Leave

Yesterday, I submitted my leave form at the post office where I work. Leave at the post office is kind of an oxymoron in that I don't actually EARN leave there. I can't as I don't work an assigned route all the time or, I'm not a FULL time regular carrier. In actuality, I inform the post office that I won't be available to work for a certain period of time. During that time, since I won't work, I won't earn ANY money or other benefits. It's the biggest drawback for me taking time off. Still, I love going on my trips and the lost income is worth getting to see the awesome things I get to see. Also, the trips help me deal with the stress at the post office. During the trips, I get TOTALLY away from the crap at work. It rejuvenates me to where when I return, I'm ready to deal with the postal bs again. If it weren't for me buying my TMAX, I'd be going on some kind of tour either this month or next. As long as I can afford it, I plan to do 2 major trips next year. I can't wait to go on those trips. It's a lot of fun planning them and reading up on where I'll be going. Now that my leave form is submitted, that's one more thing done on my travel checklist. The time can't fly fast enough till I get to take LEAVE and go on my future trip to Ireland.

Peru

As any reader of my blog knows, I love to travel. I'm impatiently counting the days till I do a 2 week tour of Ireland with Globus. Also, I'm beginning to plan the tour that will follow that. That tour will be to Peru to see the wonders of the Incas. The tour includes a visit to the lost city of Machu Picchu. To me, it would be something to see a lost city. Plus, I've never been to South America. The closest I've been is Aruba and Curacao during my only cruise to the Caribbean. The only down side I can see to the trip is the long travel time. I checked and even with the fastest connections, it's going to take over 14 hours to get to Lima, Peru from Baltimore Washington International Airport. Because of that, I'm going to plan on spending an extra day in Peru to recover from travel fatique. I don't like starting any tour tired. I learned the hard way when I did Globus's Scandanavian tour that it can be worth having an extra day to rest when I arrive. I didn't do that during the Scandanavian tour and, I was repeatedly falling asleep during the first group meeting. I was seriously wiped. So, I'll give myself an extra day in Lima to rest and see some of the city on my own. Then, when the tour kicks off, I'll be bright eyed and ready to see new wonders and share them with the awesome people in our group. It should be a blast. Cheers all!

My First Bike Road Trip

This past Wednesday and Thursday, I did my first bike road trip. I've been wanting to show my friend Harvey my TMAX. Finally, after checking my work schedule at the post office where I work, I decided to ride down to Richmond to show him the bike. The ride would be the longest one I've done so far. I would ride for 135 miles. Also, it would be more challenging than I expected. Riding down to Richmond, I encountered rain 40 miles outside the city. The rain wouldn't let up till later that night. The second problem I encountered was it getting dark. That can create problems if I accidentally fog up the face shield on my helmet. At times, I've had it where I couldn't see outside my helmet.

Once I arrived in Richmond, I checked in with my friend Harvey. I briefly showed him the bike and then, I followed him to the hotel where I was staying. It was a Holiday Inn close to some Kroger Convention Center I think. The hotel was very nice and, I would enjoy my stay there.

Once I changed out of my riding gear, Harvey and I drove to an Outback Steakhouse restaurant he's eaten at a number of times. This would be my first time to eat at one of those. I'd heard good things about the restaurant chain and, it would live up to what I'd heard. Their bloomin onion was outstanding and, the porterhouse steak I ordered was excellent. Also, I got to try out a James Boag lager which is an Australian brand. It turned out to be a good lager and, I particularly enjoyed getting to have some real Aussie beer.

The next morning, Harvey and I had breakfast at the hotel's breakfast buffet. The buffet reminded me of previous buffets on Globus tours I've done. I can't wait to go on the Ireland tour I've signed up for. The buffet was good and, I was able to get very filled up.

After finishing breakfast, I gathered my stuff, checked out of my hotel room and loaded it into my bike. Then, I thanked Harvey for a nice time and told him I'd try to make it back to Richmond in a couple months. It's always a pleasure seeing him. After that, I got on my bike and started it up. I waved good bye and drove off to the nearest gas station where I tanked up the gas tank. After that, I hit the road and began my trip back.

The trip back ended up being pretty scary thanks to wind turbulence. At one point, my bike was shaking slightly sideways while I was going 70 mph plus. I found out that if I decreased my speed, it would reduce the turbulence. However, it made the ride back longer time wise. I wanted stop and hope the winds might die down but, the weather forecast was predicting things would get worse. It was supposed to start raining again around 3 p.m. I wanted to be home before that started. I ended up gritting my teeth and calming my nerves so I could continue the ride. After 2 hours 20 minutes, I made it home. I've rarely been so glad to see my apartment.

I thought about what I might be able to do differently on my next road trip. There were 2 things that came to mind. First, I could get a touring windshield for my bike. The windshield will supposedly reduce wind turbulence and noise. Second, I could buy some wind deflectors which should reduce wind turbulence around my legs and the middle section of the bike. Because of the Ireland tour and taxes, these 2 ideas will have to wait for 3 or 4 months. Once I get those 2 items, I hope to do another road trip to Richmond. It would probably be sometime in the summer. Hopefully, the nicer weather will make for a more enjoyable ride as well. We'll see. Cheers all!

Review on Bill Cosby CD

Last week, I listened to Bill Cosby's "When I Was Growing Up" CD. This is a review on it.

Bill Cosby remains one of my favorite comedians. His material doesn't seem to age. Plus, it's nice in that it doesn't contain any profanity or other nasty stuff. It's simply very funny and enjoyable to listen to. His CD "When I Was Growing Up" has a number of excellent pieces in it. In one of them, he tells of his attempts to hypnotize his brother Harold. During one such attempt, he sends his hypnotized brother in to smack his Dad. However, the scheme falls apart when Harold informs his father that Cos hypnotized him. Another hilarious one is where Cos tells of when he found a frog at camp. He puts the frog in his pocket. The frog makes normal frog sounds from his pocket. Cos gets the idea there is money to made here. He bets a friend 50 cents that he can make his left leg (the one with the pocket holding the frog) burp. He claims to made over $500 off kids at camp doing this. Cos later uses the frog in a prank on his Dad. While his Dad isn't looking, he slips the frog into his Dad's glass of milk. When his Dad reaches for the glass, the frog comes out of the glass surprising his Dad. His Dad ends up on the floor with the frog sitting on his forehead.

The CD has a total of 8 skits. It was recorded live at the Westbury Music Fair theater in October 1970. All the skits feature stories about Cosby's childhood vice other CDs which tells of his various misadventures as an adult and parent. The CD was Cosby's biggest hit during the 70's and, it's obvious why as it is extremely funny and poignant. Any listener will be taken back to their own childhood when things were a lot more fun and innocent. My only complaint with this CD is its length. It runs approximately 35 minutes. I big time wanted more stuff on this CD. 35 minutes isn't nearly enough of this great comedian and man. If you want to listen to something that will make you laugh and never grow old, you should buy Cosby's "When I Was A Kid." It is an excellent CD.

Gloves

I seem to be collecting gloves lately. I've bought 3 different pairs for riding my bike and, I bought another pair L.L. Bean gloves for the cold weather. Today, I ordered my 4th pair for riding when I paid for some battery powered heated Harley Davidson gloves. I decided to try those after some cheapo batter powered gloves I bought on Ebay turned out to be serious stinkers. They put out virtually no heat at all. The Harley Davidson gloves should do a lot better. If they don't, I'm definitely returning them as they cost $170 just for the gloves. They require $40 rechargable batteries for each of the gloves. With tax, the price tag came to $262! Ouch!

While my L.L. Bean gloves have done a great job of keeping my hands warm, they have 1 serious flaw - they're bulky. Because of that, I want to buy some Underarmour Men's Jonesy gloves. To my frustration, they're are currently unavailable. They seem to be selling as fast as they get them in the stores. I plan to call the Annapolis and Bethesda stores again to see if either have any extra large Jonesy gloves in stock. We'll see. Hopefully, that'll be my last addition to my glove collection. Cheers all!

Harris Teeter

I wanted to post something other than a post on the post office. Plus, I needed some place to go riding to on my bike. The Harris Teeter store I checked out is located at 8184 Westside Blvd in Fulton, Maryland by a development called Maple Lawn. The store in fairly new. According to the company website, the store was opened October 6, 2009. I'd passed by it a couple times on rides through Fulton. I'd never been to a Harris Teeter store so I was curious to see what it was like.

The store was of good store. According to the company store fact page, it has over 49,000 square feet. I know they had a number of aisles as well as good size produce department, deli counter, sushi counter and seafood counter. The store seemed a bit up scale in that it had cheeses from all over the world and, they have a wine consultant. As far as cleanliness, I found the store to be very clean and well organized. Prices wise, I can't say how they stack up compared to local Weis, Giant and Safeway supermarkets. I don't shop enough to be knowledgeable about food prices. One handy feature I found about the store is that it is open 24 hours a day. Also, for those who don't have time to shop, you can order your groceries from them on-line. They have your order ready for you when you stop in. I don't know if they offer delivery as well. The chain has a program called the Very Important Customer (VIC) card which gives special discounts on certain items and, it has an email letter offering further specials to VIC card members. On my trip to the Fulton store, I was able to save over $3 using the VIC card. That may not seem like much but, I only spent $23 there. I didn't need tons of groceries on this trip plus, I don't have tons of storage space on my TMAX.

Overall, I found the store to be very nice. I'd be very willing to shop there again. The people that work there were very helpful and considerate. Parking was adequate and the location is easy to get to. It's located not far from the Maryland 216 and 29 intersection. If you live the Fulton area, they're worth checking out. For those who live Columbia, Maryland, there is a store located in Kings Contrivance. Cheers all!

Bodies

Things remain really rough at the post office where I work. We are in a serious manning crunch. We need some new subs desperately. My boss had promised me today off to recoup. Regretfully, he couldn't keep his word because we had a second regular carrier call out i.e. let him know they couldn't work today. We were already down 1 route because of the regular who sprained their collarbone. Luckily, we had a sub from another post office who was able to cover that route. I ended up casing the 2nd route's mail. I don't know the route's mail case well at all and was horribly slow in casing the route's mail. At times, it was very frustrating. I couldn't find addresses I knew were on the route case SOMEWHERE. Plus, I'd already endured 3 days on another route that I'm not very good at and got kicked at. Monday, I was out till 8:40 p.m. delivering mail. Worse still, tomorrow, I get to deliver on a route I've NEVER cased and only delivered to in various pieces. Tomorrow will not be a good day.

To add insult to injury, we have another sub who it seems has an aversion to working in the cold and so, the sub hasn't worked for over 3 weeks now. I wonder what the heck this sub is going to do when they get their own mail route. Are they going to try to take leave for a month or more during the winter? It's really absurd. The kicker is we can't get rid of this sub. So, we have the sub on the books even though they're not working and who knows when they will finally return to work. Last week, this sub called in and asked what routes would need help. My boss foolishly told the sub and, the sub said they didn't care to work those routes. Since when does an employee get to pick and choose what work they do? It's really unbelievable and ties in with my first paragraph because if, we could get more bodies i.e. substitutes, this sub couldn't get away with this. My boss could let her sit at home till the cows came home. However, with us hurting so bad manning wise, this sub can play this game.

For me, I'm getting seriously fed up with the situation. I don't mind taking an occasional bump i.e. part of a route in addition to the route I'm assigned to BUT, I'm not prepared to do it regularly. Also, I don't think it's fair for me to be the ONLY sub at our post office to be on call i.e. have to come in at short notice. We've got to get more bodies i.e. subs. If we don't, down the line, I'll have to say enough. My job at the post office isn't critical. I can survive on my military retirement and the interest from the annuity my beloved step-mother left me. We'll see what happens. Stay tuned.

Contract

A friend at work recommended I read the contract that applies to rural mail carriers. I found out where it was located on the web and, I got a shock. The contract is 88 pages long and includes 14 memorandums of understanding. My eyes got glazed by some of the terminology in the contract. It can be very wordy at times. I learned some new things like the progressive levels of discipline in the Postal Service. However, the contract caused me come up with a number of questions like how many letters of warning do you receive before you get a 7 day suspension. Also, I wanted to find out the rules concerning calling out from work. I'd heard that you could call out for up to 3 days before having to provide documentation as to why you couldn't work. However, I found out from my shop steward that the supervisor MAY request documentation for 3 days or less. If you don't provide the documentation, your supervisor can charge you with absent without leave on your attendence record. Where is the section about absent without leave? Also, where does it state how many hours a substitute carrier can be made to work or that they must stand by their phone on days they're not scheduled to work in case they're needed on short notice. I suspect I'll have to ask my steward about all those. I'm learning the hard way about some of those issues. I'm also learning don't do your supervisor any favors. They won't help you. When push comes to shove, all your supervisor is going to care about getting their mail delivered. If you get messed over in the process, too bad. The more I work at the post office, the more I miss the Air Force. Believe me, it's a lot easier in the Air Force. You don't have the amount of bs that I've seen in the Postal Service. With all the bs, I've got to come up with an alternative plan to working at the post office. So far, I've failed come up with one but, I am really getting fed up with the place. Stay tuned for the next chapter in this messed up soap opera. Cheers all!

Chardonnay

Not wanting to post constant depressing post office tales, I thought I'd tell of my latest funny misadventure.

I tried to think of something special to do at midnight on New Year's. Finally, I decided to drink 1 of the bottles of wine I'd bought in France during the Globus La France tour I did in September 2008. These were the bottles that I discovered to my dismay I couldn't carry on board my flight back to the states and consequently had to buy another travel bag so I could pack them in my suitcase. I decided to drink the 2003 Chardonnay. I put the bottle in my fridge to properly chill.

I had a time uncorking the bottle. The reason for that is because the cork had dried out because I'd let the bottle sit upright so the wine wasn't touching it and keeping it somewhat moist. Finally, I managed to get the cork out and poured some of the wine into a wine glass I'd bought years ago and rarely ever used. I had to dust off the box when I pulled it off the shelf I'd stored it on. The wine to my taste was very good though I'm definitely not any kind of expert on wine. That was when I did something that turned out rather embarrassing. I proceeded to drink the wine like it was water. I drank the entire bottle (standard 750ml bottle) in about 25 minutes or less. Wine is not like water as this wine was 12.5 percent alcohol. Also, I apparently didn't have much in my stomach so there wasn't much to slow down my body ingesting the alcohol. In less than an hour, to my surprise, I was sloshed. I had to put my hand against the wall when I tried to walk and, I made a LOT of corrections in my typing as I tried to post things on the Internet. When I laid down to go to sleep, I was out like a light and slept like a rock.

It was kind of fun getting toasted as I haven't drank anything alcoholic in months (I think). The wine brought back very pleasant memories of the trip to France. It was a great trip. As I've mentioned before, I can't wait to go on another one. God willing, that will be in approximately 5 months. It seems like ages away. I may have an interesting alcohol adventure then as one of the optional tours is to a Guiness warehouse. I've tried Guiness. It tasted very yeasty. However, I've heard people swear fresh Guiness was the stuff. We'll see. Hopefully, I'll get to try some while I'm there (fingers crossed). Cheers all!

Survived

I managed to survive 4 days of doing a full route AND delivering an additional half route. However, the work took it toll. I'm seriously wiped. Worse still, I don't believe the post office where I work is out of the woods yet. My boss apparently thinks the regular who sprained their collarbone falling on ice is going to be 100% next week. I don't think he will be. If that's the case, we'll have to split his route up delivery wise. That will lead to more annoying shenanigans like we had earlier this week. Those are getting really old.

More incredibly, a sub who may have scammed her way out of way for the Christmas holiday had the cheek to call in and dictate what routes the sub would work. The alternative is the sub won't work any and, we'll be royally screwed. This is totally ridiculous. Since when can a substitute carrier decide what routes they're going to work? The kicker is this sub will get away with this. As I've previously reported, it seems next to impossible to be fired at the Postal Service. Though, I'm getting to the point where I may test that maxim myself. Want to bet I won't get the same slack the others have?

So, the year 2010 isn't starting out well for me. God only knows what drama I'm going to have to deal with this year. It shouldn't be this ridiculous. The only alternative I see is resigning from the Postal Service. However, if I do that, what do I do job wise? That has been the major problem I've faced the 3 and a half years I've stuck it out there. God still hasn't shown me a decent alternative. It's very frustrating. Stay tuned for more updates in this absurd saga.