Truck Load Rates Halt 8 Week Slide 2.0

It’s been crickets across TTR lately. Complaining has gone down by a good 90% seems like. Huh.

 

I'm offended by that statement, and will be reporting it to the mods immediately.

 

Yeah, between the unrest up in my neck of the woods, and the general anti-broker mob mentality around these parts the last few weeks, I decided it was a good time to take a page from @Scooter Jones and take a little break from actively engaging over here. Seeing as it's generally quieted down, I'm poking my head back up.

 

Make sure and put your hands up if your gonna poke your head up.

 

I finished my west coast tour of most popular rioting cities (Berkeley, Portland, Seattle) and got home last night. No problems in the cities what so ever, but nerves at truck stops are kind of strange right now. Been getting a weird vibe from other drivers for the last couple weeks. Just a general feeling of everybody being pissed off and not being very friendly. Stopped Wednesday night at a PFJ and backed into a reserved spot. As I finished backing and set my brakes, a middle aged African American gentleman next to me rolled down his window and was yelling something at me. I rolled down my window and he told me I can't park there because I have a reefer, and he didn't want to listen to it all night. He said I better move, "or we're going to have a problem". He was a mega driver, and I informed him that I paid for this reserved spot, and judging by the lack of a window tag in his truck, he didn't pay for the spot he was in. Then he just yelled ## cracker and moved his truck. I checked my truck carefully the next morning to make sure he didn't play with anything during the night.

That's the first problem I've had a truck stop with another driver. I get the feeling this guy was more pissed off about current events than the fact I had a reefer, which was turned off by the way because I had a dry load. The country is morphing into something I no longer recognize. I'm honestly considering bringing a weapon from home to carry in my truck, and I never thought I would feel this way.

 

Thanks man. I have coffee in my sinuses now.

Steve, I'm sorry to hear that. I hope that it's a one off sort of thing for you. I'm not going to offer up comment on the current state of affairs, except to say that I'm glad things have calmed down up in my neck of the woods. It got really dumb up here. Portions of Chicago and Lake streets (including my favorite bookstore in the cities) got burned down. Lots of damage. My wife is a clinical social worker. She's been run pretty ###### ragged this past week. The look of sheer exhaustion on her face last night hurt to see. I'm hopeful things return back to some semblance of normal, and soon.

 

That makes me sad to read that. It sucks that everyone agrees what happened to that man was wrong. Now with all of the rioting it’s caused all of this division. Unfortunately without going political I think it’s exactly what “they” want. Sorry you had to deal with that and way to stand your ground. “They” would want you to go in front of your truck, take a knee, apologize for being white, and move your truck. Maybe go ahead and give him your parking pass too. Just so sad what’s happening. Let’s all be Americans and unite in that way.

 

Delivered a load this morning in Clackamas, OR near Portland. A young black male checked me in.

In the course of conversation I said: You know what I've discovered this past week?

Him: What's that?

Me:Covid-19 has apparently gone away and there's no no longer any social distancing or masks needed now.

Him: Why is that?

Me: Because tens of thousands of people are protesting in the streets together all over the country are NOT practing social distancing and many are not even wearing masks.

Him: The timing and importance of the protests outweigh the risks of getting the virus.

End of story...

 

I will never bend the knee for anybody EVER. I make no apologies for being the person I was born as, and I expect nobody else to apologize for who they are.

Humans instinctively want to be around like minded people, which is why people in every corner of the planet tend to live near those who are the most similar to themselves in appearance and culturally. It's why every big city in the US has a Chinatown, or little Italy. Everybody in this country is born with a clean slate, and can become anything they want, but they'll have to work for it. My parents were both raised during the great depression, and didn't have much growing up. But my father broke out of the poverty and became very successful without a college education. He and my mom are living a very comfortable retirement because of his hard work. Poverty breeds crime, and too many in the US are content living in poor, unsafe neighborhoods, collecting government handouts, and popping out kids to raise with their mindset. Believing that your country is against you because of your race or religion, and never attempting to create a better life for yourself is just giving up and accepting how others want you to behave. Until we do away with that thought process, I fear that what we're seeing now will happen more frequently and be the norm from now on.