It's Real Life Part 5

Jessica is back at it with her It's Real Life Carnival! This weeks theme was How I Roll.

I thought I would do something a little different, seeing as how I drive for my job, and I spend more time in my work vehicle than I do driving anything else. Before I get started though, I want to let everyone know, especially Krystyn who commented about my pictures the other day, that we rural carriers get a whole 30 minutes for lunch, and since I wait until I get home to eat lunch (and I don't smoke), I usually have a few minutes to spare for picture taking.

So without further adieu, here are my pictures and commentary of how I roll....

The first picture pretty much speaks for itself, just exactly what you would see if you saw me driving down the street.

Wash day was on Monday, it rained Tuesday morning, so it's all covered with mud now, which is how it usually goes. It will be wash day again in another week and a half.

It's kind of hard to see, but the window is only halfway down. I learned early on that halfway is as far as it should go. You can read a little about that on this post, #20.

And there's the door latch that I have a love/hate relationship with. It loves to stick out that far, and I hate it that I have permanent bruises on my right arm from falling into it all the time. And also notice the Avoid Backing Whenever Possible sticker. I usually back up avoid backing about 12 times each day to manuver around people's cars and trashcans. So to avoid backing, I just curb my wheels, put it in park, set my brake, turn off the ignition and take the key out, take off my seatbelt, unlock and open my door, and get out to put the mail in the box. Then I get back in, put my seatbelt on, shut and lock my door, put the key in, start it, take the brake off, and put it in drive. Sounds like a lot, huh?

Here's what it all looks like when I've got it all loaded and ready to go. This particular day was exceptionally light on mail, so it doesn't look like I have much to deliver. It takes me between 2 and 3 hours to run my route. Usually closer to 2.

There's a 2 part seatbelt, you can un-latch the part across your chest so it doesn't choke you when you lean way far out the window to reach those pesky boxes that are just too far away.

And last but certainly not least, the answer to the ever burning question in everyone's mind..."Do you have air conditioning in that thing?"

No, but I gotta fan that will dry the sweat before it runs into my eyes. The trick is to blow enough hot air at you that the sweat just evaporates. We once had a guy who took a thermometer with him and according to that, it's about 8 degrees hotter in the vehicle than outside. So when it's 110 degrees out here in the summer, it's an oven in there.

So there you have it, that's how I roll, in a hot metal box with no air conditioning and no radio, just my thoughts of blogging delivering the mail to keep me company.

And when I go to the grocery store after work, while Seth stays home with the kids to make it easier on me, this is how I roll....