sometimes it doesn't pay to think to much

Brusque

     Had a lot of fun with my last word so I came across another one today, and that was brusque pronounced (broosk) , meaning short and discourteously to the point. Can’t say I have ever been that way but knew a boss who had very short patience for anything that wasn’t his idea. Chances are you would rather keep your mouth shut about things, rather than suggest or offer up some advice. Well my boss was a quick one with the comebacks and squarely put a truck driver in his place one day while on a job that was giving us our fair share of trouble.

    Now I am a class B commercial truck driver and have drove long wheel base tandem axle dumps, and I have a single axle dump truck at the farm here, and have spent my fair share of doing the roundy - rounds as we call it in trucking, when you drive from one place to another dump a load and return, doing it over and over again going the same route doing the same thing all day long. I still have my commercial license and just renewed them my last birthday and are good for four more years although I doubt I will use them much, just the principle of it. Anyhow this makes me an official truck driver and allows me to make fun of myself and others like me. Now at this point, don’t tell mom she still thinks I make all my money as a piano player in a whore house and finding out I am a truck driver might be the last straw. Since I have cleared the fact that I have the qualifications I can proceed on with my story without repercussions from the truck driving crowd.  

      Did you ever notice those signs on the back of dump trucks that say construction vehicle do not follow? Why, because they have no clue what is going on and if they are following another truck and drive over a cliff , chances are the one truck will follow the other one over the cliff. There will be one set of tracks as truckers know if the guy before me made it in those muddy tracks he can too, well it doesn’t work that way.
      As well as being a truck driver, I also spent time operating equipment and more than my fair share of time fixing roads so truckers could dump their loads. Believe me that is a hair pulling experience as one will get stuck and another will dump his load in front of that guy , and if you don’t watch out they would bury one of their own in the soil they are hauling in no time. Something happens to these guys stuck in dump trucks, maybe it’s the radio waves from the CB blasting or the ear bud, blue tooth connection that is messing with their mind. I figured out years ago I wasn’t cut out for this line of business as I found it boring, I guess since I didn’t have anyone to talk to and all I had to do was drive truck, and to say the least, and after you hauled your first 600 loads it was all pretty much the same, just a different day.

     I never was much of a CB person with a 10-4 here and there as needed only when I had to communicate with a driver , but for some reason these drivers are talking all day long to someone whoever might listen to them or they must be talking to themselves, because when they always pull up to unload a load they seem to be too busy talking,  to listen to what they needed to do as if the 60 dollars an hour we were renting their truck for  didn’t require them paying attention to what was going on,  as was the case with this driver. The job site was wet and the road was spongy and he had to back up a hill. If he had not been talking on his cell and trying to click the button on the mike of his CB and had his window down to hear what I called him as he about ran over me as I walked up to the truck to suggest he try a different place to dump, he may not have hung himself up so bad we had to dump the truck where it sat. Then we wouldn’t have to wait on a pull cable since I just snapped the last one trying to pull him out.  We had to wait for another to be brought out of the shop, and were basically dead in the water with ten trucks waiting to dump and the dollars piling up and getting nothing done.

    The driver finding mud up to the top step of his cab stepped out and took a leak on his tires adding a little more moisture to the situation shrugged his shoulders as he was still talking to his imaginary friend or therapist through his ear bud, sauntered over to my boss and my vantage point overlooking the big blue dump truck sitting in a pile of mud up to his axles costing us sixty dollars an hour to do nothing but burn fuel and he says to us. “A bit wet today.”

     My first thought was brilliant deduction Watson, wonder what else this clown is up to.

     I could see my boss ‘s neck hairs stand up , he turned and climbed back into his  Chevy Blazer and was just getting away from this guy as he was mad already . Things happen, people get stuck, and being set back when you are trying to accomplish something is all part of the job when it comes to trying to run a construction site. We tried to work despite the rain the night before, because we knew our workers and our drivers needed work so we pushed it and it bit us in the ass. If this guy wouldn’t have hung up we may have been able to keep moving.

    Well the truck driver trying to get serious, rips the ear bud out giving us his full attention and said, “Excuse me but I was wondering?”

    My boss obviously irritated and ready to leave was discussing with me what we were going to do when we got bozo out of his hole and on the road again, and was obviously upset when the truck driver butted into our conversation and offered up a suggestion. So my boss said to him, “What is it you were wondering?”

      Well the truck driver had the floor and he said.”I was just thinking.”

       And right then before he heard another word came out of his mouth my boss almost shouted, “See that’s the problem , you started thinking,  he says you are truck driver thinking is not what I hired you for, I hired you to drive truck , if I had wanted a thinker I am sure I would look some place besides a truck seat. If you had been thinking you may have been able to get your truck to dump where it was supposed to. I watched as you about ran over my operator ignored what was going on and ended up shutting us down. Instead you had three different things going on and weren’t watching what you were doing, and now I am thinking I really don’t need your damn truck when I get it out of here or ever again. Now do you have anything else you want to think about?”

      The driver understanding the brusque manner he was just disposed by, slunk back to his truck and sat and waited patiently for the cable to come, and to be pulled out with the dozer. The driver still worked but never offered up any more suggestions or failed to pay attention when he landed on our site to work.