Peaks and valleys. That would describe the past week and this entire summer. To be honest, I am getting tired of it. Give me level, consistent and I would be pleased as punch. As it is, I may have to punch the peaks and valleys into a straight line!

And that's all I want to say about that so leave me alone!

The past week began with high expectations. Monday was supposed to see me go to Dallas and then back to Abilene, loaded both ways for my friends core customer. I made my preparations, had my cooler loaded and iced down, a bag of snacks as well as lunch, and I had made myself mentally ready. I arrived to pick up the load and learned it wasn't loaded. Not only was it not loaded, it hadn't even been produced. Ten-thirty in the morning and the dock worker was telling me that it would be late in the afternoon before production would roll the product off their line. Problem is Dallas quits receiving at eight in the evening. I finally got a call and was told to enjoy my day off. I hate getting dressed up and then getting stood up!

The other side of the coin was I had the exact same day scheduled for Tuesday.

Later Monday, Addie called me asking if she and her Mom could spend the night with us. They were in route to Cook's in Fort Worth for Addie's post surgery checkup. Krl and I waited up but finally gave up and went to bed. Tuesday morning I awoke early and was just toodling around knowing I had a ten-thirty pickup. I was happy because it gave me time to visit with Kali and Addie. I happened into the office to get a sheet of paper and found a new fax waiting for me. A driver had gotten crossways with the dock workers in Longview and they had swapped my Tuesday and his. All the sudden my load was ready at six in the morning, ten o'clock unload appointment in Fort Worth with a 2 pm. reload appointment in Longview. I was already running late. I hate surprises. I made a quick exit, retrieved the truck from the yard and hustled to pick up the loaded trailer. It was seven-thirty, depending on traffic, I could make the unload time. The traffic didn't cooperate and I was ten minutes late, Alex the dock foreman punished me by making me wait outside the gate for an hour even though I was just dropping my trailer and picking up an empty. Finally, I was back on the road and arrived in Longview three minutes early! Yea! It took me until two in the afternoon to catch up with my day. I was back in Abilene by seven, dropped the load off and returned the truck to the yard and made my way home.

Tuesday was the same schedule although I got off early only to be tied up by traffic accidents in contruction areas requiring extended detours. I was five minutes late but got in and out, dropping and hooking and picked up my Longview load at one o'clock.

Wednesday was the same schedule, but never fell into a groove. I left really early, was thirty minutes early to Fort Worth, put my trailer to the dock and went to get an empty which I discovered wasn't one of the regular drop and hook trailers so I called the office. I was told that trailer was out of service. I was furious, this meant there was no reason to unhook and basically I had been snookered into letting Alex put five other trucks ahead of me. I hurried back to the dock to tell Alex I had to have my trailer and he informed me it would be a long time. I called the office and asked KO how long he had known the trailer was out of service and he told me "Since yesterday, I just forgot." That was unacceptable. This screwed up the whole day. Having worked in KO's office and now working with them outside the office I get a pretty good overview of the operations. Thing is, this organization is very weak and lacking in the basic mechanics of a successful business. I am becoming doubtful that this business can go to the next level and be successful. Not only did this miscue affect me, it had a domino affect. Nearly every company truck that comes and goes in the day works off the trailer dropped off before. Time is money and obviously my time is worth more than KO's time.

Four hours later, I was finally unloaded and ready to go, to Longview. I had thirty minutes to make the appointment I had been given. Longview is two and a half hours from Fort Worth. I arrived an hour and a half late for the appointment time I had been given only to find that dispatch had screwed up, my appointment was for noon. Mechanics again.

When I left Longview it didn't get any better. The A/C on Blacksheep 222 began to falter. It was miserable, sticky sweaty the entire way back to Abilene. It was one of those things where I don't know which was worse, a malfunctioning A/C or none at all.

I decided to take Friday off, first to begin checking on the malfunctioning A/C, and to tend to some personal business. My beginning research yielded no quick fix for the A/C so I scheduled a trip to KO's shop Saturday morning. As my luck would have, the compressor (which is thirty-two days old) shelled in route to KO's. Of course this item isn't stocked in Abilene and will have to be shipped in. It should be warranteed but the company will still have to foot the bill for a new dryer/accumulator and off course the freon. You can throw another hundred dollar bill at BS 222 for this project and then begin figuring lost revenue. I may visit with the owner about starting matching fund as a savings account because at some point I may want to bury this truck and put it out of its misery.

I was already scheduled for Monday so I am taking KO's personal truck.

Week notes that are strong notes:

I was very proud of Kali making the trek to Fort Worth on her own. She seems to be gaining confidence and becoming a more complete Mom now that she doesn't have "Lump" to hold her back.

Addie is really turning the corner. While she had really become a brat she is now becoming a very well behaved, loving child.

Ollie is back working as a teacher-aide, doing her real estate, and kept her evening job as well.

Rian celebrated birthday number 29 on Wednesday. I think he was so busy with new students that he didn't hardly realize it. He said they have more students this year than they had at their maximum last year. In fact, he told me he had twenty-five new students accompanied by their parents sitting in the hall outside his office waiting for their turn to be processed. He told me he had been going into the office between six-thirty and seven in the morning to work on schedules and graduation plans for all these new students.

My personal highlite was getting a haircut. AC, my barber hates it when I go that long but I had tried to get in the last two Saturdays only to find he had left early. He made the comment when he was taking the apron off that he would bet I felt much better. I told him, "Actually, I feel light headed".

Be the real deal.

FATHER, thank YOU for the blessing of rain. I ask that YOU bless us with more. Thank YOU for the freshness, the cleansing, the pleasant smell it brings. FATHER, rain in my life. Make me new.