Road Warriors

This is a brief drive-by blog. I won't be back to this blog until late tonight because I am balancing a full case load with a bit of a bug that could be anything.

Unfortunately, there's not much swine flu vaccine in this neck of the woods.
At the VA last week, one doctor told me they had only 80 doses staff. None yet for the Veterans. Someone stole two vials from a community clinic worth about 3 grand. The robbers also tainted a third vial. The flu is now officially a pandemic and quite creepy.

We self employed road warriors... the truckers, investigators, sales people, cable guys, home health care workers, delivery drivers, repair and service folks... all of us who make our living driving our cars, navigating the concrete seas, going from place to place and knocking on stranger's and strange people's doors... we see and hear it all.

Cough and moans, sneezes and groans. Barking dogs, crying kids, the gainfully employed, the painfully unemployed. The well-connected and the unglued. We are one teeming mass of humanity all separated by walls, doors and driveways.

And we Road Warriors, the self-employed...
we have no barriers between us and "them". We can not stop because we don't feel good.
We make our money from the volume we do, the miles and hours we drive from place to place...
to investigate a case, unload a shipment, fix someone's bale, deliver a package, serve a subpeona, treat a patient... all the things Road Warriors do every day.... sometimes seven days a week, to keep the income flowing.

We can't afford to get sick, when there's no sick pay. So we keep going.
The only time we stop is when our bodies make us stop.
And that of course, is neither wise nor healthy.

So given my druthers, I would much rather blog about the Seattle arsonist just caught yesterday. And a police killer caught last week.
However duty calls even louder than the sore throat that would give me an "out."
So I'll be back at this blog in the next 24 hours.

Meantime, you stay safe out there.
And if you don't mind.... please accept some unsolicited advice from one Road Warrior.
Be ever vigilant and ever calm.
Control your anger. Reign in your temper.
Lighten up on the accelerator. Drive in the slow lane. Avoid conflict and extinguish your road rage.
Give no one "the finger"... because people angrier than you are out there.
And they've got fingers too... on triggers.