Saturday, November 17, 2012

Our Tail Was Driving Triples

Ed woke me up by yelling into the sleeper, "Hey! Guess who I just met?"

"Who?" I mumbled, half asleep.

"A blog reader!" he said.

"Oh yeah?" I slurred. "That's nice."  I really wanted to hear the rest, but was too tired to focus.  But he was determined for me to hear the story, so came back into the sleeper, sat on the bed and started to tell me what happened.  Once his ass pounced on the mattress, I was fully awake. 

He went on to say that some guy just came up behind him as he was getting back in the truck after getting breakfast and said, "Ed?"

So Ed turned around, sort of puzzled and said, "Yeah?"

"Are you Ed?" the guy said. 

"Yeah."

"I've been following you." he said.


Oh shit, I thought, that's so not the thing to say to Ed.  Ex-military, a little paranoid about who might know him and where he is - especially on a fuel island at o'dark thirty in the morning, in the middle of nowhere Idaho. Shit, he's not too keen on people coming up to him in broad daylight, and is always a little leery about someone who seems too friendly.Ed said he felt his body stiffen as he turned to fully see who was talking to him, a confused look most certainly on his face.

"On the blog." the guy said.

Ohhhhh. Ed's whole body relaxed.  The blog.

"No shit??" Ed said, surprised that he was actually meeting someone who reads the blog.


"Yeah, yeah." the guy said, and went on to tell Ed that he'd been reading my blog for a while now, has been driving for 25 years, and that someday would love to do something like us - the big sleeper truck, owner-operator, etc. - his wife was retiring soon and he'd ultimately love to go on the road with her. 

I'm totally DELIGHTED that one of my readers not only recognized us (either Ed or the truck, or both), but actually came over to say hello.  Ed talked to him for about fifteen minutes and said he was a really nice guy.  How great is that??  I just wish I was awake to meet him too.  Hi Steve!

I wish this happened more often, meeting readers on the road.  So if any of you ever see us out on the road, I encourage you to definitely come over and say hello.  But let me leave you with a little tip...if you're approaching Ed, please make your intent known at least forty feet away, and make sure you say the word "blog" loud and clear as you approach him.   

I'd hate to have my baby suffer a heart attack on the fuel island.


~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
2011: Where There Is Smoke, There Is Not Always Fire
2010: Ella Ella Eh Eh Eh
2009: What’s All The Glee About?
2008: Connecting Over The Mystic River
2007: Randomly Weird
2006: Eddie Acts Like A Five Year Old Friday
2005: From Earth To Heaven

3 comments:

june in florida said...

I would definitely say halloo but you don't get to Florida much.

Gary Goulette said...

Totally understand where Ed was coming from,Im an Ex MP (Army) who spent a year in the middleeast for Desert Storm (91). Im not a tough guy by any means, nor do I try to project that. I AM hyper aware of my surrondings though, and yesterday I ALMOST got into a fistfight @ the TA yesterday because soome deranged driver got into my space (literally 2 inches away from me). I read your blog pretty regularly (book marked) and meeting you two would be like meeting Donnie and Marie ! Just kidding. Hope you have a great Thanksgiving !

Ed said...

Gary thanks for your service! I hope you had a good Veteran's Day. I try to keep a good attitude in the truckstops. I have actually gotten between two drivers before who were getting pretty heated about which one cut the other one off coming into the fuel island. People can get really stressed in the trucking world. I actually think that trucking is one of the most stressful occupations that there is. And we are like Donny and Marie, except we aren't related.