Friday, January 18, 2008

Freezing in D.C.

Freezing in Washington, D.C. I am this moment sitting in my truck, freezing, waiting to be able to be unloaded at the commissary of the Bolling Air Force Base in Washington, D.C. I had an 8:00 am delivery appointment (according to the information I was given by Schneider), so I got here to the base about 7:15 am. My first time in Washington, D.C., in a truck.


Of course, checking through security at the front gate took a while itself. You come to the first entrance gate, show your identification (driver's license in my case), and then trucks are directed to a special covered area where they take my identification again, and check the truck and trailer. Once they are satisfied I'm not delivering for Osama or someone, I pull forward and park on the side of the main road and walk what seems like 2 miles (it's not nearly that far) up to the Visitor's Center to get a pass.


Of course, I didn't know that they would want to see the registration and insurance card for my truck until I had walked up there. So I walk back to the truck, get my permit book (with all that info in it) and trudge back up the sidewalk, which is covered in snow and ice (and I'm thinking the last thing this place needs is the sight of a big fat guy falling down on the ice – it would probably show up on some radar somewhere as a threatening maneuver), and get my visitor's pass.


Even with all that, I made it to the commissary (not a place I'd normally expect to deliver computers to, but that's what they are getting). Find the entrance at the back after parking my truck. Lady inside tells me that the guy who will handle unloading the truck won't be here until 9:00 or 9:30. And even then, I have to wait until all their normal (food) deliveries are done before they will let me back into a door.


She's a very nice lady, but she's telling me stuff I don't want to hear. I don't mind the waiting. I still don't have my next load assignment yet. But it's cold, and I don't want to idle the truck, even though I might have to (or use my bunk heater) if it gets much colder (or, more precisely, if I get much colder).


I went in at 9:00, and the guy isn't here yet (“He actually doesn't start until 10:00. Come back at 10:00.”) so I figured I'd write in the blog after checking my e-mail.


Now you know as much about what is going on here as I do.


Now, to backtrack to the last entry. I had stopped in Atlanta for the night on my way to Charlotte. When I got to Charlotte Wednesday, I was able to meet the people on my new board. They are nice enough, but I can already tell it won't the same as working with Julian and the folks in West Memphis. I think that experience spoiled me. But, I think I'll get along with them easily enough.


I enjoyed being in Charlotte again. And to conserve my hours, I set my availability out to Thursday morning. And my load was to pick up a relay trailer there in Charlotte and bring it up here to D.C. where I am now waiting to have it be unloaded.


Kristi. Kristi is one of my cousins in Georgia, who is like another sister as far as how close we've always been. Well, she has been reading this blog (I told her she might like the pictures I took a few weeks ago when Terry and I were in Montana), and she has discovered the comments button.


Her comment on one of my previous entries, where I mentioned “looking for an empty” trailer was to ask why I'm looking for an empty when there is one under my cap.


It's nice to be loved.


Hello, Kristi. I'm glad you are reading the blog, and using it as a medium to show me how funny you are. Looking forward to seeing you, Bobby and the kids soon, I hope. Love you!


The Outisder. I won't comment much on this since my computer's batteries are getting low, and my invertor (which I use to plug it up in the truck) is chirping at me in a very irritating manner, so I'll have to shut this thing off soon.


Anyway, for most of the past year, I've been reading this Colin Wilson classic, and have finally finished it. It has been a book that has challenged my thinking on many different levels, and as much as anything else, it has been a tour-de-force through much of the literature of the 17 th through the early 20 th centuries, especially from the perspective of the theme of the book, which is how the existentialist concept of the human predicament is treated in literature. I especially enjoyed his enlightening treatment of some of the works of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky – fascinating! It would have been worth reading just for the literary education alone, but it has been a seminal source of insight for me on several personal levels, and sort of puts the end-cap on at least one dimension of some fundamental changes I've journeyed through (well, agonized through, actually) the last several years (beginning, really, with my illness in late 2001, and continuing through much of last year, with some periods of welcome calm in between).


Now, I'll move on to some lighter reading for a while. I always have several books and magazines going at any given time – as I've said before in this blog, I've always been a voracious reader (and sometimes, my writing approaches the same volume, but not as consistently).


I might comment more specifically on The Outsider at some point, but I'm out of battery power. Guess I'll just relax in the bunk until I go back to check on this load situation.


Until next time . . . keep the wheels rollin' . . . and look out for empty-headed drivers . . .


Allan


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

even though your an empty-headed driver....we still love ya!!you need to come see me before i leave!

Love ya,
PFC Jarman

kristi said...

Allan I love you and miss you. It was all done in fun. Who knows I may be in the truck with you. Keep that window up!

Love ya
Kristi