It'll Pass
Optimists say that it's always darkest just before the dawn. Having watched a fair number of sunrises, however, I've concluded that it's always darkest just before it's pitch black.
It's been a rough week on the road, beginning with the midnight ride of the "Cranky Cajun" (my CB handle), from Memphis to Missouri. The circadian rhythm does not lend itself easily to syncopation, so a bit of downtime was necessary to recover from the nightshift before The Beast and I traveled to Wisconsin, where the weather was cool and I succumbed to whatever flu-like bug is currently making the rounds.
Two very hard days' drive ensued, as I left Wisconsin on Tuesday and arrived in Louisiana the very next day. The final eight hours of that grueling trip were taken exclusively on rural roads that wound and snaked through an endless supply of small towns, decorated with a traffic light or stop sign every 10 yards or so, and a number of local cops waiting to solicit donations to the municipal fund. My left leg, which spent so much time mashing that heavy clutch, is now severely over-developed causing me to walk in circles. Walking from the truck to the truck stop takes longer now and makes me dizzy.
By the time the delivery was made on Wednesday evening, I had run out of hours to legally drive to a truck stop. So I spent that night parked in the dirt on the roadside, and enjoyed a Denti-Moore meal as if it were filet mignon while reminding myself that this too shall pass. But everything has a purpose, as the saying goes. How best to appreciate laughter if you've never cried? How best to appreciate indoor plumbing if you've never spent an evening parked on the roadside? How best to appreciate Texas barbecue if you haven't had Denti-Moore cold?
Friday, I found my reward. On I-20, just north of Tyler, Texas, sits the Texas Best Smokehouse travel center. I just stopped for coffee, but once inside the place, I found a feast for the senses. A large dining area, appointed with large rustic looking tables and chairs, hard wood floors, paintings and animal heads adorned the walls. The unmistakable aroma of hickory smoked food permeated the place as people lined up to place their orders. I couldn't resist so I made my way, in overlapping circles, toward the line. I was ready to order as large a chunk of beef as possible when I noticed a forlorn looking long horn bull perched on the wall. It boggles the mind how a taxidermist could create a look of such complete dejection on a confounded bull, right down to the sulking ears, but it worked. So I ordered chicken instead.
While enjoying the meal, I checked the latest headlines on the magic phone. Steven Colbert testifying before Congress; a DOJ official exposes apparent racial bias in the New Black Panther case; Iran's goofy little dinner jacket is on his annual pilgrimage to New York where he disgraces pretty much everything; unemployment creeps upward while the administration vilifies job creators; and the Commander in Chief demonstrates his commitment to national security by saying that we can absorb another terrorist attack. There seems to be a growing back-log of insults to our intelligence and assaults on our liberty.
The good news is that like a great many other things, this too shall pass. And the voters shall begin administering the elixir in November.
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Jul '10
Re: It'll Pass
Dave Carter:
While enjoying the meal, I checked the latest headlines on the magic phone. Steven Colbert testifying before Congress; a DOJ official exposes apparent racial bias in the New Black Panther case; Iran's goofy little dinner jacket is on his annual pilgrimage to New York where he disgraces pretty much everything; unemployment creeps upward while the administration vilifies job creators; and the Commander in Chief demonstrates his commitment to national security by saying that we can absorb another terrorist attack. There seems to be a growing back-log of insults to our intelligence and assaults on our liberty.
The good news is that like a great many other things, this too shall pass. And the voters shall begin administering the elixir in November. ·
Now I know how to cope with the next interminable State of the Union: a smoke roasted bird with a tangy sauce. Thanks Dave.
Jun '10
Re: It'll Pass
Dave, your forlorn bull brings to mind a response to a question I asked a pal some years ago. I share the reply in the full knowledge that it not only serves as an apt political analogy but is a trenchant observation on life itself. This friend of mine made quite a good business out of breeding prize Angus bulls. The business end of the transactions he engineered, as any farm boy will attest, consisted of selling semen. I asked my buddy how he kept his bulls happy and producing. He volunteered that if the bulls didn’t get the “real thing” every now and then they grew particularly ornery, even destructive. It is just so with today’s Tea Party movement, politicians have too long played falsetto with the people and they have become ornery, even destructive. I don’t want to stretch this too much but this may be the secret to that longhorn’s mien, after all aren’t longhorns extinct as a breed. You know there could be a book in this entitled Everything I Need To Know About Politics and Life I learned in the Barn.
Re: It'll Pass
Apt analogy Cas. Taking it a step further, I submit that we taxpayers are getting tired of feeding the bull's incessant appetite while constantly getting, uh,... dumped on, ...and being told it's for our own good.
May '10
Re: It'll Pass
I was within a half hour of getting stuck in Rochester, MN on Wednesday (I was at a full day CNE conference at Mayo), when thunderstorms came in and dumped so hard that the highway behind me is still closed 3 days later just North of Rochester.
You would have needed to rescue me using the high truck, David.
Edited on Sep 25, 2010 at 12:29pmRe: It'll Pass
You know, Duane, I would have done it. I was in Minneapolis a couple of years ago when several tornadoes hit the area on the same day. I was at a slow speed and had a line of cars behind me, evidently using the trailer lights as a guide in the storm. I felt like a mother duck leading the procession.
May '10
Re: It'll Pass
I would definitely have looked like a baby duck trailing you in my Tiburon! It was the first time I had ever considered stopping under a bridge to wait out the rain because visibility was so lousy.
The world wants to know if you were able to keep cool (remembering an earlier post about hot cabs) when you had to pull over to sleep?
Jul '10
Re: It'll Pass
"So I ordered chicken instead."
That is hilarious.
Hay, Cas, come Here to Fort Worth. I'll show you that Longhorns are nowhere near extinction.
Re: It'll Pass
Duane, yes I was able to idle the truck that night to keep cool. Fortunately, I was in Louisiana, where truckers have the same legal right not to suffocate as pets. Obviously, my home state is behind the power curve in environmental awareness, operating under the assumption that humans have rights too. Philistines...
Jun '10
Re: It'll Pass
Jimmy Carter: "So I ordered chicken instead."
That is hilarious.
Hay, Cas, come Here to Fort Worth. I'll show you that Longhorns are nowhere near extinction. · Sep 25 at 4:42pm
I'd love to get to Fort Worth. I'm not an aggie, so I don't know which breeds are and are not extinct. Also, I likely confused extinct with domestication preference in that ranchers might prefer to raise other cattle breeds because they do not have the long horns. Then again, Jimmy, you could be referring to the U of T Longhorns, and although they lost to the Bruins recently, I grant anemic is not extinct.
Jul '10
Re: It'll Pass
I, too, thought my response would be taken as a football reference. I'm talking about the real animal, although We are All U of T Longhorn fans Here.
I can take you down the street and sit you on a Longhorn steer to get Yer picture taken. They are in abundance Here. There is a regular "cattle drive" in downtown Fort Worth with Longhorns. They have horns, as We say in reference to anything of major size, "from Here to Dallas."
Jun '10
Re: It'll Pass
Jimmy, shouldn't that be ". . . get yer picture took." We are after all talking about the great state of Texas.
Re: It'll Pass
Guys, I'm a settin' here in Dallas tonight, havin' come up from Waco. And, if that don't beat all, I just finished watchin' True Grit in the truck. Rooster Cogburn didn't say nothing about no longhorns, but I reckon I seen more 'n a few of 'em out around this state. And I don't just mean the sad ones lookin' down at ya from a wall at the smokehouse neither. Now, I gotta turn in. One of you tend to tha fire, will ya?
Aug '10
Re: It'll Pass
Mr. Carter...quick question about that first photo of some sort of bottled, medicinal purgative--since that end of things is related to my field of work and, thus, holds a certain professional interest. Is that stuff to be taken orally, do you know?
Re: It'll Pass
David, the focus was out a bit, but the bottle in question contains hot sauce. It should be taken orally, not literally. About your line of work, did you say you are in politics?
Aug '10
Re: It'll Pass
Thanks--David--for the rectifying my confusion. The photo did not include the top of the bottle and, thus, there were questions about its proper...application. Well, as for the scope of my work, out in the light of day it could be called, yes, "politics" in a fundamental sense.