Unseasonably warm; travel notes

We did not have an extraordinarily hot summer around here. It was hot and humid as usual for these parts, and there were plenty of days in the 90s, but I don't remember getting over 100 degrees. 

We had a lot of rain until about mid-August, when it stopped abruptly and we had draught-like conditions until a couple of weeks ago. 

And while our summer was not unbearably hot, the summer temperatures hung around throughout September, and we have even had some 90-degree days this past week. The mornings are pleasant but by mid-day it has felt like summer. 

We have friends who spend part of the winter in Florida, fleeing winter temperatures (even though winters here are hardly brutal). I would sooner spend part of summers in the mountains, preferably in Colorado, to get away from the heat and humidity. (But I'll be staying around here.) 

And speaking of, it was only for a few days, but Wife and I spent some time in Colorado in August. We were invited to a wedding in Fort Collins. After attending the wedding, we spent a couple of days in Estes Park, at the east entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park, one of my happy places, and where I spent the summers of 1980 and 1981. 

Trail Ridge Road is the vehicular passageway through Rocky Mountain National Park and is open late May through mid-October. The rest of the time, it is largely covered with snow. The highest passable road in North America, it has spectacular views. Some drivers (and passengers), however, find it more than they can take.

During the summer of '81, however, most days I drove a 15-passenger van up Trail Ridge from the town of Grand Lake at the west entrance of the national park, where we lived, to Trail Ridge Store (at the top of Trail Ridge Road) where we worked. During this trip Wife and I spent a day driving over Trail Ridge, over to Grand Lake and back to Estes Park, and I immediately felt comfortable with the drive, even as Wife turned her head inward a few times. I loved retracing my steps and reliving times from those summers, and Wife graciously indulged me as I told her stories she had already heard. 

I returned to south Arkansas for my 50-year class reunion a couple of weeks ago, which I wrote about on my Substack. It exceeded expectations. A bunch of classmates made their way back to our old stomping grounds and even though the big event Saturday night pushed me outside my comfort zone with the large crowd, I knew there would be people there I would enjoy seeing. The room was plenty spacious, so I took a deep breath and lingered on the edges, then would work my way into the larger group when I would see someone I wanted to visit with. It was more enjoyable than I expected it would be. 

Even more enjoyable was a much smaller event Saturday afternoon with about 15 of us, all old friends, which was a comfortable, relaxed setting at someone's home. It was great to talk and laugh and act like we were 18 again. 

Wife and I will hit the road again soon, and I'll report back when the latest jaunt is complete. 

Rover gets reported

I am very much enjoying my part-time job of which I wrote in my last post. Each Monday afternoon around 1 p.m. I go pick up my deliveries and I am on my way. 

The company uses a routing app called "My Route Online" that syncs with my GPS maps app. The addresses of the homes I will visit are prepopulated into the routing app each week. Once I have loaded my deliveries and I am ready to go, I activate the app and it routes me from house to house. 

I make the dropoff, either (a) on the front porch; (b) in a cooler left in a designated location, which is usually but not always the front porch; or (c) into a garage refrigerator to which I am given access. I take a picture of the order and transmit it with a text to the customer, confirming delivery has been made. 

As I wrote previously, I came up with some shortcuts to help me, e.g. printing the list of addresses, putting them on a clipboard and marking them off as I go along (this is probably my age showing, but it helps me double-check myself), and entering into my contacts the names and numbers of any new customers that week so I can send the confirmation text as quickly as possible. 

Everything has gone smoothly. I have met a handful of customers who have greeted me at the door, and they have all been very kind. Yesterday, a guy came out and shook hands with me and told me how much his family enjoys the food. 

This is the exception, however, and most of the folks I do not see. It has become clear they are not inclined to tip. My confirmation text includes my Venmo address with a message that "tips are appreciated but never expected." As I wrote last time, I feel sure they are of the opinion they are already paying handsomely and delivery is covered, which is true as I am paid to make the deliveries. I get it, and I didn't get into this for the money. 

The only problem I have had has been with Rover, the dog I wrote about. (This is the name I have given him; I don't know his real name.) He is a yellow lab, a big guy, and as sweet as he can be. His owners obviously have an electric fence as he roams freely around the yard. 

I like dogs and I am happy to greet Rover and play with him. I am not the least bit frightened of him. 

However, this particular customer has standing instructions to leave their order in a cooler on their back porch. This requires parking in front of the house, walking around to the back, walking up a flight of stairs to said back porch, then back down again and to my car. Rover is with me the entire time. 

He sees me pulling up and runs to my car door. When I open it, he tries to jump in. He licks my face. When I manage to get out, he jumps on me, and yesterday he knocked my phone out of my hand. 

I don't think he knows basic commands like "sit" or "stay." (I have tried.) To be sure, he does not bite or scratch and not once have I been afraid of him. I pet him and love on him for a few minutes as soon as I get there. Again, he stays with me the entire time, going up the stairs to the porch and back down again. He usually finds something in the yard for me to fetch to him before I leave.  

But I have a job to do. Rover's owners' home is, obviously, not my only stop. And yesterday, he was too aggressive. There are a couple of Mondays in October when I'll be out of town, and a driver who is smaller than me might have a problem. He could knock someone down. 

So, I contacted the support person for drivers yesterday afternoon when I was done, and very reluctantly reported Rover. She thanked me for letting her know and said she would notify the customer that he would have to be contained during delivery times. I told her as long as I am the driver for this address, it's fine, but she said it had to be addressed immediately. I have a feeling this has happened before. 

I have never met Rover's owners, but I would love to be able to tell them I really like Rover, and my reporting him was a precaution. He is a sweet dog. 

I am probably overthinking it. 

Back to work . . . sort of

My official retirement date last year was December 1st, meaning that is when I ceased to be an employee of my former employer and they stopped paying me every other Friday. Per my severance agreement, a final payout would follow in early 2026, but I was officially retired December 1st. 

I stopped working, however, October 29th. So, I am coming up on one year, which is hard to believe. 

I had some concerns about retirement. I know myself, and I know I need a routine. And I know I need things to do. 

With that in mind, I signed up for some volunteer gigs. One of those was temporary, which involved helping an organization for which I was a former board member and board chair find and hire a new CEO. 

That one took up a fair amount of time for about six months and has now ended. I have plenty going on, and I'm pleased to say I am never bored. As long as there is something to read or something to write about, when I have a little bit of down time, I am in good shape. 

With the CEO search committee commitment ending, I had some freed-up time. I have kept my eyes open for something worthwhile to fill a little more time. 

Years ago, when we got new windows on our house, the company sold them to us asked if I would post a review. (This was in return for supposedly giving us some type of deal. Whatever.) I told them I was not on any type of social media, so they told me I could post it on Next Door, which is a neighborhood website that apparently is widely used and read in neighborhoods like ours. 

I posted the review and in so doing, apparently "subscribed" to Next Door. While I don't routinely visit their site, I get emails from them and at times there is just enough of a hook in the subject line to pique my curiosity, so I end up briefly scrolling through the site. 

I have found some good information there, including a couple of home maintenance companies that I've used a handful of times. 

A big part of the site, however, pertains to animals, whether wild or domesticated. A lot of people post pictures of snakes, asking their neighbors to tell them what kind it is. People also like to post something their night camera caught, like skunks and racoons. 

On the domesticated front, there are the occasional lost dogs and cats. Also, a person sometimes wants to "rehome" their pet. And this is when the crazies come out. 

Someone says he/she needs to find a new home for his/her pet, and inevitably, that person is attacked by people telling them they should have never gotten a dog in the first place if they couldn't take care of it. These self-righteous ones say they treat their pets like members of the family and would never "re-home" one. 

All this without knowing anything about the person's circumstances or lot in life. And honestly, I read some of that for the entertainment value because it's so absurd. 

All of the aforementioned is a digression from what I intended to write about, but I suppose it's important for context, so you know why I occasionally peruse the Next Door site. 

Getting to the point (finally), I have taken on a part-time job courtesy of Next Door. A few weeks ago, I saw a post from a business saying they were hiring drivers. They are a private chef company, meaning they make meals for people to order weekly and have delivered to their door. In summary, I sent them a message via the site. They responded and asked me to come talk to them. I was hired onsite. 

And as of a couple weeks ago, I am a driver for this company on Monday afternoons, which is when customers' meals are delivered for the week. I am paid a flat amount that covers my time and my mileage. The first week I made 12 deliveries and this week I made 15. 

I might add that I can also theoretically get tips, but so far that has amounted to a walloping ten dollars. I suspect the patrons of this company believe they pay enough already. I would probably feel the same. 

I told Wife if it were the least bit stressful, I would not do it. I have not completely kept that commitment because the first week there was some stress involved as I tried to simultaneously manage the routing app, the email I had received with my list of customers and a text with templates to use for confirmation texts I am required to send to each customer once dropoff is made, along with a photo of what I just delivered. 

Meals are left either at customers' doors, in a cooler left on the front porch or a garage refrigerator to which I am given access. 

Between Week 1 and Week 2, I came up with some good shortcuts to maneuver all of it, and Week 2 went much more smoothly. Week 1 took me three hours. Week 2 took me two hours and fifty minutes. The efficiencies I came up with worked, in that I cut ten minutes off my time with three added deliveries from Week 1 to Week 2. 

The only stress in Week 2 occurred when I started to leave a home that was at the bottom of a steep driveway and family members all watched as I wound my way back up the hill, and a sweet but overly aggressive dog that wanted me to play with him. 

I have a support person to call or text with any complications which so far have been nothing more than a couple of coolers that were not big enough for the meals I was delivering. I did not report the dog, because he was not a problem for me. If, however, I deliver to that house again next week and have the same experience, I probably will, not because the dog bothers me, but because if another delivery person goes to that house, especially a person of slighter build, it could be a problem. 

All in all, so far, so good with my new part-time job. It's fun seeing different parts of the city and I have managed, for the most part, to reduce any associated stress. Not a bad way to spend a Monday afternoon.