Starting training 8-24

Ive been licking my wounds. Ill update in the next few posts, But so I dont keep anyone in suspence I was sent home for 30 days, Ugh

 

This is what I had written up about my first day at Prime,

Well let me tell you my first full day was LONG!!
Wake up came early, 0500. It took me a lot longer than normal to get motivated this morning. Finally up and ready I started my long walk from the back of the hotel to the front where the classrooms and cafeteria are. The cafeteria opens at 0600. Arrive about 15 minutes till. There is already a line? Man I thought I was being a standout getting around early. So now I have decided that I'm just not going to go to bed. Just stay up all night so I can be first to everything. Haha yeah right. Breakfast was pretty good, but it was really great because it was free. They had your basics, scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, biscuits and gravy, oatmeal. Plus cereal, yogurt, and fruit. I had the eggs with cheese and ham on them.

After breakfast I headed to the classroom to get a seat and wait for the fun to begin. The instructors started coming in about 6:45, class started a little before 7. It was your basic welcome, behave yourself, do your best speech. Soon we were split into groups. There were 117 people in our class. I had no idea that the classes were so big. They split us into groups A, B, C, D. I was assigned to group C.

They have us schedules that told you where you were suppose to be at what time according to your your assigned group. My group started of with off doing CBT's (Computer Based Training). There are 12 modules that you have to complete. They are are about thirty minutes each, so we have around six hours of computer work to do.

My next station was the Apex Medical exam. This was basically to make sure your body can do all the things it's suppose to do for the job. Lift a 50lb box to your chin, lift an 80lb box to your chin, lift a 100lb box to your waist. Show proper lifting techniques and climb two runs on a ladder six times. They also check arm and leg strength and movement.

On to the nurse. First thing when entering the medical part you have to take a urine test. I cannot stress how long these lines are. The line to take the urine test was at least 25 people long. I waited in that line for a hour and a half. Finally I get through my test and on to the real nurse. They check the usual stuff. Height, weight, vision, blood pressure and pulse. From there you move onto the doctor. You have to have no shirt and no sucks when the Dr walks in. I wasnt fast enough so I have her a little strip tease when she came in. She checked eyes, ears, nose and throat. Listened to breathing and check your heart. Had bend over touch my yours. Then I had to do the DUCKWALK!! I never in my life thought I would have to do the duckwalk again. For those of you that know what the duckwalk is, cheers.

After that I went back to the computer lab and did more CBT's. These are so boring but it's part of the process. I finished 9 of 12 the first day.

At Prime they have simulators that help teach you the basics of shifting. Yes they require that you double clutch. My simulator time was 1800-2030. We spent the first 45 minutes up shifting from first to fifth. No clutch just running through the gears, developing muscle memory. Then they have us instruction on how a clutch works, what rpm ranges that they want us to shift at. Then back to the simulator to practice up shifting and double clutching. Finally after about an hour we got to turn the simulator on. We used the tach to practice shifting at the proper RPM range. After that we were finshed for the day.
Off to my room to get ready for the next day.

 

Second day was the same wake up time as the first. Go to breakfast, had eggs and ham again. It was pretty good again this morning, onto the classroom. We had a class on log books and also more on whats expected of you at Prime.
I moved onto the the orientation/paperwork stage. The line again was pretty long, but I got inat the begging of it. I finished it no problems then back to the classroom to finishe up my CBT's

I finished them around 1100. I'm on a few maintenance medicines that I had to list while doing my physical the day before. I stopped by the nurses office to make sure there were no problems getting info from my Dr about my prescriptions.

There was no one waiting in the nurses office when I got there, lucky me!! I walked in and introduced myself. Yes she had seen me the day before but with 117 people in a day I figured I needed to introduce myself again. She was in a good mood and was pretty chatty. There was a mountain of paperwork that she had to go through. She came to mine and started reading it. The expression on her face changed. She said "we need to talk". As most of us men know when a woman says "we need to talk" its usually not good. She said there is a problem with your medication. I knew that I would have to get my Dr to sign a waiver for my ADD meds. I had to have that done before. She then told me that Prime wouldn't allow me to get a waiver for these meds. It was against policy to do that and these meds were and automatic disqualifier.

Well needless to say I was beyond mad. I can't say that I handled myself perfectly but I did pretty well. I wanted to go off but I knew I wasn't giving up on Prime so I took this as part of my interview.

The nurse gave me a few papers that described what I should do to get my meds in order. At this point I felt hopeless. This was one of the first things in my life that I wanted to do and it has just been pulled out from underneath me. Pulled out from underneath me and I'm hours away from home with no means of transportation. I have money in my pocket to get home but it was still an uneasy feeling. I was lost, like a foreigner in another country. Felling like I just didn't belong there and I needed to get out ASAP.
It was hard to fight the urge to show my ###. I went and talked to the instructors that I had gotten to know a little bit in my short time with them. They told me that I just needed to follow what the nurse told me and get my ### back there in 30 days. To be honest I was still holding onto some hope that something could be done. But the only thing to do was go pack my bag. I called my recruiter and told him that I was being sent home. He said pretty much the same thing. Go home square away my meds and come back.
The ride home was humbling and forever long. You think the ride up is long. HAHA a ride home with your tail between your legs and the worry of "whats next" is a long one. I made it home and went to bed for a day. I got DQ'd on Tuesday, on Thursday I called the VA. I had them put a note in my file that I had stopped taking the meds as of Tuesday. Also had them cancel my prescription refills. Just further proof that I'm not on this medication anymore. I scheduled an appointment for Sept 10th. I don't know what exaclty we are going to do at the appointment but I wanted to sit down with my Dr and get her opinion. Also will give me a chance to get a copy of my file that way I have proof that my prescriptions are cancelled. Its all a paper trail, proof, proof, proof.
So the next monday I started looking for jobs. I applied for everything I could find. From cemetary maintenance to bartender at restaurants. I stopped into a construction company and asked if they needed any help. The owner said he had more applications than he could count, had a drawer full of them. We visited a little more, I told them I'd be in next week to check on a job again and I left. I had been away from their yard for about 15 minutes. I got a message on Facebook. It was the owners secretary she asked me to give them a call. I guess they remembered my name and looked me up. I called the yard and she told me that they decided that they would put another cement truck in the rotaiton and they wanted me to drive it. Lucky?!?! Better to be lucky than good right?
I went back there, got my paperwork and off to take a drug test. Took the drug test Monday of this week. Wednesday it came back and none of my old meds are in my system. No need to get a waiver anymore. Started driving for them Wednesday when they got the results in. Its a pretty good place to work but I still have a my heart set on Prime. Prime is like that girl at the end of the bar that won't make eye contact with you. She snubbed me once, that makes me want her even more. LOL
So as of right now I'm driving again just 12 wheels not 18. I wanna drive one of them big trucks that go *ptshhh* and swivel in the middle.

 

I think I'll be back up there on the 28th. That is if everything goes as planned next week with the Dr.

 

I wasn't sure this question was to me.