Long day.
9 hours is enough for me, but I know longer days are probably coming. I've just been out of trucking for too long, gonna take time to readapt to this nonsense.
The guy that was training me this weekend was fun to be with at least. We got a lot done today, everything they told him to do and I have been through 4 loadings and 5 unloads plus other stuff so far. This stuff isn't rocket science but I definitely want more training until I'm comfortable with it, regardless of how much I would love to leave here and just go home. And just stay home, lol. \
It was raining all day, got wet, got cold, didn't bring a jacket. I was informed daytime was ok - and the forecast showed that as well. Nights, getting cold but I'm inside. I have sweatshirts, I'll just have to take an extra with me tomorrow.
This house has a furnace somewhere. It must be the whole house and the thermostat must be in the office for there is no thermostat up here. There is a window ac unit - no heat, a 2 piece ac,no heat and a portable ac in my room. The good part for me is my room has an electric heater mounted on the wall. It keeps it as warm as I want it in here. The rest of this place is cold, but at least I can be comfortable in here.
Which begs the question - why don't they have the heat turned on in this house? There are floor outlets for it. There's just nothing coming out them. It's a quarter after 6 and it's 59 degees outside and 59 degrees inside. Besides my room, that is. I won't sit in the living room for it's uncomfortable.
It is still raining. I wanted to go out for a walk. I've been on my feet all day but that's just either standing there watching/helping or some walking, but not that much. My lega are aching, actually, so perhaps a walk isn't that great of an idea anyway. As it stands, I am exhausted and not feeling all the wonderful.
I woke up in the middle of the night last night and it took quite a while to get back to sleep.
I don't want to make it sound like I'm whining, but today was a fairly miserable day. I can only hope and pray for a decent night's sleep tonight. I am really hoping that by Friday, I can pass their test and go home. The test is driving into a plant, doing all the things you have to do to get a tanker loaded and I assume drive to the delivery point and offload it. At least, that's what the trainer told me today. The other trainee that was here this last week didn't say anything about a test.
I do know if they don't feel you're ready, they will keep you "as long as it takes". I've been paying very close attention to everything this trainer was doing that last 2 days, attempting to get it into my brain. I fought the fatigue today and learned quite a bit, actually.
There are 3 ways (that I know of now anyway) to offload: pressure off, gravity off and pump off. Mostly it's pressure off, where you hook up an airline to the trailer and pressure it up to push out the product. The pump off is fairly complicated, it would take me several times watching them do that before I would feel like I am ready to try it - with supervision.
Loading for the most part is easy. Unless it's a pump from the bottom loading, you simply open a cap on the top, move the apparatus over the hole and start pumping the product in. The trainer showed me how to use charts today to figure out how much product to put in. Simple mathematical equation, that took no time to figure out.
Well enough of that. I took a short nap earlier because I couldn't keep my eyes open, far too early to go to bed. It's only 6:40 now. I want to wait until 9:00 pm to crash out, so I'm going to have to force myself to stay awake until then. I guess I could go sit out in that cold living room and watch tv.
I bought enough food today to last me until next weekend. Grocery trips are sporadic and unpredictable. And the only real place to find a regular grocery store is in Eugene. I wouldn't have wanted to drive there today, the trainer offered to let me go into |Safeway to get some goods. I was going to get something off of the food truck across the main highway - it's about a 500 foot walk from here - but they were closed. Which was strange because their hours are listed Monday - Sunday with the same open hours. Maybe they decided to stay closed today because of the weather.
There are 2 loads to do with this new trainer tomorrow. I have an idea how long it takes to load and unload now, but I have no idea where the loading or unloading plants are, that was not information that was given, so I have no idea how long a day tomorrow will be. I'll assume a minimum of 8 hours and probably more. Which is why I really, really need my sleep tonight. I just can't keep working like this on limited sleep. 5 or 6 hours simply isn't enough. It's not like I don't go to bed in time to get 9 hours, actually.
I think a of it is both the RV park and this strange living situation. I'm very glad I worked this weekend, being tired put aside. I would have been sitting here bored and along for 2 full days. Learning nothing and earning no money. They only pay you for the days you work, which makes sense. The part about $15 per day doesn't make sense, no sheets, no town nearby, no heat, etc makes no sense whatsoever. The lady that recruited me told my trainer when HE was going through training that you are not allowed to have hookers in the bunk house.
Say what? Not that I want a hooker, but where on earth does a person feel the right to address a grown man like that? Or putting signs in this place that say no alcohol and if you're caught with it in here, you're fired. They really treat people like little children.
There's more but I don't feel like writing any further. Just too tired and need to do something to divert my focus on my fatigue.
