could have been an over-reaction

 

The presses were supposed to start an hour earlier than normal, because of the weather… but were and did were two different things.  My number did come up at 1:30 though, an hour earlier than last week.    Two distributors load off of each inserter, and the other guy had 334 bundles, and two or three vans, and it wasn’t until 2 am that I got out of there with my 148 bundles.  I loaded them all myself, of course, whereas the other guys – well, there were five of them.

Heh.  I do the job of five people myself.

Well, not Really, but I was alone, and managed just fine, thank you.

The papers were in bundles of six this weekend, fat with ads from desperate retailers, and Heavy too.  Obviously the banders were out of adjustment; the bundles were a little loose as they came down the belt, but none broke up on me. TG, and I got all 148 bundles more or less neatly stacked in my stepvan.  I was some over-loaded; that poor beast was sagging in the back, and my headlights were pointed high.

It turned out that I got out of there right at bar closing time, and that is NOT my favorite time to be driving around… but, traffic was rather sparse, and the drunks stayed away from me for the most part.

I ran a quarter of my route before I met up with the other driver; she got 59 bundles, and the poor white stepvan rode a bit better.  I got rid of nine bundles right away at QFC market, and got my free coffee there.  (it’s free to me because by that time, the coffee’s lukewarm, and they’re gonna pour it out anyway, Still, free is free, and it’s ok with me)

I made a few more stops in my neighborhood, then drove over to the Reed College area and got rid of some more bundles here and there, then up to Powell Bvld. and hit the Safeway at 39th with 14 bundles, and getting out of there, my poor beast was a LOT lighter and the headlights were pointed in the right direction.  I ran the rest of my route, and had to meet up with the other driver; we each re-skin ten papers for our complete drops, and on her route in Milwaukie, the papers had virtually sold out.

Those Milwaukie people read their papers, unlike my SE Portland people – I had plenty of returns to share.  Well, really, I had half the returns I did last week – out of the 600 and some I dropped off, the final return count was just 27 this morning,

***

The weather people were about orgasuming on TV last night and yesterday and it sounded like were were going to get snow dumped on us.  The city went around with de-icer trucks and sprayed the bridges and the usual trouble spots, and the Transit authorities chained up ALL their buses, but…

It did not snow.  It didn’t get to freezing temps either.  In fact, there was no moisture falling out of the sky until an hour after I finished my routes and was home… and it wasn’t enough to spit at.  Looking out the window now, at noon, I see snow is falling, but it’s not sticking, yet, and it isn’t really fat, snowflake-wise either.

It can continue all it wants now: we are in the lead-up to bus driving tomorrow, and between you and me, I wouldn’t mind a few snow days, paid.  It’s in our contract – three snow days, paid, and we didn’t get any at all the last two school years.

It being the weekend, and there not being much money in my accounts, I haven’t yet bought any chains for my car.  K*, my former wife, sent me a Christmas gift, as usual, but instead of a Traveler’s Check for a hundred dollars, she sent me two of them and wished me well, seeing the family.  With gas prices lower than I saw them when I first got the van in 05, that $200 is my gas money and to spare.

Spare change, eh?  I wonder how much a photo printer would cost me?  My cheap HP printer previously printed photos well, but, using the 8.5 x 11 photo paper, it keeps telling me it has a paper jam and will not print any pictures for me.

()^^)*&(*^%*&^%*(&(*&^&^$^%$#*(&*(&

Well.

(lines and lines of choice swear words)

(some more special Navy curses)

(and more)

I’m putting the pics I want to print in a file and will burn a CD and see if that’ll let me take them somewhere and get them printed, and I wonder how much I’ll be robbed for that?

(and another line of choice words at anonmyous retailers)

<p style="text-align:center”>Well, I’ve eaten, and I have to drive to BiMart for more cat food and will get some of the sand I used to use – the "old" stuff doesn’t stick to Blacky Cat’s feet like this clumping stuff does, and I think it made him sick the other day, licking his feet, so it’s back to the less easy stuff to get out of his box.

I might get two bags of it – kitty litter is good for putting under your tires if you get stuck.  A week from today, I’ll be saying "Tomorrow!  I’m going to California!  Tomorrow!".  Yes, I am excited.

(but that (^(%% printer!)

Tomorrow, I’ll put K*’s money and my papers check in the bank, and I won’t have to wait till mid day on Tuesday to do it, becuase the after-school program I drove for is done until January 12th.

Yay!!!  Home in time to catch the news!  Home before 5:30!

And ya know, the way it looks, maybe I’ll be home all day tomorrow.

I wouldn’t mind.

*****