More job stuff

Many of you have been following what's been going on through my Facebook page but for my personal reasons, I'm blogging the details of what's been happening these past few days. So if you want to read on, please feel free. I promise I'll post pictures soon.

Doug got home last Thursday from a run he had made to New Jersey. It was two weeks from the last time we saw him. On his way home, he gets pulled over in Wyoming for an inspection and is given a warning because of various things the officer found wrong, one of being that there is oil leaking from his rig which is a fire hazard. When he gets home, May has his rig scheduled to go into the shop for work to be done so we figured he would be home for two days or so. He called May after the two days and they still hadn't gotten to his truck and wouldn't until Monday. We're told Monday afternoon that they don't know what's wrong with it or where the leak is coming from so it has to go to a different yard to be looked at. In the meantime, a driver is on vacation for this week, so Doug will need to use this other man's rig while his rig is out of commission. Something he's not too thrilled about but......

Tuesday morning, he goes into work and heads out to Toledo, Oregon (right by Newport on the coast) to pick up a load that's going to southern California. There are certain parts of Hwy 20 that don't allow 53' trailers and he misses the exit he needs to take to get off of hwy 20. So he has to drive a little ways to find a place big enough to turn around. On his way back, he gets pulled over by the police. Doug tells him he knew he wasn't suppose to be driving on that road but he missed his turn and was trying to find a place to turn around, etc. The officer says, "I believe you" and then tells him he's going to do an inspection since he had him there. Doug says no problem and gives him all the info needed. The officer comes back and tells Doug that he's got a suspended license in Oregon due to an uninsured accident that happened way back in August. So now Doug is unable to drive and he's sitting a few miles from where his load is waiting. He calls me and asks me to call the DMV and figure out what's going on since his phone is almost dead because his charger won't work in the rig he's in. I find out that because he didn't fill out and turn in an accident report when he crashed his UPS truck last August, they charged him with an uninsured accident (even though it was insured) and suspended his license. All we needed to do was fill out and turn in the report, pay a $75 reinstatement fee and then he's good to drive again. In the meantime, he's had to call May to get someone to drive down from Salem and pick him up and have someone else drive the rig back up to the yard. Since he can't drive, I have to pack the kids up at 7pm and drive down to Salem, an hour away, to pick Doug up. When I get there, the rig hadn't made it to the yard yet and we didn't know when it was going to get there so we just left, leaving his clothes, refrigerator and keys in the rig.

Wednesday morning we get up and go to Lake Oswego, where the accident happened, and fill out the paperwork, pay $75, and find out why we were never notified that his license was going to be suspended. It ends up that the address they have on file is the last place we lived at there in Oregon, seven years ago! We showed the DMV worker the accident report the police officer filled out and it shows our current address and Doug's current drivers' license number, both in Washington! It's bad enough that we didn't know he had to fill out an accident report, because when it happened, he asked them if there was anything else he needed to do and he was told no, but now he also has a $425 ticket!!!! The worker says, "Hey, I just work here. I can't help you anymore." She says, "If I were you, I'd take all this to the judge and tell him what you're telling me and hopefully he'll take care of it." Thank you very much lady. On our way home, we call our friends dad, who's an officer in Lincoln City, explained the situation and see if there's anything we can do. The biggest problem was that we didn't look on the other side of the accident report and if we had, it clearly states that we had a certain amount of time to get an accident report filled out and filed with the DMV. The thing we have going for us is that a) we went and took care of the accident report and b) the whole address issue. He advised us to go to the courthouse next week and talk to the clerk. The clerk has the right to dismiss the ticket. If he does, then we won't need to worry anymore. If he doesn't, then Doug will have to go back on the 5th of October and plead not guilty then go back at a different time to plead his case.

We find out today that his truck still hasn't been looked at and it was taken to the new yard on Tuesday. It is now Thursday, he's been given the ok to go back to work, he just needs to take his reciept in that we got from the DMV, and he's got a load that's got to be in Northern Washington by noon tomorrow. He'll still be driving the other guys rig until Monday, when the guy is done with vacation and we were told his truck won't be ready until sometime next week. Somewhere in the midst of all this, we need to find six hours out of the day to go to Newport and plead our case to the clerk (three hrs to get there, three to get back, depending on traffic). We're at the mercy of the clerk so please help us pray that the Lord will soften his heart.