I've been a trucker for the last ten years but now I am back home at "Camp Chaos" and I will be working at the Fontana terminal as a safety specialist. I hope now that I'm home I'll have a lot more time for blogging!


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Today is a combination of frustration and anticipation... My wife and daughter are, as I write this, flying to Paris. How I wish I could be with them... I'm looking forward to seeing the photos Brenda sends back on her blog.

I'm sitting in my truck. It is 6:00 pm Thursday Apr 28,2005. Yes, three days till May and I'm sitting in my truck. I repeat that on purpose. I'm not driving. I am sitting behind the wheel, with my antique laptop on my steering wheel. My laptop froze up on me for the fourth time. It seems it can't do more than one thing well at a time.(a lot like me!!) The wireless modem is busy transferring blogg data so when I plug in my little digital camera to download a picture taken out my windshield of all the other forlorn trucks just sitting here like me, (I'l explain in a minute) my computer just stops working!

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that a four year old laptop with dead battery(must plug into cigarette lighter just to boot up!) would complain when I ask it to comunicate via a wireless modem and at the same time download pictures from a digital camera. I am using Windows ME and that is probably at least part of my problem.

My student and I are on a Hurry-get-the-load-there-as-fast-as-you-can load. We are supposed to be in Kansas City, Kansas by 1:00 am tomorrow Apr 29 but instead we are holed up in Rock Springs Wyoming. Interstate 80 is shut down due to ice, snow and multiple accidents. I am thankful we made it to the truck stop. The last 10 miles were at about 15 mph because the road was solid ice.

Two weeks ago I had my winter tires changed over to some steering tires I wanted to use up (trucks have different tires for different purposes. Steer tires are used on the front to steer. They have directional stability but are not any good for pulling a load in ice or mud or snow. On the back of my tractor are my drive tires. They don't need directional stability, they need traction to pull the load. In the summer time traction is not usually a problem. I didn't forsee a problem running some steer tires off on the drives. They have a lot of good tread left but are below my standards to be used as a steer tire. I will have them re-capped when they are worn down some more.) I thought there wouldn't be any more snow or ice by the end of April. I was wrong.

Sooooo, here we are, stuck in a Flying J truck stop. I had an excellent week going till now... I get paid by the mile.

I won't be able to go anywhere tomorrow till the ice and snow are melted. I sure wish now I hadn't changed out of my big knobby winter tires... bummer

Stay tuned, Billy Jack has given me plenty to blog about, I just haven't had time to finish the blog. It should be up in a day or two.
posted by Tom at 4:45 PM

 
I feel sorry for Bear, he’s having a hard time riding in the truck all the time.

Yesterday, we were going through Tucson Arizona. My student was driving, I was sitting in the passenger seat, the jump seat. Bear touched my arm. I was on the last row of a pair of slippers I was knitting and I wanted to finish and put it away. I paused and looked down at Bear.

“Something bothering you Bear?” I asked.
“A little” he said, not looking at me.
“What’s the matter”, I said, looking at him and seeing a sadness in his eyes. “Tell me what’s wrong.”

“It’s… It’s…just that… well, you sit up there all the time in the front seat. Your student sits up there all the time and I never get to sit up front. It just isn’t fair!”

Unfortunately, big trucks don’t have back seats. We have two air seats. (An air seat is a specially designed seat made for rough riding vehicles. It absorbs the shock of the bumps and gives us a comfortable ride so truck drivers don’t have trouble with their kidneys any more.) I understand why Bear doesn’t like being stuck in the back.

“But Bear”, I replied, “You are less than forty pounds, you would have to ride in a car seat, just like Amber and Suki have to do. Would you like that?”

Bear thought for awhile. “When’s the last time you saw a car seat advertised for ‘bears’?

I knew he had me there.

“Well,” I said, “Bears don’t usually ride in trucks either, or cars, for that matter.” … “Look, Bear… car seats are there to keep small bodies from smashing into the windshield in an accident. I should have you strapped into one even when you are on the bunk!”

“Why aren’t you in a car seat? You would do a lot more damage to a windshield than I would!” Bear retorted.

This stuffed fluff was getting the best of me.

“I’m in a ‘car seat’,” I shot back. “See this seat belt, if we were in an accident this belt would keep me strapped in my seat. I can put you in a seat belt on the bunk.
Then you wouldn’t be able to jump up and down on the bed like you love to do. I saw you do a really cool back flip the other day when you thought I wasn’t watching.

Bear did his ‘stare at the floor, make Tom feel bad’ look. “I’m just tired of this truck. I thought I would love riding in the truck. I thought I would get to look out and see all the sights. You haven’t let me see anything!,” he was really pouting now..
“How will I be able to write post cards to the kids at Amber’s school, if I can’t see out so I can see things to write about?”

“I’m sorry Bear,” I said “you’re right” “As soon as my student gets off my truck and gets his own truck, I promise to let you ride up here with me. OK?”

Bear shrugged his shoulders. “Where are we going today?

“Laredo, Texas” I replied.

“Are we there yet?”
posted by Tom at 10:22 PM

 
The other day, I was driving through Virginia. I felt a tap on my arm. I looked down, it was Bear; ‘BJ’. I still call him Bear.

“What you need, Bear”, I said, glancing at him, “You look kind of down today.” “What’s the matter?”

“Oh, its not important… I just thought people might like to know the story of how I got my name… you know, the way it really happened.

I looked down at him again. “OK, Bear tell me how it really happened. He told me his story. Then he said. “Will you put that on your blog? The people would read it and they might like my story”

“All right, Bear” I replied, “when I get some time I’ll type it up and we’ll put it on the blog.

So, yesterday I typed it up. Bear was looking over my shoulder the whole time, reminding me if I forgot any details.

Here is his story:


Bear woke up with a start. Moments ago it had been all dark, but suddenly it was bright as daylight. He looked around, nothing had changed since he went to sleep last night. Elephant and Giraffe were still right next to him. Then he heard some voices and everything came back to him. He was in a store, sitting on a shelf. He guessed he was waiting for something but he didn’t know what. For several days now he had been sitting on this shelf with his other two friends and they didn’t know what they were waiting for either.

What bothered Bear the most was he didn’t like his name. He had already figured out he was a bear. How he knew that nobody knows, bears are just smart. What bothered him was the other part of his name. People came by him in the aisle, some tall people some very short people. He liked the short people the most, because they were almost his size. They would look at him and say “Oh, look at ‘the Stuffed Bear’, isn’t he adorable!” or “Oh, Mommy, look at ‘the Stuffed Bear’! Can I have him?” but no one had wanted him enough yet so Bear sat and sat, waiting.

Bear puzzled over his name. “The Stuffed Bear”. He just didn’t like the way it sounded. Sometimes people would say “Oh, look at that ‘Cute Stuffed Bear’” Bear didn’t mind the word ‘cute’, he liked the word ‘adorable’. He didn’t know what the words meant but they sounded nice. It was that horrible word ‘Stuffed’! He didn’t know what that meant either but he just didn’t like the sound of it! Everyone used it before the word ‘Bear’ and he knew he was a bear so he figured it must be his name. “Oh well,” he thought sadly, all I want is for someone to love me and if living with the name ‘Stuffed’ was the price he would have to pay for love, he decided it was worth it.

That afternoon just about the time Bear was going to take his afternoon nap, a man came by. This man wasn’t too tall, he wasn’t too short either. A little taller than Bear, but Bear thought that was okay. This man looked Bear over. He picked Bear up and looked at his sides, both sides, muttered to himself “I guess they sewed him up alright, looks like he will do”

These words weren’t anything like Bear was hoping to hear from someone who might be someone who would love him. The next thing Bear knew he was being carried to a counter with a big noisy machine and a lady standing behind it. The man took some wilted green pieces of paper out of his wallet and handed them to the lady, she put the paper in her drawer, handed the man another white piece of paper and the man picked up Bear and walked out of the big room where Bear had spent all of the life he for as long as he could remember. They were ‘OUTSIDE”!!! He was surrounded in the brightest light he had ever seen. So bright, Bear had to squint. He was being carried somewhere, the floor was all black and he saw some other strange animals he had never seen before.

These animals were a lot bigger than he was and he saw that every one of them was a different color! They had funny feet, ‘if’ they were even feet at all. He couldn’t figure what else they could be. They were ‘round’ feet. All black too, just like the floor. They must have gotten that black dirt all over their feet, he thought. They are going to have to wash their feet when they get home.

Just then, another colored animal roared by him. A very strange roar. Maybe it wasn’t a roar, he thought, maybe it was just a growl. These were strange animals indeed. “Oh, No,” he thought, horrified, he just saw the side of the animal open up and ‘people’ climbed out! So, was that how people got around? Then a horrible thought occurred to him. This man had looked at his seams. Was Bear going to be cut open and were little people going to ride around inside of Him!! This wasn’t Bear’s idea of a fun time. He was willing to sacrifice a lot to get love but he had thought living with a terrible name was the limit. This would certainly require him to re-think his needs a little bit!

Just then the man carrying him turned Bear towards him and spoke. “Hi, I’m ‘Tomthetrucker”… if it’s okay with you, I’m going to call you ‘Bear’”. Bear quickly erased his previous train of thought and felt his heart give a little leap of joy! This man didn’t call him ‘Stuffed Bear’!! He just called him ‘Bear’! As things were going today, bear decided this was enough reason to be happy for now. This man had dropped the hated word ‘stuffed’ from Bear’s name so Bear decided he would do the same for this man’s name. That name, ‘Tomthetrucker’, seemed to Bear to be too many words squashed together anyway so if he could drop ‘stuffed’ from Bear’s name, then bear could drop a few from this man’s name. “Glad to meet you, Tomthetrucker, … Mind if I call you ‘Tom??” Tom didn’t say anything, just resumed carrying Bear and walked further across this hot black floor.

A few minutes later, Tom turned Bear around and pointed his face towards the BIGGEST animal Bear had EVER seen!! This animal was many times bigger than the other colored animals Bear had seen people climb out of. Like the other animals this animal had ‘round’ feet too, Bear noticed, but this animal had a LOT of ‘round’ feet!!! The other animals had four feet just like Bear but ‘this’ animal…. Bear couldn’t count high enough to count all the feet he could see!! All he could think about was, what would he do if this animal decided to EAT him??

Right at that moment, Tom grabbed a handle on the animals side and opened up a big ‘hole’ inside the animal. Then the man hoisted bear ‘UP, UP, UP onto a seat and then closed him in!! Bear was petrified! He was inside of this animal. He discovered he could look out. That was a relief!

Bear looked around. He saw next to him, another seat, and a big round skinny thing in mid air above the seat. He wondered what that thing was. He didn’t have anything like that inside of him that he knew about but then Bear didn’t have ‘round black feet’ either. Bear decided these animals were certainly different than he was. Bear remembered wondering why he didn’t have a long neck like ‘Giraffe’ had or why he didn’t have a Looooong nose like ‘Elephant’ had so maybe animals are just … different!

Just then bear looked out the front opening of the animal and he saw what looked like a nose! It was like bear’s nose, just a lot bigger. So… maybe this animal is just a BIG bear!

All of a sudden the wall on the other side opened up and Tom climbed up and sat beside Bear! He put his hands on the round skinny thing and then stuck a shiny silver thing into a slot on the front wall and then this ‘big’ bear really started to GROWL!! Wow, Bear had never heard an animal growl like this before!! Then the ‘big’ bear started to move!! Tom had his hands on the round skinny thing and then Bear noticed that if Tom turned the round skinny thing in his hands, the ‘big’ bear would ‘go’ that way!! Boy, this is great, thought Bear. “’Big’ bear goes wherever Tom wants him to go… just by turning the round skinny thing!

Finally Tom spoke up. “I’m taking you to school today!, Does that sound like fun?” Bear wondered what ‘school’ meant but he didn’t know how to say very many words so he just looked at Tom and tried to look happy.

A few minutes later Tom stopped this strange wonderful bear animal in front of a big building. There were a lot of people there, and Bear noticed there were a lot of the ‘short’ people he had seen walk by when he was on the shelf. Bear wondered if this is where ‘all’ the short people lived.

Tom came around and opened up ‘Big’ bear animal and grabbed Bear and carried him inside of the building. There were lots of smaller rooms with aisles between all of them. Bear heard so many voices all at the same time he couldn’t tell where the noise was coming from but he thought most of the noise was coming from the ‘short’ people.

Next thing Bear knew he was being carried into a room full on ‘short’ people. They were sitting in rows and they were all looking at HIM!!!

Tom set Bear down on a hard wooden surface a few feet off the ground. Bear noticed the floor was just like the floor where he had been before Tom came along. It wasn’t black like the outside floor was.

All the ‘short’ people shouted when Bear looked up. He was embarrassed to see so many people looking at him all at once.

Miss Jane, the only other ‘tall’ person besides Tom said. “Do any of you have a name for Bear?” The ‘short’ people all started talking at once. Miss Jane, said. “STOP! One at a time please”… Amber, do you have a name you would like to call Bear?” Amber thought awhile.. I want to call him “STUFFY”! Bear shuddered when he heard that word. He thought, “I sure hope nobody else likes that name…”

Miss Jane looked around the room. “Suzie, do you have a name??” Suzie looked at the boy sitting next to her. Secretly, she really liked this boy. “Yes, I want to call him… ‘BILLY”

Just then another boy called out, “I want to call him ‘JACK’”!

All of the ‘short’ people started talking at once so Miss Jane had to say again, “I told you… Only one at a time!!” “How many want to call Bear ‘BILLY’” ?? A lot of hands went up. “How many want to call him ‘JACK’”?? Again a lot of hands went up. Just as many as went up for ‘BILLY’!! Miss Jane thought for a second. “How about we call him ‘BILLY JACK’?? That suggestion was greeted with a huge “Yeah, let’s call him ‘BILLY JACK’”. Miss Jane said, “we can call him ‘BJ’ for short”.

Bear was soooo happy,

Miss Jane looked at Bear, and said. “BILLY JACK, you are going to ride with Tom in his big truck. Every week we want you to send us a postcard telling us where you are going and where you have been.”!

Bear was too overwhelmed to talk. He was going to get to ride around the country and send postcards to all of the ‘short’ people he had just met. He was sure they were going be the best friends he could ever have, except Tom, of course. Now he knew the ‘Big’ bear animal was called a ‘big truck’. He was sure he would have a lot to learn about this big truck.

As Tom was carrying Bear out of the classroom, Bear decided he wasn’t ‘Bear’ anymore. He now had a new name. ‘Billy Jack’, BJ for short. Just as BJ got to the door, all the ‘short’ people shouted. “We love you BJ!” “You help Tom drive his truck! Okay?” “Please come back and see us soon."

BJ couldn’t keep it inside any longer, big tears of joy rolled down his face. Today, he had met many new friends who he was going to love and he knew now they loved him already. He was going to go on the longest trip ever and see so many sights and he wasn’t going to hear the word ‘STUFFED' ever again.

Just as I was afraid… every time my cell phone rings now, Bear wants to know if ‘Sesame Street’ is calling. He is sure they are going to award him a million dollar contract and he will be the next big name on television.

“No, Bear” I say wearily, “I don’t think Sesame Street will be calling any time soon. I don’t think they even know I have a blog”

Bear looked down at the floor for a few moments, then he looked up, his face brightening. “Well then, do you think Auntie Brenda would do some neat pictures, you know ‘Illustrations’”? “Then we could maybe make a book for the children to enjoy.”

I had explained that the people Bear had been calling ‘short’ people, we called them “children”. “Sometimes, we call them ‘kids’. “Sometimes we call them ‘brats’. Sometimes we call them… Oh, never mind”

Bear thought about all of this. He said he would wait and see what happens. He went
back to his spot on the bunk. At least he looked happier now. We’ll see what happens…

“Bear”, I said again, “You know you got some of your facts mixed up in this story.”

“I know,” he said, looking at the floor again. “I made some of it up. Isn’t that okay?”

“I’ll tell them,” I said, and went back to driving.

posted by Tom at 2:07 AM