Home Sweet (bitter Sweet) Home

Merry Christmas Old School! Enjoy the time with your family and thanks for the words of wisdom.

Old School-

I hope your surgery went well and your recovery will be at a minimum. I know how much the open road means to you and hope you can take the time to reflect on being with family this Christmas. I know when I was working in electrical, my kids were 8 and 10. I lost 5 years with them. Many a dollar was made, but I will never get that time back. Anyway it is not about me. May you and your family enjoy this Christmas together.

Raptor

Hang in there Old School!

Enjoy the time with your family. Take care of yourself.

The road will be there when you are ready again!

I hope your recovery is speedy and successful; Merry Christmas to you and your family, I know they're loving having you around, even if under disagreeable circumstances.

I hope your recovery is speedy and successful; Merry Christmas to you and your family, I know they're loving having you around, even if under disagreeable circumstances.

Pete, are you saying Old School is disagreeable?

Old School you are truely an inspiration in not only trucking but life itself. I wish you a speedy recovery Sir!!! I fully understand everything you have said, maybe an age thing I don’t know. You and your family are very unique indeed, and that is awesome. You have a beautiful family. My prayers are with you and I wish you and your family a Merry Christmas and blessed New Year.

'Unfortunate' would have been a better choice of words.

It's December 22nd - I've been here at home since the 8th of this month. I've had to take some time off for a couple of eye surgeries. Glaucoma runs heavily in my genetic pool, and the continuing development of cataracts in both my eyes has exacerbated some vision issues I'm having, causing me to undergo the surgeries so that I can maintain good ocular health. Tentatively I'm set to return to work January 3rd.

Here I am sitting at home in my "easy chair," doing my best impersonation of the "Dread Pirate Roberts."

One of the strangest things about being a successful truck driver is the passion I have for the job. I love being on the road. I'm a man of action, and I thrive in the challenging environment that over the road trucking provides. I'm going to be honest with you guys and gals: I love being here with my wife, and I'm really going to enjoy having my three daughters and their husbands gathered around our table over the holidays, but... I'm longing to be moving! I really miss the lifestyle that has helped me provide so wonderfully well for my family. They get to enjoy the money it provides, I get to enjoy the lifestyle it provides. Trucking has been a "Win Win" situation/career for me.

I got into trucking after closing my longtime business down. "Retirement" seems like a prison to me. Trucking gives me the freedom to continue working as long as I like, and it provides the challenges I crave, while providing a nice income all at the same time. I love it!

Being a trucker requires some give and take from each of us. It is a balancing act for the entire family. Husbands miss their wives as acutely as the wives miss their men. Children look forward to the return of their parent who is on the road, as much as the parent longs to get home to see them. It is a demanding lifestyle, and not a particularly easy one for a family to undertake. For me the rewards have been there consistently. I do everything in my power to make sure it works for us, and I find my employer recognizes that I give them 110% while out here on the road. Because of that, they allow me a few privileges that might not necessarily line up with "company policy." I'll have my rig parked here at home with me for almost a month. They told me to just let them know when I was ready to roll.

The doctor told me yesterday that I could get back at it January 3rd. I can't wait! I'm ready now! Until then I'll keep enjoying my lengthy stay here with the people I love, the people who've allowed me to live this wonderful nomadic lifestyle. It's gonna be just as tough to leave them as it was to pull off the road for this extended stay at home. Trucking is a conflict of emotion at times. If you're an over the road truck driver you'll completely understand what I'm saying. If you're just thinking of becoming a truck driver, pay heed to the conflict I'm describing. It takes balance. It takes determination. It takes Commitment.

Old School, you have been an inspiration of mine ever since I started back with CRST. I am truly prayin for your recovery and hopefully you will be back on the road soon. You have a very beautiful family and I know you are surely lucky to have them and they are surely lucky to have an amazin man like you as their father and husband. Some days, heck most days out here I wish I was you. 😀 There’s not that many people I can say that about. 😀