Driving hazards are common. Some are avoidable. Some…not so much.
I see pieces of tires strewn across the road everywhere I drive. My heart goes out to the driver of that event because I’ve been there.
Well, I was there this week, too.
Yeah, I was responsible for some of that rubber carnage on I-40 on Thursday evening.
My trips have been quite uneventful for a few months now, so I guess this shouldn’t have caught me by surprise. So I’ll say it caught me off guard just to save face.
Tire blow outs are usually a mini-rush for a truck driver. You’re trundling down the road letting your mind wander…hoping it comes back if necessary. The east Arkansas landscape is lulling a fella into blissful slumber.
Then you here POW THUMP BLOP blop, blop blop blop, blop, blop. blop. blop…until you can bring your rig to the shoulder of the road for a safe stop.
Your first thought is usually, “What was that?” Even though your second thought knows exactly what that was so you don’t take the time to answer your own question.
It’s been a long while since I’ve had a blow out on the tractor, usually they occur on the trailer for some unknown reason. There was no mistaking this for the part of the big rig the little driver sits in because I was bouncing up and down until the blopping stopped.
I recognized this wasn’t one of the steer tires on the front of the rig because I still had control of the steering through the whole course of events. So that was a good thing.
When the bouncing, blopping and rolling stopped I decided to get out on the right side of the rig for safety’s sake. That and getting run over on a major interstate highway is considered bad luck in my line of work.
Upon first glance nothing on the right side appeared to be wrong so I checked the road side of the rig.
This is when being a little driver comes in handy cuz I simply bent over and walked under the trailer to keep from getting squashed like a bug from one of my good buddies. You should see how my bad buddies treat me. On second thought you shouldn’t be exposed to that. It’s bad enough that I am.
I discovered that not only was I now down to seventeen wheels but I was also missing a mudflap. That could always prove unlucky for some sad sack of a driver if and when a stone comes unhooked from a tire tread.
Some days the bad luck just can’t be avoided.
First phone call was to my dispatcher to say that my life is worse than a country music song because I was off the road again. He tells me to call the leasing company because that’s why we pay them money to drive their tractors.
Second phone call is to the leasing company’s toll free number to explain what I need them to get fixed on their rig I’m trying to drive. They call me back to say a tire guy says he’ll get to me in about 90 minutes.
Next phone call comes to me about an hour later. Ummm…we contacted another tire guy cuz the first one now says it’ll be about four hours before he can fit you in.
About now I’m thinking, “I get paid by the mile I drive not the number of tire guys who might maybe fix my no good tire…and possibly a mudflap while he’s at it.”
I’m tellin’ ya if it weren’t for bad luck somedays I’d have no luck at all.
So, from first blop to the time the wheels are rolling again three hours have gone out of my life that I’ll never get back again. That’s seems to be a recurring theme in my sad life lately.
I still had time to legally reach my destination less than 45 miles away but now I’ll have to wait about an hour after I unload at my second-to-last stop before I can finish my week and get on with my sad life for the weekend.
I realize that’s a run on sentence but that’s my sad life about now.
I won’t even mention that I still had to stop by the shop to get the mudflap bracket replaced. So just disregard that you just read that sentence.
Romans 8:28 says that all things work together for good for those of us who trust God and are called according to His purpose.
If you count my sad life making good fodder for humor then I guess the Bible is right after all.
I’ll see you later. Wade
