Driven to Drink

It wasn't a great day. I will dispense with the whining about broken down trucks and unhelpful truck rental folks. I shall skip to the end of the story and say that despite enormous obstacles - all three routes scheduled for today were completed. I do have one driver who will have put in an 18 hour day by the time he returns to the shop. That's one hell of a long day. Some of the 18 hours were spent at a truck stop and an unnecessary amount of time was spent at the Dixie Flea Market and Budget Truck Rental in beautiful Wytheville, VA. Only to find that once the folks there arrived to work 45 minutes past their posted hours...the truck I was promised was not available. One word peeps: Penske. If I can't get to a Ryder, I'm going to go with Penske forever now.

Ooops...I think I started whining.

In the midst of the chaos - I broke down. I went out to the warehouse fridge and got me a Coke. I took it into the office of the only other person at the shop and sat down across from her. "They've driven you to drink, have they?" she asked. Before I could even open it - I had to answer two more calls and three more emails. So - hell yeah - they drove me to drink.

The day got marginally better - and then dipped for a bit - and if I don't leave the office in the next 10 minutes...I'm going to be yelled at for still being here when Mr. 18 hour returns. Hey, I didn't have to drive a truck around to places like Big Stone Gap - he still had the tougher day.

Time will tell whether today's Coke will keep me from drinking one on the regularly scheduled Coke Saturday. I hope you will forgive me the slip... At least I didn't go buy a pack of smokes.

Hamster sideswiped - if I started beating tonight...there would be no hamster left.