COVENANT -- From a wife's perspective

Thanks Danc694u. That's a more clear explanation about getting money from ComData than what Redcoat was trying to tell me. Now that you've broken it down, I can see a better way to get it done.

I agree that direct deposit is the way to go and have ordered more checks to make it so. Until then we can do the ComData check thingy.

I don't really need to cash any checks for money as I can hit an ATM somewhere if I need any loot. Since there are no Wachovia banks here in Iowa, I will have a friend of mine in Delaware go to a truck stop somewhere along I-95 or maybe Route 13 in New Castle county to get some ComData checks. There are Wachovia banks all over Delaware and he can go ahead and do what you said and then make the deposit for me. That way the funds will be in our bank so I can use them to pay the bills.

Thanks for 'splainin' it (as Daryl Waltrip put it) so well.

Oh, and for the record, he's getting .14 for every mile. That's why he said he's nothing but cheap labor.

I have more thoughts but I need to get out and peddle some pictures. I'll post again later tonight.

 

The saga continues.....

Well, before I get into the meat of this post, I first want to say thanks to all of you who have been so helpful to me in this forum. Also I must thank AfterShock for the kind words about my military service. Those were good years and, yes, I was just doing my job. But I have my Kuwait liberation ribbon sticker on the back of my rig with pride.

The phone call from Redcoat today was not a good one. I had been hearing it in his voice for the past several days and today he finally outed with what has been bothering him since the start.

Through the week I've been hearing bits and pieces that when I put them all together, it adds up to what he told me today -- and that is he is suffering from panic attacks while driving. It seems that he feels he is totally out of control of the rig and his anxiety has devolved into sheer panic. He says he's ok on an interstate with normal traffic and he's ok in a shipper's yard. But if he has to drive in the dark or worse yet, in the dark while it is raining, or the worst of all, in 10-foot construction lanes with jersey barriers on his right, he is so stressed out that he can barely function. I can't criticize him on that point because I know how he feels. When I drive this 8-foot wide rig through those 10-foot wide construction zones, I feel the pucker factor myself. But I just slow down to a point where I feel more in control. Apparently he doesn't think he has that luxury. He says his trainer insists that he go pedal to the metal as much as he can but his actual comfort level is in the 55-60 mph range and even less around road construction. He is terrified that he will scrape a jersey barrier and cause an accident. The faster he is made to go, the more out of control he feels. The mountains have given him a problem too. His trainer told him that whatever gear he used to get up the grade, that's the one he should use to go down the other side. (???) For real? He said he thought he'd eventually be able to deal with it but every day his anxiety gets worse and worse. It is so bad now that when he is in the rack, if the truck slows down he wakes up filled with dread thinking it is his turn to drive and he can't go back to sleep.

This is not good.

And so he has decided to call it a day. Right now he's working his way through Arizona on his way to L.A. and then probably back to Texas. He is going to grind it out until he gets back to as close as he can get to me and then we'll figure out a way to get him to Iowa. Not sure how we can make that happen as I'm pretty tapped out financially at the moment. I'm also concerned about the repercussions from Covenant and if they will pay him for the miles he's driven. He's resolved not to quit in the middle of a run and he'll make sure he's at the end and turns in his paperwork before he calls it a day. After that, it's just a question of figuring out how to get him to Iowa or somewhere close enough that I can come fetch him.

It's a #### shame but I figure it probably took a lot for Redcoat to admit failure as he is a proud Englishman and he's used to dealing with adversity head on. But this venture has brought him to his knees and I guessing he's probably an emotional wreck by now.

I will continue this thread to keep everyone who is following it informed on how it goes and how it ends with Covenant. I feel like I have made some friends here so I won't disappear entirely when it's all over.

Our game plan is to rent a car and Redcoat will help me work film for Air Photo. With two of us working two rolls of film at the same time we can double the money and we should be OK. I'm betting that he'll probably make more money then he would have driving a truck. He doesn't care for sales because he tends to take a "No" personally but he said that now that he's experienced what he has in the past week, getting shut down for a picture sale pales in comparison to navigating a construction zone in a truck at night in the rain going downhill.

I can relate to that. There have been a couple of events in my life that have set the bar for what to worry about and what not to. When it comes to pain, childbirth set the bar for that. If I'm in pain, I compare it to that and if it doesn't hurt as much as giving natural birth to a 9-pound baby (which my son weighed), then I can deal with it. As far as adversity, survival school set the bar for that. All aircrew members have to go through survival school. When you endure 30 hours of resistance training (RT) which is a mock POW camp with all the interrogations and stress tortures they can throw at you, with no sleep and constant sensory overload, then that sets the bar for what to get upset about and what not to. You find that if you can make it through that kind of experience, you can deal with pretty much anything. It makes you have a very level head when everything around you is going to crap. As a side note and I'm the most apolitical person there is but keep that in mind if you're thinking of voting for Obama.

It's been a long day and it's after midnight. I will let you all know where Redcoat ends up. I hope nobody thinks less of him because he couldn't cut it but at least he gave it his best shot. He is a gentle soul. The type of man who can't bear to watch TV if an animal on it is getting mistreated. He is so afraid that a slight miscalculation on his part might get someone injured that he totally stresses out about it and he just can't deal. I think all those propaganda films on safety that show all those truck wrecks had such a profound effect on him that he freaked out. Maybe. I'm not a shrink but all I know is he obviously isn't cut out for this kind of work and so it's time to get out. My guess is he has total respect for all that you folks do and put up with to earn a living.

I'll let you know how it all shakes out.

Bye ya'll.