February 4, 2003
Diesel Fuel
This morning I was walking from the bus station to my office when I passed an idling tow truck on the street. For some reason the smell of diesel fuel brought back a lot of memories of our time in Wisconsin. Perhaps it was the weather today, which reminds me of many of my early mornings working for Tru-Green that did it. Dunno.
For about 6 months while we lived in Wisconsin, I worked a pump truck for Tru-Green ChemLawn. I was a trufgrass specialist for them and in between running hose to fertilize people's lawns, I got to diagnose and treat their specific lawn care issues. My shifts generally were from 6 to 2 maybe 3 if I took extra long that day. These days were really intense and if I was moving well that day I could be in and out of a location in under 5 minutes. I had to keep going because I got paid based on volume revenue generated each day so it made more sense to sprint through my day.
I always asked them, if they wanted me to do a large number of lawns each day, then why didn't they give me the majority of my accounts for that day in the same area/street instead of spreading them all over the town. I would have one day where I would hit house #24 and the next day my route would include the house next door. I never understood that. Anyway, even though it was an intense job it was still fun.