I know it’s been a long time since I wrote a blog post. I probably don’t have time to write one today but feel like I must for a few reasons.
- Writing is good therapy for me. Any one who knows me at all well will tell you that I need good therapy.
- I do my best humor writing when I’m under the weather and/or under attack. We’ll see what happens.
- I’ve been under what feels like a lot of spiritual warfare this month, so
- I need all the prayer warriors I can get at this time to help me through this struggle.
Back In July I remember telling someone that August is usually the fastest month of the year for me. What I didn’t know at the time was that August 2021 is being one of the hardest months in my life…and that’s saying a lot.
I expected the first week to be difficult because there was a Celebration of Life event being held for Wes Crowder. He’s a friend from church who was taken down by COVID-19. I had a story to tell about the last time I saw Wes that made everyone in the room laugh. Then I shared the chorus to my song I Hear Every Tear. I was going to sing the third verse before the chorus but got so choked up in the moment I forgot the words to the second line. So I just sang the meat of the message. Trish was very moved by the song. They still need our prayers as they move on in their new normal.
I was hoping for a certain member of the church being in attendance for this event but I guess she had other commitments. So that romance door is still closed for me.
Thursday has been the most challenging day of each week so far. When I was waiting for my load to get ready on the first Wednesday I got a text to pick up my assigned tractor. It’s been having computer module issues that don’t appear while Freightliner has it at their shop. I sent up a prayer and picked it up. 200 miles down the road it acted up for me but got me to my destination in northeast Oklahoma.
New tractors only come with automatic transmissions. That means everything runs off two things: the computer modules and air pressure. In the morning when I tried to move to the dock to get my load unloaded the rig wouldn’t budge. I was stuck without mud or snow. We unloaded their 41 pieces into a box truck then I waited all day for a tow truck to bring me a replacement tractor up from Dallas so I could continue with my other stops.
The good news is that the replacement unit had a standard transmission. I still know how to drive that and it feels good to go back to old school driving occasionally. Until the following Wednesday. That’s when the clutch started acting up. Of course it was while I was driving to Little Rock with another load. I made it to Malvern which is about 45 minutes southwest of my first stop. I had to work my way around another rig that was driving exceptionally slow into the Loves truckstop. But I did get off to a safe spot before I stalled the tractor to get it to stop.
It was a safe spot but in front of a line of rigs parked for the night. After I posted my woes on Facebook and responded to some friends the rig directly in front of me pulled out. All I had to do was release my parking brake and coast downhill into the spot to be safety tucked out of everyone else’s way for the night. That was my reassurance that God still loves me even in my stress-filled times.
A few calls with the leasing company’s help line had a replacement unit coming in from Memphis, Tennessee. I told them there was no great rush since I could wait until nine o’clock in the morning before I had to leave to still make my deliveries. I was able to sleep the whole night and only had to wait until eleven o’clock for the tow truck to show up. Somehow I still accomplished the three deliveries on Thursday so I was back on schedule. Things were looking up.
My dispatcher contacted me during the day about a delivery that another company that the company I drive for needed delivered. Yeah, it’s complicated. Short story I said yes partly because of the $100 bonus they offered. Oh, and can you go back to your first stop in Little Rock to pick up the returns that you didn’t have paperwork for and that you didn’t have room for since they were you first stop?
I did my best to explain to her that I could either do the Saturday run or the returns. I simply wouldn’t have time to do both. She understood and agreed to get the returns next trip. Then I waited Friday morning for a call from the other company to finalize arrangements for Saturday. It never came. The first hint that plans had changed was when my dispatcher asked me as nicely as she could to go back to pick up those returns. I did even though my health was beginning to talk to me. I knew I needed some rest but that simply wasn’t in the cards being dealt me.
It took about twenty minutes for me to drive back to my first stop and wait for someone to bring up the returns that were supposed to be ready for me. They weren’t. An hour and a half later I pulled out with fewer than half of what was on the returns list that they had. As I drove to my last stop north of Texarkana I was enjoying the country setting and thinking about being able to sleep in Saturday morning…until my phone rang.
It was that company that wanted me for Saturday then didn’t need me for Saturday. Their driver that decided to take that run’s father died. So now I’m there only hope.
I had originally planned on driving up to Lawton, Oklahoma Friday night to spend my ten hour break there before finishing that run late Saturday. I was too tuckered to drive somewhere in the dark that I had no idea where it was nor nothing else about it. So I left Saturday morning and found a motel literally next door to my first stop and they had truck parking, too. If I had known things could have been different but I didn’t so they weren’t.
Saturday night found me with an empty trailer in Oklahoma City in a motel room without a vibrating sleeper berth to contend with. The cough drops and decongestants were a wise buy going into this working weekend. I also appreciated church services being held online now. One benefit to this pandemic
Monday was supposed to find me driving to El Paso for that week’s first load, but because of federal regulations I had to take a 34 hour minimum break. So I shot out early Tuesday morning and spent the night in extreme west Texas after completing those two stops. Another early push Wednesday helped me finish that run pretty much caught back up and barely able to talk or swallow.
The first order of business on Thursday, my now least favorite day of the week, was find somewhere to get a COVID test. By noon I was done with that.
Oh, you want to know my test results. I failed…or did I actually pass? Things are so confusing these days I don’t know what way is up sometimes. Normally when you see negative on a test it means you failed. Right? That’s the way it worked when I was in school. I tested negative for COVID-19 so I guess that means I passed this test. My dispatcher pushed me back in a truck so I guess I’m good to go…with coughs and such that go along with an upper respiratory infection.
Okay, so I’m driving out of the parking lot planning my day when Clifford, the big red van, decides not to stay running. I’m like “For real? Can’t I catch any breaks?” An hour and a half later I’m riding with my dispatcher back to work and Clifford is riding on a wrecker to the shop.
Now all of these delays makes it so I can’t get back home until Saturday. I also missed a mandatory safety meeting. At least I had a legitimate excuse. Good news is that I got back by three o’clock. The shop is opened until five. Clifford’s diagnosis was an ignition coil failure. A $400 bill that I thought was going to be more going in. I booked a Lyft ride so I didn’t have to walk the four miles. Paid my penalty fee, that’s what if felt like at this point, and took my key back to Clifford…only to find the window on the drivers’ door down.
You’re thinking no big deal. Right? Well that window hasn’t worked in over seven years. I thought I broke it inside the door when I tried to lower the window one cold winter morning to swipe my parking badge for a previous job I had back in the day. I wiggled the window back up somehow and stuck tape over the control knob so nobody would use it. Some mechanics are so stupid that they think they know it all or something. I was not happy at this point.
So now, instead of heading home, picking up a few groceries and settling in for the night between coughs and such, I spend the next two hours trying to get my window in place like it was before the know it all mechanic touched it. The good news is that I discovered that the window wasn’t broken inside the door at all even though that’s what it sounded like at the time.
Now you know why I say it feels like I’ve been under attack all month. It makes me wonder what God has in store for me in September if Satan is going this hard to try to stop me now.
Okay prayer warriors you know what to do.
Some writerly news that might interest y’all. I submitted lyrics for three of my songs to a contest. None of them made even honorable mention. But I’ll consider the effort a success if even one of the judges comes closer to Christ by what they read in my one Christian song that I submitted with the two country songs. I’m willing to wait longer to discover those results.
My health is improving. Hopefully I’ll make it back to live church services next week.
I’ll see you later. Wade
