Living in a Box

Have you ever noticed I like to use song titles for my post's subject? LOL! If you're not familiar with the song here ya go.




Anyway...the subject line comes from my newest tidbit for this evening. I got my trailer and a load scheduled for Monday morning. The box title? I picked up a dry van instead of a flat bed. It's a temporary thing while my hand heals a little more as right now tarping is going to be very difficult for me. There's no way I could lift the tarp onto the top of the load right now. So I get a box! Been a while since I hauled a box trailer, but it's all good.

Chilling

Howdy friends! Small update. Sitting in the company's yard! They are working on finding me a load for Monday so I'll be hooking up to a trailer soon.

My baby boy will be coming down from N.Y. this weekend for his spring break. Will probably take him on the road with me for a couple of days and leave him to visit with his sister a couple. Can't wait to see him again!

Preparing

I'm working preparing the truck to hit the road again! Yay! Took some stuff back over to it today that I had taken home for the time I was stuck at home. My mom gave me a little microwave so I took it over to the truck to see if it would fit in one of the cubbies. And it did! Top shelf of course, but I'm gonna grab some bungee cords to hold it in. That will definitely help reduce some of my food expenses on the road.

The hand is much better than it was a couple of weeks ago but I still have to be careful how much pressure I put on it. It's aching today from lifting the microwave up into the truck (thank goodness for 800mg ibuprofen). For the time being, I'll definitely need to utilize the brace I'm getting for strapping loads. I probably won't be able to take tarp loads immediately since there is no way I can lift the tarps one handed and I can't yet put that much pressure on that hand. Strapping won't be a big issue. I can do it without putting a lot of pressure on that hand. I tend to use my whole body on top of the bar anyway to get it super tight.

So took the time today to also change the windshield wiper blades, clean windows, check the oil and power steering. Going to need to get some of the last two. Need to pull out the electric cooler and clean it out. Never knew that Mayonnaise could make such a mess after it's been frozen. It leaked out of the bottle all over the bottom of the cooler. Yuck!

I'm definitely ready to get back on the road. Being lazy for a little while is nice, but not for long-term. I need to get moving again. Need to get to earning that money again too!

Transform Already!

...Just can't wait to get on the road again...

Finally took a pic of my ride!

Getting rather antsy to get my ass back out there. Need to get those wheels turning again! I was a bad girl and had my bff cut my cast off. The bone wasn't hurting anymore but the knuckle on my thumb sure was where the cast was sitting on it. And I just couldn't take it anymore. But I'm being a good girl too...I've ordered a splint that is specifically for that type of fracture (wonder if I could get the VA to reimburse some of the cost for it? Hmm...I'll have to check into that).

So this week going to start getting the truck back together again. Got a tiny microwave that my mom gave me that I'm gonna see if I might be able to strap it in there somehow.  I did take the truck out for a short ride a few days ago to see how my hand will handle it. It did ache a bit from it, but without the cast I can now hold the steering wheel at least. I only need the left hand for driving when I'm turning and have to shift while I'm turning. I think the splint will help too.

Was just looking at my camcorder and got to thinking...you see truck stop selling dashboard cameras now (because it helps proves "no-fault" in an accident caused by a car). My mind is spinning on how I could mount my camcorder in there and if it would give a good enough image with the vibration form the truck. Guess it's something I'll just have to play with a bit. At least I'd finally find a use for the camera. LOL

Creative Thinking

Downtime is driving me nuts! I want (and need) to go back to work. I can tell you my mind is scheming ways to be able to work even with this cast. I bought a steering wheel spinner today to put on to see if that would allow me to be able to have something to hold on to in order to make turns while shifting (just need to find someone to help me put it on). I found some awesome plastic sleeves to put over your cast for showering...I think I could use those when it's raining. I definitely wouldn't be able to do any tarp loads though since it'd be impossible for me to lift them right now. I wish I had someone to ride with me that could do the tarping for me but alas I have no one available. I'm gonna figure it out with a little creative thinking though.

Truck Driving Woman by Sandie Wyles

With the finger bone connected to the hand bone, and the hand bone connected to the arm bone...

And here is the new cast. Isn't it beautiful? All it needs is a few signatures to be complete. I go back in 4 weeks so they can check it's progress in healing. I did do a little home modification to the cast. I trimmed the top of the portion around the two fingers down a bit. Long-term confinement of any sort brings out anxiety so I just trimmed it down enough so the top of my pinky finger is exposed and that dampened some of that feeling of confinement. I know...I'm pretty weird. But at least I'm comfortable now without taking away the stabilization of that finger.

This is what my fracture looks like (not an actual image of mine though). I have the diagonal break like that which if course allows for easier slippage between the two pieces. I'm keeping my fingers crossed (on the uninjured hand of course) that in 4 weeks it'll be healed enough to maybe change to a splint so I can get my butt back in the truck.  Could I be that lucky?

Breaking Up is (not so) Hard to Do (and really hurts!)

I enjoyed spending the weekend with my baby boy who lives in upstate NY. It's always hard to leave him behind. 

I'd say it's time to get back to truckin' but it looks like I may be on  hiatus for a bit. Friday night right after I got in my hotel room I managed to break my hand. The two room "suite" had a little step up between the rooms and I managed to trip on it and my left hand slammed into the side of the door where it meets the frame effectively breaking the metacarpal just under the knuckle of my pinky finger. ER in Oswego gave it a temporary patch by wrapping it up and I have to get with a orthopedic doc now that I'm home. I've unwrapped it for the moment to give the poor skin some air. My hand is so swollen you can't even see any of my knuckles at all now. Can definitely say there are NO wrinkles on that hand at the moment. Driving the mini-van was interesting enough with it like this...can't imagine trying to drive the semi right now. If it had just been the finger itself it wouldn't be so bad...but any real pressure put on any of the fingers besides my thumb radiates to that bone and ouch!

So we'll see how long I'm looking at once I see the doc!

When I first got to the ER

After the ER wrapped it

Tonight after I got home

Hammer Down

While the weather wasn't the most pleasant yesterday...it still was not as bad as the freezing rain I endured a few days before. I got a short run yesterday since I wanted to be home today to prepare for my trip to see my baby boy today. So I picked up a load in Columbus going to Cleveland. Every week I carry something new and interesting it seems. This particular load I carried 3 industrial hammers and 3 attachments. The picture is not the ones I carried but it's a perfect example of what I was carrying.

Getting it loaded was interesting. Unfortunately their forklift could not get it far enough on to the bed to get it centered. They bumped it with the forks and it wouldn't move like that. So he had to use the very end of his forks to try to lift a bit and get it moved. No matter how hard he tried he could not get it centered. I finally said good enough when he managed to get it as close as he could. I'm not big on non-centered loads. I like even distribution of the weight. But it was what it was. Got them all on there and chained them down (and let me say...I hate using chains...I get covered in rust up and down). I felt that chains would be the best for holding down these particular items.

I got it to Cleveland no problem. When I pulled in they had one bay and a truck already in there. So I pulled off to the side where he'd be able to get out no problem. Unfortunately it also left me in an interesting position. The guy who handled receiving got all of it off with a forklift outside...except one. He needed to use the crane inside to get that one off. So now I had to back out on to the street and then try to back into their little fenced in yard (which included parking for the employees). 

I attempted to back in driver's side (which of course is the best because you get the best view) and could not get the swing in thanks to a car parked on that corner of the fence. So I eventually swung around the block to try to back in from the other direction (which was blind side...ugh!). It took some shuffling to get it in there and I got in enough just in time for a fire truck to come through. After it got past I was able to pull back out a bit and finally get the truck straight enough to back into the bay. I was thankful for the receiving guy for going out and stopping the loads of traffic and helping to direct me into the gate. I wish I'd remembered to get a picture of it to put up here. But while I struggled a bit to get it in there...I'm still proud of the accomplishment in getting it in there. 

I found it rather funny that he was like super grumpy with his employees...he kept shaking his head at their actions...but he was really nice and cool to me. I'm sure he was getting aggravated with how long it was taking me to get backed into the fence, but I'm not super trucker. I'm still learning the ins and outs of backing with a split axle. But it is the struggles that help me learn. I think what makes me take so long at backing is my fear of hitting something so I'm extra cautious when backing around corners.

Keep on trucking my friends!