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Well, I picked up a nasty virus the other day and have been in bed with one of the worst colds I can remember. I passed off on two different timber-runs and that's just the way it had to be - I sure could have used the money, but it's been takin' a lot out of me just to get up and go to the bathroom...Hell, I couldn't imagine drivin' all day. Lorraine's been keepin' a close watch on me: pokin' her head in our bedroom to look-in on me every so often, and supplyin' me with everything from chicken-soup to that green cold-medicine stuff, which always seems to send me off to dreamland. It also turned out that my computer picked up a nasty virus the other day too. Lorraine got Sean, the hacker-kid from down the street, to come and look at it and he had my computer diagnosed and fixed within 30 minutes. That just blows my mind 'cause I can sit there and yell at the damn-thing for 30 minutes easy. Sean told me that, "while viruses, internet worms and some hackers can be stopped by anti-virus software and firewalls and all, this latest virus-spyware that messed-up your computer Tom, arrived through Microsoft's Internet Explorer." Because it never started popping-up ads and installing unwanted programs and all, I didn't even know it was there. Sean finished his diagnosis with, "It's all Microsoft's fault, Tom". I didn't buy it. That got me thinkin' and I had to explain it to him this way: "My truck was built to haul timber along the road. Now if someone gets drunk and uses their truck to drive up onto the sidewalk and plow into a crowd of people, who is to blame: the maker of the truck, or the driver?" Sean didn't like that and I went on tellin' him that the way to deal with the driver who just killed 20 people isn't to ban trucks, but to jail him for misusin' the truck. So the way I figure it: the correct way to deal with computer viruses, worms and spyware isn't to reduce computers back to being TV sets, but to jail the hackers who misuse what computers are able to do. Sean REALLY didn't agree, said a quick good-bye to me on his way to the kitchen, picked up a twenty from Lorraine and headed back home. Lorraine popped her head in our computer/sewing room: "Now why were you calling Sean and other hackers criminals Tom?" she wondered. "Because a lot of hackers are not about making computers better for us all, they are only out to line their own pockets and use our computers to do it. A real computer-security expert can do what they do using their own computer. Only a criminal needs to wander out over the Internet and into other people's machines." Lorraine reminded me how onery I can be when I'm sick and I heard her grumbling to herself as she went back into the kitchen. I got to thinkin' again: I've been hearin' from the people I run into in St Helens, and readin' on sthelensupdate about missin' funds, unfinished parks, a missin' mayor, all kinds of stuff. I wonder if it's time to call these people on their virus-like behavior and the stuff they seem to be doing. I dunno... Well, I gotta go, Lorraine's tellin' me that, "that's about enough out of me and time to get back in bed." Hope things are goin' good this week in that nice town y'all got, be sure an keep a sharp eye out on things; kinda like Lorraine keeps on me...ya hear?
Tom
Coupla things that're for certain my friends: death & taxes, the change of seasons, and that goddamn loadin'-foreman in Longview bein' a constant pain-in my-ass: always testin' my patience, my temper and my belief of all those things I try to remember from church on Sundays. After loadin' up on Thursday afternoon, I offered up a friendly suggestion about one of the paper-filin' procedures, and as the loadin'-foreman shoved my road-log back into my face, he started glarin' at me, yellin' and goin' on and on about "this is the way things are around here Tommy-boy", and "we've done things this way for years now and we're not about to change it just for some stupid driver who don't know nothing", and "If ya don't like it, ya can drive your truck all the way to Timbuktu where some front-office boys might actually listen' to ya." So I was pretty-near a whistlin' & boilin' tea-kettle on the drive over the river and into town. The whole way I was perfectin' my response to him in my mind - the one I never said at the time because I was so damn mad. As I rolled into St Helens I decided to take a minute and stop in at the Red Apple Market to grab a Dr. Pepper and some jerky to help cool me down before headin' into Portland. As I got out of the cab, some young fella, maybe 14 or 15, who was hangin' in front of the store started tellin' me how cool my rig was. As I began pointin' out some of the finer-points of my truck to him, he suddenly interrupted me and leaned in quickly towards me while shovin' a ten-dollar bill into my hand. "Can ya pick me up a half-case of PBR dude?" he said out of the side of his mouth, while lookin' around to see if anyone was onto him yet. I wasn't havin' any of it. I looked at him and asked what a young fella was doing wantin' to drink a half-case of beer after school. "Ain't nothin' else to do dude," he said angrily while shoving the ten back into his pocket. "I mean...look around dude, what do you do around here? They shut down the BMX bike-track I used to hang at." This got me a bit curious and fired-up again and after I asked him why this track-place wasn't around any longer, he began to tell me that the people who started the BMX track owed some money to a contractor for hauling some of the dirt that was supposed to have been donated, and not wanting to turn it down, the track-fellas told the contractor that they would pay him as soon as they could. I started gettin' that feelin' in my gut again as the kid finished his story. "And they were payin' him for it too, but the contractor-dude was friends with the Mayor and some City Hall assholes who paid him off and then the city went and kicked the BMX people off the track for good." The young fella was clearly pissed. I asked him if there were any parks around, or a library or somethin' to go to. "Are you kiddin' me?" he said lookin' at me like I was out of my mind. "The parks? What parks are you talkin' about? And anyways, when me & my buds go to any of the parks that are around, we always end-up gettin' chased outta there anyway...and dude, check out our joke-of-a library sometime...it's right there down that street, and THEN you come ask me about goin' to the library. That place sucks." And quick as that, the young fella turned and walked away, lookin' for some other kind-benefactor to buy him his beer in trade for keepin' the change. I got to wonderin' as I headed out of town what y'all can do to change some of these things and help out some of these kids around here before they can just become another casualty of the streets. Y'all be sure and take of things in this nice town ya got, ya here?
Tom
It’s early: 4:30am on a still Sunday morning, and I’m about to leave the motel here in Longview to make a run up north. My wife Lorraine is sound asleep with the left side of her mouth slightly curled up into a makeshift smile. You see, I got home yesterday around 3 in the afternoon and after checkin’ in with the front-office boys, I figured I’d grab a 5pm dinner and hit the sack early. But Lorraine had other ideas. Opera. She had stumbled across a couple of free tickets to a concert in Longview, (of all places) and I quickly learned first-hand that Lorraine won’t say no to a spur-of-the-moment opportunity to hear a “Requiem” by Mozart. Me, I can take or leave that kind of music, though I do like some of those slow, sad opera songs that just seem to hang in the air forever. Since I’d finished up a long day of drivin', Lorraine was as happy as a kid in a candy story to suit me up and take the wheel for our 75 mile drive into Longview. I took a nap on the way and awoke in front of The Longview Community Church. Lorraine straightened my tie and in we went to see the Columbia Chorale of Oregon and the Southwest Washington Chamber Orchestra perform the "Requiem". I usually get a little nervous and quiet around these kinds of crowds but I was charged-up as we took our seats. I noticed in the program notes that the proceeds benefited the Women's Resource Center of Columbia County in St Helens and the Ethnic Support Council in Longview. Another reason I was happy to be sittin' in my seat. Even though we had free tickets, I made a point to kickin' the organizations a couple twenties during the intermission. The music was great. I tell you, those voices soared. Higher and farther than I usually drive in a year. I have no idea what that choir was singin' about. They had the words translated in the program, but the truth is - I didn't want to know. Some things are best left unsaid. I like to think they were singin' about something so beautiful and sad that it can't be expressed in words, and makes your heart ache just because of it. I'll see y'all next week.
Tom
On Saturday I headed out listenin' to the news on my satellite radio and I heard Vice-President Cheney makin' a speech to voters in Ohio. I started payin' close attention because ya see, I haven't quite made up my mind who I'm votin' for in November. Lorraine already has, and she sure can get a little peeved with me sometimes because it always seems to take me a while longer to figure out all the ins-and-outs of what both sides are sayin' - This here guy is a liar, and that guy is this, and so on. Anyway, ol' Cheney was talkin' about all these new connections he's put-together between that bastard Saddam Hussein and those crazy al Qaeda fellas, and he was goin' on and on about how sendin' our Boys over to Iraq was a good thing because Saddam had always been a friend of those terrorists and how Saddam had always personally helped out those al Qaeda fellas. So I was feelin' a bit confused, 'cause I remembered the boys in the White House sayin' a year or so back that there was no connection between Saddam 'n Al Qaeda and that we were sendin' our boys over there to find those WMD's of Saddam. Now with my neighbor's boy Steve bein' one of the 1000 soldiers killed over there, I really didn't take too kindly to some politician tryin' to get reelected by changin' his story about why we sent Steve and the other 999+ boys over there to die. Cheney is sayin' that them al qaedas were gettin' help in Iraq since day-1 and Saddam must have been officially involved the whole time? Ya know friends, I ran into some trouble with my rig once outside of Dallas/Ft.Worth and I had to get some help from the folks at Triple-A in Texas to get me back-up and going again...and that doesn't mean ol' George W. Bush was helpin' me out. And to try to tell me otherwise is just lyin'. No sir, I don't like what ol' Dick Cheney is tryin' to do here, and I made up my mind right then & there who I'll be votin' for. I sure liked Steve, he was a helluva good kid.
-Tom
A late Friday night run which I took at the last minute soon found me changin’ a flat rear-tire just outside of Goble, a stones-throw away from that creepy damn Trojan Plant. With it bein’ night and all, I don’t mind tellin’ y’all that I was a bit jumpy to say the least, and damn if I wasn’t payin’ attention to what I was doing when the crowbar slipped and I tore open my wrist and forearm but good on some sharp metal underneath the rig. After wrappin’ an old oily-rag as a turnicate on my arm, I finished up and lead-footed it on into St. Helens to find an Emergency Room for some stitches. Problem was - there wasn’t any ER to be found anywhere in town! I pulled in at the 76 Station and asked the night-shift fella where I should go and he told me in a monotone-drawl, “Portland I guess…or, uhmmm…maybe St. Johns Hospital in Longview, I don’-know.” I couldn’t believe what I was hearin’ and I must have started carryin’ on like a lunatic cause he started lookin’ at me like I was somekind of an idiot. “Why the hell isn’t there an emergency hospital in town?” The 76-fella spit on the blacktop and said, “Used-ta-be-one…not any more though, damn! That is a nasty cut ya got there mister.” “What-the-hell happened to the hospital?” I asked. “Well, some people say the Ad-minister took off with all-a-the money, but then some other people say that it was just crappy bean-countin’ and crooked accountin’; I personally think it musta been somethin’ to do with their computers or something like that. Hell, that’s always happenin’ around here.” As I jumped into the rig and scooted on into Portland to get fixed up, I thought to myself that this must have been the first time I’d ever heard of a hospital losin’ money. Somethin’ ain’t quite right here friends, and I’ll try an’ find out some more about this when I come through town. Y’all sure better be careful and not get hurt too badly after the sun goes down in this nice little town. Be sure and take care of things, ya hear?
Tom
