Post by Deleted on Oct 9, 2015 10:40:19 GMT -6
This was 100% and totally unexpected. It has literally come as much as a shock to me, as anyone.
Let me explain a little here...
Prior to Mr. Obama and Roy Lahood (Former secretary of tansportation under Obama's first term) the laws on a Commercial Driver's License were pretty clear and simple. You needed training, time and requirements to get your Class A CDL, and then..to USE it...you had to have a proper physical medical card, showing you were good to go on things like blood pressure, sugars, and other basic signs of health.
A couple states, at that time, had other policies. Oregon was one of them, and I watched my Wife lose her CDL by the state taking it on medical basis. Not disqualifying her from USING it, until/unless she could get clear medical restored...but outright cancelling the Class A status entirely. When I went to trucking school, to give some context of importance here...there is one thing they repeated over and over, and it meant something. It meant EVERYTHING.
'This license is yours. You've earned it, and no one can take it from you.'
Obviously, the exception is traffic violations, but hey, that is actively losing something ..not having it TAKEN like a thief came in the night.
----
Earlier today, I ran Jessica (the lady staying with us here) down to get her photo ID. While there, she struck up a nice convo with the desk clerk at the license bureau...and in the course of that discussion, she managed to just about make a best friend. The important part.....when the clerk heard my situation with the CDL having been yanked and cancelled a couple YEARS ago ....she disappeared in the back for a bit, came back out..did a few things on the computer, then asked me for $2.
$2?! For what ..I figured.. and then she told me the news I think I'll remember for the rest of my life, in terms of how life changing this is for me..
My class A CDL is fully restored on a self certification basis for medical! ! !
What this means is that things are how they SHOULD have always been, before Obama got happy with micromanaging changes just to make them. I can't go hire on with a trucking company today (nor should I be able to, by rights...) HOWEVER.... My medical card, and getting a couple things certified as under control..is *ALL* I face as a challenge to get back into an 18 wheeler and resume what I'd all but written off forever, as a lost part of my life.
Anyway.... Don't anyone worry about me here, for being a part of what we're doing. I MAY return to long haul trucking ....and I hadn't been quite ready to leave when it was decided for me. However, the soonest that could happen is the end of next semester (end of Spring)...with a lot of other arrangements needing made anyway. So this changes nothing short, or even mid term......but it is a LIFE CHANGE for having my professional career path restored to me as a realistic OPTION...whether I choose to pursue it as a full blown thing or not.
The Trucking Bunny is back! ....and Hot DAMN for it! I can actually look at a truck on the highway again, without feeling a touch of depression and like viewing a reminder of a lost loved one. Some day ..I may just get back to the place where travel is just a days work, and something like a trip to a casino? That's just a matter of choosing to take my break at that exit, vs. another ..for all the effort or trouble it is to enjoy.
It's the damndest thing ...how fate and life works. SO MANY little things, and I mean..LITTLE things..had to happen..JUST SO.. for this moment to have come.
Miracles...
Let me explain a little here...
Prior to Mr. Obama and Roy Lahood (Former secretary of tansportation under Obama's first term) the laws on a Commercial Driver's License were pretty clear and simple. You needed training, time and requirements to get your Class A CDL, and then..to USE it...you had to have a proper physical medical card, showing you were good to go on things like blood pressure, sugars, and other basic signs of health.
A couple states, at that time, had other policies. Oregon was one of them, and I watched my Wife lose her CDL by the state taking it on medical basis. Not disqualifying her from USING it, until/unless she could get clear medical restored...but outright cancelling the Class A status entirely. When I went to trucking school, to give some context of importance here...there is one thing they repeated over and over, and it meant something. It meant EVERYTHING.
'This license is yours. You've earned it, and no one can take it from you.'
Obviously, the exception is traffic violations, but hey, that is actively losing something ..not having it TAKEN like a thief came in the night.
----
Earlier today, I ran Jessica (the lady staying with us here) down to get her photo ID. While there, she struck up a nice convo with the desk clerk at the license bureau...and in the course of that discussion, she managed to just about make a best friend. The important part.....when the clerk heard my situation with the CDL having been yanked and cancelled a couple YEARS ago ....she disappeared in the back for a bit, came back out..did a few things on the computer, then asked me for $2.
$2?! For what ..I figured.. and then she told me the news I think I'll remember for the rest of my life, in terms of how life changing this is for me..
My class A CDL is fully restored on a self certification basis for medical! ! !
What this means is that things are how they SHOULD have always been, before Obama got happy with micromanaging changes just to make them. I can't go hire on with a trucking company today (nor should I be able to, by rights...) HOWEVER.... My medical card, and getting a couple things certified as under control..is *ALL* I face as a challenge to get back into an 18 wheeler and resume what I'd all but written off forever, as a lost part of my life.
Anyway.... Don't anyone worry about me here, for being a part of what we're doing. I MAY return to long haul trucking ....and I hadn't been quite ready to leave when it was decided for me. However, the soonest that could happen is the end of next semester (end of Spring)...with a lot of other arrangements needing made anyway. So this changes nothing short, or even mid term......but it is a LIFE CHANGE for having my professional career path restored to me as a realistic OPTION...whether I choose to pursue it as a full blown thing or not.
The Trucking Bunny is back! ....and Hot DAMN for it! I can actually look at a truck on the highway again, without feeling a touch of depression and like viewing a reminder of a lost loved one. Some day ..I may just get back to the place where travel is just a days work, and something like a trip to a casino? That's just a matter of choosing to take my break at that exit, vs. another ..for all the effort or trouble it is to enjoy.
It's the damndest thing ...how fate and life works. SO MANY little things, and I mean..LITTLE things..had to happen..JUST SO.. for this moment to have come.
Miracles...
Now, maybe you'll "ease up" on her and her views a tad. 
