Taking A Ride In The Country

Today was kind of a slow day but a good one for me, not so good for a others though. In the morning I practiced my alley dock and straight line backing in preparation for my CDL test which I am told is going to be tomorrow. EEK! I am a bit nervous already, but I feel ready for it. The only real worry in my mind is my backing test.

In the afternoon I had a road evaluation that went very good. Took a long dive in the country on some very bumpy and narrow 2 lane roads. But I did everything just like I was supposed to and only ground 1 gear. I just hope I do as well tomorrow on my CDL test.

4 other students in my class took their CDL tests. John and Uhe (not sure how to spell his name but it is Pronounced "U"), Joe and "little" Dave all tested today. Only John and Uhe passed. Joe messed up on is brake test and has to retake that part tomorrow morning but sadly "little" Dave failed, bad. Dave made a bad left hand turn and hit a stop light. He didn't take it out but did cause some minor damage to it. It was a simple mistake, one that any one of us could make. He got into an intersection and the light changed on him and he tried to hurry through, but forgot about that 48 feet of trailer behind him. Thankfully no one got hurt, other than Dave's pride, and the damage was repaired even before the police arrived to fill out the incident report.

If you have never driven a semi truck with a 48 foot trailer you might be tempted to say something like "Man that was stupid, how could you not see that?" But let me tell you, it is a very easy thing to do especially considering the total disregard the 4 wheel traffic has for semi's. We have to CONSTANTLY watch for a car or pickup truck cutting in front of us, passing on the right, running a red light so they don't have to be behind us, etc, etc. The general motoring public really has no clue just how many times they come soooo very close to getting either into a major accident or killed because of their lack of patience, common sense, and just poor judgment. It requires 90% of our attention just to watch out for idiot 4 wheelers that we only have 10% left to concentrate on our own driving. Pretty sad if you ask me. It shouldn't be that way, but it is.

Well it looks like tomorrow is my big day. Cross your fingers and say a prayer for me.

Geee Toto, Is This Really Kansas?

One thing I forgot to mention about school on Friday is that I got to do "Live Dock". One of my instructors took us down to Neenha, WI to his old company that he worked for. He had made arrangements for us to goto their warehouse and dispatch center and actually back up to a real loading dock. It was a fun experience.

Today was a really good day, all things considered. I practiced my alley dock backing for about 2 hrs, and then got a CDL holding student to go out on a run with me. That trip went really good. At lunch I had to go up to student admissions and get my class registration straighted out AGAIN! Apparently, they didn't have me enrolled for the 2nd block that I have been in for 2 weeks now. Needless to say I was not very nice to folks in admissions, and I expressed my utter contempt with their incompetence.

After lunch, not that I got to eat lunch, we had a recruiter from W.O. Wolding company. Sounded like a decent company but they don't make any runs to Northern California so there not a good fit for me. I had a road evaluation that went great. I was once again informed that I would be up for my CDL test very soon. I am not worried about my pre-trip inspection or the road test really, but my alley dock backing has me a bit concerned. I am not performing that backing exercise with the consistency that I would like. I am completing the maneuver, but sometimes it is better than others. I really want to get that down pat better before my CDL test.

In the late afternoon we had to stop all driving and head into the building shelter areas as a tornado was spotted in out area. This took up about an hour and afterwords it was pointless to do much more with the little bit of time remaining.

I am still limping along on my PC. It is severely limited as I have nearly 160 GB of data crammed onto a my little 60GB backup drive. It looks like there is one casualty, all my bookmarks are forever gone. Quite upsetting but there is nothing I can do about it, and no way to recover them. It will take till about the end of the week till I get my new Maxtor 200GB Sata Drive. When I get that setup and configured it will still take me a few days to a week to get everything back up to 100%. I really hate having my PC in this crippled state for so long of a time, but there is nothing I can do about it till I get the new drive. I am going to be contacting Western Digital about the 2 dead drives I now have and arrange for either a refund or replacement of them. If they just send replacements (like I am sure they will) I will be selling them on ebay so I can purchase a new power supply. The power supply is the only thing left that is in real question in my mind after the failures I have had. Strangely it is a very good power supply, an Antec True Power 550W. My system is pretty beefy, but not that beefy that it should over draw a 550W PSU, but after running several diagnostic tests on the CPU, chipset, RAM and motherboard and having all of them come up clean with no errors at all, the power supply is the most likely culprit. But a new 500W+ PSU is not cheap, about $150-$225 for a quality unit.

So in the meantime I will just have to deal with things as they are, so be patient with me.

The Day Of The Phoenix

Well folks as Stephanie posted for me, my computer decided to try and commit suicide on me on Friday.

Friday was started out bad, I think it was just one big cursed day. It began with me almost being late for school after sleeping through my alarm a good 15 mins. I made it just in time for morning roll call and dispatch (truck and trailer assignment for the day). I had another road test that went really good, I did scrub 1 curb on a tight right hand turn with my left front steer tire, but I knew and told my instructor that I might. I didn't jump the curb or anything, but I should have button hooked the turn just a little. I will post a pic of what a button hook turn looks like when I get my PC back up to full capacity.

After school is when things REALLY went to hell in a hand basket. When I got home, I check the mail, and I received 2 checks from financial aid, but it was WAY too much money. A call to the school revealed that they somehow someone didn't bill my my student account correctly nor did they enroll me right. My course is broken into 3 parts, 2- 3 week blocks and 1 4 week block with a CDL test fee. Well I paid the first 3 weeks out of pocket, and the 2nd and 3rd block plus my CDL test fee were supposed to be paid for using my financial aid account. But somehow, I didn't get enrolled in the 2nd 3 week block, even though I am currently in it! I find this aggravating as I have spent tons of time working with the admissions staff and everytime they tell me everything is setup and correct, only to find out weeks later that something is not right. So once again I have to jump through hoops with the admissions department to get this straightened out.

After that "little" event my damn toilet broke! Apparently the plastic little arm that connects the flush handle to the flapper inside the toilet broke, maintenance didn't have the part needed so I had to wait for repairs till Saturday. No big deal, just a minor inconvenience. I checked my email and when to the bank to deposit the 2 checks from financial aid so the money is available on Monday when I have to pay for the 2nd 3 week block that the school failed to bill my account for, again not that big of a deal just another inconvenience.

However, upon my return home I planned to spend my weekend filling out online job application with some trucking companies to get some pre-hires, only to find my computer locked up. I didn't think much about it, just restarted it and got some information together to fill out apps. But when my computer starting to boot back up I got an error say that a system file was damaged, missing, or corrupt. Another inconvenience, or so I thought. I grabbed my WinXP cd tossed it in and started the repair process when suddenly my monitor when into standby mode. Humm, a little bit of a problem. I can't see what is going on with the repair process so I can't do the repair. So I am forced to reboot again. However this time, I still get no video and the On-board self test (it is a audio deal) tells me my video card has failed self test. Hoping it is just a glitch, I restart again. No dice. I tried this a few times, till the Video card kicked back in, however now the bios will not recognize my hard drives! WTF!! So I reset the bios, and reboot. This time the bios sees the hard drives, but no more than 30 seconds later my video card craps out and stays that way. Dead Jim, Dead!

Just fucking great! Now i have to buy a new video card as my motherboard does not have on board video and requires a video card. I called Stephanie in a bent out of shape rage, and asked her to check some video card prices online for me for some area stores, then it was off to Best Buy. $141.32 later, I am back home with a new video card, a ATI Radeon 9550. Not a great video card and definitely not what I would have purchased for an upgrade, but it is decent and cheap and the best I can do right now considering my budget.

So I should be good to go right? Wrong! Of course the new video card works like a charm, OS I can now see what is going on, however now my primary hard drive takes a crap on me! OM MY F()&*)^*(%$ GOD!!!!!!!! My 160GB hard drive has everything on it, and normally I have a system backup just in case of things like this, but my last backup go damaged somehow and the new backup was supposed to be created Saturday at 2am. Does me now good however at 8pm on Friday. So I have no system backup, and now my hard drive will not even spin up. SHIT!

In a attempt to keep you all from getting bored out of your skulls I will just hit the highlights, but trust me when I say that this was not an easy process. After screwing with EVERYTHING, and striping the entire system down and rebuilding it several times, including a few good kicks just for measure and attitude adjustment, was finally able to get my backup drive working. That is when things got worse. I began installing WinXP on my backup hard drive so I at least had something I could boot into while I worked on my dead 160GB drive, when my CD-Rom drive apparently got hungry and literally tried to eat my WinXP CD.

Now WAIT JUST ONE MINUTE DAMNIT, no one ever told me you had to feed a damn CD-Rom drive, that is not in any of my manuals!!!

After fighting with the cd-rom drive it finally gave me back my WinXP cd, scratched to hell I might add, and now has sections that are no longer readable, so I can't install XP on the backup drive. OMG!!!! I just wanted to throw the whole PC right off my balcony into the street (after I removed the new video card for a return that is....). But I resisted that tasty temptation. So on Saturday morning I went down to a local PC shop and borrowed a clean WinXP CD, I finally got WinXP installed on the backup drive, and what happened RIGHT after it gets installed!! CD-ROM ATE that disk too! So out that drive goes! But, I got WinXP installed that is the important thing. While XP was updating I took my 2 CDs down to a local video game shop and got them both resurfaced, they look good as new.

After spending hours screwing with my 160GB drive I finally got a glimmer of life from the drive and pounced on the chance to get my data off the drive. I did, thank god, as I thought for sure that all was lost. I also have a brand new 80GB drive that is a replacement for another 80gb drive that failed on me a few months ago. All 3 of these drives are Western Digital hard drives. The brand new 80GB drive is DOA right out of the box. I will have to contact Western Digital and arrange for replacements, but I really think I need to buy a NON-Western Digital hard drive for a backup drive as I have no confidence in them anymore. Might just be a bad batch, but they have some serious quality control issues.

Right now I am up and running at about 20% as my backup drive is only a 60GB drive and is barley holding up with all the data on it. I am can't even install 1/10th of my programs on this small of a drive.

So things are going to be a bit limited for a while till I can get a replacement drive and rebuild my file system. I hope this next week goes better.

Stuff just goes wrong........

SnowKitten here, please excuse Mav's absence as his computer has decided it deeply hates him.

Until it is fixed, I will be updating the truck school hijinks as per his requests and what he tells me.

S. Kitten

Take A Moment To Meet Someone New

Today was a pretty average day, but god was I tired. Thursday's is always that way after 11.5 hrs of driving on Wensday. Today I had another road test that went very good, no mistakes so that that is good. I still need more work on my alley dock backing as I only getting it right about 50% of the time with this slow turning truck.

After lunch we had a state representative for the Highway Watch program give us instruction on the program. Basically what Highway Watch is, is a nationwide program, like Neighborhood watch except it is for professional drivers and state employees. We are trained and educated on what and how to report suspicious activity while we are out and about the country. It is a division of Homeland Security, and a great reporting method to help prevent terrorist activity.

Afterwords I asked my old driving partner (who got his CDL this morning, Congratulations Mike) to ride along with me on a route. The pretty much much finished up my day at school.

A few days ago I received an email from on of my faithful readers named Peter, who arranged to be in Green Bay today while on business and asked if I would like to join him for dinner. So I graciously agreed. It was a real pleasure too meet one of my readers, and have a nice chat over a meal about trucking, and my experience in school as well as life in general. Thank you Peter for the conversation and dinner. We will have to do it again if your ever up this way again.

So folks, the lesson for today is this: A stranger is a new friend you simply have never met.

Moving At The Speed Of Light

Well the tempo of things at school has skyrocketed the last 2 days, hence why there was no post yesterday. I was just totally wore out as I am tonight, but I can't leave you all hangin.

Yesterday, I couldn't shift for crap for some reason. I was grinding almost every gear with no real rhyme or reason. Once i finally worked that out of my system, it was road test time again. Everything went awesome except 1 damn left hand turn. I totally miss-read the turn and my setup was way off the mark. I pulled about 2 feet forward too far and had to backup to make the turn. I was PISSED!!! Ohh well, I requested an instructor to help me on Wensday with making left hand turns. Hopefully with a bit of practice I will get it down pat.

3 of my classmates were also told they are going to be taking there CDL test tomorrow (Wensday), they also told me that I would be up for my CDL test "soon"!

Well today is Wensday, my Co-Driver Dick my old Co-Driver Mike and Dave are all scheduled to take there CDL tests today. Man were they nervous, as I am sure I will be. Well, none of them passed! Mike and Dave made a goof on the Air Brake Test, and will have to do that portion again tomorrow morning to get their CDL's. Shouldn't be any big deal, they both make simple mistakes. They will both get their CDL's tomorrow. Dick, my Co-Driver failed the road test and his backing test. He touched a cone in his straight line backing, and failed to do proper traffic checks while on his road test. He now has to wait 1 week, and pay another $85 to retest to get his CDL. He was pretty upset with himself after that, so tomorrow he will be working on those points.

I got another road test today and asked my instructor to take me on a route that has LOTS of left hand turns so I learn how to judge them properly. I made every left hand turn with no problem. So he took me on some other types of turns. REALLY HARD ONES!!! Button-Hook right hand turns, turns where cross traffic has no stop, heavy downtown traffic and turns. I did all these very well. I did mess up one right hand turn, that didn't look like I had to use a button-hook to make, but it turned out I was about 4 inches off the mark. I had to do a controlled drive over a curb to make the turn.

Well after that grueling drive and how well I did on it, my instructor informed me that if I was taking my road test for my CDL I would have passed, and therefor, I am going to be put on the "test" list. Well, I am not sure I am quite ready yet, but if I get called to test, I will test. I felt REALLY good and confident after my road-test today.

Wow, things are getting tense and the pressure to perform is really there right now, but at least now when I run into a problem like my shifting going to crap, I know what I have to do to straighten it out and get it back on track. Tomorrow will be an interesting day!

Nothing But A Matter Of Time

Today was the type of day that I tried to avoid, but sometimes you just have to do what you got to do. I left school at 10:00am today to get some things done that I just can't get done around my school hours. There were 2 things that I had to get done before 12:00 noon as both places the people I had to see would not be available after that time.

The first was the Big Apartment Manager, the head honcho. He requested a meeting to sign some additional paperwork and to have a "little" chat regarding my ex-roommate's abrupt departure. Needless to say they are not real happy with her, and are debating whether or not they are going to send her a bill for early termination of her half of the lease. The other big thing I think was to make sure that I wasn't going to pull a similar stunt now that I didn't have a roommate, and that I could cover the full amount of rent. Pretty reasonable concern on their part, as when I requested to add my roommate, they only did so on a "good faith" basis as she couldn't pass the credit check. Now at that time I was faced with 2 options, either get a roommate to cover half the rent, or break my lease. Thankfully the apartment management was willing to work with me and "bend" the rules a bit to make it all work out. I have to say that this "landlord" has been the best I have ever dealt with, and I would do anything to honor the lease agreement on that basis alone. So after a brief discussion on "where did I stand" without my roommate, and my assurances that I can handle the rent without her they seemed very relived. So got that done.

The next item that I had to get done, again before noon, was to pick up my grant check from the local VA office. Talk about timing, as I also had to pay the rent ASAP as I was already 1 day past the normal cutoff. This meant that I had to pay the $25 late fee. So I got my grant check and got that put into the bank, got a counter check to pay the rent (still don't have my bank issued checks yet) and dropped that off. Whew!

2 down and a million more to go...LOL. Yesterday, my ex-roommate called me and asked if she can come by the apartment to "talk", but about what she wouldn't say. To me this just screams, "I think I still have stuff there and want to get in to scope around and see if I can find something.". Well, she is going to be a bit disappointed as I have already gone through every square inch of the place and put EVERYTHING that is not mine into a box and have it waiting for her at the top of the stairs. Anything beyond that, she will have to request it and I will see if I can find it, but I will be damned if she is going to screw up all the cleaning I have done the past 5 days. I will throw her sorry ass right the hell out the door if she tries that crap. She can have ALL of her shit, I don't want a single item of it. About the only things she left that were hers was crap that she didn't want, but she is taking it anyway, empty boxes and all. She can throw it away if she don't want it but I know if I toss it, then she will be bitching about how I threw her stuff away. Not going to happen!!

One of my friends asked me today why I am even going to bother dealing with all this. Well it is simple really, no matter how ticked off I am over the way she moved out and all that crap, I just want her to pay HER half of the $600+ utility bill. Besides that it is illegal for me to withhold her property, at least till after 30 days, then I can toss anything else she has not claimed or requested. But as I said earlier, I don't want any of her crap. If I don't have anything of hers, she has no reason that she needs to come over here. I just want to close the door on this whole ordeal that was one of the biggest mistakes I have just about ever made.

So I lost about 5 hrs of school/driving time dealing with all this. But I have gotten allot done with the time, including tons of cleaning. Not really the way I want to spend my school time, but since I had to anyway, might as well get the most out of it. The good thing is that after today, all this crap with my ex-roommate will done within regards to her property, and all the paperwork with the apartment management. So I will have no future interruptions in training. *knocks on wood*

Trying Times - Part 2

One thing that I didn't cover in yesterdays post was things here on the home front. As most of you know, from Wednesdays post my roommate moved out without warning or notice. This kinda sucks on the financial front of things, but god I love the peace and quiet. Anyway, my roommate called me the other day because she forgot to get a few things out of my garage. However, she also needs to sign some papers with the apartment complex to get her name removed from the lease. So, on Tuesday I will have to leave school early to deal with these issues. I am not very happy about having to take time from my schooling to deal with this "Jerry Springer BS" but at the same time I want to get it done and over with.

My roommates moving out will have a very poor effect on her as she will now get a very bad reference from the apartment management as they are not to happy with her no notice move out. But for me, it is mainly the added financial strain. Had she giving me some notice I could have prepared for this, and would have even helped her move. However, this was not the case, and in her haste to move out before I cam home from school, she left the place a mess. Yesterday I had to go buy a vacuum to start cleaning the place up, and make multiple trips to the dumpster as she left boxes and trash everywhere. Today I will have to go grocery shopping to get something to eat in the house as well she cleaned that out too.

Ahh well, good riddance to bad rubbish as the English like to say.

Times Can Be So Trying

Sorry for not posting the past 2 days folks, I really wanted to post but I was simply too tired at the end of the day to do anything. But I will cover both days right now.

Thursday: Things are starting to get a bit crowded on the Keller Driving Range as there are 6 new straight truck students with the new Phase 1 group. The strait truck program is only 4 weeks long and 2 folks from our class will graduate on Friday. Unfortunately, the congestion of the driving range will only get worse by middle of next week when the students in the Semi program from Phase 1 get their trucks and start learning to drive.

Today I had another road test/evaluation. It went pretty good, although I did rub a curb with my trailer tires on 1 turn. I just didn't stay in the far lane quite long enough before turning back into my lane on a 90 degree turn. The other problem I was still doing at the start was rushing. I was rushing my shifting, turning, hell basically everything. My instructor made me aware of this and and coached me a bit and told me to do everything at HALF the speed I was trying to do it at. Man do these instructors know their stuff. I kidd you not, the second I simply slowed everything I was doing down by half, everything got a 100X easier. My turns were smoother, my shifting was much better, and I was much more relaxed and focused.

I think a big part of my problem was I was constantly trying to keep up with the car traffic. Which I just can't do. There is just no way to move that big 70+foot long truck that quickly nor should I even try to. Once I stopped trying to do that, things were much easier.


Friday:Today I got a bit of a surprise at morning dispatch, the instructors are changing things up on us. They have paired everyone with a new co-drivers, my new driving partner for today is Dick Turner, A.K.A. Mr. Casual, or Casual Dick. (yea, some of you already get the joke) He got this nickname because he want to be a casual driver. These are folks that basically drive when and where they want, and are normally owner-operators. Anyway, I got pulled from my truck and assigned to Dick's truck, #9256 with trailer #4838. This truck has a sleeper cab on it that adds about 5 feet to the wheelbase. Now let me tell you, that extra 5 feet makes a world of difference to the way that truck handles. This truck does not turn on a dime like my past 2 trucks have, this truck takes its good sweet time turning.

I was told after dispatch that I was going to be checked on with this new truck right after dispatch. (a check is where an instructor takes out, kinda like a road evaluation, basically to make sure you can handle the truck) Well, needless to say I was not thrilled about this, as I have never driven the truck before. It shifts different and acts TOTALLY different. So I picked up my trailer from the trailer yard and drover over to the Keller Driving Course to learn this new truck. Everyday on the Keller the direction of traffic is different. Some days it goes in a clockwise pattern, other days counter-clockwise. Today was counter-clockwise. What makes it this direction of travel a little more difficult is that to get on the course you have to make a sharp, hard right hand turn to clear the 2 stop and go signal lights.

Well, not really knowing how this truck would handle that turn, and knowing that my vehicle is now 5 feet longer I tried to compensate. What I didn't account for was the extremely slow and wide turning radius that this truck has. So my first attempt at making this turn with this truck, failed!! I had pulled too far forward before starting my turn, added to the fact that this truck does not turn on a dime like my old one, I had to back up a bit or run over the stop light. Yup, a little embarrassing but no harm done, that is the important thing. After only 1 lap around the Keller the instructor called on the radio for me to take my check on, which I refused. I explained that I didn't have the mechanics of this new vehicle down yet and would not go out on the public roads with it till I could at least know when to start my turns, shift properly, and back the vehicle up. He scoffed at that, but I held adamant. About 2 hrs later I felt I had the basic mechanics of the vehicle down well enough to go for my check on, and I was right. Passed my check on with no problems. When I got back to the school, one of the CDL holding Phase 3 students was willing to ride along with me, so I went and drove one of my 3 approved driving routes. YEA! This was my first road trip without an instructor, and it went great! The only thing that happened was I missed 1 down shift coming to stop.

I am finally starting to feel like I am getting a handle on my driving, and am becoming more confident in my abilities. I still need LOTS of practice, but it is starting to feel more natural and easier as I learn to work with the truck, not against it.

Ohhh How The Leafs Do Change....

Well all kinds of things happened today, most of them good or for the better. As with most good things there is also a downside, but I will get to that in a moment.

Today was the start of a new month and return to truck driving school after a week and half off for semester break. My class moved from Phase 1 to Phase 2. With this change can a nice perk. New Trucks to drive!! Thank GOD!! My old truck, #9128, was a single axle Frieghtliner Century Class 9 speed with a low and a Detroit engine. Needless to say for those who are recently joining us, it was a real beast with a stubborn transmission and a 40lb clutch. My new truck, #9258, is a dual rear axle (also called a tandem axle) with a split 10 speed transmission and a Cummins engine (I think it is a Cummins engine, I will double check that tomorrow and get back to ya all). God I love this new truck! It drives like a dream, and shifts like melted butter (as long as I am not the one making the mistakes that is).

I also had a road test today, and am proud to report that I passed it!! So now I am able to drive 2 specific routes with any licensed CDL holder. I only had one thing happen that scared the crap out of me. I was stopped at a red light, and shifted into what I thought was 2nd gear. But it went in to gear so easy that I wasn't sure about it, something just didn't feel right. So, when the light changed, I kept light pressure on the brake and slowly let the clutch out just until it started to engage the gear. To my shock and horror, I was NOT in 2nd gear, but in REVERSE!!!!!! The instant that I felt the truck tug against the brake, BACKWARDS, I jammed the clutch in and mashed down on the brake. I don't even think my truck moved a full inch backwards before I quickly recovered, and put the truck in the correct gear and continued on, but it scared the hell out of me butt good!!! So I no longer start out in 2nd gear anymore, I start in 1st or 3rd, to make sure I don't accidentally put the transmission in reverse again.
Other than that it was a long, but very good day at school.

Coming home from school was another......suprise??? Getting home after a long day at school I came home to find that my roommate, MOVED OUT! This was a bit of a shocker. No note, no call, no nothing. Now this is a blessing and a curse, as I didn't exactly have room in my budget to pay the full $670 of rent. So by budget has gone to total shit, and I will have to do some fancy re-figuring to work this problem out. As of right now I back to a deficit of $650. (BTW did I mention that folks can make donations........ LOL) Ahh well, While I knew that this day would come, in August as I was informed by my roommate 2 weeks ago, the immature way it was handled does not sit very well with me. But, what can I do? I don't cry over spilled milk, or worry about what can't be changed. What is done is done, time to work through the problem and move on. At least my roommate left me a few slices of bread and my lunch meat, I think she left the mayo also, so I will be able to make myself lunch for tomorrow. Dinner is going to be interesting as she cleaned out nearly everything else, along with all the food in the freezer. My poor apartment is now trashed, she even took the vacuum (granted it was hers but it would have been polite to USE it before she left) so cleaning the mess she left behind is going to be a minor challenge. Damn she even took my broom and dust pan! Well at least she left 2 rolls of toilet paper!!!

And so the saga continues.........

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, Back to School I Go........

Well today is the last day of "vacation" from school. It was a nice break but I will be happy to get back in to the swing of things. During this week and a half off I did get quite a bit accomplished. Got caught up on all the household items that I didn't take the time to do, and was able to get everything arranged and sorted out for my Veterans Retraining Grant. I got the official word that I have been awarded the grant. However, it does look as though I will only get half the full award but it is still $1500, and enough to hopefully keep me in the black on the financial front of things.

Yesterday was a bit of sad day for me, as I have lost a few friends in the service, both before Iraq and currently in Iraq. There is a video that someone else made that I really want to post on my blog, but I can't seem to find a host for it. So if I can find a host I will post it up for everyone. I am sure many people have seen it, but I think it is something that people should want to watch everyday. As soon as I can find a server to host it will be up on my site.

So tomorrow it is back to the old "grind", and I hope that doesn't translate literally to gears. LOL When I go back tomorrow my class and I will be considered Phase 2, which means that a new class should be starting soon to replace us as Phase 1. I am quite curious to see how much of what I have learned has stuck with me. I also hope that now that I have had this little break to relax and collect my thoughts that I will be able to concentrate and focus a little better than what I was able to during the last week before the break. Now that I have gotten ALL the financial issues resolved and no longer have that worry choking the life out of me, I have a feeling things will work a little better.

So we will just have to see what tomorrow holds in store............

Happy Memorial Day!!!

Well today is Memeorial Day, and most of us are enjoying a 3 or 4 day weekend that is much deserved. But while we are all enjoying the extended weekend, please take a moment to think of or thank one of the many members of our Armed Services. I worte a short poem while I was in the service that I feel is appropriate and would like to share with all my readers.

DUTY, HONOR, COUNTRY

Here today, gone tomorrow,
That is the life we live.
Because we are the United States Armed Forces,
For Liberty and Freedom, We die and kill.
Battle and War,
Death and Destruction,
That is what we are trained to do.
To kill off the enemy,
Who fights our Democracy,
But Freedom will reign
In the hearts of us all.
Because we are the United States Armed Forces,
Forever we will stand tall.
We protect your children And keep you safe.
Although we die a nameless death.


Written by William A. Baumann
U.S. Army, 101st Airborne/Air Assault Division, 501st Signal BN

Ahhh, The Weekend

Well the weekend is in full swing, and i have nothing planned. LOL. So I will spend the time playing some video games, watching some rented movies. Last night I watched the Aviator and White Noise. The Aviator is a very interesting drama/documentary about Howard Hughes, the founder of TWA airlines. He was a pretty interesting man if you dig into his life. I found it interesting that he was even involved in Watergate as well as many other topics of our history that involved the CIA.

White Noise was actually a pretty scary movie, made me jump a few times and that is rare nowadays. I don't want to spoil it for you but it deals with things of the "afterlife". At the end you are left feeling kinda freaked out, confused, and bewildered all at the same time. If you get the DVD version, take the time to play the special features afterwords. Whether you believe in the paranormal or not, it is pretty interesting stuff. You might even find a new hobby, that might be interesting to play with if nothing else.

The last movie I just got done watching was "The Son of the Mask", the sequel to the Mask with Jim Carey. All I can say is, SAVE YOUR MONEY! It is clear that they just threw this movie together trying to capitalize on the success of the original. I give it 2 big thumbs down. They had a good concept but they didn't even come close to hitting the mark.

So enjoy your weekend. Tomorrow I will be posting a tribute to my fellow service men and women, so you might want to check that out.

Playing Catch Up

Well as some of you have noticed I haven't posted in the past few days. Mainly because there really wasn't much to tell. So I decided to hold off posting till I had enough to say to make a post worth while.

On Tuesday I was able to get an appointment with my local VA representative to give them more documents from my taxes to prove that I am self-employed. I just hope this does the trick as there only other option is for me to provide signed copies of my client contracts and I cannot do that. I really don't want to be sued that that many companies over the non-disclosure and privacy act agreements that I have signed to do work for these companies. The main reason for this is most of these companies don't want to have to explain to their shareholders why they need to outsource or hire outside consultants to do work that is perceived can be done in house. In addition to that, who knows how they actually characterize the expense. I personally don't care as long as their checks don't bounce.
I am going to call the main VA center in Madison, WI today to check the status and make sure they have everything they need. Otherwise it will be another 2 weeks or more till I hear anything from just to tell me they need something else, and I don't have that kind of time.

The other project I have been working on is the clean up of my poor, slightly neglected, car. I really wish I had the money to put it in a detail shop to get her cleaned up good as new, but it will be quite a while till I can splurge several hundred dollars on that. For the time being just doing it myself will have to suffice. I am pretty much done. The interior still needs some touch up, and I want to condition the leather seats again as they still seem thirsty for the nourishing moisture that I gave them yesterday. I also tried to clean up my rims, but the salt damage to the clear-coat and the exposed areas of the rims themselves looks pretty un-fixable with what I have to work with. I am going to check online and see what I can find out about repair services. While I can't afford to do it now, at least it will give me an idea of the cost involved and if it is even worth repairing them. There not super-expensive rims, but I have $1500 invested in the rims and tires so if I can save that money I will try.

The other "big" project is cleaning up the house. My roommate has been a bit lax in picking up after her daughter, so needless to say the house is trashed. since it looks like I will have the house to myself today, I might be able to get at least most of it done.

The past few days I have been having some wired problems with my computer as well. Part of it is that I need a new cooling fan for my CPU and I think my hard-drive cable it acting up or is going bad. So I talked to Stephanie to see if she could help out a bit to get those 2 items. It is not real expensive, about $40 total, but when you don't have it, you just don't have it. The other thing I had to order was new batteries for the home phones. Currently I can't talk more than about 10-35 mins on either handset before it dies. Just another dent in the ol' pocket book.

One Must Love The 21st Century

Sorry for no post yesterday folks, but unfortunately I was deep in battle with a computer virus, well a trojan virus to be more accurate. I downloaded what I believed was a new video codec for Windows Media Player, but it turned out to be nothing more than a vicious trojan virus called "Collected.6.BC". I finally won the 6 hr battle around midnight. It was a pretty clever virus I will give it that much, but I thankfully I know my system well enough to tell when when something is running on my system processes that just don't belong there. Having a good anti-virus program doesn't hurt either as it was quick to alert me to the harmful activity and kept the virus quarantined long enough to eliminate it. Good thing too as my system backup is a bit dusty. :(

Today I allowed myself to sleep in till about 11am to help eliminate my sleep deficit. I figure if I allow myself to get a few extra hours each day then scale it back to my regular schedule I will well rested for when school starts up again. My body is definitely happy about the time off, it has been at least 3 years since I drove a vehicle with a clutch so my left leg has been getting quite a workout. Add to that a bad knee and...., well you get the idea.

This afternoon I spent getting caught up on my car cleaning that has been neglected most of the winter. While I took pretty good care of the outside, washing it to keep the road salt damage to a minimum, the interior has take quite a beating. Nothing that some good cleaning products and some elbow grease can't fix though. I had to buy some leather cleaner and conditioner however. I have seat covers over the leather seats to help protect them as much as possible but the leather still needs some old fashioned T.L.C. I wasn't able to work on that much but I did get the dash and all the plastic and trim done today, as well as get the seat covers off and into the wash. Tomorrow, weather providing, I will get the leather seats cleaned up and back to their previous luster. If the weather holds out I will go down to the local car wash and vacuum as well (as it really needs that).

Now I did promise a "recap", so to speak, of my first 3 weeks of Truck Driving School. I guess really it hasn't been as tough as I thought it might be, but definitely challenging. And if you have a large ego like I do, well expect some deep bruises in that area. I always knew that truck drivers had a tough job compared to those who drive 4 wheeled vehicles, but I never fully understood the vast extent that it truly was. I wish that everyone had to take a single drive around a parking lot in semi truck with a 48 foot trailer just to get their car drivers license, maybe then the general public on the roadways would have a little more understanding of what it takes for us to maneuver these 60 - 80 foot long vehicles around and just how large the blind spots really are.

Someone emailed me the other day and asked me if I were to give one piece of advise to the general driving public with regard to semi's, What would it be? It would be this: "Give them LOTS OF ROOM!!! And on ALL SIDES!! FRONT, BACK, and BOTH SIDES!". I don't think people realize that if you are in your car and behind a big truck and are closer than 40 feet, we can't see you at all. Scary huh? 40 feet! And even if you ignore that fact, please for the love of god, NEVER, EVER PASS A TRUCK ON THE RIGHT, EVER!!!

I can't emphasize that enough. It is pure suicide if you do! I mean that literally!

A great article, and I have added it to the side bar, for everyone to read, regarding sharing the road with 18 wheelers is here :Here. I encourage everyone to take a moment to read it and to consider the information in it. It just might save your life.

Here is an interesting statistic for you.

According to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), in 2002, 4,897 individuals died and 130,000 people were injured in crashes that involved a large truck. Because commercial vehicles are larger and heavier than passenger vehicles, trucking accidents typically cause much greater harm. Large trucks were only responsible for 3% of injury-causing motor vehicle accidents.

That means that 97% of all accidents that involved a large truck were caused by either passenger vehicles, or conditions beyond anyones control.

According to the NICRA, from 1994 -2003 there have been 374,509 fatal accidents that involved a DOT registered vehicle. (This includes, large delivery trucks also known as straight trucks, school and other passenger busses, as well as semi's). Out of all these, semi trucks were responsible for 4.2% of all fatalities.
(Note: that 183 deaths were caused by DOT vehicles that were moved by "acts of god" (i.e. tornado's, floods, etc)and were not the result of driver error.).

Well, that is it for me for today, lets see what tomorrow brings...

Email To Post Test

Hi folks.  This is simply a test post to see if the email to post system works as Blogger says it should now.  So lets see if they fixed it.

 

Friday May 20,2005 8:03pm CST

A Manic 3 Weeks

Well it is finally FRIDAY!!!!!!!! Yea!!!! And I did promise you all a update as to the week, and I am sorry I couldn't always post as much as I wanted to when I wanted to. However, I needed my sleep as I sure you all can understand. With that said on to todays events and a recap of the week.

Today was all classroom, we were given a review of the CDL exam and testing procedures. We covered things like how we would be graded, what the tester will be looking for, and what the automatic fails are. So what do we have. Well the CDL test is in 3 parts. Part 1 is the pre-trip (vehicle inspection). There are 318 points in a full inspection, however for time saving we are only required to do approximately 112 items. We basically don't have to check redundant items like tires, once we check 1 we get credit for all 18 tires and this is the same for all component's that are duplicated or the same on one side of the truck to the other. Of those 112 or so items we can only miss, 12! However, we do get to use a memory aid (A.K.A. cheat sheet) so it really isn't too bad.

The second part the of the CDL test is the 2 backing maneuvers. Straight line and Alley Dock. We get one shot at doing it right or it is a automatic fail. For the Alley Dock Backing test we are allowed 1 pull-up (meaning pulling forward to correct the position of the trailer/truck), we do not get a pull-up on the Straight Line Backing test. This is a pass or fail test.

The third and last part of the test is the driving/road test. In all areas we are tested on the following: Traffic checks (constantly!), Proper lane position, proper speed, proper gear (being in the right gear at the right speed at the right time), shifting (not missing a shift, grinding gears, clashing gears), and rollbacks (just that rolling backwards from a stop, rolling backwards more than 24" is a automatic fail). We are also tested on making 4 right and 4 left hand turns, Stopping and crossing intersections, driving in Urban and rural areas, knowing bridge weights and overpass heights and clearances, driving around curves, railroad crossings, expressway driving, roadside stop/start, driving on mountain grades (as we don't have a mountain nearby, we have to tell the instructor step by step what we would do if we were going up and down a mountain grade) as well as our general driving behavior.
The 3 items that will constitute and automatic fail are:
Accident-Involved in any accident the driver could have prevented or contacts ANY fixed object or pedestrian.
Dangerous Act- Driver almost causes an accident. This includes forcing someone else to take immediate action, examiner had to take action to avoid and accident, backing up because he/she took a turn too short, drives over a curb in an uncontrolled manner, not checking traffic and not slowing down when going through an uncontrolled intersection, rolls back more than 24 inches, or having both hands off the steering wheel for an extended period of time.
Law Violations- Violation ANY traffic law. This includes, but is not limited to, speeding, failing to stop for a stop sign or traffic signal, making one turn entirely from the wrong lane, turning into the wrong lane (two times) at the completion of a turn.

So that is the CDL test, ohhh yea, there are approximately 300 areas to get points taken away, multiple infractions (like not doing "proper" traffic checks nearly all the time) that meet or exceed 5 will be doubled after 5. So if you got 5 points taken off for traffic checks you get docked 5 points for that plus another 5 points for a total of 10 points just in that one area.
Ooops, almost forgot, you can only get 25 points or you fail. Boy do I need allot more practice before I even consider taking that test.

Yesterday I had another road test that didn't go as well as I had hoped. It seemed like I improved in one area yet everything else that I did good on the day before went right out the window. And yes, I am being overly hard on myself. It is just frustrating to get so far, only to realize you have so much further to go and that just when you thought you were really getting it all down pat, the reality hits you like a ton of bricks that No, NO you don't! Ohhh Well, that is why I am in school, to learn.

As I mentioned yesterday, we have all next week off till the following Wensday. At first I wasn't to thrilled about that, but now I am thankful. Gives my poor brain a chance to rest a bit, the body time to catch up on lost sleep, and get some other things taken care of.
One of those things is my Veterans Retraining Grant. I finally received a letter about it, and it says that my tax return that I provided does not prove that I was self-employed. WTF!! It says RIGHT ON IT that I was. Damn people must be blind! And of course when I tried to call today to get this straighted out EVERYONE that has anything to do with the VA all took the day off, literally! When I called the local and the regional offices I was informed that NO ONE came in to work today! SOAB, figures, when I need something done everyone decides to take the day off work, but be damned if they want to talk to me I had better make sure I am home to take their call or I can forget about them doing anything for at least a few weeks. OK, I am done ranting, but anyway, I will just have to call them on Monday and try and get everything straighted out. If I don't get that money VERY soon, well lets just say things are going to get real interesting around here, like no lights, no phone, no car (already almost a month behind), no apartment, yea you get the idea.

So I going to end this mile long post, and will continue the recap of what I have learned the past 3 weeks tomorrow. See ya then!

Roads Gone Wrong

Well today we had a recruiter from Transport America give his $1.25 to us all. Yawn. Tired of recruiters, I just want to drive. In the afternoon I had another road test. I did pretty good, I improved my shifting quite a bit, but of course I improved my shifting but then everything else went to hell. I turned into the wrong lane, came to intersections and turns too fast (according to my instructor). So I still need more practice. But for the past 3 days I have been simply exhausted, with no real understanding as to the why. I am getting 6-10hrs a night but everyday I seem to be totally drained.

We have all of next week off for semester break and don't return to school till the following week Wednesday. So I am looking forward to the break, give me a chance to catch up on some rest as well as get caught up on other items that need attention.

I will talk more about this tomorrow or Saturday, right now I am off to bed.

So This Is How Alice Felt!

Sorry for not posting yesterday, but by the time I get home and everything done (had to go grocery shopping), made some dinner, etc I was just too tired to do much of anything but sleep. Not to worry though, you didn't miss much. Yesterday was a boring day. I didn't get to do what I wanted to do which was practice my backing as there were sooo many people practicing and testing for their straight line and alley dock backing, it just wasn't worth the hassle. So I went on a ride along with another student that recently got his CDL license. The school requires 2 people in the truck when driving on public roadways, the "extra set of eyes" philosophy. So that was yesterday. See, you didn't miss much.

Today, on the other hand was a TOTALLY different story! My day started with me practicing my alley dock backing. Then I tested and passed!!! YEA!!! This will be something I am going to practice nearly every day if I can, just to get really good at it. My co-rider Mike passed his written test on Air Brakes finally. Took him 3 tries but he finally passed.

First thing in the afternoon session we had a test on "over-head height clearances" and how to check to make sure you not going to hit something that might be too low. Bot that done and signed off on, it was really easy. Shortly afterwords we got a call over the CB that an instructor was going to take both Mike and me out for a road test on public roads. Mike went first, was gone for about an hour and received a passing grade. Next was my turn.

Let me just say this, while I have always had respect for truck drivers, I now have a whole new perspective! My road test started out easy enough, a few simple turns, get on the highway, change lanes, and take an exit. So far so good, no problemo! But that is when it all changed in a big hurry. My instructor started routing me though some VERY challenging construction zones. Areas where I only had mear inches on either side of my truck or my 48' trailer. I handled this "VERY WELL" according to my instructor, and while I agree that I did do a very good job considering the extremely narrow areas, turns, and oncoming traffic, I think I did fricking awesome on that part.
Next he had me turn into an industrial park that really was never designed with truck that are 60' long in mind. It was at this point that my downshifting went to hell in a hand basket. I am really not sure why, it is like all my shifting points changed. On the driving range I could ALWAYS (even immediately after my road test) downshift from say 5th gear to 4th gear at 20mph with 800 rpms, suddenly I could not. The truck simply refused to go in to 4th gear until I was at 15 mph and only with 750 rpm, EXACTLY. There is no difference other than location between this section of road and the driving range or even the school parking lot. So I am a bit confused about that. Mike reported having the same problem, the truck simply did not operate the same on "real" roads as it does at the school under identical conditions.
So anyway, driving around this industrial park with some very challenging 90 degree turns all was going well until an extremely hard and narrow right hand turn. I started to setup my turn and half way into it a pickup truck comes barreling down the road right at me. Now the rule is, that once you "commit" to making a turn you do not deviate, PERIOD! So that is what I did. However this truck was not slowing down at all. He was driving right for me at 50mph or so. When he got within 300ft of my truck I stopped my turn till I could tell what he was going to do. He had to stop, as my truck and trailer now have the entire intersection blocked off, with a deep ditch on either side. This a$$hole continues to come right at my truck and then slams on his brakes and stops about 2 inches from my front bumper with me laying on the air horn full tilt. Then he backs up about 500ft and stops. So I proceed with my turn, but my instructor is now leaning forward to see what the hell this retarded person was doing, so I could not see the path of my trailer around the turn. I stopped and told my instructor to sit back so I could see, he does and I continue. Now wouldn't just know it, the a$$hole in the pickup, spinning his wheels and the whole deal comes launching right at me again, but this time, doesn't stop! Now I admit, I made an error, I turned away from the truck to avoid the impending head on collision, and just as I looked into my right mirror to see what my trailer is doing I slammed on the breaks, and a second later my instructor yells the same thing. My emergency maneuver to avoid the truck playing chicken with me caused me cut my turn too short and now can not make the turn! I have to backup.

Now, many of you might be thinking, "So what!, What is the big deal?" Well in the trucking industry, backing up a 60+ft truck and trailer is no small feat, and it is dangerous. The car that was behind me now has to back up so I can backup. Double whammy! This is about the second biggest "NO NO" there is. You should never put yourself in a position that forces other vehicles to move out of your way, because of a mistake on the driver. However, it is better than losing the trailer in the ditch! So I performed my backing maneuver, and pulled straight and drove around the block to Re-attempt that right hand turn again. And wouldn't you just fricken know it, that some psycho SOB was there again!!! However this time I did not play his game. I stop before making my turn, put on my 4-ways, and waited. I informed my instructor what I was doing, and asked him to write down the license plate number of the truck so we could report the jerk. Just as the instructor starts writing down him plate he hauls ass out of there. I make my turn perfectly and on we go.

But wait, the adventure didn't end there! Apparently, my instructor had no clue about all the construction that his route was putting me through. Several times he asked to me make turns that I either could not make due to how short and narrow the areas were, and I would not attempt, or the turn lane was closed. Needless to say in rush hour traffic, with less than a foot of clearance on either side of me I was a bit rattled. As I approached an intersection (under heavy construction) I got this feeling that something was going to happen. Just that little voice that tells you to be on your toes. So I slowed down (missed a gear and quickly recovered) and sure enough halfway through the intersection a car darts out against a red light right in front of my bumper, I knew that I didn't have anyone too close behind me, (thank god for that) and I had to slam on my brakes. Not hard enough to lock the wheels up or anything, but much harder than normal.

The rest of the drive back to the school was uneventful, however my bad decision with the right hand turn, even though the circumstances were extreme was enough to prevent me from getting a passing mark on the road test. I will have to go out with another instructor tomorrow morning and be re-evaluated.

While I do agree with the assessment, I don't really fell that the route chosen was appropriate for my very first time driving a 60ft big rig on public roads. It was however a very sobering experience and a VERY educational one at that. It did push me to the limits of my skills and abilities, and overall I was told I did very well considering the challenges I faced. My instructor praised my driving control and positioning of my trailer in the VERY close quarters areas of the construction zones. He did say however that I needed to work on my downshifting, and that I needed to slow down and downshift for stops, curves and turns earlier than what I was.

All I can say is that if my instructor was going to "shock value" he definitely succeeded. But I still feel that the test was a bit un-fair as even the CDL holding students, nor ANY other student that took a road evaluation (Mike was the only person who got a passing mark, and he said he didn't do half the stuff I ended up doing) was put through the "paces" that I was. Many did however go through the industrial park, but none had to contend with all the construction that I ended up dealing with. Overall though I at least now know the things I really need to focus, work on and watch for.

For the evening portion of our driving, we received instruction on coupling and un-coupling our trailers. So at the end of the night, we had to park and un-hook our trailers and then park our trucks. Tomorrow we will hook up the trailers and repeat this processes every day from now on.

Time for this tired driver to go to bed, Night!

Without Failure, How Would We Know Success

Well as I am sure you can infer from the todays post title, today was not my best day. My rampant success often exceeding my peers in my class came to a crashing halt today. Today, I failed my Alley Dock Backing Test. Worst of all I didn't fail only once, but twice! Needless to say I am not exactly thrilled with myself. I practiced doing Alley Dock Backing for about 2 hrs today, then decided that I was ready to take my test. I had to pass 3 out of 4 attempts to pass.

Test attempt 1, Attempt 1 of 4: I completed this first attempt with text book perfection that would make a seasoned professional driver with 20 years under his belt proud. Attempt 2 of 4: Absolute disaster! Things started out well but right at the critical point I let the trailer drift too far to the far side of the dock slot and even with a pull up I could not correct for the abysmal position of my trailer. FAIL! Attempt 3 of 4: Attempt 3 went as good as attempt #2. Only difference is that I cut the trailer too far to the inside on the dock slot and once again was unable to correct for the terrible trailer position. FAIL! That killed my chances at the test attempt.

My instructor sensing that I was pretty upset with myself told to take lap or two around the Keller Driving Course, clear my head and try again. So that is what I did.

Test Attempt 2, Attempt 1 of 4: Just like the my first attempt, it was nearly text book perfect. Not quite as good as the other first attempt, but still very good. Attempt 2 of 4: Again, this time I let the trailer get too far to the far side of the slot, but thought that I could correct it in time. WRONG! So I attempted to fix it with my pull up and knocked over a corner cone in the process. FAIL! Attempt 3 of 4: Again I let the trailer go too far to the far side of the dock slot and even using my pull up was unable to correct it. Things got so far out of whack that a "simple" alley dock backing maneuver turned into a really bad blind side backing maneuver (a blind side backing maneuver is when you back towards the passenger side of the truck and you cannot see anything behind you nor can you see where your trailer is or where it is going. It is the most difficult and dangerous type of backing maneuver). Needless to say I once again FAILED!

Now I could be like some of the other students and blame my failure on other trucks driving far too close to where I was backing, causing a serious distraction, However I know that the only person to blame for this failure is ME! In the real world there will always be many, many such distractions.

I don't feel any of these things were to blame, just my lack of practice and experience. So tomorrow I will be back, practicing my backing till I get it perfect the first time, every time! Then I will ask to be tested. Granted, for my CDL I only have to pass one time, but that is not the point. This is a skill that I will have to use on a daily basis, so I really need to be good at it! The good thing also is that there is limit on how many times I take the school test, however I only get 1 shot at it for my CDL.

My driving partner went and took his written tests at the DMV today. He only took the mandatory 3 tests, General Knowledge, Air Brakes, and Combination. He only passed 2 of the 3, he failed the Air Brake Exam. So he will have to retake that test tomorrow. He did however pass his Alley Dock Backing test today. Maybe that is why my failure today with my backing test is bugging me so bad. Ohh well, nothing I can do about it other than practice like hell tomorrow and try again.

I got some more worrisome news today from the admission department. There is a separate fee for us to take our CDL test that is not part of the normal course fee. So i needed to inform admissions that I wanted to pay for the test with my financial aid account. However, when they tried to do that, they told me that for some reason my financial aid is not showing up for the summer session of my courses. So now I am like WTF!!! Now, I admit that I don't fully understand how financial aid works as far as semester schedules go, but it seems they make this process 10 times more difficult that it is. I have $1200 or so dollars available in my financial aid account, I feel this is like a mini bank account that gets used for school related expenses, and whatever you don't use they cut you a check for at the end of the term/year or completion of your course. You in turn have to pay back that money as it is a loan. But, apparently this is not how this works or there is a mix up somewhere. So I have to talk to financial aid tomorrow to get this straighted out. The thing that pisses me off though, is that I was just at the admissions office last week to verify payment of the last 7 weeks of my course and was told that EVERYTHING was good to go! My financial aid account would be debited for the cost of the course as they became due, and now i am told by the same office less than a week later that this is not the case. Driving me nuts! I pity full time college students that are in degree programs that have to deal with this kind of crap.

On a separate and positive note I got a check today from my client that owed me the $200!! I was shocked to say the least. But I am also relived that I won't have to deal with all the legal crap to collect it. Now I just hope the check is good.....

Just Another Saturday

Nothing to really report for today. I got caught up on some much needed sleep and spent the rest of the day watching some movies and playing poker on the computer. I will do some laundry tomorrow and a bit of house work, cleaning and such.

I got the return receipt today from the certified letter I mailed to a client of mine that owes me $200 so I know he has received the invoice, even though I know he got the others I sent him via email also. Hopefully he will pay his bill by the end of the month so I don't have to take him to small claims court. Well, we will see what happens but I am not holding my breath that he will pay me.

Just a random thought of the day: Ever plan an nice quiet evening for you someone special, and then end up with that person inviting THEIR friends to your "party"? Annoying isn't it? Yea, I think so too.

Well that is all for today, maybe something exciting will happen tomorrow.

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, Off To The DMV I Go........

Well today I went down to the DMV and took all 6 of my Class A written tests. I know I said yesterday that I wasn't going to bother with taking the Hazmat test but since I could take all the tests for one price ($20) I figured that I might as well attempt it. If I passed it, I passed, If I didn't no big loss. Well after the hellatious wait I finally took the tests, about 170 questions total. I passed all of them, including Hazmat, with a 94% average. Not as good as I had wanted but good enough. The questions that I got wrong were ones where there is 2 right answers, but one answer is "more" right than the other. I hate it when they do that. But none the less, I passed and got my Class A learners permit. Now all I have to do is pass my last backing test (alley dock backing), and then I can take a road test to be cleared to drive on public roads. YEA!!!!

Well I don't know about you all, but I am exhausted and am in desperate need of sleep, so I am off to bed. See you tomorrow.

Back!..... Back I Say!!

Today was a fairly good day. The weather wasn't good at all, rain, hail, cold and windy, But warm in my truck so that was where I stayed. My morning was filled with classroom lecture on backing and turns. The afternoon was practice driving on the Keller Range, and backing exercises. The 3 backing maneuvers we are required to perform in Phase One to get cleared to to go on road (And have to be repeated 3 out of 4 attempts) are: Straight Line Stop (means you have to pull up to a line and stop so your front bumper is in a specific box that is no wider than 2 feet deep. You only get One complete stop attempt), Straight Line Backing (you must back up through a marked lane that is 12 feet wide, and 80 feet long. No part of the truck or trailer can cross the line.), and Alley Dock Backing. Alley Dock Backing is hard to explain so here is another crappy drawing of what you have to do.


Well I got 2 of the three tests completed on my first try. I completed the Straight Line Stop, and the Straight Line Backing. I still have to pass the Alley Dock Backing maneuver, however I am going to need more practice on that one. It takes a bit of precision in the setup (the blue line in the picture above) if your just a little too far forward or make that "S" turn too soon or too late, your screwed. So that is going to take a bit of practice to get the distance and setup correct before I try to take the test for that maneuver. I have to make that 3 times out of 4 attempts or I fail and have to do it all over.

I did mess up my second Straight Line Backing test so that one got voided. Not really sure quite what happened but my trailer just got too far off line and I was not able to correct for it enough. However I did perform my last 2 attempts perfectly and passed.

My shifting has greatly improved today as well, only ground 1 gear all day today, Yea for me!!! Tomorrow I am planning on going down to the DMV near the college and taking my tests for my instructional permit. After I pass my backing tests and have my instructional permit I can start driving on public roads. I hope to meet all the requirements by Wensday next week. I am dreading going to the DMV tomorrow. I am not worried about the tests, just the pain in the ass of dealing with the DMV.

Home On The Keller Range.

Today was a great day! Not in the warm weather sense, but as far as my training it was a great day. After morning dispatch my driving partner and I were informed that we were going to be givin another driving test first thing. So we pre-tripped our truck and quickly got out on the driving course to get 1 practice lap in before the test, and as luck would have it I was the first to get tested. Remember the other day when I said I would ask my instructor to ride along with me to give the "real deal" on how well I was doing, well I figured there was no time like the present, so I asked my instructor to be VERY CANDID. Little did I know that the whole reason for the drive test for to see if we were ready to get assigned our 48 foot trailers! After that info was provided I thought I had just made a big mistake. Thankfully it turns out I didn't!! After making 2 laps around the course my instructor informed me that I was doing extremely well, even though I did need to work on matching ground speed to gear speed more, but on the other side, said that I recovered VERY well when faced with moving to fast to catch the gear I wanted and then shifting to the gear I intended. Needless to say I passed my second driving test with flying colors as did my driving partner. For our good work we were awarded a 48 foot trailer to drive with.

After making my first lap of the driving course with the 48 foot trailer, I wish to god I had had one from the beginning. Granted this is an empty trailer, but suddenly my truck has transformed into a gentle giant from the PMS'ing bitch that she was. The truck shifts like a dream and handles 100X better than it EVER did as a bobtail. This truck like having a trailer attached!!! There is allot to watch and pay attention to when hauling a 48 foot trailer and my driving technique has had to change dramatically to accommodate the 60+ feet of truck and trailer when making even simple turns. After driving with the trailer for about 3 hrs, it has already started becoming a simple extension of the truck, and I find that I simply allow for the added length almost with out thinking about it. I really need to work on pulling into a parking stall from a 90 degree angle though. I am having a hard time getting it in the slot perfectly straight. Tomorrow I think I will spend some time practicing that maneuver. It sounds like this would be something simple but it is not. Here is a bad drawing of what you have to do:


As you can see from my bad drawing you have to pull far enough ahead, and make your "S" turns at the right points and time to get the rear of the trailer to be straight and line up with the tractor in the parking spot. So I need to work on that, while I keep my truck and trailer between the lines, it is often at a slight angle in the spot.

On a good note though I didn't kill any cones! They all lived to die another day! LOL

What A Difference A Day Makes.

Today we spent the morning covering 3 new transmissions, the 5-2 transmission, the 13 speed transmission, and the 20 speed transmission. The three are less common (with the exception of the 13 speed) than the 9 and 10 speed transmissions but it is good to at least know what the shift pattern is in case we ever run into one, but boy does it get complicated with that many gears. Of the 3 the 13 speed is the most complicated (to me anyway) how ever it is the most versatile of all the different transmissions. I am sure once you get past the learning curve, like anything else it would be just as easy as any other transmission.

The afternoon was spent on the Keller driving course. Now I can't explain what has happened between yesterday and today, but everything just seemed to click. I was able to up-shift no problem, downshift no problem. That doesn't mean that I didn't grind a few gears or miss a shift, but I recovered from those problems automatically without having to take time to think about it. How that is I have no idea, all I know is it just happened that way. It is like I downloaded the info into my brain overnight or something and everything just made sense today while driving. I still need practice, no doubt and I am no pro shifter yet, but I am doing 100X better now than before. Everyday of practice I get better and better and I am very happy with my performance today. I am still having a little trouble with controlling my speed going down hill while trying to downshift for a stop, but I think it is just a matte of getting a feel for the momentum and adjusting my shift and brake timing to compensate. Tomorrow is our long day with night driving, and I am looking forward to that.

So far it appears that my driving partner (Mike) and myself are progressing much better than the rest of our class. Most of the class just today passed their driving test to drive the Keller Range, and there are still a few I think that still have not made the grade. I think on Thursday I will ask an instructor to ride along with me and give me their evaluation on how well I am really doing, and not how "I Think" I am doing.

When I got home tonight, in preparation for taking my written tests this Friday for my permit, I took a very lengthy practice test that the school gave us. Out of the 111 questions I got 12 wrong. I got 3 wrong because I didn't read the question properly. Maybe tomorrow night I will try taking the test without the distraction of my favorite TV shows. Even though I got 12 wrong it is still a passing grade, but I should be able to ace the test with proper study.

One Test Down, Many More To Go.

Well this might seem like a petty thing to be happy about, but I passed my first driving test today. Today, we had about an hour of practice driving around the skid pad oval course, then an instructor rode with each of us and evaluated our shifting skills. After successfull completion we were cleared to go on what is called the "Keller Range". The Keller Range is about a 1 mile course with a wide variety of obstacles and situations like Low Overhead Clearance bar that the instructors can raise and lower, simulated railroad crossing, up hill grades and down hill grades, sharp turns, stop signs, narrow road sections, and even a stop light. This is really a shifting course with all these elements added. We are encouraged to to work on shifting up to our high range gears and back down repeatedly. It is much more exciting that the boring oval course.

My shifting has improved greatly since my first attempt, but my down shifting still needs some work but is getting better and better. I still need more practice on getting my road speed and rpms matched for the gear I want, but I am getting the hang of it. Today was really the first time I have been able to shift into high range (high range on my 9 speed starts with 5th gear) so it was a bit of a learning curve even during my driving test. The weather did not help one bit, as soon as it was my turn to take my test it started to rain VERY HARD, thunder and lighting. Not really the distraction I needed when driving a new course, shifting into high range for the first time, and downshifting from high range to low range, plus addressing all the obstacles on the Keller Range course. Needless to say I did not do as good of a job as I feel I could have, but it was still good enough to pass my test. I take a bit of pride in this as not everyone passed their test, and I have only had effectively at this point about 1 1/2 hours behind the wheel and a total of 7 miles under my belt. I only had 4 miles and about 1 hour of total drive time before my test. So the fact that I made this "minor" accomplishment pleases me.

The other "task" I have set for myself is to go down to the DMV and take my 5 tests for my instructional permit this Friday. The 5 written tests I have to take are, General Knowledge, Air Brakes, Combination, Tanker, Doubles/Triples, and Hazmat. I am not sure I am going to take the Hazmat though as the new laws require a background check, fingerprinting, and the test with a nice price tag of $90. With money concerns right now I just might wait and get that endorsement later when I can afford it, or when my employer wants to pay for it. The other 4 I have to get to pass the course and I might as well take them all at the same time and get it done with. I have been studying and taking some online practice tests and judging by that I will easily pass them, but I would not get a 100%. So, I figure if I spend an hour each day studying and keep taking the practice tests everyday between now and Friday I will be only get 1 or 2 wrong overall (Yea, I am kinda weird about things like that, always the perfectionist).

Today we also had a recruiter from US Express come in and give his "sales pitch". But this is really starting to bother me, as for today for instance the recruiter took about an hour to give his little speech, but that also means that I had an hour less of training and practice time. There is already at least 1 recruiter lined up everyday this week. I have a bit of an issue with this. I am spending $1800+ for training, not a damn job fair. They should make this optional, in another classroom or something, those that want to hear the recruiters speech can go hear it and those of us that want to learn, study, and practice our driving should be able to do that. After all that is why I am there in the first place. So tomorrow I am going to bring this up with my instructor. I feel my time and my money is better spent learning to be a better truck driver, not attending a job fair on my dime. Not sure if anything I say to my instructors will change anything or not, but at least I can voice my opinion and disagreement with how my time and money are being used.

We also got word today that three members of the class that had issues with their DOT medical clearances will not be returning. One simply did not show up today as he was supposed to so we think he still failed the medical, the other two it was confirmed that they failed the medical. There is a fourth member of the class that dropped out because his old company that originally laid him off, called him to come back to work and decided to drop the course and go back to work.

Well that was today, lets see what tomorrow brings!!!

Yawn.............

Nothing to really report on today. Basically a lazy day. I did some laundry, and some reading of my school books but beyond that nothing new. Have to call my mom for Mothers Day here in a few, as when I tried earlier there was no answer. Going to get to bed early tonight so I am well rested for school tomorrow.

I am looking forward to trying out some of the tips and tricks that I have received from my dad and some truck drivers to help me with my downshifting troubles. Maybe I will find one that will work for me. We will just have to see tomorrow.

Business As Usual

Not much to say about today, just ran a few errands, sent off a 60 day past due invoice to a client that owes me money, maybe he will pay it so I don't have to sue him for it. Other than that not much going on today.

On the home front things are going pretty good with the exception of my roommate. I get the distinct feeling she is not thrilled about my decision to end the apartment lease in September when it is up for renewal and move back to the house in Cali with Stephanie. Now I am not sure if it is because she likes the apartment and doesn't want to move, has a personal interest in me, or what. But it really doesn't matter. I can't justify the cost of the apartment till things get situated with what ever trucking company I hire on with, and I can really use the extra money to pay off debts and loans from my folks (over $3 grand). I can pay my parents back in 6 months just with the money I will save from ending the apartment lease.

However the decision is not totally laid in stone, it depends on what difficulties might arise with my potential employers. The house in Clearlake is not exactly close to ANYTHING, but I hope it will not be a major problem. Stephanie as also mentioned that there is talk between her and her mom of selling the Clearlake house and possibly moving to Oregon or Washington. Not sure how I feel about that, but as long as I can park a semi near the house, has a carport or garage for my car, and a bed to lay my head down, I don't really care. I am pretty simple like that.

A Lazy Sort Of Day

Hi folks. Class today was...... well class. Not much to say really as nothing really happened today. We had a bit of instruction on the Super 10 speed split transmission and allot of Q&A and review and input on yesterday's driving. I was sorta glad to hear that everyone had problems with downshifting yesterday, not just me. I also talked with a few of the phase 2 and 3 students today (phase 4 graduated on Wednesday I was told), and was informed that they also had problems with the truck I am now driving (#9128) . So it might not be just me, although I am sure a good deal of it is me. I figure if after driving this truck all next week I can't seem to get much improvement I will ask if I can get a different truck for a day and see how that goes.

Now I can hear the current truck drivers already saying, "In the real world you don't have that option buddy!", and they are correct, however near the end of next week we start pulling a 48' - 54' trailer and start backing exercises. Now that will be a real pain in the ass to learn if I can't even drive the truck because I am unable to downshift the damn thing. I would rather get the skills learned than fight with one particular truck. Also, our current truck assignment is the same truck we will take our CDL exam in, and again, it would not be a good thing if I go to take my CDL in a truck that I can't seem to downshift worth a damn, regardless of whose' fault it is.
But, I might just be getting a bit ahead of myself. After all I have only driven the truck for a whole 45mins for a total of 3 miles. Not exactly allot of time, so I might be being a bit hard on myself and not very fair to the truck either. Next week I will get MUCH more driving time and then I think I will be able to get a better handle on it. I really don't want to be the person that asks for a new truck just because I can't seem to figure out the trucks quirks.

I definitely feel like I need to learn things faster, and that I am taking to long, even though I still have 9 weeks of school left, and I have lots of time to learn. LOL.

You might also notice that I changed the archiving format from weekly to monthly. After some thought and the length that the archive column was getting to I decided that this would be the better way to go. Also this weekend I will be playing the email-to-post feature to see if they got all the bugs worked out of that system. So if you see a very odd post or a test post that is what is going on. Tomorrow I will recap and get you caught up on some things happening here on the home front. So stay tuned, and we will see you tomorrow!

It Is Off To The Races!

Today was definitely and interesting, exciting, frustrating day. It started with me sleeping through my alarm and being 45 mins late for school (I called in and let them know that I was running late, so it wasn't too big a deal, but not one that I want to repeat). After a morning of classroom instruction on shifting, different transmissions types and patterns (at the school they have straight 5 speeds, straight 7 speeds, straight 9 speeds, split 9 speeds and 2 different shift patterns, split 10 speeds and super 10 speeds) and what not to do's, we then had a visiting recruiter from a local company looking to hire good drivers. After lunch we were assigned our driving partner and our trucks.

Lucky for me, I got paired up with Mike!! Sweet, we get along good so I glad he is my partner, and we were assigned truck # 9128. A Century Class single drive axle tractor with a Detroit Engine and a 9 speed transmission. Possibly with worst engine/transmission combo there is!

OK, now why do I say the worst combo there is? Let me explain. We have 3 main engines in the trucks that the school uses. Cummings, Detroit, and Mack. What makes them good or bad from a learning perspective is the rate at which the engine rpms build and drop. The faster the rpms go up the faster they drop which makes you have to shift faster. The slower the engine builds rpms the longer it takes for the engine to drop rpms which means you have more time to shift (you might even have to wait on the engine before you can shift). Well it breaks down like this, Detroit Engines rpms build fast and drop fast, Mack engines are the exact opposite, they are very slow, and Cummings are in the middle. So the engine in my truck builds rpms and drops them very quick meaning I need to be able to shift quickly.

Transmissions are another area. With all the different transmissions I was really hoping to get a split 10 speed or a super 10 speed as the shift pattern is more natural. However this did not happen, I got a split 9 speed with a Low gear in the normal 1st gear hole. But this darn transmission is a real pain in the ass. Up-shifting is no real problem and shifts like a charm (for the most part) but downshifting is a real bitch! You have to have the engine rpms at almost exactly 850 rpms on your downshift or it will NOT go in gear no matter what, and if you miss your shift, forget it! It is near impossible to get the SOB to go into ANY gear afterwords without coming to a complete stop, and waiting for at least 40 secs before it will go into Low gear. I haven't been able to convince it to go into 1st or any other gear to start in other than Low and even that sometimes takes some "convincing".

So what do I have? I have an engine that builds and drops rpms very quickly, meaning I have to make quicker shifts. And I have a transmission that up-shifts just fine but is a totally pain in the ass to downshift at all. Tomorrow there is no driving as it is Friday, so I won't get to drive again till Monday. The other thing is how hard the clutch is in my truck, needless to say my left leg muscle is going to become the strongest muscle in my whole body is a short period of time!

Overall today I feel I did very well. I am going to need MUCH more practice downshifting but I did get a handle on double-clutching and keeping my shallow clutches, I also didn't grind any gears on my up-shifts, but my downshifts is a whole different story. Well we will just have to see how things go on Monday. I think I will spend a little time in the simulator tomorrow and see how that goes.

Wow, Do I Even Know How To Drive?

Today in truck driving school was a pretty fun day. We actually got out of our classroom hell today (not that the information is bad, just my ass is sore from sitting on those hard plastic chairs for 8 hours) and got to use the shifting simulator, get a Pre-trip Demo from some of the phase 3 students, and learn and do some work with our log books.

We started with the log books, (log books are what professional truck drivers use to keep track and monitor their hours of service, or more simply, how many hours we have been driving and working but not driving, how many hours we spend sleeping, as well as how much time we are off work. Yes, we have to account for ALL of our time even when we are not driving a truck and even on our days off.) pretty basic and simple stuff on how to do and actually making our daily logs. That was not problem, it will get more involved next week when we do our weekly totals, and get into split sleeper berth time, as well as the rules on the 70/80 hours per week rules as well as the 34 hour restart. But that doesn't happen till Monday, so I will deal with it then.

The next thing we did today was to start practicing on the shifting simulator. Now I really didn't think that shifting was going to be that big of a deal for me as have driven a manual transmission cars for several years, and figured that shifting a standard 10 speed transmission and double clutching wouldn't be that big of a stretch. Boy was I wrong!
My first attempt was disastrous! The simulator told me I was grinding nearly every gear. I felt like I had never driving a stick shift or even a car before. Now before I get too far ahead of myself let me give you a little info on shifting a 10 speed transmission. First to put it in gear you have to push the clutch all the way to the floor, after that you NEVER push the clutch down that far while moving. So while moving your only pressing the clutch down about half way to make your shifts. Now for those of you who may not know what double clutching is, it is basically just like it sounds. You have to push in the clutch (remember only half way down, not all the way) and shift from say first gear into neutral, then let the clutch all the way out, push the clutch in again (same as before only about half way down) and then shift into second gear, then let the clutch back out to complete your shift. Sounds easy right? NOT!! Firstly, every instinct in your body is to push the clutch all the way in, it feels soooo wrong not doing so. So much so that I had to adjust the seat position so I couldn't put the clutch all the way in and still stay in the seat to keep from doing it. While shifting into your next gear you have to wait on the engine RPMs to drop to the "sweet spot" (around 1000 - 1200 rpms) before trying to put it in gear or your grinding the gears. It is just really awkward. But overall upshifting is NOTHING compared to downshifting.

Downshifting is going to be my big shifting problem area. When you downshift, it is the same shifting procedure as upshifting, the only big difference is you have to accelerate the engine rpms to drop into your next lower gear! So it would go like this. 10th gear, pressing on the brake, clutch in, shift to neutral, clutch out, clutch in, accelerate, shift into 9th gear, let clutch out. Sounds simple, but try getting your brain to let you press the accelerator when your supposed to be slowing down all the while shifting and double clutching! That is going to be the hard part. my brain just doesn't like to let me press my foot down on the gas peddle when downshifting. But I will get it, it might take some time and a few clutches and transmissions, but by golly I will get it. Thankfully, everyone in class performed about the same as I did there first time on the simulator, and we all got a good laugh at ourselves in the process.

The last thing we did today was our Pre-trip demonstration which a few of the phase 3 students gave to us. There is 183 items on the pre-trip inspection that we have to know, name, and identify to pass the CDL test. It is allot of stuff to remember but once I get a sequence down of doing it I shouldn't have any problems. It is just a bit overwhelming.

Tomorrow I hope will be a better day in the simulator. I have a feeling I will be spending much of my free time there.

Just Another Day In The Trenches

School today was not much different than yesterday other than it involved more classroom time and familiarization with what will be expected of us as students and what we should expect in over the remainder of the week and an overview of the next 2 weeks.

It is also apparent that of the 14 members in the class 5 might not make it past tomorrow due to their physicals or problems thereof. So the lesson there to other would be truck driving students would be to get the physical on your own before going to school or make sure you at least have the names and contact information from your previous doctors so if you run into a problem during your DOT physical you have the information so the doctor can talk with your physician/doctor and get the questions that he needs answered to clear you.
With at least 2 of the students, one has a problem with a previous prescription issued by his doctor to help him quite smoking. Unfortunately, this medication is on the "watch list" of medications, and if the doctor that gave us the DOT physical cannot reach this students doctor by tomorrow night, the student may get shown the door. The other student requires some additional paperwork or contact from his doctor as well for diabetes condition that is controlled by diet and not by insulin. I am not sure what the other 3 students that had problems with their medical clearance are, but they are probably similar.

I am getting along pretty good with one member of the class named Mike, he is a cool guy. He is an Electrical Engineer/Designer so we have similar technical items in our respective fields that we discuss. He is also ex-military which is cool too. He would be a cool person to team up with, if we the students get to choose our teaming partner to train with. (2 students per truck)

We also had a guest speaker today. Can't recall his name but he is a driver for Schneider and has 3.5 million safe miles (meaning accident free). It was funny to hear about some of his road stories as well as his thoughts on certain difficulties, new HOS (Hours of Service rules), etc.
In addition, we got the "grand tour" of the trucking facility, as well as more instruction and procedures on usage of the repair bays, breakdown procedures, and where we can go and where we shouldn't go, as well as the why. We share the building with the motorcycle training department, diesel repair, auto repair, and body repair departments.

I didn't have time today to get over to the Financial Aid Office and find out about getting money back for what I had to spend to get into the truck driving course. So I hope I will get a chance tomorrow or maybe on Friday as the afternoon is "student time" (free time) for self study on Friday's.

Tomorrow we should be starting to get really started on learning how to fill out our log books as well as more classroom study to prepare for the written test to get our CDL Instructional Permit. (This is just like your learners permit for your driving license except it is for a Class A or B license). Our evening session (5pm to 8pm) we will be practicing the pre-trip inspection on an actual truck, so that will be cool.

The only thing that is a bit of a drag is all the classroom sitting. Seriously, my ass is getting sore sitting on these hard plastic chairs. I would kill for something with just a hair of padding.

So I am going to do a little bit of studying tonight and get to bed early as tomorrow will be a long day. Till tomarrow..........

.........GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well today was the big day!! I started truck driving school at Fox Valley Tech! It was a good day considering it was orientation day. We met our lead instructors, got all our paperwork on the school campus, some basic info packet on the truck driving course (nothing that I didn't already read in the other literature), an pamphlet and form to fill out if we want the 3 month insurance plan (it is like $90 a month, but only covers you in the event that something happens while in school. Not really worth it to me, so I will not take it.). Then we went over to local medical clinic (Occupational Health) and took our physical and drug test. The physical was a total joke. As long as your not blind, and don't have high blood pressure you can easily pass the physical. I felt robbed after paying $110.50 for the physical and drug test, but nothing I can do about it, has to be done to get my Federal Medical Card, and my drug test clearance.

Then it was off to the campus book store to get my required books and materials for the course. The grand total for that came to $74.12. Thankfully, my Financial Aid was ready and I used that to pay for my books. Tomorrow I am going to check and see if I can get money from my Financial Aid account to reimburse the $500+ I had to pay out to start my course. Not sure if I can, but it is worth a try.

The rest of the day, was spent watching test prep videos for our CDL permit and getting to know one another. Pretty standard orientation day I guess.

I was surprised at the average age of the people in the class. There are 14 of us in the Class A Semi Truck and 4 in the Class B Straight Truck Course (Class B is only 4 weeks long). There is only 2 people in the class that are my approximate age, can't remember their names off the top of my head but one is under 21 (20 I am guessing or they wouldn't let him in the class) and the second, he is around 28-32. The remainder of the class is all over 35-40+ including the 2 women in the class. Everyone seems nice enough, with a few odd balls. One guy who is doing a 7 week refresher course upgrade to get training from Class B to Class A seems a little slow mentally. Maybe it is just the way he talks that gives me that impression, time will tell. Another "odd ball" in the class is a gentleman of Asian decent (not sure of his nationality and I have learned over the years many find it offensive if you guess wrong so I won't make that assumption and just leave it as "Asian decent".) who doesn't speak english very well and really keeps to himself and doesn't interact much with the others.

Well, I am looking forward to what tomorrow brings, but for now I have a little reading to do. Cya tomorrow!

.........Get Set.............

Well today is my last day of R&R. After a 3 week vacation you would think I would be itching to get off my butt and do something productive, and I am! But I admit I wouldn't have minded a little more R&R time.

Today I think my roommates child comes here from her dads till Wensday. Not really looking forward to that much, as my stress levels go through the roof and I find all the extra noise makes it really difficult to relax or focus. Thankfully my first day at school is mainly just getting books and getting my physical done so it shouldn't be too bad.

Lately I have been spending my R&R time playing poker on-line. The site www.pokerstars.net has a neat play money poker setup where you can play other players all over the world. I have been enjoying it, and I have even had the chance to play poker with my dad, an added bonus.

Well that is it for today, I will be going to bed early tonight to get a jump on tomorrow.