Category: Postman

Life of a small-town Postman trying to be a functioning adult

As of time of writing, I’m coming down from my new ADHD medication. I’m hoping I’ll have enough focus left to me to get one of my short story projects finished, but this was something I really wanted to write about.

Also to display my amateur photography skills, but really I’ve just wanted to get these notes down. This post will go up in the morning (if I set it up right) so if I get any more photos, I can add to it.

It was an interesting day, to say the least.

After a decade of working with my ADHD, including figuring out coping mechanisms and battling the feeling of uselessness, I went to the doctor. I told him my problems and that I wanted to be put back on Adderall. For a grown man of 36, that’s both slightly dubious and a bit humiliating. After all, I stopped taking medication in my early 20’s. Haven’t I figured out how to deal with it by now? Shouldn’t my own methods and techniques be enough to get through the day?

The answer is no, and not really. I haven’t dealt with it; I’ve just done the best I could with an inability to pay attention or focus. Yes, writing notes down helps, but I don’t always remember to jot down my notes, or have the time to do so in the bustle of activity that is adulthood. I have figured out how to force myself into a state of hyper-focus, where my attention narrows down to one thing at a time, but that doesn’t always help. It also makes for some intense headaches after a while.

Pictured: a stressed out mailman coming down from new meds and apparently a halo of hair kept in humid pollen air for 9 hours.

The doctor checked my blood pressure, noting it was high, and laughing when I said ‘Of course my blood pressure is high, I’m a letter monkey for the government’. But I managed to get my blood pressure down consistently enough that medication would be safe for me.

And so, I’ve been on meds for the first time in 10 years. Felt like having a goddamn superpower, being able to listen to a conversation, keep track of it, and remember it soon after. I felt like an actual adult, not having to battle my own consciousness to stay on a given subject or task.

I was able to get through my day job all right, and I’m feeling the coming-down happening in the evening. I’m curious if this would help me during my writing attempts. It’d be nice to not be scatterbrained for an hour and only getting 400 words down. I’ll find out either on Sunday (after chores) or during my non-scheduled day (postal talk for day off) and will probably talk about it in a Twitter thread.

Always cool to see this.

Not only could I focus on getting my work done, I could even indulge myself in getting pictures of the scenery I go through.

For such a small town, there is a lot of personality put into my home. Everywhere you go, there are little pockets of artwork, or dedication to lawn decoration, or just something that’ll make the postman pause before dropping off the mail and appreciate the visual they get. But that’s not always the case, unfortunately. For every artwork, there’s a neglected building.

I’ve been driving past this particular property occasionally for the last couple months. Last time I saw it, the damages had worsened. I’m hoping the owners or whoever later buys the property has it knocked over. I remember how I was as a kid, and I can promise you that children will want to explore the place, including the upstairs. Good luck stopping them from trying.

That had to be an intense fire.

Now, it’s been a couple weeks since I was out there, and we’ve had some rough storms lately. It’s possible that the weather already knocked the place down. I’ll find out next time I go there.

10-year old me would’ve seen this as a great adventure, until it got dark. (36-yr old me would, too, but I have to be ‘responsible’)

Of course, in any small town that is half-rural, you’ll find little pocket neighborhoods hidden away in heavily-wooded areas. Driving past this area on the highway, you’d think it was just undeveloped forest and thickets. But there are houses scattered around, with single-lane roads winding around tree roots, bayous, and man-made ravines. Thankfully, this neighborhood was designed for ‘mounted delivery’ so I could drive up to a mail box. I would not have preferred to walk this route.

You’re never certain what you’ll find out in these pocket neighborhoods. They’re thriving communities with shops, tradesmen, farms, bars, and of course, churches.

I couldn’t find anything to identify this particular church, but I have to admit that I was almost finished delivering in this area. I was keen to move on to my own route and finish the day. I’m not too keen to work this route again; driving an LLV down those steep, narrow roads is terrifying. I have mad respect for the regular carrier who handles the route every day.

That said, when I do go walking around other neighborhoods, I’ll spot things that will either make me marvel at ingenuity, or I’ll want to play Fallout 4 again.

Now that’s just cool. Ain’t sitting on it, but it’s cool.
I wonder if I could make a settlement out of that. Probably not, but a fun thought experiment

Finally, if there’s one thing I love seeing while out on my mail routes, it’s the animals. I’ve been on my walking route for nearly 10 years and I’ve met nearly every pet or surviving stray. But someone eventually gets a puppy and I just have to say hello if I have the time.

(I usually have the time, or I figure out how to make the time, by thunder)

Meet Noel, newest puppy on the route!

That concludes my little guided tour of the postal life. As a reward for giving me your attention: a cat picture!

I don’t know his name. I call him Mrowr.

April is proving to be my worst writing month, for good reason

I always say that the Heavy Season for the mail is October-April. It’s when our parcel counts skyrocket and our letters double or triple. This is why it’s always difficult for me to find writing time during these months, as I’ve said before.

But April, the last month of the season, always feels like a personal letdown.

It’s happened consistently enough that you’d think I’d have prepared for it by now, but you’d be wrong. April is the final month of tax season in the US, and it’s also when the most people move house. Maybe not nationally, but it is for my little route in small-town Louisiana. Upwards of 80 people, individuals or families, change their mailing address in this one month alone. It’s my job to make sure that they get all of their mail delivered correctly, even if that means helping them fix their mistake.

(Sometimes, they move only 2 or 3 houses down the street, and this drives me insane. I’m a creature of habit, so seeing the same name on 2 addresses for 1 street is hella confusing.)

What this does to me is to wear me down physically (as usual) and also mentally (for a change) at the post office. Normally, I’d welcome such a change, since the majority of the day is spent being so bored that I make sound effects while walking just to break the monotony. I’ve been on my route for so long that even the more aggressive dogs have accepted me and stopped growling.

Unfortunately, this means that my writing suffers. I’ve said before that winter is a rough time for me to hit word count goals, but the final month of the Heavy Season is just abysmal.

I’m hoping that, as the last of the tax mail goes out and the parcel count lowers to a manageable (to me and my writing desire) goal, I’ll be able to both put up more posts here and finish out a project. I do have more short stories, namely the Star Wars adventures. I told the players I’d get Adventure 1 written this month.

That’s a lofty goal, but damn it’d be nice.

5yr tries wall/rock climbing

Points for effort, kid. She tried her best, but she has discovered her fear of heights today. I was a bit puzzled by this, as she will gleefully climb a magnolia tree some 50-feet into the air, with no harness or safety line, but give her the bells and whistles that say “you can totally fall and be perfectly fine” (in fact, the business said that falling was the way to get back down) and she’d freeze.

Better luck next time, kid.

Sidenote: Yes, I got this photo by getting on a harness for myself and climbing up. Yes, I was still in my postal uniform. No, there are no photos of this happening.

How the postman knows it’s springtime

That, readers, is an active bee hive. It’s been there for as long as I’ve been on this route. It’s how I know springtime has really started and the reason I put up my hair under my hat before I end the day (it being my final house).

It’s also how I teach new postal workers to be aware of their surroundings. Yes, I stood in the middle of a swarm to get this photo. Bees don’t bother me as much as wasps.

Postal-ception

I am a postal worker. It’s my primary career while I work on my writing and, when the fancy takes me, learning a new trade skill. You’d think that when I’m off-duty, I’d avoid everything to do with the USPS.

But you’d be wrong, in a depressing but hilarious way.

Always back into your parking spot, people!

That is a computer game called “Lake”. It’s a postal worker simulator, and my God, it is so relaxing. I’m tempted to stream it while playing and go over points about delivery and the postal process during (I have some complaints about what the carrier does, but then again, I’m a Union man and she’s a computer character so I don’t know if I should defend her career) but really, I just like to drive around this tiny town with easy and simple routes.

It’s very calming, and I wonder if I have a problem.

Distracted myself from writing, so have a route cat photo!

I did have a plan. I was going to write after work and when everyone else was abed. I had notes from the day-job that I really wanted to explore and implement. Unfortunately, I was distracted by a project I had previously obsessed over and my nighttime writing window is closing. I need to get to bed.

As contrition, take a look at some of the cats on my route! They like talking to the mailman.

Enjoy!

-JB Swift