Life on the Road – Trucking News Blog

Ok so I gave in. I said I wouldn’t do it. Twitter that is. But after reading the incredible post by the "Smeltz" (aka) Terry Smelser, I just had to try it. And boy oh boy what an experience. Only after a few hours I was following 5000 people and at last count 1 person was following me. That "other" person was actually me at my other e-mail address. I "twerped" or "twitted" that I was fueling. I was so excited. A follower. I read that I was fueling. I responded back to myself that I don’t care. And that ended what could have been a beautiful Tweety relationship. Oh well.

I like listening to Rascal Flatts. I don’t have Sirius (satellite radio) anymore, so I was in quite a pickle. But then I had Twitter. And after the pressing of a few buttons found out that in about 5 minutes there would be a Flatts #1 song on a local radio station close to where I was. 150 other truck drivers were about to go through that same place and so began a flutter of twits about Rascal Flatts, local radio, country music. I was — enthralled.

By the way, did you know Twitter (ing) is great for people with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Why? Well someone with OCD is always worrying about something bad happening and trying to do something to stop it somehow. But with all the thousands of Twits coming in on your phone from millions of other people around world watching and worrying about EVERYTHING from dollars to donuts for you, OCD symptoms go away. With the twits coming in your face 24/7 you just don’t have the time to think about anything else. I suffer from OCD and it sure worked for me.

I got short brief (badly spelled) tweets from people experiencing White Castle hamburgers for the first time; lots of folks really bummed out about Jon and Kate divorcing – who are they anyway? I got twits from some guy claiming he was the Governor of South Carolina whining about some affair – yeah right, like the Governor of South Carolina would just up and disappear and have an affair with some gal from Argentina. That must be what the "Smeltz" was warning us about- weirdo’s. I also got job offers from Swift and JB Hunt. Hey thanks, but no thanks.

But the really cool part was the 3 tweets – remember the "Smeltz" said he was tweeted about that jet that had to land in the Hudson River in NYC just as it was happening? -well, I knew, moments before they took their last breaths, that Farah Fawcett, Ed McMann and "Peter Pan" pop king, Michael Jackson were about to die. Twitter is that good. And I felt so superior to everyone else in the truck stop that I had this information. Wow. Awesome.

Seems St. Peter up at the "Pearly Gates" had decided to try Twitter too. And that’s just way too much for me to handle. I’m going back to reading the newspaper. And the first thing I’m going to worry about are all those fools driving and twittering at the same time.

Photo credits: houseabcs.blogspot.com/2008/06/ed-mcmann-abou.., http://www.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/01379/fawcett_1379311c.jpg, http://www.hiphoprx.com/content/uploads/2008/11/michael-jackson.jpg