Congratulations! Today is your day. You’re off to Great Places! You’re off and away!
Dr. Suess, Oh, the Places You’ll Go!
His home for the past 18 months.
Eighteen months ago, Yooper Stewart started work as an over-the-road truck driver with a company downstate. They’re a great company that took care of YS, giving him a “welcome to the road” kit during his first solo trip, offering bonuses for everything from on-time deliveries to Long Island deliveries, and providing as much flexibility as possible in his driving schedule.
But when you’re gone for 10-14 days at a time and you’re commute to work is 2+ hours one way, it didn’t take long to become physically and emotionally tired — the last thing he wanted to do after a hard trip on the road was drive another two hours home, but he didn’t have a choice. And we missed each other. Bluetooth made it possible for us to talk a lot while he was gone, but that’s not the same as making dinner together or walking the dogs together.
It wasn’t easy to leave his first trucking job, but we knew when YS started driving that the goal was for him to eventually find a local job. Today, he started that job!
How Yooper Stewart enjoys coffee and breakfast before work on an early July morning.
This morning he drove thirty minutes to work. He’ll be home tonight in time for dinner. After he finishes work on Friday, he’ll be home for the weekend. And we can expect the same thing next week and the week after and the week after! He’ll still get to drive, enjoying hours a day to himself, but at the end of the day we’ll be home together (and Cooper will be one happy dog!).
The one downside … Yooper Stewart had to say goodbye to his beard. I like the beard. I’ll miss the beard. But we’re both happy to sacrifice it to see each other every night.
Here’s to a new season in a new a truck (and, hopefully, more frequent Yooper Stewart posts!).
This is what happens when you don’t have kids and your wife can’t do first-day-of-school pictures.
