Saturday, we grabbed a few more things to decorate the apartment. Amanda is finishing it up, and it is looking great. We needed to stop by and get a few groceries that she needed to be set for when I left for work. I was scheduled for an early train out on Sunday morning. I tossed around the idea around of getting a hotel room in San Antonio for a little while late Saturday night to be rested better for my first trip. With the railroad, I knew the phone would ring as soon as I got one and laid my head down. Also, if I didn’t get one, I’d be waiting all night. That’s just how the railroad works! I’ve been railroading for 22 years and still can’t figure it out; no one can. But with a 2-hour call and over 3-hour drive, I knew I needed to leave early with a big gap between trains.
I scrapped the hotel idea and opted for the cheaper option of sleeping in the Yukon; being an XL, I had room to spare even at my height. With Tank being the old man he is, we got a folding foam camping mattress that fits perfectly on the platform for him and spans across the second-row bucket seats. So, I used that to sleep on the back of the Yukon. Yes, I slept on the dog bed, as my engineer joked about when I told him this story! It, however, wasn’t long enough for me even with a foot spaced bout at the head where I double stacked pillows, my feet still hung off about a foot. Just after I left, Amanda got in bed; she said Tank didn’t want to get in bed without me and was perturbed that I wasn’t there. Me and my boy are tight, especially since we lost Zoey, and Amanda has been in the hospital so much. We’re so tight I don’t even think he’d mind that I used his car bed!
I left at about ten and arrived at the Guadalupe County Rest Area, about 45 minutes from the depot, a little after midnight. I was a slow drive over; I didn’t want to think about driving, so I tucked in behind an 18-wheeler and put the adaptive cruise on. I followed him at 67 mph until I ducked off. I found the darkest spot I could, parked, and curled up on the dog bed in the back. As typical with the railroad, I made the wrong choice and should have gotten a room; my phone didn’t ring till a little after 6 am. I tossed and turned all night but still slept well, clothed in my jeans in the back of a car. The Yukon shut off after idling for about an hour, but I had the windows down, so I had a slight breeze.
All in all, it wasn’t bad. I will need to adjust things next time; first and foremost, I need a better and longer bed, to bring shorts to sleep in, and my dopp kit to brush my teeth and freshen up a bit. I can make it work, and if this will be long-term, as I suspect, I’ll have the Yukon rigged out into the best overnight vehicle. I am, however, holding out to see if the UP will let me do reverse lodging. I was thinking that I could book a hotel at my home terminal instead of a hotel in Houston; years ago, they used to allow this. I’m praying that even if they don’t do this typically, that with our current situation, they may grant it as a hardship. Surely, someone in this company has a heart, but I’m not holding my breath. Most have a heart the size of the Grinch in our us against them, union v management mentality.
I had a pilot conductor to give me a familiarization trip and show me the ins and outs of how things work in the terminal since it had been twenty years since I’d worked out of the San Antonio Terminal. I feel the railroad goes about this the wrong way, and I should have been put on with a more seasoned conductor who only makes Houston trips, but with union agreements, it doesn’t work that way. I got a younger seniority pilot. He’d been railroading for over six years but didn’t work the Houston side much, so he was unsure about some tracks when switching cars in Houston. We were both figuring it out, and I do better by myself in those situations. We had a yardmaster looking at us via a camera, and the engineer on the opposite end was not able to see where we were; both telling us directions. I had already looked at the map and knew where I was going. I had to tell everyone sternly over the radio to leave us alone and let us figure it out!
I was surprised when we were picked up by an Uber to be taken from the train to the hotel in Houston. A contract company usually picks us up in a van we refer to as “limos.” I got in the Burb and promptly went home after arriving at the hotel 13 hours after I went on duty. When I returned to the apartment, it was almost 24 hours from when I left, still wearing the same clothes I had left and slept in! I was ready to just take it easy for a minute!
Amanda had done well while I was gone and was just sitting down to eat a late dinner when I arrived. She’d fallen asleep in the evening and hadn’t had dinner yet. I grabbed some leftovers and sat down to eat with her. I had talked with Sybil about lining her up to take Tank out on Monday while Amanda and Jenny were at the cancer center. I told her I’d be gone and Amanda may call here Sunday if she needed help. Amanda said she came over ringing the doorbell in the middle of the day, saying it was Sybil. She wanted to take Tank out anyway! She’s a sweetheart and a blessing to have right there.
I was dead-tired, and when my head hit the pillow, I was out until my phone rang the next morning. It was Jenny needing help to get in; it seemed that Amanda’s code wasn’t working. I gave her mine and buzzed her in. She’d left early to beat the morning rush in from Katy. I sat and talked with her as Amanda finished getting ready. She got acquainted with Tank; I’m pretty sure he approved of her and her butt-scratching abilities! Just as they were getting ready to leave, my phone rang just as I got rested; 10 hours is the minimum for us to be off, and they called not one minute after that. I loaded the wheelchair for the girls, and they were off. I promptly hopped in the shower to freshen up before returning to the hotel. It wasn’t a bad drive over, and it only took me about 30 minutes to get there.
I spoke with a few other crews as I waited for my crew to come down to the lobby. Many were wondering who I was, especially someone with 22 years of seniority that they didn’t know! Everyone has been helpful and sympathetic when I tell them why I’m here. I had an engineer I recognized but couldn’t place, who was very helpful and got his little black book out and said do you have your phone hinting for me to take pictures. He had a wealth of information for me, including which engineers he knew would also be helpful. I think it will be easier to transition to working here than I had anticipated.
With Jenny as a Barkley fill-in, my phone was a running ticker, much like a stock ticker, on the pulse of what was happening, and literally Amanda’s pulse! She sent live updates on what was going on, what was being administered, how Amanda was doing, and her vitals. I was like I was there. The fluid was cut in half to keep from overloading Amanda. She did well, and her BP didn’t bottom out like last time. I’d pushed Amanda to eat breakfast; she did better when she ate before the Soliris. She did well, but her BP bottomed out after she was back to the apartment, of course! She began to have what seemed to be blood sugar issues, too. She ate a little something, but it only lasted for a while, and she began to feel bad again. The nausea was terrible, though. She called Sybil to let Tank out since she wasn’t feeling good. By the time she had a nap and was ready to get in bed, she said she felt so bad she was in tears.
As we got to the depot in San Antonio, we were dead on the hours of service, “hogged out” in railroad terms. We can only work for 12 hours at a time, and we pull up and stop with only minutes to spare. The engineer who relieved us was one I knew from swapping out in Del Rio. He had a run of expletives when seeing me, wondering what the hell I was doing in San Antonio, to put it mildly! He said he thought it was a mistake when he saw my name on the train list. I told him never say never because I was pretty sure I had said I would never work out of SA again more than once! Like many others, he was so nice and said that if I needed anything, just to ask. It is good to see familiar faces, at least.
I called once I was on the way home and Amanda was fast asleep. So I just said I’m on the way, nite nite, and love you. I wanted to be fast asleep, too, but I had a 3-hour drive ahead. No tucking in behind a semi on this drive home; it was hammer down time. I took advantage of the minimal late-night light traffic. Once on the road, Apple Maps showed 2:45 minutes drive time. I was tired about an hour and a half in and fidgeting to stay awake. I chomped some gum and woke a bit, but I was at my most tired once off the interstate and in town on the final couple miles home. It was a nonstop trip, and I shaved a little off the map time just driving my usual on-cruise speed, which was over the speed limit but still within standard Texas fast driving speeds!
We are at a clinic appointment right now to see Dr. Nair. We have been waiting for three and a half hours so far, and we haven’t seen him yet, but can hear him in the halls. I’ll post later about how Amanda is doing today and what he has to say.
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