|
|
Post by billhammond on Jul 17, 2022 11:51:57 GMT -5
Got back from a week of Augusta swingery at 11:30 last night after a long day of transportation (and airport waiting): three-hour drive to Pittsburgh, flight to Mpls, ground shuttle to St. Cloud, cross-town drive home. Lots of walking and waiting in between. I was really baffled by your mention of Pittsburgh, as you'd have to average 200 mph to reach that PA city in three hours. Didn't know there was a Pittsbugh, GA! |
|
|
|
Post by billhammond on Jul 17, 2022 11:55:37 GMT -5
The endoscopy is a thing I’ve never heard of called a Pillcam Small Bowel Capsule Endoscopy with the SensorBelt. I remember those! (I think the Sensor is in the left pocket of the white slacks.)  |
|
|
|
Post by John B on Jul 17, 2022 12:10:28 GMT -5
The endoscopy is a thing I’ve never heard of called a Pillcam Small Bowel Capsule Endoscopy with the SensorBelt. I remember those! (I think the Sensor is in the left pocket of the white slacks.) Video of Dub's endoscopy has already been published: |
|
|
|
Post by billhammond on Jul 17, 2022 12:28:20 GMT -5
WOW! Is the British Open heating up at the end!
|
|
|
|
Post by Russell Letson on Jul 17, 2022 12:35:59 GMT -5
I was really baffled by your mention of Pittsburgh, as you'd have to average 200 mph to reach that PA city in three hours. Didn't know there was a Pittsbugh, GA! That's just the return leg: Elkins WV->PIT->MSP->Waite Park->home. (I'm not counting the pedestrian parts, lugging luggage and a flightworthy guitar case.) My rental car, BTW, was a new RAV4 with all the current bells & whistles. Took me a half-hour to figure out how to tune the radio. It did, however, get very good mileage--the dashboard data-system screen has a running bar graph that showed long stretches of 35-40 mpg. Not bad for a hilly route in a non-tiny vehicle. |
|
|
|
Post by millring on Jul 17, 2022 12:43:14 GMT -5
I had a jarring and deeply disturbing conversation with a fellow mail carrier this past week.
Nearly a month ago I knocked on a door in Packerton, IN. Packerton was cited in an article in Life, Time, or some other national magazine (I don't remember which, just that the article had been written) as the poorest town in America. I have my doubts that that's true (especially with Appalachia to compare it to) but statistics don't lie, do they? Anyway, I was knocking on the door of this house on a dirt road in downtown Packerton in order to deliver a certified letter from a Veteran's organization.
I heard what sounded like an angry yell from inside. It's probably because I was on edge due to the surroundings, but what I heard was "GET OUT OF HERE!"
And so I did. Quickly. I sat in my mail truck nervously filling out a pink "Sorry we missed you" slip to put in the mailbox, hoping to make a quick exit before something bad happened.
Fast forward to this past week and the aforementioned unsettling conversation:
Dani is a mail carrier of about 15 years experience. Between my Packerton incident and the present, Dani took over that Packerton route that I had been doing most of the past year. Her case (where she sorts mail in the morning) is next to mine and the other morning she stepped over and began to tell me of this disturbing incident she'd had the day before.
She was in Packerton trying to redeliver a certified letter. She said "I knocked on the door and someone hollered, 'COME IN'!". She continued to tell me that when she tentatively stepped inside she saw an old man sitting in adult diapers in an electric wheelchair with a dead battery, with the house just shy of collapsing around him. He pointed to a table beside him. On it was a small stack of letters he was hoping Dani could mail for him.
I immediately felt pretty small, when I realized that she was talking about the same house, the same certified letter, and how badly I had misjudged the circumstances the month before.
Anyway, while Dani was inside, the old man asked her if she might retrieve something for him from deeper in the house. This led Dani over rotted, soft floors to a bedroom to retrieve the article for him. But it led her past a moldy kitchen and a bathroom that hadn't been used in she couldn't guess how long. The plumbing was all broken.
She returned to the man and gave him what it was he asked her to retrieve. She then noticed the water bottles beside him. Gallon jugs that were the only means by which he could try to wash himself as he sat in one place all day. She stayed as long as she dared (she's on the clock) and listened to him explain some of what she was seeing (that's how she knew the plumbing doesn't work and neither does the wheelchair and neither does anything else, save perhaps the TV). He went on to elaborate on some of the history of Packerton, and anything else Dani would listen to as she slowly backed her way to the door and exited with a friendly smile and a goodbye.
It really upset her. It really upset me. It still does.
It's one of the more unpleasantly educational aspects to carrying mail.
The obesity that you witness every time you walk into a Walmart or walk a city street is only the tip of the iceberg. When you're a mail carrier you quickly realize the great number of people so obese that they can no longer exit their houses.
As a mail carrier you see the compulsive hoarders. Several routes have them, but none worse than Millie's (my first sub route -- another of the 3 Claypool routes). I was a week into subbing on Millie's route when I had to deliver a box to a house on Beaver Dam Rd. I made my way to the door, only to realize that the porch was already full of boxes. In fact, not just the porch was full...they spilled all the way to the driveway and beyond. And if you glanced at the picture window over the porch, you could see that boxes were piled against it on the inside of the house. None had ever been opened. They were ordered for to satisfy some unimaginable compulsion. It was my first experience with the hoarders of the county and when I got back I reported what I thought might be an emergency situation to my supervisor who, in turn, reported it to the sheriff. The law checked out the situation. No problem. She was fine, they said. Now a year later the pile of unopened boxes only goes further down the driveway.
One hoarder on route 23 (the one I carried for 4 months this past winter) had the same thing -- boxes all over the porch, spilling down the driveway. One day I got a "hold mail" notice for her address. As I drove by the place every day I noted that someone finally cleaned up the mess. She had moved. Sure enough, within a week I got a "forward" notice. It was to another address on the same route. I was soon delivering boxes there, and they were soon accumulating on the porch. I was sardonically reminded of the old joke about buying a new car when the ashtrays got full in the old one.
As a mail carrier you deliver the letters to and from jails and prisons. In my early months of carrying the Packerton route I couldn't help but notice a certain woman had an outgoing letter in her mailbox every day. It was addressed to a boy in juvenile detention in Plainfield Indiana. Every day. The pollyanna romantic in me was writing the imaginary back story of a mother's faithful love of her son --writing him faithfully every day when the world had forgotten about him....until I googled the name and found a late teen incarcerated for molesting a child.
It's not a Walt Disney World.
|
|
|
|
Post by TKennedy on Jul 17, 2022 13:40:18 GMT -5
WOW! Is the British Open heating up at the end! You can say that again! What a finale! John your story sounds a lot like the ones we would hear from ambulance personnel and public health nurses. Probably law enforcement for sure. |
|
|
|
Post by billhammond on Jul 17, 2022 13:48:35 GMT -5
WOW! Is the British Open heating up at the end! You can say that again! What a finale! One thing that really is bothering me is that I didn't see a single interview with Cameron Young, who ALSO bettered Rory. I have Golf Channel on now, maybe they will right that wrong in their followup coverage. |
|
|
|
Post by Cornflake on Jul 17, 2022 13:50:35 GMT -5
"I think this is my 5th or 6th colonoscopy and they haven't found any cancer yet although there was a polyp they couldn't remove 6 years ago that cost me my ascending colon. That surgery wasn't fun."
My first one revealed a polyp that couldn't be snipped so I had a colon resection. I agree, not fun. But the docs thought the polyp was precancerous and the colonoscopy may have added years to my life.
|
|
|
|
Post by Rob Hanesworth on Jul 17, 2022 14:09:02 GMT -5
First mulleted Open winner since John Daly.
|
|
|
|
Post by martinfever on Jul 17, 2022 15:00:13 GMT -5
Cameron Smith shot a brilliant 64 to win The Open.
He really golfed his ball, as Johnny Miller would say.
A wonderful performance at the home of golf.
|
|
|
|
Post by Hobson on Jul 17, 2022 15:31:20 GMT -5
Been to church and then Costco. Had to return some shorts that didn't fit Mr. H. Somehow managed to spend $115 while there. We are stocked up on soft foods, as I'm having a tooth extracted on Tuesday. I also have a colonoscopy scheduled, but not until late August. I put it off for a year due to COVID. No problems that I know of, but that's what the procedure is for.
Someday I expect to see a book with a collection of postal service stories. They're here. They just need to be compiled.
|
|
|
|
Post by TKennedy on Jul 17, 2022 15:36:38 GMT -5
“ Cameron Smith shot a brilliant 64 to win The Open.
He really golfed his ball, as Johnny Miller would say.
A wonderful performance at the home of golf.”
I like that in the Royal and Ancient rules you definitely “play it as it lies”. Even if it is on an asphalt road.
I was lucky enough to play that course in 1982 in April. There was a big sign on the first tee that said “Winter Rules”. Before my first shot from the fairway I nudged my ball a little and my elderly caddie barked “what are you doin mon”. I explained that the sign said winter rules. He said “you donna touch your ball at St Andrews”
It was sunny and about 65 degrees but he had a wool overcoat, stocking cap, and rubber boots on. Later I found out why as the wind picked and the temperature and the barometer dropped. It is a diabolical place.
|
|
|
|
Post by billhammond on Jul 17, 2022 16:00:33 GMT -5
Back from picking up takeout BBQ chicken from Rooster's in St. Paul. Very tasty and tender, but salty. What is it about smoking meat that makes it salty, anyhoo?
|
|
|
|
Post by millring on Jul 17, 2022 16:25:33 GMT -5
What is it about smoking meat that makes it salty, anyhoo? Probably the salt content. |
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 17, 2022 17:11:32 GMT -5
It's not a Walt Disney World. That's a humbling story, John. |
|
|
|
Post by Marty on Jul 17, 2022 18:25:08 GMT -5
|
|
|
|
Post by TKennedy on Jul 17, 2022 19:45:38 GMT -5
I love that video!
|
|
|
|
Post by Cornflake on Jul 17, 2022 19:57:15 GMT -5
"Back from picking up takeout BBQ chicken from Rooster's in St. Paul. Very tasty and tender, but salty. What is it about smoking meat that makes it salty, anyhoo?"
Nothing about the smoking, but most smoked meats are treated in advance with a dry rub which is often heavy on salt. Some are brined.
|
|
|
|
Post by Marshall on Jul 17, 2022 20:35:30 GMT -5
It's not a Walt Disney World. |
|
