Perspective

I was going to write today about the frustrations of the past 24 hours: how my trailer wasn't ready when I was at 12:30 yesterday afternoon, how it started snowing around 3:00, how I started out at 4:30 and the roads in my county were glare ice, how my truck failed to make it up the hill on the road out of our terminal and I had to back it down the hill, how it took me 45 minutes to get to the interstate 2 miles from the terminal, how I spent the next 6 hours white-knuckling it on roads I probably should not have been driving on, how traffic was moving 5 mph across Akron, how the truck stop parking lots were busting at the seams, and how it took me almost 7 hours just to get to Columbus, when it usually takes 3. Also, how this evening as I was going through Akron at rush hour again there was a multi-vehicle accident that brought traffic to a standstill and set me back half an hour; and how on what had promised to be a short day I got home after 7 pm.

If I had written about those things I probably would have left out the parts about how as I was stopped on said hill leaving the terminal yesterday the minivan that crested the hill coming at me head-on, swerved, and lost control drove in and out of both ditches but did not hit me; how I avoided a multi-hour backup I heard about on the CB by taking an alternate route; how I drove about 150 miles through fast-falling snow without sliding my truck off the road; how I parked next to a no-parking sign in front of two state troopers while I ran into a Taco Bell for a late supper and neither of them minded; how although the truck stops and rest areas were overflowing I parked for the night in a vast and quiet Walmart parking lot. Next to a Tim Horton's. How I crossed twice over "Pee Pee Creek" in Pike County; how I found a way around this evening's backup in Akron and was on my way long before the rest; and how I got home tonight and ended the day with a purring cat, a woodstove, and a cup of tea.

So, why the change in attitude? When I got back to the terminal I ran into one of our local drivers who told me about an accident that happened in Cleveland today. A truck jacknifed on the Valley View Bridge and went over it. If you don't know the bridge, it's impressive. It's so tall you have to stare at it because it just doesn't look right. It makes the Cuyahoga Valley look like the Grand Canyon. I don't want to but I can't stop imagining a truck going over it. God of the universe, have mercy on the soul of the driver who lost his life today and help the rest of us drive carefully and keep it between the lines and not get hung up on the frustrations and fail to be grateful that we finish the day with 18 wheels upright on pavement.