Loneliness Goes With the Territory

I've really felt the loneliness that comes with this job lately.  I think part of it is due to the fact that I had Esther riding with me for a while.  It was such a pleasure to have her along and share with her my daily routines.  It was fun to get to show her what I do while at the same time enjoying her company as we toiled and traveled the country.  It's such a different type of job than most people ever experience.  In just the short time that Esther was with me we went from the Gulf Coast area of Texas and Louisiana all the way up into upstate New York and then down through the Smoky Mountains and back in to Deep East Texas.  I do this type of moving around so much it just starts to become routine after a while.  Another possible reason for this sudden influx of loneliness is just that I didn't go home for Thanksgiving.  I ended up taking a break parked in a bowling alley parking lot in Norwich CT.  I had completely used up my legal working hours - I had put in a little more than 70 hours in five days which kept me from being able to drive the seventy miles or so it would have taken me to get to a truck stop, so I was stuck at a local bowling alley which kindly granted me permission to park there.  I really missed my family over the holiday - you all know how much I enjoy preparing a big feast for friends and family to enjoy together.  It just wasn't the same being stranded in a vacant parking lot eating tuna and crackers knowing those you love are missing you just as much as you are missing them.  Also I've not been feeling well this week (just a nasty head cold) and I think the combination of all these things has provided me with sufficient circumstances to feel the blue-hoos lately.

The reason I'm up in the far North East parts of the country is because I pulled a high value high security load (HVHS) of copper up here from a mine in El Paso TX.  I then got a short haul load of lumber from Bloomfield CT over to a Home Depot in Monticello NY.  Now I'm back in CT where I will pick up a load of trash from Stratford CT that will propel me over to Amsterdam OH.  I don't really enjoy hauling trash, but it's not that bad.  The good thing about these trash loads is that they will generally get you over to Ohio where there is an abundance of better paying freight to all sorts of places.  In my next post I will provide a photo of my trash load, and you will see that it is nicely bagged in these huge green bags.  The trash from the particular place that I will be loading at is considered to be "construction debris" so it is not too stinky or messy.  It is usually dry trash and it is bailed up tightly by a huge trash compactor and then enclosed in these huge bags so that it doesn't get spread around as you are going down the road with it.

It's been really cold up here, but the weather has been clear for the most part.  It snowed on me a little in Monticello NY, but it wasn't too bad.  It's kind of funny because I left out of El Paso TX with this load and it's not a place known for it's severe winter weather.  But the weather down in El Paso was worse than what I've been experiencing up here in the North East.  While driving from El Paso to Midland TX I saw six eighteen wheelers in the ditches or medians - all of them jack-knifed after passing over the frozen overpasses.  There was an abundance of cars (four wheelers as the truck drivers call them) in the same situation - all of them immediately following an overpass.  So I took it slow and easy until I could get to the truck stop I was planning on spending the night at in Midland.
Once I woke in the morning I discovered they had closed the interstate that I had just traversed to get where I was.  I was fortunate to get out of there in time so I could keep moving toward my destination.  Check out this layer of ice that built up on my truck mirrors as I drove through that unusual Texas winter storm.

I kept having to stop every hour or so and break the ice off my windshield wipers because they would get so iced over that they wouldn't keep the freezing rain off my windshield.  I'm glad I pressed on to get out of there though because as I said I may have been stuck there for a lengthy and unnecessary stay.

I'm hoping I can get loaded early in the morning and make some good time on my way to Ohio, I'll let you know tomorrow about how that goes.  I'm looking forward to getting home for Christmas, until then you are all in my prayers and my hearts warmest affections.