something old....something new.....

hah!....i had you!.....you thought i was announcing a wedding, huh????......well, that could get a little complicated if it were true since brad gets cranky if i mention getting any other husbands besides him.....although he has agreed that i could have a brief dalliance with sean connery, if the moment ever presents itself...............actually i was thinking more about some fellow drivers we ran into earlier this week while we were in seattle.......when we arrived at the shipper's there were a few other trucks from our company there and since there was a delay with getting the freight off incoming ships and thru customs, we ended up spending one entire day and part of the next there waiting to get loaded......that gives you a little time to get to know the other drivers and listen to their war stories........if you're a fast enough talker, it even gives you a little time to tell a few of your own........

we spent alot of time talking with two trucks in particular.....one a team of "seasoned" drivers who, from the content of their stories, had literally done just about "everything" there was to be done in life, both in the trucking industry and out of it......we stood in amazement at the level of bullcrap that clogged up the arteries of their tales ....you know the kind i'm talking about.....the ones you hear when you have to sit at the "professional drivers only" counter in the truckstop restaurant because all the other booths and tables are taken......since they'd already given us their ages, we also may have missed details of their stories, since we were both busy in our heads trying to calculate how you could possibly fit all those accomplishments and adventures into the span of life they'd been on this earth......from years of experience, we'd learned that it's easier to just "ah ha" in the appropriate places during these kinds of tales tho, than to call the storyteller on the bullcrap and make him have to try to show his cards......it isn't that they weren't likable enough.....just that you need a big shovel to hang around with these guys very long........

the "something new" was a young couple who were literally on their third trip out......they'd just come out on the road together after having went thru school and then a few weeks running with individual trainers and they were eager to soak up any advice and experience we could share with them to make both their jobs and their life on the road easier.....brad and i both were impressed immediately at how down to earth and level headed they both were.....i was also impressed that while watching their faces during bullcrap stories, i could see that they weren't buying into any of it....that made me feel alot better....i've heard some real horror stories about new drivers who think they can put into practice some of the tall tales they've heard from other drivers.......they asked alot of questions, even took some notes and already had a couple stories of their own to tell.....we ended up trading phone numbers, email, etc......and came away feeling confident that they were on the right path to a successful driving career....

it made brad and i feel a little honored to get to mentor this young couple.......we wish both teams all the best....storytelling, like truckdriving, can be hard work!