Brother

Cold. Cold. Cold. It is cold today. Yesterday was a rain storm, and I was mocked by a friend for saying that I had expected it to be warmer. But here in SoCal it generally IS warmer when it rains. Comes from the warm moist air that carries in the storms, not from politicians' hot air. Or maybe it's a combination of both.

But yesterday was an interesting day. It was rainy, oh that part is sure. But it was also COLD! Very unusual. And I had dressed expecting rain but not cold. Great! Hence the mocking. OK - perhaps I deserved it, but I was having a hard time laughing at myself this time.

My back was in spasms, and I had to drive to Vista, CA - over 300 miles round trip. I had some minor trouble with the truck I usually use on that run, so I had to take my larger truck. The big truck is more than up to the task, but it has the unfortunate ability to shake and shock. That is, the "suspension" transfers the road bumps and bounces directly to the spine of any hapless humans who are lucky enough to be aboard. I have had full 32-ounce drinks jump out of the cup-holder and deposit themselves on the floor more than once, and that was from driving over a sheet of paper in the roadway. You should see what it does with a string of expansion joints on the freeway. Truly, you could film special effects in this thing.

But I had a friend along to help. No, not my dog. An actual human being who took time out of his life to sit and listen to a one-sided conversation which started at 3:30 am and never let up until early in the afternoon. Ah caffeine, wonder drug - and thou art legal. The diatribe was punctuated with "ah, ooh!" and "ow!" with some other expletives of like nature as we jounced over every lump and bump. It had to be fun. Great gobs of fun. It is always amazing to any normal person to ride in this truck and feel just how rough our roadways can be, but to have each bump expressed out loud by me as my back pointed out the fine differences between a minor and a major jolt, well, it just had to be special. And the way it reset my thinking - directing me to completely change subjects and not even know it... well it just had to be amazing.

And it was raining, so we both got pretty wet as we loaded up and secured the truck and trailer. However, God had a sense of humor: it rained the hardest as we were exposed the most, and let up a little now and then as we would climb back into the truck or walk into the shipping office.

So why am I writing this? Simply to say "thank-you" to the friend who gave up so freely of his time, comfort and effort. I need more people around me like this - OK - I bet that is what you expected me to say. But what I really want to say is this:

I need to be more like this person, to those around me.