We finally have internet again, yay! I just realized its been over a week since I've been able to update, so here's the latest! Enjoy!
(written 3/28)
So, we have been stuck in Texas for two days in a row now. How did we get here? Well, we got a load in Idaho supposedly taking us to Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi (sometimes deliveries have multiple drop points) and thus we covered four states in one day (Idaho, which was the really interesting and Rocky Mountains covered part, Colorado, although a new state for me, reminded me of Montana, Oklahoma, which was the skinny part and we didn’t even stop in and then finally Texas.)
My views on the state? It’s big. There are desolate, desert areas (which if you’ve ever seen Chuck Norris’ show or any like it, you know what I’m talking about) with a few green areas. The first night was spent in the town of Dumas at this small truck stop (though in the guide it was described as “medium”) next to a bar, which was having it’s drunken karaoke night. Musically speaking, it sounded like the group was still in the 90’s and boy was it hilarious. For instance, a man with a burly-sounding voice was doing his rendition of “Friends in Low Places” but he was overpowered by this boisterous woman singing a half tone off key and practically yelling. Props to her ability to project without a mic.
Another thing prevalent here are the terms “saloon” and “discoteque” as well as the older western style architecture seen in any John Wayne film you come across. It is interesting to see the change in atmosphere since we crossed the state line. Anyway, day two has brought us to the Dallas-Fort Worth area, big metropolis and shining oasis in the desert. Apparently the large overpass situation, much like spaghetti junction in Atlanta, is a new thing here, as almost all the large intersections of interstates are experiencing construction and building large concrete pylons everywhere. Did I ever mention I have a fear of heights? Yeah, some of these structures do nothing to alleviate it.
To only further bring the tone of the day down, both of our customers today have been less than on the ball with their job. This causes me to bring up the issue of professionalism and how it is a problem, no matter what the profession. I personally was first exposed to the term in college where one professor in particular made it one of the primary concerns of being a consummate professional. What it all boiled down to me was this: you establish your set of goals, boundaries and etiquette, followed by reinforcing them with rewards and consequences and finally (and the hardest part) maintaining them (By the way, this also happens to be a fundamental part of my teaching philosophy). Most people falter at the last one. For some reason, even though we humans tend to flourish under a set routine, we can somehow never manage to keep up with any regimen set before us. We’re late for work, forget to send that thank you note, or have momentary lapses of fashion sense in the work place. Now you might be saying, “hey, what I wear doesn’t reflect my quality of work.” Oh contraire, dear reader. Your appearance is the first impression and therefore the way your audience is going to interpret what you have to say. Sure there are those special individuals who can walk into the room wearing a tacky Hawaiian shirt yet sport a Ph.D. and be taken seriously, but can you honestly do that in an office? At a hospital? I didn’t think so.
Now in this industry simple things like courtesy and punctuality are things that should be implied. This is not the case some of the time. The main thing about this job is that you arrive early (in general) for your pick up and deliver on time (or early, if they will take it). How you make this happen is entirely up to you. The real kinks in the situation happen when you arrive at a customer and they are nowhere near ready for you. Case in point, the first customer kept us waiting 5 hours and the second for 6 hours. Nearly all of James’ drive time was wasted away because of a company’s inability to function properly. Upside, I got to catch up on some reading. The new load this time? Tile. Sometimes the things we carry are not refrigerated. Next destination: Colorado.
I thought this was really cool. In parts of the mountains the downhill can be intense and older vehicles, especially big rigs needed these runaway ramps in the event of catching your brakes on fire! 
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I thought this was really cool. In parts of the mountains the downhill can be intense and older vehicles, especially big rigs needed these runaway ramps in the event of catching your brakes on fire! 
