There are a lot of sayings that people probably thought were catchy at one point in time, but are in reality pretty stupid.
Home is where your heart is.
Home is where you hang your hat.
There's no place like home.
Perhaps more relevant to the origins of this blog, truck drivers tend to hear a different series of sayings about home.
We'll get you home.
Enjoy excellent home time.
Home every night/week/two weeks...
I saw a sign outside an apartment complex in the Flint area recently. The sign said, "If you lived here, you would already be home." I'm almost certain that I've heard this slogan before, so the apartment people weren't breaking any new ground here. And no, I don't have any desire to call the Flint area my home. I'm sure the folks up there are swell people and all, but the town hasn't exactly gotten any better since our buddy Michael Moore's initial stab at propaganda. It did get me thinking though.
The topic of 'already be[ing] home' has been on my mind quite a bit over the past few months. Plenty of people have a lengthy commute every day and they don't mind it for one reason or another. As for me, my commute is usually less than a half hour... and it makes me absolutely miserable. It's not that the process of driving for a half hour is a big deal or anything. My vocation... well... you get that part. It's that the commute seems so utterly pointless.
I know a fella who lives in Clarkston and drives an hour to and from Dearborn, where he works, every day. Why does he do it? His job in Dearborn is pretty big-time. His home in Clarkston has a private lake and... well shit, just fill in the blanks from there. I know a fella who lives in Ohio and drives an hour and a half to and from Wyandotte, where he owns a couple of stores, every day. Why does he do it? Well, he does own a couple of stores, so that would explain the need to get to work. And why live so far away? Horse stables, kids in school, etc.
So what do we have when we examine the ole Godfather's daily drive? A decent job on one end. I won't be buying any horses or lakes any time soon, but I earn a comfortable enough living and my job isn't too tough. On the other end? A shitty apartment in a shitty neighborhood, shared with an unemployed buddy who obviously isn't contributing much to lighten the load. This aspect of the commute comes squarely into focus at 2am when I'm headed home from the gym, hoping like hell that I can get to sleep soon enough to catch a few hours of rest before it's time to head back to work the following morning. Perhaps even more so, it comes into focus when I have a short shift at work. The choices aren't very appealing when this happens. I can go to the gym at 8pm or so and fight the crowds. Or I can drive all the way home, then try to find the motivation to make a second round-trip late at night. Or I can try to find some form of distraction out in the northwestern suburbs to kill some time before my workout. Or I can take a nap in my car. Not exactly an appealing menu of options, although the naps in the car are pretty nice sometimes.
A convergence of events lately has really gotten me thinking. My unfortunate lodger was recently in Boston for a series of job interviews. As far as I know, this was his first serious crack at leaving the ranks of the unemployed since 2007. He was asked to stay in town for a few follow-up interviews, so maybe there's a chance that he's moving out of town. My lease is up either at the end of February or the end of March. I got a free month when I moved in here, so I'm not sure exactly when the official lease year begins. In either case, it's time to either renew for another year or do something different. "If you lived here, you would already be home." That one just seems to make a lot of sense to me. The "here" tends to be somewhere in or around Livonia, where I work. My gym is only a few miles away from the trucking terminal and the area is pretty nice, so I started looking around at the lodging options.
Until I'm prepared to drop at least $40-50,000 on a down payment (which is to say - not right now), I don't intend to take on a mortgage. I've seen too much of the upside-down stuff in Michigan over the past several years. That ain't my style. If I'm gonna buy a house, I'll do so with such an arrangement that my equity will never be negative, no matter what. Perhaps that day will come and perhaps it won't, but it's not here at present. Real estate prices are relatively low, so it's tempting, but I'm still socking money away for plenty of golf in Ireland during my waning years and such.
So I'm a renter for the time being. You know about us renters, right? That class of people who take it in the ass while the politicians try to protect homeowners who are in over their heads. We get a shitty interest rate on our savings accounts and bonds as a result of Fed manipulation. Our rents don't fall as market forces should dictate that they would, since there's some kind of vested interest in propping up housing prices. Yeah, I'm one of those people. Long story short - there were numerous rental homes available in Livonia, but only a few within my preferred price range. Only two of them seemed to me that they would be better than an apartment in Northville or Novi (or so forth). I settled on one... and someone else got it before me. So I got the other one. Good enough. Now, when I leave work or the gym at night, I'll pretty much "already be home." And that's a good thing.
The funniest part of the deal involves the whole roommate situation. My buddy seems to think he has a good shot at getting one or two job offers from the Boston excursion, but for now he's still here. And my youngest brother has apparently signed on to split the rent and the bills for my new house in Livonia. Just as I thought I would be done with having a roommate, it appears that I'll have two, at least for a while. The house has three bedrooms and plenty of space, but shit. Where are the gorgeous women who need a place to rest? How did I end up with these two? I don't know, man. They say that the Lord works in mysterious ways. We'll see how it goes.
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Spotted along Satan's Driveway recently...
Probably not quite as groovy without me at the wheel, but it's still apparently trekking to Laredo and back.
Man, did I ever hate that road.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Leadership
I grew up in a relatively poor family. As a consequence of my family's economic status (or lack thereof), I spent several years living in somewhat sketchy neighborhoods. It's no secret that our society hasn't reached the age of full equality and enlightenment of which many people dream, so in those sketchy neighborhoods you were bound to find plenty of minorities. Point the finger of blame wherever you like and explain inner-city social ills however you choose, but the fact remains that the black and Hispanic folks tend to occupy the lower rungs of the ladder, generally speaking.
It would follow, then, that I have never been a stranger to the minority races. I'm not going to pull the "my black friends" routine like your local newsman does whenever a racial issue arises. The truth is that I don't have many friends in general. Of the few with whom I associate these days, none are black. (My brother-in-law isn't exactly a friend of mine, and it's not like I chose him in any case.) There's no need to embellish my bona fides here. I have conservative political views so I'm automatically a racist, or so the conventional wisdom says. No truth to the assertion, of course, but I honestly don't give a shit. I've lived my life in all kinds of places and I've known all kinds of people. I never had a problem with anyone's skin color and nobody seemed to have a problem with mine.
The topic of "black leaders" has always been an intriguing one to me though, and one that nobody ever cared to discuss. I suppose that my intrigue stems from the bizarreness of the concept that a few self-appointed big shots could speak on behalf of everyone with a given skin tone. How could that make sense to anybody? No answer. Whether they were high school or college classmates, work colleagues, friends from the neighborhood, or employees, I never encountered a black person who had a single thing to say about the Jesse Jacksons and Al Sharptons of the world. Not a peep. If I brought it up, they would change the subject or ignore it entirely. Weird.
The subject came to mind again, in a tangential way, when I caught part of a radio discussion on one of the black talk stations in Detroit recently. The topic was the FDA's rules regarding flavored cigarettes. Flavors are introduced to target children, as the story goes, so the FDA needs to ban flavored cigarettes to save the kids. Is menthol a flavor though? This is where I tuned into the discussion. As many of you are likely aware, the black smokers of the world seem to enjoy menthol more than other groups of people do.
In predictable (to me) fashion, the most boisterous participant in the discussion went straight for the racism charge. In his view, the FDA was a racist organization for trying to ban a product used primarily by black people. Another participant had a different take. In her view, the ban might be a good thing because it would encourage more black people to quit smoking and become healthier. Without missing a beat, the first guy jumped back in and claimed that the cigarette industry was racist for developing a product that got black people addicted in the first place. I'm not making this up. It was amusing and sad at the same time. Amusing to hear the rhetorical gymnastics and the shouting from this guy, in an effort to cover a complete lack of intellectual depth. Sad to hear that, no matter which side of the issue one chooses, racism clearly explains the other side.
Which brings us to the topic of today's post - leaders. I don't think for a second that the goofball on the radio in Detroit was considered a black leader, any more than I'm considered a white leader. He was just one more guy with an (adjustable) opinion. As I continued northward and lost the radio signal though, I couldn't help but wonder when Al Sharpton would show up somewhere and start making the same charges.
Then this reminded me of one of the very few conversations about this topic that I actually did have with a black guy. (Yes. My mind zigs and zags and circles back around again. What are you gonna do?) Naturally the guy was a truck driver. I probably had already written my blog post for the day at the point when I met the fella, but we were in the little lounge area at the truck stop outside Warren, Ohio. I was looking at the little TV in the corner and the guy mumbled something about his son. I wasn't sure what he said or if it was directed at me, so I responded with the customary, "Excuse me?" His son was pissing him off, he clarified.
Then the old black guy sat down (uninvited, natch) and we had a pretty lengthy chat about this, that, and the other thing. Perhaps it was because I was a stranger or perhaps it was just in his nature, but this guy was interested in talking about all kinds of stuff. I later learned that he was from the Detroit area, so maybe my Tigers hat convinced him that I was a decent guy or something. I'm not a conversationalist by nature, as you've probably learned by now, so I did more listening. I can tell plenty of jokes and I can tell plenty of stories, but I'm not very good at pretending to give a damn about what someone else has to say. I didn't have to pretend when my counterpart got to Al Sharpton though. I was genuinely interested. I already told you that I find the topic of black leaders intriguing.
In what turned out to be a disappointment to me, the guy was no fan of Sharpton. He thinks that the "reverand" is an uneducated huckster who stirs up trouble to keep himself in business. In other words - we were in total agreement on the subject. That's all well and good in its own way, but it did nothing to help me understand how people can consider guys like Sharpton to be leaders. I would have preferred to hear some sort of support for Sharpton, purely so I could understand the subject a little better. Alas, the black truck driver was an independent businessman (or O/O to use the common parlance of the industry) and his attitudes reflected as much. He didn't accept the idea that anybody speaks for him.
I saw something in my e-mail when I got back from Tennessee last night that brought all of this to mind. "Uneducated huckster" was, if not a direct quote from my aforementioned conversation, a reasonable paraphrasing of what was said. My truck driving buddy was certain that ole Al was stupid. How stupid though? Well...
I'll have to excuse Donny Deutsch for his moronic comment here, not because I'm protecting the white guy but because Donny Deutsch is a fucking moron. Everybody seems to know this. Al Sharpton, on the other hand, is the country's chief trafficker in racial grievance. If he is going back to the tried and true 'Arizona is full of raaaaaacists' meme on a TV show discussing Martin Luther King Day, then he should at least be aware that the state has recognized the holiday, in full, since 1992. Jackass.
How are leaders chosen? I guess that's what I'm really trying to ask.
It would follow, then, that I have never been a stranger to the minority races. I'm not going to pull the "my black friends" routine like your local newsman does whenever a racial issue arises. The truth is that I don't have many friends in general. Of the few with whom I associate these days, none are black. (My brother-in-law isn't exactly a friend of mine, and it's not like I chose him in any case.) There's no need to embellish my bona fides here. I have conservative political views so I'm automatically a racist, or so the conventional wisdom says. No truth to the assertion, of course, but I honestly don't give a shit. I've lived my life in all kinds of places and I've known all kinds of people. I never had a problem with anyone's skin color and nobody seemed to have a problem with mine.
The topic of "black leaders" has always been an intriguing one to me though, and one that nobody ever cared to discuss. I suppose that my intrigue stems from the bizarreness of the concept that a few self-appointed big shots could speak on behalf of everyone with a given skin tone. How could that make sense to anybody? No answer. Whether they were high school or college classmates, work colleagues, friends from the neighborhood, or employees, I never encountered a black person who had a single thing to say about the Jesse Jacksons and Al Sharptons of the world. Not a peep. If I brought it up, they would change the subject or ignore it entirely. Weird.
The subject came to mind again, in a tangential way, when I caught part of a radio discussion on one of the black talk stations in Detroit recently. The topic was the FDA's rules regarding flavored cigarettes. Flavors are introduced to target children, as the story goes, so the FDA needs to ban flavored cigarettes to save the kids. Is menthol a flavor though? This is where I tuned into the discussion. As many of you are likely aware, the black smokers of the world seem to enjoy menthol more than other groups of people do.
In predictable (to me) fashion, the most boisterous participant in the discussion went straight for the racism charge. In his view, the FDA was a racist organization for trying to ban a product used primarily by black people. Another participant had a different take. In her view, the ban might be a good thing because it would encourage more black people to quit smoking and become healthier. Without missing a beat, the first guy jumped back in and claimed that the cigarette industry was racist for developing a product that got black people addicted in the first place. I'm not making this up. It was amusing and sad at the same time. Amusing to hear the rhetorical gymnastics and the shouting from this guy, in an effort to cover a complete lack of intellectual depth. Sad to hear that, no matter which side of the issue one chooses, racism clearly explains the other side.
Which brings us to the topic of today's post - leaders. I don't think for a second that the goofball on the radio in Detroit was considered a black leader, any more than I'm considered a white leader. He was just one more guy with an (adjustable) opinion. As I continued northward and lost the radio signal though, I couldn't help but wonder when Al Sharpton would show up somewhere and start making the same charges.
Then this reminded me of one of the very few conversations about this topic that I actually did have with a black guy. (Yes. My mind zigs and zags and circles back around again. What are you gonna do?) Naturally the guy was a truck driver. I probably had already written my blog post for the day at the point when I met the fella, but we were in the little lounge area at the truck stop outside Warren, Ohio. I was looking at the little TV in the corner and the guy mumbled something about his son. I wasn't sure what he said or if it was directed at me, so I responded with the customary, "Excuse me?" His son was pissing him off, he clarified.
Then the old black guy sat down (uninvited, natch) and we had a pretty lengthy chat about this, that, and the other thing. Perhaps it was because I was a stranger or perhaps it was just in his nature, but this guy was interested in talking about all kinds of stuff. I later learned that he was from the Detroit area, so maybe my Tigers hat convinced him that I was a decent guy or something. I'm not a conversationalist by nature, as you've probably learned by now, so I did more listening. I can tell plenty of jokes and I can tell plenty of stories, but I'm not very good at pretending to give a damn about what someone else has to say. I didn't have to pretend when my counterpart got to Al Sharpton though. I was genuinely interested. I already told you that I find the topic of black leaders intriguing.
In what turned out to be a disappointment to me, the guy was no fan of Sharpton. He thinks that the "reverand" is an uneducated huckster who stirs up trouble to keep himself in business. In other words - we were in total agreement on the subject. That's all well and good in its own way, but it did nothing to help me understand how people can consider guys like Sharpton to be leaders. I would have preferred to hear some sort of support for Sharpton, purely so I could understand the subject a little better. Alas, the black truck driver was an independent businessman (or O/O to use the common parlance of the industry) and his attitudes reflected as much. He didn't accept the idea that anybody speaks for him.
I saw something in my e-mail when I got back from Tennessee last night that brought all of this to mind. "Uneducated huckster" was, if not a direct quote from my aforementioned conversation, a reasonable paraphrasing of what was said. My truck driving buddy was certain that ole Al was stupid. How stupid though? Well...
I'll have to excuse Donny Deutsch for his moronic comment here, not because I'm protecting the white guy but because Donny Deutsch is a fucking moron. Everybody seems to know this. Al Sharpton, on the other hand, is the country's chief trafficker in racial grievance. If he is going back to the tried and true 'Arizona is full of raaaaaacists' meme on a TV show discussing Martin Luther King Day, then he should at least be aware that the state has recognized the holiday, in full, since 1992. Jackass.
How are leaders chosen? I guess that's what I'm really trying to ask.
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