The time I cracked before heading to work.

Happy New Year.

To this day I don't know why this happened.

The company had a pretty generous policy of buying us a room the night before if we had to travel any real distance. It made for pretty good crew changes because I didn't have to leave at 2330 and drive all night and come on duty when I got to the boat.

It was a Tuesday, crew change was the next day, my pickup was loaded and backed into the driveway ready to go. I expected a leisurely drive to the hotel.

I woke up, fed Kitty, ate breakfast and ran through my pre tour checklist, turning the heat down and so on. The kid up the street would take care of Kitty while I was gone.

I was looking forward to returning to work and headed out to the pickup and opened the door. 

Suddenly I started shaking like a paint mixer and I could not force myself to get into the truck!

I stood there shaking for maybe 10 minutes and went back inside, made a half-pot of coffee poured a cup and fished a Camel cigarette out of the freezer. I kept a pack there after I had stopped smoking for psychological reasons. I went outside, lit the smoke, drank the coffee and settled down a bit, just a bit. I was still pretty shaken.

When I finished the smoke I flipped the butt onto the lawn and suddenly as fast as it had come on, the shaking stopped. It was like a light switch. 

I went inside, finished my coffee, washed the cup and coffee pot and headed out. I got into the pickup and fired it up. I slipped the clutch and I was off and running. A block into the drive everything was normal again.

I made a leisurely drove across Pennsylvania, got a good night's sleep and went to work the next morning.

Of course, my curiosity was opened and I went on line looking for traffic accidents along the turnpike and things of that nature. There had been a pileup west of me and well after I left. Seeing I was headed east it meant nothing.

To this day I don't know what happened and realize that whatever it was is behind me. I stopped worrying about it almost immediately but from time to time I think about it and wonder what that was all about.

This has happened to me a couple of times over the years.

To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this: http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY