Sleep Crawler

When Hank woke up at three in the morning to go logging he had only been asleep for an hour. Most people would just come home from a logging day and go to sleep but not Hank. Hank was the only logger in creation that had a nightlife along with 5, 18 hour, logging days.

Hank didn’t eat breakfast; he just crawled into the back of the company rig and went to sleep. He would get his lunch from the boss who rarely ate.

Slade, Hank’s boss, was not surprised to see Hank stumble sleepily out of the rig when it reached the job site. They were moving their equipment that day up a steep and treacherous winding road. The sides of the road sloped steeply into the timber below on one side and there was a steep cut bank on the other side.

Hank realized they would need the Cat to help pull the 160,000lb yarder up the mountainside. Hank was overjoyed that they would be using the Cat because he considered himself an expert when it came to running a Cat. He bothered Slade, the boss, constantly; “C’mon Slade, let me drive the Cat!”

Slade had little choice but to let Hank drive the Cat and help pull the yarder; “Alright Hank, you can run the Cat but keep the speed steady and stay in close to the bank.”

All started out well but Hank’s attention span was no longer than a mouse’s tail. Slade was driving the yarder and the Cat was out front with a large cable hooking the Cat to the yarder. They moved steadily up the treacherous mountain road. One mistake could send the Cat and yarder plunging off the steep road side into the timber with the likely result of death for the Cat operator and both of the operators on the yarder.

Suddenly Slade noticed that, instead of the Cat making a turn, it was heading straight up an old skid trail (trail that was used to haul logs in prior years; very steep; far too steep for a yarder. Slade had to jump out of the yarder as it still crept forward because he could not seem to gain Hank’s attention. Slade ran up onto the side of the moving Cat with great urgency, but not fear, because Slade was never scared.

There driving the 18,000lb Cat pulling a 160,000 lb yarder on a deadly treacherous road was Hank asleep. Slade knocked Hank out of the way and put a stop to the deadly direction of the Cat. The moral of the story is: If you ever employ a logger with a nightlife you may want to check your sanity.