Taking The Bull

     Day number 3 at the new "job" and it's freaking fantastic!

     No more sounds of griping and grumbling early in the morning.  No more trips to the front door to see if it has arrived.  No more yesterday's news.......the morning paper route is mine.

     I wasn't supposed to start until yesterday, Saturday, and the young man from the paper came down Thursday to go over the route with me.  We drove around town and he used his GPS to navigate through this small community of 1200 people, give or take one or two.  I thought that was funny, I've lived here all my life and I figured I knew just about everyone on the route.  

       When my girls did this paper route there were 75 customers.  Granted, technology has taken its toll on daily newspapers but our paper delivery person hasn't helped increase the numbers.   Brian drove as I scanned the list of 31 names and addresses.  There were two I wasn't sure of.  One name I couldn't place at all, but we found the house and I located the drop off point.  The next name seemed familiar but I was at a total loss.  We drove to that address and I found myself laughing out loud.  This was someone I've known my entire life, they went to school with one of my sisters. This person has always gone by a nick name and I had no idea his first name was Glenn, never too old to learn something new.

      As Brian drove me home I asked, "So, you want me to start Saturday?"

     He looked at me and grinned, "Wanna start tomorrow?"  He was really eager to have a replacement.

     "Sure", I said and with that, away he went.  I sat down with my list and had my route figured out in about 10 minutes.  Owning 15 school buses at one time, route planning becomes second nature, kind of like breathing.

     I jumped in the car and drove my new route and it took about 30 minutes.  I thought by the time I factored in the time it took to get the papers in their right spot, it should be doable in 45.  

     Friday morning came.  I rolled out around 4:30 a.m. and found my stack of papers waiting for me on the front porch.  I had typed up a note for each paper letting my customers know there was a new carrier, since my husband and I were tired of reading the morning paper in the afternoon. I included my phone number in case I didn't put the paper in its proper spot.  I placed a note in each paper, loaded up my bag and headed out the door at 5.

     We still have snow on the ground and during the night there had been a little freezing drizzle.  The temperature was 3 above and with the added ice, it made the perfect combo for crunchy snow.  Plus we were expecting 1-2 more inches of snow on this morning. I jumped in the car and headed out.

     It's still really dark at 5 in the morning, but there are few people stirring at that hour, the streets were empty.  My little car crunched through the snow, as did I, at each stop.  When I got back home the new snow was just beginning to fall and the whole route had taken just under an hour.  Not bad for the first day.

    By that evening I had already received many phone calls thanking me for taking over the route and even had a Valentine's gift of a large bag of peanut M&M's.  Since part of the reason for doing this was for the exercise, I placed the bag next to my husbands' chair and tried not to walk over to it more than a couple of times...........OK, maybe it was three times.....or four.

     The 1-2 inches of new snow turned into 4-6 and blizzard like conditions.   Day 2 my husband offered to chauffeur me in the old Suburban with a snow plow attached to the front.  Not only did we get them delivered on time, we plowed a couple of driveways and two alleys.

     This morning it was just me, my papers and the wonderful darkness of the twilight before dawn.  The temperature had risen during the night and the snowy streets were wonderfully greasy.  I spun and fishtailed around corners, blew a couple of stop signs and jogged up to each house and back to the car.  Fifty minutes and 7 miles later, I was done.

     My goal is to ride the route on my bicycle when the weather gets better.  All I have to do is find my bike, its been awhile since I've ridden.  I may need one of those little back up motors for the hills though.  Legs of iron and buns of steel are surely in my future.

     It's not a glamorous job or one that will make me monetarily rich, but I love it already.  One of my customers thanked me for "taking the bull by the horns".  Thank you J.E. for the compliment and the title, sometimes when you want it done right, you just have to step up and do it yourself......or shut up about it.