Perfectly safe

28 AUGUST 2013, 14:37
Got up, dropped a trailer full of plastic things at a chain-store warehouse, and headed to my next shipper. Sixty-odd miles through the scenic Ozarks to a large, dusty facility, surrounded by piles of--dirt? tailings? ore?

No matter. I was going to a loading dock. There I was greeted by a nice lady in work clothes who cheerfully told me where to go (politely). As I backed in, I saw stacks of huge metal ingots. What I was carrying, I supposed.

I supposed right. It took them about fifteen minutes to load the trailer. Another hour or two for me to secure the load.* A few minutes to get out the gate and park. It would take them a few minutes to finish my paperwork, so I walked down to the Drivers Lounge and washed my hands.

Thoroughly.

Then I did it again.

For some reason I didn't want to rub my eyes until I'd done that. Maybe something to do with all that dust. Or the trucks spraying water on the road to reduce the dust in the air. Or the building on the way out that hosed the truck down to get the dust off it.

Or maybe it was the nice lady and the friendly forklift driver cheerfully talking to me in the warehouse.

While wearing gas masks.

Did I mention that they loaded my truck with ingots of lead?

I'm taking a shower tonight..

*(Trivium: If you've ever been inside a semi-trailer, you may have noticed that the floor is made of wood. Real old-school.

(Well, there's a reason for that. Loads like this one can shift. And the straps and bars we normally use wouldn't hold this kind of weight. So what do you use to keep all that weight in place?

(Wood. Pressed (or wedged) tight against the mercchandise, and nailed down. To the wood floor.

(When they hired me for this job, they didn't mention carpentry…)