Thomas Murray's blog: "My Life"

Well I'm back!  To finish telling the story of my truck driving career up until the present day. I last left off my story where I had just been fired from CR England. I had two choices. I could get a bus ticket back to Indianapolis and look for a job there or I could go to San Antonio and stay with my Mom until I got a job. Now you have to understand something about my dear Mother. She is the ultimate bitch and I will tell some stories about her later on but knowing that my Mom is a bitch you can understand why I really didn't want to go to my Mom's house but the truck driving opportunities are bigger in Texas so I decided to get on the Greyhound Bus and go to San Antonio, Texas to look for a job. So I got to my Mom's house and my step dad Jesus (Hey Seuss)   he took me to the library and told me where to put in applications and gave me some numbers to call and within a few days I had a job at this construction place driving a dump truck.

It wasn't a bad job really. I would pull up and he would load me with dirt and I would usually take 5 or 6 loads a day over to the Terra Bella housing development in San Antonio. I usually got paid about $400 a week. I moved in with my brother Jesse and his wife and kid and I slept on the couch. His wife didn't like this arrangement. She argued that she wanted to walk around the house naked if she wanted too. Frankly I wouldn't have cared if she did lol. Anyway it was always the same stuff every day there was like something wrong like  I would leave a Dr.Pepper bottle on the table and his wife would have a fit. They didn't even have a garbage bag. Picture a broken down trailer where the door doesn't even lock and there are roaches everywhere and that's where my brother lives. I know he doesn't have much money but when you are living in a BROKEN DOWN trailer that looks like a condemned building  you are really going to complain about something as stupid as a Dr.Pepper bottle when your house looks like Beck's Landfill in San Antonio. Anyway I stayed at my brother's and he worked at a Golf Course mowing the lawns and stuff and he would have to go to work everyday at 4:00AM.

I didn't have to be at work until 8:00 but since my car was back in Indiana and I didn't have a way to get to work, he drove me to work at 4:00AM and I just climbed into the sleeper of one of the trucks there on the yard and took a nap until 8:00. I usually worked until 5 or 6 at night. I worked there for about a month and a half until one morning when I didn't have a ride to work and I had some guys from working coming to pick me up at the store across the street from my brother's and his dog followed me and my brother blamed me for the dog following me and when the dog didn't come home my brother and his wife got into a rage about it and my brother packed up my stuff and brought all my shit to my work and left me there at work without no place to go and no money no car no nothing. I asked my boss if I could just sleep there at the shop because they had a fridge I could put my food in and a shower and I didn't mind sleeping on the floor. Just a few more weeks and I could have had a place of my own but my boss wouldn't let me. 

I told my boss that I HAD to go back to Indiana to get my car and so that night my Mom swung by and took me to this broken down motel on Broadway in San Antonio called Casa Linda and I stayed there for two nights and waited for my bus. I took the Greyhound back to Indianapolis, Indiana but I didn't have any money for gas to get back so it was like a week and a half before I could leave to go back to Texas because I had to wait on my check to get mailed to me and that took forever. So I sat at my Grandmaw's house in Indiana just waiting around surfing online not doing nothing like I did for 7 years and just waited for my check to get there. Finally it did get there and I packed up all my stuff and I went to Memphis to visit my Dad and Grandmaw for a few days and then I drove back to Texas to look for a job. 

Within a few days my step dad told me to call this one guy and ask him about a job driving sand to oil wells so I did and he hired me. A few days later I went to meet the guy and he gave me the keys and told me a little bit about the truck and I left and took the truck to Dallas for orientation for the company. The first day I had the truck though I got stuck and had to call a tow to pull me out of the mud. The guy I am working for he is an owner operator and so whenever I get stuck in the mud or something like that I have to pay for the tow. So the very first day I owed him 350 dollars for the tow. I went to orientation in Dallas and when it came time for my road test the instructor said, "Finally I got a good driver!"   I better be after about four years of trying to become a truck driver. After that I drove back to to San Antonio and I got a trainer. This time though the trainer didn't share the truck with me. I had my own truck and so did he. He would just help me at the Oil Wells when I got ready to unload my sand he showed me now to work the Pneumatic Trailer. I only had him as my trainer for the first four loads and then I was on my own. That was back in September and I have been living in that same truck ever since. I think this time I might actually get to stay at this job. I am finally a truck driver and I have my own truck and I can do my own thing and its pretty easy. I just open my hatch on my trailer and they pour the sand down in there and I get weighed and if the weight is good then I head to the Oil Well where I unload the sand by hooking up the hoses and that's about it. I make 25% commission on every load that I do. Usually its around 150 per load on average. So anyway that's basically how I ended up living in this truck. Mostly I park every night at Love's Truck Stop in San Antonio or if I have loads in Cotulla I park at Loves at Exit 39 on IH35 but here lately I have been staying and doing loads in San Antonio. They don't have any loads today because its Thanksgiving week and the oil wells are down. Schlumber J is down today too. I thought I would be getting a load today but it looks like I'll be sitting here at the truck stop until morning.  

Well that about catches you up to date on my truck driving ambitions and what I'm currently doing. Hopefully I can get a load tomorrow cause I haven't yet any yet for this pay period. Until next time see you guys later and remember to like me, fan me, friend me and all that good stuff and comment on my blogs I like to receive feedback!

Finally in July of 2012 enough time had passed from probation where I had another chance to have my dream of becoming a truck driver. I called CR England and I went to Richmond, Indiana to Premier Truck Driving school. It was close to where I lived so I didn't have to take a Greyhound Bus there. My Grandmother drove me to the Motel. I had a room mate named Isaiah from El Salvador he was real nice. I stayed there for about ten days I believe. Every morning at 5:00AM getting up and going to the school where the first week was classroom and the second week was hands on out in the trucks learning backing maneuvers and road training. The first week it was pretty much basically learning procedures of CR England and learning log books and HazMat and DOT Safety requirements and Pre-Trip Inspections and things like that.

The 2nd week I was out learning how to back up. We did our Straight Line Backing, Offset Backing and Parellel Parking. They had this little saying to remember on your Offset and Parellel which was  "Lionel Richie Sings Really Loud"    Hard Left, Hard Right, Straight Back, Hard Right, Hard Left. Those manuevers would take you right back into the Offset cones and the Parallel cones.

The students we would each take turns backing all three manuevers and then towards the end of the program we had an instructor take us out on the road. Each truck had an instructor and 4 students. There were 2 SR and 2 SC.  SR means Student Refresher for those that already had their CDL and the SC means Student Certification which means students without their CDL. I think they did it that way so that the students without their CDL could see how those of us with CDL's shift and turn and stuff like that. I did outstanding on the road. The other SR with me in the truck he told some of the others with CDL's that  "This dude can DRIVE."  The SC students in the truck didn't do that bad but this one girl I felt sorry for her she just choked a lot and her shifting was kind of rough. She would shove it into gear. 

There was a little bit of drama in the truck between my instructor and that one girl. The instructor was a female too and the instructor she had this psycho ex boyfriend and when we drove by his work she would get in the back and hide from him and the girl was rolling her eyes and was like wtf. So they kinda got into it a little bit and there was a shouting match. Anyway I passed the road and backing up test and I was waiting on final confirmation from the head office in Salt Lake City on whether CR England was going to hire me or not and finally I was handed my certificate of completion and my fuel card and my packets and everything and they gave me a handshake and officially welcomed me to CR England. I was then assigned a trainer and went back to my motel room to wait.

I called my trainer and he said he would be there the following day. His name was Eudoro and he lived in Gilroy, California. I was with him for about two to three weeks. He was on a dedicated run from Springfield, OH to Los Angeles, California. I would drive 10 hours then I would sleep for 10 hours while he drove. I remember that first run to LA  I drove from Richmond, IN to around Springfield, MO and when I woke up we were in Eastern New Mexico and I drove from there to the Arizona-California state line and I remember I had like 10 minutes left on my DOT clock and we had to switch drivers right there at the Entry Point to California because I was out of time. I was introduced to Eudoro's family and they were all very nice to me. I even went to church with him one Sunday in Gilroy. Then on fateful day I pulled into Pilot Travel Center in Los Hills, California and I got diesel fuel and I pulled up to fuel the reefer and then I pulled up again just cleared the fuel island so the next truck could get fuel and I went into the Pilot to get some food at Wendy's.

It took about 20 mintues to get my food at Wendy's and when I came back out to the truck, I noticed that it was no longer where I parked it but it was across the street. I wondered to myself why it was over there. I thought maybe my trainer had woken up and had moved so that the guy behind us could get out but as I got closer I saw to my horror that the truck had smashed into another truck's trailer. As I arrived at the scene I was told that I forgot to set the brakes and it had rolled into the trailer of that other CR England driver. My trainer and the other guy were both thrown out of the sleeper bether when the truck hit but they were okay. The entire front windshield was smashed and the truck wouldn't even start. The police arrived on the scene and took my statement. I insisted that I didn't forget to set the brakes because it was on a incline so I figured I would have felt the truck moving even before I got out of the truck. The cops took our statements and then they tried to tow the truck but was having a difficult time since the latch on the 5th wheel was broken and we couldn't detach the trailer. I went ahead across the street and checked us into the Motel 6. I thought my truck driving career was over. 

The next day I waited at the Pilot for this CR England driver to pick me up and take me back to Los Angeles. I called my student coordinator and he arranged for a trainer and his student to give me a ride back to LA so I rode back with them and I stayed at the Holiday Inn where all the other student trainees were staying and I waited to find out if I still had my job or not. The safety man called me and I explained what happened and then finally I got a call and they told me that CR England had decided to end my employment with them. My heart sank. After all my hard work I had been fired from CR England and my dreams of becoming a truck driver were slowly becoming smaller and smaller...

-To Be Continued

Well I'm sitting here at the Love's Travel Center just off I-35 and I-410 southside of San Antonio. I stay here most of the time at night. Its been a long ride trying to become a truck driver. I started in 2008 at truck driving school at the Truck Driving Institute Of Indianapolis. When I got into a semi truck for the first time I didn't even know how to make it go lol. I had to ask the instructor how do you make this thing go? Its been a long road since then and a lot of bumps in the road. I graduated from the school and I worked for Werner Enterprises for about three months and back then I couldn't back up a semi truck worth a shit. I sucked at backing up. I had about five different trainers at Werner because stuff kept happening where I had to get a new trainer like when I was in Denver and I had to stay to take that road test but my trainer had to get back on the road he had a load so I had to stay and had to get a new trainer.

They gave me that road test in Denver and I did pretty good on it. He was amazed at my knowledge of the Pre-Trip Inspection and my driving skills on the road were good. The only thing was I didn't do to good backing up but I managed to back it up into the space. He passed me and I went back on the road and then a few weeks later I was in Phoenix, Arizona and I was ready to test out to get my own truck. That was my goal to be able to have my own truck. Well it wouldn't be literally MINE because I wouldn't necessarily own it but I would have it all to myself no trainer there to tell me what to do. I would be free to do as I please and that truck would be my home for most of the time so basically it would be my truck. So anyway I tested in Phoenix and the instructor that was testing me said that I reminded him of somebody that just got out of truck driving school lol. Well duh I did just get out a few months before that. Truck Driving takes time to perfect its not something that can be learned overnight. People think its just driving and nothing else but that's not true. Its a lot of hard work.

Anyway that time I couldn't back up into the space so Werner failed me on the test and they terminated my employment because I couldn't back it up into the space on TIME. I managed to back it up into a space but I took too much time and it was the wrong space that the instructor told me to back it up into. So Werner fired me and I returned home to Indianapolis. I moved back in with my Grandmaw. Anyway I started looking for another truck driving job but nobody would hire me since I only had a little bit of experience and then something happened that would change the course of my career as a truck driver and it would put it to a halt at least for a few years. I got arrested around July 30, 2008. I will tell that story at a later date but anyway I got put on probation for a year and nobody would hire me as a truck driver while I was on probabtion.

So anyway I got off probabtion in late 2010 but I still had a problem. I was low on actual truck driving experience. I only had 3 months over the road experience. So I worked at meaningtless jobs  McDonalds and a place called RGIS Inventory. Every day wishing I could be behind the wheel of a Semi Truck.

-To Be Continued

How many of you out there know somebody that has legally changed their name? You probably have never met anybody that has until now. Well except when a woman gets married she takes her husbands name but I don't mean that. I mean just changing your First, Middle, and Last name just for the hell of it. I've always been a spur of the moment kind of guy and one day I just got it in my head that I didn't like my birth name anymore and I wanted to change it. I went online and I found this website for name change papers that cost like $134. You buy these papers and then you take it down to the county clerk and you file the papers there and you pay like $100 in court costs and you have to run a ad in the local newspaper telling everybody in town that you are changing your name and if anybody is interested they can show up at the court hearing. 

Well I did all that and my court date was set for September 7, 2007. Up until that date my name was Rodger Dale Murray Junior but on that date I walked into court the Judge asked me if I was doing this to escape debts or running from the cops ect. He granted my name change and I walked out of court that day my name no longer Rodger Murray but it was Thomas Marvolo Riddle. Cool eh ? I got lots of compliments on it especially when I went to see Harry Potter at the movie theaters. I would show people my license and they just couldn't believe that was my actual name. I even had it on my social security card to. After awhile though when the novelity wore off I realized that I gave away my family heritage and I wanted my last name back. I didn't really care for the middle either so I went to court yet again.

The 2nd name change occured I think it was February 2009. Walking into court my name was Thomas Marvolo Riddle and I got complimented on the name by the Judge. I explained that I wanted my family heritage back and that I made a mistake changing my last name so the Judge granted my 2nd name change and I walked out as Thomas Andrew Murray and that has been my name ever since and will be my name until the day I die. It is hard sometimes because my family refuses to call me Thomas because I have been Rodger to them ever since I was born. I was Rodger for 21 years of my life. All my friends at school new me as Rodger. The only people that know me as Thomas are people that I have met and known after my name change of course. I don't usually tell people about my name change but since I'm telling my life story on here in the blogs its appropriate.

It is hard sometimes having a changed name because everybody always wants to see your name change papers so I have to carry them wherever I go. I didn't actually think the Judge would grant my name change to Thomas Marvolo Riddle because I thought it was copyrighted but he let me and it was kinda cool for awhile and this is the kinda thing that you want to do as a kid but you have no option but to wait until your grown to do it and most people grow out of it when they become an adult but not me!  When I became an adult all it meant was that I was just a grown kid and now I could do whatever the fuck I felt like doing without parents telling me no and getting grounded ect. 

Well that's about all there is to this story and its 100% true. I can even upload my name change papers on Fubar if there is any doubt about my honesty. 

I hop you enjoyed reading this and I will see you guys next time for the next edition of "My Life"

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November 26, 1986 in Memphis, Tennessee at 1:44 PM Central Time I was born. My parents stayed together for about three years and then split up. For the first 13 years of my life I lived around the Memphis area. This blog is about me explaining things about my life and some of these things may shock or surprise you and trust me on this when they say "The Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction"  they mean it! When I tell people some parts of my life story they can't believe it and I mean that literally they can't beleive it or they just think I'm lying but trust me everything I talk about here is the 100% truth God honest. As a kid growing up we were very family oriented. We would always go over to my Mamaw & Papaw's house every Sunday after church for a home cooked meal and nobody cooks a home cooked meal like my Mamaw. After my Papaw died in 2002 though there was a lot of family drama created and the family sort of split in half. 

I was a very bad boy growing up. I would always get in trouble at school. I basically lived in the principal's office. The principal in every school I attended knew my name by heart. I don't know why I always misbehaved I guess I just found it entertaining to aggravate people. I remember one time when we lived in Memphis, I took the water hose and I sprayed our neighbor's open window and got him SOAKED. He was like 60 years old and I think he was taking a nap and he left his window open so I decided to get the water hose and spray him with it. That's the kind of stuff I did all the time as a kid. I sprayed my Papaw one time with the water hose and he took a soapy rag that he was using to wash the van and he threw it across my face as I ran away lol. I think I was only about five when that happened. One time when Papaw was working on the roof I took the ladder away from him so he couldn't get down. When he finally got down he chased me down to the creek and I jumped over it and I looked back with a sort of triumphant look on my face. I didn't think Papaw could jump the ditch but low and behold he did and I got a spanking after he did. I didn't do it because I hated him or anything I loved my Papaw. I just enjoyed those pranks. 

Anyway in this blog I will tell you different stories about my life. Not necessarily in chronological order but when i write a blog I will say the date and where it took place. I can't remember everything about my childhood but when I remember a story I will write a blog about it. That's one thing I like about Fubar is they have a blog!  I don't know why Facebook can't get blogs but anyway  welcome to my blog about myself. I hope you find it entertaining.