Time Away From My Truck

So why are you working the docks and have to be re-tested again? I was able to get from what I read that you dropped a trailer? If so, sorry to hear that but I'm glad they're giving you a 2nd chance vs firing you. I had an accident on my first company and was fired for it, I went homeless for a couple of days but then was able to get on with someone else. Good luck on your driving test!

MG,

You are one very inspirational person that's for sure. You take a possible very negative situation and turn it into a very positive experience. Way to go.

I have a saying that I use all the time that is very appropriate right now "90% of anything you do in life is ATTITUDE"

Very appropriate for this situation I think.

Good job.

Ernie

Mountain Girl, it's never the circumstances you're in that determine your outcome. The final result of who you become, and who you are all depend on what you are made of. You can put an egg into boiling water and it will eventually become hardened, but when you do the same with a potato it only softens. Hang in there, I am looking forward to seeing the end results of all you have been through.

Keiler, to answer your question as succinctly as possible, I've had a few minor accidents - some of them preventable (2) and the others not. The second preventable accident I had was knocking over a barrier post with my tandems on a 48' van, on the (you guessed it) passenger (right) side. When I first got out and looked at the pole, it looked way worse from far away than it did up close. Wanting to be honest with my company, I called it in to dispatch as an accident right away. Upon second look, there was no damage. Just a scratch on a worthless pole. The dock guy and I stood it back up, tamped down the soil around it and it was fine. The trailer was brand new. Not a scratch. The tandems were fine and just laid out the pole. On the one hand, I probably could have gotten away with not reporting it at all. The customer laughed it off and asked, "Who DOESn't hit that pole?" On the other hand, I had a responsibility to be honest with my company.

Truth is, I may have been on my way to doing something worse, had I not been halted at this point, so it was time to suspend me. This is key, right here.

At first, I was told the accident would stay at terminal level. A few days later, I was told that the accident would not stay "in house" and was going to be dealt with at corporate level rather than locally. The morning I heard that, I was so upset about it that I lost my concentration in the present and allowed a trailer to be overloaded in the nose by a customer so that when I unhooked out our terminal, it tipped over at the dock but didn't completely hit the ground. Regardless, dangerous as hell. THAT incident was not reported as an accident and the dock managers handled it at their own level. However, due to the pole accident, I was put on the dock until I can be re-tested. It was time to stop me in my tracks, before I made any other mistakes and I've settled into acceptance and rebuilding.

No one's hurt from my mistakes and for that I am eternally grateful.

Everyone on TT knows I don't quit anything but I wouldn't have had any moral fortitude, were it not for my friends here.

I have endured enough self-induced growing pains and "seasoning." Now it's time to marinate and become excellent at what I do.

"Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming.

-Dori, "Finding Nemo"

-mountain girl

Ernie, Old School, Brett,

You, Gentlemen, are my rock.

You are so right. Attitude is everything and sometimes the only thing of which you have control.

Everyone should go to Jean Guichard's Famous Lighthouse Photo.

He took these photos from the helicopter, just moments before the lighthouse keeper was rescued. Notice, the keeper is standing at the door with his hand in his pocket, looking as casual as if he had stepped out for a breath of fresh air - the epitome of "nerves of steel."

I want to be like HIM.

-mountain girl

Correction, Jean Guichard took an independent helicopter to the site for the purpose of taking photos. Thinking this was his rescue chopper, the lighthouse keeper stepped out. Realizing it was not, he ducked back in to the lighthouse as the wave crashed over, to save his life. He was later rescued by another chopper.

Still, thinking he was about to be rescued, the hand in his pocket blows me away.

-mountain girl

Very cool photo. He definitely looks calm in an awful situation. Think of the noise those waves must be making crashing into the walls.

Way to admit to your own errors and try to see it from your company's point of view. I have much respect for you. Your own calmness in your situation is commendable.

Hang in there and your chopper will be there shortly.