It's early. I got up before Mara left to see her off to work. I'll take a shower here in a few minutes, and then I'll call the Breakdown Dept. at U.S. Xpress to see about getting the truck jumped off. I'm going to run the truck over to Tunnel Hill today. I figure I'll sleep in the truck tonight, then come back home on a bus tomorrow.

I'm sure USX would prefer that I pick up a load to bring the truck back, but I'm not willing to do that at this point. If not for this constant, ringing bullshit I would have had this truck in Georgia on the 8th. I would have been able to use the time in between to be job hunting and trying to move on. Right now that truck and U.S. Xpress feel like clinging demons that I can't seem to exorcise. I just want to get this over with and move on with my life.

I'm looking forward to this. I feel really positive about cutting my tethers with U.S. Xpress. I wish the company no ill-will, but I really don't feel like they've lived up to their rhetoric. It probably says a lot that they feel like they have to include a graphic of a license plate that reads “we care” on the envelopes of information the mail out to the employees.

I'm not going to get into a rant here, although six years of experience with this company has certainly given me plenty of ammunition. I'm just tired. I've had enough of feeling like my spirit has been captured in a bottle. Many times my experiences with U.S. Xpress has left me feeling like they believe that they have my spirit captured in a bottle, and I had better do what they wanted or else. I realize that a lot of what I feel here I would probably feel working for any major trucking company.

So maybe I shouldn't work for the big boys.

Okay, I'm edging dangerously close to a rant. So I'll move on. Let it suffice to say that in a lot of ways, this feels like my Liberation Day.

As ever, here's to hope.