Bless The Hands

The national flower in full bloom

The past year has been something else. The driving over the road experience was different from the previous time my husband & I drove over the road. For me, it was kind of like seeing an old friend & then remembering why I stopped talking to them. The roads were the same…road work is a constant across the country, but they never seem to finish. I loved seeing the much beloved scenery I was missing, but unfortunately ran into some personal problems I won’t go into.

Bear with me in this post. I’ve been thinking about writing this for some time now. Probably since July 2025 when this event happened. To be honest, I’m not sure how to start it.

I grew up in a semi-religious family. There was a lot of strife regarding church attendance that I’m not going to get into today. Probably never because I guard my spiritual beliefs like a binge eater guards their stash from discovery.

Saying grace before a meal wasn’t expected every time in our household. I remember it mostly from church dinners, family reunions, or when visiting more devoted relatives. One common thread in many of those pre-meal prayers was and is: “Lord, bless the
hands that prepared this meal.” Sometimes the conversation afterward would steer in the direction of just how far the blessing was to stretch; were we asking for blessings for just the cooks, or all the hands it took to even get it into the cook’s hands? I remember some prayers including the farmers, etc. Last July, I had an experience that showed me how short-sighted some of those prayers really were.

One of the hardest parts of driving over the road is the changing of time zones. Hubby and I drove on a 12hr schedule, switching at 2am and 2pm Eastern time. Ish. There’s always a chance we’d have to stop earlier, or switch at a shipper/customer, or later because of any manner of delays and conditions. On the east coast, it can be hard to find a parking spot at 2am and Hubby would either have to keep driving to the next truck stop or we’d have to switch in the fuel island. I also like to take my medications at certain times, so I’d keep my cellphone time set on Eastern. It made sense since that was the time zone we switched according to.

This thought-provoking event took place in California, so even though we were supposed to be there at 8am Pacific it was 11am Eastern. So it was mid-morning for my shift, but actual early morning as I was drawing near to the destination. There was still some lingering light fog.

I knew we were heading to some kind of berry distribution center. I didn’t think too much about it. It wasn’t the first time picking up berries in general, although it was the first time for this location. The other place I’d picked up at before had a different layout, a slightly more urban setting. The staging area for trucks wasn’t even at the warehouse, but down the road and around the block.

This place was a more rural setting. I lost count of how many strawberry fields I passed on my way. It was quite pretty. The early morning light, the thin low fog giving it an almost ethereal feel. Field after field. It was one of the few times I felt at peace with my job.

A blurry photo I took 
after pick up and
Justin took overdriving

Shortly before I made the turn for the warehouse, I noticed the field hands. They stood out in the morning light. Their clothing was colorful in a most pleasing way. They were too far for me to see details of their faces, but I could see they were darker skinned than I am. There was at least one woman, and some shorter ones that could have been youths. It struck me: it was early and here they were hard at work picking strawberries. By hand. Do you know how low strawberry plants grow? That some physically demanding work no matter how old a person is.

I remember picking tomatoes once for a local farm stand when I was growing up. I’m not sure how old I was, somewhere in my teens. I remember some of my siblings being there, and a friend from our youth group. We had no adult supervision like this group of workers did, and we probably should have been better supervised. I don’t know who threw the first tomato, but at some point – tomatoes flew. I hope they were only rotten or damaged tomatoes that we used, that’s what we told the adults who saw us when they asked about it later that day, but it’s been so long I honestly don’t know if that was the truth or if we lied to cover ourselves. I’d like to think we were being honest. Regardless, we never picked in her fields again. We were young and just being kids without supervision; I may have been the oldest, but I often rebelled at having to be the one left in charge of my siblings. We also had many things going on in our homelife that not many were aware of, and sometimes we just wanted to have fun. We weren’t always wise in our timing.

I thought about this comparison for the rest of the morning, and every time since when I see something on Facebook about Immigrants ‘taking our jobs’ and how some places are having trouble finding anyone to pick in their fields recently. Now, I know nothing about the workers I saw. I don’t know if they’re Americans, Immigrants – legal or illegal, or even Indigenous persons. The warehouse workers I interacted with had an accent that make me suspect they were of Mexican descent, no matter what their “legal” status is. And I know they were handpicking strawberries at an hour of the day I prefer being in bed. I know where those berries were heading, and it wasn’t a local farmstand. We drove those berries across states, across time zones, to an Aldi distribution center. After, I think it is safe to assume that they ended up on Adli stores shelves.

Now this might sound weird, but I’ve never once given any thought as to how strawberries end up on the grocery store shelves. I never once thought that they might have been handpicked by workers. There might be some places where they are harvested by machine, but typically the preferred method is handpicking since machines can’t tell the difference between ripe and still ripening fruit, and can also damage them. Because of this, from my brief research, strawberries picked by machines are used mostly for jams and jellies.

I was struck with deep gratitude for those workers. I love strawberries, but I would not want to pick them commercially. Maybe when I was younger, I would have been willing to but given I have one knee that is bone on bone, I’m not even sure I could physically do the job. I am grateful for the strawberry pickers who gave me a product to haul, enabling me to also have a job. I am grateful for them picking food for me to eat later.

I think some people in our country live in a bubble and do not appreciate workers of this type half as much as they should. I think they have a narrow view of the world in general. I wish they could see the world, at least the Unites States, through my perspective. I have driven or ridden through 46 or 47 of the 48 continental states (I’m not 100% sure about Rhode Island). One thing I’ve learned is we are far more alike than we are different. I could drive through a small town in Nebraska and if I didn’t know where I was at, I’d have thought I was still in Pennsylvania even though there aren’t mountains. I have seen people in all states that I would swear were related to someone I knew from back home. I’ve lost track of how many people I’ve run into in my travels that know where I’m from or someone who lives there too.

We are all connected. From the fieldhand who picks the strawberry to the warehouse workers who load the berries onto refrigerated trailers for truckers to drive to another warehouse for workers to send them to stores where yet another person shelves them for shoppers to buy. For you to buy and either eat yourself, or to prepare them for others. Perhaps in a fruit salad, or a strawberry shortcake.

A fruit salad I made at some time

We need each other. For this cycle of products, this cycle of sustenance, this cycle of survival, this cycle of life.

The next time you have a strawberry, I hope you think of the worker who picked them. I hope you are grateful for them and their hard work. You won’t know them, but they are someone of value and great worth regardless of the color of their skin or their citizenship status. Even if you’re allergic to strawberries and can’t eat them, I hope you can still be grateful for people who are an integral part of our nation.

I’m not going to lie, I’m a little afraid to share this. Immigrants, legal or not, are a hot topic right now and I worry about vitriol from both strangers and friends. I’m sure there are many pieces to this that I don’t understand, not because I’m stupid but because my education has been limited. But I stand behind what I’ve written, based on my experiences. I too have value and worth, as does my perspective.

Until next time, I bid you adieu!

©Robin Janney

A Jump Turned into a Hop

Me last Monday: Ooh, an extra day off! I can get a jump on my blog posts!

Me last Thursday: What happened to this week? I have to do a post for Veterans Day and Monday and - oh bugger it, I'm tired.

I did have this nice post in mind for Friday, I even had a picture all picked out. But I lost track of time and it didn't get written. Maybe next year. For now, we'll just pick up here and keep on moving forward.

There are certain things in life I will always try to get a picture of if at all possible. Flowers. Pets. Deer. Moon. Husband. Mother. And as seen above, rainbows!

This particular photo is from July 15, 2019 near Shakopee, Minnesota which is just outside Minneapolis. That was in our first year of driving truck, and according to Google Photos we were coming from an Amazon center.

This particular day was one of the more interesting ones because it happened to be the day this warehouse had a strike. We decided not to cross the picket line and whichever one of us was in the sleeper bunk, I think it was me, had to call up the satellite image of Google maps for the area to see where the would be a safe place for us to get off the road and sit while we waited for the strike to end. We called our Dispatch to let them know what was going on and, well, there's not a whole lot that could have been done. We found a lot large enough for us to sit and just waited.

I'm not sure how long we waited, but the sky ended up opening. It poured buckets.

I don't remember if we decided to see if the strike had ended on our own, or if we talked to Dispatch first. But it was over by then, so we got in and got back out in time to see that amazing rainbow. In this second photo you can see better the faint double rainbow it was.

A little over a year later, coming up I65 in Kentucky, just outside Cave City there was this cool rainbow that pictures just don't do it justice because the fact that it wasn't a solid curve but a little bit wavy didn't come through very well. It was taken from the sleeper bunk by a somewhat cranky husband while the truck was still moving. In my defense, he was already awake as we were soon to be switching in just a couple exits. It's his picture posted above and to the right.

And one of the cons about driving truck locally is that I don't have someone in the sleeper bunk to take pictures when I can't just pull the truck over! This past weekend as I was coming north on I81, I was climbing the long hill after the I80 exits and even though it was noon, the angles were just right that there was a rainbow visible at the top of the hill! Given how miserable the weather was, it was a definite bright spot to driving that day. I think it was Sunday, but it could easily have been Saturday.

I can tell I had a cup of caffeinated coffee earlier today, I'm just running off at the keyboard! I've been trying to cut back on caffeine since July when the DOT doctor was giving me a hard time about my heart rate, rightfully so, but man oh man - life without caffeine is hard. Especially when your day begins at 3am. Earlier if you count the time the alarm goes off.

Okay, shutting up for now! Until next time!!

Two Steps Forward...

 And one step back. That's how the old saying goes, right? Or is it one step forward and two steps back? Or maybe, the farther ahead I get, the farther behind I fall?

That last is the sentence I've expressed to my husband most frequently the past couple of months. I'm not sure why I thought changing to a local driving job would make my life easier, because I sure was wrong. When we were being recruited, we were told that most of the runs would be 10-11 hours or less, and in the beginning they were. But as the company has been growing and adding runs, more and more we're being stuck with runs that come close to running our 14-hour clock out.

For those who don't know, a truck driver has two clocks they need to be mindful of during their day. A 14-hour clock, which is the amount of time we can be On Duty - from the time we 'clock in' to the time we 'clock out' for the day. During that time period, we can only drive on the roads for 11-hours, the other clock we have to be aware of. Driving on customer properties don't count against the 11-hour clock if we remember to change the status on our log. A local driver can utilize a 3rd clock once a week if needed, and that would be a 16-hour clock - which only adds to how long we can be considered on the clock, but not to how many hours we can drive. Twice now I've been pushed into using that 16-hour clock, and both times due to circumstances beyond my control I was illegal. One day was almost 17 hours long, so I took the next day off.

Honestly, I was doing fair before that first 16 hour day. I say fair because I've been struggling with torn cartilage in one of my knees since before that.  I get a cortisone shot this afternoon to tide me over until my crappy health insurance can get around to authorizing a different shot treatment. "Fair" may be a slight exaggeration, but even though I was in pain I still had energy and wanted to do things. Ever since that first too long day, I've been plagued with low energy. It may have more to do with the pain in my knee, but for whatever reason I connect the fatigue to that day.

I've been struggling with writing, formatting, and remembering things. I'm still not sure what I wanted to talk to Mr. Janney a few days ago, but hopefully it wasn't anything important. That could be brain fog, but who knows?

My endocrinologist has been changing and adjusting my meds, so it's possible that none of this has anything to do with work - or not as much. Because let's be honest, the hours they work truck drivers are a bit insane. But anyways, the Endo added a thyroid med, changed one of the shots I take for my diabetes and when that failed to do as good of a job, she added another. I legit have a string of alarms in my phone to remind me when to take my meds...and I still forget the shots once in a while. I am one hot mess!

But I keep plugging away. I have no choice! Life keeps demanding my attention.

That's enough venting for today. I've been quiet online recently because no one likes a whiner, even when the whiner has legit reasons for their whining. But I refuse to sugarcoat things online because I believe in being 'real' online. Bites me in the butt sometimes, but hey - that's life, right? I don't believe in sharing everything, but when I do share I want it to be honest. As honest as I can be when I self-edit my language and eliminate all the 'lols' I want to add...lol!

If you're reading this, then I've decided to hit publish. I'm not sure yet, especially since at this point I don't have any photos thrown in to catch the eye and break up the reading blocks. Pictures are always so much work to add in because for some darn reason they mess up the formatting and I have to work harder to fix it...which, if you're reading this, I gave up and the goofy formatting errors around the Shutterstock photos will just add to the charm today!

Stay safe, my peeps.

A Year in Review - Part 2

One of the things I like about driving truck across this country, are the photo opportunities. I've always like taking pictures, even back in the day when it was on film and you have to wait for them to come back from the developer. I'm pretty sure I have some old film floating around somewhere that's probably too old to be developed.

One thing I dislike about driving truck, is driving in winter weather. Although I have to admit that it can lead to just as impressive photo ops.

This first photo is from December 2019. Mr. Janney and I were trying to get a load to Utah, and the weather was not cooperating. We had tried avoiding going through Wyoming on 80, but there were also issues with 70 in Colorado. After a little pressure from dispatch, we rerouted through Wyoming and had to shut down again. Visibility was crap, and Mr. Janney had lost track of how many accidents he'd passed. It took two of us to find a parking spot, only to be kicked out of it because it was a reserved spot. So we had to back track until we found a parking only pull off with an opening. The weather had lifted by sunrise, as you can see in the photo.

When we have to sit for weather related reasons, one thing we both do is catch up on sleep. And I prefer to wait until daylight when it's snowing or raining. I don't always, but it is my preference. This time, I did sleep, especially since I had woke up to help find the parking spot. I was up in time for the Wyoming sunrise. Not only did I snag that pretty sunrise pic, but I managed to snap this pic of an early bird.

There were quite a few of these birds flitting about in the early morning light, but this one was in the best spot for a picture. I don't remember now if I managed to get it in one shot, or if I had to grab it from a short video. My hands aren't quite as steady as they used to be when it comes to picture taking anymore. I believe it was Mr. Janney's suggestion that I take short videos and then grab a picture from it that way.

I know that's how I grabbed this shot of a bird just two days later. It was at a rest area in an area without snow. I'm not sure if I had made it to Arizona yet or if I was still in Utah. Wherever it was, it was southern enough for there to be cacti. I'll post that picture just below.

At the time of composing this post, the worst problem we've run into this season has been high wind. We've had to sit more than a few times because either our load was too light to risk it or we had an empty trailer. I'm hoping we manage to miss the worst of it when we go back out after Thanksgiving.

One other thing I don't like about truck driving, is the inability to take pictures while I drive! Oh, the sights I have stored in my memory!

There was one morning, I was heading west. It was actually not too far from the same Wyoming parking area in the above picture, though not the same day. The sun was rising behind me, and the full moon was still above the western horizon. The misty clouds glowed pink around the setting moon. It was beautiful.

Going to sign off now with the picture of the cactus at the other rest area. See you around Christmas-time!

P.S. - I'm experimenting with fonts...leave a comment and tell me what you think of this one!

"Six Days on the Road"

Actually, Mr. Janney and I are typically on the road for more than six days at a time.

Sorry for the months of silence. I've been trying to adjust to life on the road as a true team driver. My third trainer was indeed the one who was the one who say me to the end of training. He was patient, even when I know he was getting frustrated with my backing. But I gained confidence with him and tested out early. And because Mr. Janney was in the right place at the right time, I tested out in the morning and was on his truck by that afternoon.

At a TA in Washington somewhere

And since then we've been trying to find out rhythm as team drivers. Some weeks are better than others. We've been sitting at a truck stop in Oklahoma City for a couple days now doing a reset and getting some much needed rest. It's a long haul across the Rockies, loaded or empty, and I do not envy the pioneers who took those mountain passes with covered wagons. Beautiful vistas, beyond doubt.

It took me quite a while to figure out how to continue my writing career out here on the road. It's not practical to get the laptop out after every shift. In the beginning, most days I just wanted a bite to eat and bed. But then, after a trip home, I decided to bring along my old Surface tablet. And it works. I'm able to access my files thanks to One Drive and can do everything on it that I can do on the laptop. I still have the laptop along for days like today, when we're just sitting and relaxing.

With my tablet, I was able to finish my edits and formatting on my rebooted Farmer's Daughter. I did have a few minutes of panic today when I switched from the tablet to the laptop...because the One Drive file wasn't showing ANY of the changes I'd made. I was almost in tears. Even Mr. Janney was concerned. "Did you save it before you switched?" Yes, oh yes I did! But at his advice I returned to the tablet to search for it there...took me some time because for some reason that file wasn't showing the changes either. And then I had a message saying that there were changes that needed to be uploaded to One Drive and did I want to do that? I hit that Yes button quick!

Not sure why it did that, but my changes were saved after all. I think maybe I lost service in the few minutes it was saving the first time. Sooooo, relieved!

does not represent actual books.

I probably could have uploaded the file right from the tablet, but I had to get the laptop out anyway so I could do the paperback cover file properly (it wasn't downloading on the phone). I decided that if this novel was worth 'rebooting' with a few plot changes and new formatting, then it deserved a professional cover. Nothing wrong with the daisy one I made. I just came across a cool cover made by brosedesignz that I felt represented the storyline and characters better. I think she'll be getting more of my money because I'm going to want the series to mesh cover-wise and she's great at what she does!

And, I did hit publish. I'll share the links when Amazon makes them available and I'll try to write here more often too. Hard on the phone, but I'll try on the table, something I haven't done yet.

So, where to now? Job-wise, I have no idea. Writing, I'll hop back to writing book three (Bigger than the Beetles) and editing two (The Ring of Fire).

For those who have read the first version of book one, if you have the Ebook and have your Kindle set up for automatic updates, the book should automatically do so. I'll let you know when it should do so and if it doesn't update for you, we'll see what we can do. If you have the paperback and would like a new copy free of charge, contact me and I'll make sure you get a new one. If you want an autographed one, it'll take a little longer but we'll make it happen.

If you decide not to read the reboot, there will be a section in the third novel detailing the changes I've made in the first two books. My goals are to have both two and three released before the end of the year, lofty goals to be sure but I have to have something to aim for! Realistically, it'll probably just be Ring's reboot released in a couple months - I still have editing and formatting to do there (I learned how to do Drop Cases at the beginning of my chapters and it looks a bit more professional now). Beetles, if I'm lucky, a spring release. But I'm still going to hope for end of the year.

Well, I'm done here. Going to drop another picture from my travels and get back to writing and editing.

I see these yellow flowers everywhere out here in the western US
I'm not sure what they are, but they are one of the little things
That make this job worth it