Monthly Archives: July 2021

So this is what happened.

I needed a PM (Preventative Maintenance) on my big truck. Basically it’s an oil change (13 gallons) and 2 filters, a fuel filter change, and lube all the metal thingies.

Not usually a big deal, but it’s getting harder and harder for me to schedule with one of my three preferred shops to do the work.

Everything in trucking is super busy these days.

So I was rolling down 460E and I saw a Speedco at the Love’s truck stop and I thought- why the fuck not? Speedco is supposed to be the Jiffy Lube for big rigs. I’d never tried them, but WTF, right?

I pulled in and I was first in line for the bay marked “LUBE”. I was happy as I could be, thinking I’d be outa there in no time and TUGTUG would be good to go for another 20,000 miles.

I parked and walked in brimming with happiness and want.

The masked-up guy behind the counter said- Can I help you?

And I said- Yes you can! I need an oil change!

And the masked-up guy said- We only have a little 10W30 (I need 15W40) and no lube.

I stopped, stunned.

But, I said, but you’re an oil change place. It’s all you do, right?

And the masked-up guy said- yup.

But you have no oil, right? And no lube?

And the masked-up guy said- yup.

Hmmm.

So what do you guys do all day? I asked.

Turn away customers, the masked-up guy said.

There was a time, not long ago, when I was a news junkie dickhead.

I’d slavishly, religiously, watch and listen to the news on TV and radio and Mr. Internet. I yearned to learn what was going on in the world and how I felt about it. I knew I could puzzle out the world’s problems with enough information. I figured I’d try and find a balance so I’d watch the “left leaning” network news channels and listen to the “right leaning” radio talk shows.

But what happened was- I became a new junkie dickhead. And I grew angry at all of it.

Miss Carol wouldn’t talk to me about anything news related. She couldn’t, I was always certain I was always right.

And then, one dark early morning run out west on 58 I had an epiphany. *cue the angels chorus*

I realized that, not only couldn’t I do anything about the news stories, I wouldn’t and couldn’t even want to. So why listen? Why watch?

So I turned it all off.

Now I just live in my little happy world with my friends and family and I’m a happier person, because, honestly it’s all about my happiness that counts.

Right, Miss Carol?

Miss Carol?

Has it really been 3 years since I decided to say fuck this because I felt that writing a silly little blog was cramping efforts with Project B?

Has three years somehow flown by while I thought that if I stopped writing short, teeny, tiny blurby blurbs that I would someway, somehow, someday magically start writing longer, more interestingly important stuff on Project B?

Has it been that long?

And did I really think that?

I did, and it has.

I figured that if I stopped writing small, short stuff that it would help the longer stuff flow. That somehow the short stuff was limiting me, restricting me, making me write shorter and shorter shit- a constantly tightening noose of shorter leading to ever shorter.

So I stopped the blog and I waited for the bigger flow for Project B to engage and propel me forward, and instead, this happened-

*nothing*

Well. After a coupla years or so, and a number of false starts and re-starts, I thought and I re-thought about me and I figured I needed to write something, just anything, to get it to flow before I forgot how to type with all ten fingers.

Anyway, I’m back for what it’s worth and maybe for awhile and maybe not. I’ve got some new tattoos and some new stories and we’ll just have to see how it goes.

Project B tugs at me as relentlessly as ever and I just gotta do something to do it and get it done and get it out of my head and maybe this is it?

Let’s hope.