…cackles in US Postman…
Excuse me while I drive an overgrown hamster cage into the flood zones to bring people their letters and parcels.
Just gonna accept that I’ll have wet socks all day. Don’t tell the 6yr old, or she’ll realize her dad is not, in fact, an American Tall Tale.
Y’all be safe, readers, because I sure won’t be.
-JB Swift
Louisiana has a fascinating variety of animal life, and sometimes they have no business being the sizes they are. This guy landed on my shirt and covered the entire work patch. So naturally, I had to try to get a photo of him.
Note: I wanted to give today’s post the title “The Supervisor Strikes Back” but as they couldn’t get around the union rules today, they couldn’t make my life difficult today. Don’t worry, they will eventually, and that corny title will be used. I have that much faith in management.
That said, ever since I’ve become a postal worker, I’ve decided I’d never take another job if that new career lacked a union. Having grown up in Louisiana’s “right to work” employment system, I’m well aware that management will try, and often gets away with, pushing employees through hell and back to meet their high (unrealistic) demands. Having a union at my back protects me from the majority of their abuses, and for those they still attempt, I keep an eye out for and call them out on.
With it being a half-day (the kids need their dad and I will be there for them, by thunder) I should be able to catch up on the writing I began last evening. In a completely surprising turn of events, I fell asleep before the writing was complete.
I know you’re surprised, readers.
But I had made significant progress before the sleep cycle shut me down unexpectedly, so it shouldn’t take too long to finish. Now that I’ve learned a little more about maintaining formats between my writing program and this website, the pages should start looking cleaner and I’ll start obsessing over the older pages and wanting to fix them.
And it wouldn’t be a proper shift at the day job without being caught at the far end of a walking mail route by a sudden rainstorm.
And the storms will be rolling through for the rest of the day. With 4 dogs who hate thunder, and 2 kids starting to understand what thunder is, it’ll be an interesting evening at the Swift House. Sidenote: the cats don’t really care about the weather; they just nap through everything.
With that, I’m off for evening chores. Stay safe, readers!
-JB Swift
I had a feeling that my supervisors were going to be upset at me for remembering that I was a career employee of over 10 years and not a new-hire that was ignorant of his rights and union backing. They barely spoke to me all morning.
Which…I mean, I fail to see the problem with that. If they leave me alone in the morning, I can actually focus on getting my mail set up for the day and be on the street quicker. Maybe they’ll figure that out someday. (Most likely not, but a man can dream)
Of course, the day job wasn’t exactly peaceful. We’ve been under heavy weather warnings, with the chance of rain being ever-present and flash-flooding an ongoing concern. It’s almost like we’ve been going through a change in climate or something…
But that’s, apparently, a fight between scientists who know what they’re doing and politicians who don’t. What I had to concern myself with was the storm clouds rolling over my head.
This was just before the rain started falling, and I admit that it’s a bit unnerving to see the clouds roll into each other and form storms so fast. The 12 miles were quiet, for all the rain and thunder, and I used my lunch break to begin work on the second Short-Arc Story for Arc 1.
I’m hoping to get this one done quickly, especially since they’re actual short stories and less than 10 pages. I might parcel this one out instead of attempting to write the entire thing out in one day. I do have another Wiki-styled article to write and post, so I’ll focus on getting that done first for the night before I make my evening attempt.
With that, I’m off to plunk away at this keyboard until I get knocked out by my own exhaustion.
Stay safe, readers!
-JB Swift
It happens once every six weeks, if I’m lucky. Or if the supervisor is glared at hard enough during scheduling by the Union Stewards to remember to follow the regulations instead of personal pettiness.
But it happened this time, and I get a weekend off! A whole three days without a 12-15 mile (19-24 kilometer for any metric readers) walk in the heat and weather, or having to navigate the social morass that is office politics while being the awkward introvert.
Unfortunately, a downside to working 60-hour weeks is that when you do manage to get time off, you have to cram everything else into the little time you have. So, we’re off to run errands throughout the state (because of course, you can’t have everything in your little town) after dropping off the kids.
They’re starting to get involved with my postings. The 4yr pointed up at the cloud formation and said “Dad, take a picture!” So, that’s for all of you.
Last night’s writing attempts were interrupted by two things: exhaustion and a conversation with the local union steward. He replaced me after I had suffered burnout from holding that post for 2 years. I can’t stay that angry all the time and I’m just not skilled with verbal conversation. That makes grievance negotiations…annoying. But I give him advice when he texts me and explain organizational matters.
I wasn’t expecting that conversation to end with him saying bluntly “Why aren’t you the Local President?”
Eh…because that’s terrifying? I don’t want that kind of power and I’ve never pursued it. But we’re down a President, and the Steward is asking what we need to bring in the younger workers, and my organizing brain couldn’t help but rattle off what we’d need.
So…yeah, he’s wanting to put me on the ballot. Just putting that on the list. The exhaustion from the day-job knocked me out at my desk, soon after.
The morning was greeted by new information on an old project: genealogy. There was an email from Ancestry letting me know that my previous research had brought up a possible relative.
This is the furthest I’ve gone down the family’s timeline, and with him I have two other possible relatives that’ll get me into the 1500’s. One of these days, we’ll have to travel to Sandwich, MA and see the place where my family tree started in the US.
With that, I’ll be whittling away at my writing throughout the day. I’ve found two short stories in the Sidewinder Stories that need editing and posting. They’ll help tie everything together and explain things that the players were wondering about. Then it’ll be final prep-work for tomorrow’s Main Arc session.
Now, let’s see if I can actually get all that done!
Stay safe, readers!
-JB Swift
The kids are always startled when they wake up to a storm in the morning. They’re also starting to get protective of their postal-working father. “Dad, it’s raining. Do you have a rain coat or umbrella?”
Looking out from the porch, I tell them to not worry about me, though I don’t mention that my rain gear has since fallen apart due to age and overuse. “I’ll be fine, kids. I’ve walked in worse.”
They worry enough as it is, but it heartens the 6yr old. Ever since discovering the American Tall Tales, she’s said that I was one of those legendary figures. “Dad can walk 12 miles in a storm no not get his feet wet!” she said to the teacher at drop off, this morning. The 4yr old son pats at my shirt as we leave and says “You walk in the rain but you’re never wet!”
Best believe I’m going to hold on to that. They’ll be teenagers soon enough and realize that their dad is just some goofy weirdo, but for now, I’m a legend.
Of course, the morning storm does remind me to check the weather report for the upcoming days.
Sigh…somehow I got to keep my feet dry through all of that, or the myth is broken. Something to think about.
On the way in, I told the 6yr to keep an eye on the sky and track the storm. It’s something you pick up on when your work environment is *gestures at the world around myself* and keeping an eye on the sky helps when you want to know when the storm will break.
She pointed at the cloud formation while we sat in the drop-off line and said, “Dad, the storm will break there!” She’s right, but she doesn’t know how she knows it, yet. She’s got good instincts.
Annoyingly, it’s also a good day for writing, but it’s a work day, made tougher with the news that I’ll be working on another route that is also walking. Hopefully, I’ll catch a few spots of quiet to get my notes down.
With that, it’s time to sling letters and somehow keep my feet dry in the storm.
Stay safe, readers!
-JB Swift
As you can see, I’m trying an addition to my post titles, but I don’t think I’ll ever resist the temptation of alliteration. It’s an odd little comfort in my writing.
Also as you can see, I’m handling a bit of teaching at the day-job today. Decades ago, a new-hire was given a full month of training/semi-apprenticeship. We’d learn how to sort the mail, maintain our address books, and develop the physical endurance needed to function as a postal worker.
Nowadays, there’s a week of class and three days of riding with a veteran carrier, then you learn the rest while on the job. I don’t approve of the modern training method, and I’m known for making sure that our new folks are given as much information as possible. Up to and including having the new-hire take written notes, and of course, letting them know they are free to ask questions.
There’ll be writing opportunities throughout the day, and I’ll be working on the site later, as well. Now that the schedule is posted, it’s apparently not fitting properly in the window. Because why should it work correctly the first time?
But I’ll figure it out and fix it in all good time. For now, it’s getting the 6yr ready for Kung Fu class and some quiet note-taking.
To finish out today’s post, I present to you: this route cat!
I can’t help but empathize with the cat. I’m usually ready for a nap when I’m walking by this mailbox, too.
Stay safe, readers.
-JB Swift
Welp, apparently this post was supposed to go up on Sunday, but due to technical problems (I’m the technical problem), it only posted half and waited until Monday morning. Frustrating, as I was finally getting a daily posting habit down. But I’ll get it fixed and we’ll restart the posting numbers. So, here’s Sunday’s posting, readers:
When you work your day-job for 6 days a week, you have to accept that there will be chores you just can’t get to until Sunday.
Apparently, one of those chores should not be mowing the dog yard when Louisiana rain is almost daily. Went outside in the morning to see patches of grass so tall, I couldn’t see the corgi. Started to tackle it with the push mower, but the yard overwhelmed the humble battery-powered machine. Instead, I took out the weed-eater and went at it with the motions of scythe.
Took over an hour (found ant piles and killed them, found dog poop and cleared it) but the yard looks presentable and no longer like a hostel for snakes.
Now, why there are some patches where the grass withered when right next to them were candidates for a jungle, I have no idea. Gardening, I know, but apparently not grass management. Next on the list will be trimming the bushes down into a hedge. It’s an ongoing project for this exhausted postman.
But I did get some writing in, as well. I finally started my Postal Living page, and hopefully I can stick to my goal of having an essay written for a Sunday posting. Might need to go back over the first one, though. It reads more grumpy than amused (never write when annoyed, folks), so it’ll get some attention this week.
Made progress on Adventure 2, and it’s coming along better than last time. Who knew that having your source material in the correct file would be the thing you need when you’re obsessed about documents being in the right place? I’ve set for that to be posted by this Friday, so let’s see if I can meet that goal. I’ve also started work on more character pages, as well as updating the current ones as players read them over and realize they had background notes they never gave me. *exasperated sigh*
I’ve also figured out how to set up the Session Schedule! It’s on the menu for the Star Wars RPG selection at the top of the site.
Happy Sunday, readers!
-JB Swift
I suspect he know I’m trying to leave when he suddenly does this instead of peeing in the morning. Oh no, Case, go ahead and take your time. Not like I have letters to sling or anything.
This is following the late-night stress that was my focused too intently on figuring out the calendar/scheduling problems that cropped up over the past day. I might be a millennial and have a basic understanding of technology, but when I say basic, I mean that wholeheartedly. The phrase “I don’t know what I’m doing” is reflexive once I have a computer in front of me.
But I eventually figured it out and sent word to my players about the upcoming events. I’ve debated linking that to the site so everyone could just come here to find out when a session will be available, but I couldn’t find a way to do that without my players’ identities being made public. That just isn’t something I’m willing to do without their permission.
At least today is one of the days this week where I don’t feel the need to skip lunch and be done early(ish). I packed the tablet with me and queued up my plots/chapters, so I’ll get some writing in during the day.
Back to slinging letters, readers. As a bonus, another majestic picture of Old Man Casey just living his best life.
He’s a good boy, and just as goofy as the rest of us.
Stay safe, readers!
-JB Swift
Normally, I’d be annoyed at a high chance of rain while at my day-job. But given that the last few months have been filled with almost daily heat advisories, I was perfectly fine with walking in the rain for a few miles. It’s when there’s also lightning that I get nervous.
Managed to get this photo just before the rain started falling.
-JB Swift
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