Tuesday misc

Two more reasons to quit this paper job:

Next week, the minimum wage in Oregon goes up, and thus, the pay for this job is now just above minimum wage.  It hasn’t changed for three years now.  For a driving job, this is very poor.  Route driving is one of the most dangerous jobs in the USA, according to Microsoft, and minimum wage is an insult.  You cannot do more than survive, poorly, on minimum wage.

I am using old, poorly maintained equipment.  The white stepvan’s roll up rear door is non-functional now, so I have to use the older grey stepvan.  That one’s clearance lamps on the front roof do not work, it fills the box with toxic exhuast gases, and the right rear inner dual tire is flat.  Dangerous shit.

For these two reasons alone, I would quit this job.  I am risking my life and my health for peanuts.  Fuck that shit.

It rained like hell the whole route this morning.  The boss gave me a rainsuit for Christmas, and I have gotten a lot of use out of it thus far.  Rain down here means feet of snow in the mountains – those lost climbers are buried until the summer under tens of feet of snow by now.

The weather report just now says that today will be a perfect day to stay inside… or shop, lol.  I need to replace the alternator on my van, and gee, I don’t particularly want to get soaked.  (got a new rainsuit though…)

I was going to go to Shari’s restaurant’s xmas meal last night, even though the alternator barely works, but it was apparently the only restaurant for miles around open, and there was a line.  I didn’t wait.  I walked back to the van and drove home and microwaved some hotpockets.  No feast for me.

None of the grocery stores have been open since Sunday night, and my food stock is rather meager (yep.  Prior planning prevents piss-poor performance)  It’s a can of Progresso soup and some bread for me this morning.

Payday is later this afternoon – since yesterday was a bank holiday, no pay then, but I have bus pay to eat on… if the (*^&*( stores were open.  Later today, I will go get my papers check, and I am debating whether or not to say anything about the stepvans.  The boss knows they need attention, but he’s saving money by not fixing the damn things.  Maybe I’m too "nice".  I wonder if he’ll have problems replacing me – such a low pay and using substandard equipment- he’s fuckin’ lucky I have been poor – too poor to say much and poor enough to be grateful for the work. Personally, I doubt he’ll be able to replace me.  He was talking about selling the routes this year, and hinting that perhaps I’d like to buy them, but besides having no money, I don’t want the routes – the Oregonian hasn’t apparently changed it’s compensation to dealers in a dozen years, and from the looks of it, it would be more work than it’s worth.  I don’t want the routes.

I have a CDL, and am a school bus driver, at union scale with benefits.  I’m worth more than minimum fucking wage.  With the school bus driver shortage nation wide, I can have my pick of jobs whereever I’d like.  (I’m dead broke, so I will be staying here, alas, but when the option is real, who knows?)

My friend in Big Bear, CA tells me that they need school bus drivers there, and that she can’t find a competant mechanic to work on her Dodge Dart.  All the mechanics in her town are young enough to not know shit about cars if they can’t hook up an electronic gizmo to them.  I, on the other hand, used to be a competant mechanic, but the plethora of electronics in cars past 1980 or so have meant that my skills are not real useful without electronic testing gear, which is $$$ that I don’t have.  She joked (?) yesterday during my xmas phone call that she’ll put me on retainer if I moved down there and worked on her cars, neither of which are newer than 1982 – and her fav, the Dart, is a 1973.  (72 and older are better years, btw)

I’ve always had a thing for this friend – we went to high school together, and I have never really lost those feelings… I would consider moving if 1.  I had any money.  2.  Was really sure about it.  and 3. Didn’t mind living in California again.  And of course if I really thought that a good thing would come of it – you know, like romance and love and all that good shit.

Soups on, gotta go.

*****