Through the Eyes of a Delivery Goddess |
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Papers printed late enought this morning that it was daylight during the last 80% or so of the route. In an effort to keep myself awake and occpied, I noticed something early in the route today that has been a standard year after year, but has not really appeared to me as it did this morning. Most newspaper carriers use what we call "Hot Dots". They are reflective quarter-sized stickers that we put on mailboxes to remind us who gets a paper, and perhaps the difference between a seven-day customer and a Sunday-Only customer. This is especially helpful if you're going on vacation, the person filling in for you while you're gone can follow the dots, easier than trying to read addresses in a dimmly lit car (and we all know how much harder that is now than when we were teenagers). Also, if two people alternate on a route, like a husband and wife - dots make it easy to keep track of who's active and who's on vacation - who started and who stopped with minimal amounts of memory crunching. The dots come in various colors - green, blue, white, lime, yellow, orange, red, and others. I'm always amused at how many folks are annoyed with our dots on their mailboxes. We've gone as far as hiding the dots on chain-link fence, rocks, etc - just to avoid having them removed so we can keep track more easily. Now, you have to understand my point of view. I'm a slob- everybody knows it, I'm not afraid to admit it. A dot on my mailbox would not only NOT bother me, but would probably go unnoticed. We just wouldn't see it. I have a few customers on my Trib route that I had to chuckle at this morning. There are four that I noticed, that are constantly picking the dots off of their mailboxes, and I've been a bit dot-happy this past week, trying to make it easier for my Post Gazette friends to take over my route in four weeks. The four I noticed are all part of the Lawn Fritterer community - those who's yards appear to be spray painted a deep green, those who can be caught at sunset with a sprinkling can dangling over the flower bed so as not to drop even one petal to the ground (like their neighbors who use a high-pressure garden hose) ... those who trim the edges of their perfectly asphalt-sealed driveways with scissors and wash their mailboxes with a bucket and sponge after every lawn cutting (even though they use a tractor and catch-bag) just to make sure no stray clippings stick to the mailbox. However, TWO of these four had flower beds below their mailboxes, with ugly twine suspended in air by one-inch-square, perfectly cut-off wooden pegs, and green or red plastic newspaper bags tied in knots on the twine to scare away either birds, rabbits, or perhaps the family pet. I'm sorry - I found that severely amusing. Everything looks so perfect, and in an effort to maintain perfection - well - you get the picture. Mailbox envy, curbside vanity ... whatever - this slob finds it all too amusing. And, if you continue to pick your dots off of your mailboxes, you wont' get a paper tomorrow!! TAKE THAT!! |