Dwwwh...Kwww-wwwh-wwhhh! That's what the guy said. Or, that's what it sounded like, since he was wearing a space suit.
I shrugged.
DWWWWH KWWW-WWWH-WWHHH!, he shouted, and this time he gestured upward and gave me a thumbs up.
The guy's offering me a prayer?! Numb, I just thanked him and shared his thumb up. Then I found my granny gear and crawled the 80,000 truck out of the loading hole. I headed for the scale. He hopped back onto his forklift and drove through the Star Trek style door, which shushed down behind him.
I was a tad concerned. I mean if the guy loading you has to wear a space suit and then offers you a prayer before he sends you out, how safe are you?! Shouldn't I wear a space suit, too? I don't even have a hazmat rating! Was this legal?
I found the whole thing to be un-nerving. The facility loading lead into my truck looked like a setting for an Arnold Schwartzenegger movie. I expected some android to pop out and begin blazing away at me with a photon gun thingy, but it didn't happen. I drove through the blackness toward the scale.....
79,500. 11,900....33,800...33,800. Wow. These guys have done this before. I walked into the shipping office - through two sets of doors - and found the shipping clerk. I guess I was relieved to find him in civies, that is no space suit, but still those two sets of doors.....
I signed the bill without saying much. At some point, I guess, you have so many questions that it is best to just shut up. I am carrying lead to a battery manufacturer. I'm legal. And I'm outa here.
Five minutes later I going through the gears heading for the exit. The sign above the gate said "Drive Carefully". Ah, these companies, I thought. Always a slogan. Zero Defects! Quality is Job One! Commited to Excellence! Drive Carefully!
......Wait a minute! Drive Carefully! That's it! That's what the guy in the space suit was trying to tell me! And he was pointing at the sign, not at the heavens! And he had to wear a space suit because he worked inside where they melt the lead! This load isn't gonna kill me after all! That is as long as I Dwwwh...Kwww-wwwh-wwhhh! for the next 600 miles.
[PS....This load was successfully delivered 18 hours later]
Dwwwh...Kwww-wwwh-wwhhh, ya'll.