This morning at work I literally suffered through nearly an hour of incoherent babbling by my boss. If I had something in hand to bend, break, or crush, I would have. The whole time I was saying in my mind “shut the hell up already you fucking moron and let me get to work”…
My job should be the greatest job on earth. I get to work with fish, make a fair amount of road trips, spend some time out on boats, and work with a really great bunch of people (sans management). I can wear shorts in warm weather. I see wildlife in plenty on a daily basis. Deer, cottontails, birds of all kinds, the occasional fox, coyote, bobcat… Even a pair of mountain lions once, a mother and cub. And fish of course.
When I make fish stocking trips between here and Brownsville, I am almost always greeted and thanked by folks I meet along the way, either when I stop to check the fish on the way, or when I arrive at the stocking site. That makes me feel really good. It makes me proud of what I do. And I really do enjoy that part of the job. But those days are few and far between, surrounded by what is becoming abject misery. Not to mention the pay sucks. The benefits aren’t real great either. The only advantage this job has over any other I’ve had is in paid time off. But paid time off ain’t worth shit if I can’t afford to do anything with that time…
As I’ve posted before, I am going to get my commercial driver’s license next month. I had a CDL ten years ago, but I let it lapse because I wasn’t driving anymore and the renewal cost $60 versus $16 for a regular license. In addition, I would have had to pay for a DOT physical to maintain the license.
Local companies are practically begging for CDL drivers, and are paying damn good wages. Seems they’re having a hard time finding folks who can pass a criminal background check and a piss test. Well I can pass those, for the time being… I’ve seen $500 per week for a wet behind the ears newbie up to $1,700 per week hauling oilfield equipment for the recent “oil boom” in the Eagle Ford shale oil deposit. “Insurance” companies require 2 years of recent experience for “class A” tractor trailer drivers, but I found a way around that, my experience being from 10 years ago. A “class A” CDL is required for “hot shot” drivers in one ton duallies pulling gooseneck trailers. Well I’ve been hauling fish in one ton duallies pulling gooseneck trailers for six years now. We also have a flatbed gooseneck on which we haul all sorts of stuff on from time to time. So the “experience” requirement is covered (like I forgot how to drive a truck in ten years). I pulled a 53′ van with a single axle Freightliner (fun on windy days) with a 10 speed Road Ranger tranny. Then I drove a Kenworth with a “military 9 speed” pulling flatbeds and lowboys. It’s like riding a bike, I’ll have it back down pat in a day.
I enjoyed driving trucks. I got the wanderlust, which accounts for my love of boats. I love the road as well, and driving 18 wheelers is… well…. Fun! Especially when being paid exceptionally well.
My current job served me well for a few years. It paid the bills, bought me some preps, and kept me in the “starving the beast” zone of no federal taxes paid (aside from the inescapable SSI and Medicrap). This year that changed because we made “too much money”. So now, in spite of the few fun days I get out on the boat, and the camaraderie I enjoy with some really great co-workers (sans management), not to mention the peaceful and relaxed setting I get to work in, I am going back to truck driving. I need to make as much money as I can, as quick as I can. Sitting here in a constant state of decline is doing me no good when I have very little backup. I need to rake in the FRNs and convert them into beans, bandaids, and bullets as fast as I can. Some land wouldn’t hurt either. Gotta get on this train and ride it while it lasts, because I am behind the prepping curve. Don’t have nearly enough put up to make me comfortable. Can’t get it doing what I’m doing now. This will get it for me…
**Side note** Thanks to all of you who’ve responded to the Coastal PATCOM poll, and especially to y’all who’ve donated raffle items and money. It’s people like you who make a real difference in this world, and I am proud to carry the torch for y’all who support Freedom. This event will do y’all proud.
Two questions…..1. Why you waiting a month to get the CDL.
2. Whats the cost to get…that probably is the answer to #1….
Yep, that’s the answer to #1. Plus I got to go to the eye doctor next month to fix my screwey left eye with the “central serous retinopathy” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_serous_retinopathy which was supposed to go away on it’s own but hasn’t, then get new glasses so I can pass the DOT physical.
Good luck with the eye, being non-corrective 20/200 in one eye all my life sucks..why I shoot left handed….Saw at WIKI where it could be declared a medical emergency, hopefully that high priced medical insurance you have will pay for it….Will talk more with you about it eye to eye, so to speak….definitely you on the correct train of thought about the job change….make it while you can,,,TICK TOCK
“Insurance” will pay for SOME of it. Copays and out of pocket all went up of course, as did the outrageous premiums. I still think I’d be better off rat-holing that $415 per month and paying cash at the doc’s office. Just a week and a half to go, see y’all then!
Craig – i think that you are making the right decision in trying to prep up as much as possible. good luck with getting this new job going! fingers crossed for ya buddy!
your friend,
kymber
Thanks Kymber. The more preps the better off we’ll be.
sems like you always going first via HELL to get something better
That seems to be par for the course in my life. Oh well, I’m used to it.
Craig,
From reading your posts, my guess on your paying taxes this year is not that you made too much money, but that you had too few deductions; namely, the mortgage interest deduction vs paying rent (no deduction).
That said, wadda ya gonna do about? Cry in yer beer? Yuch! Watered down salty beer!
You’re on the right path. I’d love to be a fly on the wall when you tell your overeducated pencil neck geek boss Adios. And then keep in touch with your former co workers, just to see how badly the place is falling apart without you.
I haven’t been able to beat the standard deduction since we sold the rent house we owned along with our primary residence. Nothing “overeducated” about the boss, his was a “mercy” degree I think. I am fully convinced he has a diagram on his bedroom wall to help him tie his shoes… I’m not going out with a bang. I’ll ask for a reasonable raise, then turn in my 2 weeks’ notice when he gives his lame excuses for not giving me a raise. The place won’t completely fall apart, but two other guys there will be extremely busy…
I let my CDL go years ago myself -pretty much for the same reasons you did. Plus, my medical history was against me.
Used to spend my summers traveling with my uncle who drove for moving companies. Traveled all over the US and Quebec. Great times.
I’ve had good jobs with crummy bosses too. Haven’t we all? That’s something I could not go back to. As I get older, I have less and less patience for stupidity.
Good luck!
Yeah, I find my B.S. tolerance level (never very high to begin with) declining rapidly. As my native Panamanian now naturalized co-worker (somewhat) jokingly tells me, I am “Groucho”, but a “nice Groucho”. But then, so are several other folks there, according to her. It’s all in good fun though. Our “greeting” to each other is hissing and swiping like fighting cats : ) Thanks!
Mayb,
Wonder if you could broker a deal with management to become a contractor, doing exactly what you do now? They wouldn’t have to pay any of your benefits, so it should work out as a cost savings to them, and a pay increase to you.
Scott from VA
The chances of that are Slim and None, and Slim died.
I support this plan. I also think you should get a cheesy 80′s era trucker hat, wear a cut of flannel t shirt and talk on a CB all the time.
Rog-o, rog-o, this is the Cannonball, over and out. : )
If you go for the HazMat endorsement, it’s an extra $100 (fingerprints/criminal background check)…at least it is here in the Hoosier state. Get a CDL book from your DMV and study. Laws have changed since you last took the test. Hours of service laws change constantly. You have to have a hands-free Blue-Tooth type device for a cell phone also.
I currently drive a single axle Freightshaker daycab with a 48′ box and lift-gate in Indiana and a neighboring state, and the last word I would use to describe my job is “fun.”
It is drudgery, and I’m not so sure a lot more money would change that.
The last couple of days I’ve seen more state troopers and county mounties in Indiana and the neighboring state than I’ve ever seen…and they are mostly stopping big trucks….with a few 4-wheelers.
The 4-wheelers are getting the full treatment: Multiple cops, sniffer dogs, full searches with vehicle contents removed.
Not sure what’s going on, but it looks like a big clamp down to me.
It’s a good thing I never carry contraband. I might get militant. I might get disappeared.
That would be below average…
Anyhoo…good luck with your driving.
Be careful, and keep the shiny side up.
Dayum, that’s spendy…I too have seen more state trooper pooper scoopers harassing the truckers as of late. Haven’t seen the 4-wheelers being harassed any more than usual. Shit is going to hell, that much is certain. I gotta make more scratch to get more preps, and I can think of worse drudgery than driving a truck.
You were getting your panties in a twist about the regulatory hoops you were going to have to jump through if you wanted to get your certification to be a captain of some kind…remember that? i think it was about a year ago, maybe. You ranted on and on about how you weren’t going to submit to all that certification, you had been sailing since Noah was building his ark, you had all the expeirince, they were a buncha government stooges, etc, etc, etc. Real chest-thumping stuff.
And now, when it’s time to go through the same hoopla for the CDL and the extra endorsement, you can’t seem to bend over and spread fast enough.
So you just being a hypocrite or is the money so good that youre just being a sell-out? Which is it?
Well Jackoff, since you inquired… I am sure as hell not going to be a martyr. I’ve been walking the talk, but no blowhard fucktards like yourself have been stepping up to back me up, so I am forced to jump through Leviathan’s hoops so that I can make enough money to put up more preps and buy a piece of land for me and mine. So lick my sweaty nutsack you fucking douchebag, because I’m not going to make my family live in a fucking cardboard box under the bridge just for your fucking entertainment. Take your “sellout” and “hypocrite” shit and stuff it up your ass motherfucker. Assholes like you are forcing me to do this shit. Fuckwad…
You God damned fucking asshole, the more I think about what you said the more I fucking despise your miserable ass. Fuck you, and don’t ever come back here to comment. I’ll trash your comments you fucking dickhead. Piss off and go to hell, you’re no better than the rest of the commie dick suckers that inhabit this former Republic. Suck my hairy asshole you piece of worm shit.
I hope truck driving turns out better for you than the people I know here.
Like they say: promises, promises – all broken. One guy thought he’d be in better shape if he BOUGHT his own rig! what a mistake. Between regs, broken promises, costs, problems at home and the things he ran into along the way, he’s now left the business twice.
Another neighbor and two of his brothers left their jobs for better pay in trucking. Two are previous drivers. All are on the verge of leaving and finding other work. Two cannot go without a paycheck so the tension’s real high on the road and at home.
Sweetie was a trucker too, though years ago. He said he’d never consider returning.
But again, I hope it works out for you.
My neighbor Steve bought a truck last August and is knocking down 5 grand a WEEK most weeks. Gross, of course. He’s going to buy another truck, and pay me 30% of each load. That’s $1,500 a week. $1,000 at least. Either way, twice what I make now. The classifieds are full of jobs paying that much, and some even more. My old high school friend Bo told me he could get me a job paying at least $1,000 a week as well at the trucking company he’s working for. I know it won’t last forever, but I’m going nowhere at my current job. In fact, I’m losing ground…
Get your CDL and all the endorsements you can. Get on the road. Make as much money as you can. Get as much area knowledge as you can. Keep your eyes open and observe. Work on your preps and personal infrastructure. When it’s time to move on to something else, be ready for it.
The shit has already hit the fan in this country, and we’re just waiting for the sheeple to realize it ‘en mass. Once they do, then the fat lady is going to start singing, but we still have some time to get our houses in order.
For a while I was working gunshows with a friend on the weekends. Got to travel all over the place, and had a lot of fun doing it. Now I’m on the road as an electronics technician, so my travel scope is not as great. Still a great way to see what’s going on.