On my way!

Why Thanks! I'm not writing off anyone yet since apparently, with my MVR, I'll have to see who, if anyone, will take me. Right now I just need to focus on this first step, starting Monday morning...

 

Did you find a good source for goat's blood? It was a pain to get here!

Thanks for your wishes and i'll be referring back to this thread constantly, as I try to get myself placed.

 

Start school tomorrow, I can hardly wait! Of course I'll tell all y'all about it tomorrow night!

 

Ok, my first day of truck driving school is in the can! First of all, a little explanation on how they work. For the classroom portion we have these ten "lectures" that we have to test on (open book too) and, because they start new "classes" every Monday, wherever they are in the rotation, that's where you come in at. I started today and they were on lecture 6. (covering about 4 chapters of their book)

Right off the bat, I get told that they have a recruiter in, and so spent my first 45 minutes listening to some Werner drone... (LOL, not!)

Another aspect of the experience, that is specific to me is that, a lot of guys (there were about 5 of os "1st day-ers" today) already had their medical card and some even had their permits: General Knowledge, Air brakes and Combination vehicles--which you have to test out on to get the specific permit; all which are required before I can ever get into a truck.

I of course, came in with nothing, since having had no hours practically, I've had next to no money. Not that it would be necessary for me though, since my WIA funding covers all the costs, up to and including for the Hazmat certification! This does mean that I have to do things at their convenience however...

So, tomorrow, they are "sending" me to get my DOT physical (required before you can test out for permits) and I'm hoping that I'm not being sent on my own, as taking bus-train-bus back and forth would eat up the whole day. I'm hoping that maybe they'll have someone run me over there (to the clinic) or maybe there'll be someone else who needs to go that I can hook a ride with...we'll see.

So I spent most of my day studying their book (for the day's "lecture", most of the questions in the quiz however, I was able to answer off the top of my head, from the studying I've already done! I also learned how to use their computer program, though it seems kind of pointless, as there is nothing identifying me, as the user, so therefore nothing really "official" about it. One of the other guys said "it's just for practice". Oh, ok...Very long too...But of the 241 questions on the General Knowledge section (the only one I managed to complete) I only got 10 wrong! These, naturally, were on topics I hadn't turned my attention to yet.

One kind of nice thing is the one (main?) instructor took us all out and let us observe as he put this other guy through his paces, preparatory to the Pre-trip inspection test--It helped us see how it goes and how you need to phrase your answers, etc. One cool thing is that I was misunderstanding what something was, when we were checking out the rear trailer suspension--what I had thought were a couple of air tanks, were actually a pair of brake chambers! (I told you I have no mechanical knowledge!) Anyway, when we had come back inside, it was time for lunch and I was talking to this one guy I had gotten on speaking terms with and, in the classroom, they had this low shelf with "spare parts" on it and he showed me, piece by piece, how the whole brake system works (S-Cam) which is a LOT better than some 2D pencil sketch in a book!

Only bad thing about the day was that, because I couldn't sleep last night from excitement, I was pretty dragged out...Not to mention standing out in the sun (no shelter) for about 20 minutes to catch the first bus on my trip home. It's ok though, I just grabbed some sleep on the trains...

On top of everything, I got home to find a (small) refund check from the state for overpayment of child support...Profit!

Tomorrow though, I'm definitely gonna pack a little something with for a lunch.

 

2nd day went really well too, even though it didn't start out that way...

Right off, my 2nd train was 17 minutes late, and I figured I would be late for school. I called in, as the lady I've been dealing with (Barb) told me to, and I don't know who it was that I talked to (when I call in, I get a different location and they xfrer me to my campus) but she said that Barb wasn't in (this was at 0730) and that I would get hit with a $10 late fee...

I wasn't gonna try to argue with this person, while on the train, so I just said "I'll talk to Barb when I get there" and hung up. It turns out, after the train got out of the loop, it went "express" all the way to two stops before I needed to get off, and then, as I exited the train, I saw my bus was almost there where I take it, so I ran and caught the bus right away!

Ready for the punch line? I get to the school (about 0750) and everyone is standing around outside...

They (office people) weren't even there! In fact, the lady who eventually showed up (don't know her name) got there 40 minutes late. I had joked with this one instructor (Charlie--who is a new instructor and handling our classroom portion and pre-trips) that I'll expect my $10 in the mail...

Since we were all just standing around outside (instructors too) the instructors broke us up in groups and we went over pre-trip while we waited. (can't do it enough I guess) Got to meet another instructor, Pete, who was also really cool.

We had a couple more recruiters in today (Covenant and Maverick) and I learned a bunch more too. There was even a surprise visitor today...

I was sitting in the classroom and noticed Charlie's head turn towards the door, at the same time I heard "Moe"...

My brother had stopped by, intending to take me out to lunch, but this was in the afternoon, after lunch...He said that he'd do it tomorrow then, and I said "well, we only get lunch from 1200-1230" but he was cool with that. I think he knows that I don't eat a whole lot, and wouldn't be likely to bring a lunch (yeah, I forgot again today) so it was really nice.

When we were going outside, to go over pre-trip (I confirmed it is a daily thing at this school--repetition) I apologised to the instructor (for the interruption) and explained the situ...He said it was no problem, so it's all good. He started calling us out and saying things like "tell me about the steering system" (mine) A couple of the parts, I didn't know, but I covered it pretty well. (we got to use our pre-trip sheet)

 

Thanks chompi, I will!