Assumed Competence
By Les Voth. 304-505
My wife came home for lunch and found me tied to my corner chair with a five-point harness - just like the circle/dirt track guys use. They don't wanna leave their chair and neither do I!
"Look out the window!" She says.
"Why? I'm DOING something!" Says I.
She wins cuz warming a chair don't count, ya know? Hey! The window leaks in that corner! The chair gets cold without my assets firmly affixed. It's a compassion thing . . . It's for the chair . . .
So I dutifully cast my gaze across the sill, and lo! I beheld a stuck truck a block from my lair! Says I, "Must help, or find out why!"
On with the coveralls, coats, block heater and hand warmers. I walk without the dog, this time. This ain't his specialty. I'll do the sniffin' 'roun' here! Sure were a lotta tyres, though. Coulda used a little help with that . . .
Turned out the loaded semi truck had tried going around the block to turn himself around. The narrow streets in our town seem purpose-built to discourage that kind of thing.
The back axles of his trailer were hugging the bottom of the ditch by the culvert. And the left rear corner of his rear drive axle was in the air. A little like a dog just outta the house for his early afternoon bladder cleanser.
I asked the poor fellow if he had help coming. He did. Nothing for me to do but record his discomfortable position with my pocket camera/phone. So I did.
When the wrecker came I had a chat with him before he scrutinized the damage. I told him he was going to earn his dime today. He told me it was a piece of cake, he had done hundreds of these before.
I figgered I'd watch. I did.
He was right. It was a piece of cake for him. The wrecker skidded that feller's wagon back onto the road, skidded it backwards around the corner, skidded his tractor around the corner, too.
Then they left. Both of them. In opposite directions.
The entire time the wrecker driver was in town he never stopped moving. He hooked chains, winch-lines, pulleys and cables. He shoveled snow, checked ditch radius-s, tire conditions and sign proximities. The wrecker pilot eyed up situations, conditions and calculated the angles of tightening cables, chains and skidding axles.
"Cheerful" was the word of the day. Uncomplaining were his actions taken. Competent was the wrecker driver sent to rescue the errant truck driver from his miscue.
His competence wasn't prideful. It was knowledgeable. His assumption that he could handle his assigned task was borne of experience and it showed. His manner was calming, never criticizing.
Guys like that are heroes in the real world. I got to meet one today. Good thing I got the five-point harness unbuckled in time to see the show! Good thing my wife told me to get my assets down the block!
