another round of articles

The articles I wrote for this month’s 422 business advisor included the cover story about an architectural firm, and my regular column, this time about Boyertown.

The Boyertown column was kind of fun to write. The interview with Boyertown’s Citizen of the Year wound up turning into a very friendly chat with her and her husband. The couple wound up inviting my wife (who they’ve never met) and I to dinner. That will happen this Friday. It’s one of the fun parts of the job (even for an introvert like me).

strange days

Yesterday I received two complimentary bee stings while trying to deliver a registered parcel to a guy that turned out not to be home.

Today a lovely woman chased me down in her car. It wasn’t me she was after, though. It was her husband’s doe hunting application which she had prematurely placed with the outgoing mail in her mailbox.

My left knee has now swollen by about the size of a softball and I can still smell the woman’s generous application of perfume.

And I thought this job would be boring.

vague destinational intimations

 

Is this location in my near future?

 

I don’t know yet but I hope so.

tomorrow

…I have to do two routes: 7 & 9.

…Tina has to do Route 5 (yes, route 5 on a Monday, which is usually my job) PLUS part of route 8.

…Ed has to do Route 4 plus the remainder of route 8.

Ed will be fine. Tina just learned R5 and will certainly need help. This means I’ll probably be doing some of R5 as well.

I should be feeling nervous and anxious about the day. Fellow sub Ann (who is enjoying the Outer Banks for the next week) says that she can’t sleep the night before she has to do R5. I know how she feels, or rather I knew that feeling. Now I don’t even mind R5 on a Monday all that much. The dread I used to feel is gone. I’m sure Tina is nervous about tomorrow (she said as much when I saw her yesterday), but not me.

One reason for this calm surrender is that I believe God has given me a giant helping of peace with this postal period of mine. For now, it appears this is where he has me. And if that’s the case, I’m content.

But here’s the crazy part. I’m actually kind of excited by the challenge tomorrow brings. None of you regular readers have ever delivered the mail and it’s hard to explain the level of complexity involved in the job. And before I did this work I thought being a mail carrier was probably one of the easier jobs in the American workforce. Hah! First you have to sort each piece of mail into the correct one of 250 or so slots, each one containing two adresses, in a mail case 5 shelves high. As I’ve said before on a Monday this can be a full time (that is 6-7 hour) job in itself. Then you must deliver the mail, which is sort of like driving (on the wrong side of the vehicle) while doing target practice; though you do get to stop at each target. In the snow or rain, it’s even more interesting. I’m not ready to call it fun yet, but the job has its moments. I’m sure a few of those moments will occur tomorrow.

And so without further ado, and a propos of nothing at all, here’s a few random pod tracks:

Coyote (Bobby McFerrin and Yo-Yo Ma)

Goodbye Stranger (Supertramp — the first band I ever saw in concert. Their concert is still up there as the best or second best I ever saw. Second only because 6th row seats for U2’s Zoo TV tour is hard to beat).

Take On Me (A-ha)

Mexican Radio (Wall of Vodoo)

Elevation (U2)

Our Story (The Judybats)

Viking (Los Lobos)… (now, here’s the thing about the iPod. “Shuffle songs” does not mean “random.” Not in the statistical sense at least. Three of these songs were on my last random jag. Not that I’m complaining ’cause this here tune absolutely smokes!)

a force of nature

Julie, that is.

It’s blogathon weekend and true to form, Julie is creating yet another tour de force (the first installment is here).

And in Midland, TX, my pal Jimmy Patterson is getting high. Well, in truth he’s already high. He was high when blogathon started. Go there and see what I mean.

I’m not going to post any more today so you can easily follow the following links to…

 Julie‘s place

and Jimmy‘s.

it flows downhill

You know what I mean.

Today I got reamed by one of the supervisors for misdelivering one box on a route I had never done before. It happened yesterday. I wish I could say the customer was mistaken, but they were right. I delivered their mail to the wrong box (a wrong box which had no number on it, not that this is an excuse).

Anyway, I got chewed out because the supervisor got chewed out.

This has done wonders for my motivation. I can’t wait to work the next seven straight days!*

 

 

*Doug leaves tomorrow on his falling-out-of-airplanes tour of the upper mountain west so I’ll be doing his route for the next week and a half. On Monday I get to do his route (R7) and R9 too. Yippee!

sick of dope-y cyclists?

Watch this instead.

Totally underrated, unlike certain pro cyclists.

i miss you mike

He would have been 65 today.

now i can play too!

randomly shuffling:

1. Lead Me To the Cross (Hillsong United)
2. Learning To Fly (Tom Petty)
3. Our Story (The Judybats)
4. Viking (Los Lobos*)
5. Elevation (U2)
6. Surrender (Lincoln Brewster)
7. Stars (Yo Yo Ma & Bobby McFerrin**)
8. Margo Known As Missy (The Judybats)
9. Goody Two Shoes (Adam Ant)
10. Touch (Delirious?)

Well, that was fun.

*If you thought Los Lobos couldn’t rock, you’d be wrong.

**Their one album together, Hush, is one of the best CD’s ever produced, IMHO. Simply amazing.

As you were.

the waiting is the hardest part

Still waiting to hear whether my leave request will be accepted.

If/when that happens, I’ll have some news.