Waiting on Sandy

You've got to be flexible. That's the current "buzz" phrase in missionary circles. Robert Burns put the concept in a different light in his poem, To a Mouse in 1786.

                                             "But little Mouse, you are not alone,
                                              In proving foresight may be vain:
                                              The best laid schemes of mice and men
                                              Go often awry,
                                              And leave us nothing but grief and pain,
                                              For promised joy!

                                              Still you are blest, compared with me!
                                              The present only touches you:
                                              But oh! I backward cast my eye,
                                              On prospects dreary!
                                              And forward, though I cannot see,
                                              I guess and fear!" (standard English translation)

Legend has it that Burns wrote this poem after finding a nest of field mice whose "house" had been destroyed by his plow. His insight into the oftentimes futileness of the plans of both mice and men is keen. Burns puts this premise in a darker light than those who speak of being flexible, but the idea remains the same for both. Plan as we will, try as we may, there is very little control we mere mice have over the circumstances of life. The sooner we learn this and come to terms with it the better off and more at peace we will be.

And so as the East Coast waits and prepares for Hurricane Sandy, we in the Wolfe house also wait to see if our plans to leave for Honduras after Thanksgiving remain intact. My disaster relief crew is anxious to go wherever our services are needed. Me...not so much. My mind is already set on the journey south. The rental add for our house has been placed. Someone is coming to view it today. What if they are a good match and our plans are delayed a month...or two. Should we rent it anyway?  "And forward, though I cannot see, I guess and fear!"

And so we wait!

Time is Flying By

It's strange how events six months or a year away seem slightly unreal. We know they are going to happen, but the reality just isn't there. That is not the case any longer for this event! We are approaching very quickly the less than 30 day mark and all of a sudden IT is becoming very real. A bit of last minute, second guessing on my part, a BIG list of last minute things to do for all of us.

Second guessing:

• Are we really making the right decision moving to Honduras?
• Should I really be shutting down a thriving business in this economy?
• Should I really take a year or two off from work at my age?
• Should we drive through Mexico?

Partial list of things to do:

• Rent house (something I have little or no control over)
• Clean out shop to make room for stored items.
• Pack items to store.
• Pack items to take.
• Decide which items to take.
• Prepare and obtain remaining paperwork for export.
• Prepare for year end tax and bookkeeping, as much as possible, prior to departure.
• .......

On a positive note, things already completed:

• Sale of back 38 acres....done!
• Cabin....finished!
• Most all the vehicles.....sold!
• Wally Mo car carrier.....signed purchase and sales agreement!
• Collection of debt from last year's unpaid contracts.....in the works!
• Apostilled documents....in hand!

Today, Mark and I are in Colorado Springs. Kind of funny, but this past Friday, the 19th, was my birthday and 49 years ago my life began right here in Colorado Springs. My parents left CS when I was six months old and I did not return again until I moved back here right after high school for a couple of years. For the past five years I have spent many, many weekends here with one or the other of my three boys on our truck travels. Over the past few years we have attended church and made friends here. I'm going to miss Springs Calvary, recently renamed Celebration. I didn't realize it at the time, but we started going there only a few months after it was started. I guess that makes us honorary plank members. We're going to miss seeing our friends the Crowes. I'm really going to miss those Sunday dinners with them! I'm kind of hoping we can squeeze one more in today : >) Jonathan and Joyce...I can't tell you how much I've enjoyed our friendship and your hospitality over the years.

Anyway, as you can maybe tell, I'm feeling a bit nostalgic. This is no doubt my last truck trip for awhile, maybe forever. Life is changing very rapidly. I think Barbe is feeling the same way, maybe even more so. It's exciting, frightening, challenging and somewhat overwhelming all at the same time. With out a doubt, this is a major fork in the road for us and for our sons. Almost every day now I see a road sign pointing us in the direction we are headed, (see my July 18th post) assuring me we are still on the right road. Most often these road signs come from people I meet in my travels. Increasingly, this is becoming an almost daily occurrence. A constant offer to help in anyway. Some have contacts, others have expertise or knowledge, all are excited about what we're doing. Other (signs) are in the way pieces of the puzzle are "just" falling into place at "just" the right time. (One of these days I'm going to do a post on jig saw puzzles and the allegorical application to real life problem solving, planning and implementing of one's future.) Yep! I'm a big believer in jig saw puzzles.

I'm also a big believer in being able to see the hand of God at work in our lives as we follow Him. Some people may call it coincidence or happenstance. I choose to call it supernatural. I don't know what the future holds for us, but I know the one who does and in whose hands we are held.

  

Disaster Relief

Disaster relief has been a niche market I have been involved in since Hurricane Katrina. I, like so many others, thought that because there was so much damage in MS and LA that we could just go down and "get'er done". Not so! I, and many other contractors like myself, invested large amounts of money in equipment and time, but when we arrived in Louisiana it wasn't as easy as all that. I was fortunate. I met the second wealthiest man in Mississippi who took me under his wing and introduced  me to the "good ole boys club" of storm debris cleanup. My family and I ended up spending seven months in Mississippi.

Since then I have worked every major storm and most lesser ones. Hurricanes, ice storms, flooding and tornadoes; anywhere FEMA goes, we go. Sometimes I feel a bit guilty about making money from other people's misfortune, but when we start removing downed trees and clearing roads - helping people get there lives back to normal - it's a good feeling and people are always so thankful for what we do.

I am always amazed at how times of distress bring out the best and the worst in people. Greed in the form of through the roof rates on home repair or tree removal; or even worse, looting, is a major problem. This is more than offset by neighbors working together and the American Red Cross and other civic leagues bring meals and water to residents and contractors. Church groups begin to show up soon after the storm ends. I have seen literally hundreds of these groups on any given day hard at work, helping people they have never met. The white 15 passenger church van pulls up in front of a residence, the doors are  flung open and out pour old and young alike. They remind me of ants as they trundle limbs and debris from the yard to the curb and within a few hours the place is clean and they haved moved on the next location.

This past year was very busy for us. I started with the F5 tornado that hit Alabama, went from there directly to Springfield, MA to work the tornado that hit there on June 1st. After a short break from that storm I then spent two months in Rode Island following TS Irene and, oddly enough, went from there directly back to the same neighborhood in Springfield to help cleanup the damage done from the Halloween snowstorm that devastated the trees in half of Mass and CT.




My #1 man Tedd Flagg w/ his truck "Fred"



 As my involvement in this market has grown, and as many of the guys I know have been interested in working storms with me, I have begun running a crew. I'm proud of my crew. I demand excellence and my crew always comes through for me. We do quality work, look out for each other and have fun in the process. Working seven days a week from sun up until sun down, it's easy for tempers to flare. I make sure that we share the good and the bad equally and address any problems immediately. I have had a number people comment on how well my crew works together...this coming from people who are used to seeing the "every man for himself, anything goes, it's all about the money" attitude shown  by most of the other crews.

Mark

One of the real highlights for me last year was having my oldest son Mark, who was 15 at the time, work with me. He was with me from start to finish. He learned to run a chainsaw and a rake, both with equal skill. (I'll let you guess which he liked better) He also began training on my Hood 8000 loader. He is one of the best flagmen and groundmen I have ever used. Even after long hours and longer days, his work ethic and attitude never faltered. He was liked and respected by the other guys and the FEMA monitors and accepted their good natured ribbing with a smile. I'm looking forward to having my other two boys join the crew as well.



Thomas, me and Ben, Cranston, RI







As my responsibilities grow, I spend more time doing this (left) 

and less time doing this (right).

Because disaster relief is something I can do for a short period of time and produces a substantial amount of income, my plan is to keep that part of my equipment and business and if necessary return to the States from Honduras to work a storm. Most storm work is over and done within 6 weeks. All that may change after we get to Honduras and get settled in, but at this point because we have chosen to not go the route of being supported by donations, I still need to provide for my family's needs. This is one way to do that.

Tornado debris on Central Ave., Springfield, Ma   June 2011

My Life Trucking

The new header comes from the creative energy of my wife Barbe!

Most of you who either know me or have followed my blogs know that I have been a truck driver most of my adult life. I knew what I wanted to be when I was 3 years old and I never changed my mind. Trucking has been very good to me. It has provided me with an excellent living and the flexibility to take off work for extended periods of time when I want to.  It can be a hard life, away from home for a week or two at a time, but it has always been something I love doing. It's more of a lifestyle than a job really. Always on the go, always seeing new sights and meeting new people.

The first truck I owned

I started my trucking career working locally for Global Van Lines in Colorado Springs, CO. As soon as I turned 21, the legal age to drive interstate, I signed on with Affiliated Van Lines out of Lawton, OK. Moving people, packing their belongings into cartons and loading everything they owned onto my truck, just seemed to click with me. I enjoyed helping people at two of the most stressful times of their lives, moving and job change, and I became very good at it. Within a few years I was asked to lease on with one of Atlas Van Lines premier agents in Springfield, VA and was soon rated in the top 5% of drivers in the industry for customer service, lowest claims and highest revenue. 

Deciding to leave the van lines and obtain my own operating authority was a big move for me. One of the keys to my success in trucking is that I have always looked for niche markets which usually requires specialized equipment and skills. Because of this I have done many different kinds of trucking, over sized loads, step deck, van, live floor, end dump, car hauling and I even spent a year pulling a Canadian "A" train in the Pacific NW and British Columbia.  

My 1984 Peterbilt w/Canadian "A" train (34' lead trlr w/ 20' pup w/extendable tongue) on top of Snoqualmie Pass, WA



Mark, he was always happiest in the truck



My boys have always traveled with me. Over the past 14 years, I can count on one hand the times that I have been alone on the road. Each of them started traveling with me when they were about 18 months old. This has been an amazing blessing to us and one of the things that has kept me going in the face of rising fuel cost and rising government regulations. When the boys were smaller, we were able to travel as a family. We've visited so many awesome places around the country. I don't think my boys realize yet what an amazing and unique childhood they have had. All of them have been in 49 of the 50 states, many times. Mark, by the time he was 5 years old, had logged over 300,000 miles with me. I often ask them, "How many of your friends woke up in Iowa this morning and will go to bed in Colorado?"



Truck school (Ben & Mark)



The main reason we decided to home school our boys, or truck school as we call it, is so they could travel with me. Barbe has always done a great job preparing a week or two's work in advance. I have done very little other than to say, "Call your mother". So far it has worked well. They have missed out on sports and other group activities, but the real life experiences and hands on approach to business they have had on the road will hopefully offset that.



 

Thomas chaining a car (age 6)

The boys always help me load and unload. Usually, if I stand around and talk with the customer long enough, they'll have the trailer all set up, the car loaded and strapped down. It's great!

At Mt Rushmore 2004

Over all...I wouldn't trade it for the world. I consider my boys to be my best friends. That alone is worth it. For the past several years I have had to work less and less, which has given us the ability to travel to Guatemala and Honduras and to spend the last two winters in Florida. When in Florida I take my "work" with me, hauling new cars out of the Port of Jacksonville to North Carolina and returning with used cars to the port for export to the Middle East and Africa. I only work 3 days a week while there, which gives us plenty of time to enjoy being snowbirds. After spending winters in the south I can see now why retirees do it! Will I miss trucking when we move to Honduras? Yes, trucking gets in your blood, but I am looking forward to the change and the new challenges as well. Sometimes I have to pinch myself to make sure it's real. An entire year with out going to work? God is good!

Although this trlr unloads itself, here it had to be "tipped"!

My T-600 w/Fabrex live floor trlr



My 1999 Volvo 770 w/Doonan stepdeck and "oversized" load