7/24/08

Damn that Google Earth, filling me with false hopes and dreams. I pulled around the corner leading to my customer, thinking, "That turn wasn't so bad. I wonder what those directions meant." Then I saw the big ass warehouse that I thought was my destination. The yard dog on the midnight shift came over and pointed to my actual customer - the little rinky-dink place across the street. Shit. At least the dock was open so I could park and take a nap until the people showed up for work. Getting there in the middle of the night was definitely the right move. Good lookin' out to whoever put that advice in the directions.

I had to blindside from one side street onto another side street in order to get pointed at their dock. Then I had to make a pretty sharp turn (backward, obviously) off of the side street to get my trailer into the dock. There was a concrete post guarding the left side and a flatbed parked on the right side. The street from which I backed into the dock had no extra room for me to pull forward and adjust my angle of approach. You know those days when I can't seem to back a trailer? Today wasn't one of them. Places like this morning's location will cure that shit real quick like. Nothing short of perfection would have gotten me in there. Fortunately, I had exactly one dose of perfection available to me at the time. Yeah, I'm patting myself on the back for a minute here. You got a problem with that?

The weather was cool enough that, for the first time in quite a while, I would have been able to rest without idling my truck. The half-assed dock driveway left the front end of my truck slightly in the street though. Since it was either really late or really early, depending on your perspective, I could just imagine someone coming around the corner without paying attention and taking off my bumper. I decided to leave my parking lights on just in case, so I had to run the truck to keep the batteries juiced. C'est la vie.

After the consignee opened up and I got my trailer unloaded, I had to start looking for a place to park. I could go north along I-75 or west along I-64 to a rest area, with either option taking me roughly the same distance. Based on experience, I figured that my best bet would be to head west. We have a few shippers in the Louisville area. So I drove over to the rest area and found every parking space full. At 9am? Really? That's getting annoying. There was room to pull in behind a couple of other trucks along the driveway. After I slept for an hour or so, I got a call from my mother. She and my father were heading down I-75 on their way to Tennessee for the annual hillbilly family reunion. Some of my mother's family live in Georgia and the rest live in Michigan, so they all get together somewhere in the middle each summer. They were north of Dayton at the time and Mom wanted to know if I felt like getting some lunch. I told her that there wasn't much of a chance that I would still be around by the time they got down to Lexington.

A few hours later, Mom called again. Yeah, I was still at the rest area. Not too happy about it, but what can you do? I took myself off the board, where I was #2 at the time, and they picked me up. We headed out and had a nice lunch. My little niece was with them, so that was a pleasant surprise. She got a pretty good chuckle out of the dead bat in the grill of my truck. The simple things are usually enough to entertain little kids. After lunch we headed back over to the rest area and I got back on the board. Still #2.

I got an assignment around 4:30pm, but today was pretty much a lost day. I have a pick up in Louisville tomorrow afternoon, heading up to Jersey. At least I guessed right on my direction again. I hopped out onto the freeway and went around twenty miles or so to the Flying J. This will be home for the night, I suppose.

Now, I came across a story that has me all kinds of confused. Without delving into the political and societal implications of various lifestyles, on a personal level I don't really have a beef with gay people. Whatever floats your boat, as far as I'm concerned. I think that some of the activist agendas are a little off the mark but that's not my point right now. I know plenty of gay dudes and none of them have ever tried to convert me to the cause.

Likewise, without delving into the political or societal implications of various religious beliefs, on a personal level I don't really have a beef with Muslims. I think that some of the world domination and sharia stuff is pretty nuts but that's not my point right now. I live right next to Dearborn and I know plenty of Muslims. None of them have ever tried to convert me to the cause. (If you have any idea where this is going, you're way more perceptive than I am.)

I am a Christian by faith. By no means do I think I'm any kind of ideal religious practitioner, but you know, son of God and all that. Some Christians get all hot and bothered about gay people, but like I said, I don't. Some Muslims, of course, also get all hot and bothered about gay people. I've heard stories, as I'm sure we all have heard, about Americans assaulting people for being gay. What I haven't heard before today, and what I am completely unable to comprehend, is this story from CNN. You punish people for being gay by (homosexually) raping them? What the fuck? As bigoted as this may make me sound, it seems like one more example that Muslim extremists are way more twisted than any other kind of extremists in the world. God help us if we start meeting with these bastards to see what kind of rewards (aka 'big carrots') we can offer for their radical behavior...