Starting Swift Academy in Lewiston Oct 10!!

Today was all powerpoint and videos and such in the classroom, and fortunately I didn't need caffeine to stay awake. Our instructor was the guy who does the road instruction, and he had no business trying to operate a computer - it would have been like asking a 10-year old to drive one of these trucks (without the public danger). Still, despite his technological incompetence, we finished the 3-4 hours' worth of material in about 7 hours, and there was some pretty useful and interesting information there. And he has a wealth of experience and stories that we benefitted from - he was happy to answer all our off-topic questions since he knew we had way more time allotted for the material than necessary.

Then, he asked us to clean the place up for the incoming class on Monday (and the return of the academy director from a week of vacation), log our time as if we were in class till 3pm (it was before noon) and get out of there. Since our logs aren't yet legal documents - I don't have a CDL and am not an employee of a motor carrier - I was
OK with the obvious falsification. But once I'm hired, Jerry himself won't be able to convince me to do anything other than "log it like you drove it" as we've been told. Protect your CDL!

Then I took a nap till almost 5pm. Wow, what a difference a nap makes! I haven't been feeling especially tired since Wednesday, but this afternoon was the first time this week I really felt refreshed and ready to do anything. Which came in handy - after cooking supper, I found my car won't start. I've been using the dome light and small inverter for my laptop all week, and have been driving it just 30 minutes a day, until yesterday when I didn't drive it at all. So I happily rode my bike again, and once I sign off I'm headed to the Wal-mart across the river to buy one of those car jump starters. I can return it once I get the car started, and I'll just have to run the car more. Maybe I should also get a solar trickle charger.

It goes with me, of course. It'll be the key to eating well by enabling me to make quick runs to quality grocery stores that have poor or no truck access, and the key to exercise by making those trips. And the key to feeling good - nothing does that better for me than a good exploration by bike. Especially on my 34 resets, I'll have plenty of time to ride around.

As to how I'll bring it, that's easy. I can fit both it and space for my bed inside my midsize SUV (at once), so fitting it inside a sleeper cab will be a cinch. I've been looking inside the old Freightliners we've been driving, and I can imagine hanging it from the ceiling above the top bunk or stashing it vertically behind the passenger's seat. And there are other possibilities. I really don't want to store it outside the truck - besides the remote possibility of theft (I have strong locks) there's the certainty of weather damage to my leather saddle, chain, and handlebar tape, not to mention winter salt spray rusting the frame. I also have a folding bike (among the five I own) so I could bring that if it seemed a better idea. But a bike goes with me wherever I go - I've lived for years without cars, and done extensive bicycle touring in the USA and Mexico, so it's pretty much my most important possession. But I digress.

 

It's been a few days, so here's some stories:

Sunday I slept in, then rode my bike all over. On a bike path through a park by the Snake River, then up Asotin Creek to a "road" from Google Maps that was just a (fenced, no trespassing) ranching track through the dry grass, up out of the creek valley to the high plain 1,000ft above. Then down pavement, through Clarkston, supper, and home - 35 miles. At lunch on Asotin Creek, the neighbors lit a brush fire and must have had a can of WD-40 in there or something - the explosion drew the cops and firemen out. I startled a 5-point buck on the ranching track in a canyon, and told him to stay up there away from all the hunters on the roads. Talked to a fireman playing bagpipes in Clarkston. Dreary morning weather turned clear and bright - a fantastic day.

Monday was more range practice, plus drop and hook and shifting demos. Then today - range evaluations.

We were doing our normal rotation among backing stations, getting evaluated as we came around and the instructor had time. I started at alley dock, and did it 4 times with 1-2 pullups, then once with none - my first perfect hole shot. Offset backing was still messy, but getting better, and easily within passing range. Then I did alley dock again at the other station, once with 1 pullup and the next time just before I started backing the instructor said this was for my evaluation. Easy, I thought - I've figured this out. I don't get test anxiety anyway so everything was cool.

Except that it wasn't! I did a terrible setup, restarted, did better, and with several pullups, finally got it straight. Went back to look, counted the paces to get the bumper in the box, marked it, rolled back, honked "I'm done". I'd counted 7 pullups, so 5 points - leaving me 7 to use in the offset back before I fail. I hopped out, and found the bumper was a few inches behind the box - 10 points right there for saying I was done with the bumper over! The worst part is that I could have GOAL once more without points to verify, rolled forward and gotten 2 points instead. But I was cool and confident - perhaps too much so. FAIL!!

Then I practiced offset backing a few times. Just as the instructor was coming over to see if I was ready to get evaluated, I ran over a cone - the first for me in a while. He saw it, threw his clipboard on the ground, then picked it up and came over to me. He was angry, but like a proud dad watching his son miss the winning shot in a game.
"Are you trying to get sent home?!"
"No sir."
"That's a brand new cone, and you just got it all dirty. I can write you up for an unsafe act. You're better than this!"
"Yes sir!"
"You've worked way too hard to get sent home now. Is that the last cone you're going to run over?"
"Yes sir."
"I hope so. Now, are you ready for the evaluation or do you want a break?"
"I think it would be a good idea to take a break first."

So I went and practiced shifting with the other instructor. We bobtailed his truck around the nearby streets and I shifted up and down, up and down. It was a cinch. Downshifting took a bit of concentration, but I only had to recover gears twice, and he told me what gear to use since I didn't have it memorized, and I just popped it in. After 20 minutes I was shifting so comfortably up and down that I was often floating it, and sometimes not right at 1,000rpm - just rev matching for wherever I was. I've been practicing this for a long time in my car - floating the gears without the clutch - which has made me pretty good at rev matching.

So then the range instructor wanted to do the straight backing and offset backing evaluations just to see where I was, even though I'd already failed. Straight back was perfect, of course, and offset back had 5 pullups - not too unusual - and swung the bumper over the line a bit, so total 5 points there. Without the GOAL mistake on the alley dock, I would have passed.

Anyone who didn't pass evaluation today gets it again Friday. I hope I have better luck, since I know I have the skills. Two other people who passed said they'd done great on their evaluation, then later in the day couldn't do the alley dock or offset back to save their life. It's the same with everyone - we can do it, but sometimes it's pretty messy. It seems like it's mostly luck how you perform on the evaluation. Still, I won't make the same GOAL mistake on the alley dock again!!

I haven't been feeling well since Monday morning. I had a sore throat Sunday night, and lost my voice and have had a low fever and such. But I'm thinking it's allergies, not a cold - it's not developing, just coming and going. There's no pollen now, but there's plenty of industrial chemicals floating in the air around there. Plus it's cold - this morning especially, I was freezing, aching, tired, and just having a rough time. Tonight I found a better grocery store and will get to bed earlier tonight. Tomorrow we get more range practice and shifting practice. Despite the incident today giving me plenty of doubt about it all (I don't have a plan B - if I don't pass trucking school I have to reinvent my whole life) I'm still feeling good. If I fail on Friday or anything else, it'll be a fluke, and I won't worry.

 

More range and shifting practice today. We're now wrapping up our range hours to be sure we've got everything down pat for the state exam next Friday. I found out that I'm the only one of our class of 11 who didn't pass the range evaluation yesterday. Yeah, I've always been the special one

I'm definitely getting more consistent at the alley dock and offset back. Got 3 hole shots on alley dock today, got better at the "bumper in the box" part and all that. The offset back is coming along also, and I'm feeling pretty good about the evaluation on Friday.

I did an hour of shifting in one instructor's truck with few stops, just round and round, up and down, chatting the whole time about music, math, poetry, etc - he didn't correct me on anything. My other hour of shifting was completely different - the other instructor made it much harder with lots of stops, lots of instruction (don't shift while turning, upshift-downshift, turn right, turn left) so it was harder but I learned more and feel better about driving a trailer soon.

I used to think that also, but living in Austin for a year and a half taught me that allergies often do cause low-grade, come-and-go fevers. That's why they call it cedar fever (and, elsewhere with other allergens, hay fever).See for yourself. I'm feeling better now, and at any rate I always prefer equipping my body to handle things and then letting it run its course. If it gets bad enough, I have plenty of NSAIDS at the ready.

 

BOOM!!

It all fell apart today. But it'll all come back together soon enough.

We've been mixing in some road driving with our shifting practice and finishing up range practice, so this morning I and another student went out driving all over. We drove on the highway through the weigh station, in town and traffic, through dark and sunrise, on windy mountain roads, everything. It's a huge amount to keep track of and learn, but it's lots of fun, and I think I'm doing pretty well. Then I did a bit of offset practice, re-did the range skills evaluation that I'd failed a few days earlier, and passed with 6 points (all on a moderately messy alley dock). All as expected!

At lunch, it occurred to me that the CDL permit I have (which I showed to the state inspector at the weigh station) is just the paper copy my local DMV gave me when I took the test, since the plastic mailed from the DMV HQ in Salem didn't arrive before I left for class, and it expires a month after it was issued. When is that? Why, TODAY as a matter of fact!!

OK, don't panic. Of course the plastic copy is in my PO Box which is being checked by a friend; he can overnight it to me. I talked to the academy director, who said I'd need it before Monday at 5am to continue - this is just because the law requires every driver to carry their valid license, not company or academy policy. But my friend said it wasn't there when he checked a few days ago, which can't be right. So I called the DMV, who said that it had been mailed but returned to sender - "undeliverable as addressed". Well, it turns out that they send it with a "no forwarding" and I'd recently put a postal forward on my physical address to my PO Box - everything's simpler that way when I'm out of town.

So my permit is in Salem again, and this being Friday afternoon, my options are bad and worse: I can do a change of address form and they can mail a new copy anywhere (like straight to the academy) but it takes a week or two. I can go to an Oregon DMV and get another paper temp copy for another 30 days, but that requires me to miss the rest of the afternoon and/or all of Saturday's class. Either option makes me ineligible to continue with this class. So I'm out!

But the director worked it out like pushing the pause button - I can come back and pick up where I left off, do my last week, and it'll be just like I started with a later class - no extra cost or repeating class time. Because the Saturday classes rotate every two weeks, I have to come back in two weeks (not one) to get the right material. That gives me plenty of time to get the paperwork legal hassle sorted out. And the director even offered me an extra day - I left on Friday after lunch, but I can start again on a Thursday morning and thus have lots of time to get in my range and driving hours with probably some extra of each.

So it's a bummer to have to put my life on hold for two weeks and miss graduating with the class I've become friends with, but it could be a lot worse. On the bright side, I get to hang out with friends and do some small paying work for two weeks. I get to sleep in and drink alcohol. And I only have 1 week of the difficult 5am-4pm schedule to endure when I return. As the director pointed out, it's my own responsibility to be at class with a valid CDL permit, not theirs. I'm very glad that the stop at the weigh station prompted me to check the expiration date. If it had gone unnoticed until another weigh station during school or the final CDL exam, things would be far worse - I would have been driving without possession of my CDL permit and faced a possible ticket.

To be continued...

 

Wow. So we both ran into paperwork snafus. I may see you again on Thursday or Friday since that's when I'll be back starting again.

I think the "send you back to re-test the next week" is the standard practice if you fail the CDL. In the class before us, they said one guy hit a curb during the test and would get to go home and come back to test the following week. And it's good of them to pay your bus tickets again, especially since it was an obvious paperwork screwup (on the part of the state). They're not paying my transportation during these two weeks I'm out, since it's not their fault.

I got another paper CDL permit, and the plastic is in the mail - this time directly to the school in Lewiston, and it should be there in a few days. And my new paper copy is valid until after I take the CDL test, so I should be good however it all happens. I hope I don't run into the same problem you did!