Work and Doctor's Visits

Today was a pretty busy day.  Even though it is 1545 hours, I have been up since 0330 hours and at work since 0500.

Today I had to take the semi truck up to Amarillo and deliver 27 pallets at Hastings.  It is one of our major accounts.  Normally we just take our straight trucks up there.  However, since it is the Christmas season, we have been taking full semi trailers up there.  I had the 27 pallets and one of our straight trucks had another 5 pallets on it for them.  Thankfully this is the last week that we will be taking the semi up there.  Now, I love driving the semi, but in all the time that I have been driving a semi, this place has the tightest dock of about any place I have had to put a trailer into.  I'm definitely NOT going to miss that part of the deliveries there!  We will still be there every day, but at least until next Christmas season, we will just have to back the straight trucks into that tiny dock!

I do miss being on the road at times.  My company currently has two overnight runs and I have one of them.  It is like a mini vacation every other week.  When I first started with this company about a year ago, Joe was still on the road and they were looking for someone to learn the Albuquerque/Santa Fe run. This run goes every other Monday and comes back on Tuesday.  At the time I was taking night classes on Tuesday and Thursday so I volunteered since it wouldn't interfere with my school.  Well, I went one time and before it was time to make the run again two weeks later, they had fired the guy that normally does that run.  Soooo....That left me doing that run.  January will be a year that I have been doing this run.  I actually really like it.  I like that I know all my customers and I know a little about their families and we can have a little conversation when I make my deliveries.  I usually have any where from 13-20 stops and can usually get them done on Monday.  I finish up in Albuquerque but I don't have the time to legally drive back to Lubbock so I spend the night and drive back on Tuesday.

Joe (my husband for anyone that is new to my blogs) finished up the lease on our truck last May and came off the road.  I have a wonderful boss who wasn't worried about hiring family members so Joe walked right into a job.  That was a wonderful blessing for us!  I didn't train him at all and he runs a different route than I do.  Once in a while we will be in the same town but will have different stops.  For instance, Amarillo is divided into East and West.  So I may have the east side where he may have the west.  That has only happened maybe twice.  And we have only actually worked together twice.  Once when my truck broke down and he was the closest so he came to help me finish my stops and the other time when he hurt his back.  I was coming back from Albuquerque and went the long way through Amarillo to help him finish his stops.

Now, our boss has been trying to get Joe to learn the other overnight run into Kansas, but he has told him no.  See, it goes on Tuesday/Wednesday of every week.  Joe has said that he doesn't mind an overnight as long as it is the same night that I am out of town.  That way we will only be apart one night a week.  Joe told our boss that if he wanted to spend nights away from me that he would have stayed out on the road!  So, fast forward the the present and it looks like we will be adding an additional two overnight runs into the schedule.  Since Joe and I are about the only ones willing to go out of town overnight, other than the guy who currently does the Kansas run, our boss is really sweetening the pot to get us to both take an overnight run.  So, here is what he has planned. 

We are picking up El Paso every other Wednesday/Thursday and Carlsbad,NM the other Wednesday/Thursday.  So he needs someone to be gone one night a week, every week, alternating between El Paso and Carlsbad.  Here is what he came up with.  I said I wouldn't mind learning El Paso, but only as a fill in.  And until we get a route pretty well lined out down there with customers, I don't want to have to go by myself.  Mainly because I am a girl in a town that is largely Spanish speaking and currently having lots of problems at the border with crime.  He agreed that even if it was a guy he would send, that he would rather have two drivers go at first until both drivers know the area well enough and feel comfortable.  That also means that if I go, then someone will have to learn my Albuquerque/Santa Fe run.  What he has decided to do is to let Joe go with me once or twice and learn my Albuquerque route and then Joe and I can both go together and learn El Paso, because it falls on my off weeks for the first few deliveries.  After that they will be scheduled to fall on the same week with the Carlsbad run on my off week.  That way, when we both know each route, it doesn't matter which one of us does it, because it will be covered and we will both be out of town the SAME night. 

Now, I know I mentioned that I go to Albuquerque on Monday/Tuesdays, right?  Our boss has even agreed to move my Albuquerque run to Wednesday/Thursday the same as the El Paso run so that they will coincide with each other and keep us happy by it being on the same night.  Now Joe will still learn the Carlsbad route and do that on the weeks that I am not out of town.  So each week, he will be gone one night and I will be gone one night every other week.  But as long as it is just one night, we are cool with that.  So, is that all clear as mud??  

Enough work talk for today!  On to other fun stuff....not.  I decided about two months ago that I was getting to that age where I have to start having regular yearly check-ups.  You know, complete physicals, get my blood work done and have the dreaded mammogram.  I went in on December 2nd for my mammogram and got the results back the next week.  Everything look OK, but they want me back in six months for a follow-up.  She said she wasn't overly concerned about anything, but it looked like I had some calcium nodules (excessive calcium buildup) and she wants to check again sooner than waiting a whole year.  Also, since it was my first one, they have nothing to compare it to so she said another in six months will give them a better baseline, so to speak, to go off of.

Then today she sent me to have a pelvic ultrasound.  They found two small cysts, very small, about 1.7 cm by 1.4 cm each, but I won't have the official results back until the beginning of next week.  That is all the ultrasound tech could tell me.  I guess they have other people that read all the pictures and interpret them and send the results to the doctor and then the doctor will get back with me.  I'm not overly concerned about these either, yet, because I know a lot of women, my mother included, that have had benign cysts removed.  I will just wait and see what the official results are but I am not going to stress myself over it.

Overall, I feel like I am in pretty good health.  Blood work came back fine, not diabetic (even thought it runs in the family on my mom's side) cholesterol is good and I get plenty of exercise with my job.  I do smoke, which I know is a nasty habit, but no shortness of breath, no asthma or anything so I am good there.  I know I need to quit, so you don't have to tell me. :-)

Oh!  I did drop by and see my Dad today.  His health isn't good but he isn't on his death bed by any means.  However his health played a major role in us coming off the road.  I felt that I needed to be closer to him.  He was doing OK today but he is having to go back in for another MRI on his chest I believe in about a month.  We will see what they have to say on that when they get the results back.  I know his doctor consulted with another doctor about his condition.  They aren't really sure what is going on with him and it is frustrating, for him and the doctors.  Hopefully they can figure something out.

I guess that is it for today.  I think I have rambled on enough.