In honor of being called a whiny butt about my trucking career...

[Tobin S.]

...here is a little story I wrote about 5.5 years ago called "Memories."

I know I complain a lot about the weather here in Ohio, where I do most of my trucking. This time last year I was seriously considering making a career change. I mean seriously- updated the resume and put in some applications. Then I realized that I'm kind of stuck unless I go back to school. About the only thing I'm qualified for besides driving a truck is $9 an hour manual labor jobs. I can't get by on that, even living as frugally as I do.

Well, it's been kind of a rough start to the new year here in Ohio as far as weather goes. Last week it snowed every day but Friday on my route, and snow creates more stress, more danger, and more work. So when I got that flyer in the mail from a correspondence school yesterday, I found myself taking a serious look at it.

Things are looking a little better now. It's been colder than a well digger's ass, but it looks like I'm going to make it to the weekend without any more snow. But I'm sure I haven't seen the last of it.

Trucking in the extreme cold isn't very fun, either, especially when you have to get outside and unload the truck. I work outside usually for about 2.5 hours a night. You do get acclimated to the weather to a certain extent, but it will still wear you down and make you wish you were flipping burgers for a living. I was at my last stop today in Chillicothe, Ohio right as the sun was coming up. It had gotten as cold as 2 degrees F during the night. My truck said it was 6 in Chillicothe.

I was standing there on the lift gate on the back of the trailer preparing to load up some dunnage when I had a very poignant moment. As the sun came up and made the morning very bright as it reflected light off of the snow, it occurred to me that some day I will miss this. Thirty years from now when I'm a retired, old man I'll look back to that moment and wish I was back there.

The day suddenly seemed a little warmer and I felt a sense of pride in who I am and what I'm doing.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. That's a great story, my dear Tobin!

And an excellent response for the whiny butt post!

Thanks for sharing this.

[Tobin S.]

2. Thanks again, Peggy.

The main thing I struggled with for that job was that it was graveyard shift. I never got used to it and I was perpetually tired. I think I'd still be there if it weren't for that.

[CanSocDem]

3. Absolution...

...for the time being.

"As the sun came up and made the morning very bright as it reflected light off of the snow, it occurred to me that some day I will miss this. Thirty years from now when I'm a retired, old man I'll look back to that moment and wish I was back there."

Zen.





.

[CBGLuthier]

4. I drove a big rig one time

OK, we moved to Florida back in the 80s and things did not work out well. Due to some legal entanglements I put my wife on a plane and made arrangements to drive home with our stuff. My mother knew a man who had a company that usually hauled steel to locations and they sent down a semi with a flatbed trailer.

Now, my own experiences were kind of odd, I had driven a very heavy souped-up house trailer that housed a mobile 35mm microfilm planetary camera. But that was only a 2 ton truck.

So the man shows up and we load and prepare to return from central Florida to Oklahoma. I sucked at the complexity of shifting the gears. We got pulled over in Louisiana because our radiator cover was partially blocking our license plate. My co-driver talked us out of that mess and we moved on and just before the last stop or so I managed to stall it good. But we restarted and got in and I really sucked.

So hats off to you for being skilled at something that few appreciate the skill required.