I had an entirely different thought for this column leading in the end of the week, and then Friday happened.

That’s not to say that Friday was a disaster of a day necessarily, but it was a reminder of just how a typical day in this business can be anything but typical by most standards.

Sure, there are some routine meetings. I know when school board and council meetings are, and can put them on my schedule, but, most of the time, we never really know what’s going to happen at any given point.

I got into the office at around my usual time, having taken a few extra minutes to defrost my windshield, and remembered there was a Finance Committee meeting for the City of Weirton about an hour later. That was a quick gathering, and I figured I would have plenty of time to spend writing that and another piece, this column, design a couple pages for our weekend and Monday editions, and address any other tasks.

Then, around 11 a.m., I received an email through the Weirton Mayor’s Office and saw a social media post alerting the public of a super load scheduled to begin its transport through the city … an hour later.

Our newspapers have covered our share of super loads making their way through the region as a result of the natural gas industry, so I know it can be a lot of work to try and organize one of these transports. It also can be a pain to the motoring public, as was shown with a similar transport that apparently went through Weirton Thursday afternoon.

We weren’t notified about that one at all.

These events also can be an interesting visual, so I wanted to try and get a few photographs (and maybe some video) to include in our news content for the weekend. Despite knowing there were other tasks on my list, I decided to drive back to Weirton and scout out an area to sit and wait.

A big thanks to Chris at the Millsop Center for offering me the use of the Weirton Room. It provided a good view to watch traffic on Main Street.

After close to two hours, though, I checked some social media and noticed a new post from the Weirton PD saying the super load crew was still waiting for its escort, and the transport was going to be delayed. At this news, I opted to drive down to the Veterans Memorial Park, knowing I would have a direct view of the loads coming off of Freedom Way and onto Main Street.

I waited…and waited…and waited, until about 3 p.m.

Since I still had plenty of work ahead of me, and knowing it was already going to take me beyond the hours I was set to work, I opted to leave my spot and head back to the office…just in time to see a group of escort trucks turning on to Freedom Way and heading toward the Half Moon area.

The good news is, chances are this transport was going to miss the traffic of schools letting out Friday afternoon.

At the same time, I’m not sure if these large transports should be traveling (or are allowed to) after dark, so, depending on how quickly they were able to get everything ready, they probably would have been better off to wait until Saturday. It’s possible they did since I’m writing this before it got under way.

I could easily use this opportunity to point out the inconveniece of these super load transports, or the lack of communication as they made their way through our area this week. One would expect there to be some notification ahead of time, especially from the West Virginia Department of Highways since they were traveling on state roads. I’m sure the officers of the Weirton Police Department weren’t happy as they had to rearrange a number of things to provide an escort and traffic control, only to have to leave and go back later on.

Much of this business is about going with the flow. We often find ourselves dropping our plans to cover something unexpected with little or no time to prepare, whether that’s a vehicle crash or house fire, a public official deciding to stop by unannounced, or a massive piece of equipment being driven through one of our communities.

It just goes to show there truly is nothing typical about the news.

(Howell, a resident of Colliers, is managing editor of The Weirton Daily Times, and can be contacted at chowell@weirtondailytimes.com or followed on Twitter/X @CHowellWDT)