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Splash was up early and went outside in the pre-dawn. The local temperature sensor claimed it was 22 degrees, fully ten below freezing under clear skies. Whatever that drone thing is that appears in the evening sky still blinked prominently to the east as the real stars faded in the growing light. He closed the door to the Bunk Room with a modestly assertive \u201cthunk,\u201d and put his tablet device down on the counter as part of the coffee ritual.<\/p>\n
Loma was having none of it. He called softly from his bunk: \u201cNews. Just give us the headlines before I touch the floor.\u201d<\/p>\n
Splash laughed, already upright and mobile. \u201cThe inflation rate was announced by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. I guess they didn\u2019t get the same memo the jobs people got. Last week. BLS says inflation is 7.5%, or two tenths of a percentage higher than yesterday. Highest in 40 years.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWell that is nonsense,\u201d came the voice muffled by a smudged white eiderdown. \u201cI was almost thirty then and don\u2019t remember a thing about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t remember much about last week. Plus, we now have a former economist in the Section and we could ask for a professional view on the situation.\u201d<\/p>\n
There was a muffled expletive from the cot jammed in next to Rocket to accommodate the new arrival. \u201cDoesn\u2019t seem like Buck is on top of his game this morning.\u201d That was the comment from Melissa, who had emerged from the gender-affirmational-but-not-specific wing of the sleeping quarters. \u201cI had a one-year-old then and was pregnant again. I took a calculator on the big weekly trip out to the Giant to see how I could stretch sixty bucks to feed the family for a week. I don\u2019t recall much else about that. Who was the President?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cReagan, I think. But at the beginning. We were all just starting out and we all lived through it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou mention \u201cpresidents. That would be a hot topic around here, since our Congresswoman claims the current POTUS is coming right here to Culpeper County today to explain about why prescription drugs are so expensive.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah. We have had a bunch of Presidents visit here because we are the nearest rural area to the Capitol. Washington surveyed downtown. Teddy Roosevelt liked it down here. And LBJ is supposed to have had a mistress in that little village just west of town. Apparently they broke up under the stress of having an illicit relationship while in the White House.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would seem that some things never change. They probably didn\u2019t say when or where the President was going then. Exactly the same on this visit. They had the announcement but didn\u2019t say when or where in the County it would be. Seems like they don\u2019t want a crowd.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cKnock it off. That will get the lawyer stirred up. Let\u2019s just hope that the helicopter works all right, the teleprompter works, and they leave the rest of us alone.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t remember many Presidential visits to Detroit when I was growing up,\u201d said Loma. \u201cWe had a nice view of the water from down-river. Did you hear there is trouble at the Ambassador Bridge?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is a good bridge. Supposed to be one of the most traveled international crossing points in the world. Are they having trucker troubles?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah. Apparently all the Fascist and Confederate Canadians are attempting to overthrow the government by sitting in their big rigs listening to cassette-era tunes on their radios.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt isn\u2019t just the Ambassador Bridge. The big crossing at Coutts, Alberta out west is jammed up. And back in Michigan the bridge at Port Huron that crosses the northern part of the Detroit River is having trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Blue Water Bridge? That was a good ride, back in the day. Want a headache? They have one where it crosses from Michigan to Ontario\u2019s Point Edward and Sarnia.\u201d Buck\u2019s voice trailed off and the Writer\u2019s Section was confused since they were mostly blue water sailors in places that have no bridges and more salt.<\/p>\n
Sensing the discontinuity, Buck pushed back the knitted afghan in which he had been cloaked against the breaking morning. \u201cThe Blue Water Bridge spans the St. Clair River, and is located near the I-94 and I-69 interchange in Michigan. It is a critical gateway linking Canada and the United States. The auto industry in both countries depends on it for the delivery of parts to the assembly plants.\u201d The tempo of his words was increasing, reflecting parts of his scholarly brain awakening. \u201cMost people don’t realize that if truck drivers had “tanked” during the height of the Covid crisis there would have been shortages of food and other basic commodities needed for modern daily life. Even a 5% – 10% reduction in industry capacity would have created chaos.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rocket was awake now as well, and agitated. \u201cI had to make an extra stop at the Walmart to try to find chicken wings. The Giant store was out, and I have sworn to prepare wings for the Superbowl party on Sunday. Who ever heard of chicken shortages?\u201d<\/p>\n
Buck was almost back to full professorial diction. \u201cThe Ambassador and the Blue Water Bridges are critical not only to chicken transport but to automotive assembly operations in both countries. Even a mild slow down on those bridges swill significantly reduce daily car production.\u201d<\/p>\n
He paused to take a steaming cup of (Redacted) coffee. From Splash \u201cA shut down for more than a few hours would be devastating. Parts on the Canadian side shipping to Detroit\/Toledo area assembly plants often depart the suppliers in Canada only hours before the parts are needed for production in the US, and vice versa. Truckers could deliver a one-two punch to the automotive industry if they forced the closure at those bridges.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\n\u201cThe folks in Ottawa are freaking out. They are comparing the trucker strike to the 1\/6 Insurrection in Washington.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cStrange, isn\u2019t it? But it is interesting about the demographics of the truck driver population. They have a disproportionately high percent of people with co-morbidities that contribute to COVID fatalities. The average driver tends to be old, often overweight, often smokes, and eats road food. You would think that would be part of the discussion on comorbidities.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLogic has not had a lot of participation in all this. The truckers drove through the flurry of the worst part of the pandemic, out there with no protection or special accommodation. Single drivers isolated in their cabs with few problems.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey may be alone in the truck, but there is a ton of interaction with people at origin and at delivery. Also, fuel, meal, and other stops on the road cause more interaction than sensible people like us who just stayed on The Farm.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, regardless of what you thought about the Mandates and shut-downs, we are in a new place now that the pandemic seems to have passed. Whether you think vaccine mandates right or wrong, if the government forces the mandates onto truck drivers there will be things like the Ottawa convoy. Supply chain problems due to lack of food, medicine, and other basic commodities will get everyone energized now that the crisis is over. You mentioned the inflation numbers, but unrest is going to cause freight rates to double. And truck high-jackings will increase like they have with the trains. That is why the people who thought mandates were great are now saying we can get back to normal.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNormal? I don\u2019t remember exactly what that was. But the Government seems to like emergency rule. It is a lot easier.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cJust wait. I suspect they like it a little too much. Just wait until the next emergency.\u201d
\n\u201cOh yeah, wasn\u2019t there supposed to be a land war in Europe or something?\u201d asked Melissa with a mischievous smile.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou would be surprised by the number of emergencies we are going to be dealing with,\u201d said Buck, and then he laid back on his cot, pulled up the afghan to his chin and grinned.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2022 Vic Socotra
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Splash was up early and went outside in the pre-dawn. The local temperature sensor claimed it was 22 degrees, fully ten below freezing under clear skies. Whatever that drone thing is that appears in the evening sky still blinked prominently to the east as the real stars faded in the growing light. He closed the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-socotra"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23173"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23181,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23173\/revisions\/23181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}