So, it’s been a while since I have posted. Maybe 17 days isn’t a long time, but it feels like forever. I’m not used to being home this long. I know most of you probably aren’t used to it. But in my case, I’m gone from the house usually weeks at a time. So, this is insanely weird. My industry, by the way I’m a truck driver, has kind of dried up. I work for/help run a small company. We have 6 trucks. Only one is running full time, we aren’t making anything off that truck, but the driver is making a paycheck. We have another truck, the owner, that runs occasionally. However, he found out from our conversation today that he is also considered high rick due to high blood pressure. We had a load offer today from Arizona going to New York City. Normally this should pay over $2 a mile going to NYC and you would think in this state of emergency it would pay more….. Sadly they offered us $1.35 a mile. We would lose money hauling that load. Clearly doesn’t make it worth going out and risking catching this crap in NYC. That’s not even taking into consideration I’m extremely high risk because I am obese and have high blood pressure. I’m a typical truck driver. Forced to live on the road eating crappy truck stop food because of extremely high child support. Don’t get me wrong, I believe in supporting my son 100%, but I also believe in one being able to live past 40 and actually having a place to live that doesn’t move or vibrate when running the AC. Also, it’d be nice to be able to have a relationship with my son. I know it sounds like excuses, and some could be. But I miss him. Unfortunately, after 13 years I still miss his mother. But I guess when you commit to someone and marry them the feelings are probably serious…. One would think.

So back to my job…….. I turned down the load. Why? Well aside from not making any money off of it this virus actually scares me. Now I’m sure some of you are still saying there’s nothing going on blah blah blah blah but stop please. I call Dearborn Heights, MI home, I’m not there right now, but it is where my house is. That is right in the heart of Wayne County. Right in the epicenter of Michigan’s disaster zone. I know people that have caught this, and I know people that have died from it. It’s no joke. I’m not willing to risk my life to work for nothing. All the big companies scooped up the emergency loads, so those are covered.

So instead I get to play carpenter for my parent’s tomorrow. I get to build a pantry in a closet for them. Oh, what fun. Actually, at this point it is kind of fun. My parents finally bought a house. Because my dad, who we found out had esophageal and stomach cancer in August or September, I can’t remember which anymore, wanted his own house before he died. Now before anyone gets really sad, he has finished his second round of chemo after having surgery. He is surviving, so far. He’s just surviving without a stomach and a third of his esophagus. Which it was pretty painful to watch him progress after his surgery. He had it in Phoenix while I was stuck in Michigan dealing with a court battle. But 8 days after his surgery he walked out of the hospital. He only was able to walk 10 feet, but as he’ll tell you, “I walked out of that damn hospital!”

This house was built in the 50’s. The previous owners remodeled kind of, and they were looking for first time home buyers, because they snuck some crap passed them. I’d still like to meet the home inspector; we would have a few words. I had to redo a supposedly brand new toilet twice, fix a bathtub drain, redo the entire hose system for a dishwasher, which was installed incorrectly, we had to destroy the back of the bar it was installed in to get to it, assist with rewiring the breaker system, which still isn’t fixed among many other things. We still aren’t done. But thankfully I am here to do it, or my parents wouldn’t be able to do any of it, dad’s no retired and mom is a teacher. By the way if you’re thinking of becoming a schoolteacher, please consider the fact that you will be broke the rest of your life.

I guess this is becoming too long so I will end with a positive thought. I’m kind of thankful things are closed, the amount of time I’m getting to spend with my dad is priceless. I have the rest of my life to make up for the money I have lost. But we don’t know how long we will have on this Earth. The risk of losing my dad became so high the moment he found out about his cancer. But by the grace of God I’m getting so much “soul” time with him. If it wasn’t for this virus, I wouldn’t have gotten that. So that makes me truly blessed.