If there is one thing that drives me crazy, it’s people being inconsiderate.

In my industry, we live in our trucks day in and day out. That means we accumulate trash and various odds and ends. Time and time again I see trash just strewn about in parking lots and on the side of the road. In the case of the side of the road, it’s not necessarily from truckers, as I’ve personally witnessed many people in cars throwing bags of fast food refuse out their windows, but when it comes to truck stops, yeah it’s totally truckers.

Today while sitting in my truck and reading I heard the crash of glass breaking. Not sure what it was, I looked around and didn’t really see what had made the noise. Not willing to just forget about it, I decided to go investigate. This is what I found.

A broken quart sized mason jar, with jagged edges, lying in a parking space. I didn’t see anyone around. It was between two trucks. Someone had to have known it fell and broke, so why was it sitting there amongst the rest of the broken glass (not shown in the picture but trust me, it’s there). I decided to do the right thing and pick it up, but since I didn’t know what was in there I turned to get my gloves and that’s when I saw this.

Dudes…or dudettes…there are 4 trash cans in the immediate vicinity. None of this is necessary.

So I went back to my truck, got a few bags, and decided to do some cleanup. I was off duty and had nothing better to do.

First I picked up the glass and took it to the trash.

Second, I started to weave my way in and out of the parked trucks picking up trash.

Soon my actions drew the attention of a couple of men standing by.

Man #1: When your done there little lady, you can clean out my truck.

Man #2: When you’re done with his you can clean out mine and I might have something extra for you.

I stopped, set down my two full bags, calmly walked over to them, gave them a blistering smile and said “I’m sorry gentlemen, I didn’t quite catch that. Would you mind repeating it to my *bleeping* face so I know if my anger is justified or not?”

Man #1: Woah, calm down we were just kidding.

Man #2: Some people can’t take a joke.

At this point, I decided to tell them in length what I thought of their attempt at humor and degradation.

Now at this point I should mention, for those of you who don’t know, I’m a mother of now adult children. They can tell you that I’m a champion when it comes to lecturing someone who’s done messed up. Sometimes I think my children wished I would have spanked them because it would have been over a lot sooner than one of my mom talks. So when I say I gave these men a piece of my mind I really gave them a piece of my mind.

I unloaded weeks of frustration caused by my first two trainers. I gave them all the dirty looks and snide remarks I’ve gotten from some drivers since I started this journey. I told them exactly why I was cleaning up after “professional drivers” on my down time because I cared about how we as a whole are perceived and I wouldn’t want to see anyone puncture a tire or hurt themselves in the dark on a bunch of glass someone was too damned lazy to clean up themselves. I finished with a “And I think you both owe me an apology.”

Low and behold…I got not one but two apologies. I took off my glove and shook both of their hands and said all was forgiven. As I walked away I heard the thing that finally got me to smile.

Man #2: Damn, she was scary.

Yes gentlemen, I am when I need to be.

All in all, I gathered 6 small bags of garbage (that was the total of my available bags), cleared most of the glass, and set straight two grown ass men. Not a bad days work if I do say so myself.