The grind

Life is a grind right now. Up early, work, repeat. Day in day out. I forgot what it was like to have days to waste in the summer. I am thankful though, I can't forget that.
Yesterday on the way home I picked up a hitch hiker named Darren. He was a lean clean shaven man from Amarillo Texas. He was traveling through Montana looking for work. He lost his job as a truck driver because he had gotten too many speeding tickets. He didn't have a house or a car because he was always on the road, so when he lost his job he headed north to Wyoming to look for work in the Oil feilds. He had trouble finding steady work because he didn't have a clean driving record. He did some concrete, and other construction work in wyoming and the headed for North Dakota. He ran into the same problems there trying to find steady work, and finally landed a job doing concrete. He said the man he worked for was taking a two week vacation with his family so Darren decided to keep moving. He worked in Great Falls for a couple days and then decided to head south for Helena.
He got stuck half way between the two until I picked him up. He rode along in the cab, somewhat nervously chatting. He told me his short version of "His story". I wonder how much more there is to it? He said he had an ex-wife and children outside of Boise, Idaho.
Darren asked me to drop him off by the Home Depot, where he would try to find people looking for someone to work. I gave him twenty dollars and wished him luck. I hope he makes it.