D-r-u-u-u-g-s

I've starting packing sweatshirts.

The time of year has become obvious now. I wore long sleeves most of the day. I expect no difficulty sleeping in the truck cab tonight.

Once the truck was fixed, the bosses apparently decided to make up for lost time. I've done 500 miles today, up through the Carolina's and across Virginia. Not a problem—that's what they pay me for. The problem came from a slightly unexpected direction.

Late this morning (or was it early afternoon?) I started to lose focus. As if I hadn't had enough sleep. And the way that works for me it's scary. With half a day's driving still ahead of me, it was scarier still. So I decided on a drastic measure.

I've been carrying a few of those “five-hour energy”-type shooters* around with me, just in case. I've never used one before—rest has always seemed a much more useful way of not feeling tired. But today a test run seemed called for.

Hmm. Secret Mixture of Beneficial Herbs, uh-huh. Caffeine, yeah. Vitamins, mm-hm.

Vitamin B12. FIFTY TIMES the RDA.

O-kayyy.**

Well, watching the road signs fuzz out would be a lot scarier. I haven't gotten there yet, but it's coming. I can tell. So...

It tastes like cough syrup. No surprise—it's about that consistency. At least it doesn't have the kind of aftertaste you get from cough syrup that works. A few sips of water took care of what little problem I had with it.

I took the stuff at a rest area, after taking care of...other business. Getting out of the truck and walking around usually wakes me up for a little while, so it's kind of hard to tell if it's working. As much Mountain Dew(tm) as I often toss off in a day, the caffeine rush won't be noticeable. So it's kind of hard to tell if it's working.

Half an hour down the road I haven't started to worry about fuzzy traffic. Even a little. Given the usual pattern,that's a good sign.

Two hours, and I feel a little sleepy. Only a little, though. About the consistency of a soft-drink's worth of caffeine wearing off. Still not getting vague or out of focus. A few minutes more and it's gone. Or I don't notice it, anyway.

An hour or two later, it's back, but still mild. If I'd been depending on Dew's(tm) I'd have had to stop at least once for a refill, by now. Maybe more.

An hour or two after that, I was parked, and still more or less alert. At no point did I fear for my life, or for all the innocent people surrounding my semi. That's a good bit better than I'd been expecting around lunchtime. I can't say too much based on just one try, but apparently the stuff worked, more or less. I stayed awake and quite functional. And as of this writing, I haven't “crashed.” Nor am I particularly wired.

Which is a good thing. I still prefer the old-fashioned way.

G'nite.

- - - - -
*Not the brand-name you see on TV. I'm cheap—Big Lots(tm) specials look very effective to me...

**Turns out this brand's conservative. 5-Hour Energy(tm) has over eighty...