Changing times, OR, "When I was a boy..."

(All right. So the updates are still a work in progress.

(What can I say? I got the laptop to the truck just fine. I just forgot the power supply. So these didn't get out until I got back home. Again.

(So sorry. I'll try to do better...)

If I keep telling you how warm it is tonight, you're going to get bored. So I won't.

I'm in a gravel parking lot behind a small truck stop in the Deep South. And it's almost cool enough to sleep now. Actually, it must be--I woke up rather rudely when the repair guy showed up.

Today's pickup was a drop and hook, with 700 miles or so to put behind me afterwards and about a day and a half to do it in. I was planning to put in two or three hours of driving tonight so I could relax a *little* tomorrow.

That was before I examined the new trailer.

One tire was flat. And a mudflap was missing. Believe it or not, those two problems are about equally important (mudflaps are considered safety equipment, and the DOT will not look kindly on you if you run without one). But of course the tire was a bit more, shall we say, immediate. Driving any distance with only seven tires bearing the weight was not in the cards.

So I moved my tractor-trailer gently to the nearest place I could politely park it and reported the problem. On my satcom. It's efficient and convenient, but it has some of the same problems as a telegraph did, back when there were telegraphs.

Think texting.

Now think of serious technical discussions while texting.

After several messages back and forth--about the problem, and whether I needed repair immediately, and when I'd be leaving in the morning, etc.--the dispatcher decided she wasn't getting enough detail. So she tried to call me.

Or so I presume. I got a satcom asking me to answer my phone.

I haven't had the money for a proper cell contract in a year or two. Now that my wife is no longer with us, I have been carrying her cell on the road; but it's one of those "unlimited calling as long as you stay in the metro area" phones. The company's been branching out lately, letting you use the phone in any metropolitan area that the company serves; and that's made it usable in a surprising number of places. But this was not a metropolitan area. Not by a long shot.

So I sent back an email explaining that my phone had no reception here, and if she'd give me her extension I'd call her.

She sent back a phone number. A LOCAL number.

In a very different area code.

You know you're in 2010 when everyone simply assumes you don't have to pay for long distance...