No Regrets

Hello, everyone! As I write this, many of you will still be fighting the miserable cold and blowing snow. However, by the time you hold this issue in your hands, springtime will be within view, and that means that there are several people who are anxiously anticipating the kickoff of the truck show season with the world famous Mid-America Trucking Show (MATS) held in Louisville, Kentucky. Forget about Punxsutawney Phil, MATS is the real sign of warmer weather and brighter days ahead for us in the trucking industry. But another thing comes to mind when I think about the coming spring. I’ve heard many drivers speak of retiring or moving on to other career paths this spring. Maybe it’s a choice driven by health or maybe by preference, but I know that many speak of getting out of trucking due to the overwhelming rules that make it hard to be profitable any more. In any case, they all have a common fear of regret – the regret that may come when they start to settle in to life at home and begin to miss their familiar “home on the road” they are so accustomed to. When you scrub away the bad parts of trucking such as unrealistic deadlines, insufficient rates, inclement weather, expensive costs of doing business and the overbearing regulations, the romance of the road can still entice you and the billboards and neon lights of some old highway can tug at your heart strings (floating into a parking lot with your amber and red chicken lights aglow seems mundane until you give up the road for good). Home is where the heart is, but a house can’t make a home. Hanging up the keys may feel good at first, but soon you’ll miss the “Chicken Lights of Home” – enjoy.

CHICKEN LIGHTS OF HOME
By Trevor Hardwick

This old house gets quiet,
When the kids are not around…
I guess I’ve missed the sounds of little feet.
My woman says she’s happy,
Now that I am back in town…
I’m safe at home on a quiet little street.

I like the fact that I have time,
To do the things I please…
No deadlines and no dispatch on the phone.
But, truth be told, I kind of miss,
The rumble of the road…
And I sure miss the chicken lights of home.

Some may call me lazy,
Thinking all I do is drive…
They’ll never really truly understand.
I don’t let it phase me,
Because as long as I’m alive…
I’ll feel that wheel responding in my hand.

Some folks work in factories,
Some folks work in town…
They want their fruits of labor to be shown.
I, myself, prefer the breeze,
Of a semi, hammer-down…
And I sure miss the chicken lights of home.

A little picket fence,
Around a perfect little yard…
A rambler with a new car in the drive.
You’d think that planting roots,
Wouldn’t be so dad-gum hard…
But sittin’ still won’t make me feel alive.

I guess I’ll just re-acclimate,
I guess I’ll settle down…
I guess I won’t be spending nights alone.
My home was on the interstate,
My house is in this town…
And I sure miss the chicken lights of home.