Treasures beyond measure

Fate.

Sometimes I think She is mistaken for just being in tune to what is going on around you.

Sometimes not....sometimes it simply cannot be explained that easily.

I do it every day. I stop by the Land Air Freight Company and see what has come in for our delivery service. I then load it and take it back for breakdown for the different routes.

Scott runs Land Air in Austin and he himself is a part-time geek. Of course, I am in full conversion-mode with Scott and it is an ongoing process. My daily visits there probably would be 15 minutes shorter if I didn't think I could convince him to use Linux.

I noted someone else sitting in the other dispatch chair and recognized him as a fellow truck driver.

This is a bad time for our economy...probably one of my most profound understatements to date. It has hit the freight industry hard. Manufacturers are not manufacturing due to the lack of demand so less commodities made means less commodities shipped. Major shippers like Pegasus have laid off 60-100 people at a time. It's happening all over the shipping industry.

Simple math, devastating consequences. I'm holding my breath.

Scott had hired my road buddy more as a favor than anything else. He has a family and needed work. Who else better to dispatch truck drivers than a truck driver...he knows the nuance of the business.

The conversation between them was personal. He was mentioning to Scott that before being laid off, he had been shopping for a laptop for his little girl. She's only 11 so it wouldn't have been anything fancy, just something that she could use for school and to help her learn how to do graphic art. She wants to learn how to do it on the computer. He was pretty bummed that he wasn't going to be able to do it for her.

Fate.

Sometimes I think She is mistaken for just being in tune to what is going on around you.

I turned around and walked out the door and approached my truck backed against the loading dock. Unlocking it, I opened the door and took the OLPC from the front seat along with the charging cord. It was donated by Dr. Joyce Statz of Austin Texas during our hardware and funding drive.

It was a simple exchange. I told him what we do and that this computer was for his Daughter. He waited for a bit after I told him that....he was waiting for the catch.

Nothing in this world is free...especially to an out-of-work truck driver.

I assured him that there indeed was no catch and that the computer was for his Daughter. I took a few minutes to explain the computer, OLPC and Linux.

He was grateful beyond expression and I began to feel just a bit uncomfortable. Men do that when emotional stuff happens. We like our emotional expressions infrequent and mostly bottled up. If it isn't a high-five moment, we're pretty much lost and confused by emotional expression.

I left and began my day...it wasn't until I got home to check my email that I found something I think I will put away. I will only take it out and look at during those times when I think the world sucks and 90 percent of the people in it do as well.

She's never seen Linux or an OLPC until now. She's 11 years old and she wants to study graphic art on her computer.

This is why we do what we do.

All-Righty Then