An Even Earlier Bird

Every morning at around half past five - make that 5.30 a.m. and depending on the time of the year that's before the crack of dawn - a truck, or more precisely a towing vehicle, in search of a semi-trailer - rumbles along our otherwise quiet suburban road, and hadn't I said I lived in a quiet suburb?

Quiet unless it's five thirty in the morning, or a dog barks at any given time of the day or night, or the occasional twerp drives past with his car stereo at full blast, or that dimwit with his constantly barking canine automaton on the loading platform of his ute. Which is why it's only a relatively quiet one, and these are the relativities.

(Microsoft ClipArt)

For the uninitiated, a ute is a utility truck. After all, ever since I've been lucky enough to have become a member of the category of the enlightened by living not too far away from a port city and an increasing number of building sites in the midrange vicinity - so much for quiet suburb - I have been aware of various sorts of articulated and unarticulated vehicles and occasionally also of the articulation of more or less tainted language their drivers are capable of voicing.

They can happily do this while they talk on their mobile phones which is another thing they might want to think about discontinuing, in particular since this - as opposed to the articulation of sorts - had been declared illegal not too long ago for the lack of a driver's attention a mobile phone held to the ear while driving leaves for the road, and the alcohol content in the blood this would equate, and for how easily that kind of thing can lead to an accident.

The ute driver - though mostly silent - with the dog - mostly barking - at the back may never know just how many people he annoys on a regular basis letting his dog virtually off the leash, though in more concrete terms tying him to the driver's cab, so that he cannot fall off the platform while barking at each and every house they pass. The ute driver ought to turn that around so that the neighbourhoods he passes through can live in the hope of one day finding the platform devoid of that dog.

(Microsoft ClipArt)

The tractor at 5.30 doesn't feature a dog, but due to its weight, surely more than a couple of metric tons, it causes a lot of air and ground movement. The latter not bad enough to make you fall off the bed, but the former to leave no doubt about when it's time to wake up.

If he didn't come at varying times between 5 and 6 a.m. I could actually save on power for that rechargeable battery in my own mobile phone - that I don't use while I'm driving, mind you, and through which I won't ever swear, but that I do set to wake me up at ten to six if I'm not already awake, that is.

Though I don't like the rumble, I do appreciate it that the truckie doesn't have a barking dog, doesn't turn up his stereo set and swear through his mobile, all at the same time. That way, he would really overstep the mark. So what do I do? Have a heart for him - as for the postie - getting up even earlier than me instead of looking for some Council rule or regulation that might prevent him from parking his tractor at his home in a residential area which would make it necessary for him to get up earlier still in order to drive with a smaller car to where he then would have to put his tractive unit?

Or be happy that he doesn't have a constantly barking dog and doesn't operate his cab radio at full blast and also that he doesn't swear. He has to use his truck to earn a living, something that doesn't apply to swearing and force-feeding other people with roaring noise from stereo sets of any kind. Dogs also don't have to bark for no particular reason other then to dog out, bothering scores of people.

The non-swearing, dogless and quietly rumbling truckie has to earn a living as much as the postie. I think I'll simply keep waiting for my mobile to tell me it's five fifty in all those cases when the truckie, the even earlier bird, drives past before my phone comes on.