Bad Weather Mojo

The thermometer here is through the roof. Yesterday our temp climbed above 105 degrees! This is not normal Washington weather. I think the heat is breading bad mojo.

At the post office I learned that one of my customers was in an accident on the same road where one of the carriers crashed. It doesn't look good for her and I am sad. She is always really friendly and I like taking packages to her house. There have been other deaths on that road and I am starting to feel kind of spooked there.

Then out on the route, a heat addled bird flew in front of my car and I am pretty sure I hit it. Usually the birds get out of the way but not this one.

Later I saw a peacock in a shady patch on the side of the road. I looked closer and saw there were two. I drove by slowly so as not to spook them from their cool spot and realized that the male peacock was not resting but actually dead and the female was keeping a frenzied vigil. I understand that peacocks mate for life and I felt sick in my heart for her. I asked at the nearest house if the peacocks lived there but the owner's didn't know whose birds they were.

But the bad bird day wasn't over. Towards the end of the route I came upon a Canadian goose wandering down the middle of the road. Something was wrong with his wing and was breathing heavily through his open mouth. Like a fool I tried to chase him down. To what end? To squirt water on him? To grab him and stuff him in the mail wagon with all the mail? I don't know what I was thinking. The best I came up with was to chase him off the road into a shady glen and hope for the best.

Full Oval

The sink and stove have been put to use. I can't say it was for some grand dish. I hard boiled some eggs. As I post this I realize there is some poetry in that, considering that this blog is called Eggtown and in just 2 weeks we will be celebrating Egg Days here in Winlock. The other day on the mail route, one of my customers asked me if I wanted some eggs because her chickens had laid more than she could use. I happily said yes and she came out of the house with 2 dozen (!) eggs! I got home from the route and the propane man was just finishing installing our tank. The next day our plumber finished nearly all his tasks here so I had a working kitchen sink (heavenly choir singing) and a working stove (angel harp orchestra). And now I have 24 hard boiled eggs. Full circle.

Ahhh Summer

A field of daisies on the mail route

On the Mail Route

Nanny Goat here was really, really vocal. Perhaps that is why she was tied to a tree out by the road. Far, far away from the house.

Let's Open the Mailbag, Shall We?

I have taken these pictures on the mail route over the last few months:

We have a goat farm in Winlock (The Blue Rose Dairy) that produces delicious goat cheese. The goats are not always in the field by the road so I don't get to see them every time I do this route.

In the spirit of past posts highlighting the homemade signs so prevalent around here, I present a warning against human waste. No, I have not visited the website. This sign is an upgrade. For months there was a small stenciled sign tacked to a fence. One day it was gone. The next week it was replaced by this giant sign. Well, giant might be taking it too far. It is maybe 6 or 7 feet wide.

Geese. Mean and Funny rolled into one.

Whatcha doin?

I shot this one rainy day a few weeks back. I was going to put it to music but I decided to leave the background noise. That way you can enjoy a little slice of rural mail route life. I am listening to "The Sound of Young America" on XM133. I know this world is different strokes for different folks but believe me when I tell you there are many moments in a rural mail carriers daily grind that are very nearly perfect.

Sheep, Sheep, Elk

The mail route was kind of beastly today. That is a joke. See, the mail truck was late and the mail volume was heavy and that made the day, how shall we say? Beastly! So to keep my spirits up while I was delivering I made a special effort to enjoy the "beasts" I met along the way. I must be out of my depression. A depressed person could not laugh at that joke. And yet, here I am chuckling as I write. Anyhoo, today I found these sheep particularly charming. Sometimes when I go past this property the owners have sheep dogs in training so naturally the sheep are running to and fro. Today they had some leisure time.

A little farther along on the route I came upon the neighborhood elk herd. They hang around on South Military and Roth road. We see them pretty regularly. Today they were right up near the road which is unusual and, although they spooked a bit when I stopped the car and aimed my camera, they didn't run, also unusual.On the next road I saw 2 bald (that's for you Drew) eagles circling over a field. Seeing bald eagles will never get old. I don't have a telephoto lens so there was no point in taking a picture. I have tried that before and only end up with smudges on a watery blue background. So, come to WA to visit and maybe you can see one too.

On the Mail Route - Autumn Edition

More reasons why I love my job:

That is Mt. Rainier in the background.

Bugs

One of the few things I don't love about being a mail carrier: Spiders like to hang out on the back side of the mail box latches. I couldn't get the color balance right on this guy. He is actually mostly white with hints of translucent spring green. He was also very camera shy.

Found this guy crawling around on the picnic table at the laundromat. I liked his motocross inspired orange and black spikes.

My Morning Walk

It wasn't a walk this morning. It was a bike ride. Last summer and fall I rode my bike almost every day but I haven't really gotten back into the rhythm of doing that again this season. That is partly the fault of my experiencing hay fever for the first time this year. It is hard to want to go for a bike ride as a mouth breather with itchy eyes and brain obliterating sneezes. I was inspired to get back on the bike (mouth breathing and all) by the STP bike tour that passed through town yesterday and today. It is a 2 day bike ride from Seattle to Portland with 9500 registered riders. About 7000 of the riders do it in 2 days and the remaining riders power through in one.

Winlock is the halfway point so there is a waystation here and bikers often overnight here and in the surrounding towns. The ride affects one main highway on my mail route. Thankfully I am on that road in the southbound direction on the first half of the route so I wasn't too affected by the bikers. At that point in the day there was a smattering of the power riders in ones, twos and groups. I had to jockey in and out between them to get to the boxes. On the northbound portion of the route I was thanking my lucky stars that I didn't have to deliver in the flood of bikers pouring south. It was crazy busy.

But back to my bike ride this morning, I saw some tiny, tiny ponies that were so cute and precious they could have easily been mistaken for My Little Ponies if they had pink manes.

Also, as I crested a hill on the road behind our house I saw a doe and her new fawn standing on the double yellow lines. I guess the clicking of my bike was more quiet than I thought because they didn't hear me. I was getting pretty close and I didn't want to scare the crap out of them so I hollered out "Hello". The mother turned to look at me and then bolted toward the bushes on the roadside. Unfortunately the fawn hadn't yet learned that particular survival tactic and bolted straight on down the road. I swear its legs were no thicker than spider webs and it wobbled and jumped as it fled. The mother, realizing that her fawn was not following her but following its own mad escape route turned and hopped down the road after it. No pics. Biking and photography don't mix for me. I don't have the stamina to get back on the bike once I have stopped to examine something.

Crapola

The transmission on the mail wagon needs all new seals. Plus, I broke an engine mount. $$$$$ Mail routes are murderous on cars.

My Morning Walk - Other Stuff

Welcome to Evergreen Meadows. It looks like a subdivision is going in down the street. I don't know how many houses are planned. Here is a question: If they cut down all the evergreens to put in houses should they still call the area "Evergreen Meadows"? I say "Evergreen In Memoriam" would be a better name for the subdivision.See fig. 1 & fig. 2 below.

fig. 1 My first thought was that they cleared out a lovely little nook for a few houses.

fig. 2 But then I looked closer and realized that more clearing was going on beyond what initially looked like the tree line.

Tom and Kathy told us that many immigrants from Finland settled in this area. For that reason, if you are shopping for an existing house, you are likely to find one already tricked out with a sauna.

The long gone "Lewis & Clark: Muzzle Loaders, Black Powder Gun Range". Smell ya later.

I have been meaning to snap a pic of these birds for a few months now. They are sitting atop someone's driveway entrance. I LOVE them. Semi-related:
We saw a buzzard flying around our property 2 days in a row. I wonder what is dead? Please don't tell me it is our house building dreams. And also, I inadvertently saved a chipmonk the other day on the mail route. I turned left onto Awmiller and saw an animal of some sort on the right side of the road. As I got closer I could tell it was a hawk (I assume redtail although it was much more vibrant in color than other redtails I have seen). Anyway, it didn't move until finally I was only yards away. It lifted up off the roadside and hovered a bit. I looked at the road and there was a chipmonk (also pretty vibrant so maybe I licked a stamp w/ LSD on it) looking like it just won the lottery. It waved at me (OK, not really but it's fun to think so) and ran into the bushes.

I know I have posted pics of these guys before but I am not tired of them yet. And neither is my mom so here they are again. The other day I passed another Brahma bull on my route. It was a rainy day and the bull was sitting out in the middle of a field with a large plaid blanket covering every thing but his head and shoulders. His head and shoulders, by the way, were resting flat on the ground and he looked like the definition of miserable.

The theme song for this morning walk was: Valerie Loves Me by Material Issue

Tell Me Why I Don't Like Mondays (or Tuesdays for that matter)

Yo, Bob Geldof, I hear ya man.

This week blows so far. Monday I worked Rt. 02. Still kind of crappy at it. I am frustratingly slow on that route and I began my day by slicing the top of my finger on the case. Kind of like the mother of all paper cuts. Nothing serious but a nice deep bleeder. It took me a full 10 hours to do the route and that was even with the kind assistance of Penny, one of the other substitute carriers, who helped me case a tray of letters. I started the day off on the wrong side of the bed anyway. Matt came home from L.A. on Friday evening and I knew that by the time I got home from work on Monday he would be gone again. We wouldn't be able to support this adventure here in Washington if it weren't for his job but I don't think either of us suspected that he would be gone so regularly and frequently.

I came home to an empty house and an alarmingly listless Russell. He is our talkative snuggle bunny and he neither talked nor snuggled. In fact he was curled into a tight ball under the bed and didn't even acknowledge me when I gave him a pat. I watched him closely for the rest of the evening figuring I would take him to the vet on Tuesday. I awoke at 1am to the sound of him trying to hack something up but all that came out was spittle. While awake I realized that I had not taken out the garbage and recycling cans so I set the alarm for 5am to get them out before the truck came by.

At 5am and after a miserable night of anxiety dreams (one of which involved Matt being lost at sea and leaving me barefoot, pregnant and destitute!!!) I took the garbage down the driveway and upon my return realized that Russell was nowhere to be found. I called him for 45 minutes gradually dissolving into a sobbing mess as time went by. He ALWAYS comes when called. He never wants to miss out on anything. I tried to compose myself and called Matt at 6am. As soon as I heard his voice I burst into tears again sobbing that I couldn't find Russell. After listening to me list off all the places I had looked he asked if I had shaken the treat can, a sound sure to bring him running if he was alive and within earshot. Sure enough, he came in through the bay door but he looked awful. He only sniffed at the treats - unheard of!

I called the vet first thing and got him in at 10:30am. He had a fever and his ears were swollen. She did a blood test and found that his platelet and white blood cell count were wonky so she followed up with a feline leukemia and FIV test (negative! Yay!) She gave him something to help bring the fever down and sent me on my way with a bottle of antibiotics for him. So that all turned out better than expected.

Still, starting off with a major bout of sobbing is no way to ensure a full and productive day. I had the most miserable headache for the rest of the day so I tried to sleep it off.

I have high hopes that Wednesday(today) will be better. I have yet to leave the house but neither have I cried every last milliliter of fluid out of my body so I count that as a win.

Here's a story for you

I took my mail wagon to get serviced today. I was at a Jiffy Lube. You know the drill. They call you up to look at the computer and tell you all the things they recommend be done to the car. Anyway, I sat back down after my "consult" and 2 minutes later my "tech" was back in the waiting room. He asked me to step out into the bay. Kind of ominously, especially in hindsight. As I walked toward him he asked if I have cats. It sounded conversational but totally random. Then he got more specific. "Do you have a black cat?". "Um, yes. Yes I do. (hesitatingly) Why?". "Well, sorry to have to tell you this but there is a cat in your engine and, um, it's dead, obviously".

I walked up to the car and saw the furry back of a black cat. All my instincts told me that it wasn't Una. The fur wasn't right and I was sure that she was sleeping on the bed when I left home. Still, I couldn't look too closely until I called Matt to double check. My heart was beating really fast. Matt picked up the phone and the first thing I said was, "Is Una sleeping on the bed?" No hello. He was all, "What? What are you talking about?" and I'm all, "Please just tell me is Una sleeping on the bed." He said yes and asked what is going on. I told him there was a dead black cat in my engine and he said, "where are you that you are suddenly aware that there is a dead cat in the engine?" Jiffy Lube, blah, blah, blah.

The tech put the cat in a box and then put the box into a (clear) plastic bag. He came back in the waiting room and asked me if I could take it home and bury it. He said he could do it but it would be really hard to find a place. I've got nothin' if not space so the cat, box and bag went into the back of the mail wagon and off I went.

When I got home Matt and I decided on the best spot on the property for our pet cemetery. He was still working so I hoofed it out to the back of the property and started to dig, and dig, and dig. I don't want a coyote getting wise. All the while I had been so relieved that it wasn't one of our cats that I hadn't been able to absorb what I was doing until I unwrapped the cat and put it in it's grave. I began to cry. It was much more difficult putting the dirt (clay) back in the hole than it was getting it out. Matt came out to help me.

We can't figure out where the cat came from. We haven't seen any strays around. Matt was thinking maybe it crawled in while I had the car somewhere else but that cat seemed to be rather freshly dead so I feel certain that it got into the engine here. So sad. It was a little thing. I am guessing only six or seven months old.

When we were finished we hosed off the shovels and as I walking away to take them to the shed Matt squirted the hose at me!!! Have you ever? Seriously!! It would be one thing if it were summer but it's not. It's freakin' cold and crap. He did not look properly ashamed of himself. I have yet to decide on my retaliation.

No Clams for Me

On Friday afternoon Tom, Kathy, Matt and Walker left for the beach house. This weekend is a clam tide and they hoped to get a bucketful. I was to join them Saturday evening after my mail route. Things didn't go as planned. I ended up doing Route 02 on Saturday instead of my usual Route 01. I am not up to speed on Route 02 yet so it took me an ungodly amount of time to sort the mail. The weather has been crap here and by the time I got out on the road everything was slushy and slippery. Not being super familiar with Route 02 I wasn't quite sure which boxes would be problematic in the snow. Plus I hadn't driven my mail wagon in the snow yet so I didn't know it's particular snow foibles. I slipped around a bit but managed to avoid any disasters. The day had everything: snow, hail, rain, sunshine. Sometimes the hail blew sideways, sometimes the wind blew snow off the trees and the car got pelted with wet, slushy snowballs from above. Fun stuff. I keep a plastic bag in the car to protect the mail on days like this. It got so full of hail from the open window that I had to regularly unload it out the window!

I was kind of strung out by the time I finished my route. Matt called to tell me that nobody got any clams on the Saturday morning tide. He said the weather was bad at the beach too. You see where I am going with this?

1. I don't eat clams.
2. The tides are out at around 5:30am so if clams are to be had that is the time to be out on the beach.
3. It is stormy and super cold on the beach in the wee hours.
4. I was not too keen on an additional 2 hours of storm driving to get to the beach on top of my 4.5 hours of stormy route driving in order to dig up things I don't eat under lousy conditions.

So I stayed home, watched a movie, ate a bag of potato chips, finished a book and called it a day.

On the Mail Route(s)

Met a turkey on Route 02. Just hanging out on the side of the road doin' his thing.

Remember this shaggy donkey from a few posts ago? Well, Matt and I took a walk last Sunday past his pasture and got a close-up view of him.

LOOK at his hooves!!! I don't know if this is neglect or deformity. None of the other animals in the field were in such bad shape - hoofwise. Seriously! He was walking (hobbling) on his ankles.

How in the world is he going to be able to run from this furious cow, his pasture mate? This cow looks like a brawler.

Doledrums

Kudos to Tait for snapping me out of my posting funk.

I haven't been very forthcoming on the blog about how often Matt is out of town. Over the last 2 months I would guess he hasn't been home more than a total of eight days. Add that to stagnant house news and endless rain (save your comments stating the obvious - I KNOW I live in the Northwest. I am just adjusting) and I ended up feeling rather despondent. The last thing I wanted to do was recount all the ways I was feeling depressed.

Anyhoo - things are on the upswing. Matt is home, for a while at least. Yesterday Tom, Kathy, Matt and I knocked the snot out of the house, tearing down walls, vacuuming up spider egg sacs and pulling nails from boards. And the forecast for this coming week shows that there is the possibility of sun.

While Matt was away I found myself unexpectedly put to use at the Post Office. I am scheduled to work every Saturday but ended up working 4 and 5 days a week while he was in Los Angeles. Here is a picture I took of some friends on my route.

Make way for some Fe-mail

When I was in Junior High my Dad had a Star Route (he was an independent contract carrier for the Post Office). He would drive me and my friends to school in the morning in his mail jeep. The back door only opened from the outside so we had to sit in mortified view of the entire student body unloading from the buses while he hopped out of the front and strode around to the back hollering "Special Delivery! I've got some Fe-Mail". The reality might not have been that bad but you know how things are when you are low on the totem pole in Junior High (maybe you don't - lucky you). The point of this little opening story is to announce that I have finally (almost) completed training and am re-entering the world of mail delivery.

I don't remember exactly how many years my Dad delivered. It seems like forever but that can't be right because he also fit careers as a school teacher and bus driver into his life. When he delivered I would sometimes go along and help. I got a taste for the life of a carrier in rural America. After high school, marriage and a number of years floundering in retail I bid on a Star Route of my own in Park City, UT. I was stupid and young and I was the low bid by thousands. I got the route. Do two stupids make a smart? Matt joined me in the mail world. He partnered up with another carrier who only wanted to work part-time and we also took on a 3rd route that we split. Star Route carriers provide their own vehicles. If there is a breakdown we must have a back-up to make sure the route is delivered. At one time we had 7 vehicles (3 ancient mail jeeps, 1 suv, 1 sedan, Friq, and a right hand drive Scout) to ensure that we would have at least 2 vehicles running at any give time. There were some hideously awful days of delivery. Christmas season + 4 feet of snow + a vehicle breakdown + garbage day + bronchitis morphing into pneumonia = a 13+ hour day of pure, unfiltered misery. But there were also days of pure, contented satisfaction. Summer + light mail volume + a working right hand drive jeep + wildlife sightings + happy customers + some good tunes = a 5 hour day and the satisfaction of a job well done. We lasted 3 years before we had had just about enough of 6 day work weeks and vehicle maintenance. I am fond of saying "It was the best of jobs. It was the worst of jobs."

I know time can soften memory, filtering and diluting the worst experiences and putting a fuzzy, warm glow on the good times. Perhaps that is why I am so excited to get back to delivering. I am remembering all the ways that job is so right for me and putting a dimmer on the memories of all the hardship. I am convinced that this time around the good can still be really good and the bad can't possible reach the levels of the Star Route. Why? This time around I am an honest to goodness Postal Employee. I will be starting out as a sub so there is zero chance of year after year of 6 day a week employment. I also live in a different place. Yes, we have nasty weather but we will never (uh, never say never?) have snow piled up so high it buries all mailboxes. I am still responsible for providing and maintaining my own vehicle but I am in a better place financially now so that isn't the gnawing worry it once was. If I get knocked down with pneumonia I am not the only person running the route so I can hack up my lungs in the privacy of my own home rather than on the route. There will still be Christmas mail volume and garbage day but I can totally deal with that. What hasn't changed is the freedom of driving out of the office for a day of lone accountability, the wildlife (I saw an elk herd on my first day of partial delivery yesterday), that sing-song feeling of driving a route in spring with a breeze that feels like it is blowing right into my soul and clearing things out, that satisfaction of knowing I am giving the patrons the best service possible and the complete feeling I get when my car is empty at the end of the route. I dig all of that.

Seattle

I had a grand post planned about my week in Seattle for Postal Training. I stayed in the Warwick International hotel. I had a great time except while driving. Seattle needs to work on it's signage. Anyway, the whole foundation mess has taken the wind out of my sails and I don't feel like typing the Seattle trip out. A few notes: I loved the city. It felt so good to be in an urban area again. I really needed that. It is a beautiful place. I was able to do some damage to the bank account at a bunch of local stores and that made me happy. Matt came up and joined me on the last night and we did the basic tourist things: The Space Needle and Pike's Place Market. We ate really well and shopped really well. Good times. The pictures below were taken from the balcony of my hotel room. Nice.

It's official

I have made it through all the red tape and am on the rosters as a substitute rural mail carrier. I will be going in for training in January. Just like old times.

What I have been up to this week. . .

Walker Lahmann LOVES balls

Matt and I got our Washington driver's licenses this week. Somehow that makes everything seem very official.

Tom, Kathy and Walker came over the other day. Tom and Matt put a cat door in the wall of the shop so that the cats can go in and out freely. That is if they ever figure out how to use their cat door. So far Lily and Quinten are the only ones who have used it without our help. Una seems disinterested and I am just not sure if Russell has enough in his brain pan to reason it out.

Those of you who know me from way back will get a kick out of this. When we first moved here we had trouble getting our mail forward sorted out. In my talks with the Post Master I mentioned that I had been a contract carrier. He asked if I would be interested in being a sub for the rural route here if he had an opening. I wasn't sure (it was the best of jobs, worst of jobs yada yada yada). On Monday he sent me a notice that he needs 2 new subs fairly soon. I thought about it an decided a couple of days a week can't be too bad. Only problem is, just like the contract carriers, rural carriers need to use their own vehicle. Now is not really the time for me to be adding another car to the fold. I take the rural carriers test on Oct 10th and am currently working on an application from the PO that requires documentation of my entire life. Hopefully I can figure out some car solution. I'll keep you posted (ba dum bum chhh).

Russell and Una. Russell is playing. Una is pissed.