Low Bridges

Spent a lot of time behind the dirty windshield today and that is a good thing, in fact, there is a very good chance I will be on the “big clock” by Friday. Of course I may not get paid for being on the “big clock” because I have been getting paid for a 40 hour week when I have been working less than 40 for some time, a deal I worked out with my boss.

I had to go into Holyoke today with the truck. I drive a “straight” truck so I am sure if there are any “big truck” drivers out there they will look down upon me and say I am not really a truck driver, but I look at it this way, I drive a truck, I get paid for it, and when you get paid to do something you are a professional, so f*** em. Anyway, Holyoke is not a truck friendly place, especially the part that I had to go into. Seems back in the days when there were no trucks they put a couple of railroad lines through the city and most of the bridges are between 11 and 12 feet high. Well try as you might you just can’t get a truck that is 12’4” through a 12 foot bridge, it just ain’t going to work. And just to make my life more complicated the street I needed was closed for some construction work, which in and of itself wouldn’t be a problem except I couldn’t turn around because the road I was on was half closed, it was made one way so I couldn’t just go back to the one street I knew would get me to where I needed to be. I spent the next hour going in circles finding every low bridge in that section of the city. I finally had to drive out of Holyoke to South Hadley then back through Holyoke into Chicopee hen back to where I started in Holyoke. And you wonder why I drink?

So that got me to thinking, but then as you who have read my journal before know that everything gets me to thinking, which isn’t always good. It got me thinking how driving around Holyoke is kind of like life. You take some roads and you come to low bridges. You have to either go around them or try to get under them, and like I said, you can’t get a 12’4” truck under a 12 foot bridge. So you turn around, maybe back up, whatever, but you go on. You change course, reconnoiter, and move on. You mark on your map, I use a big X, where the low bridges are and you don’t go that way next time.

Now I could have gotten pissed that the road was closed and I had to travel around, after all it did make me late, but I didn’t. I look at life like this, there are things you can control and there are things you can’t. I can’t control which roads they are going to work on during any particular time so why worry about it? I could get stressed about it, but what good would that do? Would they open the road for me? Would they tear down the bridges? Nope, so why get mad. Besides it gave me a chance to look at portions of Holyoke I have never seen before, I love old mill buildings, old mill houses and old railroad structures, which there are plenty of these to be seen in Holyoke. Just don’t go at night.