My First Post and The Load That Would Not Die

Well here goes nothing. My first post ever on a blog. Never really had a desire to share my life over the internet, but what the heck. Well, to bring you up to speed on the whole accident thing... The next day after I had made my drop I went to a repair facility my company uses quite regularly, judging on the amount of our trailers they had there, and had the mechanics crawl all over, through and especially under my truck and trailer. There were a quite a few clean spots on the frame, axles, brake chambers and just about everything on the bottom of the truck from where debris had struck and knocked the dirt off, but no real damage. A clean bill of health and off to the next pick up. It wasn't till the next day that I noticed my catwalk was gone. Just gone. I noticed during my pre-trip that morning that something was not right, but I couldn't put my finger on it until later in the day when I picked up a hazmat load. As I was placing one of the placards in the holder on the front of the trailer I went to set the rest of them down on the catwalk to free up my hands, when it suddenly hit me. That bent, twisted piece of metal that slightly resembled a cat walk; the one I had to step over on my way to rescue my fellow trucker, was MY catwalk. It probably got knocked out by something I ran over, but at the time, with all the other debris all over the place, I never even considered it could be from my truck! Oh well just have to be very careful when I climb up to check the reefer unit until I can get it replaced.

Onto today. Today's fiasco... Yesterday I had a delivery to one of the world's largest retail chain distribution centers. Despite my best efforts, I arrived 53 minutes late. Normally this wouldn't be a problem as it is their policy that you may arrive up to one hour before or after your scheduled appointment time. With seven minutes to spare in that precious window, I thought I made it. WRONG! I check in at the guard shack only to be told they won't accept me. Quoting their policy back to the guard didn't persuade him a bit either. But, being the nice guy that he was, he placed a call to the central receiving office on speaker phone so I could here them say it for my self.

Guard: "Can you still take a two thirty?"

C.R. clerk " No. He's too late. He'll have to come back tomorrow."

Guard hangs up, now talking to me, "See I told ya."

Yeah so much for that one hour policy! Oh well. Guess you can't argue with the people who make the rules. If you do, and they see you're right, they'll just change them to suit their needs, not yours. So I headed back to the truck stop a few miles away to wait it out. I notified my company and they're not the least bit surprised. Turns out this particular D.C. has a reputation of this so just make sure I'm at least half an hour early tomorrow. I tell them no problem. I'm only ten miles or so away. I'll be there with bells on. So today I leave the truck stop 45 minutes before my appointment and arrive at the D.C. exactly half an hour early as promised. I check in again...

Me to guard dripping with sarcasm I'll soon regret "Hope I'm not too early. I have a two fifteen" handing my paperwork to the guard who takes it, looks it over, types in my appointment number, and says "you're not supposed to be here til tomorrow." Now it's his turn with the sarcasm. "Yeah I guess that's too early" as he turns the monitor around for me to see for my self... CRUD!!! He's not messing with me. It really does say tomorrow. Oh well. guess I'll try this again tomorrow. Back to the truck stop to lick my wounds from that sarcasm sword. Which, by the way, has a double edge and if your not careful when you use it, it will cut you, not your opponent.