In The Blink Of An Eye

It amazes me how quickly someone's life can change, or be taken away. Jerry is in Delaware today to have his trailer fixed. He bought his trailer there last year and has had lots of problems with it. He was looking underneath it and saw numbers on the axles; the front axle said "7" and the back axle said "6". Well, it turns out that the trailer is supposed to have two "7" (meaning 7000 pounds) axles on it, and somebody from the factory goofed. This is after Jerry had already taken it back once where they said they fixed it (but didn't). After many, many phone calls, Jerry finally got them to agree that they were responsible for putting the wrong axle in it when building it, and agreed to replace the axle with a new one, which is why he is there today. That's not the whole problem, though, and now he is waiting for someone to fix the entire thing or he told them they could have it back. The backs of the wheels on the trailer are less than half an inch away from the body of the trailer, and the last time Jerry carried a load on the trailer, the wheels rubbed on the metal body and melted the rubber off the back of the tires. After checking with several people and looking at the wheel clearance on other trailers, it was determined by the salesman, distributor and factory rep that something was indeed wrong and that maybe the trailer wasn't built to the right size specifications. Now it seems that everyone just keeps passing the buck on this problem and no one seems to want to take responsibility for fixing it; the salesman said to call the distributor; the distributor said to call the factory representative; the factory representative won't return anyone's calls. In summary, Jerry has planted himself at the trailer place where they replaced the one axle and has told them he's not leaving until someone fixes the other problem, too. (I fully expect a phone call asking for bail any moment now!).

Anyway, that explains why he is there. He called me a little while ago and said that while he was waiting there at the trailer place he saw a lot of commotion going on at the building right next to where he was. Then he saw a helicopter land there in the parking lot. One of the people working at the trailer place told Jerry that they had heard shots just a few minutes before and apparently someone had been shot right next to the building where Jerry was. While he was telling me this, I got on the internet to see if I could find out anything about it, and I found this article which explains it. It's difficult to think about the fact that we go about our everyday lives, never realizing that things can change in an instant. I am praying for those who were shot today, and as sappy as it might sound, I am also treasuring my family just a little bit more today, and thanking God that Jerry wasn't in that part of the parking lot at that particular time.

The people at the trailer place have to know by now that he is serious about getting the problem resolved; despite police and television crews swarming the area and skittish people ducking into buildings at the slightest sound, he's still there waiting, standing his ground! (I do hope someone is kind enough to provide him with a blanket should it become quitting time this evening and he's still there!)