Comments By Lemmy_Lives

Congrats Lemmy, been following your diary and was pulling for you. Can't wait to hear how your journey goes from here.

Thanks Jim. Beat of luck to you in your journey. I look forward to hearing all about it.

I'm heading home tonight back to Oklahoma. They told me it'll take about 3 or 4 days for the paperwork to process. At that point I'll get my precious plastic from my local DMV.

I PASSED!!!!!!!!!

Cue the dancing bananas; I'm outta here!

Thanks to everybody for the encouragement and advice.

You give someone a ride home, don't get into conversation, but they will give you directions to get them home. Drive like that.

The only problem is that someone trying to get home isn't going to instruct you to make a turn that will cause you to go up a curb unless you use the turning lane on the other side. I wasn't able to take the turn because the turning lane was full. I think the instructor got ****ed; he told me if I couldn't make up my mind on the turn then just go straight, which I did.

Aced my pre-trip. Aced my backing tests.

Failed my road test. I was told I ground the gears too much. Last chance to pass tomorrow afternoon. I am screwed if I can't pass tomorrow.

Key word, Lemmy:

R E L A X

"H" pattern, flip the selector, repeat. The only thing that messed me up was I had to know which way to flip the thing going up and going down.

"Addams family timing" really means slow down, give the gears a chance.

I've described the accelerator pedal tap to be like just enough of a kick to move a dog out of the doorway. Not much "push" at all.

R E L ... you know the rest.

I thought I was relaxed, but apparently not. My tester also told me I didn't have to do commentary... I did some, but I guess I should have done more. It didn't help that my test was during Memphis rush hour; I was up and down shifting the whole time.

All of these are just excuses, however. I have to get this done tomorrow. I'm out of chances.

Aced my pre-trip. Aced my backing tests.

Failed my road test. I was told I ground the gears too much. Last chance to pass tomorrow afternoon. I am screwed if I can't pass tomorrow.

Strike one...

Failed my CDL test today due to something I've done a million times....the air brakes test. I know it inside and out and completely messed it up. Nerves I guess.

They said they're going to retest me tomorrow.

Lemmy, you (or anybody) wants to come out for a night/early morning practice, text me to let me know. I can come by at 4:30am Monday to get you. (hint: you can get away with practicing on nearly any unoccupied tractor or trailer on the lot.)

Thanks Errol. I saw this too late.

However, I did more driving and apparently the weekend break helped a lot. My shifting (both up and down) was on point...only a couple of missed gears but I recovered them quickly.

Test day tomorrow. Wish me luck!

I'm pretty sure 140/90 is the highest they will go. It is possible you can get a 3 month physical card, but most companies won't accept it.

One thing that I found will affect the reading is the cuff size. My BP was consistently high until the DOT physician fitted me with a large cuff. Presto, problem solved.

Wow, the CDL diaries forum really dies down on weekends...lol

I've spent the weekend studying my pre-trip and getting tips from other students. I feel a bit better about my driving skill...not where I'd really like to be, but good enough for someone who's driven maybe 5 hours in the last week.

I spoke to Flatie C the other day about her AP for backing skills. I told her not to worry about it...in a week's time, she'll be better at backing than most of the people who advanced. I think she'll be all right.