Feels Bar is Open. How is Life? Are You Ready for WBS?
(media.scored.co)
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Looking at all his behavior towards me in hindsight, I think he was banking on me being an eventual "redemption arc" that he'd be able to take the credit for later. I show up in apparent poverty living in a rig, he likes my attitude and gives me a shot, I "turn my life around" and become another good old boy company lifer with a wife and mortgage. But once it became clear to him that I'm not looking for rescue, and the vanlife thing had no end in sight, he felt like he was left holding the bag, even though I never promised him that arc.
He started trying to paper a trail against me to deny my unemployment later, and was doing it in a very transparent manner. Since I don't really make any major mistakes, he kept sending me texts about all this little shit I was doing "wrong," which I'd been doing without receiving complaints for months on end, and that no one else was getting disciplined for. I've been fired before, and knew that within a few weeks to a couple months I was going to wind up in his office with all this stuff on his desk as "evidence" that I was was underperforming, and being terminated as a result.
Then in the midst of all this I had to file a worker's comp claim for an injury I'd been trying to push through, and that just made him go mask off immediately. Accused me of bullshitting, tried to intimidate me by brandishing a firearm, banned me from parking overnight or using the facilities anymore in direct retaliation for filing the claim. Chose to send me home instead of offering medically compliant work even though there was some available.
He kinda did me a favor though. I honestly missed being "out in the wild," which was my native environment for two years before this. Once this whole process blows over, I'm probably gonna migrate north to a larger city. More money to be made, and I've now learned that small towns are boring as shit if you aren't already installed in the social ecosystem there (and especially if you work a night shift.) I've had nothing to do every weekend for the last 8 months but go to the gas station for drip coffee lol.
I tried long haul and hated it. I like local way better, and it's unironically for the same reasons housed people want it: Familiarity, routine, ability to have a life outside of work if desired. Hauling chips on a 10 hour route and sleeping in a minivan genuinely gave me a better standard of living than the positively subhuman conditions you're subjected to living on the road.
Every truck stop is like being packed in a sardine tin full of indians and niggers. You're probably working 15-20 hours a day and only getting paid for the 10 that your wheels are physically rolling. You go to bed at a different time every day; your circadian rhythm will be totally fucked. Your body will ironically wear out faster than something that involves more labor. Parking is a nightmare. The pay is roughly the same, oftentimes worse.
And as my recent experience showed me, it's much better to not be dependent on your employer for housing. I could disappear to the coast and survive on my savings for over a year without lifting a finger if I wanted to, and that's the way I like it.