More improvement

Hey, thanks for all your quick comments. You folks are pretty fast in responding. Thanks, again.

I had another great day, today. Got there a little late, but, made up for lost time. I spent the whole day, driving. Well, except for awhile in the morning, just reviewing pre-trip inspection, etc. Leo, our instructor had me in the seat of a 1998 KW T2000 Stevens has supplied to the school, doing skills training on the lot course. What was really cool, is... I can handle it. I didn't really have much of a problem, there. It involved driving forward, stopping at given points (with bumper within a 2 foot box), backing the length of the course, forward again, to a given point and hard right to bring the rear axles of the trailer across a given mark, then set myself up for an alley dock from an angle of about 45 degrees, then, forward to set up for a parallel park. It's cool to see progress.

You know, it's just like life. Like knowing Jesus. When I first walked into the place, I had no idea what I was gonna experience or learn, but, I'm seeing the pieces fall into place. When I first learned about Jesus, I had no idea. I just saw Him as an excuse for Christmas. Then, through trial and error (many errors) I've learned to trust Him. He always has held up to His promises, and even helps me hold up to my end of the deal. In this training, I'm learning to trust what the instructor says, and just do it. It's working out.

So, again. I got behind the wheel before lunch, and drove for about an hour. I told the instructor, Angel, about the problem I was having with downshifting. After we got in the truck, Angel made it simple for me. He said, "look, I'm going to tell you how to downshift. Let your RPM's drop to 1300 and pul it into neutral, then, accelerate to 1700 and drop it into gear, that's it." You know what? It was so cool! It worked, just as advertised. I spent the next hour upshifting to 9th or 10th gear and back to 4th, over and over. Felt great!

What's funny, is just a few minutes after he told me that, he sat and watched me and said, "you don't need any help, I'm gonna just sit here and not say anything." After making a phone call, he said, "you know you must be doing good for me to make a phone call!"

In the afternoon, after hitting the skills course 8-10 times, I heard Leo tell Angel, "We need to get Mark out of here, next week, he's ready. He's been hitting everything I've thrown at him out here, with all 3 trucks! How'd he do on the drive?" I didn't hear Angel's answer, but, Leo took me out again, later on.

I took the T2000 out again, with Leo, just before heading home. As I exited the lot, I felt a grind, and heard Leo go, "Hmmm". I kept on going, and shifted through 8th, before coming to the light, backing it down to 5th. I heard Leo say "Man", "Hmmmm" and finally, "Maaaaaan". I almost hit the brake, to ask what I hit, because I didn't see anything in the mirror, or anywhere. I looked at him trying to figure out what the problem was. He just looked at me and said. "How many times have you been out?" I told him this was my 4th trip and he busted up laughing. "Maaa-haaaaan" was his response. "You're a natural, I'm gonna just sit here and shut up" Ha! That was so cool to hear him say. So, again, I spent an hour shifting to 9th or 10th and back to 4th. I missed a couple, but, a whooolllle bunch better than yesterday. Just Angel's simple explanation about 1300/1700 did it for me. Until then, I was following another instructors idea of shifting by using the speedometer. His thing was; at 50mph shift to 9th, 40 to 8th, 30 to 7th, 20 to 6th, 15 to 5th and 10 to 4th, etc. Just never worked for me. Maybe, some, but, not very well.

Well, enough for today. Folks, pray for me. I pray for you. By the way. I'm excited to say... the LORD is faithful and has provided a fellow believer for a roomate. No riff-raff, etc. Seems to be a great brother. Praise the LORD.

Category Posted: General