21 June 2010

A Big Earner

I always loved driving through the country to my small country schools.  I'd often listen to a Brisbane radio station as I drove, just so I could hear a Traffic Report.  "The Mt Gravatt-Capalaba Road is stop-start due to an earlier accident, and all cars are being diverted from the Gateway Motorway..."  I sailed past crops and cows, through tiny townships with ancient pubs and small weatherboard houses on giant blocks of land.

Once I saw a fox running across my road.  Another time, I saw a pheasant.  Frequently, I had to go very slowly on the narrow road to one township because I'd get stuck behind a carrot truck.  I was alerted to the presence of the carrot truck a few kilometres before I saw it, because of the orange splodges on the road.  Smashed and squashed carrots.

Then I'd round a corner and see a little truck with an eight-foot deep open container piled extremely high with carrots, spilling bright orange cargo as it wobbled slowly down the narrow lanes.


Most other therapists thought that taking a government car was the best way to go, and they were disappointed if they were forced to take their own car and claim mileage after the fact.  Perhaps they hadn't done the maths involved - taking one's own car was undoubtedly much better.  Where they would complain about the evil nemesis "Wear and Tear" wreaking havoc on their precious cars, I would smugly remember that "wear and tear" basically means you'd take your car in for its regular service a week earlier than otherwise (the cost of the service being more than amply covered by the previous month's kilometric allowance.)

Then one day I worked out how much money my little car brought me for a one-hour trip to one of my country schools.  I compared that figure with what I earned each hour.

And darn it, if my little Ford Laser didn't earn more than I did!

7 comments:

Cyndy Bush said...

On Saturday night on our way home, we saw both a coyote and a fox.
I love living in the country!

Hippomanic Jen said...

Don't you hate it when you old car earns more than you?! All those years of study. Grrrr.

Hippomanic Jen said...

By the Way, how do we get to the Speech Files on this blog?

Givinya De Elba said...

Thanks for your comments! "The Killing A Fly Story" (top of right sidebar) contains hyperlinks to every label used on this blog ... you'd need to click on "speech pathologist" to get to the Speech Files.

I think I'm going to need something better than that, aren't I?

Joy said...

How funny! Your little car earns more than you and still gets to go on all these adventures.

♥ Joy

Ro said...

I'm loving the carrot story. Worst case scenarios:

a) you run over a carrot and suffer the guilt of adding to the carrot roadkill statistics
b) a gigantic hare appears out of no where desperate to eat falling carrots, dashes in front of your car and, because you are going so slowly, you are barely able to slam on your brakes and stop within 100 feet of it!
c) you suffer from reoccurring and persistent nightmares of being force fed carrot soup.

What a lovely change from the road rage and stress encountered by many commuters! I can just imagine your smug little smile as you listened to the traffic report. :)

John Ross Barnes said...

In my case it's that the babysitter I pay to watch Aaron so I can go to work - makes more than I do.

Of course, that's for watching about 8 kids, so her job is harder than mine.