Ashamed, almost. And apples are hazardous to your health.
Today I put in the effort, I got dressed for cold weather, I got my mind past the snowy and blustery bologna going on outside the house, and I pumped myself for a day of work. I cleared the snow off the car, drove to the shop, cleared the snow off the truck, headed into the world ready to work.
Little did I know I'd chicken out after a couple of oh-so-near-misses. I drove nearly an hour south of the city to do a route today. The last one for the week (my company work week is technically Tuesday through Monday). It was a measly 15 stops, all pretty close together. I got to my first stop, backed in as close as I could get to the tank I needed to fill, bundled up and trudged through the snow. When my duty was complete I headed back to the truck to work up a receipt for the customer when the first idiot of the day nearly whacked my truck with her SUV.
I just don't get why people think they're invincible behind the wheel of these over sized vehicles. I don't care if it is a four wheel drive or not, if the roads are icy you still need to exercise extreme caution when navigating the roads. It's not just your life in danger, but everyone around you. So when you just have to leave the house in the middle of a snow storm to get pizza for lunch, please... please do it carefully.
DO NOT do what this moron did, which was braking hard and cutting a hard left into the parking lot. I wonder if she was trying to have a little thrill or if she really was just an idiot, but whatever the case, her car did a near 360 spin coming to a halt only a couple feet from my front bumper. And mind you, I was in a 15 x 30 parking lot parked all the way at the rear.
Stomach and temper settled, I went inside to give the customer their receipt and then I headed down the street to another stop. Again as I was finishing up another idiot came right at me. I had backed in beside the building, as our tank is in the back in a little fenced in area with all of their air handlers and such. I had filled the tank and was fiddling with the hose that was being stubborn as I attempted to reel it back up as it's wont to do in cold weather.
A mans voice came loud and clear "Watch out ma'am!" to which my brain responded by forcing my body to move to the side to get me out from behind my truck. As I did so I saw the moron in a suped up little sporty car barreling right for my rig.
*^$! is all that came to mind.
Another poorly trained female driver was behind the wheel, apparently she had entered the gas station lot at an unnecessarily high rate of speed and when she hit the brakes they locked and sent her skidding. This idiot stopped not feet but inches from my front bumper.
And I'd had it. I called my boss after I got the receipt to the customer and raised my proverbial white flag. I told him two near misses was enough for one day and I was certain that the longer I stayed out and the more the snow fell the odds would only get worse. He said he was cool with that, thankfully, as he knew how bad the roads were. So I grabbed gear and headed home.
I'm almost ashamed of it because when I was OTR I'd have just kept on trucking. But then I wasn't stopping at high traffic locations when bad weather hit, save for a truck stop at the end of the day. The odds of my having an accident in this job as opposed to the OTR job are way higher because of the stop and go, in the way nature of this job. So with weather like today, I wasn't about tempting fate.
On a side note, my back is doing a little better. The chiropractor has been doing cervical traction on me which is ahhhh-mazing. I've only had the displeasure of waking up once or twice a night with pain and numbness, instead of like it was before with 5-6 times a night. And I'm not experiencing much numbness during the day time since we started it. So it seems to be helping.
Oh and if you've got yourself a handy dandy apple corer that has seen better days, toss it now! Because tonight I was craving apple slices and caramel dip but ended up with three pretty yucky cuts on my hands as a result of the corer breaking mid-push. Crappy and painful. I don't recommend it.
Little did I know I'd chicken out after a couple of oh-so-near-misses. I drove nearly an hour south of the city to do a route today. The last one for the week (my company work week is technically Tuesday through Monday). It was a measly 15 stops, all pretty close together. I got to my first stop, backed in as close as I could get to the tank I needed to fill, bundled up and trudged through the snow. When my duty was complete I headed back to the truck to work up a receipt for the customer when the first idiot of the day nearly whacked my truck with her SUV.
I just don't get why people think they're invincible behind the wheel of these over sized vehicles. I don't care if it is a four wheel drive or not, if the roads are icy you still need to exercise extreme caution when navigating the roads. It's not just your life in danger, but everyone around you. So when you just have to leave the house in the middle of a snow storm to get pizza for lunch, please... please do it carefully.
DO NOT do what this moron did, which was braking hard and cutting a hard left into the parking lot. I wonder if she was trying to have a little thrill or if she really was just an idiot, but whatever the case, her car did a near 360 spin coming to a halt only a couple feet from my front bumper. And mind you, I was in a 15 x 30 parking lot parked all the way at the rear.
Stomach and temper settled, I went inside to give the customer their receipt and then I headed down the street to another stop. Again as I was finishing up another idiot came right at me. I had backed in beside the building, as our tank is in the back in a little fenced in area with all of their air handlers and such. I had filled the tank and was fiddling with the hose that was being stubborn as I attempted to reel it back up as it's wont to do in cold weather.
A mans voice came loud and clear "Watch out ma'am!" to which my brain responded by forcing my body to move to the side to get me out from behind my truck. As I did so I saw the moron in a suped up little sporty car barreling right for my rig.
*^$! is all that came to mind.
Another poorly trained female driver was behind the wheel, apparently she had entered the gas station lot at an unnecessarily high rate of speed and when she hit the brakes they locked and sent her skidding. This idiot stopped not feet but inches from my front bumper.
And I'd had it. I called my boss after I got the receipt to the customer and raised my proverbial white flag. I told him two near misses was enough for one day and I was certain that the longer I stayed out and the more the snow fell the odds would only get worse. He said he was cool with that, thankfully, as he knew how bad the roads were. So I grabbed gear and headed home.
I'm almost ashamed of it because when I was OTR I'd have just kept on trucking. But then I wasn't stopping at high traffic locations when bad weather hit, save for a truck stop at the end of the day. The odds of my having an accident in this job as opposed to the OTR job are way higher because of the stop and go, in the way nature of this job. So with weather like today, I wasn't about tempting fate.
On a side note, my back is doing a little better. The chiropractor has been doing cervical traction on me which is ahhhh-mazing. I've only had the displeasure of waking up once or twice a night with pain and numbness, instead of like it was before with 5-6 times a night. And I'm not experiencing much numbness during the day time since we started it. So it seems to be helping.
Oh and if you've got yourself a handy dandy apple corer that has seen better days, toss it now! Because tonight I was craving apple slices and caramel dip but ended up with three pretty yucky cuts on my hands as a result of the corer breaking mid-push. Crappy and painful. I don't recommend it.
** what an apple corer should do, not what mine did... the black piece of mine was in the same position as this one, only the metal cutters were stuck in the apple mid way down, and blood was dribbled decoratively around the counter. blah.
Comments
Regards!
Lori W