Where am I?

Jan 16, 2007

9:39 PM

I woke up in my sleeper. Familiar enough surroundings, but I had no idea what time of day it was, or where I was. Neither of these things popped into my head for some long seconds. It was going to take work.

So I looked through the sleeper curtain and saw that it was dark. I saw a flagpole with our flag at half-mast, and some people walking passed it on their way to a parking lot full of cars. I still had no clue.

I looked to the right and saw a vaguely familiar building. I looked to the left and saw a line of empty trailers. It was starting to remind me of watching Blues Clues with my daughter. I was waiting for a chorus of 3 to 5 year-olds to start shouting the answer at me.

Then I put the pieces together. I was at the Supervalu Distribution Center in Oglesby, but what time was it? What was I doing there? Oh, yeah!

I had a 3 o'clock afternoon appointment that I was 41 minutes late for. I thought I was going to bobtail out of there to do laundry and grab a shower during the live unload that usually takes 6 to 8 hours, but today was different. All I had on the truck was a couple of flavors of Listerine, and some Ben Gay medicated pads, so the unload was only going to take a couple of hours. I decided to relax and nod off for a bit. Still, the question remained. How long had I been asleep? It could've been 3 in the morning for all I knew.

I checked my cell phone. 5:34. I had a 90 minute nap. I started to feel reoriented. I used the restroom, found out that my load and paperwork were done. So I headed for Rockford at light speed.

I crossed the Illinois River at the Abraham Lincoln bridge, and had a mind grind over one of my favorite problems for the rest of the trip home.

My dispatcher doesn't know if she has any work for me tomorrow. I may write a story. Or I may sleep. Or I may play at the open stage at Krypto. Or I may work on my plans for world domination.