ONE FROM THE ROAD: A little body language

When I was a little boy, I use to push my plastic lawn mower behind my dad as he was on the riding  mower. I would have to get a new mower every year because I pushed the wheels off.

When I got a little older, I found out that you can make money by pushing a mower. I would mow all morning and then head to the swimming pool in the afternoon.

Not much has changed except I don't go swimming. I enjoy getting behind the handle of the push mower even on these hot days. I think it brings the "kid" out of me.

I am having a problem with my mower. It's falling apart! There is wire wrapped around it with a rubber bungee on top of that. My mower was running great until the throttle cable broke. Now I have a real problem.

Trying to figure out what I could wedge behind the throttle linkage, I came across a box of sockets. For those of you that don't know much about socket sets, they are a lot like Christmas stockings. A lot of filler for a few good toys.

When you buy a 40 piece socket set, you will only use four to five sockets at the most. Then you lose those sockets and have to buy another set. I picked up one of my many 17/32 socket and fixed my mower.

I went and mowed a yard and after I was done, I popped the socket out and placed it on the deck of the mower. I loaded it up and took it home. I unloaded it and reached down to get the socket and it wasn't there. Now I am confused.

For the women reading this, I think you can relate to my situation. You put a pair of socks in the laundry and when it is done, you have one. We all know that dryers likes to eat socks. I didn't know mowers liked sockets.

As I stood in the street behind my pickup, looking at it, the street and the mower, an angelic voice came from the sky behind me. "Are you alright" ? I turned around and there was my neighbor Marlena.

I don't  know what I was doing to make her concerned about my well being, but it must have been obvious. I told her that physically I was fine but I couldn't find my socket. How can a a socket that has no purpose in life and as soon as it has one, it disappeared?

I got on my hands and knees to look the mower over. There to my surprise was the socket, under the hinge of the handle.

I read an article that reported that only four percent of truck inspections are random. Most of the inspections are done because the driver has done something while driving to merit a check or they look guilty.

I once pulled in a weigh station and was told to bring my log book in and then go park my truck. When I returned to the scale house, I asked them what look did I have on my face. Then I started making different faces and told them to stop me when I got to the one that they pulled in me for.

The officers started to laugh and said that there was a lot of truth to that. Our body language can give off signals that things may not be right.

If you happen to see me and my body language is sending out that I am losing it and my be nuts, lets hope it is temporary. I may just be looking for my socket.

Ron Moore is a professional truck driver and contributing columnist. His e-mail is
ron_weasel@yahoo.com