Once again it was house divided. The husband went to pick up the first shipping container in big city #2 at dark-thirty, the kid went to grandmas for the day sometime later while still dark-thirty, and I went to work just as the first light began to show. Sometimes, going our separate ways is the for the best. Multiple things can be accomplished and it allows everyone some time for their own thoughts. Everybody needs some time alone.
All was going well until the phone rang. You know what I am talking about, right? That moment when you can feel the change about to happen in your stomach, the catch in your breath, the prickle at the back of your neck. The tension caused by this moment pushes you to answer the phone with a "Hello, what's wrong" but courtesy only allows the simple, unobtrusive "Hello".
Apparently, what should have been a straight three hour trip from big city #2 to big city #1 turned into a five-hour grueling test of the wills. Have you ever been to the same big city more than once? Notice how the roads are always under construction? Always, not sometimes or occasionally for brief repairs, always! I'm talking about permanent concrete divider construction because once the highway is completed, it is outdated and construction starts all over again. Yep, I knew you'd understand. Construction, traffic with a 40' trailer, and headwinds. Any winds when pulling a trailer are bad. This is such the case there are roads with official signs warning drivers about cross winds. So image what pulling a shipping container 9'6" tall on a trailer with a deck height of 38" against never ending headwinds would be like? Yes, your are correct, the Great Wall of China. Ugh. It's pretty sad when being passed by full sized trucks pulling 53' trailers loaded down with products up to a hill. Thinking maybe the F350 is not enough truck to handle this process. But wait, the man the trailer was purchased from hauled containers to and from drill sites all across Texas. If his can do it, so can mine. Maybe.
Then again, maybe not, as the phone rang again not two hours later. "Hello", I say calmly pushing panic aside. After clearing big city #2 and its surrounding miles of suburbia and was heading through no man's land when trouble arose again in the form of turbo malfunctioning. It wasn't so bad that it kept the truck from running, it was that it kept the truck from running anything faster than 45miles per hour. On a good moment, on the downward side of a hill, speeds could be reached up to 60mphs. Fairly confident truckers were laughing as they speed by. A nap was needed to refresh, but the big city #1 was finally reached, truck, trailer, container, and one very tired driver.
No news is good news in my book. Ring, ring goes the phone. Squelch, squelch goes the stomach. This time all niceties were forgotten. "Are you safe? Is everything ok?, Do I need to come get you?" Okay, so I don't know how I would have easily gotten to no man's land between big city #2 and big city #1 but I would have packed up the kid, the dog, and the beep-beep and been out the door in ten minutes. This phone just called to tell me I'd be sleeping alone. Whew! Gosh, what a relief. It was a long day for all.
