Sunday misc

‘K, it pays better to do the Sunday’s than it does the dailies.  Not too big a surprise, since the Sundays are $1.50 and the dailies only 50 cents, but I did deliver more than twice as many dailes and drove almost twice as far.  This weekend, I spent just 8 hours on the papers, my door to my door, and the rate is thus $13.75 an hour, whereas the dailies were getting me about $8 an hour.

I’ve seen the boss’s note looking for a driver for the dailies on some of my stops – the offer is $1400 a month for using one’s own van, so part of that is expense money, but still, that’s significantly more than I was getting.  Being a conscientious, dedicated employee is worth so little I guess.  Or, maybe I should have "demanded" more money.

The van I was using for the deliveries was gotten out of a tow yard for just $337.50, and it is 17 years old now.  I put just over 25,000 miles on it for the papers, and spent every spare dime I had on it and borrowed more, so basically, I made nothing last year doing the papers, after paying rent, utilities, and van repairs.  Good thing I’m pretty healthy – I didn’t need to go further in debt for health reasons.

Now, of course, with the bus job, I have Health, Vision, and Dental insurance.  Since I’m a "Part-Time" contract worker, I do have to pay a fairly large percentage of the cost of that insurance, so I’m not getting rich.  In fact, it is still paycheck to paycheck.  I don’t mind, most of the time, but there is little to no savings yet – last month’s van repairs used up any surplus cash and then some so it’s a good thing I kept the Sunday deliveries, which pay every week.  I live in public housing and earn less than half of Oregon’s median income.  It’s kind of a drag that life costs so much. And more of a drag that I can’t be a "good American" and buy stuff.  (heh.  There’s not all that much that I "need", but it would be nice to have some kind of rainy day fund)

It is really nice to not have to work every night, then every day too.  If I could’ve kept it up, I might have, since it have would doubled my income (still below median income though) but it was a little much for me to survive on 5 or fewer hours of sleep a day.  Now, I can get full nights of sleep during the week, and that is worth not working so much.  During the summer break, I’ll still get paid for the bus drivng I’ve done – they don’t pay the full amount of hours I have worked so that some is kept back to pay me during the summer break.

I talked to K* last night (she called after I emailed her anniversary greetings) and she said that the way things are going for the boss, that maybe I could pick up some work with him in the summer.  I might do that… or maybe find a "real job" that doesn’t leave me with a tax liability.  Again.

It’s been an interesting weekend.  I haven’t done this route’s Sunday papers for months now, and some of the shop keepers and clearks were glad to see me again.  Apparently I’m more personable than the boss is – he just goes in and out with the papers, as fast as possible, whereas I take the time to actually have conversations.  My favorite Plaid Pantry (convenience store) clerk was working tonight, and I was well ahead of time (got my papers fairly early tonight) so I had time to stand around and talk to her.  That was pretty much the extent of my social life before I dropped the dailies, but now it’s like icing, ‘cuz I have some of that with my fellow bus drivers now too.

It rained a bit this morning and a lot yesterday, and it looks to rain until roughly July.  Next week, a surge of Arctic air will decend upon us and they are talking about snow on the valley floor by Wednesday, maybe.  There are a couple of snow days built into my contract, so if schools are closed because of snow, I’ll still get paid.  (of course, then I’d have to work a few days past the school year, but that’s ok)  I’ve been getting a lot of use out of the only real Christmas gift I got this year.  The boss gave me a rain suit and I’ve been using it because it’s so wet out.  K* sent me some money for xmas too, but the van repairs last moth meant that the extra money went for rent or the phone and not for "me".

The van is doing ok, just going back and forth to the bus barn, and I have put less than 3/4’s of the miles on it in the last month than I would have using it for the papers.  I have to keep an eye on the tranny fluid though – it has leaks and automatic transmissions don’t work right without the right amount of fluid in them.  Ever since I got it flushed and filled at JiffyLube, it has been leaking – the flush must have broken up some of the leaks that were pugged with old fluid.  I dumped a whole quart of sealer into it, and it may be working – I have to top ot off less, but that could be because I’m not driving it as much as I used to too.  I think it will last a lot longer just commuting than it would if I was still doing deliveries with it.  I am certainly spending less on gas than I used to!

An interesting thing: The last two entries were Favs Only entries, but the Sitemeter reports that each got more hits on them than I have Favs.  I’m wondering if OD’S Favs Only entries are easily hacked or what.  I’m avaging over 100 hits on my entries, but getting only a dozen or fewer notes – many readers are thus anonymous.  Hmmm.

Well, it’s just after 6 am, and despite the free coffee that a few of my stops offer, my eyes are closing – must be time to go lie down.

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