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Wait, that was only two days?
Amazing as it may seem, after a two-day work week I desperately needed a weekend. Let me explain.
Thursday I came in to find that things were a little mixed up. The sales staff have been moved to the new building, making coordination difficult at best. The person who manages our daily vendor pick-ups has also moved, meaning that I either need to call her on the Nextel or go through intermediaries. The guy I was training as a fill driver last week didn't work out at all, so we're back to looking (I suggested that we give a map reading test first next time.)
But the day was actually pretty slow, slow enough that I got to drive two routes. As I've mentioned previously, on Wednesdays Raul, the Mid-Peninsula driver, does all our work in the Santa Cruz/Monterey area. Normally we just shrug off the bulk of the Mid Pen deliveries until Thursday, with the two local drivers making a few drops that aren't two far off their routes. Well, this week we were closed on Wednesday. So the Santa Cruz run had to be done on Thursday, but we also needed to do Mid Pen. I barely had any work on my route (4 drops, none too bad) and Mid Pen was light, so I did the routes and still made it back in under eight hours.
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kshandra had an eye appointment over at Oakridge that evening, and wanted me to come along in case her eyes needed to be dilated. While waiting for her at home, I got a cal from Kaiser, my new glasses were ready. It was an optical night for the Berry clan!
Then came Friday. One driver didn't show up, leaving us in a mess. Again, i was handed the Mid Pen route so Raul could cover the missing man, but today I actually had work to do. I had to go into Sandia National Labs, go up to Brentwood, multiple stops along Highway 4, and a drop in the bloody center of Concord about as far from any freeway as you can get. After all that, I had to make it over to San Mateo. Needless to say, I skipped lunch.
But there was one drop that was scaring the fuck out of me. Los Trancos Road. This is a road I dealt with while at SuperShuttle. I hated taking a Dodge passenger van up that road.. a 34' truck? For one freaking box about the size of a hardback book? Screw this!
My last stop before this nightmare was out by the Port of Redwood City. I finished there at about 1515, and almost got locked in by workers ready to leave. Check out the route and distance I'd have to drive to get to Portola Valley.. Those two stretches on Seaport and Woodside are surface streets, about 35mph maximum. It was going to be a half-hour at least before I got close. I wanted to know that someone was going to be there to accept delivery, or if there was a safe place to leave the box, so I called the contact number on the order.
And got a disconnected number. Called my boss, and flat out told him that with no contact, I was not heading up Los Trancos late on a Friday afternoon. He tried to contact someone, anyone, at the site then told me to skip it. Thank you for small blessings.
Had one more drop in Palo Alto, and finally headed back. Got in at about 1620, and my big boss ran up to my truck to ask me if I had organized and checked off my paperwork yet. I informed him that I had not, and had also not left the truck for any reason other than deliveries in about six hours. I told him I was parking, draining my air tanks, and then I would handle my paperwork. Then I was going to sit on my ass and take lunch until Kiri came and got me.
I really hope this doesn't happen again. We got way over-ambitious on what I could do with the distances I had to cover.
But after work, I decided that I needed chips and soda to complete my planned chips and salsa orgy. We went shopping hungry. So instead of chips and salsa, we had roast chicken with sourdough bread and a great garlic and herb cream cheese spread. Bought some more of our little wine bottles. Yum!
Thursday I came in to find that things were a little mixed up. The sales staff have been moved to the new building, making coordination difficult at best. The person who manages our daily vendor pick-ups has also moved, meaning that I either need to call her on the Nextel or go through intermediaries. The guy I was training as a fill driver last week didn't work out at all, so we're back to looking (I suggested that we give a map reading test first next time.)
But the day was actually pretty slow, slow enough that I got to drive two routes. As I've mentioned previously, on Wednesdays Raul, the Mid-Peninsula driver, does all our work in the Santa Cruz/Monterey area. Normally we just shrug off the bulk of the Mid Pen deliveries until Thursday, with the two local drivers making a few drops that aren't two far off their routes. Well, this week we were closed on Wednesday. So the Santa Cruz run had to be done on Thursday, but we also needed to do Mid Pen. I barely had any work on my route (4 drops, none too bad) and Mid Pen was light, so I did the routes and still made it back in under eight hours.
kshandra had an eye appointment over at Oakridge that evening, and wanted me to come along in case her eyes needed to be dilated. While waiting for her at home, I got a cal from Kaiser, my new glasses were ready. It was an optical night for the Berry clan!Then came Friday. One driver didn't show up, leaving us in a mess. Again, i was handed the Mid Pen route so Raul could cover the missing man, but today I actually had work to do. I had to go into Sandia National Labs, go up to Brentwood, multiple stops along Highway 4, and a drop in the bloody center of Concord about as far from any freeway as you can get. After all that, I had to make it over to San Mateo. Needless to say, I skipped lunch.
But there was one drop that was scaring the fuck out of me. Los Trancos Road. This is a road I dealt with while at SuperShuttle. I hated taking a Dodge passenger van up that road.. a 34' truck? For one freaking box about the size of a hardback book? Screw this!
My last stop before this nightmare was out by the Port of Redwood City. I finished there at about 1515, and almost got locked in by workers ready to leave. Check out the route and distance I'd have to drive to get to Portola Valley.. Those two stretches on Seaport and Woodside are surface streets, about 35mph maximum. It was going to be a half-hour at least before I got close. I wanted to know that someone was going to be there to accept delivery, or if there was a safe place to leave the box, so I called the contact number on the order.
And got a disconnected number. Called my boss, and flat out told him that with no contact, I was not heading up Los Trancos late on a Friday afternoon. He tried to contact someone, anyone, at the site then told me to skip it. Thank you for small blessings.
Had one more drop in Palo Alto, and finally headed back. Got in at about 1620, and my big boss ran up to my truck to ask me if I had organized and checked off my paperwork yet. I informed him that I had not, and had also not left the truck for any reason other than deliveries in about six hours. I told him I was parking, draining my air tanks, and then I would handle my paperwork. Then I was going to sit on my ass and take lunch until Kiri came and got me.
I really hope this doesn't happen again. We got way over-ambitious on what I could do with the distances I had to cover.
But after work, I decided that I needed chips and soda to complete my planned chips and salsa orgy. We went shopping hungry. So instead of chips and salsa, we had roast chicken with sourdough bread and a great garlic and herb cream cheese spread. Bought some more of our little wine bottles. Yum!
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Yup, that proves it - I'm just a minor, ancillary satellite to my children...
(sigh)