Of course, the moment I decide to bitch about something, the situation naturally resolves itself. The very next morning after my last post, every single instructor spent the first hour of the day with a lucky student who had signed up to take the pre-trip inspection test. Even more surprising than that, I passed mine.
''Well, you know this inside and out.''
''I guess so.''
''You only missed your water pump which is actually gear driven on this truck, not belt driven.''
''Oh. Well. I'm not mechanical at all. I honestly can't tell the difference.''
''Go ahead and point it out. I'll show you how to tell the difference.''
''I don't know what any of this stuff is, honestly.''
''So, what? You just memorized all four pages of the inspection verbatim?''
''Yep, I did exactly that.''
The instructor pointed out each part to me after that. I obviously knew all the required information, but he wanted me to be able to associate that knowledge with the actual parts and pieces. I did, too, but I still honestly can't tell the difference between a belt driven and gear driven component. There's belts all over the damn place in there. Hoses and wires, too. As long as nothing is smoking, leaking, or sparking, I'll drive it. Besides, it's only one point and I'll take it. I can miss up to 10 before I fail, so I don't care.
Which means as of Thursday I've been ready to ''go over the fence'' and officially test with the DOT. The testing site is just on the other side of a chain link fence from our practice range. So when someone's ready to test, they say they're ''going over the fence''. It makes me conjure up ellaborate prison break fantasies. As with the pre-trip inspection hold-up, there are several people waiting to be scheduled for their official test. We've lost alot of time already with the daily tornado warnings/watches and holiday weekends, so it might be a few days until there's any real progress through that long, long waiting list. In the meantime, I get daily practice on the range with my backing manuevers and on the road running the same course through town and over the highway that I'll be following during the official test. The only bad part is the school being closed over the weekend. Today and tomorrow I'll just be hanging out in my motel room and waiting for Monday to come. After that it shouldn't be too long before I have a test date. Monday would be the absolute earliest and Wednesday would be the absolute latest I would expect to get tested. I'm fairly confident at this point that I shouldn't have any trouble passing.
This time last week, that was a different story entirely. I came into last week having still not passed any skills tests (except for the 4 point brake inspection which is meaningless if not coupled with a successful pre-trip inspection) and knew I'd have to pass at least one or face possible expulsion from the school. Monday was a holiday so it was only 1/2 day, there was only one instructor on duty for the five or six of us that actually showed up, and it was all just practice and no qualifications. But Tuesday I passed both my range and road tests and Thursday I aced my pre-trip inspection. This went from being a completely miserable, stressful week to being a shocking, reassuring one. I got everything done that I needed and I'm brimming with confidence now. Again, this time last week was a different story entirely.
In another somewhat random series of events, I might actually know who my co-pilot is going to be for the six months of team driving directly following the six weeks of over-the-road training with a company driver trainer. Of course this individual is still in the early stages of the application process and will be at least a month behind me in the training process, which means I'll probably be able to drive solo after my six week training is over while I wait for him to join me. That means a better paycheck for me while I wait which I won't mind at all. But if it all works out, I won't have to worry about being teamed up with some douche for half a year. That's what is most exciting for me. Knowing that I'll have a tolerable teammate coming will make those six weeks with my driver trainer fly by. I will share the identity of that person when it becomes more of a certainty. One absolute certainty that I can share is the identity of this person will surprise everyone. It certainly surprised me.
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