Trucking can be like a bad marriage...

Thanks for understanding...

That's why I compare it to a marriage, that you just grow out of after time...

Or that one country/rock song...

'There is no good guy, there is no bad guy, there's only me and you and we just disagree'....

Truckings not bad, I'm not bad, we've just grown apart for whatever reasons...



For one, i have a active mind...Long ago I use to be a apprentice plumber...I found that job challenging...your mind kept busy all day, as such the time past...your mind was always being excercised and challenged, and the better you got, the more challenging jobs you were given...in other words 'growth'....

Growth is an important element to any job or trade...it's what we do from k-12...then college or military...where promotions and acclimades continue...

That's why I often tell younger or newer drivers to plot or plan a career path...it's important to longevity, and more importantly, it's important to maintaning enthusiasm and joy towards your profession...

Example...company driver, lease operator or owner operater...to fleet operator (meaning you own 2 or more trucks that others drive for you) ect ect...

Or company driver to dispatcher to terminal manager ect ect...

Or company driver to driver trainer to safety manager ect ect...

All I'm saying is growth, is essential to the human spirit...when you get to a point in your life when or where you feel your no longer growing, or that your not living up to your God given potentials...that's usually when issues arise...

Both in terms of a job, and also while in a relationship with your spouse or significant other...it's a basic formula for happiness or discontent...



And again it all depends on the induvisual, personal wants, goals one set for self 5, 10 years ago, and how far you are to fulfilling those goals...

To some, driving is just a means to a pay check, a one dimensional job that pays the bills, so they can maintane house payments and kids tuitions ect ect...

But to me, time is the most valuable commodity on earth...and very limited...for you never know what day will be your last...and whatever time I have left I want to maximize it by making a difference or impact on peoples lives...and I can't really do that hidden away in a truck for days at a time...

(although with todays technology, some drivers have gotten very creative with youtube and other social media sites and share their experiences with the world, like a self made reality show)

Anyhow, I've blabbed enough for this block of writing...

 

Burn out...I guess that's a simple way of condencing everything I wrote...

Yes, I'm going through a form of burnout...we all get it from time to time I suppose...

But with me, I kinda stated in the above why...lack of growth...

Believe it or not, when I see new places now (which I seldom do), it just makes me feel more lonely, cause I have no one to share the moment with...

It's funny...the other day I was at a rest area...



And over heard a conversation from a older guy...(60 or above)...who was talking to another person, and telling them that they were driving to Missippi, and that it would be his first time ever going there...

I was astonished by that...the fact that this older, distinguished man, and his wife, had never been to Missippi...

As drivers, we see so much, we often travel through more states in a week than some do in a life time...hard to believe but true...

So I guess what I'm trying to say is often our lifes experiences are accelerted beyond the normal joe...pleasures or sights that await some after retirement, we've already seen 100 times...

I suppose that could be good or bad...just depends on how your relating to your driving experience at the time...

Anyways, it's late...I'm loosing my ability to focus...
But hey, don't say 'good luck'...that has a finality to it I'm not comfortable with...

Rather continue to watch over me and check in on my progress every now and then...Thanks...

 

Hi, I'm at home now...and glad to be here...

Mood is doing ok...it's Saturday night...and I rented a scary movie to watch...



It's October...the month for scary movies...but most scary movies are a joke now days...I can't believe half of them make it out of the editing room...

I'm alone right now...drove around a bit...ended up getting a 'white fish'...or something like that strips.....4, with some salad and cole slaw..

This is real fish...and it tastes good...I'm talken like real fish...not the fellade stuff...like as if you went to the ocean or lake and caught it yourself type of fish...

They give you a large serving...

That's what I like about being home...cause you know where to go for such treats....instead of being forced to stuff hot dogs down your throat at the truck stops...

The other day I had a big slice of steamed salmon also...oh it was so good..



Now this is how your suppose to eat...this will keep you healthy...and unfortunatly, many drivers are deprived of such a diet do to life on the road....

It seems like your body will begin to tell you what you need..all on it's own...I mean as of lately...chicken just doesn't appeal to me as much...and red meat...nah...

But my bodies been saying 'eat fish'...lot's of fish...at home you can fulfill that craving...over the road...you have to settle for potato chips...and beef jerky to satisfy that craving...

When your body says it needs fish...you need it now...not in two weeks when you get home...fish contains many nutrients and vitamins that are essential to a healthy heart and joints...

I could live the rest of my life off of salad and fish...steamed vegitables and fish...

That's why so many non truck drivers look so much more healthier and fit...cause their able to eat right...most truck drivers are living off of a 1970's diet...



Ok, eating this is kinda like having hurry up sex...it may feel good at the moment...but after words you feel 'guilty' for doing so...and does nothing to contribute to the health of your body...like having sex at a cheap hotel...



Some sleezy downtown hotel on a Friday night...your aroused..and just want something quick...your not thinking of the long term effect...same thing with scarfing down a hamburger and fries and soda...it feels good at first...but then you regret it, realized you wasted money and time...then you lay there feeling depressed and used...

The cashier used you by enticing you to double size your order...

Stay away from the cheap downtown hotels on Colfax and 51 st...and stay away from the greasy, salty hamburgers and fries...

Anyways...I suppose that's enough writing for this block...

 

Well i survived the day...semi-short run...but with driving...even supposed short runs seem to eat up large swaps of time and energy...

Driving can be a drag...but I think for me, much of it is phycological...when something starts to feel like a 'chore' to you...it will have that effect...

Like being in a marriage and having to cook everyday, even though you don't love the person your cooking for...



You labour and work all day, all the time fantacizing and praying for 'relief'...

Many housewives of old, would spend their youth, their most beautiful years, sweating, labouring away, for their mate...all the while feeling trapped...they would watch hopelessly as their youth and beauty faded, hidden away from the world, only to be shown to a mate who did not appreciate them...

Trucking can be like a bad marriage...

Many simularities...you give your best years to this industry...hidden away in a dusty, dirty enviornment where no one notices you...and then one day you wake up...and your old...and the only person who wants to look at you or examine you, is your doctor...and only cause you pay him to do so...

I saw a guy, a man today that...my gosh...gross...this guy was swollen up like a blimp....



and very hairy....and so very physically odd...

Trucking is the only place he could ever get a job...no other employer would hire them...it seems many, who have been rejected by the mainstream, cast themselves into trucking...where physical standards seem to be low...cause they don't hire you for looks or fitness...they just hire you to drive...

As such, many sneak into this industry, that couldn't sneak into other jobs where you have to present yourself infront of a interviewer...

They don't interview or examine you at most trucking companies...instead they simply run records checks ect ect...and they have no idea what you look like until you show up to orientation...

Don't get me wrong, I love everyone...but sometimes in the enviornment I'm in, I'm just not inspired by what I see...(I know that sounds arrogant and mean)...

I'm just saying, why does this industry tend to attract goblins?
Orcs...from Lord of the rings...



I wake up to this kinda stuff every day...not very inspiring...

Ok, I'm not trying to be the living dead yet...I like sexy...fit, and young...or young minded...I'm not trying to be some living dead corpse yet...

Why can't drivers work out and be like this..



Now this would inspire me...how come young fit people aren't attracted to trucking??

Instead people who are retired or semi-retired flood the ranks...



Or people who have no fashion sense what so ever...I get sick of waking up to this every day I'm out on the road...not very inspiring...I'm not saying they don't have a good heart...but it's just not very inspiring seeing something like this in the bathroom first thing in the morning...

Is there some rule that if your a truck driver you have to let yourself go physically...and look like a 1848 mountain man??

I don't like that 'I got a layer of dust on me' look...

I try to stay clean and presentable...and try not to be a eye sore to others...

And imagine only seeing guys like this for weeks and weeks at a time...and then trying to fit back into regular normal fashion people when you return...it throws you off your axis...

Truckers need to get their act together...some...and quit walking around like slobs...

Tighten up...

 

Yes, that it is, or can be...the adventure part of trucking has ended for me long ago...

I envy those who are able to maintane enthusiasm there whole career or life, with driving...sometimes I kid to myself that I wish I could hypmotize myself into loving it again...



You, ghostchild, love trucking...you love it...love it...
There's nothing else in the world you want to do...
Trucking makes you happy, jolly, and joyful...
Everytime you spend the night at a truck stop...you get estatic...
Trucking is even better than sex!
(maybe if I read that over and over again 40 times, it might work)


And then I'll ask myelf....'what is it about trucking that just drains you now, leaves you feeling less than enthusiastic'?

And amongst other reasons, I believe I just plotted my trucking career wrong...not that I ever wanted to be a truck long ago...but when the enthusiasm was there, I plotted my career wrong...always thought my next trucking job would be my last ect ect...

I still believe trucking can work for anyone, if you do it right...
But it takes planning and dedication...and you have to set milestone goals...

Whether to be a owner operator, or a fleet operator (where you own 2 or more trucks, and let others drive for you while you stay at home or run a 2nd or 3rd business totally seperate from trucking...

Or one can start off driving, becoming a owner, than a broker...

One can start their own trucking company without having any trucks...
You see it all the time now...companies that broker freight for owner operators...

There's many paths to success in the transportation industry...unfortunatly there's very little education on how to get there...

Most are just given the keys to a truck and told to drive, and are blind to the other opportunites...

Most humans like to grow, expand...
Many grow tired of trucking cause it seems you reach your potential so early on, and then there's no where else to go, and then it just starts to feel like a repitive chore where others are always telling you where to go, and your always being harraced by Dot and other agencies that want to experiment with different, impracticle rules that are near impossible to go by...

And the drivers caught in the middle...

They can't treat driving like a 8-5...that's why we have sleepers...the hours are very irregular...

Anyhow...at a farm right now getting loaded...not sure if reception is good enough for this to be sent...but I'll try...

More to follow...

 

Commercial fishing for 25 years...wow...

And yes, relationships is the key to happiness...the happiest people I see in the world are those who have many healthy relationships...

Something modern day driving has deprived me of...

And the older you get, the more resentful you become of that...

So many things in the past I cancelled out on, events I failed to go to, this, that...all cause I 'had a load to deliver'...or just was out on the road...sitting at a desolate rest area...

(Believe it or not though, rest areas use to be thriving areas of activity, back in the day, but so much has changed now...it's like people, society, is becoming more 'prude')

The people who made trucking fun were that whole 'hippie-cowboy' era or generation of drivers...

The Jerry Reed types...



That whole 'metal to the peddle' generation of drivers...their the ones who invented all the 'slogans'...

But as they drift off into the sunset...they leave a big hole with them...void...personality void...with them gone or going, trucking has no more 'personality'...that even Hollywood took note of...

So much so that Hollywood use to regularly turn to the trucking industry for movie ideas.....not anymore...

Now, the only movies they make about drivers or trucks or horror movies like Maximum overdrive..



Which tend to paint drivers in a phycopathic, nomadic, loner role..

As Americas love affair with truckers and trucks end, truckers went from being portrayed as 'hero's' to phycopath loners...

And being alone all the time will indeed make some like that...

They say a great deal of serial killers tend to be truck drivers...


Most dream of getting off the road and getting that ever elusive 'local driving job'...but even that has prooven to be a farse for most or many.

Those jobs are so protected...and the list of people who want them is so long...that when there is an opening...you never hear about it...

And not only that, but sometimes the so called 'local' jobs will run you harder and longer than over the road...

Many find themselves wanting to return to over the road after working supposed local jobs...where you might wake up at 4am...and get done by 8 pm...and or so exhausted that all you want to do is go to bed...

The fantacy job everyone seems to want or believe is out there is..



Fantacy job inc.com apply on line today, for your fantacy job...


This seems to be the fantacy job everyone dreams of...

'I'll drive a year on the road, and then I'll apply for and get a local job...making $18-$23 an hours...I'll work from 8-4, Monday thr Friday...and have paid holidays and free healthcare...

Yes, It could happen...I mean I'd love to drive a small city truck like this and do the above...but such a job seems to evade most...unless you know someone or are willing to sleep with someone...

Not only that, but warehouses with trucks like the above, are usually small outfits, where cdl is not required...and they usually hire from within...and or you work in warehouse, and drive truck all in one...


Well hey look pal...obviously there is a group of us on here who can relate to one another...so check in whenever you want...and feel free to lay down thoughts about whatever...heaven knows...it's what I do...

It does help to know that your not alone in this 'Trucking can be like a bad
marriage' universe, that some of us find ourselves stuck in...

Now it's time for me to rest...after running a crazy crazy scheduale...