Best and worst week of hauling I ever had, both in the same 5 days

Last March I ran a route from Tulsa to Dallas hauling a 90,000 lb excavator, and that single week broke me and then saved me. Monday the hydraulic boom keeper snapped on a winding two lane outside Ardmore, and I spent 6 hours ratchet strapping it down with a farmer who pulled over to help. Thursday I got a flat on the rear tandem near Gainesville, and the tire guy had the wrong size, so I sat for 4 more hours baking in the cab. But Friday I pulled into the job site and the foreman took one look at my paperwork, handed me a $300 tip, and said, 'Son, you're the only driver this week who didn't try to fake a pilot car endorsement.' That one compliment wiped out the whole week of garbage. My question is, when you have a stretch like that, does the good part actually cancel out the bad, or do you still stew on the breakdowns every time you pass that same exit? Has anyone else had a job that flipped from nightmare to dream so fast you almost didn't trust it?

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allen.kai27d ago

That line about the good part canceling out the bad is the real question, and for me the answer was no until I started writing stuff down. When I hit a rough patch like your Ardmore breakdown, I write the fix on an index card and keep it in the visor, so the next time I pass that same exit I see "strap trick from the farmer" instead of just the six hours I lost. It sounds dumb, but the bad moments fade once you give the good ones something to sit on.

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