The picture wasn't the one I intended to upload. In the other picture, they were all wearing Photoshopped Arby's hats but, for some reason, I can't get that @#$! pic to upload. I was looking at the pudgy PMG on the left. I am sure he has had plenty of Horsey Sauce in his day.
The NALC Food Drive is probably the biggest thing going on at my station. There is some bickering between the city and rural carriers because the city routes will get overtime during this week while the rural routes don't get paid over their evaluation. I think this is one of the best public relations moves by the NALC and it is probably more important charity work than our CFC Campaign.
The USPS' role was to print out postcards equalling six full coverages in 10 days. The customers already knew after the first full coverage. Why does the USPS send out mulitple full coverages for the same event - like Holiday service. They are just as bad as Comcast. Hundreds of millions of these full-coverage postcards are printed all the time. Precious trees must be felled to print all of these full coverages - trees that are necessary to consume carbon dioxide. After the full coverages are delivered even more carbon dioxide is emitted. You know what this means? These full coverages are causing the Arctic ice caps to melt. I hope Comcast and the USPS remember those starving polar bears stranded on small ice floes the next time they send a full coverage. :)
I haven't written a blog for a few days because things have been busy in my life. Some of it is union related and some of it is on a personal level. I have had a lot of time to think and something I am working on is rearranging my portfolio. With the economy like it is - I have decided to close my account with the postal credit union and invest in food. I had a huge refrigerator in my garage with was packed full of ground beef and chicken. With ground beef and chicken going up 6 percent this year - I sold it for a profit. Then I took this profit and invested in cereal. I got an 8 percent return on all my boxes of Froot Loops and Cocoa Puffs. Then I poured those profits into milk, cheese and peanut butter. That investment netted me 10 percent. They say the trend for food costs is only going to get worse. This is good for business!
I am sitting on a pile of cash big enough to fill my up my gas tank once a week!
Before writing this, I just finished reading Carrie's novel, I mean blog. I know she has been busy remodeling her house and dealing with an abusive postmaster, but, wow; can she write a blog or what???
It was sad because she said, "I wrote this lengthy blog and for some reason it got deleted and I had to re-write the whole blog again." At first, I felt really bad for her because that was one long blog. But then I realized that things happen for a reason. Did you ever wonder what happens to the blogs or the files that we delete online? I am here to share some important information with you. Everytime we delete a blog, it goes by the same way as those missing socks in the dryer, or the last piece of saved chocolate cake. There are these evil gremlins that sneak into your home and steal these items which are then sent to Eagan, Minnesota - that particular city is the world headquarters of the Country Buffet AND the payroll headquarters of the USPS. (Google it if you wish)
Anyhow, when the gremlins drop off their stolen blogs, missing socks and the last piece of Suzy's birthday cake to the Country Buffet, this restaurant chain dumps all of these items into a giant vat which compresses and recycles these items into a thick gooey substance that is dumped into another vat labeled, "Food." All of the items at the Country Buffet on the dinner menu are made of these same ingredients. The assembly line at the Country Buffet dumps this substance into molds. And the process begins.....(PLOP) fish sticks......(PLOP) tater tots....(PLOP) creamed corn .......(PLOP) "meat casserole"......and so on. I am not making this up. :)
The Country Buffet truly runs a cost-effective operation, so now our Postal Service must follow this trend. This might explain a recent memo that has been roaming around our station:
Mouse balls are now available through Operation Support. Instead of purchasing a costly brand new mouse, the USPS is now providing mouse balls to all of its employees. If a mouse fails to operate or should it perform erratically, it may need a ball replacement. Because of the delicate nature of this procedure, replacement of mouse balls should only be attempted by a properly trained ET.
Before proceeding, determine the type of mouse balls by examining the underside of the mouse. American balls will be larger and harder than the foreign balls. Ball removal procedures differ depending upon the manufacturer of the mouse. Foreign balls can be replaced using the pop-off method. American balls are replaced using the twist-off method. Mouse balls are not always sensitive. However, excessive handling can result in sudden discharge. Upon completion of ball replacement, the mouse may be used immediately.
It is recommended that every ET have a pair of spare balls for maintaining optimum user satisfaction, and if there are any employee missing their balls they should suspect management of removing these necessary items.
There aren't many choices left on cutbacks after slicing and dicing route inspections on city carriers, faking mail counts on rural carriers and faking info on the POS machines for SSA clerks (the subject of my next blog.)
When I went to shake the hand of my Function Four auditor, he let go to count his fingers. He only prays once a year, and the rest of the year he only says, "Ditto!"
Above is not a creation from PhotoShop but an actual bumper sticker from the Colorado State APWU office. By now, this is old news that the "APWU" endorses Senator Barack Obama. If you have read Carole's blog, you will find the reason for the quotes around APWU.
This morning I was reading the May/June 2008 American Postal Worker. President Burrus' article states that "The APWU National Convention, the union’s highest-ranking body, will convene in
Las Vegas prior to that , and the delegates are expected to make an
endorsement."
What did I just read? As you can tell by the bumper sticker, the National Executive Board already dictated the endorsement. Why bother taking
the vote at the Convention? Maybe they feel that what goes on Vegas - stays in Vegas. This simply amplifies the fact that our President is a liar
and is abusing his power. Over time, many of us have seen upper Postal management disregarding the rules, but these bold deceptions by the APWU NEB is a bitter pill to swallow. This will be my last blog that turns political. I am merely a humble postal worker clinging to my guns and religion and I don't have the ability to make an
informed decision. I don't want Burrus or Obama e-mailing me that I have taken them out of context.
But enough about that, I saw this quote from Sunday's Denver Post:
"We in Holland cannot figure out why you are even bothering to hold an
election. On one side, you have a lawyer who is married to a lawyer, and a
lawyer who is married to a lawyer. On the other side, you have a true war
hero married to a blonde with nice breasts who owns a beer
distributorship. We see this contest as a no-brainer?"
There are more pressing issues that our unions need to address concerning our futures. I was reading Tom's blog and the same issue came up at our state union meeting this weekend. Because I haven't seen anything in writing, I am taking it as a rumor. With the deployment of FSS (flat-sorting) machines coupled with declining mail volume - the possibility is out there. Hopefully, all union members will be allowed more input if this scenario happens.
If they say the APWU NEB is the answer, then they should rephrase the question.
I send my apologizes to SuperSub for the danger sign above. Temptation got the best of me.
Today has been one the strangest locally on a postal political level. Alan VerValin, the NRLCA Colorado President paid a visit to our small station this morning. He spoke about the the step 4 procedures about the "Great Postal Mail Count of 2008."
The phrase "Great Postal Mail Count of 2008" rolls off my tongue like the "Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906." But he talked with only the rural carriers about what steps are being taken for an obvious violation of the agreement written in the PO-603 and an LMOU in the NRLCA Contract. Although I am steward representing the APWU, I have been around long enough to remember the Eischen Award that unveiled the cheating by management in 2002. History really DOES repeat itself.
If one visitor wasn't enough, our state POOMba also paid us a visit. Greg (the grand POOMba of Colorado) began his speech with the usual "we appreciate your efforts" speech but, like all POOMbas always do, has to end his talk on a negative note.
For some mysterious reason, our station recorded the highest "Delivery Confirmation" percentage in the Colorado/Wyoming district for Oct-Dec. 2007. But now, according to the POOMba, we dropped from 99.1% to 87.6% in just three months. This is an 11.5% decrease!! Instead of researching the problem internally, our grand POOMba suspects that the carriers don't know how to use a scanner.
I recently read Spauldo's last blog concerning Express Mail scans. Part of me suspects that the USPS is spending too much money in the wrong areas and we could possibly be working with faulty equipment. I realize this is a bold statement because the USPS always uses the most state-of-the-art equipment - but I am just guessing.......
We simply have management that lack the knowledge of our current technology and it makes me contemplate about our futures.
I can envision a supervisor poking at his hand and putting it next to his ear. A clerk will ask the supervisor what he is doing. "Oh, it's the newest technology -- I have a phone built right into my hand." The supervisor will swear that he hears a dial tone in his hand. We will witness the supervisor going into the men's room and stay in there for at least an hour. And being concerned, we will go into the bathroom to check it out. and witness our supervisor with his hands on the wall standing with his legs apart and pants down. He will have the end of a roll of paper towels shoved up his butt. In shock, we will ask "What are you doing?!" Our supervisor will groan and reply, "I'm waiting for a fax."
In the name of technology, we still have a long way to go before catching up with our competition.
What the hell is this dude online talking about? you ask.
In California, "420" is police code. for possesion of marijuana. I have none laying around my house which is good. In Colorado, "4/20" is the ninth anniversary of the Columbine H.S. tragedy - only a few miles from my house. Everywhere else in the U.S., 420 means 4/20/08 which is today. I just finished washing pots and pans from a private Passover seder in my tiny A-frame cabin of a home. I had a small turnout because of a late snowstorm and now I have a large amount of leftover lamb tenderloins. My "kids", Joanie and Diablo will be eating lamb with their doggy food for at least a week.
As I am writing this blog, the Starz movie channel is blaring in the background. They are showing a 2004 movie called The Notebook. I have heard about it, but have never seen it until today. A while back, I read the Nicholas Sparks novel, A Walk To Remember, and I know he is good with his words. The Notebook, is an extraordinary love story and leaves me hoping that some day, if I ever find myself in the same situation, I would handle it so well.
The story is a simple one: boy meets girl, boy and girl fall in love, things get crazy. But the truly beautiful part is the framing sequence because they're older now, and she's got Alzheimer's. so the boy is reading to her from the story of their lives together.
She doesn't remember him. during the course of the reading, so she periodically relapses and doesn't remember who he is at all, doesn't remember that she's been listening to him read for some time, nevermind that it's her husband or their relationship. and you can see the pain in Garner's performance as the husband, the pain is so real, so raw...
And i'm left hoping that if I were in his position, under those circumstances, I would keep it up as well and for as long. because if you have a wife forgetting who you are, your relationship...that would rip me up every single time in ways I can't imagine.
Hopefully, the guys on here don't think that I am a Barbra Streisand or Cher fan and drive around in a Miata with a rainbow bumper sticker on the back, but, damn, this was an emotional movie. I had those same feelings when I watched the scene in Titanic at a theater for the first time when Leonardo DiCaprio's character Jack slowly floated to the bottom of the Atlantic as he tried to save Rose. Or when I saw Beaches at that same theater. Sitting there on the beach, watching Bette Midler and Barbara Hershey, gaze at the sunset as Barbara fades into death. Wow! What a great way to die (even if it sucks to die). Second is when Victoria's limo pulls away from the home that she's always lived in.
This wasn't how I planned to spend my early morning, but it happened this way. Has anyone else seem a film that has affected you that powerfully?
