If all my "days off" are like yesterday I may become a work-aholic.

Actually, I suppose I am going to have to do better structuring and organizing my days off. When the company trucks are working, I can usually handle any issue by telephone, since the trucks completed the flat storage hauling, they were scattered around the general area.

As most of you know, I am an early riser. It would be very feasible for me to get my eight hours in prior to lunch. Yesterday I had a driver returning a leased trailer to between Hawley and Anson, then we were going to put that truck in the shop for an oil leak that recurred. I saw no need for the driver to be trying to find a location he had never been to in the dark of night, so I told him to be there at nine o'clock. I did this too, to allow me opportunity to go and pick up Krl's medication at the medical imaging place for her Monday scan. (The medical imaging place didn't open until eight.)

While I was out and about town I picked up breakfast burritos to take back to the house. Krl had vocalized that she had been wanting one. On my way back to the house I received a call from the truck driver telling me he was at the Flying J, having already delivered the trailer, and he was fixing to get him some breakfast. I tried to slow down as much as I could, and I even sat down with Krl and ate. After an hour I called the driver I told him I would meet him at the shop. He told me he had just got his breakfast and he was fixing to "tear it up". He then told me he had a friend with him that he needed to take to the bus station. I reminded the driver he had a missing mudflap and that he probably didn't need to flaunt that fact by driving downtown. I told the driver, finish your breakfast, meet me at the shop and we will take your friend to the bus station in my pickup.

I had done some research at the repair shop, and was just about visited out when the driver arrived. I signed a work order to inspect and assess prior to any repairs beginning, talked with the service manager briefly about a transmission problem with another truck, and returned to my pickup. The driver and his friend were standing by the little S-10. They threw the friend's duffel bag in the bed and we packed in the little truck. We drove downtown and went in to the bus station. My truck driver went to the counter and bought his friend his ticket. They talked briefly before we left. Prior to leaving the man had told me he would "discover" downtown Abilene. I told him where the library was and the Grace museum location because he he had a ten hour wait.

The driver and I began our trek West. This drive had originally signed on for a ten week stay. He had some other things in the works that if it all came to fruition he would be leaving just prior to Christmas. As it turned out, he had stayed on for three and a half months. Normally, we have parked the big trucks or just done specialty hauling between the seasonal works. This year we had a couple of driver that wanted to stay on, year round. Both of these men had an idea of what they wanted to haul, and both thought they had the contact to do it.

This industry always has a slow down around Christmas and New Years. While we were all concerned, we didn't expect it to be so "dead" after the fifth of January. Luckily, we picked up the near 100 loads of hauling from the flat storage, but it was completed Wednesday.

In the meantime, the driver who signed on temporarily, found that he needed to stay on because all of his plans had collapsed. I was trying to get him on with K.O.'s dry van business, in fact K.O. and I talked extensively last Saturday and again just a couple of days ago.

During the drive from Abilene to Sweetwater, this driver informed me he was moving to Waco. In a sense this was a relief. One less man expecting me to save him from the economic crunch. But, the man told me he wanted to go to South Texas and back to the seasonal jobsite. I wish he had told me prior to taking his truck to the shop. With no work to do and no driver, it could have waited.

I am concerned for this driver. He is a project, but he is very likable and hard working. Two weeks ago he and I did the tire work on his truck, and I learned a lot about what he has gone through in his life. When he went to work for Freddy, this man had just been paroled from the TDC. He told me he will forever be grateful to Freddy for giving him a chance. (Vintage Fred). This driver was also thankful for meeting our family, who he feels have been a positive influence in his life.

Here is part of his story.

When he was about twenty he got messed up with cocaine, lost his wife and daughter, and went on a rampage of armed robbery to feed his habit. He robbed six restaurants and convenience stores brandishing a pistol. On one of these robberies he took the manager hostage and drove him into the country where he fully intended to "execute" this man. He said that they were walking, the manager in front, when something clicked in the driver's head and he just turned and walked the other way. Lucky for both of them.

This man was eventually apprehended, convicted, and was given a fifteen year sentence. He served eleven years, seven months before being paroled. It seems he had become romantically involved with a female prison guard and intended to marry her when she was diagnosed with an aggressive cancer and died after a brief illness. In the seven months since her death he has bounced from relationship to relationship, with four different women. His move to Waco is to be be with one of these, but even more troubling for me, it is returning to the general area where he got in trouble.

I guarantee you, if you met this man and he didn't volunteer any information, you would never know he is a ex-addict ex-convict. I am hopeful he continues to find his life. I hope he stays in good places and makes good choices.

Craziest thing to end this segment of today's entry. I had been to the farm shop where the drivers have been working on trucks. They had removed the faulty transmission, and before I arrived they took the top off of it. Three gears show major damage. One of the gears on the through shaft has no teeth left, while the two counter shaft gears that run against it show major damage. When we turned the transmission to inspect all the other gears, we saw no other major damage. My biggest wonder is how many of the damaged gears are made together with other gears. If it is only two, parts could be quite reasonable. If it is a multi gear cluster it could be expensive. So it could be two of whatever it is. The through shaft gear is a single gear. The two counter shaft gears appear to be at least two gears on each, made together.

We put the transmission in my big pickup (I was leaving the S-10 for my truck driver to take to Lamesa for the weekend), and I raced toward the truck shop to drop off the transmission for inspection and assessment. I exited the interstate at Tye, and as I flashed by an entry ramp to the highway, I noticed a hitchhiker with a duffel bag. I went to the truck shop and off loaded the transmission, minutes before they closed. It will be Monday before I know the fate of the transmission.

As I was leaving the shop, I thought about the hitchhiker I had seen, so I back tracked, to get on the interstate at that ramp. Sure enough when I slowly drove by the man thumbing for a ride, I recognized the man as being the one I had driven to the bus station that morning and my truck driver bought a bus ticket for. I could tell by the expression on this man's face he recognized me too. I called my truck driver and asked him how well he knew this man. "Not real well", he said. I told him I saw the man near the truck stop trying to get a ride. The driver told me he thought he had requested a non-refundable ticket, but maybe the friend sold it to another passenger or maybe gave some of the returned money to the ticket clerk for allowing him to cash it in. My driver told me he was just trying to help out someone who needed a boost.

I don't think this hitchhiker man was Jesus.

I don't think I could ever be a hitchhiker. Maybe a hobo. Just kidding. (As a small child I can remember while waiting at the major railroad crossing at Roscoe, watching all the box cars passing, inspecting every open door, hoping to sight a hobo!).

Ollie called me last night. Of course with her recent trouble, she had no job to return to. So she has been busy trying to find a job, any job, and also to find another vehicle. She talked with insurance and they told her they totalled her car out. They said it would cost $8400 to fix it and the car was only worth $3600. Thing is that was a good little car.

She has her eyes on a used Explorer. I tried to discourage her, but she sure seems hell bent. I told her it was not going to be as economical, but she seems to have a SUV mentality. The main thing she is wanting to know is if I am willing to finance another vehicle for her. She is wanting to know if I will re-invest the insurance money in another set of wheels for her.

I probably will, but I'm not going to up the antee! It will have to be within the budgeted funds and must be something Krl and I would drive if we end up repo-ing it.

I have settlements to do. Accident insurance for employees to report and prepare the monthly roster. I am going to finish the proposal for the Thursday meeting. But I keep thinking about making a mad dash to Lamesa to visit Leonard.

Of course all this has to be done today because my afternoon tomorrow will be filed with NASCAR. Daytona 500. My sentimental pick to win it is Mark Martin. A seasoned veteran, driving the best equipment of his career. If he can't win I will cheer for Jeff Gordon.

Hey, have a good weekend! Happy Valentines!

FATHER thank YOU for another week and the many blessing I have enjoyed. YOU are good. I ask YOUR blessing on the driver leaving our employ, help him to remain on the right path and to make good choices. Help him to find his niche in life and love. Oh THOU fount of every blessing!