Thread: Good grief!

If any of you doubt that the stupidity in Ferguson, MO doesn't affect you listen to this...I'm a rural letter carrier (mail man to all the old timers like me). Immediately after it was announced that the grand jury would not be charging the police officer who shot the black teen who had robbed the convenience store and the rioting started a lot of businesses began telling their employees to avoid taking certain routes to work. I'm afraid a lot of workers took this a step further and just decided not to go to work, and maybe the boss was OK with that. BUT...the next day we got maybe only 1/3 of the mail we should have, and ours comes from the St Louis sorting facility. The following day I went to work expecting to have a lot of extra mail to deliver. Nope, it seems that it got missorted to other locations. The following day I got sales flyers to deliver that were expired as well as the 2 days worth of late mail but not all of that day's. The day after that I got sales flyers from the same company for a sale that was just starting and about half the flats(newspapers, magazines, etc) that I normally do. Now today is the day after Thanksgiving, a day that nearly everyone had off work and a day which usually does not have much mail as very few businesses generated any volume of mail to go out. I was getting ready to leave for the post office a while ago when my phone rang. The stupid mail is going to be 2 hours late getting here! We have been inundated with packages, too, so I am not looking forward to a looong day at work. I don't know if any of you recall the thread I started several months ago about "When did you retire", but I was really wanting to join the ranks of those who are. I later posted that due to miscalculations on the part of the government the amount that they had quoted for my benefits was way overstated and I would not be able to do that for at least 3 more years. Well, a month or so ago I was delivering when I suddenly lost sight in my left eye. I got stopped OK, and after just sitting there wondering what the heck to do it came back; however, there were so many floaters that I couldn't see to read the names on the mail, and I could also tell that something else was wrong. I struggled but was able to finish my route by closing that eye and when I finished up tried to get to the my eye doctor... too late, but I got in the next day. He examined me and took pictures of both eyes and proclaimed that I am losing my central vision-periferal vision still is OK, though. I am struggling with the mail and do not want to be the old mailman who makes all kinds of mistakes, so I'm quitting anyway. Financially able to or not, December 31 will be my last day. A rush had to be put on my paperwork to get this done, and they even offered to try to do it by the end of November. I may be old fashioned, but I did not want to put anyone in my office in a bind by doing this with so little notice, especially the lady who subs for me. She has 3 little girls and has just finished moving into an old house that they bought and moved. She had been so thankful that I had decided to wait a few years to retire, and I just couldn't up and dump this on her until after the big Christmas rush is over with. While today will be a very late day for me, it is just the start of a whole month of crazyness. With the time change and it getting dark so early now I will really have a hard time seeing the names on the mail after 4 o'clock. If I turn on my dome light it kills my night vision, so I'll try using a small flashlight. This is bad enough with "normal" vision, and I just hope that I don't end up causing an accident. People tend to get sloppy (sloppier) with their driving habits at this time of year, too, and it is all I can do to keep from getting run over on that part of my route that runs along US 45. Most of it is very rural with about 50 miles of the roads still being gravel. Anyway, my priorities have changed considerably over the last 3 years what with a cancer diagnosis and now the vision problems. I still feel blessed and intend to be a good employee as long as I'm still working. If I have too much difficulty with finances in retirement I can always go back to the forestry consulting that I used to do. If you are in the woods and see someone with a pirate's eye patch that will probably be me! One last thing folks, I am going to try to redo the front deck on my boat over the winter. I have some guns I'll try to sell to generate the funds for a new Xi5 tm and add the side scan to my touch 7. I've scoured the forums on tinboats and iboats for ideas on redoing my front deck. Folks there generally aren't as friendly or helpful as you all are here on crappie.com. Where do you suggest I post questions or ask for advise on a deck rebuild? Any help will be appreciated... and try not to cuss your mailman/lady-at least until after Christmas! I always tell my customers when something goes wrong that I'm at the bottom of the hill, and you all know what runs downhill.

Skeet, if you figure out how to overcome the "awake at 4:30 thing" let me know. My dad was a small scale trucker and always got up at 4-4:30 to be first in line for whatever he was hauling. It never occurred to me that I might inherit that from him, but for the last 15 years or so I just can't get past it. On the rare occasion that I can sleep all night w/out making a trip to the john I wake up and nearly can't get there in time. I divorced at that time, and if I could fall asleep at all I usually woke up in a start about 15 minutes later and couldn't get back to sleep. Talk about a zombie-I'm lucky I kept my job.
And SeaRay, I never thought about the red light. I think I might get an led strip light and fasten it to my glove box which sets just above the box I use to hold the bundle of mail I am working out of. Thanks for the tip.