FYI

SEWARD, AK - - We've been out of internet range for the past two days during travel from Tok to Palmer, AK and then on to where we are now: Seward for a couple of days of R&R before starting work in Denali.
One of the requirements of working as a driver/guide is that you have to have an Alaskan CLD (commercial driver license). So we had to 'trade in' our Florida license for the AK version. This requires numerous pieces of paperwork to prove that you were born, you pay social security and you have a job in AK.
It also requires you to take a (written) test on general driving information. Now, being a realist as opposed to being of the optimist/pessimist classes, I immediately knew I was in trouble. I don't do do tests very well. In school if you flunk a test, no big deal. In real life and especially in the Department of Motor Vehicles if you flunk a test you're in trouble.
So, while knowing I could pass with ease, I also knew I would seize up before I even started. I even asked the individual at the DMV when I could take the test a second time ("The next day, once a day until you pass.") Encouraging. She also said it was easy, no sweat. Sweat. That was another thing I could worry about.
The test was 20 questions on a computer screen, multiple choice, with illustrations. All you need is 16 right and you pass.
Questions 1 & 2, no problem. Question 3, WRONG. Question 4, WRONG. 18 questions to go and I was already deep in the hole with the water rising fast. Question 5 & 6, no problem. Question 7, WRONG.
Now, the pressure is really on. you end up questioning yourself time and again before hitting the touch screen on the answer you hoping against all else is correct. Each time I touched the screen my heart rate went up, my blood pressure went up, the air seemed to be sucked out of the room and I could feel the eyes of everyone on me.
I got questions 8-13 correct. I'm on a roll, but it feels like I'm trying to outrun a huge boulder rolling downhill faster and faster. Questions 14, 15, 16, 17; all correct. I have the feeling that this is what playing Russian Roulette is like and that the bullet with my number is about to come up.
I get questions 18 and 19 correct. The screen says: "congratulations, you've passed." I turn and give Lydia a shaky thumbs-up and walk away from the machine not so much with a sign of relief but more the feeling of one who has nearly gone under for the last time buy was lucky enough to get that one last breath to make it to shore.
Funny thing, the questions weren't hard, but sometimes I certainly have the ability to pile the pressure on. Survived Again.