I have a nursing home on Wednesays, it takes a couple of hours. I always make sure I've gone to the restroom before hand, because, their restroom is way out of the way, and you have to borrow someone's key, and you might get locked out of the kitchen on the way back, and the men's room is broken, so everyone is using the ladies room and someone is always in it.
It didn't matter this week though. Sure enough in the middle of the stop I had to go again, but I figured I'd put it off and go at the truck stop that is just at the bottom of the hill. But there was something else going on, something inevitable, I was reaching critical mass, yes I would have to bust a muffin soon. I struggled to contain it and somehow finished the stop without having to use the restroom of dread.
I drive down to the truck stop, there's a truck on the scale, I'm driving up, he's starting to pull off the scale, does he see me? I'm a lot closer now. He starts to turn in front of me, so I guess he didn't look in the mirror I'm not gonna race him (this is the same truck stop I got sideswiped at last February).
All the fuel lanes are full and he pulls through the last lane, you know the one without a pump, the one you drive through if you're gonna go park. Once he's through the lane, he stops his truck, effectively blocking traffic for the entire truck stop. How the hell does he not see me? I honk my horn, I get out and get his attention, I want to know why he's blocked the only lane that we can get through, he points at the sky, as he's only gonna be a minute, I ask why he can't just move up ten feet, he suggests I wait until someone is finished fueling, then maybe I can get through.
Sh!t son, I'm in the food service, I've played block the driver before, and I'm getting kind of good at it. I'm sorry, you're not gonna be just a minute. The truck next to me moves forward, and out, so I back up, pull through the empty lane and sort of angle my trailer in front of his nose, leaving enough room for trucks to still come through the fuel aisle. What the hell, I just learned we can park wherever we want to here. Just then another truck pulls through that lane and parks. Now if he wants out, he'll have to back up and hope for an opening (but I'm thinking bubba-gump trucker doesn't have the skill). Unfortunately, now I'm the one who's blocking the whole truck stop.
I get to the mixer, open the bakery and drop the cookie dough. Phew, made it. I figure I'll get me some coffee while I'm here as it will only take a minute.
So I get back outside and no, he didn't back up, he waited for me, awesome.
I should have just run up to him and grabbed the scale ticket out of his hand.
Anyhow, it's not normally in my character to do such things, so when this happened, I thought it might be karma:
But after it broke, I felt like I was born again. Holy cow, that high bar that has been knocking my buttons off all these years is gone, I can keep my hands so much closer to my hips when I'm pushing it, and it feels like I've got so much more power and control without the bar. I've never liked the short dollies, because they either have only one handle, or the two handles stick straight back. The mechanic said he'd take the broken bar, and cut it down so it will add just a couple more inches for me, *customized* I'm looking forward to it.
