I promised myself once upon a time that I wouldn't complain unduly about my job. I realize how boring it must be to read about someone whining about work. But I'm sitting here, I'm tired as hell, and there's a 600 mile sitting before me. USX has asked me how far I could run it. The answer to that is simple. I can run it down to Greensboro, where I'll park for the night. Today has truly been a mind-fuck. I got up this morning at around 06:00, drove down to Eden, NC to make my pickup. I sat in the dock there for seven hours while I wrangled with USX about posting a $65 TransFunds check for a brace I needed in my trailer, which I needed to go across the street to another location to pick up my actual load. Then I spent three hours at the shipper. Right now I've been up for fourteen hours, and USX wants to know how far I can run the load. Legally, I can't run it at all. If I felt the least bit better I might juggle my log a bit and keep on going. I desperately need the miles. But my eyes are burning because I'm so tired. My day is done, whether USX likes it or not. As I told Mara on the phone, I'm close enough to home to be stubborn.

Well, we'll see what they say. I'm sure their initial reaction will be to ignore me. But I know how to get a response. If they want this load to deliver on time, they're going to have to re-power it. They won't like it, but that's the way it is.