Finally got through a renewal class on Wednesday evening and sent the paperwork off to Austin via certified mail Friday morning. It's been an adventure. My current license expires in early September and I fully intended to get the class done in April but it didn't work out that way. I had been working in an office in Houston for several years so there were plenty of options but around mid March one of our field consultants passed away in a hotel room in Columbus, Tx just as he was starting a several months long 3D seismic survey south and southwest of there. I had been wanting to get back into field work and out of the office so I asked that my name be put before the client as Dave's replacement and I was accepted. This went down mid week and by Saturday I was out here learning my way around the 150 square mile survey area.
These jobs run seven days a week and what time off I can get comes about with rainouts or times when things are going very well so scheduling a class weeks in advance in Houston or anywhere else is out of the question. Other than being away from the wife this is not a problem because at this time the job consists of a 6 am drillers meeting in Hallettsville, a 7 am surveyors meeting in Schulenberg, then mostly driving/walking around out in the country monitoring the drillers and surveyors scattered around the area and looking for problems and ways to improve production. After almost two months here I have to force myself to go back to Houston for an evening and early get up from time to time. I just figured I'd work something out with the renewal class and it eventually worked out.
Not long after moving to Columbus I stopped at Ben's Gun Store in Schulenberg and asked Ben if he knew of anyone in the area that taught CHL classes. Ben gave me the number of a JP in Flatonia who holds classes when he gets enough requests. I called the Judge and got on his list and waited for his call. Meantime I moved to Hallettsville to be where I need to be at 6 am every day instead of 40 miles from here and conviently only about 25 minutes from Flatonia. After a few weeks I was starting to worry and then got the call. The class for renewals only was scheduled to start at 4 PM the next Monday at Donna's Cafe in Flatonia. Later the Judge called and rescheduled it to Tuesday and then Wednesday because of conflicts he or others had.
One older fellow, a middle aged couple, and I met the Judge at Donna's on Wednesday at 4 PM. Another couple were supposed to be there but did not make it. We were photographed against a sheet hung on the wall and fingerprinted and went through gun safety and conflict resolution before going a few miles down the road to a ranch to do the shooting qualification at a makeshift but approved range. The couple's Glock locked open after every shot so she used my CZ and he used the older fellow's Hi-Point 9 to qualify. I'm pretty sure old Jack carries a wheelgun and just had the Hi-Point to qualify for SA but it never missed a lick and he shot it very accurately.
Back at the cafe we went through the rest of the review of rules and changes and took the test. The Judge made sure all our paperwork was in order and notarized the necessary pages and we were out of there. He told me that he thought about getting out of CHL instruction but some of his constituents told him he was the only instructor in 50 miles and if he wanted their vote he would need to keep up the good work.
All in all a very pleasant experience and well done. I had been thinking about taking my renewal somewhere other than where I did my original to get a different point of view and that certainly turned out to be the case. BTW the cafe was closed when the class was held.
CHL renewal class out in the country (a bit long)
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