TITAN TRANSFER

Ha oh sorry, no we just ran around Shelbyville and some side roads. Sadly I'm not from around here so not 100% where the heck I am or where we went, just go where Rusty tells me ha, thanks

 

I don't think me going to Lynchburg would be a good idea, I would NEVER get my CDL then haha. Yeah that's what he was saying, went down a side road that was pretty narrow, and he just said, watch your trailer leave the mailboxes in the ground and my mirrors on the truck...That was fun. We are in the Auto's right now, probably gonna switch to stick next week

 

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this is also under blogerspot as a daily blog firemedic2816
August 01, 2018
August 1st
Actually got 5 1/2 hours of sleep last night, sleep is coming easier now, getting into the routine.
Woke up this morning at 6 am and looked at the clock and realized today was August 1st, exactly one month ago Dad died. I still struggle daily with him being gone, got chocked up a couple times today. Today really because in class we started working on 90 Degree Alley Dock, and the last time I did great I was able to call dad and thank him for teaching me when I was younger with the horse trailer, couldn't do that today. Spend I lot of time praying and talking to dad.
Loneliness is going to be my enemy while away from class because I get inside my own head which is a dangerous place to be. Kind of why I started this blog to get my thoughts and feelings out. I miss my wife and kids and pup, but I face time them everyday and get to hear about their day and share mine, even if it's only for an hour or so it actually helps. They start school in a few days so I hope that will help with me being gone, but they need to know I am away from them because I love them and want to provide a better life for them that they deserve.
Sure I have cried, many nights, I cry my self to sleep frequently, I use to be afraid to admit that but now I don't care, I have to get it out, and right now there is no one around to help. I'm not looking for sympathy because I know there are many of you out there who have lost parents and know my pain, and they have reached out and it helps, and I am grateful for them. I take comfort and knowing my dad was a Christian and I know he rests easy in his heavenly home. I'm not angry at God, I have never even questioned why God took him when he did, I know it was in his infinite plan and it's not for us to understand HIS plan and wisdom, we just have to trust Him and that everything he does is because he loves us. He is Perfect in everything he does, and I thank him every day for everything he has given and everything he has taken away.
Class Day 3 Got to school this am and we changed up groups a little bit and we did pre-trip, I missed a couple things but it is getting better, we will just keep pounding it out, we have "cheat Sheets" that have the verbiage on it so really just memorizing that. The neat thing is Rusty doesn't want us to just be able to ramble off the papers, but what the component is and what it does, we aren't learning to be mechanics but it will make it easier if we find something wrong we call the shop and tell them hey this doesn't seem right, they can either tell us how to fix, or if we need to get to a shop. It will come with repetition. After quick break we moved to the yard, to practice my Achilles heel the 90 alley back, one of the most difficult moves for the rookies to perform but that's what we do most of the time BACK into Docks and they aren't all straight backs. While we are setting the course up a Jet Black Maserati Gran Turismo pulls into the back lot, everyone stops and turns, I said that can only be one person. Sure enough Tommy Hodges pulls up and get's out of the Maserati. Who is Tommy Hodges? He is the Owner of Titan Transfer, he wanted to take time and come out and introduce himself meet us, he then proceeded to thank us for choosing Titan, welcomed us to the family and said you can call him or ANYONE in the office 24/7 just call or walk in, everyone is more then welcome to help and if they can't get you the answer to the question they are going to work their tail off to find the information for you. That said a lot to me if the OWNER of the company comes out to the dirty range and say hello....AMAZING.
First trip the the Alley dock was not horrible but could have been better, by the END of the day was getting it in the dock ALMOST 1st try every try, I feel a lot more comfortable now then I did at Millis with it. The more I am here and get back into it the more I remember how much I love this job. It's been a LONG time since I have been able to say I LOVE MY JOB....time to study a little more and relax, excited to see what tomorrow brings.
I love you Dad and Miss you.. Hug your loved ones DAILY, and if you haven't talked to someone because of some petty thing. Forgive them, call them say hello, pray for them love them.

Thank You for Joining on the crazy journey
Safe Travels, Love One another

Firemedic2816

 

Day 4 More going backwards on the 90 degree alley dock and pre-trip going well. Just working on wording and cadence making sure it's all in line. Tomorrow we do driving forward actually, with the 10 speed. Loving the job and looking forward to getting in my big pick up truck in couple weeks and making da money. Thanks for following

 

August 3 WAS A HOT ONE Figured about 110 on the pad today.

Well WEEK ONE Is DONE. This week has been an emotional rollercoaster to say the least, leaving the family on Sunday was a little harder then I expected. Then Aug 1st dad's ONE MONTH since he gained his heavenly reward. I have been trying hard to concentrate on school and doing my best, and then dealing with the emotional stuff AFTERWARDS. Looking forward to next couple weeks.

Started the morning out with a good breakfast, went to work and pre-tripped, everyone is improving and now EVERYONE Has there CDL Permits last guy went today and took his permit today and passed it. After pre-trip teacher and I got in the 10 spd, he asked what I thought my weakness was from Millis, I said I struggled with down shifting and "city" driving. We went out and went round and round town did about 18 miles "city" driving, as we are heading back to the school, he said "Make a left up here", so I extend my pinky to activate the turn signal and the turn signal arm fell off. He said what happened, I replied the turn indicator arm just fell off. He said "well I don't reckon we can use hand signals in the truck so let's head to the shop, all this time I was worried about people tearing up the transmission and you go and break the turn signal arm" so we got to the shop, dropped the trailer and pulled up to the shop for them to fix, we step inside the shop and he said "I thought you said your weakness was down shifting?" I said yeah, he said I don't see ANY Issues, you are a little rusty and we just need to knock the rust off it and you will be fine. I have ZERO issues with your driving" So after shop fixed truck, I started backing under the trailer and took 4 times to get it squared away and connected, he looked at me and said, "Your Upshifting is fine, your down shifting is fine, YOUR Weakness is you can't hook up to a trailer for nothing ha ha, let's get back to the yard" So we head back to school, went to lunch. Then out to the range for more backing. MOST Of us are doing great going backwards into an Alley Dock. It's funny because we will hit it 12 times in a row with no issues, then We can't hit it to save our lives. Such is life.

Thinking about tomorrow checking off a bucket list item, since I am about 20ish mins from Lynchburg and going to the Jack Daniels distillery, not a HUGE imbiber of their product but come on it's history....Was talking to the instructor and he said you know we take loads OUT of their a lot so you may be there a lot, SCORE...

Any way, tonight I'm gonna spend the evening cooling off and relaxing may study a little bit may now.

Thanks for Traveling with me

firemedic2816

 

Aug 4

Well Saturday I slept in, did some studying and then went to cross off a bucket list item, got in the car and drove 20 mins down the road to Lynchburg Tennessee to the Jack Daniels Distillery. They have several different tours, 3 of them you can "sample" different Whiskey's. I went on the Dry County tour, which is just a tour of the Distillery and no sampling, couple people I have talked to said you can get pretty "happy" and since I've NEVER Been drunk a day in my life, no sense doing that when I have to drive home. Was very interesting and unlike the other 28 people on the tour, I took 2 pictures, because I wanted to be IN the NOW, really take it all in, and REMEMBER the actual tour.

Arrived and spent the $15 for the tour, met up with our tour guide Kim and off we went. I won't give you all the details, because it's a place I think people should go experience it them selves and with today's INTRAWEB you can take the tour from the comforts of your home. Learned A TON about how it's made and the history, bought couple cheap souvenirs and enjoyed spending time in the small town of Lynchburg, I LOVE Small town America, and I LOVE American History and hope to one day be able to experience more of it.

Aug 5th

Today was kind of a lazy day, went to the store for more grocery items, studied a little and just chilled and watched tv, and chatted with the family. Tomorrow will be my last day 7:30-4 at School, there is just to many people in the class so he is wanting us to split up, so 3 people will be working 0700-1530 and 3 of us will be 0800-4:30 that way he can spend a SOLID Hour Teaching and helping catch people up if they have a specific item they need help on. I really am happy with Titan Transfer so far, the people are all friendly and teaching is top notch, he doesn't yell to motivate, he shows you how to do a maneuver then helps you once or twice through it then you are on your own to fight through it, figure out how your truck operates and the best way to get it to do what you want. It's neat to see the students help each other also. What I saw on Friday we are ALL doing great, couple of us got to go out and run around town in the 10 sp with a trailer which I absolutely had a blast did 20 miles. We will only be able to get 2 in on Monday, then a student from the previous class is going to take his CDL Test and it's an hour drive up and hour drive back so the rest of us will be on range doing probably alley dock and hopefully off set, and pre-trip. Really excited to get week 2 started, hoping for another great week, if anyone is thinking about coming over the road message me and I will answer any questions I can and get you connected with a recruiter.

Thanks for Traveling With me..

Onward

Love One Another

firemedic2816

 

Was a great tour, I went on the DRY COUNTY Tour, was really neat and informative, I would go again
Thank You

 

Aug 6 2018

Another GREAT DAY at work, Pre-Trip is coming along, just need to polish up on the in cab verbatim, and then should be good to go with that. I am really getting into the driving and down shifting although for some reason I couldn't grab 7th gear to save my life, so trainer said if your good enough just skip it and go 6 to 8, although on one time I missed a gear and was able to recover it, and instructor complimented me on it. Another day of driving tomorrow which I'm excited about, cause the more practice the better I get, told the trainer I struggle with city driving so we are really working on that to help me for comfortable, real issue with the truck is the transmission is really sloppy, so when you put it into gear and let go of the stick, the stick moves to what appears to be neutral even though it's still in gear, so takes some practice getting from gear to gear. After our class is over the truck goes into the shop to get all that squared away, so will be ready for next class end of September, instructor is going on vacation after our class so the next class won't start until Sept. We are learning on a stick so A) We don't have a restriction on our license and if we ever break down with something major instead of sticking us into a hotel for few days they rent us a truck and those are usually 10 sp, so they want us to be able to drive a manual. (May be a repeat of previous post)

When got back from driving went up on the training pad and practiced the 3 maneuvers for CDL test, straight line backing, right sided off set and Alley Dock, first time nailed all 3 with out issues, 2nd time missed Alley a little bit but nailed it with one pull up, then on the 3rd time nailed all 3 again with out issues.

Really a confidence booster for me, really feel ready to be on the road with my trainer and then my self, it may be a little scary, but like Will Smith said "On the Other side of your Maximum Fear are all the best things in life" I was excited but scared to wits end to leave my family and come 5 hours away to school. I was scared to wits end to go to the first day of class, I was scared to get behind the wheel again for the first time, I was scared to get behind the wheel in a 10 speed. BUT I faced my MAXIMUM Fear, faced it, stepped past that and am having the time of my life, and REALLY Loving class so far, and now am excited to be finishing school and getting out on the road.

Off to relax for few moments then gonna study more pre-trip stuff, and trying to figure out how to get into 7th gear...HAHA

One day when I get a few dollars I will buy some camera's and decent computer I will start doing some vlogs, was wanting to film in class but no money for Go Pro.



Thanks for Traveling with me

firemedic2816