Thursday, November 17, 2005

Morning folks. Since none of you have hollered "uncle" yet, and in fact the more masochistic of you have said you enjoy(?) them a bit, here's one I put up on Feb 27 of this year. The lesson here is that every once in a while something will happen to make us stand up on our hind legs and roar that we're not going without a scrap. This was such a time for me.

EPIPHANY

After reading what I posted yesterday, I wondered who the hell wrote it. It could'nt have been me, because there is no gd way that some little twit with a cutesy name like "Timmy" is going to get the better of me without a scrap. Besides, when the going gets tough, the tough get drunk. So I poured myself a Big Gulp, a glass of Gibsons, 12yr aged, Gold Label rye whiskey. Yee haw! Then I took Timmy out back and bounced him off every tree in the yard. He now understands that I did'nt claw and dig for 66yrs to get this far, and then roll over for him. Game on!

What caused me to stand up on my hind legs and roar was meeting an old trucker buddy at the store while shopping for "healthy" food. You know, green stuff that rabbits eat. Hell, Ive had pizza in the fridge long enough to turn green, and was told it was'nt healthy to eat it. Make up your mind. So, after finishing our shopping(no damnit I did'nt buy any donuts), we went for lunch and a nice long visit that provided me with an epiphany of sorts.

What a treat it was to sit with an old bud and talk over old times. This guy and I ran double(2 drivers in the truck) more than 30yrs ago on the Alaska Highway. He was one of the few guys I could run double with, he bathed when possible, kept the BS down, was a good driver and was just a fun guy to go through tough times with. We could always find some humor, no matter what. When it's your turn in the bunk, you've got to have trust in the guy driving, not hanging on to the mattress like a crab to avoid sheet-burns as your "buddy" slides you from one end of the bed to the other on the corners.

I laughed more yesterday than I have in a long while. Talking about things like the time we were both so beat out and hungry, because nobody gets proper rest or food in that environment, and we were looking forward to getting to the top of Summit Mountain and stopping to eat at the lodge. You got it, it was closed. That's when the argument started over who ate the last can of beans out of the jungle box. After a few choice comments about each other's ancestry, we decided to "take it outside". Little cursing, little pushing, couple of tentative swings, and the match was on. So, here we are, basically up on top of the world early on a Sunday morning, rolling around in the snow trying to inflict grievous bodily injury on each other over a $%#@ can of beans! Was'nt long before we both saw the humor in this nonsense, and started laughing before anybody got hurt too badly. Got up off the ground, brushed each other off, jumped back into the truck, and headed for Fort Nelson. For the un-initiated, that's called male bonding!

After a couple of hours of reminiscing over things like this, some of which I'll share with you later, with a true friend, I realized that no man can come from a background where you had to be tough to survive, can let some candy-assed little weeny with a cutesy name get the better of him. That visit did me more good than all the damn doctors combined. Besides, my bud told me that if I don't start showing the cajones I used to have, never mind Timmy, he'd kick my butt. Hah!, he could'nt do it then and still can't(just kidding). Now that he's gone home, I've got something to confess..I ate the damn beans!! Spending that time with him has sure re-charged my batteries, my so-called epiphany of sorts.

Got to go now, hear some whinnying out in the stable. Timmy must have told the girls I'm back. Hope everyone out there has a friend that can do for them what was done for me yesterday!

Trucker Bob blogged at 3:34 AM

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