Continued from my last blog, it is time to compete in my skills USA competition. Most of the competition is a blur, and it was hard to gauge how I was doing, because the kid next to me didn't seem to know his ass from his elbow. A few stations I felt great about, and one station the an running it told me I was the only one to figure out the problem. I seemed to want to just get through it as fast as possible while I was out there, but after I handed my last sheet from my scan tool station, I didn't want it to be over because I was very unsure about how I did Once we got out of the competition area I got a chance to talk to the teacher I had for one and a half years at HCTC, he taught me a lot of what I put into the competition. I also got a chance to talk to one of my competitors, he really seemed to know his stuff. He really kind of made me nervous because we talked and had a lot of the same results in the competition with just a couple differences so I knew if one of us beat the other it would be close. At the award ceremonies I was announced towards the end, there was a lot of different competitions, the suspension built with every kid from my school that got called up to get a medal. Then once my section came up, the kid I had been talking to was announced for third, then another guy for second and I sat back in my seat, confident in the fact that I did not get first. Then, I was called up for winning the state competition, and the whole section I was sitting in went nuts. My teacher was more excited than I was, I went up on stage to get my medal, then went and got my scholarship packet and my tools for winning. All in all I went in hoping to get a medal, and walked out shocked to think that I was going to Kansas City for the national competition.

On March 15, I had one of the greatest experiences of my life, and it may have been the best day of my life so far. I had been training for skills USA for about a month, like I talked about in my last post. After a long night of laying in the hotel room going over everything I had done leading up to this point. All of the reading about state inspeciton, all of the voltage drop tests, all of the diagram look ups on the computer, tool identification, and parts identification. I can't really say I was nervous when I woke up the next day, I had a sense of confidence. My teacher shows up the the hotel at about 7, an hour before the buss leaves to go to UTC, where the competition is going to be held. He says grab everything you need, we are taking my truck over, he was all nerved up, and it was pretty funny. So myself and the kid I was rooming with, who was doing the small engines competiton grab out stuff and we head to the truck. My teacher was stressing over every little thing, and he said he was nervous that the buss wasn't going to get me there in time, so we left an hour earlier than when I would be there on the buss . He was asking if we want Mcdonalds, or DD, anything that would give us an edge. Of course I could think of a few things, but I replied with a no. We show up and get all of our stuff ready, of course or computer that reads information from the computers in the motor won't hold a charge, and can take up to an hour to boot up if it dies instead of being shut off. Luckily my other tools were in working order, and I was still feeling good about the day To be continued.....

This weekend definetly started off good, because I had a truck delivered to my house, with temp plates on it. The best part is that it was free, I got an 02 GMC Sonoma. This ol girl isn't much, but its not a bad little bombin around truck. I went through hell and back trying to get this thing, which resulted in it costing me nothing, due to terrible service. I don't know if I want to leave it as is, or go nuts with it yet. I know when I go down to Ohio for college I need a mean truck because it is almost mandatory to fit in down there. As I normally do, the first day I baby the truck to see if it loves it under normal conditions, then the next two days I put it through the paces to see if it will take it. This involves going through deep snow if I have it, mud if its there, and a few burnouts so I don't embarress myself if somebody tells me to do one and I say I can. Saturday I was hanging out with Nate and his brother, and they wanted to go get some food, so I offered for us to take the truck, because I had already tested it in the snow and mud, and it passed. Today was the burnout day, we took off up the hill from the driveway and I was actually impressed with how long it smoked the tires until it finally caught traction. Then I proceeded to slide around the next corner too, and it loved it. Then just as I said before, I was told to do a burnout on Sunday, by these two hillbillies I call my friends. So I back er out into the road, lock up the brakes, flat matted the bitch, and then let off the break and let er fly. It smoked a tire pretty well, and the best part is we got a video that I hope to be putting on in the next day or so.

Last thursday we all had quite the snowstorm, and just so happens I had to drive down to Ellsworth in the middle of it to practice for my skills USA competition. As I leave town I get a call from my teacher saying that the school is open, and if I felt comfortable to come on down. Now the ol' turd meister doesn't really love 4wd so it was a rear end spinning fun time, the whole way down. As I am doing my best to keep er between the ditches, I notice a mail van stuck in a driveway. Being the concerned citizen I am, I pulled over to ask if she wanted a tug. Of course she appreciated me stopping, and after a quick pull out of the ditch she had made in the persons driveway, I was on my way again. After I get to HCTC I am informed that I cannot catch the buss to skills from the school, I had to go back to Bucksport in a few hours to leave from there. My teacher and I are standing there conversing when another teacher walks in and offers for us to go out to lunch with everybody else at the school, but being as focused as we were we had to decline. We worked on my resume, and on testing electrical circuits. We went over just about everything I possibly could, I was on the verge of an overload to be honest. On top of this the diesel instructor asked me to try and go find Trevor, because nobody had heard from him. My time to practice flew by, and I had to leave early to go get Trev, and to account for the slippery roads. After a sketchy at best ride back to town, between the roads being bad, me having to stay in 2wd, first storm in a standard, and the fact that a ratchet strap was holding up my gas tank on the Ellsworth road, I finally make it back. After I get Trev we head to the school to get searched and board the buss to skills USA.

On March 11th I did the same things I do on any other day. I get up, and get the woodstove going. I grab my coffee, and get ready for the day. I jump in the truck, find my bleep, and I'm loaded up and truckin'. I go to school, then down to HCTC. After school I find my bleed again, run home to get my saw and off to the woodlot I go. Nate and I get all fuel up, and up in the woods we go for another eventful day. We are cutting on a hillside right now, and we cut down huge christmas trees pretty much, so you have to find areas where they are growing. So we are up on this hill droppin trees, and haulin em down the hill with our tractor. I am the one normally cutting them down, so I am usually pretty busy, and don't get to see the stuff Nate gets himself into with the tractor. This time though I watched him drive away, and I didn't see him make it around the corner. Then it was time to investigate as to why he didn't make it, and of course he was hung up. So I hopped up on the back, and rocked the old girl out of the hole. After that we decided it was time for some of the big trees to be dropped, so I fired up my saw, and started cuttin away. Of course the tree didn't just fall where I wanted it to, it stayed straight up. Nate goes and gets the tractor, the cranks over to where the tree is teetering, slams the bucket into it, and sends it toppling over. Then we repeat this process with the next big one. These videos show the scene of droppin the big trees from beggining to end.

Coming from a small town in Maine we do it up wicked freak hard. We all have our own way of doing things! This blog will tell stories about the things my friends and I do on a daily basis. Every day my friend and I go out to work. We don't mind going every day, because we go play with tractors and chainsaws. We go into the woods and just tear it up every afternoon. I work with my best friend, his father, and grandparents. I could not ask for a better job or better people to work with. The same friend and I are inseparable, we do just about everything together! We can be found about every weekend of the summer, out back of the wood lot in the mud, and at night having big fires. We do a lot of stupid things together, but that is how we have been doing it since 7th grade. We have been known to gather in large groups to have fires, as I talked about earlier. I don't know anybody else who does it more than us. To us it really is more than a fire, we do it to celibrate things or just to talk about the day, what is said there stays there and I think that's what is cool about it. I know that this summer will be a lot of fun out there, but it's gonna be kinda wired because we aren't going back to high school at the end, we are all going to start on our way to our careers. All in all this blog is going to be about all the crazy, stupid things my friends and I do.