Hi everyone!  I have some more good news to share.  Since I have gotten my CDL, another opportunity has opened up to me.  I start driving for a construction company in Minot on Monday.  They are hauling sand, gravel, and rock to various construction and paving locations around the region.  That will represent a substantial increase in my revenue, so I feel very blessed.  I have submitted my resignation to PTI where I have been a van driver for the railroads (what a relief to leave that job) and my last night is tomorrow, Saturday.  I can hardly wait.  The staff at PTI are unhappy about this development as are the railroad crews I have served.  Oh well, they'll find another derelict, felon, or reformed ax murderer to take my place (I'm sure the quality level will drop a few points though.)  I have agreed to be an emergency driver for them if they have a need and I can accommodate.

Here's one of the reasons I'm glad I'm leaving this railroad driving job:

Video - Things that afflict and torment Brian
http://youtu.be/BVKIhwWqqG0

In other news, a bit on the good side, I have an interview with another company that really has been my target since I got here.  I'm meeting with the President tomorrow morning.  This is quite a break for me - please send me your support and prayers!  More on this later.

Now, on to some other things.  First of all, here's a shout out to Joe, a conductor with Burlington Northern whom I've come to know over the past couple months.  He recently married his girlfriend of several years, and she is the mother of his 2.5 year old son.  He's one whom I will probably maintain contact with after leaving this job.  I thought of Joe when I saw this:

I wanted to give you a quick tour of the maneuvering course where they set up cones for CDL road testing.  This quick video will give you a little insight into what CDL candidates have to do in order to pass the test.  I drive past this spot frequently, and almost every time I did, I would get a stomach ache.  I'm delighted to announce that those stomach aches are a thing of the past:

Video - Cone testing area
http://youtu.be/3emdcyLZ-4o

Here are some "results" pictures of my testing:

For the untrained eye, that's a 53' flatbed trailer that I backed into a spot about the size of a bunk bed (well, at least that what it felt like.)  Ahh, the sweet, sweet smell of greasy, diesel-ly success.

There's one more picture that I have to add because it's also significant:

Ok, now you think I'm crazy.  Why would I take a picture of my kitchen trash can with a milk jug in it?  Well, I have been using empty milk jugs as makeshift "cones" while practicing my truck driving.  I had about 20 - I'd fill them with some gravel and set them out with a tape measure to simulate the cones testing.  This picture shows that I no longer have to save my milk jugs!!!!

Here's one more picture that has absolutely no relevance to my truck driving - in fact, it has nothing at all to do with when I was taking my road test with the state examiner sitting with me in the cab.  It certainly has no meaning with regards to the first few minutes of my road test, when I was asked to take a right turn into a small neighborhood street, where there was a totally unrelated street sign that looks virtually nothing like this one:

Before I leave the PTI job altogether, I wanted to give you a bit of a tour through what I have been doing.  This next video shows me driving through the yard - unfortunately, it's not the best video because it's at night, but it gives you some sense of the job:

Video - The Yard
http://youtu.be/y75nn6bUmqE

Something I failed to mention about working at night in the yard.  I often have to turn the van around in those narrow roads with trains on both sides.  I'm deeply indebted to my drivers training instructor Mr Young at Borah High School for teaching me how to do a 30-point turn...  What makes turning around REALLY interesting is when one or both of the trains are moving.

I think most of you are aware that North Dakota has some severe weather extremes.  In fact, we're already dipping into the 40's at night here.  Did I blink and miss summer?  Supposedly so.  Ah, summer in North Dakota.  Let me show you what summer here is like:

Video - Rainy night
http://youtu.be/K_aGtb1Aiuk

But then, the Lord sends us experiences like this one - this is really amazing:

Video - Clouds with lightening
http://youtu.be/gFsDTExy5lw

I have to say, in closing, and I have seen and felt the Lord's hand in this experience here.  I believe that He is mindful of me and my family and that things are getting better.  I'm grateful for that knowledge and for the support of all my wonderful friends and family.

Hello everyone - it's nice to be back.  Actually, it's nice to have some positive news.  The news has something to do with this picture:

Right, I got a haircut (more like, I was hacked by a blind woodsman.  More about this later.)  But also, I passed my commercial drivers license (CDL) road test.  Holly molly was I excited.  Apparently, people here are very impressed with the fact that I passed because very few people can pass the test without having taken a drivers class to prepare.  I'm totally self-taught and have developed my own set of how-to's to survive in the world of trucking.  Passing this license road test was significant because it will position me for many other employment opportunities that I was trying to get into to begin with.

To say the least, I have gained a whole new respect for truckers.  To get a "class A" CDL (class A enables you to drive any type of large truck), you have to pass 4 written tests, a "pre-trip" inspection of the vehicle, a road driving test, and a maneuvering test through an obstacle course of cones.  I passed the written tests a few weeks ago and all the other tests on Friday afternoon.  It was very nerve-racking to have the examiner over your shoulder, scrutinizing every move, whose goal it is to weed out CDL candidates (ND is among the most difficult states in the Union to get a CDL because of the harsh driving conditions).  Every wrong move you make or item that you forget to do deducts points from your total score.  And, the examiner is not supposed to give any coaching - in fact, you are not supposed to talk to the examiner unless you need to clarify an instruction that he/she has given you or to explain what and why you would perform a certain procedure.

My testing was scheduled for Friday afternoon.  I had to wait for the examiner for about 30 minutes, then he came out to the parking lot with me to the truck.  We went through the pre-trip inspection just fine.  Then we proceeded to the road test.  He had me turn right out of the parking lot, then make another right turn down a small neighborhood street.  The following picture is the result of my second right turn during the road test:

(The street sign was not leaning before I wreaked my havoc on it.)  As I approached the turn, I noticed 2 cars parked at the intersection that I had to go through.  As I made the turn, I was focusing on missing the cars and lost sight of the street sign.  the examiner had me pull up to the curb and stop while he got out and looked at the damage in my wake.  I was sweating bullets, thinking that I have just failed the test within 15 minutes of the start.  After about 5 minutes he returned to the cab and said "It's still standing, let's keep going."  He said nothing about me passing or failing the test, so I started out again.  My insides were tied in knots not knowing...  And, some unfortunate Minot newcomer may be eternally confused about which is 18th street and which is 2nd avenue.

I did ok throughout the rest of the road test.  Then he had me go to the area where they have the cones set up for the maneuvering tests.  Being rattled from the assault on the street sign, I didn't have much confidence that I could get through this part of the test.  However, it seemed that some unseen angels had something different in mind.

Here are some images that bring tears to my eyes:

The CDL candidate has to back the trailer into a 12-foot wide by 20-foot deep "dock" space, with the truck starting from a right-angle (perpendicular) to the alley, without crossing any of the boundaries.  Generally, a DOT-certified trailer can be no wider than 11 feet.  My trailer is 10'10" inches wide, leaving 8 inches on either side centered.  This maneuver is called the "alley dock".  Personally, I call it the "alley of hell".  Once you get the trailer into the alley, you have to stop the back of the trailer within a 12' wide by 3' deep "box" without crossing the back boundary - see the second pic above.  This is typically the most difficult maneuver that a truck driver has to perform.  I nailed it the first try.  The examiner was impressed.  I was not even in my body...

To sum, I did pass the test with about 5 points to spare.  The feeling was overwhelming!  Thanks to all for the wonderful support!

It has been a very stressful and emotional time leading up to passing my road tests.  For the past 7 weeks, I have been assigned with my current job to work in the Gavin Marshalling Yard here in Minot 6 days a week.  This is the plum position that is the envy of all drivers at PTI, because it is a guaranteed 48 hours of work a week.  And, the branch manager set me up with 6 days instead of the customary 5.  Only one other driver has 6 days a week at Gavin, so I'm grateful to have that.  I work from 11:30pm (23:30 for you military types) to 7:30am.  As I may have mentioned before, Gavin yard is a dangerous and somewhat scary place for the rookie driver, as there are constantly trains and pieces of trains moving in all directions.  You need to be confident and know where you can and cannot go.  Anyway, here's one of the many hazards that Gavin Yard serves up:

http://youtu.be/BVKIhwWqqG0

Many PTI drivers who work "over-the-road" (like I was when I started) I have talked to over the past few weeks are disillusioned because they are not getting the hours they were promised - some getting as little as 10 hours a week.  PTI has hired a mess of people for driving positions (and believe me, they are ALL kinds of people).  Just within the last few days, I'm hearing that some people are leaving for other jobs.  I'm not surprised.

So as I mentioned before, I got a haircut.  Actually, the result looks more like I hung my head upside down in a garbage disposal.  Minot doesn't offer a lot of options for fancy hair care (I'm so into fancy hair care) so I got a recommendation from one of the people I work with.  She was a sweet old lady whose hands trembled and shook like, well, they trembled and shook.  I had no idea that ears could bleed so much.  Anyway, that's one place who's patronage I won't be enjoying again.  I think next time I'll cut it myself.

More to come...

I woke up this morning to the sound of a distant train whistle.  When the sound of the whistle is in the distance, it's kind of a whimsical and romantic thing - I remember listening to the sound from the lines in Cincinnati that you can hear usually late at night.  But then, I came to the startling realization that I can now distinguish between the whistle of Burlington Northern Santa Fe and Canadian Pacific locomotives...  Oh my gosh, I'm becoming a train nerd.  Moreover, I was mortified to find myself wondering, "What does the whistle of a Union Pacific or a Great Lakes Central engine sound like?"

Over the next few days I have to pass my behind-the-wheel CDL drivers test.  The going-forward-down-the-road stuff is easy.  However there are several backing maneuvers that I'm worried about getting right - you have to be able to back a 60' trailer straight for 100 yards; you have to back the trailer into a more-or-less parallel slot; you have to back the trailer into a lane-change dock (kind of like the parallel parking idea). I used to back boat trailers and farm equipment occasionally when I was young.  So passing my driving skills test will require some luck and prayer.  When I pass the test off, I can get started with a more suitable job.

Tomorrow I will be covering for a driver who's out for a few days.  The job is shuttling crews around in the marshalling yard (this is an area several miles long by about a half-mile wide with many tracks and switches where they configure trains). The good thing about this role is that you get a set schedule and a guaranteed 8 hours of work per day, as opposed to this wait-on-the-board nonsense and hope you get enough runs to fill the day.  We'll see how it goes.

The sun was finally out today for the first time in a week.  It was so nice to feel the warmth and not have to wear a coat.  The river here is very high due to the heavy rains - people are worried about flooding.  In 2011 Minot had a bad flood that pretty much devastated the center of town.  That isn't expected, but lighter sporadic flooding is more likely.

Signing off - greetings to all.

I was out in Stanley ND last night assisting a crew.  The sky was clear, there was no moon, and you could see no less than a billion stars.  I stopped counting after a billion.  Then, I noticed to the north that there was some faint light in the sky that I first thought was some kind of reflection from the locomotive lights.  Then I realized that the light display in the sky I was enjoying was an incident of the "Aurora Borealis" or Northern Lights.  This is a natural light display caused by the collision of energetic charged particles with atoms in the high altitude atmosphere.  As I lingered, I noticed that there were eerie colors of greenish yellow and reds that I don't think I had ever seen before.  I wondered, as I watched the lights changing, how people could deny the existence of a supreme being who placed all this beauty into organization.  It made me feel grateful for my life and for my knowledge of God and his plan.  I wished I had a camera that could capture the phenomena.

Speaking of phenomena, I have never understood the appeal for deer to congregate along the sides of the highways.  Are they hoping to get a ride to a place where the grass is greener?  Are they merely the quadruped "scientists" or dreamers who desire to develop their own vehicles for travel and are intrigued with human ingenuity?  (Lacking the benefit of opposable thumbs, I think this is a stretch.)  Perhaps they are the performers or dancers who need a smooth stage on which to perform.  What ever the reason, I have developed a procedure for clearing them from the roadways at night.  Deer in the road is one of the biggest hazards for drivers.  I honk the horn at random times to alert, startle, and scatter the deer from the path of my SUV.  It seems to work.  But then I was getting bored with just hitting the horn in random blasts, so I have taken to blowing the horn to the rhythm of certain hymns like "High on a Mountain Top", "Let us all press on", and the fanfare to "God of our Fathers".  After careful experimentation and testing, I have concluded that deer would not be good Latter-Day Saints because they hate hymns.

My poor blog is starving, so I better feed it.  Sorry for the delay.  I had such a great time at home last week with all our family, I just didn't want to come back.  It was so great reconnecting with all of you as well.  Regardless, I'm back in the cold, wet, white, confusing north.

Stone cold 4-wheelin'
Let's talk about the weather, just to get things started (or to break the ice - that's a North Dakota joke.)  Today is May 30th - how can it be snowing on May 30th?  Maybe because it's 30 degrees?  No, I'm not kidding.  Didn't stick on the ground, but big white flakes were falling as I was driving from Minot to Max ND.  Could it have something to do with the numbers 48.2325° N, 101.2958° W?   Put those coordinates into your GPS and snow will start falling wherever you are.  I should have got a picture of it but it wouldn't turn out in the dark.  So once again, I'm wearing my wool socks.

So last night I was out driving in a van looking for a engineer from Canadian Pacific (in the May snow) who had somehow got off his train and they left him...  Some of these railroad people are really not all that bright.  Anyway, I was 4-wheeling around (that part was fun) in the pitch dark through farmland and muddy roads (amazing that I didn't get stuck out there) looking for this guy.  What's worse is that he was trying to direct me out to his location and I could hardly understand his speech over the radio.  I got a CP dispatcher on my cell and he was helping me, and the engineer I was trying to find kept trying to talk to me over the radio at the same time.  He just wouldn't be quiet.  It was almost hopeless.

I finally see in the distance a small light swinging back and forth - it was him and his lantern.  So I had to figure out how to get to him across acres of farmland.  Finally made it over to him and picked him up.  I also learned why I was having such a hard time understanding him over the radio.  He was breathing/speaking through a stoma (sp?) in his neck.  I felt so sorry for the guy, but he moved pretty well for an older dude and he seemed like one of those types that cheats death at every turn.  However, you know what he had to do before we left to take him back to his depot?  You guessed it - he had a smoke.  I'm not sure how he did it and I didn't want to know.

Jeepers creepers
I fancy myself a somewhat hearty and bold critter tolerator.  I can put up with most non-human creatures (and even think some are cool.)  Rodents, snakes, spiders, scorpions, insects (mosquitos and cockroaches being exceptions for obvious reasons) do not make me squeamish in the least.  Well, today I met my match.  Dermacentor variabilis, or in layman's terms, the American Dog Tick.  Oh_my_gosh.  I don't know where it came from.  I was sitting in my car talking to my wife on the phone and I noticed this, what I thought was a strange looking beetle, crawling up my sweatshirt sleeve.  On closer evaluation, I discovered what it was - this arachnid really made my flesh crawl, with its little flailing legs...  I couldn't even take a picture of it for fear that its image would somehow invade my ear whist talking on the phone.  Did you know that ticks' eyes are on their backs?  Moreover they can spread some bad diseases.  I managed to squish it with my car keys.  That's the last time I'll scratch my ears with those keys...  I got home and showered for at least an hour, even though it never touched my skin.  And yes, I checked everywhere else.  In fact, for the last few hours I still have phantom sensations of something crawling on my legs, arms, torso, and neck.  I may never sleep soundly again.

From the "Strange News" files
Well, add another point to and a cheer for workplace diversity.  We just hired a cross-dresser.  Really.  Not the girl eating soup from a cup.  The *other* one.  North Dakota is a confusing place.

Hooray for me
I was just informed today that out of 53 drivers working at PTI, I have the #1 rating for customer satisfaction with the railroaders.  Criteria is based on demonstrated safe driving, knowledge of the region, and on-time percentage.  In fact, they want me to go to Minnesota to work with a PTI branch there that is having some problems.  It's nice to know that I stand out among felons, derelicts, and reformed ax murderers.

Wow, I can't believe I haven't posted for a week.  This past week has been one of working through the nights - it seems I don't get called for a run until the late hours of the night, then they keep me out until early to late the next morning.  Then I come back to my apartment and try to get some sleep with all the noise of the neighbors (more on that later.)  It's all good, but it takes some getting used to.

Let me share a few scattered thoughts:

This is my favorite SUV that we have.  When you spend hours a day driving, you tend to build preferences.  It's very comfortable, has a great sound system, sun roof, and pretty fun to take 4-wheeling.  It also doesn't have a million miles on it like some of the vans in our fleet.  It's not so fun at the gas pump though - a couple times I have come close to 100 clams to fill it up.

When a run is assigned to a driver, he can choose whatever van/SUV is available.  I always take the nicest ones available because it is a better image for the company and I just like driving nicer cars.  We have some that have logged more than 100K miles and they are beat up and smelly.  A lot like a sophomore classmate of mine at Borah High School.

Speaking of not-so-nice cars, here's our van that the guy used to wail on the tanker truck a few weeks back, going to the boneyard.  It will make a nice bunch of Pepsi cans.  Or whatever.

These last 2 weeks have been plagued with car incidents.  One person hit a cow with this one:

She tagged it with the front left corner, spinning the animal around and getting hit again in the left rear quarter panel.  Livestock are not good about wearing their reflective safety vests, so we drivers have to be alert.  Two other drivers hit deer, but with less damage to the cars.

Here's something you don't see everyday - Amtrak being pulled by another engine.  Amtrak is classified as a "Z" train, meaning that it has the highest priority of all trains that run on the main track.  In fact, twice in a normal day, all trains will be stopped for about 90 minutes so that Amtrak can pass unhindered.

However, when Amtrak engines go bad, it's bad press for Government Choo-choo's so they will often send a lone locomotive to follow Amtrak in case it needs to be rescued, like what happened on Monday.  When Amtrak needs a push, everything around gets stopped and schedules are all turned upside down.  Also, when trains don't move, we don't get called to drive.  So I've been poaching runs outside of my regular board schedule to get more hours.  I don't think I have to explain that more hours equal more pay.

Speaking of getting paid, here's a place I might apply - looks like it might be the Minot branch of a Boulder company:

Notice the vintage green VW Beetle parked in front.  The car had a "Woodstock" sticker on it, but you can't see it from here.  Charming place inside.  I'm pretty sure to qualify to work here, I would need to shave my head, roll around in the street for a while, and get a stud in my tongue.

While there is a whole lot of nothing here, there is one thing that they do have - beautiful sunsets.  Here's a picture I got but it really didn't turn out too well.  You could see the rays of the sun shining down just like in the movies when they show God in the heavens.  I was on my way home from Epping ND and just had to stop to enjoy it for a bit:

We discovered something interesting about the neighbor to the north of us.  He likes to get in barroom brawls.  The houses here don't offer much sound privacy - even sounds from house to house seem much closer.  When their dog barks, it sounds like we have a dog.  When he yells at his wife, it sounds like the people upstairs are yelling.  Well, the other night, he was working in his carport about 3:30am and some guys pull up in a truck and jump out and start pounding this guy.  The commotion woke up my roommate Devon the Magnificent (he's also a champion cage fighter) and he went out to break up the fight.  He took his cell phone and had 911 on the line when he approached.  A couple of guys were going to turn on Devon, and he told them it would be biggest mistake they ever made.  Anyway.... the police came and the guys took off with the police in-chase.  I, of course, was driving choo-choo fixers and missed the whole thing.  In fact, it was mere minutes of the police screaming off that I drove off and collapsed into bed.  Devon filled me in the next day.

I'll finish today's post with something fun.  Here's to living with roommates - again.  (For some reason, Blogger wouldn't let me upload the video so here's the youtube link to it:

http://youtu.be/8A6FedhPMdk

When I first heard this go off, I leapt out of bed thinking the boiler in the laundry room (next to mine) was going to explode...

Just sitting in the parking lot at work waiting to get called in and i thought i would add an experience had last night. I picked up a conductor who i was pretty sure was a woman. She was wearing a heavy perfume that gave me a headache. Her hair was in a short crewcut. I drove her around for awhile, and she asked me what name I had for her on my list (the office sends us drivers the names of the people we pick up). I told her the name, and she responded "Good, they finally got my name changed. I just got married a month ago." I congratulated her, and asked if her husband also worked for the railroad. She corrected me and said "Not my husband, my wife." So I realized that I stepped in it and felt bad that I just assumed that this poor efeminate man was a woman. Why "he" changed his name was puzzling but I didn't worry about it.

We continued talking and "he" said that he's gone from home a lot with work. I explained that I was away from my family and that it's a little easier for "us guys" to be away because the dad is usually gone for work anyway. He then responded "I wouldn't know." At which point I realized I just made another grave gender assumption error (GAE for short) and pretty much kept my mouth shut for the remainder of the shift at 4am. I should have gone with my gut to begin with.

Hey, I'm just a simple naive boy from Idaho. This world is just too complicated for me.

Quick update on the last few days.  I chose Sunday and Monday as my days off.  Had a nice time at church on Sunday.  Testimony meeting here was uplifting and I felt impressed to bear my testimony.  Following church, I did some reading and enjoyed a couple of general conference talks.

The Poulsens invited me and my roommate to dinner again tonight, so we went upstairs and ate with them.  They are really a nice family, I hope that you will have a chance to meet them.  Devon, my young roommate is a good guy, but quite a talker.  He dominated the conversation for a couple hours with his exploits as an amazing race car driver, a championship bull rider, all-american athlete, and a cop-charmer.  I call him "Devon the Magnificent".  Not to his face though.

I bailed early and went down and talked to George for a while on the phone.  He was out in Connecticut with Mikaela and her family having a good time.

Monday I did some wash and got a few groceries.  I also talked to Tim Ricketts from Halliburton regarding the directional drilling engineer position.  We set a phone interview time for Wednesday morning.  He said "it [the interview] shouldn't take too long".  I was encouraged by that.

Tuesday was a discouraging day.  I got on the call board at my appointed time, and went the whole day without getting a run.  I called the office several time to see what was going on, and they said that the day had been very slow.  I found out later that BNSF is doing some repair work on some of the lines and that was likely the cause of the slow-down.

I was somewhat pacified by that, but when most of Wednesday passed without getting called, I started to panic.  Here I made this decision to come out here for work, and thought I had a good interim job that would allow me to find something better.  While I was wallowing a bit in my misery, I got called in at 7:30pm to go up to Canada.  The run turned into an overnighter, logging 15 hours of work.  That was awesome!  I was with some great people from Canadian Pacific and the time flew by.  I didn't get home until 11am the next morning.

Driving back, I saw an enormous bull moose by the road.  I startled him as I drove by, and he took off in the opposite direction   He was probably 6 feet tall at the shoulder, and his legs were so long that at a lope, he was probably doing 30 MPH.  I estimated his horn rack was some 6 feet across too.  I so wished that I could have got a picture.  What I'm told, moose don't display much of the silly personality of the moose of "Rocky and Bullwinkle" fame...  They are aggressive, dangerous creatures that can smell fear and will eat you with their enormous, venomous mandibles...  Actually, I'm not sure that information is exactly substantiated, but I do know that a moose can ruin your day.  (No George, I did not dance with it.)  And they are quite plentiful up here, along with deer, skunks, jack rabbits, and various rodental pests.  No bear (they prefer more wooded areas) but there are mountain lions.  GO, COUGARS.

I got some sleep Thursday afternoon and went back on the board Thursday night.  Didn't get any call though.   Looking forward to getting out on Friday and Saturday.

Almost forgot to mention - had a very good interview with the guy from Halliburton.  We spent most of the time talking about the lifestyle and responsibilities of the role.  None of what he said particularly surprised me because I have seen similar circumstances out here.  Seems that the role has good long-term potential.  He is going to schedule a face-to-face in Casper WY within the next couple weeks.  Meanwhile, I continue to look for other opportunities.

I miss home but I'm so glad we can use video calling to stay in touch!

I went for a jog around the neighborhood tonight since it was nice out and I haven't had any calls for taxi runs for a few hours.  The first picture I sent of the house wasn't so good.  This one is a little better.  The open door you see by the garage door is the entrance to my apartment in the basement.  My car is parked over on the right side of the house, out of view and off the busier street.

The neighborhood is very tranquil and quiet, but people really keep to themselves.  Even when you pass someone on the street while walking, they seem surprised when you greet them.  People sitting in their yards kind of look the other way when I pass.  Maybe it's just me.

Just by the looks of the area (small town) I would assume that everyone knows everyone.  But since there has been so much growth here over the past 3 years, lots of these people here are all strangers themselves.  Locals say that the city of Minot is really at capacity at about 25,000.  Over the past couple years, more than 25K people have relocated to and/or are using the infrastructure and services of this little town.  While I was driving around today, I was trying to cross the main street and the traffic was at a crawl.  The delay was caused by a policeman who had pulled over a motorist about 2 miles up the road.  Also, train crossings can cause big delays in traffic as well, as the trains cross on some of the major thoroughfares.  Trying to go somewhere on Friday night?  Forget it.  Getting into BurgerTime, the movie theater and the bowling alley keep traffic in check for hours!

About 5 weeks ago, a PTI driver was coming back to Minot with one of the vans after dropping off a crew. he fell asleep at 65 MPH and crashed into the back of a tanker truck that had just turned onto the road.  He was seriously pushing the limits of what his body was capable of.

Here's a pic of what's left of the van:

It's amazing the guy lived.  He broke his pelvis in 2 places, messed up his arm, and had various cuts and bruises.

I don't post this to frighten you - I'm posting this because this is the anti-marketing we're doing by parking this wreckage out in front of our office while an investigation takes place.  Here's the message:  "Come visit our office at PTI (Professional Transportation Inc.).  You can find us right behind the van that one of our drivers almost died in."

Some of you have asked about these "man camps".  They are literally encampments where men live and work - and almost nothing else.  Here's some pictures of what their living environment looks like:

Generally there are 6 men who live in one trailer.  (Rumors of men living in actual tents instead of trailers are unsubstantiated at this time.)  The trailers have no kitchen, stove or refrigerators.  The company prepares food for the men and they eat in a central pavilion.  The trailers do have water hook-ups for bathrooms, I think two to a trailer.  The trailers are mobile, so if they need to move the camp to another location, they can do that.

Here's another picture of a few trailers together:

This picture is a little harder to see, but if you look closely, you can get a sense for the size of this camp, just outside of Harvey ND.

They just roll the trailers into a field and situate them in rows.  The men living there work in usually work in 12-hour shifts.  2 weeks on, 2 weeks off, depending on their job role.  The workers are bused back and forth to the work areas.  Usually they are working at a rig site (called the 'well head') or in a coal or other mineral mine.  It's rigorous, dangerous, high-brawn, low-brain work.  The men work, sleep, rinse, and repeat.

I took a picture of the bustling Main Street of Harvey, ND.  As you can see, there's pretty close to nothing to do, and this was on Saturday.  Harvey is one of the larger towns that has more than one stoplight.

Enough said.

Good morning...  It's 1:45am and I'm waiting for a call.  Breakfast eaten, lunch and backpack packed, dressed to kill (or at least work.)  I feel more rested today than I did yesterday at this time.  Yesterday I had a really hard time getting to sleep, and last night I didn't have any problem going to sleep.  It was a good, long 15-hour work day.

Yesterday was interesting.  I experienced everything you would experience during an award-winning movie - I laughed, I cried, I was almost taken into custody by the Canadian border patrol...  So yesterday was my first time riding with/shadowing a driver on an OTR (over the road) trip.  I connected with the woman who referred me to this job in the first place.  Her name is Karen Younce-Guynn, a sturdy, talkative woman of about 65 I'd say.  (On the first Sunday I was here in Minot, she passed me a note in church saying that PTI was hiring drivers and that I should apply.)  She is an ex-bookkeeper who has been doing this driving job for about a year and a half.  I had only met her once at church a couple weeks ago, and wasn't even sure I'd recognize her (she's in another Minot ward).  Since we trainees are responsible for setting up our two OTR and yard shadow trips, I thought I'd connect with her and have her train me rather than one of the flea-bitten former Hells Angels riders working here.  After all, I didn't want to be confined in a van for 12 hours with a reformed ax murderer.

So I call her, and she asked if I would pick her up at a car repair place in the morning.  Fine, it was on my way to work anyway.  She was having them clean her car engine...  First clue.  She seemed pleasant enough and we went into the office and picked up our binder and instructions.  She had drawn a trip up to Portal, ND which is at the Canadian border, about 3 hours away.  Typically, it's good to get longer trips like this because it allows you to use more of your "on-board" time - meaning the time that you are available to be called for a run.  Usually, the railroader requests the trip with a "need time" - a time during your on-call time that they need to have the van ready to pick the crew up.  This trip, however, was an "asap" meaning that they need the van as soon as humanly possible.

We throw our things into a Suburban in a bit of a rush because it's a long trip up there.  As you leave for a trip, you have to do some setup with the on-board GPS that tracks the trip and sends you information about the trip request.  Well, the GPS wasn't working properly, and it delayed our time to leave by about 30 minutes.  She is somewhat a techni-phobe, an impatient, indiscriminate button-pusher (only us computer support folks know what that means.)  According to Karen, much of the time the GPS in the vans don't work properly and it's a hassle.  She started ranting about how nobody does their job at this place - cars are never cleaned, fixed, etc. and she also was constantly bad-mouthing the people in the office and the fleet manager...  Second clue.  Evidently, there is some truth to her ravings and she gave me excruciating detail about why the office staff up and quit their jobs last month.  Of course, it was all the District Manager's fault.

It's a long drive up to Portal ND.  Generally, any day at 2:30am, I don't have much to say.  That didn't seem to discourage her through.  Our conversation up there consisted of long, arduous threads of her prattle with some of my "uh-huh's" strategically uttered.  She told me about her childhood starting at age 3.  She told me about her 2 broken marriages.  She told me about vacations she took in Florida, Jamaica, Bermuda, Mexico, Tobago, the New Heberdies... and I zoned out on a few more.  She told me about her illnesses and her sister's illnesses.  Did I mention that it's a long drive to Portal ND?  Riding with the reformed ax murderer was looking better and better.

Well, we get up to Portal and gave the crew a ride back to their depot.  Then they discovered that they had locked their keys in their truck, so we spent about 2 hours doing nothing while their conductor tried to get roadside assistance out to unlock the door.  Well, there are no street addresses in Portal (population 121, probably including domestic mammals) so the roadside assistance was not capable of assisting.  They said that they couldn't dispatch a driver unless they had an address, and no address for Portal would work.  I suggested that they get the sherriff to come out to do it, and finally they were in to their truck.

They asked us to shuttle one of their guys to the depot in Portal, Canada (just across the border.)  So, we loaded him up in the van and left.  Well, we got to the border and there was a very nasty dispositioned Canadian border guard waiting for us.  She demanded our passports, and I and the railroad guy had ours at the ready. However, our driver Karen said that she needed to get hers from her bag in the back of the van.  The guard lady became very snotty and dispatched a guard out to the car while Karen exited the vehicle and got her passport, which she gave to the guard.  The guard lady became angry because she found a $50 bill in Karen's passport, and the guard thought that Karen was attempting to pass a bribe.  Then the story gets good.

Karen, the sturdy, talkative woman goes into a nervous, wandering narrative about how she was just traveling to Florida and Jamaica and that she always keeps some emergency money in her passport, and that a customs agent in Florida questioned her about the money, as well... giving WAY too much detail about everything.  I was starting to wonder what Canadian jail cells were like.  Anyway, the guard came up to me and told me to wait in the van.  She had already cleared the CP employee (a Canadian citizen) riding with us.    Well, I didn't hear/understand what she said to me (she spoke English with a heavy French accent) and that aggravated her more.  Then she repeated the command to me and I complied.  She was carrying a little .38 caliber service revolver, but I think I could have taken her.

About 30 minutes later, Karen comes back to the van and says that she can't go into Canada because of "some things in her past".  Oh great, and I gave up a chance to ride with a *reformed* ax murderer, and now I'm riding with Door Number 3.

We dropped off the CP guy and they sent us home.  Another 3 hours of the former topics, except broken down into more detail.

Got back to the office in Minot and I went out to ride in the Burlington Northern marshaling yard (called the Gavin yard) with another guy, David  Decker (he didn't seem like an ax murderer) and had a really nice time with him.  He reminded me of my wonderful father-in-law, and Mr. Decker was very knowledgeable about train operations (he had worked in and around trains most of his life) and I took pages of notes about the yard.  This is where they receive trains in, unhook them, them put them back together with the appropriate configurations that are needed for the next run.  It's all very systematic, process-oriented, and interesting to watch.  It's very similar to what I used to do with my HO-scale railroad set as a kid, except the cars here weigh a bit more.  Some of the locomotives (they call them 'power') can be run by remote control, so it's much more efficient to drag the cars around without having to get up into and out of the power.

Our job is to shuttle people(s) back a forth across the yard, which occupies several hundred acres and is traversed by 50 or so lines of tracks.  (I'll try to include pictures next time.)  There are many rail switches (which guide the train forward along a track or switches it to another track) and all these switches need to be set manually.  You listen on the radio for crews to call.  The language they use on the radio and in conversation is mostly very technical and leaves me feeling a bit intimidated (they'll say something like, 'crew release up diesel to hump 12 E' - that means drive over to where they fuel the locomotives, pick up whomever is there and take them to track 12 on the east hump side, where the cars are sequenced and hooked together.  Why can't they just say that instead?)  I guess you just have to listen and learn.

Well, I also learned that the Gavin yard is a very dangerous place and you really need to be alert and watch where you're going - the most obvious is that you need to take great care when crossing over the many tracks that cross the yard.  And since many of the tracks merge into one another, if you're not careful your van can be crushed like a soda can if you drive into the wrong place at the wrong time.  Trains don't exactly stop on a dime, as you can imagine.  Also, there's lots of important stuff, like switches, that if you accidently run over one, you disable a van, possibly mess up train operations, and ensure that you get no Christmas card from Burlington Northern. And the best part - locomotives make a lot of noise when they move, so you're alerted.  However, empty oil tanker cars make *no* noise as they get unhooked, pushed, and glide down the track to the "car man" maintenance shed.  They're also painted black, so at night it's doubly scary.  What this means is that occasionally  the crew will unhook a car and let it glide down the track to a brake area.  This reduces effort and time spent pulling the car down to the car man shed.  If you're not paying attention, all of a sudden a 212,000 pound, unmanned, gravity driven rail car rolls into your lap without warning.  That could ruin your day.

I finished my satisfying workday about 8pm and headed home alone.  Grateful to be alive and to have nothing but the classic rock radio station wearing away at my ear drums.

It's 2am.  I'm sitting at the table, all set to go.  Basically on-call.  I'm on a 02:00 to 14:00 hours shift (that's 2am to 2pm military time, for the lay-person.)  So here's the rub - you make yourself available for your 12-hour shift and just wait for a call.  In any given shift, you may work the full 12 hours, or you may not.  I'm told that generally, you do more than 40 hours in a week.

Today I'm riding with/shadowing the church member who referred me to PTI.  Her name is Karen Guynn.  She's been with PTI for a year and a half.  I have to do two OTR (over the road) runs before I can go on my own.  When she calls, I'll dash out of here with my lunch, backpack with warm clothes, and meet her at the office.

Following my first shift, I'll meet another driver out at the maintenance yard for Burlington Northern railroad and do another 4-hour shift shadowing him.  I'm eager to get these out of the way and be working on my own.

Well, it's 02:35 and she just called.  We're going to Canada somewhere, so that means a good long drive, hopefully taking up most if not all of the shift.

More later.

One more thing before bed - I just went to Walmart to pick up a few groceries, and as I was leaving I recognized several cars out in the outer parts of the parking lot...  Did I mention how grateful I am for my living conditions?

Note to followers - For those of you dying to post feedback to my blog, you now have free access.  Keep in mind this is a family channel, so behave yourselves.  :-)

Just finished my first day of orientation.  I learned today that there ARE many, many little-known safety nuances (99% is common sense, but since we've witnessed the departure of common sense over the past 20 some years, I guess the points need to be reviewed) of maneuvering a mini-van full of choo-choo fixers back and forth from Dunkin Donuts.  The class today was about as boring as anything I have ever done.  We poured over three books of various regulations, guidelines, and downright stupid how-to's.  Example:  Don't leave the van unattended on the railroad tracks.  That's one I'm going to have to write down and refer to frequently.

We had a driving test at the end of the day.  It was like being back in drivers ed.  Three of us trainees got in a van with the teacher (a kid who's about Sam's age.)  I passed with flying colors, but one of the men seemed to have some eye problem, and it was scary riding around with him.  At one point, he went the wrong way down a one-way exit of a park.  The other guy who drove was so nervous his hands were shaking on the wheel.  I'm glad to be back on solid ground alive.

BTW, I should mention that this morning that the instructor today kind of started the class off by telling us that about 4 weeks ago, all the front office staff walked off and quit their jobs without warning.  So all of the people working at the Minot branch of PTI are brand new.  I asked (I was the only one of the three who asked any questions today) why they left their jobs, and he said he didn't have a definitive answer.  I guess they just all found other jobs all at the same time.

So tomorrow I'll go back in and try to finish off my shadowing drivers.  I have to go on 2 over-the-road (OTR) trips and 1 trip in the rail yard.  Then I can go on my own and the regular pay scale kicks in.

However, Halliburton has been keeping in close touch with me and wants to talk to me tomorrow or Friday...  Things are sounding good with that.  One more phone interview with a more technical person, then they would like to bring me in for a face-to-face.  It can't happen soon enough!

Thanks again to all who are following my adventures and lending love and support.  It is felt and appreciated.

Is there a bureau where I can file a weather complaint?  It SNOWED today.  I don't understand - what happened to the 60's and 70's?  Was it a dream?  Is someone playing a cruel trick on me, or was the last 3 days really just the whole summer for 2013?  I had a few places to go today and had to wear my coat and gloves - the wind of course was blowing about 30 MPH, adding to the chill.  Once again, my attempt to visit Williston was thwarted.  Snow and high winds made me postpone the trip.  Perhaps there's a reason for me NOT to go there.  I guess I will pull my long-johns and wool socks out of storage.

Tomorrow I start my orientation with PTI.  It will be nice to be earning money again.  I'm eager to see just how many hours I can get, because everyone I have spoken to recently seem to be of the opinion that this company will work you excessive hours.  That of course means overtime, and that's how people here really make money.  I have to be there at 10am and I'm not sure how long the day will go.  They told me that the orientation goes until you can get 2 yard trips in (close by Minot) and 2 long-distance trips.  I'm going to try to sign up for as many trips as possible and get them over with.  I'm packing a lunch for tomorrow to see if I can just keep going all day.

I'm glad my family was able to travel back to Ohio safely.  I am really missing them and it's only been a few days.  While I'm glad to have this apartment, living here alone is kind of like living like a college student again - sharing a refrigerator, sharing a bathroom, sharing the kitchen and living areas with strangers.  I'm looking forward to coming home when Sam gets home.

Looks like tomorrow I have another interview with Halliburton.  I'm excited for that and will post results.

The last couple of days have been nothing short of beautiful weather-wise.  I came on this trip packed with clothes that would survive an Arctic expedition, and now it looks like it was over-kill.  9 pairs of wool socks than may never have to be washed.  And, my long-johns may also have seen the last wear for the season.  Anyway, I was grateful for the break in the cold.  And, I am so grateful for this apartment that I have.  As I went to Walmart to get a few kitchen things and some grown-up food, I couldn't help but notice the many cars and trucks that were parked in the parking lot - many in which people undoubtedly spent the past night. It's hard to imagine unless you witness it.

Thursday afternoon and Friday I spent some time interviewing.  I interviewed for a Service Manager position in a computer store (this was merely intended to be a practice run, and the manager of the store I talked with seemed to have mental problems...)  I also interviewed for a NOC (network operating center) position with the local phone company.  That went pretty well and I think I'll get invited back for that one.  Friday morning I interviewed with a recruiter from Halliburton for a couple of well-site roles - MWD (measurement while drilling) engineer and directional drilling engineer.  Each of these positions spends their time at the well head and while they require extended time away from home, they also pay quite well.  My dear brother-in-law Ed lined this one up for me.  I came away very encouraged and so I'll report more on that job as information becomes available.  In the mean time, I'll just get ready for my intense van-driving training.

Today, Saturday, was a great day.  Beautiful outside.  No wool socks needed.  Last Sunday they announced a service project over at the Lutheran church, so I got up and met over at their church at 8am.  I figured I would get to know some ward members there.  Since I didn't know many in the ward yet, I wore my BYU hoodie so I could be recognized.  Well, turnout was me and about 15 Lutherans.  They were all really nice to me, except the pastor was not all that friendly.  I think he was eyeing me apprehensively the whole time.  Nobody mentioned anything about the BYU sweatshirt.

Anyway, they had a big platform in the back of the church where they were going to set up a pavilion, and we were going to set stakes for the roof.  Well, there was too much water from runoff to set the stakes, so we split up the group and part of them cut a channel for the water with shovels, and the rest of us went and filled sand bags and then stacked them.  The water out in the parking lot was more than ankle-deep.  It worked pretty well - here's some shots of the parking lot and the work we did:

I made some nice friends and had a good time.

This evening I went and walked around a Scandinavian Heritage Association visitors center.  It was very interesting.  Unfortunately it's too early in the year for the beautiful fountains to be running, and it was rather late at night so the pictures don't quite do it justice, but I have included a few here:

Here's a shot of the visitors center.  Now you know where the Swedes get those funny hats:

They have a tribute to Hans Christian Andersen:

That's not really him, it's just a statue.

And, you'd think that the Father of modern-day skiing would have some better equipment:

I'm going to come back and look through this really beautiful church museum   It appears like very authentic architecture, but I don't know much about Scandinavian architecture.  It also smells really good, because it made of all cedar wood.  When I was there it was already closed, so I'm going to come back.  But here's the outside of it:

This was interesting - it's the great-great-granddaddy of the horse we have at home:

No, I didn't Photo-shop this.  It is a horse that's at least 50 feet high.  Just like ours at home, except it's a lot harder to play with.  I think it's the original Trojan horse that the Greeks used to enter Troy.

Gotta get to bed.

All right, now I'm mad.  It took 2 days longer than normal to process my background and license checks - what is it, do they have some newbie in there that can't figure out how to submit a background check?  Or is that department just made up of lay-abouts standing in the back sipping coffee shooting the bull and saying, "Yo dog, I'm on break."?  To sum, instead of starting yesterday, I'm starting May 1 - a week later.  I have to go through an orientation of some type, I suppose to acquaint me with the little-known safety nuances of maneuvering a mini-van full of choo-choo fixers back and forth from Dunkin Donuts.

We don't think this bump in the road is worth a course correction, so I'm going to stay the course of using this van-driving job to find a better one.  However, I'm going to take some time tomorrow to drive out to Williston to check it out.  And, I have an interview with Halliburton tomorrow morning - looking forward to it.

Also, I had dinner tonight with an acquaintance from Boise who has been working out here in Minot for 3 years.  He has a nice setup, his employer supplies housing and transportation, but the hours are long.  Long hours translate to overtime, so that why people do it.  It might be something I can get involved in at some point.

The weather here today was absolutely beautiful!  It was sunny and in the 50's.  Supposed to get into the 60's tomorrow and Saturday.  Still, the mud and ugly dust is everywhere.  I get into the car and accidently brush my coat against the door, and I look like I slept under a bridge.  Awful.

Well, I have some news to share.  I have a place to stay, and I have a job!  The place I'm staying in is a room in the basement of a house on the west side of the city.  The house is owned by a Ukrainian couple, who rent the top floor to a family in the Minot 2nd ward.  I haven't met the owners, but the family from the ward upstairs is really nice.  They have a son who's about ready to submit his missionary papers, and a daughter who's Elsa's age.  The apartment reminds me very much of a missionary apartment - much nicer than anything in Guatemala, but probably about average for missionaries in the states I would assume.  It's big, it's clean, it's warm, and my rent includes utilities and wi-fi.  I share the basement with a kid from Boise (of all places) who works for a tool rental place in town.  He seems nice but I don't know much about him yet.  Here's a pic of the outside of the house:

Not the greatest picture but I'll get better ones later.  Here's the kitchen:

And my room:

Also a washer/dryer:

One thing you get with a place with lots of snow, is lots of mud when the snow thaws.  All the streets are so muddy and filthy - cars, sidewalks, street signs, nothing is free from the sandy mud that cakes everything.  So I'm sure I'll be using that washer a lot.

Another thing they have a lot of here is something that George would appreciate:

Right, trains "hooked together going."

However, one thing that is conspicuously absent are beggars.  There are no beggars anywhere.  Anyone who wants to work, pretty much can.  Which brings me to my work situation.

I have a job as a van driver - we pick up railroad maintenance crews and take them out to the trains.  The crews have times that they need to service every car in a 2-mile long train, so we'll take them out to the train, drop them off at the first car, then take them to the second car, and so forth all down the line.  This is something that will be an interim until something better comes along.

Today was all about church - three wards straight, to be exact.  Half-hour break in between each ward meeting.  And snow - lots, to be not-so-exact.  Of course, no North Dakota adventure would be complete without the 8-inch overnight dumping.  Funny thing though, 8 inches of snow to people here doesn't even register as a squall...  It's only a "dusting" to them.  They have had quite a bit of snow here this year though - in fact, to give you a reference point, the motel I'm staying in tonight is across the street from Walmart.  You know how big Walmart parking lots are... And, in the middle of the WalMart parking lot, there's a pile of snow that looks like Perfect North without the chairlifts.

When I woke up at 6am to get ready, the wind was howling at my window like a pack of wolves.  I looked outside and I couldn't see the car, which was buried under the 8 inches of snow.  I quickly got ready and had breakfast, compressing time to plan for an extra 30 minutes of travel time because of the "dusting".  I excavated the car and set off for the church.  Having familiarized myself with the area the night before, I was confident I could get to the church without trouble.

Well, with the snow still falling sideways and blowing across the roads, I drove toward church.  Very slowly.  Unfortunately, due to the dusting, I missed the road to the church and went a couple miles out of my way.  Neighborhoods of houses quickly turned to wide-open spaces like Nebraska, and I realized that I was not where I expected to be.  With little room to turn around without possibly getting the car stuck.  I figured if I got stuck out here, they wouldn't find me until June.

I managed to get turned around and found my way back to the church.  Good thing I left that trail of breadcrumbs.

I made a lot of new acquaintances - the three wards here are very similar to our own, except about half the size.  Most of the people are transplants - in fact, I only met four people who were a ND natives.  A lot of folks were from Idaho, which I'm told is where the coolest people come from.  One of the men here is a B-52 pilot - flies 4 sorties a day.  He said to look for the bombers taking off in the morning.  I'm excited for that.  Another guy is an operator of a nuclear missile silo.  Talk about cool.  He apparently is the one who physically turns the key and presses the button.  Another guy has a brother who served his mission in Romania and knows Sam.  Small world.

Two goals on my plate today - find housing for me, and find a job for you (my family).  I had a couple contacts on the housing side.  One very strange ward member sought me out and said that his wife had walked out on him two weeks ago and was renting a room out.  He was dressed in a tee-shirt and jeans, and wearing some five-toed shoe-like apparel.  Let me remind you, it was 23 degrees this morning with 20-MPH winds and snow.  He said the cold doesn't bother him.  I figured that he just couldn't afford a coat.  He was eager to show me his apartment, so I drove him to his place, partly out of a sense of obligation and partly out of curiosity.  He lives in section-8 housing, and it wasn't pretty.  He was a talker and went into torrid detail about his failed marriage and the wrongs done him.  He shares custody of his three children with his first wife (it was the second who left him) and has them every other weekend.  When he asked me if I would mind sharing a room with his 9-year old son on his custody weeks, I screamed internally, "EJECT EJECT EJECT!!!"  Anyway, I knew this wasn't going to work.  I will be checking out a more suitable reference tomorrow.

On the jobs front, there seem to be plenty of entry level positions available.  I came here with the attitude of being willing to do anything, but I need something with more responsibility and pay.  So we'll see.  I have an interview pending with Halliburton that I'm excited about, and several other contacts to follow up with.  More on that later.

I learned an important lesson last night - don't cancel an invitation to stay at someone's home while taking a 20-hour trip unless you've confirmed with the other person...  Big mistake.  However, it was not all my fault.  Driving through Chicago and part of Wisconsin last night was awful - snow blowing sideways, drivers sliding all over the road.  Come to think of it, I have never driven through Chicago when it hasn't snowed, regardless of the season.  So I actually missed my third appointment to crash on a couch since it was so late and I couldn't predict when I would arrive.

So anyway, I did discover that Wisconsin has some of the most beautiful and accommodating rest stops in the world - here's one of them:

It's hard to see with all the snow that was falling, but trust me, it was pretty nice.  Here's an inside shot:

I even had my own bathroom:

And, it even came with one of these installed, but I'm not sure what it is:

I finally felt like I had had enough sleep by about 5am, so I set off across Minnesota.  Time went by fast and I made good time.  I also learned that there's an Alexandria in Minnesota - probably not the same one as in Romania:

Then, I hit North Dakota...  I felt like I was in the Bermuda Triangle - the more I drove, the longer the trip got.  Here's a shot of me trying to get a picture of the "Welcome to ND" sign:

Here's some of the more exciting pictures of North Dakota:

The last leg of the journey was the worst.  Jameson to Minot - 175 miles of basically logging trail.  Two-lane, very narrow.  Rocks in the road.  Animals of several varieties wandering across.  BIG trucks flying by at 75 mph plus.  And of course, blinding snow showers.  Sums up to about 4 hours of moderate panic.  But I did make it and I'm sitting in my motel room blogging about it.  My prayers will be extra long tonight.

Tomorrow I plan to attend all three wards in Minot.  Since they don't overlap in time, that will take about the whole day.  I'm looking forward to making some new friends!