When I first went out on the road, I was under the distinct impression that I’d be out for 3 weeks and then home for 3 days. This doesn’t sound very good at all, but it’s pretty standard for those just breaking into the field, it seems, so I accepted it and figured I could roll with this for the first little while.
After 6 weeks of training, I was promoted to company driver status, which meant I was finally going to get paid for what I was doing: ie, driving.
I drove for 2 more weeks and finally got to go home. For two days. Ok, so 3 weeks out = 3 days home, 2 weeks out = 2 days home. Sounds pretty… ahem… good. But I’d been out 8 weeks. Oh well, I needed the money.
So going back out, I was given the opportunity to drive a dedicated route from Ogden, Utah to Paris, Texas. 1316 miles each way, paid at a whopping $0.21 per mile… in a perfect week I could expect to bring home over $800 per week. Sweet money. In the real world, I would be lucky to break $700 in a week, but still, not bad money.
I was told 3 weeks out, 3 days home. Actually, I was told “21 days out, followed by 3 days home.” So, having been given such a specific time-frame, my co-driver and I figured the 21 days were set in stone, so we’d be guaranteed home time.
On day 20 it didn’t look like we were anywhere near getting home by “tomorrow,” so we asked specifically if we still needed to request the time, or was it built in? We were told we had to request it at least 10 days in advance.
Bugger.
So I requested my home time. A week later, our dispatcher got a new job, and we got a new dispatcher. Just a couple of days after that, my co-driver decided to buy a truck with a buddy of his, and got off my truck. Leaving me solo again, and with a new dispatcher.
2 days before I was scheduled to be home, I was speaking with my dispatcher and the subject of my home time came up. He said he had nothing in his files about me having any scheduled home time, but since I’d been out 4 weeks (at that point), he would make sure I got home by Saturday (only a day later than I had requested). That was very kind of him, really.
So I got home Saturday night… my home time officially started Sunday… and despite 5 weeks out, was only going to be 3 days at home.
Monday I had a doctor’s appointment to check up on a bone problem that I have had in my left foot since I was about 14 years old (I had surgery back then, and ever since I’ve had some pain… the past few years the pain has been intensifying, and the past week or so has been excruciating).
I saw Dr. Young Monday morning. He took x-rays and reviewed an MRI that I had done last August. He determined that the bone needed to be biopsied and possibly removed. He considered the matter urgent, and scheduled me for an operation the following day.
My 3 days at home suddenly became a medically necessary 2 weeks.
Money is going to dry completely up. But the severe depression being away from home was putting me through is gone. My foot hurts from the surgery WAY more than it ever did from the simple pain of whatever was wrong with it… and yet it is totally worth being able to see my little girl, hold my wife, eat home-cooked meals, and simply to be in my house.
Now I have time to look for a different, hopefully better, job with more steady home-time, possibly even daily home time. Like a normal person.
Even if not, this time at home was needed desperately. By me. By my wife. And for my little angel, who was missing her daddy as much as he was missing her.
I thank God from the depths of my soul for this blessing.
