I just had a scare. They called me from Volvo and told me that the reason we were having problems with our front end was that a tie-rod was broken or loose. That scared me. That means that it was at least theoretically possible that it could have broken completely and we could have lost control of the truck. This will be repaired. There's no way I'll drive the truck with this problem.

On the upside, Volvo can't get the part until next Monday. I know that we need the money and I need to get rolling, but I'm not going to complain about a few more days at home. I'll feel a lot better when I leave knowing that Mara is farther down the road of recovery. As much pain as she was in on late Tuesday, I would have had a hard time leaving, knowing that she was hurting like that. But yesterday she seemed a lot better. It still hurts, of course, and it really got her at times, but overall she seemed to be having an easier time of it.

Well, I need to run and get hold of our fleet manager at U.S. Xpress. I assume no one there will be happy to know that the truck is going to be down until next week. They've called every morning for the last three days trying to get us to leave. And apparently they can't get it through their heads that Mara is going to be out of work for 6-8 weeks. They keep trying to get us to pick up team loads. Hehe. Gods, what a company. It's like no matter how many times we explain how things are to them, they invent their own reality. Must be a bunch of Republicans.