So, day 6 since I left.  Tomorrow will be 7 days, the minimum I wanted to do up here before coming back.  That way I have actually accumulated some days to make some money. My manager is apparently working to get us back this weekend.  But I dunno that for sure and I won't get my hopes up.  The manager down here wants me delivering oxygen asap.  The well experienced driver training me says it takes a minimum of 2 full weeks training, usually 3, to get the hang of what's going on.

I would challenge that, it won't take me that long to learn how to do this stuff, but I am certainly not prepared yet to just float off in a truck by myself and start opening valves and doing this stuff. It's medical grade oxygen - being delivered to hospitals.  It's not for industrial use. Which means, people are using that oxygen while you're loading it.  You can't just make a mistake and say, oops!  The biggest mistake you can make, I was informed, is letting the pressure on the tank you are filling go over 300. If you do, liquid oxygen will be pumpinginto the lines and people will be breathing in  - liquid oxygen. 

That's an important one! 

Anyway, considering I have no intentions of staying here, this training is basically a waste of their time. Except that it shows there is another driver on the books.  This is what this was really all about.  Now that I've asked a lot of questions and gotten some answers. These plants put the company under contract and part of the contract is that at any given time, there will be a minimum number of X amount of drivers working on that contract.  Now, if they don't have enough drivers, the plant fines them a huge amount of money on a weekly basis.  So, this entire northeastern sector brings in drivers like me all the time.  ALL the time, this hotel has something like 8 of us staying here, same thing I'm doing the only difference is that I'm getting a $40 per day allowance for food, none of them are.

And I'm not supposed to tell anyone.  My lips are sealed.

But, if we go home on Sunday, which is being proposed, that's a nice chunk of change for the time spent here and I will feel like I made some decent money. Minimum would be leaving on Friday - we are paid for the travel day as well.  I'm good with Sunday tho.  That's a long time out for me at `10 days, not really interested in pushing it much further out considering they want me working every single day.  That isn't anything I normally do, either. I usually get at least a day off between runs.  And none of these people up there are working 7 days a week.  I'm not going to press that issue since I'm getting paid $300 per day regardless of what I am doing.

But I'm almost guaranteed to run into problems getting paid for all of this, and  if that happens and I have to fight for my money, that will be the deal breaker for any future requests to do this type of thing again. That and being sent to places where I have no clue what I'm doing.  Again, I get they are doing this the way they are doing it to fill the rolls with drivers, but I feel like I am just wasting my time doing all of this training, filling my head with all this new information for nothing.  I highly doubt I will ever get to go out on a run by myself on this particular place I'm at.  

The trainer, however, is loving it. He gets an extra $300 per day to train me.  Win situation for him, so I'm not worried about him. 

Anyways, after work yesterday I went to Walmart and bought a cheap, long sleeve shirt.  I had to wear my FRC jump suit yesterday and it got very hot in that.  I also bought snacks, I didn't get a chance to eat until yesterday afternoon, ran out of bottled water before noon and I wasn't feeling very good until I said down at a restaurant and ate something and drank several glasses of water. 

So today, it's a couple of bottled waters, some beef jerky and a low carb candy.

Anyway, it's almost time to leave. 

G'day.