Well it’s been a few weeks now, five-and-a-half day weeks to be exact. That’s as much time I can spend driving legally before I have to take the DOT mandated 34-hour reset. I’m hauling sunflower seed and wheat for harvest from elevators around the state to mills and processing plants.
I sleep in the cab nights. When things are less hectic after harvest, I’m going to start kitting the cab out with a cooler, microwave and/or grill, and my work station. For all this I need a power inverter that enables me to use standard AC plugs.
One thing I just got that’s making life much more pleasant is a Kindle. My dad, who at 85 is the computer nerd in our family, got one and offered to buy them for all of us.
I almost said, “No thanks, I’ve got books.”
The thing is amazing. It’s got something close to the optical properties of paper – which is what I worried about. Backlit devices are not good for the eyes. I found Amazon has a bunch of stuff for download that is either free or costs pennies. I found there is a lot of H. Beam Piper stuff I haven’t read when I bought a 32-piece set of his novels and short stories, for $1.99!
The problem these days is exercise. If the weather were better, I’d take my Indian clubs along. But it’s getting cold out nights, and getting colder. When it starts to get to the 30-40 below range…
I think I’m going to have to reacquaint myself with the kind of yoga you can do on a bunk. And come to think of it, you can do Sil Lum Tao in any space you can stand upright in. (That’s the first form of Wing Chun Gung Fu, which contains the essence of the art.) I think a return to classic low horse stance training might be good for the aches and pains in the legs that come with driving.
I haven’t mentioned the phenomenon of “drivers’ constipation” I see. Perhaps another time.
For mental exercise I take along some of the audio versions of The Great Courses. Right now I’m working my way through Robert Greenberg’s ‘The Symphony’ and John Mc Whorter’s ‘The Story of Human Language.’ I went through Greenberg’s series on music theory (a term he dislikes) already and I got his series on Opera for my wife, who is actually training in operatic-style voice.
What’s great about this is – no final exam, no pressure. Greenberg started to lose me in the last half of the series – but who cares? I know more than I did about the subject, and I’ve always got the lectures. Which are by the way, dynamic, fairly easy to follow, and funny as hell in spots.
Interestingly, I made a chance contact with a couple who run a three-county weekly newspaper in Way-the-heckout, North Dakota. I may become a contributing columnist again.
But what’s really interesting for now is my “moments.”
When I first went to live in Poland in 1991, I’d have these “Polish moments” when I stop on the street, clap my palm to my forehead and think, “My God, I’m in Poland!”
When I became a father for the first – and second time, I’d have these “fatherhood moments” when I’d realize, “My God, I’m a FATHER!” and “My God, I’m the father of TWO children!”
Now while driving down the road I have these “Hey, I’m a truck driver, pretty cool!” moments.
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