I did quit, in a crying fit of tears and hopelessness… and then my boss asked me how I was going to get home, and the company wasn’t going to pay my way home from Nebraska.
Let’s start at the beginning…
I was ready to go first thing in the morning, and wouldn’t you know it – the truck (tractor) wouldn’t start. I called the client and he sent someone to give me a ride. While I was waiting I called my boss so that he could get someone out with a loaner tractor, and tow the dead one back to Columbus, Nebraska (the nearest place with a facility of the company the tractor was leased from).
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| location of the Cargill, at Ord Nebraska - the green star |
I was at the job site well beyond the 4 hours scheduled,
what with the truck issues, tow truck dropping off the replacement tractor and
returning with the broken tractor. At
the job site I did hearing tests, and respirator fit tests, and (if memory
serves) a sound level survey was added, since I was waiting for the replacement
tractor… that’s how I got some great photos of Ord, Nebraska from atop the
Cargill grain elevator/silo.
Naturally my story doesn’t end there… I hadn’t quit my job yet.
The loaner tractor was a nightmare. A real p.o.s. The gears were bad, and it was hard to shift,
especially in the lower gears. I had
another job assignment over an hour from Ord, in Albion. I had to drive a p.o.s. tractor, towing the
hearing van, 65 miles across the rolling hills of Nebraska on narrow, old, 2
lane roads.
By the time I got to the Albion Cargill I had 30 minutes to
complete several respirator fit tests on a grumpy group who wanted to go
home. The facility closed 30 minutes
after I arrived, the manager stayed until I completed the necessary paperwork
and packed up the gear.
Now I was tired, and very unhappy with the tractor, and my
plans for the evening were for shit. I had hoped to arrive at the next job site
in daylight, so I could find a small factory in the middle of the corn fields.
No such luck. The tractor refused to cooperate, making it take longer to get
another 55 miles in the dark.
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| view of the sand hills of Nebraska, Ord, NE |
On top of everything I lost a filling and was going to have
trouble chewing anything. I made it to
the hotel, and thankfully there was a huge parking lot that I could turn the
tractor-trailer around in and leave it facing the direction of the exit for my
4:30 a.m. departure. (Yes 4:30 a.m. such was the nature of the job, and having
to process testing on the schedule of the client.)
After checking in to the hotel I walked across the road to a
diner, and perused the menu. There
didn’t seem to be anything on the menu that didn’t require chewing,..
damn. I chatted about it with the waitress
and ordered a lemonade. It didn’t appear
that I was going to get dinner at the diner, and they were getting ready to
close for the night. I was near tears as
I finished the lemonade; I remember the look of concern from the waitress as I
paid for the drink and walked out. I was
full on ugly-crying by the time I got back to the lobby of the hotel. There were several people in the lobby, and
not one of them appeared to notice me. I made it to the top of the stairs and
across the landing (open to below) and before I could get through the hallway
door I started to sob loudly. I
continued to cry out loud the rest of the way to my room, not caring who heard.
(Doors opened and quietly closed in my wake.)
Finally in my hotel room, I opened a suitcase and took out a
pudding cup, the only thing I had that didn’t require chewing. And then I called my boss, Mark. I led with
“I QUIT”, my voice quivering as I was still crying. I didn’t let him interrupt
until I was done telling him my tale of woe.
Crappy loaner tractor, bad tooth, late arrival, no dinner…. I fucking
quit. And then Mark asked me how I was
going to get home from “Podunk” Nebraska since the company wasn’t going to pay
my way if I quit my job. And who did I think was going to get there by 4:30
a.m. to take over for me. I was all
“fuck you” about it (knowing that I could get away with saying that to him,
because he knew how upset I was, and he was not unsympathetic about it, just
realistic.) So, I told him, “FINE. I’ll quit later.”
And it doesn’t really end there…. I took a shower and got
about 4 hours of sleep….
Then, at 4:00 in the damn morning I started the p.o.s.
tractor and set out to find the job location in the pitch dark of the
countryside. I drove past a road,
couldn’t see the sign in the dark, stopped the tractor-trailer on the deserted
road, and got out with a flashlight to walk back and read the street sign. Sure enough that was where I was supposed to
turn… onto a very narrow, barely paved, road.
Back in the tractor I started to back the rig down the road.
That’s when a vehicle came along and a man got out and asked if everything was
all right. He told me that it was the road I needed to be on, and helped me
back up far enough to make the turn. Then
he explained to drive “about a half mile, to the end of the road, and make a
left turn”, and from there I should be able to see the floodlight shining on
the front of the factory building.
So, I did make it to the job site on time, and continued to
work. When I was done there I had to
drive about 150 miles to get the trailer to where it’s original tractor was
being repaired.
Oh, I could go on… I got the vehicle parked, the tractor
disconnected, and waited for a cab…. on to the next adventure. Oh yeah, I
worked for that company for another 5 years… so much for quitting my job.
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