It's All About the Crowbar

Hard to believe it's been a month since I last wrote anything- time flies when you're working your tail off to get stuff done. To date, I now am one step and about a month away from finishing school- I need to demonstrate to a state inspector my ability to handle a truck. That shouldn't be a problem, but the school requires a little more field time. I'm already scouting out trucking companies to go work for- my wife was pretty adamant that I stay local and be home every night to watch the little ones, but I was looking as well at a regional route (home every weekend, running Monday through Friday) on a flatbed- the pay is good, and the route is good, but that's pretty up in the air at this point. There's a local company as well that I was looking at- also good pay, but not flatbed. The general plan at this point is to start local, then as the kids get a little older, start doing longer and longer runs for more income. This will mean less home time, but on the plus side, most companies have a rider policy that kids over a certain age can ride with you. Depending on age, this could be either a reward or punishment...

The picture above is a fictional PhD from the PC game Half Life, which I spent more time playing than I would readily admit. Gordon Freeman by name, the game centers around him. The basic premise is get out alive from the laboratory where he worked until an industrial accident caused the stuff to hit the fan- an alien race comes stomping on in through some unexplained method of teleportation, and pretty much wipes out the lab. So what, you're probably saying. Well, being the geek that I am, I actually found inspiration from this. Here's a guy who really has a can-do attitude. There are big scary monsters around every corner waiting to eat, kill or impale me. No problem- I'll hunt around until I find enough weapons to take them out. Make it through a waste-processing plant filled with industrial rock crushers? If I can avoid them, I'll be fine. Hop around through the core of a nuclear reactor and not die of radiation exposure, poisioning or worse? I've seen tougher stuff than this. The point is not to go into a reactor, (generally design prevents you from hopping anywhere- the core is usually underwater, and hot enough to burn you pretty bad) but rather to get it done. This is a lesson I've really come to understand as of late- life comes down to me, and what I make of it. No one will get it, whatever it may be, done for me. I'll do it myself, and make what I want to happen happen. If I want to pass that inspection, no one but me can learn how to handle those maneuvers. No one else but me can get in with the trucking companies and convince them that they want to hire me. (With clean criminal and driving records, as well as knowing what I'm doing, they do want to hire me) There are days when it's an effort just to get up- I'm sure everyone has had days like that. But it's not the day, it's whether you get up and get going, or not.

The Casket Shop
It’s what I am
what I’ve been
looking in at the caskets lined up in an undertaker’s window
What nice containers we give our dead, they
look so cozy, maybe I should
carry one on my back
to remind me that
maybe it isn’t so bad if this is
the worst it can get
I think I’ll hole up in my own satin-lined
time, candles burning silent
Neither and both a comfort and a reward, just
the way it all comes down in the end