Oh yeah, and as it ALWAAAAAAAAAAAYS seems to happen I was reminded how fortunate I really am. I turned on TV for the first time this weekend and was immediately hit with a story about children with Progeria.

They profiled one poor kid who at the age of like 8 or something like that has the health issues of a 70 year old.

THIS KID HAS PROBLEMS, THESE PARENTS HAVE BROKEN HEARTS. I have a dented side panel and a damaged bumper so I should pretty much SHUT THE HELL UP!

On top of it all, the kids attitude about his disease and the reality he'll be dying very young is amazing. He's just excited to get a chance to fish with his Grandpa in heaven!

Great reminder to keep things in perspective.

You're right Mz, it's not a bad thing to have a day of self-pity once in awhile. I just wish I'd have calmed down before I started spewing off. I pretty much walked in the door and started posting. I don't remember, but I think I sent a few PM's to people that were pretty pathetic, making it sound like my life was a big bowl of crap

Hey Allycat, do you think if the posting farie does take my posts that he or she will leave me a shiny quarter in it's place?!

Oooooooooooooooooh!

I could make that my new job! Posting questionable material to collect the quarters.

That would be an easy job too! I got plenty of questionable material I could post!

Did you guys get a chance to go past it on the Michigan street side?

That little 2 car dock (the door was probably closed) next to the rive is where I go in. Now they're doing construction on one of the floors, so they have huge trucks parked right up to the dock entrance on Michigan every night when I get there, making it completely impossible to tell when traffic is coming. I literally have to back up about a foot, honk, back up another foot, honk, about 12 times.

Even being that careful I've had about three people slam on their brakes and narrowly avoid hitting me already.

Beleive me Ally, I wish I could, but the truth is the building has almost no parking other than a connected structure.

I'd be happy to embarass them by waltzing through the front door with all the work, but there's no accessibility to the vault in the basement from the front door, and that's where I gotta go.

Besides that I pick up between 200 and 400 lbs worth of work every night. Carrying it through the main area would take a couple trips.

Like I said, I'll give em' a week. I explained to them in detail why this drop is not worth it to me. They know it too.

I was asked to take it six months ago and said no because I had heard how bad it was. But a few months ago they kind of slid it into my new route and there wasn't a lot I could do about it.

Well. I never want to do anything that's going to hurt my resume for future jobs I might apply for.

Ordinarily I wouldn't even have mentioned to them that I was ready to give my notice, but I wanted to make sure they understand I am serious about them removing this from the route.

They're in a tight spot right now because a change by this same bank a little over a month ago cut a lot of full time drivers down to almost part time. All the drivers are upset about this, but in my situation it is exactly what I was looking for. THEY of course don't know that though, so they're very sensitive right now to the fact that the drivers aren't happy.

I figure that gives me two peices of leverage. 1) They want to keep us happy if they can, and 2) other drivers are desperate for work and might just take this drop thinking they gotta get whatever cash they can right now.

I just hope none of them asks me what I thought of the drop. Because I can't lie and say it was ok knowing they'll be getting screwed over if they take it

I think I'll just keep a low profile and avoid the other drivers until someone takes the drop.

Ordinarily all I'm picking up is three bags of work from each bank branch in a 100 mile area that I cover.

They're very light. Maybe 5 lbs each. One has the cancelled checks the branch has taken in that day, one has loan paperwork, and the other has interoffice mail and stuff.

I collect these bags from the branches and bring them all to the processing center downtown. It's really pretty cool, because like I've said before it pays pretty well, it's a tax-free job, and I love driving around, expecially out to some of the more remote branches.

But this plaza drop is different. They have a processing center and their main bank downtown. I pick up the work from the main bank and take it about 8 blocks to the processing center. This is heavy stuff though, because they are sending bankers boxes of files back and forth, and they have about 150 to 250 lbs of cancelled checks every day (apaprantly some major corporations run their checks through them, accounting for the huge volume). Another 100 lbs or so of loan paperwork and maybe 50 lbs of interoffice mail.

On a really bad day, when they're shipping a lot of those extra bankers boxes it can be 1000 lbs of crap!

My poor little car is rubbing the pavement when the day is that heavy

The ironic part is, this is the worst paying part of the route. For moving all that work I get about $7.50 a day. Not bad when considering that it's about 20 to 25 minutes of my day, but it's hard to look at it that way when you feel like you're taking your life in your own hands everytime you stop down there.

No, I do the loading and unloading. I have to bring it up from the basement, get it into the car, then at the processing center I have to unload it and take it up to the second floor.

It's funny too, the processing center is about a half story below ground level, so they have a ramp I have to push the work up to get to the elevator. When it's a normal day it's no problem, but on the days it's really heavy, that ramp feels like it's a mile long even though it's only about 30 feet. I feel like a little ant trying to push a stone uphill

Man, the more we talk about this the more I wonder just how stupid I am for having accepted it in the first place

The problem is these guys are working in buildings that were built decades ago and didn't take stuff like this into aco****. Nowadays they'd have a street level dock, with easy access directly to the areas that move work in and out.

Everything downtown feels like you're in an old abandoned cellar and you go up a level or two and then everythings nice and ritzy.

account

only if you drop the first A and the o... lol that is a bad word, I had a lady call me that at work the other day.

I don't use it at all, but the lady who used it got such a lashing for it I don't think she will either. She got it from about 5 of us.

GOOD! I didn't see your post until after I posted mine. I'm glad they all got in there and let her have it!

I've always said the thing I respect about my parents more than anything is that in my entire life I NEVER, EVER, NOT ONCE, heard them call each other a name when they argued.

And I don't think it's just because they were careful in front of me. My parents just don't swear to begin with. But I think it's shows a great deal of respect for each other to NOT lose control and let a "Bitch" or "A**hole" slip when you're in the heat of an argument.

I call sparky a few names now and then but not out of anger just out of him being whatever name I might call him.