Black Clouds and other Phenomenon

Most days you can tell what’s in store for you by noon or so. Not so today. My class had to meet at the range this morning at 5am so we could be shuttled to the DMV, although they insist on calling it an mvd, to finish our CDL testing. Ok, now is where you’d insert a surprise right? Well you won’t be disappointed if you said yes. They were only going to be able to test 8 of us today and there were 20 of us in my class. Meaning someone in the carpool was to do some serious curbside waiting today. Turns out it wasn’t me as I was picked to go with the first group of eight.

There was much speculation as to how we were segregated into an 8-8-4 testing schedule but my favorite theory was that the picked the best first! We may never know. Tomorrow and Wednesday the rest of the class will get their chance.

So instead of being shuttled over to the test facility I decided to follow the bus in my car so I could pass them at the last minute, jump out of the car, run in first and be the head of the line so that the guy who rode in with me didn’t have to sit on the sidewalk all day. He did anyway. Time for the second whammy of the day! Because of an auto accident the road we were to take was closed and I got separated from the bus in traffic. I cannot believe one of my well-laid plans to cheat the system wasn’t working out. Go figure. So in losing track of the bus I got a little bit turned around and was late to one degree or another. Anyways we were herded into the testing facility where we had to give them our SEALED, by the DMV, envelopes containing our written testing scores from two weeks ago.

Whammy No. 3—the DMV didn’t put my paperwork into my envelope! So I had to run all over town trying to get that fixed so that I could test today!!!! To make a long story short I spent the rest of the morning running all over town so that I could test today.

You know that guy who has a black cloud following him around? Well that ain’t nothing partner! On some days I have clouds of all color overhead raining doom. One day it was a fog that was all over me. Hell, I have even had a hurricane follow me once! It went through three states before it caught up with me in Arkansas. True story.

Ok, I hope I have communicated the fact that things just weren’t really going all that well for the home team today. But as with any tale worth telling there is a happy ending that has nothing to do with car insurance. After waiting until 3:15pm I was allowed to test. After about one and a half-hour I was rewarded with a shiny new license and a job! Hurray for the license anyway. Only one guy failed today. I guess the sidewalk rule (see previous post if you’re lost here) somehow spills over into the double yellow lines. He will get another shot at it on Thursday so he’s not sidelined too long. I was somehow able to stay off the sidewalks and yellow lines for the duration of the test today.

The test was divided into three portions; Pre-trip(with 7 step brake test), Skills test and the road test. I was actually only worried about the road test going in and as it turns out that was the easiest portion even though I was going into rush hour traffic at that point. I did fine on my 7 step but I forget a few points on the pre-trip and I did have a few pull-ups on the serpentine portion of the skills. But that’s all over with for now. I find out tomorrow when I get to go to orientation and when I will ship out with a mentor. I’ve got so many questions and they are very stingy with the answers!

Take care, and remember to have a spare umbrella handy!

Category Posted: General