Frozen!

That name of a popular movie right now is all I could think of for a title to this post. I find it intriguing that C.S. Lewis associated evil with bitter cold weather in his “Chronicles of Narnia”. I seriously thought I wasn't going to be able to get my load unstrapped and ready to be off-loaded when I got to the Caterpillar plant in Aurora, IL. It is so cold up here. It was about 6 or 7 degrees with a stiff wind blowing the whole time I was trying to get things ready. I have some very good winter time clothing and gloves, but still my toes and fingers began to ache and my poor mustache would have broken in half if I had tried to smile or change my facial expression.

I had a 3:00 appointment to get to the plant, and the further North I traveled the weather just got worse. I started getting into some snow and ice on the highway and then I started noticing cars stuck on the sides of the highway where they had slid off. Then I saw the one thing I was dreading – flashing lights ahead. I simply didn't have time for a traffic delay and still be able to make it on time. It was critical that I get this stuff off so that I could get another load. If I can't make it then I'm stuck until Monday morning. The flashing lights were emergency vehicles and we got choked down to one lane because of several big trucks that were jack-knifed on the interstate. Once I got on up to the Lincoln Highway the traffic slowed even more just because it was Friday afternoon and lots of ice on the roadway. Consequently I got to Caterpillar at 3:45. It took them a little while to figure out what to do because the shift changes at 3:30 and there was now no one there in the particular department that was to receive these blocks. At first they told me I would have to wait until Monday, but thankfully after talking with a helpful supervisor, they got a forklift operator from another department to come unload me. He wasn't too cheerful about it, but I still expressed my sincere gratitude to him.

The weather plays an integral part in the problems faced daily by an over the road truck driver. Frankly, it can be quite unnerving at times – trying to manage a vehicle that is so large and so heavy through all kinds of road conditions will test your limits. Ice is particularly challenging. It was 8 degrees here when I arrived. When I bedded down last night it was zero, and I awoke this morning to 8 below zero. With the famous winds that come off of Lake Michigan up here, that makes it very difficult to be outside the truck securing my loads. Which brings me to the news about my next load. It starts in downtown Chicago, and then has two additional pick-ups in Lombard, and Addison – suburbs of Chicago. I'm not real excited about having three pick-up locations in this weather, which of course means three different times I will have to be outside making sure this stuff can ride all the way down to Houston, Texas without falling off the truck.

Oh well, enough about my difficulties. Let me tell you about one of the pleasures of this job. I start early on most days, it just makes sense to get things done so that you can move on to something else. It is purely my choice, and somewhat of a business decision. A truck driver makes his own decisions and those decisions have a big impact on his earning potential. It is a performance based job, which suits my personality well. A side benefit to getting started early is that you get to see the dawning of each new day. Some are more spectacular than others, but that fresh first peek of daylight rising above the horizon is always a welcome sight to me. It is like the promising and powerful statement of our King when he declared “I make all things new”. Here's what I was greeted with this morning as I was leaving Missouri.

I love seeing the morning take shape - it is almost like a new birth, or a promise that the darkness will not prevail.  Light is always special, but nothing compares to when we first see it overcoming the darkness.

I don't have to get to my first pick-up today until noon, so I'm taking the time to make this post and just sort of taking it easy here in the confines of my little rolling house.  It is cramped quarters to be sure, but it is toasty warm in here right now, so I'm not even going to crack a door open.