Cross your fingers...I may have a new trucking job

[jmowreader]

Anyone ever heard of "white coat hypertension"? My damn blood pressure does the weirdest fucking thing--they take it and it's high, then they take it again and it's normal. If they take it a third time it's also normal. But the Army doesn't like the first reading..."sorry, but you can't come back in."

I have three brothers-in-law. One of them is a training coordinator for the electric company in Houston. (Or is that "an" electric company? Either way, they make electricity and they're in Houston.) One is a sheriff's deputy, and one made particle board before his eyesight went to shit. This third one's best buddy owns 120 trucks, and my BIL got me an interview with him. Apparently he sounds interested. I'd either be a route driver pulling wood chips to a paper mill, or regional linehaul pulling 53-foot vans. I'd be in a Kenworth with a 550-horse Cat under the hood and a 13-speed transmission. The pay's decent, and there wouldn't be the month-long runs I was doing before.

Now here's the catch: the company isn't in North Carolina. It's in Idaho. Since I'm not overly fond of North Carolina and really like Idaho (even though it is full of Republicans) this wouldn't be a huge heartbreaker. Besides, I did everything I set out to do in North Carolina when I cast my ballot against Jesse Helms in his last election. So...if I'm offered the job, do I take it?

[Kali]

1. what would be in the "cons" column?

sounds like a yes from your post - good luck!

[jmowreader]

4. Well...driving an hour each way to buy serious groceries is the major one

Well...there's also the road between St. Maries and Lewiston. There is no road between St. Maries and Lewiston that isn't steep and twisty...of course, millions of loads run between those two towns every year, and very few people die out there.

Check out this website:

http://www.northwest-national.com/st._maries_idaho_homes.htm

There's a nice little propaganda video for St. Maries on it. I know St. Maries REAL well. Check it out: there are NO chain stores in this town. There are at least three factories in town. One is the highest-technology plywood plant in the world. One is a plant that makes pellets for pellet stoves. The third makes the very unique Peet Shoe Dryer. (There used to be a wild rice processing plant, but it was moved to Oregon after the place it was in flooded several times. The plant was out by the airport--the lowest land in Benewah County. My father was on the Benewah County land-use board when they put the plant in. He told them very specifically, "do NOT put your plant out by the airport because this place turns into a lake on a regular basis." They put it there. Six months later the river flooded. Six months after that the river flooded again. Six months after THAT Schoenick's Pond (the sewage lagoon--very long story) flooded. Three months after that they were in Oregon.) There's no McDonald's but there's Bud's Big Burger and George & Minerva's. Well, there's Bud's...no one has the balls to go into George & Minerva's. (One of the town jokes was that Minerva was in the Marines in World War II. Minerva was a woman shaped like Don Rickles. The joke ended when they found out Minerva was NOT in the Marines in WWII. Minerva was in the Marines in the Korean War.)

But like the title of this post says, you've got to drive to one of four towns--Spokane, Coeur d'Alene, Kellogg or Moscow--to do your serious grocery shopping. Food prices are a little on the high side. There's no movie theater there. There's very little shopping. There's one barber shop in town, and it's in a bar. (This is no shit.) The name of the bar is Resor's Recreation. No one knows who Mr. Resor was. The town's festival is Paul Bunyan Days, over the Labor Day weekend. There's a parade on Labor Day, and the most popular entry is always "load of logs." Every trucking company in town will enter a load of logs. They're judged on how neatly the logs are stacked, the number of branches left on the logs (fewer is better, none is best)...)

[kentauros]

2. What's the cost of living in Idaho?

That would be my first question for him. Other than that, anyone can get used to living around 'pubs. Well, some people can ;)

Oh, the BIL in Houston probably works for Reliant Enemy, formerly Houston Looting & Plunder, with the power portion being called "CenterPoint" (don't know the slang-insult for that one...) There are other power companies here, but Reliant Enema's the biggest and supplies to most everyone.

[Kat45]

3. I have heard that about blood pressure, though not in those words.

A doctor was saying that a blood pressure reading is just the bp at that very moment, and it could easily be different 5 minutes later. Blood pressure varies throughout the day and your bp number is just the number from that moment.

[mnhtnbb]

5. Someone I used to work with and her hubby retired to Idaho. They like it--a lot.

But now that I see her on facebook, turns out they're Repubs. Fans of Faux News, etc.
Didn't have a clue about her politics when I worked with her 20 years ago, but it's possible
she became conservative over time.

OTOH, I love Chapel Hill (NC) and wouldn't trade it to live in Idaho. No way. I've done the thing
living where I was in the minority--Nebraska and Missouri.

You must not be in the blue part of NC.

[mnhtnbb]

6. Just read your profile. Fayetteville. No wonder you don't like NC!

[Tobin S.]

7. If you think it will make you happier and there is no one else to think about

then it sounds like a good deal to me. I worked as a long haul trucker for 3.5 years from 1997-2000 and again for a year from 2006-2007 when I got forced out of a local job. Got back to doing local work in January of 2007 and I've been with that company since then. I still find myself pining for the long haul stuff sometimes, but most of the time I like being home every day and I make decent money.

[Bertha Venation]

8. I can't offer you any advice

All I can say is best of luck in making your decision. I'm sure that what you decide will be the right thing.