Over the Road

[RE]

Part I of Over the Road now upon the Diner Blog.

For those of you interested in grasping bit more wherefrom my perspective comes, this is probably a good read. For the rest, I dunno.

RE

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[Golden Oxen]

Part I of Over the Road now upon the Diner Blog.

For those of you interested in grasping bit more wherefrom my perspective comes, this is probably a good read. For the rest, I dunno.

RE

A most fascinating abbreviated autobiography of our founder. Don't miss it fellow diners.

From my perch, I wish I knew why but I don't; it has so far saddened me, but at the same time made me more aware of how unique and remarkable a person RE is.         

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[RE]

Part I of Over the Road now upon the Diner Blog.

For those of you interested in grasping bit more wherefrom my perspective comes, this is probably a good read. For the rest, I dunno.

RE

A most fascinating abbreviated autobiography of our founder. Don't miss it fellow diners.

From my perch, I wish I knew why but I don't; it has so far saddened me, but at the same time made me more aware of how unique and remarkable a person RE is.         

Thanks GO.

I do want the readers to understand though that the OTR Years are themselves just a Snippet of the Life in the Age of Oil of RE, and Part I here was just a snippet of a snippet.

Overall, a pretty Sad Story yes, because really it is just a Reflection of a much bigger Sad Story I was just a small part of.  My life was just a microcosm of what went on around me.

Don't Tear Up too much though, after all, it all ended up pretty well and RE is doing quite well these days up here on the Last Great Frontier.  A whole lot better off than most people for sure.

RE

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[buz painter]

RE: So you were there during the Savinar 'meltdown'? You sound familiar from the old days. I'm talking yahoo lists and peakoil.com etc. If its true, I've got your back. Been there all along.

buz

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[Wyoming]

RE, Ohh.. a cool topic.  I am looking forward to more.

We are brethren of sorts.  My two best friends, across the back fence, growing up were the sons of a man who owned a small OTR trucking company.  I drove some for him before and during summers while in college. Epic stories about him, them and the road.  Some so painful .....

40 years and over 4 million miles later the surviving brother, and still my best friend, is out there on the road somewhere.  No family, no house, no car.  Like a kind of monk.  There is only the truck and the road.  The blur of the white lines flashing by as the sun rises and sets and life passing with the seasons.  One's only link with sanity the radio and the mournful whine of the tires ever rolling.

Wyo

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[TAE apologist]

Nice to hear a 1st person account. I always respected truckers and try to make their job easy. While on the highway I flash the headlights when they want to merge in my lane. I never pull out in front of them regardless of the gap on 'right on red' intersections. I get out of the way if they are barreling down the right lane of an interstate. Your story will add to my regard for them. Moral of the story, we're all wage slaves. And be careful, as the age of oil winds down, truckers are going to be a mighty ticked off group.

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[WHD]

Nice piece, Columbia boy. LOL fun, real and alive. A curious life. A kind of dirge, this. Congrats though, on the new digs. Pigmen are good for something, sometimes.

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[Surly1]

Enjoying this, RE, and hoping for the six-part series, or maybe a made-for-TV event!

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[Karpatok]

I have two parts to my response here. I see many parallels in my own life that with some 20 years of schooling after kindergarten and not much work experience I went back for education credentials but threw it over because of all the political correctness crap associated with it even though I was using some of that while teaching reading in a desperately poor neighborhood in Baltimore. Then there was the three years of teaching English or rather tutoring in Romania while I danced with a performing group in Csikszerada. I don't know why but my tolerance level for everything rises enormously when I am out of this country. Then, on returning, as I have mentioned before, I took construction jobs as an "independent contractor" and had a Romanian crew of seven stone and brick masons who of course were mostly illegal. So driving my six speed four wheel drive Ram with a 10 ft. trailer and learning to back it up was at least a little similar to your OTR truck . When the construction industry wound down, I was going to go for the CDL but when I found out how to get the training for free it was a little too late.The second part of my response is to express admiration for your willingness to reveal yourself warts and all, to say," this is who I am, take it or leave it, I know who I am, I am OK and I stand by it." I call this integrity. It is impressive and necessary.Not perfect but good enough   in an imperfect world in which we all have to live, and at the same time never letting despair and depression thwart your humanity and belief in the quest for justice and truth. SALUT!

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[RE]

RE, Ohh.. a cool topic.  I am looking forward to more.

We are brethren of sorts.  My two best friends, across the back fence, growing up were the sons of a man who owned a small OTR trucking company.  I drove some for him before and during summers while in college. Epic stories about him, them and the road.  Some so painful .....

Welcome WY.

Feel free to tell those stories.  I would love to hear them.

40 years and over 4 million miles later the surviving brother, and still my best friend, is out there on the road somewhere.  No family, no house, no car.  Like a kind of monk.  There is only the truck and the road.  The blur of the white lines flashing by as the sun rises and sets and life passing with the seasons.  One's only link with sanity the radio and the mournful whine of the tires ever rolling.

That is a REAL OTR Trucker. Very few last so long out on the road.  Average I think is 3-4 years.  I made it for 6.5, nearly but not quite to 1M Accident Free Miles.  I really wanted that patch for my jacket, but oh well.

I will be telling the story of the Solitude and Solitary life somewhere along the way.  Still got the training period to get through though.  Much more to come.

RE

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[RE]

RE: So you were there during the Savinar 'meltdown'? You sound familiar from the old days. I'm talking yahoo lists and peakoil.com etc. If its true, I've got your back. Been there all along.

If you are an old timer from Peak Oil, you probably do remember be, either as Rogue Economist or Reverse Engineer.  Epic Battles with Mr. Bill, Jack and of course Wisconson Cur. I'm not a super duper old timer there though, because I only got my wake up call in 2007 when Bear Stearns went down.

Anyhow, if you are still in touch with any of the old crowd, let them know about the Diner.  And Welcome Aboard yourself.

RE

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[bluebird]

A very interesting story, looking forward to reading Part 2, 3, 4...

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[Tao Jonesing]

I, too, am very interested in reading more.

Your description of your time at Drexel, particularly the "end times," pretty much identifies you as yet another person who once believed that exercising good judgment is what actually matters in the corporate/financial world.  All too often, what really matters is being able to rationalize making a bad decision at the beginning, well before anybody realizes that a "mistake" was made.  Tomorrow's "mistakes" are often the basis of today's bonuses.

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[RE]

I, too, am very interested in reading more.

About 1100 words deep now into Part II. It will be up in due time. Probably not until Sunday though, since I have ANOTHER surprise package for tomorrow.

Hint:  I've made another Cross Posting Agreement with another Doomer Blogger, this one an Academic with Good Credentials.  Not a super well-known DB, but most of us in the Doom Community know his work.

Check in on the Diner tomorrow to read the first article from the newest Diner Cross Posting Author.

RE

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[roamer]

RE, Great stuff, this explains why you actually have a real world persona as compared to all the other ivory tower doomer bloggers. I relate to this I'm a degreed mechanical engineer who can't get a real engineering job, but too overqualified for simple stuff like technicians ect.  Been on a razors edge financially doing roofs, ground tree work and an on again off again tech job. Anyways keep it coming!

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