Goonies never say die

My new job will start on Tuesday right after Memorial Day weekend. I remain very hopeful that this job will signal the end of my bouncing around trying to find myself. I can't honestly say I'm not any closer to finding myself now than I was a year ago. What I do know, I need a job. I can always look for myself when I have a regular paycheck and can afford the search. In the last weekend before going back to work, it seemed only prudent to spend the last two dimes I was rubbing together on a little fun. So, in the spirit of frivolous spending, we packed up the steel steed and headed out to Astoria for the day on Saturday.

We enjoyed this day with my Dad and his Wife and my step sister. For those of you that read my parent's blog,  http://therapytravels.blogspot.com/ and are now trying to figure out my lineage, just sing to yourself the theme song from the Brady Bunch and will have the jest of the story. That said, the Dad portrayed in this post is not the same Dad you met in the Therapytravel blog. At any rate, we were also briefly joined on this adventure by my Sister, her Husband and my Niece.

For those of you that are not familiar with Pacific Northwest geography, Astoria is located far up in the Northwest point of Oregon where the Columbia river spills into the Pacific Ocean. It is area that is rich in history and wonderful sights. If you ever get the chance, it is a must visit destination where you can learn many things about Lewis and Clark, river transportation and military history. As for us, our fascination with the region always seems to lean a little more towards more recent movie history.

Kari re-enacting the jail break

 Back in 1984, Goonies was filmed in Astoria. in the 26 years since it was released, it has gained a cult following that keeps a steady stream of "Goonies" making a pilgrimage to all the filming locations in and around the city. The jail in the film was recently converted to a film museum that pays homage to the many films that used Oregon as a backdrop to their stories. We had to revisit some of our favorite sites and also make vain attempts at re-enacting some of the most memorable scenes.

We also had the pleasure of stumbling across a new restaurant, Cecil's Trolley Stop Grill that was on it's second day of being open. They were doing a soft opening and not yet doing any advertising. As you can imagine, We had most of the place and the staff to ourselves. They treated us like old friends and we were even paid a visit from the chef. Food was great at an affordable price with a view of the Columbia River that was just amazing. I look forward to visiting Cecil's again the next time I'm in town.

Bekah in front of the Goonie House. She refused to do the Truffle Shuffle!

The view from Cecil's Trolley Stop Grill

After visiting several other sights in Astoria, including a terrifying 144 step climb to the top of the Astoria Column, we decided to head south to Tillamook to visit the birth place of our favorite cheese. Yes, I'll admit, we are a strange crew. In an area that is so overly abundant with history and scenery, we seemed obsessed with our movies and our cheese.

Headin into the Cheese Factory

As luck would have it, Joni's Mom and Aunt were in Tillamook for the day from Eugene. We hooked up with them at the cheese factory and Joni got to spend some time visiting. We also loaded up on all our favorite cheeses and some ice cream.

Joni with her Mom and Aunt

Since my Dad, his Wife and my step Sister are all recent transplants from Southern California, we are hoping that we have many chances this summer to visit new places to show our recently inducted Oregonians all the beauty this place has to offer. In my opinion, you could spend a lifetime exploring the great Northwest and never take in all it has to offer. I am excited about starting my new job on Tuesday and hopefully having a little more money to spend on enjoying site seeing.

More soon
-Red-

Enjoying the ride

Last June when I was laid off from the Federal Reserve Bank, I had accepted the idea that my days of working in any bank were most likely over. Most of the experience that I had in banks all revolved around checks. With the onset of online bill pay and debit cards, checks have taken on the same status as typewriters and home phones. Just as kids these days would quizzically look at an IBM Selectric or wonder what that funny looking dial is on top of the old phone on great-grandma's desk, I figured that my career was also doomed to the archives of the way things used to be. No matter, I was OK with this, it was time for a change and now I had the power to choose the direction of my future. It was all in my hands and now I was going to have the chance to live life on my terms......yeah, right!

I started this blog with a quote from a favorite singer/song writer of mine. John Lennon in a song he wrote to his son said "life is what happens when you're busy making other plans". I don't think I could find a better quote to describe the past year of my life. The twists and turns, ups and downs that I've experienced in this past year would have most frequent flyers grabbing the little white bag conveniently provided in the seat pocket in front of them. Through it all, stayed on the ride mostly because I was curious about what may be around the next corner. Unpredictability in life isn't always fun but it certainly is entertaining. It's hard to lose interest when you're always saying "gosh, I wonder what will happen tomorrow".

So, I briefly owned a photo studio, went to truck driving school, briefly drove trucks, submitted hundreds of resumes to every company in town, crawled into pizza ovens, sent out a couple hundred more resumes, went fishing, rode my motorcycle, spent  time creating culinary masterpieces, decided to pursue being an electrician, studied math...you get the picture. I also spent a lot of time in between each step being stressed out and worried about how I will pay the mortgage next month. All this time I never  did settle into a comfort zone that I felt would provide the stability that I was seeking. In fact, I'm not entirely sure I knew what I was seeking. I thought I wanted change but I had no idea about the trials that path would lead me down.

On Wednesday of last week I posted a comment on facebook about applying for a job with Staples. Underneath that, a former co-worker of mine told me to contact her for info about a staffing company that got her and several other former co-workers jobs at Wells Fargo. On Thursday I made a call to the staffing company and was set up for an interview on Friday. By the end of the 10 minute interview, the gal was offering me a job. She told me that she just fired somebody and needed to fill a position ASAP! As of right now, I have started the process for the background check. As soon as the background check reveals that I don't even know what handcuffs look like, I will be heading off to work for Wells Fargo. Which I must say, this is also in the best interest of Wells Fargo since they are the ones that hold my mortgage. All this seem like I'm going right back to where I started from, heading right back to the pit that I was so desperate to escape from a year ago. Well, I'm OK with that, it's a familiar pit and hopefully a stable one.

What happens next....not sure I should make any plans. I'm just along for ride and will allow life to happen.

Enjoy the ride!
Red

Out of the frying pan and into the boiler

It's been almost a month since my last blog update, not that I have forgotten that my life bears slight interest to my adoring fans, I just felt there was nothing of any real interest happening in my life. I am happy to report that there have been some new developments that add great fodder to a blog writers repertoire.

As of the writing my last entry, I was attempting to teach myself algebra so I could qualify for an electrician apprenticeship. I made some great progress on the things I was able to learn but as things started to get more complicated, I came to some road blocks that I was not able to overcome. Since then, I have signed up with an online course offered through the National Joint Apprenticeship Training Committee. Completion of this course will satisfy all math requirements for the apprenticeship program. I am currently working through that course and still hope to one day become a "sparky".

Not all ingredients shown, that is top secret

Meanwhile, I also started applying for as many jobs as I could locate and also spent some spare time experimenting with some new recipes. As much as I love to cook, I have never in my life attempted a potato salad. After looking at several recipes, I was able to develop my own ideas of what I wanted my salad to taste like and what I was going to put in it. I am happy to report that the potato salad was a major success and tasted the way I hoped it would. I also made an attempt at a broccoli salad and a pasta salad. Again, the results were favorable and will be rolling out of my kitchen for years to come.

The pasta creation, very tasty!!

In the midst of all my cooking, studying, job hunting I was able to hook up with an old friend, Matt on facebook that I hadn't seen in about 13 years. We met for breakfast one day and after talking a little about my situation, he started telling me about one of his part time jobs with a friend of his. He climbs into boilers in mills and power plants to do inspections. He logs data about things that he finds so that the boilermakers know where to go to make repairs. Most of these mills and power plants shut down for a few weeks a year to do maintenance and they always shut down on the spring and fall. Matt told me that he would pass on my name to his friend and see if he needed any help. Well, I ended up getting a call from Brian on the afternoon of Sunday, May 1st telling me he needed me in Chehalis WA (about 90 miles north of me) at 7am the next morning. I told him that I would be happy to show. I quickly washed some clothes, packed my bags and headed out for Chehalis that night, not at all sure what I was getting myself in to.

I was faced with an opportunity but I hadn't the slightest idea what I would be doing. I set out with a small crew at the power plant and we went up to the 10th floor of the boiler. As we approached the boiler I noticed these small doors that were about 2' X 2' that looked like something you would stick a pizza in, not a person. Starting to feel a little anxious, I asked if I would be going through one of those doors. I was told that some of the ingresses are smaller than that. It suddenly brings to mind all the time I might have complained about working in a boring, air conditioned office thinking that I needed to do some outside work. Turns out, those complaints were born from lack of other knowledge. I was now in line to receive a quick lesson about why you should not complain about your job. After climbing in and out of pizza ovens for several days, I found that I was able to overcome or at least learn to deal with my fears of claustrophobia. Maybe, it was just more overcome with the greater fear of homelessness or worse yet, not being able to afford internet connection!!!!

Me in front of one of the pizza ovens. Yes, I do fit in there.

After learning a little more about the job, I found that this could be a good deal for some people. Because of the limited shut down season, the work weeks are usually 60 plus hours. The upside to that, you make great money in a short amount of time. Most of the guys I worked with only do this 6 or 7 months a year. The rest of the year, they don't have other jobs. Are you kidding me???? 6 months of vacation time every year???? All the sudden, cramming myself into pizza ovens doesn't seem all that bad. I'm still not 100% convinced that this will be a long term choice for me. For now, it is decent money and helping me preserve my indoor living conditions just a little longer. Should I choose to stick with this, I will be spending long stretches away from home but I will also get even longer stretches at home.

Life is all about learning. Myself, I'm learning a lot about what I can or cannot do, what I can overcome and what I am willing to do. No matter what happens, these are valuable lessons that I will carry with me for the rest of my life.
-Red-

Education Week

As of my last update, I had decided to self teach myself algebra. My goal; attempt to test at a level of math skills that would allow me to qualify for an apprenticeship without the need for taking any college courses. I'm happy to report that my self educational experiment has been going quite well and I have covered over 300 pages of reading material in the last week. I have been learning all kinds of new things about math and have discovered many practical skills that I know I will apply in real world situations many times in the future.

I'm not one to spend time lamenting the past, I'm more concerned about what I can do today and then tomorrow. Every day is a new start and yesterday is set in stone, tomorrow isn't. However, I do look to my past as valuable life experience that I hope will be useful to help me through my tomorrow's. One of those lessons, never give up on learning new things. I wish I had taken this lesson more seriously in my high schools days but, now is as good time as any start.



With a week of brain exercise weighing on my sanity, we decided to take the day on Saturday and check out the Antique Powerland Museum in Brooks Oregon. The group of 8 included Me and my Wife, my Daughter and 3 of her friends, my Dad and his Wife.

Laurie at the entrance

I found the Museum to fascinating and much bigger than I expected. The whole thing sits on over 60 acres and houses several individual museums. Not all museums were open, but we were still able to spend about 4 hours there and took in a smorgasbord of cool oldies that were neat to see. I know, that sounds a lot like a trip to Dad and Mom's house and I won't deny the similarities. But, seeing as my parents don't have 60 acres, this served as a good supplement to looking through their garage.

Karli, Heather, Bekah,Jasmine

Being a photographer, I am amazed with shapes, angles, texture, rust, dirt and many of the other visual candy that I came across at the museum. I only took my point and shoot camera but really wished I would have taken my DSLR. I could probably spend several hours in the place just taking pictures of "stuff". For people that like old things or for people that like to take pictures of interesting things, this is a gem of a playground for both.

Me, checking out my camera

One of the more fascinating things that we got to see was an actual working sawmill. They use the mill to make many things that are used around the museum grounds. Most of the guys that ran mill looked as though they may have been using some of that equipment when it was brand new. It was all powered by an old steam boiler (yes, just like your parents old heat system) and really felt like a step back in time as you watched all the old millers turn trees into 2X4's.

My Dad and Wife waiting for the mill to fire up

Click on the link below to watch the mill in action

video of old mill in operation

After several hours of browsing, I gained a somewhat clear picture that this place was much more fascinating to me than it was to a group of 11 year old girls. We decided to head back to the homestead and topped off the day with some grilled burgers.

Must get back to studying, I plan on taking the placement test on the 18th of this month.
-Red-

A shocking turn of events

I did it, I finally made it back to Oregon and handed over the keys to my truck with a smile on my face. I'm not prone to quitting a job on a whim, especially in light of the fact that I have a mortgage and other bills associated staying plump and warm. However, there were some things about life on the road that I was just not prepared to handle. I was so excited when I was assigned a trainer that was a local driver but I think I really missed an important factor of training, learning all about road life. First off, I must say that I have gained a whole new perspective on long haul trucking and a whole new respect for those that do it for most of their life. However, they also deal with a very unique lifestyle that is just not very easy for most people to adjust to. Living truck stop to truck stop with the only space that you can call your own amounts to about 60 square feet. If you need a shower, you pay for it. You need a restroom, use the public one. You want a meal, it's whatever you can scrounge up at the truck stop or store in the mini fridge in your truck. I've also heard other truckers tell me that they love the freedom of the open road and couldn't possibly sit in an office all day. I sat in that truck for longer hours than I ever sat in my cubicle in any office and also had more contact with my boss while in that truck than I've had at most any other job I've had.

However, all that said, I'm glad I gave it a shot and I have an experience that I can talk about for the rest of my life. I'm not bitter about the way things worked, just a little nervous about what to do next.

The shadow of my former and short lived career!

So, what to do next....?
Well, I got yet another idea. Since I lost my job in June of last year, I made it 3 months as a professional photographer and 12 days as a long haul trucker. So, what's one more bad idea to throw into the mix? So, here goes plan "C", an Electrician apprenticeship. I have a friend that is about my age that has been out of work for quite some time and just got into this program. He loves it and is very excited about the new opportunity. He also has a class B CDL and tells me that the company now uses him to drive their trucks around since many of the employees do not have a CDL. Since, I have a class A, maybe that will help my chances.

My tutor

This plan does have one small obstacle that I must overcome, my math skills. I need to have some knowledge of algebra, of which I currently posses none. Since the Spring term just started at the college and I don't want to wait 2 months for the next term, that is out of the question. So, I decided to go with a more unconventional route, I will teach myself. I went to Borders Books and invested in the material that I thought would bring my knowledge up to an acceptable level. I may be slightly crazy and maybe even delusional, but I'm figuring I will teach myself algebra in 2 weeks. After that, I will attempt to pass a placement test that puts me at the level necessary to to qualify without needing to take a college course in math. If I'm able to pull this off, you won't be the only one that's surprised.

If anybody out there is a qualified math tutor, I would love to hear from you.
-Red-

heading north to Oregon (Home)

I last left you on Wednesday morning as I was waiting for word on my truck at the shop. I know it's only been 2 days but I could probably write volumes about what transpired in that time frame. Since I'm not a doctor and not qualified to cure your insomnia, I'll try to condense the last two days to something shorter than a celebrity marriage.

I was able to pick up my truck from the service center on Wednesday and immediately received a dispatch to pick up a trailer in the Phoenix drop yard and take it to customer in the heart of the metro LA area. Now, bearing in mind that I already quit my job, I really wanted to tell my DM (driver manager) that there were only two things I didn't want to do; 1, drive in LA / 2, drive at night. I just want to get home and they are wanting their truck back, lets get both there in one piece is my thinking. Keeping in mind that LA is kinda on the way home and the delivery was at 1:00pm, I figured I could avoid some rush hour traffic and wanted to get moving in the homeward direction. So, I sent back a message confirming the dispatch.

After making a wrong turn and finally locating the drop yard, I found my trailer and was Westward bound by about 2 on Wednesday afternoon. I was wanting to make it as far west as possible so I could start later the next day and hopefully miss rush hour traffic in the LA area.

While on the way to Cali, I received another dispatch to pick a loaded trailer in Van Nuys at 7pm on Thursday and deliver in Modesto at 9am on Friday. I called my dispatcher and told her that first of all, I wasn't driving all night. For me, not safe. She told me that it was a 6 hour trip and I could drive half on Thursday and sleep most of the night and drive the other half Friday morning. Then she went on to tell me, and I quote "hun, in trucking we don't get to pick our hours." I wanted to say; Carol, are you aware that I already quit, you do want your truck back, don't you?" We also went some rounds about available hours, she said I had plenty, I said I didn't. I caved and agreed to the load because I wanted to head north but assured her, when my hours run out, I'm stopping, no questions asked.

As I got further east, I started to recall some of the stories that I heard about the Banning Scales. Apparently, they are notoriously tough and I was headed right for them. Having a prepass in my window, you can weigh in motion on the freeway and if you receive a green light, you just keep going. As luck would have it, my sensor gave me a red light. I'm already sweating bullets and hope that I just roll through and keep going. once you pass the scales, if you get a green light, you head for the freeway, if you get an arrow pointing to the right, well, that ain't as good. Again, as luck would have it, I got an arrow. After 17 minutes of sweating bullets, I was told that my truck checked out. In my opinion, I should have gotten a free t-shirt for that experience.

I made it to Ontario and stopped at a huge TA truck stop there. As truck stops go, the place was awesome! A little of everything there. In the interest of saving time on allowable drive hours, I started as late as I could and headed out to make my delivery. While on my way, I received a message from dispatch telling me that my next pickup was already loaded and I could pick up early if I wanted to. I arrived at my delivery right at 1pm and was hoping if all went well, I could hot foot it to Van Nuys before rush hour. Well, God does have a since of humor! As I was backing into the dock I heard a rather loud KABOOM!!! I immediatly ruled out a terrorist attack but knew something went horribly wrong. After inspecting the truck, I found that one of the suspension air bags had exploded. I sent a breakdown message and called my DM to tell her that I wouldn't be able to make that Van Nuys/Modesto trip. I was able to get my truck back to the loading dock and breakdown sent out some mobile mechanics to replace the air bag. The mechanics did get the air bag replaced but it was now almost 4pm, the rush hour that I hoped to avoid was now in full swing. Since I never heard back from my DM, I decided to go after my next load.

25 miles took me an hour and a half but I finally made it to Van Nuys. My personal inexperience and lack of knowledge made the process of picking up a preloaded trailer an ordeal worth an hour and a half.

noticing that I now only have 4 hours of available drive time, I decided to make it over the Grapevine and stop on the other side. Keeping in mind that you can only 70 hours of on duty time in 8 days, I thought I would wake up the next morning and would have another 4 hours since the 4 hours that I was on duty 8 days ago would drop off. Turns out, I figured wrong. The 8 day rule doesn't count the current day as I thought, it was the previous 8 days. The day that dropped off was the day before I started my trip, zero hours on duty that day, zero hours dropped off this morning. Again, I called my DM and told her that I only had an hour of drive left and wasn't going to make Modesto. She got to looking at my logs on her end and asked; What's this 3 hours you spent in the parking lot at your delivery yesterday? I told her I was waiting for my truck to get fixed. She then asked; why didn't you log that as off duty? I told her; Well, I was waiting in a parking lot, that certainly wasn't MY time! She told me that it was my time and she was going to change that to off duty. After nit-picking about a couple of entries, she was able to gain me 4 1/2 hours and told me to get my butt headed north. I questioned the legality of this but I didn't care since I wanted to get home and out of the truck, ASAP.

I made it to my delivery with 39 minutes of available drive time left. Having learned my lesson, I logged off and sat in the parking lot for 2 hours while off duty. Somehow, the trailer even backed itself into the dock while I was off duty. Just before I hit the gate, I changed the log to on duty and headed out to find a truck stop, a very close one. I pulled into the parking lot of a Flying J with 1 minute to spare. Now that's cuttin' just a little to close for me.

About the time I got to the Flying J, I received a dispatch to pick up a trailer in Woodland tomorrow (Saturday) and drop it in the Brooks yard (home base). I will only have 4 hours of drive time tomorrow so I should have just enough time to make Woodland and maybe get a little north on I5. Come Sunday, I will gain over 10 hours, should be plenty enough to get me home.

As of now, I should be home on Sunday evening. I can't wait!!!!
-Red-

Breakdown

I cut off my last entry with my arrival to Palm Springs on Sunday night. And now, the continuation;

Every night when you finish driving you are supposed to send in a vehicle inspection report on the qualcomm (satellite communication system.) On Sunday night I felt it was prudent to tell them that a check engine light was on and the splitter button on my shifter was leaking air. For those of you not familiar with big trucks, I have a 13 speed transmission and 2 different air actuated switches on the shift lever that you need to select the correct gear. Whenever you use one of those switches you will hear a quick burst of air as the switch does it's job. The splitter switch was letting out a steady stream of air until I wiggled it enough to make it seal. This is of particular concern since the brakes on the truck are operated by air and if you have enough of an air leak to cause loss of pressure, your brakes will lock up on you. Obviously, the brakes locking up when you're not wanting them to can be detrimental to the life and health of yourself and people around you.

When I heard back from breakdown, they wanted to know if the truck was movable. I told them yes and that I would like to make my delivery in Gila Bend the next day and then they could route me to service. That was agreed upon by all parties as a workable plan.

And so, I woke up early the next morning and made my way out to Gila Bend. Starting out before sunrise and heading east was awesome as the sun started to rise behind the mountains in the distance. As the the sun started to get a little brighter I was suddenly aware of all the little bugs that had committed suicide on my window the previous day. As it got more and more difficult to see, I made the huge mistake of smearing them around with the windshield wipers and washer fluid, now I was almost driving blind into a glaring, yet beautiful sunrise. As luck would have it, I came across a gas station with truck parking next to it. I washed my window there and also waited about 20 mintues for the sun to get just a higher in the sky so as not to be shinning directly into my eyes.

I arrived in Gila Bend ahead of schedule. Passing through the small town you felt like you just stepped way back in time. I was almost expecting a covered wagon to pass by or maybe see Wyatt Earp shoot it out with some bandits. I made my way through town and made it to the mill I was delivering at. As I was leaving the mill, I had to stop and take a picture of an old run down building that I thought was a photographic gem. I also had to take a picture of my truck. After this, I was on my way to Phoenix for service.

I made it to the Peterbilt dealer at about 2:30 Monday afternoon. After a couple of hours, they finally told my that they would not be able to look at my truck that day. I called my driver manger and told her this and she told me to stay there in my truck. Now, bear in mind that this is in the middle of an industrial area. Once they close the shop at night, there are no bathrooms, showers, laundry, food....anything! And, they close the gates with rolled barbed wire on top so you can't even get in or out. But, they told me I was welcome to spend the night in their parking lot. I asked the service writer what I was supposed to do if I got up in the middle of the night and had to pee, was I just supposed to pee in the middle of your parking lot? He just looked at me with a blank stare and shrugged. I contacted my driver manager again and she told that I could take the truck to a truck stop and stay there.

The next morning, I arrived at the shop at about 7:15. Once again, not knowing where I was or where I was supposed to go to get food. I ended up walking about a mile up the road and found a Junk in the Box and got some chicken strips and iced tea. There was also a Circle K right next to the shop where I could get some water, but I refused to eat anything in there. Feeling somewhat abandoned and completely lacking any control over my situation, I came to the end of my rope. I don't like the feeling of being trapped somewhere and lacking the ability to make basic decision for my self. I felt as though I was at the mercy of somebody that was making decision for me while sitting in an comfortable office a thousand miles away. Along with many other highly stressful factors that play into being an over the road trucker, I decided that I was in a career that I wasn't prepared to handle. I called up my driver manager at about 2 that afternoon and asked her to route me home when the truck got out of service, I needed to move on. She tried to talk me out of it and told that not every day would be a breakdown. I told that there were just way too many factors that I didn't calculate into this job and I just didn't think I was cut out for it. I then called my wife and told her what I just done. She was very supportive and told that we'll just have to see what happens next.

After I spent 11 hours hanging out in a parking lot at the service center, I decided to take matters into my own hands and called a shuttle to take me to a motel for the night. At least I had the comfort of knowing that I was in an environment that was designed to provide basic necessities.

It is now Wednesday morning and I will once again call the service center and see if my truck is done. I really feel the need to be home right now.

I don't know what's going to happen next for me, I'm not really sure if I just made the best or worst decision of my life. I will continue to do the best I can to make life wonderful for me and my family. I've had to reassess what I really feel is important many times in the last year since I was laid off from the Federal Reserve Bank. Once again, I am reassessing and will try to make the best decisions for my future.

I'll keep you updated.

-Red-