I was always like that as a chess player. But I don't think it was the lack of desire to check-mate, I simply didn't have the skill. Prior to that though I would have built up an admirable defence. Then my brother would run me ragged around the board because he knew I just couldn't "ceck-mate".
Re the "can't" thing. For what's it worth I once read that the hardest part is knowing what to do. Once you know precisely what you want to do, "can't" quickly becomes "can".
So when are you going to change your mental equation?
Yeah, easier said then done. Well I believe it certainly is possible.
I just happened to read an article about chess the other day and it was saying the same thing.
Your personality is revealed in how you play.
But isn't that life though? You're presented an assortment of choices and they all have effects and consequences.
How do you "win" at life though?
I say, joyful peace of mind and that's always within your grasp no matter where you are or what you're doing.
Things could always be worse. For example, you could have peeled off the entire roof of your trailer trying to stuff your truck through the Lincoln Tunnel.
Amazing what some drivers do. I guess he missed the signs, flashing lights, and cops with bullhorns yelling for him to stop.
We have plenty of freight going to Maine. Usually either Alcoa home building products or Science Diet pet food. I certainly don't mind going there at all... it's the getting OUT of Maine I don't much care for. Sometimes they'll send me over to Manchester, NH where we have a regular shipper (Sylvania), but MUCH more likely is that I'll get a brokered load for Poland Springs. And about 90% of the time when we get those loads, they're going to Jersey. Yuck.
So this morning I was all lost in Jersey City because the directions I had to the local BJs (who was getting said Poland Springs water) were totally wrong. They had me pretty much in downtown Jersey City and... well, suffice to say that there was just no possible way they directions could be followed. One-ways and "no trucks" signs barred following the instructions. It was ugly. I managed to get out of downtown without causing any damage despite traveling down a couple of very narrow streets. Found a spot to pull over, jumped on the internet and took a good look at Google Maps since my deluxe trucker atlas just didn't have the level of detail required. I pretty much ended up directly in front of the Holland Tunnel, and took a right immediately before the toll lanes. Which is what I determined was necessary to get where I was going... just got nervous about being that close to the tunnel I knew couldn't fit my truck. Not to mention I had no particular desire to end up in Manhattan.
Well, I got to the stinkin' BJs only 6 minutes behind my appointment time, which was due to me being "early" before getting lost in the first place. Once empty, I had a re-load in Newark, destination: Campbell's Soup, Napoleon, Ohio. Amazingly, the loading went a lot better than expected. But about an hour into PA some four-wheeler apparently kissed my DOT bumper when traffic was coming to a stop. Two lanes were merging into one and... of course... this process sometimes causes all vehicles to stop completely rather than meshing smoothly. Heck, I didn't even know he hit me until someone mentioned it on the CB. I certainly wasn't going to stop right there in the construction zone. So he's flashing his lights at me and I just keep on going. Figure I'll stop once we're past the construction or perhaps at the rest area that was just ahead. Well, he jumped off the next exit. The only reason I didn't do the same was that the exit itself was still part of the construction zone and there simply wasn't any safe place to stop without impeding traffic.
So I'm sure that said commuter has his panties all in a bunch due to the stupid truck driver who stopped too fast. Or something.
Yeah right. Dumb-ass was surely tailgating me. Honestly, I don't know WTF he was doing since I couldn't see him anyhow. Well, I called my safety guy and told him about it. Said that it seemed the dude wanted me to stop but I wasn't about to do it in the construction area. He must have just given up and went his own way. I inspected the back of my truck once I stopped and couldn't even tell anything had occurred. Clearly he caused his own damage.
I'm just annoyed. This is the third accident for me in 2007, none of which have been found to be my fault AT ALL. Yet despite my innocence (and safety bonus kept intact) I am starting to feel like I must have a "hit me" sign painted on my truck. It's ridiculous.
A hammer is definitely one of the basic tools you ought to carry. A decent size crow-bar is also really handy. Not only for pulling nails, but for things like wedging trailer doors into place when they wont quite close right. Our trailers all have air-assist sliding tandems... but they can still be annoying sometimes. I think I've only run into one EVER (at this company) that I simply wasn't able to move at all.
I hate carrying (tall) rolls of paper. Short ones aren't too bad. It all depends on how well the shipper blocks and braces them. I wont pull paper rolls that are only kept in place by friction of a little rubber mat. Too dangerous.
We occasionally joke P.O.H.L. is an acronym for "Pulls Only Heavy Loads". It's not entirely true... we have plenty of variety. But there are undoubtedly a lot of 40k ++ trips. I've got 44k of tomato paste in the trunk right now. All out pet food loads from Hills are in the 40s. We carry a fair amount of Bunge cooking oils as well and those are generally on the heavy side. My Poland Springs load was 46k (frankly that's just about the upper limit of what's acceptable).
Heavy loads make me love the auto-shift. I spent years driving various manuals, but at this point I would hate going back to one.
