posted by admin on Jun 16
As a trucker, Eddie can be away from home for weeks at a time. He has to find innovative ways to spend time with his children. He takes his children on his trucking route with him, especially in the summers
Oklahoma City,OK,USA -
NewsOK.com (subscription), by John David Sutter -June 15, 2008: --
Edward Sallee was conceived in the back of his father's truck 14 years ago — and since that day he's gotten most of his father-son time on the road... Edward's dad, Eddie Sallee, 42, is a trucker. Since Edward was 3 years old, their best shot to get to know each other has been en route from pick-up site to drop-off point... In an unexpected way, it's made the family closer, Eddie and Edward said, because they consider what time they do have precious... On a recent morning, father and son left mom at home in Francis at 5:45 a.m. to lug about 60,000 pounds of cattle feed to northeast Oklahoma. Then it was on to Kansas with another load... Edward is out of school for the summer, awaiting his freshman year at Byng High School. He comes on trips like these to get to know his dad... It's a process he said started late, because Eddie was gone for weeks at a time when his son was young. Now, he's an independent trucker, so he can be home some weekends... Laughing along the way father and son banter like crazy. They talk sports and food, make fun of relatives, and they know which truck stops have the best gas prices (and corn dogs)... They even have their own handshake — they both lean in and wiggle their fingers like they're playing a guitar solo... They kid each other relentlessly. Eddie, for instance, drives slower than younger Edward would like... It's a circuitous family route, sure, but they say it brings them all together in the end... (Photo by John Clanton/THE OKLAHOMAN - Eddie Sallee banters with his son Edward at a truck stop in Tulsa. Eddie brings his son along on some summer trucking trips)
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posted by admin on Jun 10
Handling garbage is a tough, often-hazardous, mostly under-appreciated and largely ignored job that underpins public health in modern society
Long Beach,CA,USA-
The Long Beach Press-Telegram, by Kristopher Hanson -8 June 2008: --
Rotting meat crawling with maggots. Jugs leaking toxic chemicals. A broken chair jagged with rusting nails. Giant rats. The occasional corpse... In a sizable, dense urban terrain like Long Beach, a few days of missed trash pickup can create serious public health dangers, never mind the stomach-turning stench... Residents here generate some 200,000 tons of trash each year, and it's the job of the city's Refuse Division to pick up, haul and dispose of this frequently toxic pile of discarded consumer waste... Rain or shine, six days a week - and occasionally seven - the city's 120 garbage collectors move through Long Beach's alleys, streets, driveways and parking lots collecting society's filth... At the end of the day, most sanitation workers say they only seek a decent living, healthy retirement and some respect, and consider themselves lucky to achieve even one of those goals... "The thing is, a lot of guys retire, and they don't last too long," said Arthur Stano, who at 29 years is the division's longest-serving sanitation man. "They end up with heart attacks or cancer. Anyway you look at it, refuse is always one of the most dangerous jobs."... (Photo by Stephen Carr/Staff Photographer - Long Beach refuse worker Jose Corona stands to the side of his trash truck as a precaution while the compactor crushes a load from his Belmont Heights route)
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posted by admin on Jun 10
"But despite the costs and the nights spent away from home, a career on the road still appeals... "Auckland,New Zealand -
The New Zealand Herald, by David Maida -June 09, 2008: --
The amount of money that a long-haul truck driver can gross in one month can seem pretty impressive but the expenses quickly cut into that, says Cory Duggan, an owner-driver... But drivers are now having to take it on the chin when it comes to rising costs... "Now, because fuel has gone up, you'd consider a third of that is fuel. A third of that is tax, and then you've got running costs on top of that. You've got road users' fee, payments on the truck and maintenance."... Duggan drove lorries around England on an OE and decided that he would become a truck driver when he came back to New Zealand... "It's a single man's life, but there's a lot of guys out there with partners and families, and their wives and girlfriends are very understanding," Duggan says... The trucks most people see out on the roads are only a small part of the industry. Goods and materials are travelling around the country throughout the night with drivers expected to work all hours...
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trucks
Long Beach,CA,USA-The Long Beach Press-Telegram, by Kristopher Hanson -8 June 2008: -- Rotting meat crawling with maggots. Jugs leaking toxic chemicals. A broken chair jagged with rusting nails. Giant rats. The occasional corpse... In a sizable, dense urban terrain like Long Beach, a few days of missed trash pickup can create serious public health dangers, never mind the stomach-turning stench... Residents here generate some 200,000 tons of trash each year, and it's the job of the city's Refuse Division to pick up, haul and dispose of this frequently toxic pile of discarded consumer waste... Rain or shine, six days a week - and occasionally seven - the city's 120 garbage collectors move through Long Beach's alleys, streets, driveways and parking lots collecting society's filth... At the end of the day, most sanitation workers say they only seek a decent living, healthy retirement and some respect, and consider themselves lucky to achieve even one of those goals... "The thing is, a lot of guys retire, and they don't last too long," said Arthur Stano, who at 29 years is the division's longest-serving sanitation man. "They end up with heart attacks or cancer. Anyway you look at it, refuse is always one of the most dangerous jobs."... (Photo by Stephen Carr/Staff Photographer - Long Beach refuse worker Jose Corona stands to the side of his trash truck as a precaution while the compactor crushes a load from his Belmont Heights route)