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.