Fuel for Thought
Tragedy in Texas
It’s been a pretty slow week. I delivered in a suburb of Chicago Monday morning, and then slept there that day. Late in the evening, I got and accepted a run down into Indiana, which was perfect, as I wanted to be home on Tuesday. Unfortunately, after I arrived at the shipper, the run cancelled. Due to a miscommunication, a truck was ordered twice, and it had already gone out on another van. They had another run they were calling in for a van, but it was going into Canada, the wrong way for me. Usually, it wouldn’t make that much difference, but since I had plans for Tuesday, I declined that. I got ‘dry run’ pay since they ordered a truck and didn’t use it. So, being a few hours from home, I just ran on home and went out of service for Tuesday to take care of my personal items at home, and while I was home, went and voted on our local issues. I went back in service on Wednesday morning, but didn’t get a run til this morning.
Today, I had just a short run over to Washington, PA. It was a pretty heavy load for my van, about 2200 lbs… the van rode a little low, but handled the load fine. It was a nice easy ride, light traffic, and no steep climbs, just running I70 most of the way. The leaves are just beautiful right now, and since I’ve been running at night a lot lately, it was cool to actually be able to see the scenery I was riding thru. After delivery, being only about 175 miles from home, I just ran on back home. Thank goodness for 20+ mpg LOL. I got a couple load offers for tomorrow, but no winners.
Tonight, I’ve been glued to the TV, watching the unfolding revelations of what has happened at Fort Hood, TX. 12 people dead, and over 30 injured, but a disgruntled soldier, who apparently had ideological differences with being deployed to Iraq. The sad thing is, it does appear he was Muslim, which of course now means that people will be distrusting ALL Muslims, or Arabic appearing people again, just like after 911. According to the news report, he was was angry about being deployed to Iraq, and said he, as a Muslim, should not be asked to fight other Muslims. For some reason, he ‘snapped’, and just walked into a staging area for training graduation, and just started shooting. You just know that now soldiers will be looking at each other, wondering who they can trust, and if another one of their own is gonna get stressed and ‘snap’ like this. A terrorist couldn’t plan something this effective to create fear and distrust among the ranks. I find it very sad, and just have been praying for all the men and women who serve from Fort Hood.