Back to Basics

That's a pretty impressive sight, Amirite? That's ten 70-foot-long semi tractor-trailers all lined up and ready for action at the Roadmaster Driving School in Lithia Springs. I took this shot at the end of the day this week after spending over ten hours on-site, working on pre-trip inspection, practicing parking maneuvers on the pad, and getting in a little drive time out on the open road.

I have to tell you, going 'Back to School' after more than 25 years out of the educational grind has been an eye-opening experience.

As I have mentioned to many of my friends and even some of my classmates at driving school, getting the hang of all of this new information is like trying to drink water from a firehose. The facts and figures are coming at you fast and furious and at some point it's just hitting you in the face and splashing off without absorbing into your brain.

I took Auto Tech as a class in high school and it was great, as far as being able to learn how to service your car's engine, do minor repairs and maintenance, or take apart and rebuild a lawn mower engine. But that didn't completely prepare me for dealing with these monsters!

The semis are hiding more than double the horsepower of our usual cars under those massive hoods. We're basically learning a new language when dealing with these incredible machines. For the first week, we spent at least 75%  of our time in the classroom learning the rules of the road, basic premises and formulas for figuring out how to manage your truck on hills, curves, intersections, traffic, open road, etc. We also spent dozens of hours outside, looking under the hood and walking around, crawling under, and hopping up inside the cab of these trucks.

Our goal? To learn pretty much what EVERY part of the truck is, what it does, and how we can inspect it in a way that allows us to get things repaired or replaced before we ever get on the road, so that we can drive this potentially 40-ton truck on the open road among all of the 2-ton vehicles that 'regular folks' like you are driving in each day.

It can be pretty darn intimidating to lift the hood up on this truck and look at the all of the hoses, wires, fluid reservoirs, metal shafts and rods, brake parts, and tires. However, the more you look at them, talk about them and put 2 & 2 together, they all begin to make sense and work together logically in your head. For the state's CDL (Commercial Drivers License) exam, we will have to do a front-to-back pre-trip inspection for the State Examiner, name each part, what it does, and how we'll inspect it. The examiner actually decides which section of the truck and trailer you'll be inspecting.

After the outside inspection, we'll have to do an in-cab inspection and perform what is known as an air brakes leakage (LAB) test and also the air tank 'build up' test. Then we have to perform a 'tug test' which tells examiner that you know how to test both the brakes of the trailer and the tractor once the two sections are 'coupled' or joined at the back via the 5th wheel assembly (seen in the picture above) and the air hoses at the back of the truck.

Above is the culmination of several days of hard work, studying, and practice tests. I received my CDL Learner's Permit. It's basically like the learner's permit you get when you're 15 to drive a regular car, but for people driving massive 18-Wheelers. The test is much more difficult, but at the very least it allows us to move to the next phase of drivers school and begin practicing in the trucks on the parking pad and out on the open road. I received 95% on the test which is nearly 100 questions covering three separate areas: General knowledge, Air Brakes, and Combination Vehicles. If you don't receive above 80% on General knowledge, you're not even allowed to move on to the next section, and so on. Once you get 80% you can move on, but if you get the first two sections banged out, but not the third, you have to come back in a couple days and re-take the part in which you were deficient. It was a good feeling being able to knock this out in one day. Out of our original class of 18 people, only six of us were able to pass all three parts on our first visit and receive our permit. The rest of the class returned a couple days later. A couple people had to return a couple days after that to get the final part. Also, 3 people ultimately had to drop out of the class because they were simply unable to complete the core work of the class.

So, now that I have my permit and I've passed the Roadmaster School's teachers' evaluation of my pre-trip inspection process (I received 86 of a possible 90 points!), which is NOT the same as the state's CDL exam, what's next? We get to move on down to the parking and maneuvers pad. That means for the first time, we'll actually be driving these beasts and trying to squeeze them into tight spaces at the most ungodly angles. Hilarity ensues. Until next time! (Honk, Honk!)

Catching Up On The House

Greetings!
After looking back at previous posts and how I ended them so abruptly prior to us moving back into 713 East Paces Ferry (EPF), I realized that I never provided the satisfaction of a finished product for all of my fans and followers! (Snark)
I'll start with a couple pictures from earlier this year, which give you a good idea of what the house looks like under normal circumstances.

This wide shot gives you a decent look at the house when the lawn is mowed and the front privet shrubs are pruned relatively well. It's a much different look than before and a whole lot more room!

Here's a close up look at Chez Fors. The spacious front porch is obviously a wonderful addition aesthetically and we do enjoy hanging out there with friends and family on occasion. Especially in the morning on weekends or in the evening after dinner with a "mild libation." Another one of my favorite activities is to go out and sit in one of our rocking chairs with our dog Charlie and enjoy a good Summer thunderstorm. Just the other day we were out there during a rocker of a storm when a bolt of lighting hit really close to the house, so the thunder was immediate. Charlie took one look at me, got up and walked inside. He'd seen and heard enough on that day. LOL!

Here are a few images of the Fors' Folly on EPF during the splendor of a snowy winter wonderland. The above picture was taken in December of 2017, just days before we were to head to Australia for a few weeks. Atlanta got hit with an earlier-than-usual snowfall that year and it provided for a wonderful backdrop for us to "Get the Hell out of Dodge" and head Down Under.

Grace and our former neighbors, of course, took the rare opportunity to enjoy the cold and wet snowfall to have the obligatory snowball fight and then get down to business to build a snowman. Cue the Frozen movie soundtrack ("Do you want to build a snowman?"). That's the next door neighbors' house in the background, not ours.

Finally, a quiet and serene vista of Chez 713 with its fresh blanket of snow on the ground. I snuck this photo before the kids got to it and shredded up the snow with sleds and out-of-control, frantic gloved hands trying to pack snowballs together.
I know it's ONLY been 4 1/2 years to get these pictures of the finished product up there, so I hope the wait wasn't TOO anticlimactic. :-)

Switching Gears - Flip 3.0!

It's hard to believe, but it's been just over four years since my last post! What the HELL has been going on in all of that time? Well, a whole Hell of a lot! We are going on four years since moving back into our 'newly' renovated house, Kristin and I just celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary, and I'm unemployed again. (Record scratch sound effect goes here...)

Yes, you read that correctly. Flip Fors is out of work for the Second time in my entire life since I was 14 years old. This time it was actually against my own will. I was laid off, not fired, from The Dairy Alliance at the end of 2018. The dairy industry has been in a financial free-fall for nearly five years after a banner year in 2014, and about 25% of all farmers across that U.S. have sold out and gone out of business in that time frame. It's truly sad, and my old employer's bottom line was entirely dependent on the volume and price of milk that farmers were paid. Not a good combination when I had been promoted to 'middle management' at the organization during the summer of 2017. I loved working there and for the hard-working dairy farmers of the Southeast. I probably should have seen it coming, but I was too busy working for our farmers and trying to figure out ways to get their message out to consumers so they'd buy more dairy products.

I'm not going to cry over spilled milk, because there's nothing I can do about it now... I have to look and move forward. I started looking for work nearly immediately, but truly going all out after the holidays and once my severance package ended in January of 2019. I was looking for roles in the Communications and Media Relations fields. I applied for unemployment insurance since I was eligible, and searched diligently for a new gig, at least 3 or 4 jobs a week. I was looking in the private sector, public universities or government agencies, the occasional non-profit, across the entire spectrum of possible companies and organizations. Nothing, Nada, Bupkes. I earned several phone screens, second-level interviews, and about a half dozen face-to-face final round interviews. In each case, I felt like I did really well or nailed the interviews. But in each case, I was beaten out by someone who had more experience in a very specific area for the position that I was competing for. In some cases, it wasn't even an area that was in the job description or originally mentioned during the interview process. That was extremely disappointing and eternally frustrating.
Without completely giving up, what could I do to find work that's in demand, that I would really enjoy, and has the potential to make good, or at least solid money?

Yes, that look of confusion, consternation, and impending catastrophe on Snowman and the Bandit's faces should say it all. I have decided to become a professional truck driver. As in Semi-Tractor Trailer trucks. I'll give you a moment to pick YOUR jaw up off the ground. Take your time...

 As of mid-June, I am now enrolled at Roadmaster Drivers School in Lithia Springs, Georgia which is just about 15 miles west of Atlanta along I-20. Roadmaster is a school that is owned and managed by Werner Trucking, which is one of the major trucking companies in the U.S. Werner is based in Omaha, Nebraska, but happens to have its primary Southeast hub next door to the school.

So, you're probably asking yourself, "Flip/Eric, How in the heck did you end up there?" It's a short story, but it's been playing itself out over several years. While I was with The Dairy Alliance, I had the opportunity to do a lot of driving around the Southeast. I visited our wonderful farmers as far west as Louisiana and as far north as Kentucky or northeast as Virginia. Sometimes I would fly to my destination, but most of my travel was driving. While I was in the car, spending sometimes in excess of 6 to 7 hours at a time just to arrive at my destination, I noticed how many trucks were out on the road. I mean, I'd spend all that time in the car, not getting anything done, just to spend a couple hours giving a presentation, or visiting a farmer or two at their farm for a project. But the 'good' stuff was only a couple hours at best. The drive became 'dead heading' for me, because I couldn't really work. Maybe a phone call or something, but aside from that, it was wasted hours.

I'd often look at the truckers that I was zooming past and realize, these men and women are IN their offices. They're doing their job out on that road we're traveling on. You know what I also realized? How much what they do truly impacts our lives every single day. I loved my job(s) and understand that they were valuable for the services they provided, but they were mostly nebulous, intellectually-based, 'information' and messages that either did or didn't simply evaporate into the ether. It was hard to truly measure the value of what I or my organization or station was producing and providing. I know that dairy farmers were definitely producing something of value. It was tangible and I understood its absolute value and all of the hard work that went into producing it. Again, I know that I worked extremely hard and so did my colleagues, but it was hard to quantify exactly what we did and 'see' how our work impacted the greater good.

So, that brings me back to truck driving. These people know how important their jobs are to keeping our country moving and the economy strong. They're delivering all of the products and goods from state to state, city to city, often across the country, so that all of us Americans can visit stores and buy what we need on an everyday basis. This is NOT a job or service that can be outsourced to vastly underpaid or drastically unqualified labor abroad and overseas. Drivers know at the end of their day or shift, that they have provided a valuable service in getting these items from point A to point B, and can feel satisfied, even fulfilled in that notion. That has a certain appeal to me.

I was also very interested to find out that there is a growing demand for drivers, which could be a crisis in the next 5-10 years. Right now, estimates are that the nation is at least 125,000 drivers short of what is needed. That number is expected to grow a lot in the near future. It's estimated that because the average age of a driver is pretty much my age (almost 49) or older, about one-third of current drivers will be aging out and retiring from driving by the year 2025. That's not good- or actually it's good for me. Part of the problem is that the majority of our children, or at least the younger generation, have been taught to believe that a job is only worth something if you sit in front of a computer or have a smart phone in your hand. That somehow, valuable blue collar service jobs can't get you ahead or be fulfilling. I'm here to tell you that that's not true. That's a major factor in why I have decided to reinvent myself, at 49 years old, by literally "Switching Gears" to create Flip 3.0!
I will continue to post updates on this blog with details on the classes I'm taking and any job possibilities and offers. Stay tuned! (Honk, Honk!)

11th Heaven - Our Anniversary - and also Day 221

Today is Friday, June 5th, 2015. It is Kristin and my 11th wedding anniversary! It also happens to be Day 221 of Project 713 (220, 221... whatever it takes.) The "traditional" 11th anniversary gift is "Steel." So, we'll see what we get each other this year made of that material. Here's something to think about...11 years ago, the thoroughbred Smarty Jones was going for the Triple Crown of horse racing. Tomorrow, American Pharoah will make that same attempt. Good Luck! Another little tidbit from the memory banks. Former president Ronald Reagan died the night of our wedding. We got the headline in the newspaper outside our hotel door the next morning. We saw his funeral service on our honeymoon in St. John. That was the only time we watched TV the entire week.

Back to the present, though. Of course we'll get to spend a little quality time together- a couples' foot massage and then dinner for deux. This is our picture from LAST YEAR... our big 10th anniversary dinner at Ocean Prime.

This will have to do, until I have visual evidence of tonight's festivities.

After that, all Heck is going to break loose. As of about 10:30pm, the Amend family "Cuz-astrophe" arrives straight from Toledo. They left around lunchtime and are busting it down I-75 through Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee and finally through God's country...Georgia. :-)

We had originally hoped that we'd be celebrating our anniversary... and the arrival of the "Cuz-astrophe" by sleeping in our newly renovated home, but alas, as with life, construction projects have their own clocks, or in this case- calendars!

We truly are really closing in on... "the Closing." Our entire focus is getting all of the little finishing touches of the house and getting our inspections completed and passed... and being able to schedule the movers to come deliver all of our STUFF! 

As I mentioned before, I'm not going to post any NEW pictures from inside the house, since we want it to be somewhat of a surprise for the final reveal, once we get our stuff moved back in and settled. So since it's been more than 7 months, here's a picture of what the house looked like BEFORE...

So think about THAT one for a while! LOL

Then we'll post some more pictures, but ultimately it will be up to YOU to come visit the Fors abode and see our new crib, in person!

Cheers!

Odds & Ends - Day 219

It's June 3rd, Day 219 of Project 713 and the various Odds & Ends tasks are moving us closer and closer to the finish line. We're to the point now where we're actually having inspections done on various systems and parts of the house. All of them pointing toward our final C.O., or Certificate of Occupancy. The following pictures were taken over four days, starting on Sunday, May 31st.

 The carpenters were hard at work installing the railing for the front porch. I stopped by in the morning so I could show their progress at the end of the day. Scroll down for the completed look!

 The crew was finally far enough to install all of the appliances in the kitchen. The shot above is obviously the new oven and stove, with our new ventilation fan.

 The picture above is a wider shot, so you can sort of see the newly installed appliances in all their shiny glory. The dishwasher is to the left of the island, then the oven in the back, and the microwave/convection oven in the upper right and the refrigerator on the far left.

 A closer look at the microwave/convection oven unit and our new fridge. Shiny!

The guys were also hard at work putting in the hardware for the hall closets. Above is the linen closet that's in the upstairs landing hallway. Plenty of space in there!

 Above is the newly expanded closet in the downstairs spare bedroom. It used to be about 1/3rd smaller when it was Grace's room.

Here's another shot of the carpenters putting in the railing spindles on the highest side of the porch.

The guys were taking a short lunch break before finishing the last part of the porch railing.

 And finally, at the end of the day, Grace shows off the finished product. Painting the railing will be next!

 Now, another big step is the carpeting in the upstairs bedrooms. Above is the floor in Grace's bedroom. How that dude managed to move that giant bunk bed and lay the carpet down is beyond me.

 The picture above is the floor in our master bedroom walk-in closet. It looks so comfy, right?

 And this picture is simply the floor of our master bedroom, along with some of the extra carpet while the guy was cleaning up.

 Thankfully, the final pallet of sod came in so the landscapers were able to finish off that last section near the driveway. It's looking more and more like a finished project. We're getting so close I can taste it!

 And the fireplace mantel is slowly but surely getting closer to completion. I think this should be finished by the end of this week. That will be the icing on the cake.
Well, at this point, I've been asked by the management not to post ANY more photos until we get our C.O. and are able to move in. Kristin likes to call it our "Final Reveal!"
So, thanks for going along for the ride everyone and we'll see you again when we move in! Possibly in the next couple of weeks!
Cheers,
Flip

The Grass is Always Greener - Day 213

Another super busy day at Project 713. It's May 28th, the 213th day of the renovation. A lot of stuff got completed, both that you can see and stuff that would be easy to miss. The landscapers got started early, with the sod being delivered before dawn and a load of topsoil being dumped around 8 a.m.

I shot the first picture on my way to the office, so the picture below is the results of a full day's work. It got rained out by a major thunderstorm around 3 p.m. The crew ran out of sod, so they'll have to finish it later.

 They got about 90% finished, so they have to fill in two open spots and then there are a couple areas along the neighbor's property line that have to be repaired because it's become damaged during construction.

If you look closely at the pictures of the house you'll also notice that the gutters and downspouts were installed and they look great. They're a perfect match to the color of the window trim and soffit braces.

You can also see the finished work in the mulch beds and boxwood shrubs planted along the front porch

And finally, the kitchen appliances were delivered and they're just sitting in the breakfast nook area until the crew can install them either tomorrow or this weekend.
Things are really starting to come together!
More pictures as I get them.
Later!

Floored - Day 212

It's now May 27th, Day 212 of Project 713. The operation has moved ahead on several fronts, both inside and out. We'll start with the hardwoods!

This is a shot of the entryway and the formal dining room. The floors have been stained and are waiting to be sealed.

The picture above is the front hall and entryway looking toward the rear of the house, so you can see one of the three sets of French doors on the back wall of the house. 

The shot above shows the kitchen area and the island in the center. Below is a wider shot, so you can also see the staircase. You'll also notice the empty spaces in the kitchen where the appliances will be installed... tomorrow!

Below you can see the upstairs landing and hallway. Our bedroom door is in the center of the background.

 The shot below is the staircase looking down from the second floor landing.

The next picture is Grace's bunk beds and stairs up to her loft after being painted and the railing fastened.

The picture below is our transition deck and steps from the back of the house to the patio.

The landscaping crew has been busy grading the back yard and putting grass seed and straw down. Nearly that entire area used to be an old concrete parking pad, so soon it will be nice and green!

In the front yard, the landscapers are preparing to put the sod in, but they started out by putting in some of the boxwood shrubs next to the house. They'll also be mulching those beds after the sod's installed.

The picture below may be a head-scratcher, but if you look closely, you'll notice that the power line is now connected to the house, which means that we actually have full-on electricity inside!

And that means we passed inspection and that things like the stairwell chandelier actually work now!Yippee!

This next picture isn't super exciting, but it's important because now all of our interior doors have hardware!

And finally- this next picture is NOT what it looks like. Grace was simply enjoying a seat while I finished taking my pictures around the house. Again, you'll notice the door hardware. LOL

Tomorrow will be another BIG day because the kitchen appliances are being delivered and the landscapers will be installing the Zoysia sod in the front yard. They'll be scrambling to beat the nasty thunderstorm that's scheduled to hit around lunchtime.
Pictures T.B.D.
Cheers!