Getting My Hands Dirty!

Mail is dirty! Lol! It's pretty much apparent since the day I started, but I thought I would give all you readers a look see at exactly how dirty your hands get over the course of filling close to 800 mail boxes.

Today I had newspapers.  They make things a lot worse when it comes to dirty hands.  The ink on them gets everywhere!  Lucky for me, it was a pretty easy Tuesday.  Normally Mondays and Tuesdays are pretty bad when it comes to the amount of mail we have to deliver.  I'm helping out on another route while the regular is on vacation (in Hawaii no less!) Otherwise I would only really be working on Saturdays.  Today was kinda weird.  I had only 3 trays of DPS (that's your letters and such), which I smashed down to 2. ;)  I don't really smash them. Anyway, on a heavy day it can have 6 or more trays.  Lucky for me, this route I'm helping with has a lot of BYU students in it, so you don't get a lot of magazines and that sort of stuff. 

I can tell you some of the interesting things that happen while delivering the mail. 

-First off, everyone waves... Everyone!  Ha ha!  Makes me feel like I live in a small town and know everybody.
-Two weeks ago I had a little boy hit my windshield with a pretty good sized rock.  It cause a pretty big spider crack that was at least 8 inches across.  I have to call my manager when something like this happens.  If I don't, I could get blamed for it instead of that kids family paying for what he did.  That poor little kid wont come out anymore when I the postal truck drives by.  Kinda sad.  It wasn't 2 or 3 days before that, that he was outside explaining to me how you kill wasps with the hose. That was a pretty funny story, and trust me, he's a pro at it.  I hope he isn't scared of the mail carrier forever. :( 
-There is this cute little old man who waits everyday for his mail and reminds me that he has lived there for over 25 years.  I, myself, don't remind him that he's told me before. Lol!  He's fun to talk to.
-I work with a lot of fun people.  Everyone is pretty chill.  I think you would have to be, at least somewhat, or you would literally go postal.  No kidding!  Some are a little too chill for my tastes though.  I like to go there and get done and go home.  I get paid the evaluated rate (my regular route is 9 hours) even if I get done in 6!  So all the more reason to bust my tail and get done.

 Another dirty hand photo

-One day I was filling a box and this little old man came out and sat on one of those green electrical boxes.  I asked him how he was doing.  He said he would rather be dead.... Yeah, awkward for a moment.  Then he explained that he had 2 wives waiting for him and he thought it was him turn. Lol!  Then he tells me that he broke his back some years ago and now when he works at the temple he wears one of those turtle shells.  He told all the people at the temple that it was the armor of God. Ha ha!  He told it to me in a joke form but I wouldn't do it justice, trying to repeat it.
-Last story for this post.  Today I was ambushed by two Jedi.  (2 boys with retractable light sabers and Jedi cloaks.)  I was taking a package to a door and they jumped out from behind my truck when I turned around to walk back to it. Lucky for me, they deemed me worthy of there Jedi presence and didn't slay me and even gave me a penny for my trouble.  LOL!  It was so funny!  I LOVE what little kids imaginations come up with.

Ah, I like my job.  At first I didn't ever think I could, but it's so fun to talk to people and have something to accomplish.  This job is not easy at all, but it's so gratifying when you fill that last box.  You look back and the truck, that was once chuck full of mail, is now empty.  Nothing carries over to the next day.  It's literally a day by day thing.  You will never worry about the exact same thing day after day.

Anyway, there is my "job update"  Hopefully it wasn't too boring for ya.
 
If you made it this far!  Lol!