10/31/01

Hello Everyone, Today is Halloween and begins the first journal entry. I have had much to do this week before school begins: receiving, faxing, and mailing documents back and forth with the school admissions director, who is also my recruiter; cleaning house; quitting my job, and so on. Today I have an 8:30 appointment with my doctor for the DOT physical. I passed! Yea! I had been concerned about my vision, which has been deteriorating slowly over the last couple of years since I turned 40 and I've needed a pair of glasses to read with. I did learn my right eye is weaker than my left one for the first time ever, but together they are still 20/20. The left one is still 20/20. The right one is the problem child. I knew they were both getting worse than 20/20, but I hadn't had any trouble when driving. I can see a need for glasses with corrective lenses in my future.

At 5 P.M. I had an appointment for my DOT drug and alcohol blood screening with the cheapest medical lab operation in town which is a one-man show on the grounds of an old house down next to San Pedro Park. I'm sure I'll pass it, never having used drugs at all, and being only a very occasional social drinker. I sat out in the small parking lot reading an Ann Rice novel after finding the door locked and a sign up stating the lab would re-open at 5 P. M. The lab owner/technician showed up 45 minutes late, but still did the blood and urine testing. If he'd been another 15 minutes late, I'd have taken off. He does testing at nursing homes around town, so I had decided to wait around as I figured he might have been delayed from such an engagement. I received my green copy of the official federal test form to carry to the school. When the lab results come back in a couple of days, Ralph, the lab tech promises to mail the results to the school in the SASE I provided him. Just FYI, San Pedro Park is the site of a spring which was the main source of water for San Antonio in the Spanish colonial era. There is an old blockhouse there with narrow gun ports that goes back to the days of the Republic of Texas. The blockhouse was used for defense against Indian raids. I got acquainted with this park when I had to help survey it for a college class. The spring was connected to a stone-lined ditch called an acacia. This fed a system of these ditches which ran just south to the downtown area, and then all over the town behind businesses and homes. This was the early water system. I'll bet those folks never had to pay a monthly water bill as I do now. Those of you that have visited the Alamo will have noticed part of one of these with a small bridge over it on the back of the grounds. Most people think it's part of an old creek or something. I think they have a small sign up now identifying it. Today the springs feed a swimming pool in the park and an artificial concrete grotto.

11/3/01

I leave San Antonio tomorrow for Waco for close to one month to attend a truck driving school. I did my research before picking one. This one is private and is one of 2 PTDI certified schools in Texas, the other being the University of Houston. The Houston school lasts long enough that I'd have to move there and rent an apartment for the duration. This would involve too much time which would result in too much up-front cash layout. The school near Waco, ATDS, is actually located 23 miles east of Waco in Prairie Hill on an old World War II airfield and has 3 miles of private track area (the former runways). This school is equipped with a sizable number of modern diesel tractors. The trailers are both empty and loaded with simulated freight. We students will commute from the motel in Waco by car pooling. Sue, the recruiter and director of admissions, has been super nice and very helpful during the enrollment process. My only regret this year is that I didn't have a chance to finish making a wire-strung Celtic harp. I was looking at it before I sat down to type this, knowing there won't be any time to work on it until near the end of the year maybe. All parts were cut out and test fitted and adjusted by hand with a file both last year and earlier in this year. They just need to be carved now before gluing them up. The carving will be a piece of cake compared to the fitting operation. I have the strings and hardware all set aside for it when the time comes for them. I'm just getting so close to completion I can taste it. Oh, well.

11/4/01

I arrived in Waco safely. The motel was easy to find right on I-35. It is was formerly an Econolodge, but is now privately owned by a Hindu fellow. His wife, dressed in a sari, checked me in at the desk. She seems nice. Finished unloading the car at 7:45. Have to meet with John, a school recruiter, in the lobby at 8PM. Some other students show up for the meeting. We get paperwork to sign and get a brief orientation of what to expect at school. During the meeting, the innkeeper's wife returns to the desk holding an infant who is quite well behaved. The meeting breaks up at 10PM. I am off to bed as I will have to get up 4AM tomorrow morning so I can make it to Prairie Hill, a 25 mile trip, by 7AM.

11/5/01

Rode with Mr. John in his van and Mr. Steve out to Prairie Hill. John had to drive around the track about halfway to get to the tower building. We get there about 6AM and those of us who don't smoke make our way to the classroom. When class starts at 7AM, there are about 32 of us seated. We get an orientation from the instructor and are issued books. There is a nice break room and vending machines. We are told that we will start driving tomorrow.

11/6/01

Very, very busy here with school and homework. I ended up with 1-1/2 hours of sleep on Sunday night (11/4) and 3 hours of sleep last night (11/5). Got into a truck for the first time ever today. It's a Peterbilt cabover with a trailer (van type) hooked up. We were each allowed to drive it around the track once with an instructor inside. I drove around the track (3 miles) including stopping it and driving a serpentine pattern around some barrels. I made all the cones and barrels without knocking any over (yea!) It was really an experience. Tomorrow morning we get to do it again. Really looking forward to it. This job will be really fun. I found out some companies allow drivers to keep a pet in the cab if one pays a $500 deposit. I'm not sure if I want to get a road friendly dog, or if I will just bring my little black Burmese cat Pixie along.

We left early today for the Texas Dept. of Public Safety driver's license office in Waco. I passed my written exam for my A/R learner's permit for the Commercial Driver's License. I had them keep my motorcycle class M designation on there as well, even though I've not been on a bike in years. A/R is apparently interpreted as A standing for Class A commercial license, and R as standing fro restricted to having an adult with a full Class A in the cab at all times. I also passed the written air brakes test. The clerk cut up my old license (which had featured the best photo I'd ever had on a license--sob) and issued me a paper temporary license. I will have to be careful now. If I get a ticket or an accident while driving my own car, it will go on my professional driving record. Bummer.

11/7/01

I was evaluated on my driving this morning after putting some warm-up laps around the track under my belt. There are 15 categories. Each category is rated on a scale of 1 to 4, 1 being the worst rating and 4 being the best. I received 13 one's and 2 two's. I can't expect any better only being a novice and only having started yesterday.

11/8/01

I improved on my track evaluation today. I only got 2 ones, and the remaining 13 categories were scored as twos. Chris, the instructor that evaluated us, says it looks like John, my driving partner, and myself as well will probably pass the track test on Tuesday. My shifting has gotten a lot better. That Peterbilt cabover I'm assigned to has a 9-speed Fuller transmission. It has one reverse gear, and nine forward. One of those nine forward gears is a super low "granny" gear that's almost never used by us. The ones for normal driving are regular first through eighth. It's school policy that we can't go faster than 30 miles/hour. There is radar located on the track. We will be radioed by the control tower or whomever if we should go any faster. Each truck is equipped with a 2-way radio that the instructors communicate to us with, and there's a mike if we need to speak back to them. We spend nine hours a day in class or on the track with one hour for lunch for a total of ten hours. Add the commuting time to it, homework, time for the other things one MUST do during each day of living as a civilized person, and, at best, there's not time to get more than six hours of sleep each day, if that.

11/9/01

Friday, the end of week one, 3:05 A.M. I just checked and sent e-mail. I need to get on some homework before getting ready for class this morning. It's been very hard to get any homework done or turned in, let alone read the entire chapters. I'm very tired when I come back at the end of the day. That truck I'm assigned to has a dead spot near one end of the power steering which requires manhandling to get the it turned all the way to the right. The instructors are aware of the problem. However, it took my back and shoulders by surprise. I suppose I've needed the exercise anyway: I haven't done any significant physical activity in at least a couple of years. Pushing a vacuum doesn't count. Also, I'm not used to climbing up and down the side of a cabover to get in and out. Reminds me of the jungle gyms on the playgrounds of yore. Giving me calluses, too. Might as well take a positive attitude about the steering. When I leave this school, and get out on the road, whether it be in training or as a lone driver, I will have to manhandle the power steering if it ever goes out. We were told we had it lucky by comparison with students of a decade or so ago. The generation of training trucks on the track at that time either had manual steering or air-assist steering.

I've decided I need to return home for the weekend to reduce my stress level with a total change of environment. Life here has become interesting on the negative side. I'm going to include this in my journal as I think it will help students (especially the older ones) of other schools mentally prepare for what they may face when they get to school. One thing will even be a concern to you later out on the road--motel theft. It seems maids and other motel employees and owners need not be bonded under current law. This means it's easier for a hotel/motel owner or manager to simply say, "I'm not responsible." than to spend money to hire and replace dishonest maids. If a manager were to do that, he'd be looking for a needle in a haystack, especially if the location is in a bad area, as maids in many of the inns in the moderate to lower echelon of nightly rent are making at or close to minimum wage. Our classroom instructor- has made us aware of that this morning. Two of the fellows in class that are rooming together complained that good towels they'd brought from home were spirited away while they were at school the day before when their room was cleaned. After they mentioned this, two of the other women in class spoke up and said they'd lost things. Claire said the maid took a large plastic jug of laundry detergent she'd just bought at the supermarket the night before. This is disgusting because it means I'm going to have to move more of my stuff out to my safe, er..I mean car, every morning and then take it out again in the evenings. No one who sees me do this is likely to try to pop open the truck with a pry bar or break into the interior during broad daylight. I've already got a thin, but substantial enough chain passed through the case handle of my iMac computer, the handle on my bookshelf-sized boom-box, my drying rack and ironing board. I chained them to a lighting fixture and a chair. I'm pretty sure the maid won't want to be caught dragging all that out the door if she removes the light fixture from the wall. She probably either doesn't own or know what bolt cutters are.

One other negative thing to watch out for, especially if you're an older person, say 35 or up, are some of the very young students coming in. One of them threatened me, a middle-aged woman, with violence yesterday right in the classroom and during class. They have a lot of behavioral problems. The owner of the business I just quit my job at says they are a very violent generation. I must now agree with him. I hate to say this, but, for once, a socio-economically obsessed left-of-centre person would be right: these younger folks really aren't responsible for being the way they are and they are the products of the environments they grew up in. Their parents have had to dump them off at day care just to make enough money to raise them up; they've never been disciplined in school as that was considered a no-no for their precious self-esteem; some of their parents learned the hard way not to discipline them when they were suddenly answering to police for accusations of child abuse for nothing more than raising their voices to their children in public; and, lastly, these kids are without the kind of self-discipline that comes from having a good religious foundation. God hasn't been taken out the public arena without a price. People that stay in line because they've been taught that God is everywhere and is, therefore, watching you and will hold you accountable some day. Religion was a wonderful, and now an unappreciated tool of social control. This generation gets an ugly dose of boundaries laid down the moment they're out of school and of age. Unfortunately, society reaps what it has sown. Some members of society will die in mass murders committed by some of these adult children who just can't handle being told no, and who suffer rejection for the first time ever. We've seen too much of their going postal in the news a la Columbine, and some of us have had to bear the personal costs and deep grief. They rollover, crash, and burn every Friday and Saturday night in San Antonio on the freeways, so much so that absolutely totally unmarked police cruisers are now on the road at tax payer expense trying to cope with it. Others of these adult children with great self esteem with get a self-esteem adjustment the ugly way in prison, and that might be the state plantation in Huntsville, where crops are still tended and harvested by work gangs by hand who still sing the old private plantation work songs to get through the day. Some of the smarter ones will learn to just stay this side of getting in trouble for the rest of their lives.

Why do I seem to be pontificating on social problems here? Well, it's not because I'm preaching social reform, although if this influences that process, I'd not be disappointed. It's because I'll be paying $15,000 for trucking school including the finance charges if I don't double up on payments, and getting my money's worth may be a challenge. The younger folks are impeding the learning process with their distracting lack of self-discipline. You'd have expected a little bit of this even a couple of decades ago with people fresh out of high school. But those in my generation who took a lot of shop classes still knew how to act most of the time in the classroom. And, those that caused too many problems, knew the teachers would hear about it later. I've been getting pretty irritated by some of these students during class. We have to watch a lot of training videos. During the videos, these young people can't keep their mouths shut, or their bodies still. They're constantly drumming; they're fingering out the devil's tattoo as well; knocking on things; beating the table legs; running the metal spirals of their notebooks over the metal table legs; etc. The real problem with this for me is not that they're doing it, but that I can't hear the sound tracks over the cacophony. The instructor is making wise use of his time to use the copy machine during videos or take care of other business. He's also trying to make the class fun by not rigidly applying discipline to point that the classroom might as well be a stuffy tomb. We were given our first written exam yesterday, and I couldn't concentrate on it for the noise. Some of the other students began collaborating as soon the instructor left the room. My break point on being able to put up with distraction had to end here. I've got to protect that $15000 investment and learn something while I'm here. I complained openly when the instructor returned. The young man sitting next to me promptly promised that something unpleasant was likely to happen to me off school property. Later, when the Covenant Transport recruiter was talking to us and a middle-aged fellow on the other side of the room asked a question, this same kid told him to shut up. When the recruiter's presentation was over and he'd left the room, the same kid threatened the older student that had asked the question. Well, I think the kid was blowing smoke rings, but a smart risk manager just doesn't completely ignore something like that. I can take care of myself if I have to, but the comments are inappropriate so I complained to the school site director today. Today when the kid mouthed to the instructor that he hadn't threatened anyone, I lost my cool and promptly reminded him that I he had threatened me and that off school grounds I was prepared to handle the situation if I had to. The kid was heard later that day multiple times telling his friends he'd have me arrested for making a threat against him. Oh, the irony. If this weren't out in nut-case soap opera land I might consider that there's some humor here somewhere. But there's not. It's just sad. I will leave this here and have said enough. However, the site director, a college-educated man, said this has been a problem they've had thrown in their laps by an irresponsible school system and social environment. These kids get to trucking school and the staff finds themselves putting up with kids who think they've come to attend Romper Room. He said it's been getting steadily worse each year and they've been looking for the break point to happen where society draws the line on it. He said that because it hasn't happened yet, they're starting to scratch their heads and wonder where it's all going and what it's going to eventually do to the school. FYI, they talked to the kid and told him he'd used up his 3 warnings and would be dropped from school if anything happened again. He was also told that under his agreement with the state agency that's paying for his trucking education, he has to pay them back if he doesn't finish school--all $15,000.

11/12/01

Monday, the start of Week 2. I left San Antonio this morning at 3AM and drove directly to school. This morning braking was discussed in class: downshifting and braking, turns and braking, controlled braking, stab braking, and jake brakes and retarders. Today at 1 P.M. sharp we have an appointment at the Texas Dept. of Public Safety's Driver's License Office in Waco. We will be taking the written exams for the endorsements, general knowledge, and combos. We were warned of a state trooper that doesn't like the school and has come up to students in line and pulled them out for arrest before if he can manage to find any warrants on them. He showed up like clockwork to review our line of students. We hadn't even been to the counter yet so he had no idea who each of us were. He promptly walked up to one of the black guys and told him to go over to a room on the other side of the building. Five minutes later he did the same thing to another black guy. Each time he selected a student, he did a crisp Marine Corps-style about-face to show them where to go. Later on as I was still in line I saw him pick out one of the guys in the testing room and ask him to go over to the other side of the building as well. Turns out we found out later in class this trooper used the cologne these students were wearing as an excuse to harass them for possible alcohol consumption. He apparently accused one of them of smelling like marijuana smoke. I've always known DPS troopers to be very courteous and decent individuals. I've never seen anything like this in a driver's license office before. The troopers are only supposed to be there, for the most part, to give the on-the-road driving tests. Anyway, I passed my passenger endorsement and my air brakes test. I didn't quite make the endorsements for hazmat, tankers, or combinations. I admit to not studying for them yet, either. Time has been very much a precious commodity during school. After we finish at DPS, we are done with school for the day and head back to our motel.

11/13/01

Today, Tuesday, we began learning about log books in class. Then the recruiter from Werner came and spoke to us. We learned how their logs are kept via the Qualcomm units in the truck cabs. This means the hard part is automated by the computer system thus reducing the driver's time involved significantly which would be otherwise spent with paperwork. Today we also took our track tests. I managed to get through it without brushing up against any barrels in the turns or the serpentine. I don't think I brushed any cones either. I did grind the gears once in down shifting from 5th gear to 4th. I passed my track test with a score of 92. Wow...I am amazed as I never expected to score above 90. I was pretty nervous about it both before testing and during testing.

11/16/01

The bad weather and rain have come to an end. There are still accumulations of water about. I awakened at 3:30 AM and entered a previous day's journal page. I microwaved some grits this morning and added some Cholula hot sauce to kill the blandness. Hit the shower at 5 AM, have the valuables locked in my car by 5:55, and am around back meeting fellow students who are riding with John this morning five minutes later. Interesting things I learn about last night's storm on the way in. Not only were the winds high, but some damage occurred on the other side of the motel. Last night a piece of debris fell from the sign onto a pickup truck in the parking lot. This apparently had motivated John to move his van before another piece should have chanced to land upon it. A piece on the ground started to get moved by the wind in the direction of his van, but a large, fat cat slowly trod across it weighing down just in the nick of time.

Our group of students is out on the track first this morning. We practice parallel parking from 7 to 9:30 and take a break. Parallel parking again until 11:45. This was a bit frustrating. I kept over steering and coming in too sharp. This was causing me to not have enough time to correct the angle during straight-line portion of it also. Truck 104's power steering loses all power close to the right side lock also. (All the better, for this could happen in the real world and I'll need to know how to deal with it when the time comes.) This also helped slow reaction time. I was finally compensating and getting it right by time to break for lunch. Lunch time where I get six strips of catfish for $1.99 at the Subway. I bought a Coke, some chips, and a dessert from the vending machine at the school when we got back. It was cheaper that way than getting them at the Subway.

First thing on our afternoon class agenda is our written final examination over our classroom work. It has 100 questions and is closed book, as it should be. I turn in my test and go on break. We watch some films and do a written exercise after the exam. He eventually passes the graded exams back later that afternoon. I find out I made an 89 on it. Only missed 3 questions. One of them, however, was worth 8 points. It was on hooking and unhooking. I miss-ordered the sequence. This is something we still haven't been shown on the truck yet. We were exposed to it in the text book, which I've read very little of with time constraints and fatigue being what they are. The steering in good old 104 wears out my shoulders every evening. By the end of the day, bedtime just can't come soon enough.

I ask John if he'll jump start my car during the ride back to the motel. He says yes. He jumps it before heading back to Ft. Worth for the weekend. I'm going to Auto Zone, the parts store, for a new alternator and Claire comes along so she can shop the dollar store in the same strip centre. I'd like to get to San Antonio tonight, and that car isn't getting fixed unless I do it myself. Luckily there is a well-equipped tool box in the trunk of the car. I'm disappointed to learn the alternator is underneath the air conditioner compressor. Otherwise, it doesn't look too difficult to remove. I find in the end there's not enough room to take it off without removing the oil filter. Didn't bring a filter wrench with me so I buy one in the store. I wiggle out the alternator and take it inside for testing. It passes with flying colors. This points to a bad regulator with the ammeter needle fluctuation. The clerk informs me that the regulator is part of the circuitry of the on-board computer and says that's a probably a dealer job, but he does mention he has the computer in stock. I told him I'd look at my Haynes' manual and see what it said. Turns out this old Plymouth has about 4 computers on it. The one with the regulator is the SMEC unit that turns out to be located inside the air intake snorkel right where it runs along the battery. It looks like a piece of cake to remove it. Two pigtails to unplug and 3 screws to take out, and one of them was already out. The clerk offers to charge my battery if I'll bring it in so the car will start when I'm done. Good idea. I bring in the battery and the charger alarm goes off on it twice. Turns out the "sealed" battery has completely dry cells. Well, I'm out of money at this point. The battery was certainly a part of the problem all along. However, the computer I bought is an additional power design so I decide to keep it and not get it refunded. (This car was accelerating with less vigor than I'd have preferred on freeway on-ramps so I decide to keep it. The regulator may've been messed up and cooked the battery for all I know and I'm not taking any chances. Also, I still want to get home tonight.) Out of money, so I decide someone out there will help jump start it when the time comes. It took about 45 minutes to put in the alternator, the computer, the fuel filter, the dead battery. Claire held the light for me. I find that she, too, is from Louisiana and lives in Texas. Said she used to drive for Werner and was badly injured when another truck backed into hers while she was in the sleeper. Has been off from driving for 3 years. Some shop towels and a can of hand cleaner from the trunk and the dirty girl is clean and ready to drive away. A passing couple offer to jump start us and we return to the motel. I left the car running while I threw a few things in it--the dirty dishes and clothes. I was having much trouble staying awake and stopped for a 20 oz Coke at a rest stop just north of San Antonio. As I was pulling out, the rpm's drop too much and the car dies. A good Samaritan jump starts me and I arrive home at 1AM and it's bedtime for Bonzo. After doing all this after class this evening, I need my head examined.