Hanging it up for real
 

Lots of talk, but now a real walk. I actually start at Wal-Mart tomorrow. After joking about that for years, I actually did it.

I'm almost certainly going to to bankrupt, and it's worth it to cut my losses and abandon this sinking ship before it hits the bottom.

I like driving a truck, and there's a lot of stuff I will miss, but I won't miss any of it that much.

This job just ain't what it used to be, and it never will be again.

Re: Hanging it up for real
 

Good luck! There are hundreds more just like you everyday doing the same thing!

Good Luck Silvan, I'll be hanging it up in 2 years when the old lady graduates from nursing. HVAC here I come

I will be joining the otr carnage this summer. Not sure what I am going to do but it won't be otr. My time on this earth won't be living out of 8 foot box, not for that little cash.

join the club
 

Well gang I went back to the pipefitters union, I can work either way as an hvac&r service, installation tech or as an( A) book fitter the pay and bene's are the same. Everyone told me I was crazy for leaving to drive a truck, but the last 20+ years have been a blast, up and down but nevertheless a blast. I need 7 years for my full union retirement which right now is $4400 a month plus social security so it is a no brainer. I miss hauling that old produce, yuma,nogales, salinas,oxnard, santa maria, brawley,la, bruces, barstow, and that high speed ride across the mojave heading east,(already three hours late )to the coast. Hunts. pt or chelsea, on a three day jump. Turnaround with a load of dry freight floorboard it and 3 days back to cali just to grab that old produce and do it again. I think of trucking all the time and smile as I see the fellas shagging those trailers scooting down the boulevard and me in my 4 wheeler looking up watching the boys ride. To that I say, "ride baby ride" keep the dirty side down, and the shiny side up.---Goodbye.

Re: Hanging it up for real
 

Thanks to you and everybody else on the thread so far.

I definitely have mixed feelings. My old boss has a gig where he hauls trees once in awhile on the weekends. I might try to get a line on something like that, but as far as doing this for a living anymore, it just isn't fun very often anymore, and it's a whole lot of aggravation, and too damn much time spent working.

Even though I'm home every night for dinner, I barely see my kids. I'm too tired to do much of anything, because 12+ hour days behind the wheel don't leave a lot of energy for anything else.

I'm not getting any action from the ol' lady any more than I did when I was on the road either, and it's usually me who is too tired or has a headache. How sad is that?

The only bad part about this deal is going broke. I've been trying to find a better paying job that wasn't trucking since about the middle of 2005, when it really started to stop being fun. I can't find one, so I'm going back where I came from, where from the other side of the docks I got the crazy idea to go do this in the first place.

It was an interesting ride, but I'm just done with it. My life is like that movie Big Fish, complete with all the women on the side (even though I only fantasized, and never actually crossed the line, although there were a couple where I definitely would have if I had had half the chance!!) I've got enough wild stories to last for years, and I don't need any more stories.

I just want to go home, and work 40 hours. Just 40 hours. With labor laws that keep my employers from f***king me without paying me for it.

The worst part is going broke right in the short term, but the best part is that I will stop going broke over the long term. Every year, I earn just a little less relative to the price of everything than I did the year before. The raises in this business get you up to the top fast, and you stay there forever. The only way to ever get a raise after a certain point is to quit your job and find something more dangerous or more distasteful in some way.

Maybe it's different for the union boys, but you can't get an IBT job in this town unless you have the right Daddy, and my daddy is the wrong daddy for that.

Hey, I'm going to a better place than McDonald's anyway. I'm looking forward to everything but the paychecks. (Going because there is actually more BS to get a job at Wal-Mart than to drive a truck, believe it or not. Or at least the BS takes a lot longer. I haven't made it through all the hoops yet.)

I hope the 40-hour work week will give you time to get back to writing. Maybe your protaganist could be a truck driver; would be nice to see a trucker as a hero on the big screen (once your book is made into a screenplay) and your name on the New York Times bestselling list. :D

Best of luck to you,
professor427

good luck silvan! :D

Good Luck to you!

We may be following in your footsteps within the next year. My wife says she is tired of watching the world go by thru a window instead of being an active part of the world.

Yeah, so do I! I haven't done diddly squat since I took the gig I still have for awhile longer. My old gig was a lot better for time off, because I worked absolutely ragged when I worked, and then I had like 3-4 days off a week. That's my speed. (And no, nobody has a 7-on 7-off thing that runs around my area, or I'd think about it.)I do have a novel brewing in my head somewhere. If it ever makes it that far, I promise to do everything I can not to let it turn out like all those other stupid trucker movies.Thanks neighbor.