I don’t care very much for all these “shows” about trucks. Maybe they all hit too close to home for me. I get way too stressed when I watch the one where they drive on ice and snow all the time. Been there done that.
Watching people struggle to keep their rigs upright on bad roads in terrible weather is about as interesting as watching a Nascar race without crashes. Prince Andrew playing polo is even better. Duct tape and vice-grips on air lines give me nightmares.
Then, there is logging, or sawing, or trucking logs from the forest or swamp to the place where lumber is produced. I’ve certainly spent my fair share of time in a truck at wood places. The smell is terrible – all that pine and cedar. The saw dust gets in everything. The people that work there, for the most past, are all grumpy.
These are commonly called “reality” shows, but it’s all too much “reality” for me. I know the folks on these shows are hard working, Christian, common people that are the backbone of the our country. But, I’m sorry, when the camera is rolling and the boss man comes over to console one of the truckers families, you don’t move the sofa out from the living room of your double wide outside to the front steps. Sofas, couches, beds all belong inside the trailer, not on the grass. Tires, your old Ford pick-up that stopped working 15 years ago, that broken freezer that used to keep the deer meat cold and the algae green above ground pool with the leak – that’s OK for the front yard.
I don’t seek out these shows, they just sometimes “appear” on my television. Last night, I was beyond tired, but had trouble falling asleep. This job search is kill’n me. Anyway, I’m flipp’n around the dial, actually press’n the remotes rubbery buttons and “thar” she was – “Swamp Loggers”. This show – I had not seen before. It’s on the Discovery Channel about a hundred times a week like that other show about crab fishing in the Bering Sea. What’s it called? – ice sea crabbing or how to overwork fisherman or the top 10 ways to kill your boat captain? All equally absurd.
Do you remember last season, or was it the one before, that one of the crab boat captains died of a stroke or heart attack because he never took care of himself. He was overweight and smoked and “fished” himself to an early grave. I’m sure another “boss man” will croak soon. Perhaps someday, those boats will be a bit larger and after 8 hours of crabbing, the second shift will come on and everyone will be healthier and happier. Of course, truckers, hauling logs or vegetables or steel, legally able to work 14 hours a day, are equally as guilty of ignoring their health.
The two shows I watched last night focused in on “Bo” or “Bo Bo” – Bo Malpass, one of the logger truckers, actually one of the swamp logger truckers. One big happy family. Trying to move 100+ loads a week to stay in business. I personally want the job of the cutter or saw-er, who bulldozes his way through the forest or swamp and uses a 9000 lbs. saw claw device to rip trees from their roots. That’s the job for me. Leave the truck driving to someone else, like Bo-Bo.
Bo, to me, is the typical truck driver. He represents 95% of all the truck drivers I have ever met on the road. And like 95% of all the truck drivers on the road, he does not take care of himself. Bo has a pain in his side. He ignores it. Just like I ignored all the stuff that was wrong with me for years. The pain gets worse. Finally, he goes home early. Her doesn’t want to, he has to. After a few hours in his easy chair – the one inside his trailer, not the one outside near the mail box, the pain returns, but worse. Off to the hospital he goes. The doctor (s) tell him it might be his gall bladder and send him home. I ‘m not sure why, but they do.
At home, in his trailer, feeling terrible about not being behind the wheel hauling logs, he collapses. We have to assume he does not have health insurance. His wife does not work. Off to the hospital he goes, again. He undergoes surgery. The doctor does not give us the viewer, nor his family, much optimism about poor Bo. He goes on and a ventilator. He is in a coma. He breathes on his own, then he goes back on the ventilator. This goes on for 12 days. I thought, as with the ice crab fisherman captain, he was going to die. A heavy dose of “reality” television.
He doesn’t. Prayers all around. The “community” raises $7000 to help the family with the medical bills and Bo goes home. I don’t know what happens next. I’m sure Bo is going to go back to work before he is supposed to. Such is the life of the truck driver. Bo is lucky – this time. As I did, I’m sure he’ll ignore the next pain he gets – maybe it’ll be his heart. That is, if he doesn’t take care of himself. He has a good wife and and a beautiful family that relies on his income. Hopefully, when he gets the bill from the hospital, he doesn’t get a stroke.
For goodness sakes drivers, take care of yourself. Don’t be like me and Bo.
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