WHO'LL STOP THE RAIN?

Long as I remember the rain been comin' down

Clouds of myst'ry pourin' confusion on the ground

Good men through the ages tryin' to find the sun

And I wonder, still I wonder who'll stop the rain

Anyone who knows me, knows that I love rainy, overcast days, especially when you can stay inside and enjoy the warmth of home. Now that my second home is a bit more mobile, and that we have been working in the rain in the middle of the night, I may have to readjust my thinking. Especially when I see Craig getting thoroughly soaked, checking into the Receiver's office and opening the trailer doors. Since we have been rolling again together, we have had non stop rain, day and night, and we would know, as we have been awake during most of it.

As I have mentioned before, I spent most of my law enforcement career on the midnight shift. Having been out of it now for over two years, and sleeping like "normal" people, as we used to say, has been nice, but it is proving to be difficult to readjust to trying to sleep during the day lately. We have made sure to take naps whenever we can, but that sleep from 7am to 3pm I used to do, is no longer within my ability.

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This night owl status started at 12am Thursday morning, after we had tried to force ourselves to sleep earlier in the evening. We made a delivery in Puyallup, WA at 2am, then moved up the way 8 miles to a Safeway Distribution Center. We were able to park there a few hours prior to our appointment which was nice for one of those aforementioned naps. They took awhile getting us into a dock, and then unloading us, and before we knew it, it was 8:30am and we took a chance getting to our last destination a good hour early.

Putting in our empty call at 10am, we informed dispatch we only had 4 hours left on our 14 hour clock and that we would be staging at the Pacific, WA yard awaiting further assignment. We were told immediately that at 10pm a load would be delivered to the yard for us to take over and make the deliveries. Reading the dispatch further we soon realized that we would be "night crawlers" again, as our first drop would be Charlie's Produce in Seattle, WA at 1:30am.

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We tried to get some sleep, but instead watched the rain continue to come down and the trucks entering and exiting the yard. Finally, about 7pm, we tried again and managed to get a few hours sleep before it was time to get up and find the trailer that was dropped in the yard. And just like that we were off in the cover of darkness and headed to Seattle for our first drop, then 5 miles away for our second drop at 5am, and finally, the circle coming complete, back to Fred Meyer in Puyallup for our last drop at 9am.

At least we know that after our drop at Fred Meyer, that we can stay there and get some sleep, as most likely we will get a load out of there. But as I've said before, you can never plan on anything in trucking, and it looks like the only thing I can be certain of, is that the rain is still coming down, and even from my mobile second home, I still enjoy watching it, even with no sleep!