CURBSIDE ETIQUETTE

Through the Eyes of a Delivery Goddess



Below you will find links to dates when new entries are added. The stories will not necessarily be in chronological order, but rather as I remember them. I am dating them so that you can skip to new ones you haven't read since the last time you visited, and so that you are more easily able to find something you found humorous to share with others.
No Business like Snow Business


While most places south of us got about two inches of snow overnight; West Deer, Mars, Cranberry, Wexford and other places north seemed to have gotten closer to 7 or 8 inches. It's bad enough to wade through the snow, but after the plows have done a few passes on each street, the snow piles up under the paper tubes and mail boxes making the tubes too low to reach. Also, the excess snow tends to make for good skiing conditions, so don't try to pick up any speed between customers, either, you will slide right by about ten of them. If you notice the pile of snow on this picture, imagine if I don't "swish" the paper in the tube, but rather bump one of the sides while sliding past or reaching a foot lower than normal. The snow on top flies up your sleeve, even if you have on a jacket or shirt with crew-style cuffs. This picture was snapped with my handy-dandy cell phone - certainly not as sharp as I've seen others take with their cell phones, but you can get the idea of what we look at on a morning like this. The heavy snow also weighs down tree branches, my favorite being Pine Trees that can old a LOT of snow! If a tree branch hangs down in front of a tube, you are guaranteed to have snow all over the inside of your car, down the back of your neck, and all over your lap. (Still, though, nothing is as bad as a cold rain.) You can bet that, even on a morning like this, people don't seem to understand that we don't have hovercrafts or spiked tires to get through the snow as quickly as some warm July night, and can't figure out why their paper didn't make it to their driveway or tube by 6am. Of course, with the Oscars being last night, our papers were a tad late, as well, which added to the frolic in the snow. You might be able to see in this second picture, the snow piled up in the slot under the mailbox on the right - we call these molded plastic mailboxes "Rubbermaid" mailboxes. Just seems to be a term recognized throughout paper-land. This usually calls for bagging the paper before you put it in the slot - that's provided the plow beat you there, and you're aware that the snow is piled up inside the paper slot. If we beat the plow, and it comes by later to throw that rooster tail across everybody's mailbox, then, your paper will probably be a little frosty by the time you go out to retrieve it. Timing is everything.


Thank Goodness for Four Wheel Drive!