The Range

I know, it's been a few days since the last update. I was going to post last night but I fell deathly ill last night at went to bed pretty much as soon as I got back from Swift. And no, I'm not the only one who has gotten sick, in fact most of the class has gotten sick so far, so yeah, the past couple of days have sucked.

But on the bright side we got to the range on Tuesday afternoon. What is the range you ask? It is where we get to actually drive the trucks and practice for our skills test, which is part of the driving test for a CDL. Basically the skills include being able to pull forward straight for 100 feet, back up straight for 100 feet, make a right hand turn, and finally an alley dock. I'll admit, I was a little scared the first time I got behind that driver's wheel. It's a big son of a gun. And driving it is quite different than driving a car. First of all, we have a 53 foot trailer behind us that pivots. But that's not the only difference, there are smaller things that take some getting used to also. Such as the clutch and shifting. No, I'm not talking about double clutching, that's what we're learning next week. What I mean is that we don't even have to touch the accelerator (in fact, we're not supposed to) while we shift into 2nd gear, or reverse, or 1st gear or low gear (2nd gear is the highest allowed on the range). Another thing I keep catching myself on is the lack of a rear view mirror. While I'm backing I keep looking up there, only to find nothing. I'm doing pretty well on everything but the alley docking, I am still struggling on that one, but I have time to get that down.

On a more serious note I was informed by one of my class mates (the oldest guy in the group) that Barack Obama (a Democratic candidate for president who came in first in Iowa and second in New Hampshire) is in fact the anti-Christ. How does he know? Well apparently it is found in some prophesy some where. As if being the anti-Christ wasn't enough, Obama also has a father of Arabic descent. I just want to inform you all of this most disturbing of information.