The new route and its problems

I started the new route all by my lonesome this past Saturday. So far it’s been running like a nightmare, but that’s only because I’m not used to it yet.

Saturday’s route should take about 7-8 hours. I took 12 ½; I arrived home at 0230 Sunday morning after starting at 1330 on Saturday afternoon. Needless to say, I had a ginormous headache, and an attitude to match.

On Monday through Friday, the route should take about 4 hours. I’ve been averaging 9. 10 on Monday and Tuesday, and I managed to get it down to 8 today. This means it’s going better. The amount of daily calls for missed deliveries keep going down as well.

By following the list I was given, I do a lot of repeat driving on certain roads. I’m now starting to figure out ways to cut this down. This is also good, as it could mean drastically reduced drive time for me.

I know; it’s been a week or so since I’ve done an entry, and this is what you get? Sorry, but it’s all that’s on my mind right now.

Catch ya later.

Winterfest II!

Good morning. It’s been a while, hasn’t it?

I’m supposed to be delivering papers right now. Well, at the time of this writing, 0232. I should have been out on the road for the past 90 minutes or so. But, guess what?

It’s a rerun of last April. It’s been snowing since I went to bed lat night around 1900 or so. At least that was the first I had noticed it.

We’ve been under a winter storm watch from last night until sometime on Saturday. Which is just effing wonderful, because Saturday is my first day alone on my new route. As it stands, I still attempted to get ready for work when I got up around 2400. I went to get the car out of the garage, thinking I should be able to move, with front-wheel drive and all, but I got 3 feet out of the garage and got stuck immediately. What’s worse is that the car managed to slide sideways a couple of feet, so now I can’t even put it back in the damn garage. So it sits in my driveway, getting buried by the ever continuing snowing and blowing and drifting.

I needed to call the substitute supervisor at work to let him know what was going on. I haven’t been carrying my cell phone with me lately, because I haven’t bothered to get minutes for it, and I don’t have this guy’s cell number, which is the only way to reach him at the Dispatch. All of the Dispatch numbers go to various voicemails and whatnot.

I called the regular supervisor, because I figured he was subbing on another vacant route this week, and I thought I could get the sub’s cell number from him. Never got in touch with him. Maybe he’s actually on vacation this week. Oops.

I tried calling the previous driver of my new route; today is his last day. I haven’t got his cell number either, so I looked him up in the phone book. His number has been disconnected.

Finally, I called the supervisor supervisor. Contact! He knew what was up, and told me a lot of drivers were waiting until daylight to start their routes. I told him that’s probably what I was going to do. He said if he got in touch with the former driver of my route, he’d tell him to call me.

The guy called about 20 minutes later. He was at the Dispatch, and had our papers, but he had heard that up on Highway 371, which is where the route starts, police and plows were turning people away and not letting them go through. So, I’m basically going to have to sit here at home and wait until the park gets plowed and I can get out, and then I’ll call him on his cell, which he gave me the number for.

Now I sit and wait. I threw on a pot of coffee, but I’m thinking I should maybe try to sleep for a couple of hours first. I don’t know what to do, and the more time that passes, the less I care about any of it. Maybe I’ll write a piece next week letting you know what ultimately happened.

Enjoy your snowy Minnesota springtime weekend.

Trading my route for a different one

Today, as you all very well know, is All Fool’s Day, aka April Fool’s Day. I posted the following entry yesterday on March 31 so nobody would catch on right away that it was a joke. I wrote the entry, then I went to a translator website where I translated it into Japanese, and then back again. Yesterday’s entry was the result. Today’s entry is posted as it SHOULD read. Compare and contrast the two, and see if you can do it without getting a headache.


It’s been a while since I’ve done an entry, so I thought I’d catch you all up on some minor stuff.

I’ll be taking a different paper route sometime between now and April 11th. The route I have doesn’t pay enough, and the new route pays almost double what I get now. So, I’ll be getting double not enough. Wait, what??

I had to ride along on the new route this past Saturday to learn whether or not I really want to take it, because Saturday is the roughest day for it. It was, too. I am going to take it, but weekends are going to absolutely suck for me until I can find a used minivan or something to buy for Saturdays. The paper is in bundles of 10 on that day, and I get 61 bundles. I can fit 30 into Victor. Not to mention that there are some 400 free Shoppers to deliver at the same time. I’m going to have to come in on Sundays to deliver the Shoppers.

The guy who currently has the route is a nice enough person, but good God, he would not shut up for two seconds. He thought he was a comedian, so he was constantly making jokes about the route, which weren’t very funny, but he laughed anyway. I also got to hear his life story, at least twice, because he wasn’t sure I heard him the first time.

Oh well. I’ll be taking the route anyway. I need the bigger paycheck. What’s going to suck is having to come in on Sundays for the Shoppers. I’ll be working 7 days a week until I can get a different vehicle for the route. I must do what I must do, I guess. It won’t be too horrible.

Nothing else is going on right now. Typical. I’m still searching for a better job than delivering papers, but as always, there’s nothing out there. So, I press onward in my quest. Something will turn up one of these days. I know it will.

Have a good day.