Life on the Road – Trucking News Blog

I’ve worried for a long time about people of today losing their ability for rational thought. I’ve also worried about the same length of time about all jobs being outsourced to Asia. An article in today’s paper, however, gave me hope: it was about a Chinese college student being bitten by a panda when he climbed into its enclosure “because he wanted a hug”. That got me to wondering . . .is it something about a rising standard of living that makes these people too stupid to live? If this is the case, then we might eventually get our jobs back when China becomes a dumb as we seem to have gotten.

About The Tools

There’s another cultural phenomena I’m wondering about, too. . .I guess you could call it “tool rage”. One day last week, I came across two small AP news bits about road rage-with a twist:

From Washington State:
“A 32-year-old Port Orchard man is accused a throwing a large wrench at another vehicle Friday while driving on State Highway 16. Witnesses also traveling westbound on the highway said the man had been passing vehicles and traveling at a high rate of speed when he threw the wrench “for no apparent reason,” the statement said. . .The wrench shattered the driver’s side window, sending glass debris flying through the Port Angeles man’s vehicle before striking him in the left shoulder. . .”.

And the same day, from Nebraska:
“A Lincoln man who threw an ax at another motorist, leaving him wounded, has been sentenced to 37 days in jail. . . According to authorities, two vehicles were traveling near a Lincoln intersection when one cut in front of the other, prompting both vehicles to stop.. . . .threw a 3-foot ax through the other driver’s passenger window, striking him in the ribs with the blunt end”.

I’ve become somewhat inured to road rage-never understood it and just chocked it up to emotional immaturity. However, the tools are a new-and disturbing twist. As someone who has replaced endless socket sets because the 9/16ths always ended up missing-and has gone to the cheap sets because the more expensive sets seem just as unable to put themselves back in the toolbox, I am now beginning to wonder if instead of husband and son carelessness, it isn’t something else. Perhaps, like guns, tools have taken upon themselves to incite violence and mayhem.

Instead of burying themselves deep into fallen leaves and under driveway gravel, these tools are surreptitiously escaping, only to find their way into the vehicles of unsuspecting victims of their murderous rage. Will we soon see another non-profit advocacy group advocating for control of tools? People Against Tools, perhaps? Will P.A.T. attempt to outlaw the use of tools in the hands of anyone other than a licensed mechanic? Will a tow truck jockey need some kind of a concealed carry permit for that lug wrench? Should I put out an APB on that 3-lb maul that liberated itself from my sidebox?

I can’t imagine anyone throwing a perfectly good tool at anyone, no matter how ticked they were. For one thing, good tools are too expensive. For another, if the tool was just the first weapon handy-well, it must mean you needed it or it wouldn’t have been handy-and you just threw it away! That seems just, well, stupid!

The brightest entity in this whole story appears to have been the panda that protected himself against a home invasion using the time-honored techniques of panda self-defense. And, he didn’t even need a wrench!

Chuck Norris would be proud!