a wistful sort of torture

My humble apologies if you are tiring of the postality category. If so, please skip this.

The other Jim in the rural area, Jim Regular, the carrier on route 5, has a new sub.

I’m assigned to R5 tomorrow but Jim’s new sub, a woman named Doreen, is currently in training. Her training will be over sometime this week. Jim’s switching his weekly day off from Monday to Saturday and Doreen, who can only work on Saturday, will be starting as Jim’s sub next weekend.

This (combined with the winding down of summer vacation madness) means a couple of things for me.

1. Tomorrow may be the last time I carry R5 for a while. I should be happy. R5 is awful. Doing it is like being Westley in the scene from The Princess Bride where Prince Humperdink runs into the Pit of Despair and in a fit of jealous rage cranks the lever on “the machine” that sucks away years of his life while Count Rugen yells, “NOT TO FIFTY!!!” Okay, maybe not quite that bad. But I’ve spent lots of sweat, tears, and even blood taming this beast. I feel a little bereft.

2. I’m suddenly going from being scheduled for six day weeks, every week, to one work day per week. It won’t stay that way, of course. Somebody will get sick or take a sudden vacation, or retire. But for the first time in months, the line next to my name in the schedule is almost empty. A year ago I would be doing a happy dance. This year I’m sad. A summer’s worth of six-day-week paychecks has me quite spoiled.

OTOH all of this could, and probably will, change by the the in short order. My prediction (one which is shared by Doug, whose sub I am) is that Jim’s new sub will last one week following her training. And there’s always the chance that Bill (who was out for almost a month with a ‘broken arm’) will get back to his frequent calling-in-sick routine very soon.

What I’m trying to say is, I guess, that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

when the rain comes…

it’s rainin’ again, oh no it’s rainin’ again…

raindrops keep falling on my head…

singin’ in the rain, i’m singin’ in the rain…

i can’t stand the rain…

 

Of course it’s raining today. Our church picnic begins in 8 minutes.