If you could do it all over again...

You had me up until "God".

 

My background is Church of Christ and my training is Science. Physics. Because of that, I reject random. Nothing moves without a force being applied. When the powerball is drawn tonight, it is totally predictable what the numbers will be, provided we have all the information on what forces are acting and when. It seems random because the total number of forces overwelms us.

We are here. We somehow got here. If you reject random as I do, then you are left with a guiding force. I call that force God. I do not try to convert you to my beliefs. I am open for debate but we would have to take that to a different forum. And it is one of those things that even if we come to a total agreement on, it doesn't change things. God is not Tinkerbell whose existence is based on the total number of believers.

And my apologies for the hijacking of this thread.

 

Exactly. Life is what you make it.

 

We don't do any good when we look back: we can only influence the future by our choices in the present. If we look back, and think of choices we would have made differently, why didn't we make that choice then, when it did make a difference? I don't look back. "Don't look back, something might be gaining on you." Satchel Paige. What becomes of choices not chosen? Who knows?

 

"Life's missed opportunities, at the end, seem more poignant to us than those we embraced - because in our imagination they have a perfection that reality can never rival." - Roger Ebert

 

Probably not do it again, because I was not cut out to be a trucker.I adapted to it. But trucking has been good to me, and I have enjoyed it. Still do, a little.
Bought first truck with my Dad in 1973, I was 20 years old. We were farming, Dad taught me trucking as a side-line to farming. When I went broke farming in 1983, I fell back to driving. Always have plan B. I was comfortable shuffling gears and seeing the country side at the time.
Through the years, I have always had a truck or two, or three or four, even if I were doing other work.I have made good money, but the hassle is too much anymore.The fun is gone. Not sure if it is me, or the industry.Now I just run a local O/O gig, average 4 days a week,home every night, about 43,000 a year.Enough for me.
I really enjoy the freedom trucking has given me, but with my background, abilities, and dreams, at times I feel like I took the easy way out, hiding from "life" behind a steering wheel. I could have been somebody.

 

Yeah, me too!

 

jbatmick hit the nail square, been in the trucking ind since i was 16yo, worked in shops,owned shops,supervised for some of the biggest co in the worlds shops,drove awhile all over,seen alot of changes in trucking as im seeing now,used to love the entire ordeal and looked foward to the challenges,38yrs later its justa job i got used to being in, if things keep heading in same direction i could not recomend this business.

 

would not have listened to may wife and continued on in my quest to make a living as a pro fighter, would have fought rockey delazinie for the second time and koed him rather than win a decision again. that being said trucking supported my family and sent both our girls to college,and it was harder on my wife than it was for me. please be safe out there