Day 352 (Loading Tomorrow)

I unloaded today, just after lunch, in Chattanooga, TN, after which I made mt way down to Resaca, GA, just 40 or so miles south of Chattanooga, and just a few miles north of where I load at in the morning in Calhoun, GA. I'm always fortunate when I go to a customer's facility that allows overnight parking. I prefer that for two reasons: A) I don't have to deal with the morning traffic, and, B) it allows me some extra time to try finding the customer's location, which will always revert back to point A. I called the broker concerning this next load, and whether or not I could load it today. Unfortunately the customer won't have the product ready until early in the morning. Therefore that only means that tomorrow could be a long day, since this load is due in Rogers, AR at 1000 on Wednesday.

I like what I do, especially in our current tumultuous economy. That's not to be confused with enjoying what I do. It's a way to support my family. As former pro football player/WWE Superstar Bill Goldberg once said, "if you're not smiling when you go into work every day, then you're in the wrong place." He has a point. There are other things I'd rather be doing, but it always comes down to one essential thing: capital, a.k.a. finances. I would much rather travel the country while playing in a band, or working as an independent DJ (using turntables, also referred to as "old school"), but I'm not. I'm just a truck driver. A vocation that receives much disdain from the general public without so much as the consideration that if it weren't for us, then how would those same people that hold contempt for us get their groceries, clothing, gas, etc. All of these things are transported by truck. We are the mediator between the producers and the retailers. All factors augment one another, and with even one factor missing, the process comes to a screeching halt. Yet producers, retailers, fuel sources continually raise prices, but if the trucking industry stops their operations in protest of rising fuel costs - and no increase in shipping rates - we, as the drivers, are held liable as performing an "act of terrorism".

Something to think about while having a cup of coffee.