Loaded Or Empty?

I am experiencing one of those days where it pays great benefits to being an optimist.  My job is technically Southeast Regional, yet I am in Ohio in a corn field, beside a bridge that's out for construction on a Saturday, with no load, no empty trailer, and no work.  The food offering is a stale vending machine and the restroom is a port-o-john.   If truth were known, I would MUCH rather be getting sun in my hair at the SoFL beaches, settling in for a great night of local talent performing music as eclectic as I am, and thinking "what to wear to church in the morning?".

Instead, I have been sent on  a wild goose chase in a 100 miles radius looking for an empty trailer.  If a place has them? They won't surrender it.  If I am sent to pick up a load? I needed to bring an empty.  At one guard shack I asked the elderly  guard if he wanted to call his supervisor before I call my company to get an override? 

Ever notice?  It is all in how you ask the question.  If you say (even on the phone), "You don't want me to give out an empty trailer, do you? "  the response will be "no, I do not."

I wonder what would happen if the guard began the call, "Hey, I have a driver down here, sent by her company, we have a few extras, do you mind if I assign her one?"

He thanked me when I walked away empty-handed for not being nasty to him, like other driver before me have been. What a funny thing to thank me for.  My reply, "Life is too short, This won't matter in 5 minutes, so why stress on the petty stuff? We are both just doing our jobs."

This left me bobtail, to drive another 60 miles to the next place there "might be" a trailer. Can you picture the scene?   I am driving a 17 feet, 10 wheel tractor instead of a 70 ft, 18 wheeled monster.  It is akin to a mudslinging 4x4 truck!

 I was free to be fully present on my meandering path through some of the very most exquisite true Americanna Ohio farmlands on a Saturday in July that one could imagine!  Red checkered picnic tables, fishing poles, hounds in pickups with antique plates, cornfields that if you are in a dip, they appear higher than the 2 story farm house.... the barn three times the size of the house. Winding trains rumble adjacent to farmlands crisscrossed by combines and hay bales.  I smile with appreciation at the motorcyclists I pass along the way.

It's not that I don't care.  It's that I am not in control of my day. And what a relief!  I am going where I am sent, and open to whatever the response is of the person in charge.  Here I am, Lord, what do you have for me today?

I have chosen to turn on a minimum of radio.  I got my ritual phone calls out of the way early.  I am soaking in every single second, literally every clean, open air breath with gratitude, love, and enjoyment of being alive and able to travel for a living. What a gift!

One other thought for today? July 30th would have been my 26th wedding anniversary.  Instead, it is the 11th anniversary of my divorce.  I am actually grateful for both occurences and feel pleasure and the blessings from each of them.  Today is simply a current day in a very full and rewarding life.

When I am asked loaded or empty? I realise they mean my trailer.  Does it have a payload of cargo, or am I getting one put on? 

When I ask myself "loaded or empty?".  The answer is a resounding LOADED to the rim with BLESSINGS and gratitude!

Enjoying central USA,
Jan M. Olsen
~J~