Light Bulb Quest
Just before Covid shut the whole world down, I’d made a trip to Houston where my son Judson was living at the time. It was my first visit so he was showing me all the sights around town. One of Houston’s points of interest is the Johnson Space Center. I’m not a full-on space nerd […]
I wrote in my last post about how driving for UPS has helped me feel connected to, and affection for, particular places all across the region where I live and work. Around this time last year I was assigned to cover for a driver out for several months on a workers’ compensation claim. I routinely […]
Well, I’ve managed to make it through my second holiday (‘peak’) season as a UPS driver. And since Christmas fell on a Saturday this year, I was blessed with a three-day weekend – my first, I believe, since starting this role. After six-day workweeks throughout most of 2021, I finally have a chance to rest […]
Earlier this month the Oxford English Dictionary announced that its 2021 Word of the Year was ‘vax.’ Granted, the pandemic has continued to loom large over our culture, disrupting our politics and upending our economy. The Oxford report didn’t mention any of the other contenders, but I’ll bet that one of them was ‘supply chain.’ […]
Exactly one year ago this weekend I put in my final morning on the preload shift in the warehouse and began my journey toward becoming a package car driver at UPS. I’d found the part-time work engaging, challenging, and fascinating – truly blog-worthy – and, more importantly, a necessary stopgap after I lost my white-collar […]
In March I commented that the time had been passing quickly since I started driving for UPS. Back then I’d gone a whole month between posts. Now it’s August and I haven’t posted anything for five months! As usual, I’ve been very busy. If you’re a regular reader, you know that my job is more […]
Spring is finally here! I somehow managed to survive my first winter – peak season and all – as a UPS driver. Not only has this job changed the way I experience time each day, it has also changed the way I think about time over the longer term. In unionized workplaces like UPS seniority […]
I can hardly believe it, but a whole month has passed since my last post. Where did all that time go? Well, to work, mostly. Since Christmas I’ve averaged just under 48 hours per week of paid time. And since I can’t work from home, I still commute 25 minutes each way. I try to […]
I’ve written previously about how the odds were ever in my favor to become a package car driver for UPS. If that phrase sounds familiar, it’s because it comes from the popular series The Hunger Games. Even if you haven’t read the books or seen the movies, you probably at least know that the heroine, […]
It was 30 days ago today that I completed my 30-day trial period as a UPS driver. How have I been keeping busy since then? Completing my 30 Days meant giving up my training route and going to the very bottom of the list of permanent full-time drivers. Since that happened the week before Christmas, […]