Get In The Truck, Alice

Since recovering from my bout with massive nerve pain after my spine fusion surgery, getting off the narcotics and working out I’ve become a lot more mobile than I was six months ago. For months, Alice had been coming to my house to help me take care of me and my husband.  Now that I don’t need that level of help at home, our time together has been focused on working on our project of Chick and Alice, and working out. Lately with my broken foot, she’s been helping me with my shopping and errands, too.

Sometimes she would pick me up, sometimes I would pick her up.  One day, after spending a few hours in her car running errands, my hip and back was way sore.  She has a smaller car and I just couldn’t get comfortable in her car.  So we decided that we would use my truck instead.  The height and style of a truck seat works much better to support my back and stretch out my hip and legs. There’s plenty of room for my crutches and everything else we seem to need.  I usually pick her up so she has to load her bags in the truck every time and find room for her things with everything I just keep in the truck.  We also tend to use the truck as an office.  Yesterday we drove to our favorite coffee store for a sandwich and our favorite peach mango energy drink.  Instead of going inside to sit, we went through the drive through, parked the truck and spent a couple hours working on our tasks for Clearview Works.

If we’re shopping or working out, she handles everything except my crutches, and getting in and out of the truck creates some chaos at times.  Especially since I’m still so stubborn about letting anyone help me, she somehow feels the need to instruct me to just get in the truck and let her take care of everything else. So, I acquiesce and just get in the truck and patiently wait for her while she loads everything.

Last week a mutual friend of ours shared the pic and caption below from Facebook and told me to share it with Alice.  We both laughed our fucking asses off.  This friend was well aware of how the two of us can get so deep in our conversations and whatever we’re doing, and taunting each other that an observer may wonder what the hell we’re doing and whether we’re going to actually ever get in the vehicle. It fit perfectly.  Just get in the truck, Alice.  😅😂🤣

Seriously, working on this project with Alice is pure joy.  It is so refreshing to work on a project with a person that is so fully accountable and self-aware.  That also extends to the rest of the team we’re working with at Clearview Works.  Each one of us is dedicated to our success and brings our unique talents to the team.  It’s been several years since I worked on a team.  Getting to know these amazing people and finding my place on the team has been another growing experience for me.  When I was working, I was the manager of my team and pretty much chartered to run my department as I saw fit and do whatever is necessary to be successful. With this team, I’m not in charge of everything, only of my contribution.  A different experience for me but it is a pleasure and an honor to work on the mission we’ve all undertaken.

Speaking of my truck, yesterday I was racing down the country roads to meet a friend, a bit late as usual. The car in front of me wasn’t moving fast enough for me and was impeding my progress.  So, first opportunity I floored the truck and reached a top speed of ninety by the time I pulled back in front of them, slowed down to just 9-10 miles over the speed limit and proceeded on my merry way leaving them in my dust.  As I continued to drive I started reflecting on the driving habits I’ve developed over the years.  They are pretty indicative of how I generally operate in my life: FULL SPEED AHEAD!   I don’t need to be in front (like my dad suggested I might be doing) but if you’re in the way, I’m going to go around you or over you.  I have never had the patience to wait for results.  I just do it myself, whatever that takes.

But, I have learned (and life keeps repeating the lesson), that’s not always very effective as it sometimes has an adverse effect on relationships with others, whether I’m leading or following, when I’m so focused on the destination. So, back to the truck…eventually I started getting into the city suburbs and I’m sitting in the left turn lane, having arrived shortly after the light turned red in spite of my best efforts.  As I’m sitting there trying to summon up some patience, I notice the car I had passed 10 miles ago go sailing straight through the intersection which was still green although the left turn light was red.  It occurred to me that all my racing down the highway and pushing red lights really didn’t get me there any faster.  I then remembered back when I was still commuting, the same thing had happened most mornings as I was trying to get around the semis and work trucks to get down to the freeway as fast as possible.  Inevitably the semi I got around because he was so slow leaving the stoplight, was always at the freeway the same time as me.  Clearly my race-car driving habits only work on a track, or on a day-long freeway road trip, where you can actually really make time disappear over several hundred miles if you go fast enough.  Hopefully, I’ve applied some of what I learned about myself in my daily interactions with the people in my life.  I think changing my truck driving habits is going to be a bit more difficult.  I’ll have to keep working on that…maybe I can take a lesson from the way I drive my motorcycle which is quite a bit more about staying out of the fray, defensive riding and safety, even when I push the corners.  I suppose if I apply some of those same habits, I could change, ya think?  I don’t know, giving up that speed demon in me is a lot like giving up some of my other vices I’ve had to tame. When it no longer works for me, I’ll give it up.  Until then…