The Veteran’s View: By Dennis Mitchell Spring is certainly in the air. Hay fever is in full bloom, grass is growing faster than the weeds in my garden, and I’m up to my elbows in truck repairs. So much for a positive outlook, right? Let’s be honest, things are not all that bad – in fact, I’m feeling the warmth of prosperity and sunshine every day. It seems we have survived another eventful winter and, so far, we’re still here, just sucking up diesel and laying down miles. For the majority of our readers, that’s the essence of life – one more load and another check in the bank. If I could condense it down to its simplest form, it might sound like this... “Show me the MONEY!” I’m having a hard time realizing we are already four months into this “new” year. Time flies when you’re having fun, or so goes the old adage. I can’t verify the fun part but the same may also hold true if you’re staying busy. The last couple months I have alluded to the opportunity to prosper in today’s rough economy. My hope was that our readers would take the time to expand their potential for pertinent information. Read baby, read! I make a conscious effort to read as much new and informative material as I can find. For me that means reading constructive literature, listening to some structured news, and I try to spend an hour a day consuming information from all types of media. That can mean I have to listen to stations or outlets that I may not agree with. Yes, I ask myself from time to time, “Why do I do it?” I don’t just listen to the major telecommunications companies like the more popular three letter agencies. I search out the new upstarts, as well – my favorite has recently become NewsMax on cable TV. In this industry “life is business” and everything is relative to how we live our lives. Those of our readers who follow the Veteran’s View will understand I’m a positive attitude kind of person. Most of us don’t just drive a truck to make the all-important paycheck, we love the lifestyle, and we “live” to do what we do... go truckin! That means we are coming in contact with every kind of person out there. The nature of our business will necessitate the opportunity to interact, converse, and listen to ideas, technology, and culture’s different from our own. In the course of my recent reading I stumbled across a catch phrase “the 3-Cs” which got me to thinking about how they could be transcribed to relate to our world, the realm of transportation. The three Cs stand for chance, choice, and change. To put this into perspective, I was thinking of a conversation and interaction I had a couple weeks ago while enjoying lunch in town. An old high school classmate stopped to say hello and reminisce about the old days. During the course of catching up we noticed how similar our lives were and how often our paths could have crossed, but fate chose to intervene, leading each of us down different routes. The same thing happened a few months ago when a friend stopped to check upon my wife and me. It was a chance meeting, since he noticed that I had stopped greeting him on his daily gas route. Concerned about us, he stopped by the old homestead to be sure we were okay. During our conversation, I mentioned how slow my work was and how I would be open to something new. He responded with, “Hey, I know a guy who...” (chance). How often do we hear about an opportunity but disregard it as unreliable or not feasible at the time? Opportunity may not walk up the front steps and ring the doorbell. Most of the time it is much 48 10-4 Magazine / May 2025 CHANCE CHOICE CHANGE
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