Monday, August 09, 2004

A Weekend of Service

Well, this weekend sure was interesting. If you haved already listened to the "Rockland Lobster Festival" Post, you know that I just finished a weekend on my feet, sleeping on a shelf in the back of a U-haul style truck. I worked a grand total of twenty-one and a half hours, making 215 dollars in two days, plus about 30 bucks in tips.

All in all, it was a good experience, and I think I might do it again. I am really sore, but my muscles feel bigger, because I did a lot of lifting, and I over all feel a bit stronger for it.

You'd be suprised at how quickly you do not want to eat something when you are working with it. I was not interested in italian sausage one bit after a mere three hours. I only ate one sausage the whole time.

Anyway, on the way home from Rockland, it rained pretty hard for a while, and it was dark and hard to see the lines on the road, so I slowed down a whole lot.

About a mile south of the Augusta Toll Booth, I say a vehicle on the side of the road with hazard lights on. So I pulled over and got out, noticing that it was a mini-van with a trailer carrying two four-wheelers in front of the van. The trailer was just sitting there, with no vehicle attached.

"Are you alright?' I asked, approaching the window. I noticed that a woman was driving, and there were 16-17 year old boys in the back seat. The husband, I presumed, was in the passenger seat, and he said that everything was fine, the truck that was towing the four-wheelers had lost it's transmission. They had called there uncle with a cell phone and he was driving up from Buxton (about 1hr and 40 minutes away) with his truck to get them, and obviously they couldn't abandon the fourwheelers.

"If I had a ball on my truck I'd be happy to tow it for you." I offered. It just so happened that they had taken the ball off of the truck to put on their uncle's truck when he arrived, so they hooked it all up, their dad got in the truck with me, and we headed to the Auburn exit (two miles after my exit, but I didn't care, they needed help).

A lot of you are probably thinking; "he's just an 18 year old boy, all by himself, what the heck was he thinking!"

Here's my answer: The right thing. Over the past decades, we've be so indoctrinated with fear--fear of one another. It makes me sad, and it makes me sick. When ever I hear some one talking about fear, I wonder how they can get up and face the day. Life is about taking risks. When you get in you car in the morning, you are putting your life on the line. We as a nation need to start helping one another again. That's the golden rule, after all.

Well, I've been pretty good other than that, but my sister Katie and my mom will be in Maine on Tuesday, so I'm excited about that.

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