STRAYCAT’S DOGGONE BLOG

Life Day 21756: Stagnating in Sin City on Super Bowl Sunday

February 4, 2007 on 9:48 am | In On The Road |

Today at about 1500 local time, “Sin City” will become “Din City” as television sets everywhere are tuned in to watch the Super Bowl. I will probably avoid it if I can, but it will be hard. Did you know that over 3,000,000 new HDTV sets will be bought this year nationwide just because people want to watch the game in HD. I wonder how many will be returned next week when these morons discover that they can’t really afford them. If I were a Walmart, Best Buy, Circuit City, etc, etc, et al, I would tighten up my return policies ASAP. I have already given my Politically Correct prediction on the games outcome in the previous posting, so no need to go into that. I really have to wonder about all the “hype”. It is after all, just a game. I could maybe comprehend it if this were the World Bowl, and our team was representing America in the International Football Championship, but it’s not!! It is estimated that the total revenue to the host city (Miami, FL) this year in tourism and other sundry minutia this year will be over 1 Billion (with a B) $$$$$$. Ridiculous.
Enough of this, now to update the BLOG.

Monday, January 29th:
Sometime during the night, I recieved a PrePlan which picked up right here at our terminal in Denver and delivered in Las Vegas, NV. Naturally, I accepted it right away. I left Denver with the load about 0900. I drove to Grand Junction, CO where I took a break to walk the MMM. Next, I drove to Parowan, UT where I stopped again, this time for fuel. I finished out my day by driving to Mesquite, NV where I had to stop because of the 11 hour rule. One can’t quite drive all the way from Denver to Las Vegas legally in one day, at least not with Swift’s company speed limit of 68 mph.

Tuesday:
I awoke early and drove to Vegas as soon as I could legally depart. It’s a 1.5 hour drive from Mesquite to the south side of town where I stay at the WWW. I arrived at about 1030. This load doesn’t deliver until Friday, the 2nd of February, so i’ll have a couple of day off. It’s about time.

Wednesday:
Today I just took entirely for myself. I checked my mail for the first time in weeks. I recieved quite a fist full, but nothing really important. Of importance was what I didn’t recieve, which is my new ATM card which expires in February. I called my Credit Union and found that they had mailed it out in November to my current address. This worries me. A couple of years ago, the same thing happened and I wound up changing my PIN number just to be safe. I’ll probably have to change it again. What a PAIN.
Anyway, I spent the rest of the day geeking and vegging. In the afternoon, I set out on a trek to find out about Digital SLR cameras. Consumer Reports rates highly the Nikon D40 which retails at about $600. It is smaller (in weight and size) than most SLR’s but still has a lot of features. At 6.1 megapixels, it shouldn’t get too much “noise” (distortion) like other high megapixel cameras often do. I first tried Fry’s Electronics, who didn’t carry the Nikon D40. Ditto with Ultimate Electronics. According to the Nikon website, Circuit City and Best Buy both carry it. The particular Circuit City store that I visited in my trek was in the process of closing and moving, so I just abandon the idea and returned to the WWW. I’ll try Best Buy later. I’m in no rush.

Thursday:
Today I did the Pahrump pilgramage to renew the registration on my Jeep. The entire trip including drive time took less than 3 hours. I was amazed at the efficiency at the DMV. I was in and out in 15 minutes. I took advantage of their new Self Help Kiosk. All I had to do was scan the notification letter (registration form), verify that my information was correct, and make the payment into the machine. Presto, it printed out my new registration including the new licence plate sticker. What a change from “days of old” when you were there for hours dealing with one officious, petty, mindless, low level bureaucrat after another. After I returned, I finished the day by geeking and vegging.

Friday:
Today was a fiasco from start to finish. I arrived at the first stop of two at 0730, a half hour early. I checked in and got my “heavy weight”. This load was booked as a 2 drop load, but that turned out not to be the case. This first drop was actually just a “staging area” for the final drop downtown at the Sands Convention Center. This is actually a good idea. Imagine 100 trucks arriving in a conjested area (the Convention Center) at about the same time, all with drivers who want to be unloaded NOW!!! It would be a Circus. However, it is a pain on the “You Know Where” for us drivers. My first wait was about 5 hours. I was then directed to another “staging area” closer to the destination. Another hour wait here before I FINALLY arrived at the Consignee. Once here, it was another 3 hours before I was unloaded. Then I had to return to the original “first stop”, by this time in Friday rush hour traffic, to get a “light weight”. Total time today was 10 hours, with most of that waiting around. By the time I was unloaded, of course, there was no more freight available. I returned to the WWW, bored and frustrated.

Saturday:
I spent the entire day today waiting for a PrePlan to no avail. Finally around 1800, I recieved and accepted a Plan which picks up in North Las Vegas (but not until Monday AM) and delivers in Berea, KY. At least it’s about a 2000 mile trip, even if I have to wait an extra 2 days for it. It could have been worse. I could have waited the extra 2 days for a 250 mile trip to LA.

Today, Sunday, February 4th (Super Bowl Sunday):
It’s still early so i’m just geeking right now. As it gets closer to game time, i’ll go do some laundry, then perhaps jaunt over to Best Buy and check out that Nikon D40. I know i’ll be exposed to the Super Bowl on every possible TV set in the store, but i’m a “big boy” and can resist the temptation. The problem will be prying a sales rep away from THE GAME if I have any questions. In todays world, even the female sales reps might be involved in THE GAME.