Light Bulb Quest
Recently, in the space of about a week, the news media have reported on no fewer than four separate incidents where an honest mistake or innocent misunderstanding led to gunfire. In Kansas City, a sixteen-year-old boy rang the doorbell of a house where he was sent to pick up his younger siblings, except he was […]
It was supposed to be today. Monday, April 17th, was the date set for the beginning of national contract talks between United Parcel Service and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. The current five-year contract expires July 31st. But it already appears that things will not be proceeding according to that mutually-agreed-upon timetable. First, a bit […]
When I was a little boy I was mesmerized by a toy I call the Floating Ball. You can still find it for sale online. It’s such an elementary concept: as you blow gently into the tube you keep the ball aloft, levitating as if by magic. Obviously you cannot exhale indefinitely, but if you […]
My wife Bethany and I have been together for a long time. Today is our twenty-ninth Valentine’s Day as a couple. Twenty-nine years. That’s long past the candy-and-flowers stage. Past even the Valentine cards stage. Ours was never a storybook romance. We married young and started a family early. A child with special needs. Job […]
‘No offense, Martin,’ one of my dearest friends, Dave, was telling me. I’d just started as a UPS driver, and as luck would have it, I caught him at home one day when I showed up with a delivery to his address. I decided to take a ten-minute break to catch him up on my […]
This week’s issue of the New Yorker magazine includes a long-form article titled, ‘UPS and the Package Wars.’ Its subtitle is a lot more provocative: ‘The company offers old-fashioned middle-class jobs and is enjoying record profits. So why is a strike looming?’ And the text of the web link is the clever, pithy phrase, ‘Can […]
Monday is the start of a new work week for many people. But unless I’ve been ‘forced in,’ Monday is the second day of my weekend. Ordinarily, newer UPS drivers like me work a Tuesday-through-Saturday schedule. During the week we work side-by-side with the more-senior Monday-through-Friday drivers. On those days the warehouse feels filled to […]
It’s 2023! Like a lot of people on January 1st, today I find myself reflecting on the year that has just passed and considering the year that lies ahead. I’m a big fan of observing milestones. Crossing a finish line is a big deal for me – always an accomplishment worth celebrating. But as a […]
It’s almost Christmas already! Compared with the previous two years, this year’s winter holiday season (‘peak’) seems to have flown past! Any other time of the year, the UPS warehouse where I work is largely empty after all the package cars drive away with their loads. By contrast, all through peak, piles of packages are […]
Thanksgiving two years ago I shared my thoughts about what I was thankful for as a new package car driver for United Parcel Service. Then last year I observed Thanksgiving with a reflection on how the supply chain is really a global chain of human (inter)activity bringing our purchases all the way to our front […]