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!)