Light Bulb Quest
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 long been fascinated by movies that take place on a single day or over just a few days. They’re surprisingly rare. Most movies follow a story arc that unfolds over several weeks, months, years, or even decades. Of the movies about a particular day, perhaps none is more well-known, memorable, or beloved than the […]
I don’t know about you, but this can be a difficult time of year for me. After the excitement and pageantry of the Christmas season, we still have many weeks of cold temperatures, long nights, and possibly adverse weather to look forward to. And even though I’m feeling more optimistic this year than I have […]
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, […]
As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, some folks I’ve delivered to have expressed their appreciation with kind words (in person or on handmade signs), snacks, and occasionally token gifts. I welcome all of these gestures. But with the holidays behind us, and more winter ahead of us, I’d gladly trade all of that for […]
They have coexisted uneasily in the same country for centuries. They don’t often mix, but you can find their respective communities in close proximity to each other. They identify as different ethnicities with all that entails. Each group has its own dialect, religious tradition, and cultural heritage. These differences produce different visions of the country […]