New Year's Eve 2006

It will truly be the last a call at a long time tradition, the New Year's party at Scott's. The tribe is scattering to the four corners, well at least north and south, so I feel that this will be the last hurrah. Drinks will be drunk, trivia games (which I will dominate) will be played, and the hot tub will be cranked up. The ball will drop, kisses will be kissed, we will pass out on the floor. Then in the morning, with heads larger than when we arrived, will will head back to our lives. Been there, done that, got the T-shirt. anyway..............


Happy New Year!!!!

Peace!!!!

No Hockey 2 nite

It's kinda of a weird night. With three teams (Devils, Icelanders and ugh rangers) in our area we are usually assured of at least one game on the tube. But not tonight. Oh well. The Devils get back into action tomorrow vs. the Caps and the great Oveckin. I will however be at my favorite brew pub quaffing some fresh pilsner with my niece and nephew......oh well that's why TiVO was invented.......

Back to the old grind

Work has returned to a somewhat normal level. Actually we were light today, however the tax season is just around the corner. So, while I surprised everyone at home by walking in the house at 3:45, it is only a matter of time until the overtime kicks up again...........

Christmas Eve 2006

It was very nice having not to go to work today. I did some chores then I got the new (used) bicycle out for its maiden voyage. I need to practice clipping in and out of my pedals before I go for a real ride. I rode around my street and I fell three times after coming to a stop because I was not used to clipping out. Left leg a little bruised, right leg caught the chain ring and got tore up a bit, ego very bruised. I took Old Yellow, the old bike out and took a quick ride down to the beach and back. I will practice my clipping in the basement for a while before I go out in public again with the new bike. Oh well, it's like anything else, the more you do it the better you get.....

We went to my wife's sister's house and had a great meal and some great times with the family. We will go to the other sister's house for Christmas tomorrow. It's all good.......


Merry Christmas!

Mission Accomplished!

Unlike our president, I can say mission accomplished and mean it! Today was the last day of delivery before Christmas.The day started off rainy but things cleared up and the temperature was near 60 degrees. I had a good day and was done by 4:00pm, the earliest I've been all month. It will be nice having Christmas Eve off, I don't have to rush around after work and go out all tired. Anyway, two days of bliss will now ensue........

Almost there....................

Well, just two days of delivery left and then I can sleep for a week (HAH!). I'm so tired right now I can't fall asleep. Been hauling lots of parcel post and letters. Funny thing happened at work. Monday the 25th is my day off, so being that it is the holiday my day off is bumped back to Saturday. Thing is, I wanted to work on the last day before Christmas, it is always a fun day. So I signed the sheet saying I would volunteer to work. Well, things got weird at this point. First they said that I wasn't needed so I was out. Then our shop steward got involved and said my group (Monday off) should be called in before the people who have Saturday off. Management agreed so I was back in. Unfortunately our steward was wrong as he overlooked what our local agreement said about this situation so I was out again. Then one of the Saturday off people who was originally coming in, but was then told he was out had made plans for having Saturday off, so as senior man in my group I was back in. Got it? There will be a test. Now you know why my head spins......Bottom line, I'm working on Saturday.........

Ho Ho....bah nevermind...................

Oy, what a day. Parcel post up the ying yang and management still will not give us enough time to get the job done right. I am starting my 21st year as a letter carrier and my 19th year on the same route and I have never seen things this bad or been treated this way. I have always considered myself to be a model employee (stop snickering, I can hear you out there) and have always given a fair days work for a fair days pay. Here is the thing: I HAVEN'T CHANGED A SINGLE THING! They have rewritten the rules of the game in the middle of the inning. Of course this has affected our entire office. I knew from being in contact with other carriers around the country that this day would come, I just never expected them to start DURING THE HOLIDAY RUSH! How stupid is that? Like you need everyone to give 110% , so you make them feel like giving about 40%? I mean come on.......Just gotta grit my teeth and get through this week, then they had better watch out. They will pout. The Union is coming to town..............

Weekend Update and DEVILS 6, rangers 1

I had a major head cold this weekend, which was OK because I didn't have to work. Did put a damper on a few things though. We did get some Christmas shopping done. I did get my bike shoes and peddles, however the head cold kept me off of my new bike. The weather today would have been perfect for a ride, however I decided to rest up for the week ahead. I'm sure that tomorrow will be our busiest day of the year at the old Post Office. Ho Ho Ho....

Just finished watching the Devils and the rangers. The Devils just stomped the rangers 6 -1. Just to show you that you can watch thousands of hockey games and not see everything, I present the Devils 5th goal of the game. Patrick Elias took a hard wrist shot that bounced right back out. The goal light did not come on nor did the referee indicate a goal. Play continued. And continued. It was over 3 and a half minutes later that the play stopped and the goal was reviewed. The replay clearly showed the puck hit the top corner of the net. Now the weird part. The clock was reset to the time of the goal, erasing the 3:30 played after the goal. If anything had happened like a minor penalty or another goal it would have been erased. Never saw that before. Then the Devils 6th goal was also reviewed and that one counted as well. All Righty Then.......LET'S GO DEVILS !!!!!!!!!

Ah Well....

The Devils wound up losing to the Bruins 5-2 last night with the 5th goal being an empty netter. Marty has had his rest and he needs to be at the top of his game as the Devils face Detroit, Atlanta, and Washington among others before Christmas. Let's Go Devils!!!!!

Time Out and A NEW (used) BIKE!

Well, I have the weekend off. I've been working many hours and hauling a lot of mail and parcel post. I have the next three days off to catch my breath and then a six day push and it's over for another year. Such is the life of your friendly neighborhood letter carrier.

I bought a bicycle from my cycling buddy, Scott. It's a Cannondale road bike. The frame is aluminum and is amazingly light, but if it hauled Scott's fat butt around it will haul mine. It is sooooo coool. I have to get some pedals and shoes before I clip in and ride. I am looking forward to putting in a lot of miles and I hope to be doing some major charity rides this coming year. I am one purchase of the dreaded spandex cycling shorts away from becoming a full blown cycle geek! I love it!

Sitting here just watching the Devils play the Bruins. It is 3-3 at the end of the second period. The Devils gave Marty Brodeur the night off and started Scott Clemmenson who hasn't played since the start of October. Considering that, he's doing OK. LET'S GO DEVILS!

Back to normal

The hockey ship has been righted. The NJ Devils are back in first place in their divison. As for the IceLanders, even a blind squirrell finds a nut sometimes.........

April 1

At work yesterday I had to check the calendar to make sure it wasn't April Fool's Day. Two things happened that had me wondering if our next safety/service talk would be about missing strawberries....


First was management's proposed contract. Carriers are constantly praised as being the backbone of the Service, but when a contract comes up we are spit upon. This must be a joke, they want no raise (actually I'm kind of OK with that you have to give something back), no cost of living adjustments (not gonna give that up, it's a key thing to have in Fairfield County), change in work rules that would allow supervisors to carrier mail(Who writes this stuff, George Carlin on a bad day?) and most hurtful to me is decreasing the USPS's share in health care coverage, which would cost us about $1,300 a year in take home (thus disposable) income. OK I understand how contact negotiations work, we put up our side, they put up theirs and a middle ground is met. However, our contact is heading straight for arbitration, which means they will get some of their wish list unchanged, and not bargained for, which means somewhere in our contract is going to be a shit sandwich. Sorry folks that's just the way it is. And then they drop this news at during the Christmas rush. Ho Ho Ho....

Speaking of the Christmas rush April Fool's moment number two came as I was preparing to go on the road yesterday. I had asked for 2 hours overtime, given that I had about 40 pieces of parcel post and a ton of catalogues to deliver. That would have had me back around 5:30, given that I had started at 7:00 am, a ten hour day. However, there exists in the minds of management a "5:00 window" in which carriers must be back in the office by 5:00pm. The union does not recognize the 5:00 window. In the past if we were going past 5 we were told to (a) finish the route, (b) give out a section for someone else to finish (who would often go past 5 to do so) or (c) just finish your route before 5 (yeah right!) . Having your carriers make the window is directly tied into the mangers end of the year bonus. So the rocket scientists at work decided yesterday that if I delivered my last stop before 5:00pm (not back in the office as I had thought) that I would fulfill the requirement. So I was ordered to deliver my mail first, then go back, in the dark, and deliver my parcel post. I did as ordered and returned to base at 5:50 instead of 5:30. Oh well. I'll let my steward deal with the rest.............. ho ho ho...........................

Holy Crap!

December 3, 2006: The New York Islanders have moved into first place by one point over the new york rangers and the New Jersey Devils. In related news hell has froze over, Santa Claus is not coming to town, and you can now eat all the salt and fat that you want................

A Bold Wish List

I just sent an email to my family. After spending the better part of my summer moving (instead of on my bicycle!) I came to realize that I have enough crap and clothes to last ten lifetimes. I asked them for donations to a charity instead of spending money on moi.

So we shall see how everyone responds. It should be interesting, I hope everyone respects my choice. I'm sure they will. I'll post results here as they come in......