Through the Eyes of a Delivery Goddess |
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Nothing is more fun that trying to navagate people's driveways in the winter time. Many folks don't think about the fact that, when they order something, whether it be food, or UPS or FedEx, etc, someone has to walk on their driveway. So many people have the modern convenience of a garage door opener, that if they can spin their way up the driveway and into an integral garage, then get out of the car inside the house, they don't need to clean off their driveway - not even a pathway. ..."Hey, WE made it... why should I worry about the driveway?"... On a side note of the same mentality - have you ever passed someone in a grey or dark car just at barely sunrise, who you can't see because they don't have their headlights turned on? My first husband had a co-worker, that during his turn to drive while carpooling to work, David said, 'Mr.F... you need to turn on your lights'. Mr. F said, "Why? I can see..." DUH- ya, but no one can see YOU, smartie pants, and that's just part of being a courteous defensive driver. Some people's kids........)I know I've already expressed some grief about different driveways in the winter months, but this one was a suprise to me. I looked at the receipt for this one family, it said, "Special Instructions: Have Driver call before leaving the pizza shop". Well, I had a cell phone, so I figured I'd call when I got to the last hard-top road before the side, partially-paved-partially-broken road from where their driveway took off. I have no idea where modern Pizza delivery - or any delivery for that matter - would be without cell phones. I was familiar with the road - this was a driveway across from a Post Gazette customer on Bob's son's route. The broken up formerly hard-top road dropped into a dip, the driveway was at the very bottom of the dip (the hills leading into and out of the dip were usually a sheet of ice all winter long) and the driveway was just barely a dirt path that went nearly vertical up to a field that I assumed led to the house, not visible from the road. I remember thinking, even though I had taken the four-wheel-drive to deliver pizzas that night, I was sure I could not make it up that steep incline, and there had to be a different way to their house. We'd never seen any vehicles parked at the bottom during the winter, so I wondered if they might send me to a different entrance once I got there. I knew I'd lose cellular service at the bottom of the dip, so as I turned in off of the last blacktop road, I called the family. I said I was turning onto Henry road, and that I was in a four wheel drive, was there somewhere else they wanted me to enter onto the property. "No," they said, "We'll meet you at the bottom in two minutes." I sat at the bottom and they came flying down on the snow mobile - equipped with a little shallow flat box that appeared to be made just for carrying pizza. I'm so glad they met me half way, I was scared to death I'd get stuck on their property, and never return. |