Sunday, March 10, 2013

The Ring

This past week has been a bit of a roller coaster ride.  As drivers you have to learn to roll with things as they come up.  Although this past week’s miles are down due to a flat tire on our truck, along with a loaded DOT illegal trailer that was relayed to us and our truck going to the shop, there were still some bright spots in the week. We met some great fellow drivers that we now can call friends. Among them we met Shaun and Sean who are Conway team drivers.  The ironic part is that both of these guys live in our hometown…talk about a small world! Meeting new people, making new friends, and sharing laughs has always been some of the best parts of this job. Irene and I hope to cross paths with all of them in the future and share good times.

With all the Gall Bladder drama in my last post I had forgotten to write about Irene’s wedding ring episode that took place while doing laundry. Whenever time allows, we like to catch up on laundry and while at our Taylor terminal that is exactly what we did. Apparently they had just installed new washers and there was a problem with the amount of water they were using during the different cycles. Irene said there was not enough water and that she had to adjust the clothes in the washer by hand to make sure they got washed and rinsed correctly. I hope Conway didn’t pay much for these machines.
Anyway, the cold water had allowed Irene’s wedding band to become very loose and fall off her finger, but it landed on top of the clothes. Thank God, she said, that she noticed it right away. “Yeah” I said with a tad bit of concern “that would not have been pleasant”. While she was working on the laundry I was catching up on other things that needed attention. A little while later Irene walks over to me and sits down.  After about 10 minutes, she says, “Where’s my ring”?  As I looked, I noticed her concern along with the fact that her ring was missing off of her finger.   I asked her if she put it in her pocket.  “No” she answered, “I had it on my finger”.  I asked her why she would do that when it already fell off her finger once and she wasn’t even close to being finished with the laundry.  “I don’t know,” she said. I just stared at her and if it weren’t for the fact that she was about to cry, I would have explained to her that now I know why blonde jokes exist…lol. We had no idea where she lost the ring this time.  I went to the washer machine that she had been using and opened the lid to see if there was any way that I may get lucky enough to find it. Meanwhile, Irene was frantic wondering if her wedding ring was gone for good.  Could the ring have slipped off her finger, fallen into the washer and gone under the center post? “Do you think you will find it Randy?” Irene asked me. I had no idea as I felt around inside the washer gently trying not to disturb things that much. This was going to be like trying to find a needle in a haystack with all the soapy water and the fact that is was loaded with clothes. Just then I felt the ring at the bottom of the drum and grabbed it while Irene was still pacing the floor and ready to cry.  As I lowered the lid and turned toward her with the ring in plain view I said, “Put it in your pocket this time”. She was ecstatic…”thank you, thank you, thank you” she said.   I looked at her and said…I know Beyonce sings “if you like it then you better put a ring on it” but I am sure she didn’t mean the washer…ha ha ha!

One other laugh that helped me get through this past week was one of Irene’s remarks she had made about a truck…a “Peterbuilt” to be exact. You see, most drivers refer to them as Pete’s and by now, I would have thought that Irene has picked up on that. So one afternoon while she was driving, I was looking through the Truck Paper at used trucks.  Irene and I are considering buying our own and I was reading the used Peterbuilt ads out loud to her. So, after about the third or fourth ad Irene says “Wow, that’s sounds just as good as Jeff’s Peter”. I believe Irene instantly knew by the look on my face that her statement was just wrong.  “It’s a Pete, Irene,” I said “promise me you will never refer to it as anyone’s Peter again”.  I believe I am going to start calling her Mrs. Entertainment…because there is never a dull moment with her on the road.
We are currently at our home terminal in Joplin getting some maintenance work done on our truck. With the truck being in the shop, our company pays for our stay in a hotel.  There are 2 of those Tornado Chaser trucks parked in the lot and I hope they are here for a convention and not to chase tornado’s…guess I need to turn on the weather channel. I hope to get pictures of them to put in a later post. They look like something out of a video game.

Wish us luck…

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