatch and complained. He said to drop the load in Joplin and get a different load. We got a load in Joplin to take to Seattle, Washington. We had 1990 miles to do in 3 days bad weather. This is where the trouble started.

As some of you know Shelly and I were in an accident with the semi. We are in La Grande, Oregon. It is a very rural area located in northern Oregon near Washington State in some very serious mountains. We met a weather front that came in through Seattle, Washington and Portland, Oregon area. The news channels are billing this as the worse storm in Seattle in 40 years and Portland since the 1939. The truck is not drivable and we have no transportation. The closest car rental is in Boise, Idaho, a 170 mile away through mountainous snow covered roads. The bus lines are shut down, we have no trucks coming this way that I can get a ride with. We have even tried cab services and have tried to get an insurance adjuster to take me to Boise but the roads are near impassable and are closed in some areas. We have found no one to get us out of here. Heavy snows are predicted everyday through Sunday. When we do finally get to Boise and get a car we have 2200 miles to drive to get home. We have Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee. This is to give you some prospective of how far we have to drive. Most of this area is under some serious snow and winter advisory. We have had -6 degrees weather with 50+ MPH winds with blowing snow with white out conditions several times. I can’t express how upsetting all this is. I am not looking forward to driving on these roads especially after wrecking on slick roads. I am having problems sleeping as I keep recalling the accident. It had to be one of the longest occurring accidents that anyone has ever had.

The accident

I had been driving all day. We had started at 4:30 in the morning trying to get some miles in, in some very adverse conditions. I had driven on snow covered roads most of the day. I had stopped and chained the truck, which is a difficult job in these conditions, but had removed. The snowing had stopped and the sun was shining and the temperature had got up to 28 – 30 degrees. A lot of road crews were out clearing the roads and the roads had greatly improved. We had not made any miles and we were finally able to make up some time. Right after reaching la Grande, Oregon we started into another high elevation pass and the roads deteriorated quickly. The traffic was slowed because of a jackknifed truck carrying radio active material. After getting by this we started down a long grade. It took us awhile to get past that and we started down a long hill that didn’t look too bad and the traffic was light from the jackknifed truck delay. I had passed it about a half mile and had got my speed up to about 45 when I started sliding. I was on a long downgrade with a large drop off (200- 300 ft.) to my right and I was in a curve turning left. I was in the slow lane with the tractor turned sideways facing the center barrier but I continued to slide in a forward motion. Shelly was in the bunk so I woke her up to let her know that we were going to wreck. She started to getup to get Sweet Pea when the truck got traction and slammed us straight into the center barrier hard. I had no control over the direction. When we hit, everything in the back came crashing forward and something hit Shelly in the head and knocked her out for a minute. We were jammed into the barrier with the trailer blocking the road in a curve on a downgrade with very slick road conditions and I knew that there were a lot of trucks behind us getting cleared pass the last wreck. I got on the CB to get them stopped. I was afraid that trucks would come running into us. After the traffic stopped I was able to back up and get it out of the jackknife and clear a lane. The truck is in pretty bad shape and could not be driven. We slide for at least a half a mile so I had plenty of time to know that we were going to crash. It was in slow motion and it took some time for it all to transpire but nothing I tried made any difference in the direction I was headed. Sliding sideways down a mountain in curves on ice wasn’t going to lead to very good results. We are very thankful that we were able to walk away from it and that no one else was involved.

Driving a truck is one of the most difficult jobs that you can do. It is rated as the 4th most dangerous job in America. The hours are horrendous. You drive, pickup and deliver at all hours, deal with all types of weather, traffic, road construction and conditions, DOT, and then the people at the stops. You have inadequate places to park, eat, and bathe. But without truck drivers doing their job you would be hungry and naked. If trucks shutdown, in three day you would have no food in the stores, no gas for your cars, and no materials for your job. The country would come to a stand still and people would panic.

We are ready to go home and leave all this to others, but even this is proving to be a real challenge. I am not sure what I will be doing but I have had enough of this.

Memphis to Laredo

Thursday, December 04, 2008

Memphis to Laredo

After making our delivery in Saltillo we (7 CFI trucks) went back to truck stop and waited for our next load. A couple of trucks got loads during the day but the rest of us waited this Tuesday when we got dispatch about 59 miles Bruce, Mississippi to drop our trailers and then bobtail 118 miles to the Memphis terminal where we waited another day to get a load. I went to Laredo where I am now 58 on the board here. Bottom line is freight is slow. I hope to get of here tomorrow.

Capitalism vs Socialism

Tuesday, November 29, 2008

Capitalism vs Socialism

With all the political debates today about the American Policies going toward the left (socialism) I feel that there is the need for someone to put this in prospective. So I will heed that call to clarify some of the issues.

Capitalism: The fuel for capitalism is greed. I could use a more politically correct term but let’s call it what it is and skip the niceties. Let’s face it, greed is human nature. I am not trying to state if it is a good or bad value. It is what you make it. We work hard to better ourselves. Ourselves is the point here. We don’t work hard to improve our neighbors. This self is what fuels the capitalist system. But we are a social being so we do care about our neighbors and our country. Not only that we can not survive as a race without working together as a group. This country’s greatness, wealth, and its progress with many innovations can be credited to the capitalistic system that we live in. That doesn’t mean that there hasn’t been progresses made in socialistic or even communist system but let’s face it, we have done better.

Socialism: A group that all members contribute and all in the group shares in the rewards. This would probable be a good system if it worked but lets not for not forgetting the greed factor. Let us exam this idea. Let’s start with a small social group: the family group, 1 man, 1 woman, 1.5 children. First example: Husband and wife both works and they have similar spending habits and common goals. Good: it works! But even with this if they don’t have common goals there are problems. Money is one of the leading causes of divorces. Even with both working and contributing if one wants to shop and spend while the other wants to save and be debt free there will be serious problems. But let’s use example 2. Example 2: Same family group but this time husband works and we have a stay at home mom. The earner can either be; I earn so I get what I want, or the wife stays home, watches soaps, and shop QVC all day. This is a real problem. Example 3: Wife works; husband stays home drinking beer and watching sports all day. This is another problem. You get the point but let’s take it to a larger group. I will use the community that you live in. You work but your neighbor stays home drinking beer and watching sports. He gets housing assistance, food stamps, utilities paid, medical provided from your working income. You might recognize this example. But to make it clearer, you earn your money, come home and share your paycheck with your neighbor. How hard are you going to works so that you both can live better? After all, your neighbor has a lot of free time and needs a new fishing boat. Maybe you should consider a second job to improve the quality of life for your group. We see the problem with socialism. Take away the self factor and it has a problem with functioning. Now there are exceptions to this; religious organizations, some of which all work together for a common goal. Another example is where there is a strong leader that can unite people for a cause. The life of sustaining these causes is debatable. I believe that it is shorter than that of a capitalist system. We do get communist systems that have been around for awhile but that is from force and also that the people have been under that system for so long that they don’t have the drive to work hard and produce. It can even be compared to the way someone that has been in the military of imprisoned is when they no longer have someone to tell them what to do and when to do it. They can be lost for a time.

Democratic Sociality

Having a democratic sociality doesn’t mean that it is a capitalist sociality nor does being a capitalist mean that you have a democratic sociality. Cuba was a very capitalist sociality before Castro took over but it was a right wing dictatorship where a few had all and the average Cuban had little. This was a major factor in Castro’s rise to power. In fact it is one of the major reasons for many countries going communist. These lessen we should learn from. The reason that we are now in a swing to the left is for that were reason. The working people haven’t been getting there fair share of the wealth. When Obama said that the wealth should be spread around, people that feel like that they weren’t getting their fair share of it agreed. There is a lot to support that feeling. If we did as bad on our job as many of the CEO we would be fired without the millions of dollars bonuses for losing billions. Something is fundamentally wrong with this. The different today in the compensation between the top management and the lowest paid employee of a company has spread to an unacceptable amount. It has and will cause problems. That is where a democratic works. We can throw the rascals out has is causing problems in our government. We are now making a correction no doubt. But we must be careful not to go too far to the left. We do have the greed factor that has helped us get here. I for one don’t want to contribute anymore than is necessary to the common cause. But the key work here is necessary. We do have many common causes that do need our contributions (taxes). Other that the obvious ones; military, infrastructure, education, or whatever else that fits into that category, we need to weight the return to the citizen vs the cost to the citizen. I didn’t buy a new car because I didn’t want to pay the cost now I am paying and not receiving the car. The talk is saving manufacturing while the auto companies send the part to be made to Mexico and Asia. The plastic manufacturing that I have done for 40 years is now all gone and no one was interested in saving it. We are not talking bailout here, we were just asking for fair trade but free trade won. China produces plastic materials below market and then produces parts at a cost that we can not compete with in this country. Some prices that I have competed against with the Chinese have been less what my material would cost. We built steel companies with American money in Japan after WW2 that were build to be more efficient that our own and it put our steel companies out of business. When they ask for financial backing (not bail out) to compete they were denied by our elected government. We haven’t been in fair trade of free trade for a long time; we have been in a sell out by our elected officials. It is time that they all become unemployed.

A Balance: We have experienced the problems with free trade and the unregulated banking. Both of these would have worked with the proper oversight. But because of the lack of a realistic regulation of these we are in the crisis that we now face. This is the type of situation that can lead to serious changes that is not for the best for long term improvement in our life. Also it leaves us vulnerable to other problems such as an attack from an enemy, our enemies are enjoying our problems and it gives them the confidence to try something. We would also have a very serious problem in the case of an assassination on Oboma. It would cause an uncontrollable uproar from home and abroad. The right should be blaming themselves and Bush for getting us into this mess. So many still don’t get it on the right. How can the people of this country not want to support the wealthy and be satisfied with the crumbs that fall from his table? The trickle down economic never will work! Remember the greed factor. Greed is hard to control. That is greed, taking all. After a while people gets tired of this and rebel when they fighter out that they are not going to make it to the big table, that the rules prevent it; the wealth is not to be shared.

We must keep the proper balance for this system to continue and to strive. There are no games that are played without rules and regulations including socialites. We must be fair to all while allowing people to flourish in their efforts. But with great gifts and talents there are also greater responsibilities. Many of the very successful people understand that they also have been giver a larger responsibility toward the betterment of their fellow man that those with lesser accomplishments.

Saltillo, Mississippi

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Saltillo, Mississippi

Friday after Thanksgiving we were dead headed to Fernandina Beach, Florida to get a load at the port for a Monday delivery at Saltillo, Mississippi. We drove an hour after getting loaded and stopped for the night. We did 400 miles today so we only have 120 miles for tomorrow. It has been an easy trip except for the rain. We stopped in Birmingham, Alabama for the night. The blue air line was broken so I replace it