Today I'm doing what I just love to do. NOT. But it's part of trucking - sitting at a truck stop waiting for our appointment time to pick up a load. It is a beautiful day in Sparks, NV, - the temperatures in the low 90's. The truck is idling, even where there is a state law that says you can't idle more than 15 minutes. We do have a tendency to ignore those laws most of the time. Now, when a cop comes by and hands us a $500 ticket, we may rethink that one. Actually, the fines vary from state to state. I know in some states, like Utah, you can do jail time.
I have a pet peeve about anti-idling laws. I would like just one law maker to take a ride with a truck driver and see what he has to deal with AND what he has to live in when the temperatures are hot or cold and you have to eat/sleep/relax in the truck. They wouldn't even think of leaving a pet in a hot/cold truck so why would PEOPLE be lower than animals???
Back to waiting: This is when the truck starts feeling extra small, depending on how many hours of sitting it is. Nonetheless, there isn't much one can do while waiting. Reading a book is an option, calling people, or do what I do, get the laptop out. If we had the room, we might have a TV to watch. When we first worked for Werner we had a TV but seldom had time to watch it, so it went home.
Somebody just walked by with food, which makes me realize that it's been a few hours since breakfast and that it might be about time to go in and grab fast food at the Wendy's. I don't know if I can handle the excitement. But it's just another day of being on the road.

OK, So trucking is a boring subject

I know why truck drivers sit around and talk to other truck drivers -because it’s an audience that appreciates what they are saying. When I talk to non-truck drivers about things, I get a glassy look which either means they don’t have any idea what I’m talking about or they don’t care, or both. Some jobs you can discuss with others and get some kind of dialogue going, but when the only response you get is a grunt and a shrug you know you are in the wrong arena.

I try hard not to subject my loved ones to my diatribes, because, frankly, I don’t want them to run when they see me coming. But there are times I need to blather and they’re just going to have to put up with it, even if I get the glassy looks or the silence on the other end of the phone, or, “Uh, I need to go now.”

And they know better than to ask me how things are going because that just opens the floodgates and away I go. Well, they asked, didn’t they? Find a good game on your computer and listen up. Or if the conversation is in person, just nod politely and say, uh-huh, every once in awhile. It works for me.