Well, still Monday and Day 1 is over with. 

I can't say it was fun or anything like that. 

Filling out all kinds of paperwork that I have already filled out several times, handing over my driver's license 4 times to various people, going to this Dr office and going through unbelievable testing.  

Easily and hands down was the blow into a tube test.  This is where you take as deep a breath as you possibly can and blast it out as forcefully as you can all at once and then, keep blowing until there is basically nothing left in your lungs.  

The assistant said 3 times unless there is too much of a difference in between the first 3.  After 5 times I said no more.  I was seeing stars, lightheaded, this isn't something you'd just normally do hanging out at the house - or ever for that matter.  

The other thing I didn't much care for was lifting 70 pounds from the floor to a shelf that was 6 feet off the ground.  It wouldn't have been an issue, but they wanted me to do it 12 times in a row!  And the beam test.  Where you are balancing yourself on this plank of wood that is 12 feet long.  You balance yourself across it, turn around without touching anything to hold you up and then back across, turn around again, back across, turn around again, and then you finish.  

This took the morning up.  It was more waiting on the various technicians/dr's than it was getting the stuff done. Waiting on the physical ability testing was an hour in itself.  I grinned and beared it, that's all I can say about that.  

I then stopped at a Winn-co on the way out. No sense in going back to the yard which is out in the middle of nowhere and then having to drive all the way back again.  I bought a little over $60 worth of groceries, enough food to last many days worth of eating without having to buy anything else, anywhere else.  I had a feeling I wouldn't want to be driving 16 miles each way just to get to a grocery store.  

There is a little eatery across the street from here and they have rave reviews, I might check it out, but my fried chicken is pretty tasty and it was in the refrigerator waiting on me after I was done for the day.  
Did I say I hate this new keyboard?  Piece of junk.

Anyway, getting back from that wasn't the end of the day as I was originally informed.  Oh nooo.  Now we fill out more paperwork and then do a road test. Road tests are mandated by federal regulation.  

I can't really tell you how I felt about that before getting back into a truck, I just figured I'd get the hang of it back quickly and that would be the end of that.  And it was true. Like I had never left trucking.  Old trucks here, a yard full of junk equipment that is never used, the good trucks are all out on the road.

We went through 2 trucks before finding one road worthy enough to get out on the Interstate - which is literally right here, 100 feet away? However far it is, it's just far enough you couldn't throw a stone onto the roadway but definitely close enough to hear the highway noise.  Fortunately, my room is on the back side of the building and there is a portable ac unit in here with fan settings, I just turn that on for background noise plus the Interstate dies down with traffic at night time.

It's I-5, tho and it's very busy daytime.

Well, I got the tractor backed under the trailer, hooked it all up, did a pre-trip, etc.  The man was watching but more interested in his phone.  I dunno, guess he just figured I knew what I was doing after finding out I had been driving since the mid 80's.  Well, we got onto the Interstate, shifting was a breeze - thankfully they don't believe in automatic transmission and they don't believe in inward facing cameras with microphones either.  A big plus considering some of the negatives going on here.

We got back, I parked the trailer, unhooked the tractor, put it back in it's place and then he asked me how I thought I did? I replied I thought I did pretty good considering I haven't driven a truck in 13 months.  How do YOU feel I did? Yup, you did good actually, no problems.  Well that's good. 

Finally done with that, he told me what to expect tomorrow and the  next several days - mostly just doing online stuff. HE's hoping to get me in a truck with another person for the weekend, otherwise he said I'd be sitting around til Monday. NOOOOOOO, I want to get this s*** over with and get home.  Not sit around a whole entire weekend doing nothing.  I didn't come up here for a vacation.  

Oh, btw, for a company's safety director to tell you you did great driving? That's high compliment. Those people never have any issue telling you about yourself if you are doing something they see that they don't like.  

Ok, well it's 3:22 pm here.  I have a lot of time to kill.  I dunno why they  just didn't start me on the training today, I just want this garbage over with. I have passed everything but the drug test. That won't be back for a few days, rest assured I don't do illicit drugs and will pass that easily.  So what am I going to do with the rest of the day?\

I'm totally worn out, that's what.  I found pillows in a closet and yes I brought a pillow case with me along with my own sheets.  I will double pillow my bed and take a nice, long nap.  Yesterday wore me out worse than I thought it would and I have no idea how I made it through today without feeling more sluggish than I did.  It was 2:00 am my time - central time - before I got to bed last night and tho I slept 5-1/2 hours without a problem, that isn't anywhere near enough sleep to go through a day like today. 

And miracle of miracles, the people that disappeared contacted me. They are staying another month and I will be happy to charge their cards for another month. That is a big relief, actually, I won't have 3 empty lots sitting around for however long, it's still just the one.  

There. 2 more lots charged for another full month, you don't know how much of a relief that is right now, knowing there will be another high electric bill coming next month. Hopefully not as high as the last one, but it's still going to be up there.  There are no new reservations in the only available lot and I'm pretty much saying if someone wants it long term, they can have it.  \

The forecast for my town where the RV park is at changed quite a bit.  Now, it's in the high 80's but more low 90's than anything. That is a significant change from just seeing 2 low 90's days and the rest in the 80's.  It's still not as hot as it was a week plus ago, but that's still pretty high.  Just that night time lows are getting down there very nicely, so the real heat of the day isn't lasting terribly long.  Alright, I  need to get the park book out - yes I brought that with me - and see who is upcoming on the rent payment list.  

I'm gonna call this one done and over with.  Might check the news and see what's up. It's pretty much the same garbage day in and day out with Republicans and Democrats fighting each other constantly.  Gets old seeing that stuff, but I still like to keep up with what's going on.  I just don't do near as much as I used to, it's just too much negativity and I don't feel the need to expose myself to too much of that.  

And anyway, that nap is calling my name.  

Monday. 

Very long day yesterday.

the shift key on my computer keyboard broke, there may be instances of no caps when there are supposed to be, oh well, at least the keyboard still works. 

Anyway, flying to DFW wasn't any big deal besides the man sitting next to me that didn't fit in his seat.  WAY too big.  I didn't say anything because it was going to be a short flight. He did ask if he could be moved up another row, the flight attendant refused, saying all of those empty seats were upgrade seats you have to pay for. 

Ridiculous.  If you haven't sat in a commercial jetliner any time recently, you aren't missing anything besides a very uncomfortable setup where they cram as many seats in there as they can possibly get away with.  

DFW, found a restaurant and ate.  The cheapest things on the menu were burgers which didn't feel like eating, so I opted for the next cheapest thing which was a half slab of ribs, mashed potatoes and a house salad. IT was a lot of food, thankfully, that was yesterday afternoon and i'm still not hungry.  Which is good because there isn't any food here besides some canned vegetables. There is no coffee, either, which is pretty messed up.  

Sitting in DFW for 5 hours was neither good nor bad.  Just sit there and exist.  

Getting into the Airbus A320 was nice tho,  A newer plane, in great condition. Seats crammed together of course, but the bonus was the middle seat was empty.  There weren't many empty seats on that flight, i counted that as a blessing. The lady in the window seat was a very strange person, i'll leave that at that.  

However.  We sat there quite a while until the captain finally came on and gave the usual rundown of weather of where we're going, etc, but then threw these two little gems in; We are experiencing a minor maintenance issue and we are having a minor paperwork problem.  We expect to have these issues corrected within the next 15 minutes.  

"minor maintenance issue"

Why he thought informing us of that as being a good idea I will never know.  A man boarded the plane with an American Airlines safety vest on, did something in the back and got back off.  We didn't take off until 45 minutes later than we were supposed to. 

The flight - almost 4 hours of it - was uncomfortable but at least I could move my legs around what with no passenger next to me.  People don't know how to walk down the aisle without hitting people either.  

Anyway, we get to Eugene airport. Smaller but nice facility. Waited for quite a while for the luggage, the taxi driver was out there waiting and had been waiting for over half an hour.  Not my fault, but I did end up giving her a tip on top of whatever they paid her for  the fare.  Got to this place and ugh.  Yes, that RV park is filled with old junk RV's and newer ones as well.  Crammed in together.  

Found this A frame "house", found the entrance on the second floor.  This is something you would think of staying at when you were 10 years old going on a Boyscout outing, not something you would bring in new drivers to make a lasting impression with. Well, there's an impression alright, not a good one.  It's clean at least, but yes, there is no bedding, no pillows that I could find, they did have clean towels at least. Refrigerator is empty and there is no coffee.

Emphasis on no coffee.  So, this recruiter just texts me and tells me not to show up at the front until 8:00 am.  I wasn't planning on it.  I did say there isn't any coffee over here hopefully y'all have some over there?  Well, we recommend you don't drink coffee until after testing.  

This testing....it sounds like something that isn't pleasant, is elongated and at least a medium probability of failing it.  I was up until 2:00 am last night (Central time, it was midnight here) and I'm not really feeling it too much right now. Especially with no coffee.  That'll just make me grumpy.  No one needs a grumpy old man, especially me, lmao.  

I'll go through this testing with no coffee in my system and if I pass, they best be doing some stuff  to impress me.  I'm not beholden to them and so far, there is no reason to believe this is any great company. The only good thing I've heard is the taxi driver saying, well, they've been around a long time.  It's a good company, without expressing why  it's a good company and probably having no idea what she is talking about.  There's lots of bad trucking companies that have been around a long time, they exist usually with the help of newer drivers that can't get anything else.  

Well.  I'm watching an RV park tenant with a dog and a kid sitting ou by the street, apparently there is a bus stop here as a busload of kids already went through here and now thes older kids.  This place is not well maintained.  This house is right next to the RV park, I mean right next to it.  There is a crew of workers out there working on an obvious expansion of the park and there is an Interstate maybe 150 away from this property.  

At least there are some mountains here.  

Anyway, my time is up. No idea when I will be free again, probably not anytime soon.  

G'day