Start CDL School For Stevens Transport Mon. 6/6/16 (Whew, Glad That One Is In That Date!!)

I would have honked if I did!! We rolled thru Denver late on our way to Cheyenne. Like 11-12 late. And we didn't really get into Denver to get to Aurora.

But hey man!!! Way to go!!

Gotta throw a few bananas out here for the sake of tradition! (I don't remember getting any bananas...)

I would have honked if I did!! We rolled thru Denver late on our way to Cheyenne. Like 11-12 late. And we didn't really get into Denver to get to Aurora.

But hey man!!! Way to go!!

Gotta throw a few bananas out here for the sake of tradition! (I don't remember getting any bananas...)

Thanks CM, I have been particularly watching your threads as you seem to be in exactly the kind of place that I see myself. Also, your posts are completely real and you take responsibility where you think that it is yours and you say when you think that it was nothing you did that caused the difficulty! I appreciate that and I respect it more than you know. I look to you among others for leadership, and that is not given lightly! I have been involved in a number of professions in my lifetime, and you quickly learn how to recognize which people to listen to and take valuable notes from, and which ones to all but completely ignore. You are most definitely in the first group, and deservedly!! Thanks for all of your encouragement. You have no idea just how truly valuable it has been!! Read my update on today's training and I think that you will understand.

DSTURBD

Day 18 of Official Training (Results Day)

Today, we actually got to sleep in. That is if you were actually able to do so, I wasn't. I was still up at the normal time...two hours before I would have really had to roll out of bed, but then I am old. Old people, as a group, seem to really resent sleep as a thief of the time we have left on this earth!! Yes, as a teenager, I would literally sleep all day long and love that I could get away with it. Now, I view it as time lost that I could have gotten things done. Anyway, we spent the morning cleaning the condo we have been staying in and got ready for our final meeting at 3:00 pm this afternoon. It was a good meeting as we were told what to expect when we hit Dallas and just how heavy the turn over is with new trainees if you get at all stupid in any way whatsoever!! They have absolutely no problem with telling you that you are going home as you are just not what they are looking for. The company has already extended a LOT of money getting people qualified and at this point are looking for that 1 or 2 percent that are really going to take it seriously and view it as the chance at a career that it truly is. I totally understand that as our class scored really highly, but there are more than a few that still have that attitude that if it is not just what they envisioned, they will not follow through with what is expected of them. I still don't understand that mind set that you get to walk in to an interview and dictate just what you are willing to do for a job, regardless of what that job requires as to the functional duties!?!?!?! I am really worried as I realize that I am starting completely over at Zero when I hit Dallas, with ten times the rivals for a position with the company. Our class at school was eleven individuals. Our class at Stevens will be 100 plus!!!!! How do you excel in that situation other than to completely dismiss it and concentrate on only your obligations and performances and try to block out everything else? I think that I can do that as I am pretty isolated as a normal course of action anyway, but I am really going to have to concentrate on blocking out the distractions. I am worried that I may be bested by some young person with natural ability but no dedication to the company. I have to say that that would just crush me and I would have no idea how to deal with it. Yeah, I could apply to other companies, but this one is the one that I am driven to work for. Maybe that is just stupid, but I have admired their trucks on the road for many, many years and to envision myself as the driver of one of those beautiful trucks going down the road is more than I can accept as having failed to achieve in a level competitive environment!! Oh well, rant over. but that is truly how I feel and I am worried.

I am happy that I scored the highest GPA for our class at 98.1, but what does that matter at 11 compared to 100 plus? Yes, I understand that I am just freaking out over unknowns, but that is only because this means so very much to me!! How do I convey just how committed I am? How do I convey my commitment to an agreement/obligation? How do I convey that I am looking at this company as the last one I will probably ever work for and make it everything that it can possibly be?!?!?

I am in a motel room tonight as I am driving myself to Dallas from northeastern Colorado. I did this on purpose as I needed to check my mail one last time and get things taken care of here before I am gone for up to three months before I may be back. That is not a problem for me as I have no real ties, but I do have obligations such as bills, etc.

I apologize to everyone as I am obviously just freaking out, but it is about to get very real after a 12 or 13 hour drive tomorrow. i know, this is where it really gets real, but I don't have to like it!! School went really well, but I have always been really good at school, probably part of why I became a teacher. However, I would like to stop at my school and tell my kids, "See, I practice exactly what I preach, I did my studying, I did my homework, and I paid attention during practical application, and I scored at the top!! You can do it too!!"

Okay, no more whining, no more complaining, it gets completely real tomorrow!!!!!!! Here goes nothing!!

DSTURBD

Ahhh the fear of age competing with youth. Drop it. We have the better attitude. Our parents taught us to go out and get it. That nothing was given to us. We learned to earn it. You got the education to be a teacher. Now you got the education and license to drive the original monster truck. You have a professionalism that is lacking in the youth. Also, you are only competing against yourself. It's your world. Command it. Good luck and knock em dead.

Saturday 6/25/16

Okay, I drove down from Yuma, CO and have arrived in Mesquite, TX. I was up at 4:00 am to shower and get ready, had breakfast, gassed up, ran a last couple of errands and after everything I finally started driving at about 7:30. Pulled into town after about 12 or 12.5 hours, but the motel was already full of Stevens students and they didn't have a room. Called Stevens and they had me come to another motel and at first, he told me he was full as well. Called Stevens again and they said that they had just given him my name and he had opened up a room for me, so it got straightened out and I am in my room. It is now 10:35 pm local time (I lost an hour with the time change). I have to up by 4:00 am to get ready and catch the shuttle over to the terminal so this will not be long. They gave us a schedule of events for our four days of orientation at our meeting yesterday before we left the school and WOW is it intense looking! So, instead of doing this, I'd better get busy getting ready for tomorrow.

I am here, though, none the worse for wear (I'll have to tell you about that later) and ready for everything to start in earnest tomorrow (Sunday) morning at 8:00 am. All of the rest of the days start at 6:00 am, so I guess I'd better enjoy this one, ha ha. I'll try to keep up on this, but I may miss a day or two and have to do them later.

Still excited, but scared to death...

DSTURBD

Go get em.

Congratulations!!! Now the real fun begins. Safe travels and best wishes for continued success.

6/26/16 (Sunday) First Day of Four Orientation Days at Stevens

Okay, first of all, this facility is UNBELIEVABLE!!!!! The pics and videos on the web site don't begin to do it justice. Acres and acres of perfect, level concrete, gorgeous main building and landscaping, HUGE maintenance shop, and beautiful shiny new trucks everywhere!! On my road evaluation, the instructor said, "Don't worry if you grind a few gears, this an old truck and it's been beat on." I was floored! The only trouble I was having is that everything felt so new that it was tight and so I had to be more deliberate with all of my inputs. I asked about what he meant about it being old and said that well, it's been worked on a couple of times...REALLY?!?!?!? Whoever it was on here joking about me getting a tired 2014 as my first truck, I no longer have any fears of that! Marcus' truck last week must be more representative of their equipment than I had dared to hope. One of the instructors was showing us his 2017 Pete (because of the automatic) while we were waiting our turn in trucks, and wow, talk about a sweet unit!!

anyway, back to the point of this thread. We started this morning with a general talk about some things like U-turns and the zero tolerance policy about them, the reasons for the focus on safety, etc. Oh, and a bunch of paperwork. I must have blocked that out, huh? Then they took us out to four scenarios the had set up to demonstrate stuff like the blind side through mirrors (had us each get in the truck and relate what we saw and how we would proceed in that situation. About a dozen trucks were parked there in different configurations and mid-turn, etc. We each had to climb in and assess what we saw and would do.

As I mentioned, we each did a road evaluation (in eight speeds OMG, first one I've driven), straight-line backing with a coupling/uncoupling thrown into it, and a variation of docking they call 45 degree backing. It was very similar to what we did for alley-dock and I got lucky.... my set-up was perfect and I stuck it with one small pull-up to straighten everything before I put it home. You star from behind the range instead of beside it so you are coming from a much different angle to start with. Then we went back inside for more paperwork, but on the computer and I got my start date with Stevens. As of the 29th, I am officially on the payroll!! YAY!!

The next two days are 16 hours straight because of night and mountain driving thrown into the mix. Sounds like we will get a lot more seat time too. Also there is a bunch of organizational stuff, sexual harassment, drug and alcohol, our physicals and pee tests, etc. for the next two days.

Anyway, I had better get to bed to be up at four am. Tomorrow and Tues. are 6:00 am to 10:00 pm straight through. Weds. it says is 8:00 am to __________ (I'm sure that means "whenever we get done" ha ha.

Still havin' a blast and even more excited than ever now!!!!!!

DSTURBD

Congratulations! That's awsome to hear. Sounds like you'll be on your own before you know it.

6/27/16 (Monday) Second Day of Four Orientation Days at Stevens

Well, today started out with physicals. Over three hours of standing in line was not a bit fun in any way! The instructor told us last night that to make sure blood pressure was not a problem, no coffee and no smoking in the morning beforehand. So, I did that even though I wondered at the wisdom of it as my blood pressure hasn't been a problem for quite a while now (it was only close to the 140/80 before) and I have lost a bunch of weight. I also didn't eat but just a couple of bites in case they checked my blood sugar (which they did, but it was just 105, very good). After all the time standing in line, I was tired, anxious, and hungry as heck, and he wants to focus on surgeries and a broken thumb I had a hundred years ago that have never been any problem, which gets me even more nervous, and then he notices that my hands are shaking a bit! He's like, "I don't like that. How often does that happen?" I told him that if I'm hungry and nervous, etc. it happens a bit, but it is usually more my left hand than my right. But of course, now I'm really nervous and can't get them to stop shaking. So now I'm on medical hold until he checks me again tomorrow so I didn't get to go "up on the hill" tonight for night driving. I'm really more than a little ticked off about it. He was way more critical than the other doctor, she was real laid back and just did the physicals. Oh, also he wants to bring me in three months from now for sleep apnea testing even though I have had two other doctors tell me that I have no indicators for it...GRRRRRRRR!! So, basicallly, if I would have just followed my normal routine, I probably would have been just fine.

Anyway, the physicals were such a total cluster #%$*, that they lasted until way after lunch and made them postpone a couple of the afternoon classes until Thursday. So, we will likely be here an extra day, oh well, it's not like I had anywhere to be!! He held about four of us over and the instructor said, "You're on med hold, not dead! We'll get you caught up." On a brighter note, I was called upstairs to be interviewed by the head of recruiting. One of the ladies said that he picks about 5 or 6 people out of each class to interview and that it's pretty routine. He talked to me for a few minutes and then asked if I was ready to hit the road.....uh, yeah, way ready!! It made me feel kinda good. LOL

This works out well for another reason too. With the difficulty I've had with motel rooms, I didn't get but about two hours of sleep last night (probably played a part in today's situation as well) so I'm looking forward to getting to bed early and getting rested.

Even with the hiccup today, still having a blast and excited seeing all of these beautiful trucks running around the facility!!

DSTURBD