Bad Day

Today's Thoughts 5/5/12 Bad Day
By Jeff Head

Knock knock knock, I pick up my watch and press the light button, one forty five in the morning. Knock knock knock, "I have only been asleep about three hours," I say to myself as I slowly rise up from my bunk without making a sound. I part my sleeper berth curtains just a bit to see what I expect to be a girl standing just outside of my truck only to find some guy standing there. "What the heck does he want? Not me I am hoping, probably just money or something like that. I am sure he has some hard luck story that he feels that it is ok to go around truck stops waking up truckers for in the middle of the night asking for a handout. I sit motionless watching him until he finally gives up and walks away.

It is now four in the morning and I still have not been able to get back to sleep. I am tired of just laying here looking at this stupid ceiling, my mind racing with thoughts and wondering if that guy is not hanging around stealing something off of my truck. My logbook says I can run, but I'm hungry so I figure I would take a chance and walk inside to the restaurant and grab a early morning breakfast before I start out. The waitress is young and snotty and very quickly informs me that breakfast will not be served until after six. I am at a truck stop and cannot get breakfast in the wee hours of the morning. This sucks big time I am thinking. Nevertheless, I deal with it. I order a hamburger and fries and figure I would stay away from the caffeine for now so I just get water to drink.

A few minutes later and I am half way through my hamburger and all the way through my water. The waitress is over in the corner bad mouthing truck drivers to a person that turns out to be a cop. He is just chuckling, going along with whatever she says until he finally decides to get up and pay his bill. I am thinking more so just to get away from this complaining waitress then it is time to get back to work. As he walks out the front door, the waitress walks to the kitchen and I sit there dying of thirst. I finish my food and wait for her at the cash register. She asks if I would like a water to go but I am done with her. Good luck with tips working here, not liking truck drivers I think as I walk out the door; I left her a quarter.

Finally out on the interstate just me and one other car. I cannot shake them, they insist on riding just off the rear of my trailer one lane to the left, their headlights glaring in my mirror. I speed up, I slow down; nothing. They are just going to hang there. So I find a exit and jump off letting them go on by, then I continue north for about an hour until I find a rest area and a place to take a nap.

I sleep for about an hour when the driver next to me needs to beat on his truck in an attempt to fix something. He slams his hood down and leaves, but I am awake again so I am off to. I ride along for a while and I figure I need to pick up some fuel. I have about five miles to go and I come across this U-Haul truck doing about fifty-five. I start to change lanes to pass him when a flat bed load of lumber come flying by getting right up on the tail of another car that was already passing the U-Haul. The flat bed finally slows down just about two feet before hitting the car and now he is stuck in perpetual drag and fly mode on the hills. He never is able to pick up his speed again so I spend the next ten minutes stuck behind that slow U-haul blocked in by the drag and fly flat bed.

I make it finally to the fuel-island, fuel then park and go inside for a shower. I throw my baseball cap up on the sink next to the faucet and then I put my phone and watch and all the contents of my pockets in it so I do not forget to take them with me when I leave. I brush my teeth, shower and dress.

As I fill my pockets back with all of the contents of my baseball cap, I noticed that they are soaked. My phone and watch being on the bottom were sitting there in a pool of water that had soaked through my cap from the faucet that had leaked out the back all over the counter while I was brushing my teeth. I wonder how much this was going to cost me. I shake the water out of my hat the best I can and now I am wearing a soaking wet hat.

Back outside I notice it is starting to rain. Figures because the night before I had washed my truck and you know that it had to happen this way. Just another hour and a half to the house and with any luck at all, I would make it with no one cutting me off or forcing me to slam on the brakes. My luck was starting to change by now I guess. Just a bit of a back up going through Atlanta and I was home. My wife sitting there waiting for me with a hug, a kiss, and a big welcome home smile. Bad day? May have started that way but now I am home where people love me and care for me. The rest of this day is going to be great.

As for the rest of the world, they are going to have to wait until next week before they get another crack at me. I cannot wait to see what they have planned for me. Whatever it is, I will be ready for them. The world is going to have to try a whole lot harder though if they are going to get me down and keep me there.


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