Well, I've already been on board for about 10 days. Time is passing pretty quick. We're staying busy, too. It looks like clean oil demand (gasoline, jet, diesel) is in the toilet, but black oil (which is what I carry) has been popular here along the Delaware river, where the HQ is currently working.
There's pretty obvious reasons for that, however. The Delaware river hosts a lot of food and metal processing plants. That is to say, there are a lot of food companies that own their own dedicated refrigerated ('reefer') ships, either old school bulk carriers with refrigerated holds carrying breakbulk (palletized or unitized) or container ships with a set of electrical connections for every single refrigerated container. Add to that, the steel ships. There are a lot of small ships that call on the area, carrying steel blanks, rolled sheet steel or other forms like scrap. This is a gateway area to the Rust Belt, after all, secondary maybe to the Great Lakes, but a hell of a lot easier for metals going across oceans to and from the adjacent Ohio Valley.
So we're actually pretty busy here on the HQ. It seems like when I went home last time they had a fair bit of time lying to between jobs, but we're not doing a lot of that while I'm here.
I'm content enough, though. Happy to be working. I still don't know too many people who lost their job, myself, but I'm aware that there are millions struggling.
I need to decide how the hell to get home next time. My 2nd man lives in Dallas TX, and getting home was a shit show for him. He ended up at 3 different airports around the country from what was supposed to be a direct flight, and that doesn't seem to be too unusual. I can rent a car one-way for about the price of a round trip ticket, so the math suggests flying, but I don't relish the idea of being trapped in a flying leper colony and not getting home, either.
Plus, there's a sawmill in NC that has a deal on walnut wood, which I love the look of, and which would keep me supplied for a long time at home.
It's a conundrum.
Is It Them Again, Again Yogi?..
52 seconds ago
2 comments:
Go for the walnut. The last work flight i had during the beer virus clusterfuck was a weird disaster.
Good was lots of empty seats. Bad was they made you wear a nask on the plane and we sat on the tarrmac at each end waiting tor some sort of permission.
I had to get to TX from CA last week. Discovered that if I flew, TX would stick me into quarantine for a couple weeks. Had to drive, my truck had problems, so I rented a car. Wandered around the rental car lot to find a car that did not have plates from a state that TX had banned. While here in TX, one evening when I arrived at a supermarket I found a bunch of cops walking around with clipboards interviewing arriving people. I didn't park, just continued driving and left. F*** those Chinese and their "interesting times"!
Post a Comment