Year 2, Day 33 (Shutting Down In Joplin)

After a couple changes yesterday, Lou and I had our next dispatch sorted out, which loaded this morning in Wabash, IN (about 30 miles from Gas City, where we unloaded), and delivers tomorrow at 1100 in Bentonville, AR. This load does buy us some time, since our original dispatch had the same pick-up & delivery locations, but the delivery time was for 0600 tomorrow (which, at 638 miles, would have been a hard push). I am grateful and blessed that we were able to find a parking spot at the Flying J in Joplin when we did... as I compose this, the lot is filling up rather quickly. I did, however, get us both started on the right track... with some fresh coffee.

It's a little cool outside right now, though last night in Wabash was the coolest I've felt the weather in the past couple of weeks. With the way the weather has been fluctuating this Winter, it tends to make me wonder if we can expect snow this August.

On another topic, picture, if you will, the days of when in school, and part of our required reading was to take on the classic literature that we, at the time detested, but now we embrace - even discuss with friends. For example, a friend (whom also works for the same employer as I) were discussing a few of the classics. One that he had never read was 1984 by George Orwell. I had explained that within the story, was a society with a language known as "Newspeak". A language which has removed any negative syntax or connotation (for example, instead of exclaiming that somebody just had a "terrible idea", the proper term would thus be, "an idea that is double-plus un-good"). If you think about it, our own society has embraced this "newspeak", also commonly referred to as "politically correct" - a fine example is that we no longer call them "illegal aliens", they should be referred as "undocumented immigrants". Perhaps if we all went back and read some of the classics, we may have our eyes opened to the atrocities that have been foisted upon our culture beneath our very noses. But if you want some of those classics in your personal library, you need to act fast... when schools start banning Shakespeare, it's only a matter of time when we may not find them in print any longer. With the recent resurgence of book burning ceremonies (reminiscent of the practices in Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury), our society is devolving - with a not-so-subtle nudge by our "elected cockroaches - into one of a dystopian culture.

Just some food for thought.