Nothing warms the cockles of my heart quite as much as
waking up to 6 inches of fresh snow on the ground with the knowledge that I do
not have to immediately leap into my car and race to the post office so I can
shovel the sidewalks in front of the building so someone doesn’t slip and fall and
sue the post office.
I worked for that venerable institution for about 15 years. I
started out as the contract cleaner. In addition to keeping the inside of the building
clean, in the summer I had to mow the
lawns and also wash windows – and there are a lot of huge windows on the
building – and in the winter, I had to make sure the sidewalks in front and on
the side of the building were clear of ice and snow.
They loved me so much that they offered me a job as a temporary
worker, and so for almost 1 year, around 1990, I was a substitute mail delivery
person.
Indeed I did deliver the mail – through rain and sleet and snow – just like
the motto says. And I got to drive a jeep with the steering on the right side, just like in England.
I have not fond memories of one particular morning when I had
to struggle through about 1 foot of snow with a thin crust of ice on top, and negotiate
icy porches to put mail in people’s boxes.
I did actually make an attempt to become full-time employee when
a position opened up, but I got beat out on the test by a woman who scored
lower than I did but got 10-points added because she was a disabled veteran.
So, I went back to being the contract cleaner. And on 6 days
a week I showed up there faithfully, year after year after year. And then I
decided to do something different in my life – mainly we both felt were just
getting too old to do the job. We? Yes, Richard is very happy too. Because I
ended up getting him involved in several projects there because I could not
manage them myself— and the last time we had to strip and refinish the floors
it about killed us. So, the time had come…
1 comment:
Yes - there is nothing so pleasing as being able to choose what one does each morning.
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