Tracy Lynn's Viewpoints

Archive for July 23rd, 2010

In Loving Memory Of Bill Harris AKA @truebill5150

I wanted to write this yesterday but no matter how much I tried, I couldn’t do it. Let’s see if I can pull the words out of my heart today.

As most of you know I was released from the hospital Wednesday 7/21/10. I can’t begin to tell you how happy I was to get out of there. 5 weeks + 2 days is 5 weeks + 1 day too long. I came home and spent time with Mike, David and Kylee and completely wore myself out, so I took a nap. When I got up from my nap I learned some horrible news, and that news brings me here to write this post.

On Bills Twitter his nephew wrote that he was sorry to inform us that Bill was found dead in the cab of his truck. Bill died while on break, in the truck that he loved so much. My guess is that if Bill knew he had to go, that would have been the place he would have chosen, in The Blue Bomber.

I have a lot of Trucker Buddies on Twitter and I love each one of them. I need each one of them. They get me through the rough days, some of them, like Bill, got me through the rough nights.

Bill is was a wonderful man. He loved God, Family and Country. We had very different political opinions and that’s one of the reasons we became such good friends. When I first met Bill it was because I made a political statement on Twitter that he didn’t agree with so he called me on it. I loved that! Bill felt as strongly about his opinions as I do mine. That made for some pretty great sparring times. It got to the point that one of us would say something to the other for the sole purpose of starting a sparring match, Bill enjoyed it as much as I did. He was unique in that department.
Usually when you get into a political argument with someone it gets heated, feelings get hurt and it ends badly. That never happened with Bill, not ever. We respected each other to the max. There aren’t many men willing to go toe to toe with me and my big mouth but Bill was always up for it and I will publicly admit here and now…Bill was the best word sparring partner I’ve ever had!

I’ve been through a lot and I have trouble sleeping so on those nights Bill would either call me or we would spend the night texting. He always knew what to say to pull me out of the ditch. One thing we never disagreed about was Religion. Bill has had a BIG Booming voice with a laugh to match. I could have listened to Bill pray all night long! I always told him that he missed his calling, he should have been a preacher. He felt that in some ways he already was because he was a witness for God every where that he drove, and he drove a lot. Due to my illness we had many, many late night discussions about death. I know that Bill was not afraid to die. I also know that The Pearly Gates opened wide to welcome Bill in.

Bill was much, much too young to die. Without knowing the details I will still give my opinion about why I think this happened. ( Bill would expect no less LOL ).

American Truckers are treated no better than cattle. FMSCA, DOT, OSHA, in my humble opinion are directly responsible when truckers die. Why you ask. Well, they live in the cab of a truck, thanks to the above mentioned agencies they are forced to eat crappy food everyday. There is no time for them to sit down and enjoy a healthy meal. A Trucker has to grab whatever is available and convenient to eat. That, for the most part is junk food and caffeine. Truckers are forced to keep to a very tight schedule. All the fat cats at the top of the chain are living comfortable lives, eating what they please, when they please and bringing in a hefty paycheck too. By the time you get down the chain to the Trucker all that’s left is scrap.
The Trucker is the one that has to make the deadline, buy the fuel, pay the tolls, buy the permits, pay the road tax, keep the truck running, pay for repairs when it’s not, and keep the above mentioned agencies happy which they make almost impossible to do. Truckers have to do all of this at once, like juggling balls. And, by the time the Trucker pays for all of those expenses there’s not much money left. Then the Trucker has to find a safe place to park the rig in order to get some sleep. It’s not as easy as it sounds. The majority of truck stops have disappeared, so when the log book is out of hours and the Trucker is BY LAW required to park, there is no place to park. That’s why Jason’s Law is so important. It will not fix all of the problems Truckers face but at least it would help them find a safe place to sleep.

Truckers get a raw deal all the way around. Not only is it a very hard way of life with very little money, they are also treated like crap by the general public. The soccer mom that doesn’t think twice about pulling out in front of a truck because to her a Trucker is just another annoyance that she has to put up with in the course of her perfect little life. The big chains that have pushed out the truck stops and would rather cater to Mr. & Mrs. Jones and their 5 rugrats. People (I use this term loosely) in office that have no regard for Truckers and vote in more idiotic laws that make the Truckers lives even harder.

There was a time in this country when Truckers were respected. That has gone the way of the truck stops. Truckers are thought of as dirty, foul mouthed annoyances now. Do you know, do you care, that Truckers not only move America and deliver all of your comforts to you, they also pay VERY high road tax. Did you know this? Yes, they do. They pay extremely high prices for the fuel they use BUT on top of that they also have to pay road tax quarterly! Read that again…Road tax…THEY pay for the privilege of using the roads for EVERY mile they drive! Do you? No. You put gas in your little red mustang and go on your merry way. So the next time you think about cutting a Trucker off think of this, That Trucker is PAYING to use the road…You are driving on it for free. I have been out there on the road and I can say this without hesitation…Truckers are some of the nicest people I’ve ever met! Does that mean they want you to come up to them and start a conversation? NO. Truckers tend to be loners, it’s mostly for self preservation. That doesn’t make them bad people. They are doing a tough job with a lot of weight on their shoulders and they just want to do it safely. If Truckers weren’t out there driving, not only would you not have the things you need and want, but all of that money that the Truckers pay for using the roads would dry up.
All you have to do to make a Trucker happy is…share the road. Don’t cut them off. Wave once in awhile, with all 5 fingers. Give them a break in traffic, let them in. You probably only have a few more miles to drive, that Trucker probably has a few hundred more miles to drive.

I seem to have gone off on another tangent, I can almost hear Bill’s big booming laugh now. I will miss that laugh, his words, his advise. I already miss picking up the phone and hearing him yell…”How’s my true grit doing?”
The answer today would be, “Not so good Billy, I miss you.”
I’ll also miss hearing him yell, “Tracy Lynn just knock it off right now, I mean it!”. Thanks Billy, you helped me with my edit button.
This will be the first post in a long time that I wont receive a call about tonight. Oh how Bill liked to critique my writing. He was going to be my proof reader for my book. Now what? I have no clue.

Goodbye my friend. You left your mark behind. You will not be forgotten. Thank you.

I will end this post in Billy’s favorite fashion….

gtg……………..bbl…………………2b continued…………………………………