Badge

I forgot my rural carrier badge this morning when I went rushing out the door. Unlike city carriers (they wear uniforms), the only thing a rural carrier has to prove they are a legitimate mail carrier is their badge. Also, you need your badge when you set up your scanner in the morning. The badge has a bar code the scanner reads and matches to a name in its memory. If you forget your badge, you have to try to remember what your employee ID number is and enter it manually into the scanner. It's a real pain. The scanner is important because you use that to enter all the delivery confirmations, insured mails and accountable mails. If you don't scan those, you get in big trouble with the Post Office. Supposedly, they lose money if you don't do those scans.

After I turned left onto Russett Green Road, I realized something was missing. I looked at my chest and realized my Post Office pens and badge weren't there. I let out a curse and looked for a place where I could do a u-turn. I drove back to my apartment, picked up my badge and pens and headed to the Post Office AGAIN. I counted my blessings I didn't get all the way to the Post Office before realizing that I'd forgotten my badge. Thankfully, this wasn't a omen of things to come as mail was light and it ended up being an easy day. Cheers all!

Wasps

Today, I ran into another hazard that a mail carrier has to deal with: wasps. Wasps like to build their nests in dark places. The outgoing mail box on various multi-mailboxes apparently suits them just fine. I opened the outgoing box as usual on one multi-mailbox as this is where the latch is so you can open the doors to the box. I noticed one wasp fly out after I opened the mailbox. I put the mail in the various boxes, dropped the latch to close the doors and a wasp tried to come shooting out. I promptly closed the door to the outgoing mail slot. The wasp climbed out and flew around a little before returning to the mail box. To my great annoyance, the latch didn't lock. I was faced with a dilemma. There were wasps in the outgoing mailbox and if I opened the door, they would certainly fly out again. However, I couldn't leave the mailbox unsecured. I got the nerve up, opened the outgoing mailbox door and dropped the latch. This time, a wasp came flying right at me. I have rarely moved so fast as I did then. I managed to avoid the wasp. However, the mailbox wasn't locked. So, I had to wait for the wasp to go back in so I could close the door and very quickly lock the box. Once I locked the box, I made haste to my mail truck and carried on. I plan to tell who delivers rural route 11 tomorrrow that there is a wasp nest inside that particular box. Hopefully, the Post Office can send someone out to get rid of those wasps. I'm counting my blessings that I won't be doing rural route 11 tomorrow.

Heat

One of the hardest things that a mail carrier has to deal with is the weather. It isn't a cliche when the mail service says that neither rain nor sleet nor cold will stop the mail from getting through. The Postal Service means it. Yesterday, I got to deal with another weather element: Heat. The temperature was in the high 90's and it may have hit 100. You walked out of the Post Office and you could feel the heat at once. You promptly started sweating. You work as quickly as you can so you can get back to the Post Office and out of the heat. Also, you take plenty of fluids with you. It's easy to get dehydrated while you're delivering the mail. You're out in the heat for a long time. Yesterday, I was out in it for over 3 and 1/2 hours. The postal trucks have fans in them but these do little good in the heat. All they end up doing is blowing hot air into your face which may make the situation worse.

The forecast for the neat 5 days predicts temperatures in the 90's. It promises to be a hard week. Luckily, I'm scheduled to do Express Mail for 3 days. I'm hoping the schedule doesn't change. With Express Mails, you're outside a max of 90 minutes. That's one of the nice things about Express Mails. The bad thing about them is you are very pressed for time. The Post Office means it when they promise to deliver your package by Noon the next day. They won't accept any excuses from the carrier. We'll see how it goes.

Dogs

Since I was a kid, I've liked dogs. However, I'm learning to be a lot more careful around them as a mail carrier. Dogs are one of the major hazards of being a mail carrier. At my initial orientation, I remember the mail carrier who briefed us telling us of the two times he was bitten. I was less than thrilled at the news of this danger. I don't like the thought of getting bitten. I find it very annoying when owners assume their precious pooches won't bite. The way some of the dogs have charged at me, I wouldn't bet on that being true. One carrier I know at the Laurel Post Office broke his right shoulder because of a dog. What happened was a German Sheperd sized dog snuck up on him and the next thing he knew there was this 100 pound dog with snarling teeth nearly on him. The carrier tried to get away from the dog but unfortunately he tripped on a tree root which sent him flying into a tree. The impact broke his right shoulder. The shoulder eventually healed but, he still has a good size knot in his shoulder from the break.

The main defense we have against dogs is dog spray. As far as I know, it's a form of mace for dogs. I haven't gotten to try it out yet so I don't know how well it works. I make sure I carry it with me on city routes as there is a higher risk of dog attack on those routes. On a rural route, I can retreat to the safety of my truck. When your on foot, there aren't any places of safety. To my annoyance, the one time I really needed the dog spray, I didn't have it. I was helping a city carrier on a route that was mounted i.e. one you deliver from your truck. In order to deliver mail on one part of it, I had to get out of the truck. When I approached one of the mailboxes, a small black dog came charging out at me barking its head off. Twice, it charged me. Luckily, I was able to keep enough distance between us. I'd have sprayed the dog with dog spray but, I'd left the dog spray at the Post Office. I plan to keep the dog spray with me just in case.