The Driving Test

So like I said, that test was the big hurdle I was worrying about. On Thursday, I learned that my driving test was scheduled for Saturday morning. At 6:30. Yeah, I didn’t think they would schedule a driving test that early in the morning either. But they did. The worst part was that the last day of classroom training was Thursday, so I had to sit at home on Friday, worrying my ass off about the driving test. Since I hadn’t taken said test yet, I was useless at my new office, so I was told to hold off on calling my new office until after I knew that I had passed the test.

Friday night I got to bed nice and early. Nervous as I was, I knew I’d be no good out there with not enough sleep. Of course, it wasn’t like I had to drive all day long, or deliver any mail or anything, but it was scheduled to be a full four hours long, and I really didnt know what to expect.

I woke up early. Five AM early. Me and no one else in our entire apartment complex. It’s the Saturday before Christmas, and people have better things to do than to wake up at FIVE AM. Like sleep. I loaded up on coffee and headed out the door.

Got there a little early knowing the instructor was one of those guys who shows up early for everything, and hoping that he’d start the test early so that I could go home early. No such luck there.

The sun wasn’t up, so he wasn’t in a rush to get out to the truck. Of course they should have thought about that when they scheduled the darn test. But no, that would involve too much thought. Or perhaps they just wanted to get the testing done with early. There were two tests scheduled that day: mine, which was to last until 10:30, and another new inductee (if that’s what you call it), who was due to begin his test at 11:00am.

We got all the paperwork out of the way and headed off in the direction of the trucks. I had to drive two different vehicles for my test – my station has a couple of different types of delivery trucks, so I’m required to be certified to drive both types.

Of course the testing part of the lot is at the completely opposite end of the building entrance. So we treck it out to the testing area, only to find that there was only one truck there. Being that I didn’t know those were our testing trucks, I didn’t understand the instructor when he stopped in his tracks and sighed, “Shit.”

“What?” I asked.

“There should be two trucks here.”

“Oh.”

It’s now 6:45 and we head back accross the lot, back to warmth and phones. He makes a couple of calls and finds that our truck has been borrowed for maintenance. Uh. Don’t these people check before carting away training trucks? Apparently not.

Someone towed it back to where we were and we got on with the test.

I’ve always wanted to drive a postal truck. Tell me you’ve never wondered what it’s like to drive a right hand vehicle on the right side of the street. Yeah, you’re jealous, I know. It’s ok, though. It’s not that exciting.

I swerved into the wrong side of the street a couple of times. I parked where I shouldn’t have parked (you aren’t supposed to back into stalls situated in front of day-cares when there are open stalls at the far end of a parking lot – stalls that you can front-end into, and drive straight forward out of.) I forgot to turn on a blinker when driving inside a parking lot (I thought that one was a bit nitpicky myself) and I neglected to use a merging lane that I turned left into. It wasn’t marked. I turned straight into the driving lane when I should have used the invisible merging one.

It’s okay, though. As dumb as I think some of those were, I passed the test!

Now I just have to make it to March 15, when my probation ends.

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