Back on the road

Over Stimulation is what happens to me when I am in a huge group of people anymore. When I used to work in the" Normal" world I dealt everyday with a broad range of people and personalities all day long and thought nothing of it. Now in the truck where I can control my environment which usually means talking on the phone, listening to books on my IPOD, or listening to Podcasts I can control my environment and noise level. I will admit that the Freightliner M2 has a lot of background noise as this truck is not quiet but I have learned to tune the road noise out. I have found that even going into a very loud resturant can be very trying on my nerves and I often leave unsettled.

When we go to an event like the Expedite Expo or to the FedEx Custom Critical offices in Green where I am able to talk face to face with many people that I normally just email with I find that I have a lot to say and listen to that can not be shared in an email. There are so many people you want to see and only so many hours in the day so everything is crammed into a few hours. The lack of time can become very frustrating as you know it could be a year before you get to see most of these people again. You at least get to scratch the surface of what you want to say to your friends and the new friends you meet and then you all go your seperate ways.

I look forward to the truck shows, our time spent at the FedEx Custom Critical offices, and the different trucking activies we are involved in but I have found that when I get back into the peace of the truck it takes me a few days to recover. After you have crammed in as much networking as possible in a few hours getting back into your truck is like crawling into a protective cacoon of solitude. Both worlds are awesome and we as drivers can enjoy the best of both worlds. We can step into the corporate world or the truck show world and then step back out to our controled enviroment to regroup for the next exciting event.