COVENANT -- From a wife's perspective

Day 13 of 35

Well I called Covenant yesterday and told them I needed him home to help me and they were very nice. He is currently on his way to Ohio and after that they are going to see if they can get a load from there that will take him through Iowa where he can get off. If not they mentioned getting a bus for him so I thought that was generous of them.

I talked to him very briefly this morning as he was trying to drive. He seemed to have a little more life to his voice now that he knows there is an end in sight. I asked him how he was feeling and he said about the same but I think the prospect of coming home for a while has given him something to focus on rather than how miserable he is and that is a good thing. He has made it from California to heading up through Kentucky. I keep thinking that if he stuck with it that eventually he would become desensitized to it and that his nerves would start to calm down. But he still needs a different trainer and I just can't convince him to ask for another one.

For the past 13 days it has been drive/sleep/drive/sleep/drive/sleep interspersed with periods of waiting for a load. It has completely worn him down. He is definitely one of those people who need to take a break every couple of hours to eat/stretch/whatever.

Another thing I've noticed is that he and his trainer hardly talk to each other which is very bad. I'm wondering if his trainer is waiting for Redcoat to take the initiative to show some interest? If that's the case, then that may be what has stalled the training situation. It could be that his trainer has misinterpreted Redcoat's silence to mean that he doesn't care and that he has a bad attitude when in fact Redcoat is just afraid to say anything that will upset the status quo.

For the life of me I just can't believe that this man is a senior trainer and that he doesn't insist on communicating with his student whether there is an apparent lack of interest or not. Knowing my husband like I do, I'm betting that he has completely withdrawn within himself as a means of self preservation which can definitely be mistaken by someone else as a lack of motivation.

When he finally gets home, I'm going to see if I can get the real story about what went on out there to cause the situation to degenerate to this level.

And now it's time for me to get to work. I'll post again when I have more news.

 

Update.

Redcoat has made it to Ohio. They are 40 miles from their drop at the shipper and they have to wait until the morning.

A break every 150-200 miles!!!! OMG His trainer would have a coniption if he did that!! Rocks you said there were good trainers out there. Can you ask for a specific trainer? Redcoat says that if he gets back in the saddle before 30 days that he can pick up where he left off and not have to start all over. It would be great if he could get a trainer that you knew and could recommend.

He was a bundle of nerves again this afternoon as he went through a bunch of road construction and through two big cities in his 11 hours of driving with only one stop for lunch. After his hometime, I think what he needs is a trainer to sit in the right seat and tell him it's ok to go as slow as he needs to until he gets comfortable with all the mishmash of traffic around him. He is just SO afraid he's going to run over a 4-wheeler that cuts in front of him (like they all do). I also think he needs to be able to find a place that is set up like road construction where he is the only one there and be able to stop to get out to see exactly how much room he has between the truck and the jersey barrier. I know it's tight but I'd be willing to bet it's not near as tight as he thinks it is. I bet he has more room than he thinks he has and if he could get out and put his arms out between the truck and the barrier then he'd be able to see that he has at least a *little* bit of maneuvering room and it might help to ease his mind somewhat as he drives through it. Of course all bets are off if it's windy and I know everybody in here has had to pry their butts off the seat after negotiating construction areas (and grades and bridges) in a bad crosswind.

And, yeah, Lyion, the valve stems were on my personal truck. Speaking of which I have to take it down to the dealership in the morning (for the third time) to get a cooling fan on the high voltage battery replaced. Good thing it's still under warranty (for at least 8000 more miles).

Other from that, that's all my news. I'll tell Redcoat he's just going to have to monkey around with the qualcomm to learn what all it does. And he's using his commdata card at the ATM to get his payday in cash.....even though it charges him something like $3.50 for every $200. "Bloody thievin' bast**ds" he calls it.