Saturday, May 10, 2014

Not for the faint of heart.

Delivery driving is not for the faint of heart, especially when it is raining.


Yesterday, there were dribs and drabs of rain off and on, until the torrent hit just in time for evening traffic.  When that happens, the whole area locks up tighter than the pastor's wife's girdle at the all you can eat pancake breakfast.

An example of that is that #1 Son worked ten hours, came home, and they wanted him to come back and help out with a wedding.  (He's the only person who works there who can assemble sandwiches, wait tables, and wash dishes.  Everyone else just does one job, he will work on any of them.)

He tried to get there, he really did.  In the 20 minutes he was on the road, he couldn't even get across the highway from our neighborhood.  He called them and then came home.

It was an average day for deliveries, i got in 28 completed with no returns on 3 runs.  We called time when the heavens opened and the traffic was getting untenable.  That was just in time for me to meet the girls at the shelter so we could feed and water the cats and kittens.

There are four mama cats with babies there, too.  It felt like it was raining kitties, indoors and out!  We have a pure white cat who is deaf up for adoption.  The only kind you can vacuum to get the hair the easy way!

With today not being a work day, we might get a break in some of the traffic, especially if the rain is as sporadic as forecast.

Meanwhile,  this is how we feel after a couple of days of rapid fire deliveries.

Dog tired.



Today is:

Albany Tulip Festival -- Albany, NY, US (celebrate spring and Albany's Dutch heritage; through tomorrow)

Astronomy Day 2014 / Spring Astronomy Day -- Saturday at or before the first quarter moon between mid-April and mid-May
     sponsored by The Astronomical League; find out what your local astronomy society is doing today, and go enjoy

Birth Mother's Day -- the day before Mother's Day, for all the women who have made an adoption plan for their babies

Clean up Your Room Day -- one of those holidays that no one knows how it got started, but it's a good idea, especially if your house is decorated by teens in "Recently Ransacked" style!

Constitution Day -- Federated States of Micronesia

Cornelia de Lange Syndrome Awareness Day -- shedding light on this rare genetic condition

Golden Spike Day -- finishing the first US Trancontinental Railroad in 1869

Houston Art Car Parade -- Houston, TX, US (the world's oldest and largest art car parade)

International Migratory Bird Day -- original date second Saturday in May, but the IMBD organization encourages you to celebrate when birds are migrating in your area; one special celebration on this date:
     International Migratory Bird Celebration -- Chincoteague, VA, US (walks, talks, tours, art, and children's activities, all outdoors with the birds)

Jamestown Day -- Jamestown, Williamsburg, VA, US (special demonstrations and programs for the anniversary of the founding of Jamestown, America's first permanent English colony)

Letter Carriers "Stamp Out Hunger" Food Drive -- US

Mother Ocean Day -- celebrate the wonders of the ocean, wherever you happen to be; day originally proposed by the South Florida Kayak Fishing Club

Mother's Day -- Belize; El Salvador; Guatemala; Mexico

National Babysitter's Day -- US, giving recognition to the babysitters who make your date nights possible

National Bake Sale Day -- US (recognizing the tradition of raising money and expanding waistlines through the old fashioned bake sale)

National Miniature Golf Day -- this one should be in every country, mini golf is too much fun to hog!

National Shrimp Day

National Train Day -- US (a day to explore why trains matter)

O. Henry Pun-Off World Championships -- Austin, TX, US (presented by The P.U.N.Y. [Punsters United Nearly Yearly])

Randwick Wap Cheese Rolling -- Randwick, Gloucestershire, England (Yes, they roll cheeses that were blessed last Sunday around the church and give the Mayor a good dunking in the pond; yes, they've been doing it for 700 years; no, no one is quite certain why, though many stories are told of the origin.)

Stay Up All Night Night -- as declared by George Mahood of Northampton, England, everyone needs to relive the excitement of staying up late like you always wanted to as a kid at least once a year

St. Cathal's Day (Patron of blind people, drought relief, epileptics, paralyzed people; Taranto, Italy; against blindness, drought, epilepsy, hernias, paralysis, plagues, storms)

St. Father Damien of Moloka'i's Day (Patron of lepers, outcasts, those with HIV/AIDS; Hawaii)

St. Job the Patriarch's Day (Patron against depression and ulcers)

Sun Awareness Day -- like Melanoma Monday, a few days back, a day to remember the damage the sun can do to skin and stock up on sunscreen, if you haven't already

Trust Your Intuition Day -- practice, and you'll get better at it

Windmill Day -- Netherlands (on the second Saturday of May each year, more than 600 windmills, including many that are now national monuments, are open to the public)

World Belly Dance`Day --  to celebrate the wonderful art of belly dance

World Fair Trade Day -- sponsored by the World Fair Trade Organization

World Lupus Day -- information here



Birthdays Today:

Kenan Thompson, 1978
Amanda Borden, 1977
Jason Brooks, 1966
Paul "Bono" Hewson, 1960
Phil and Steve Mahre, 1957
Donovan, 1946
Dave Mason, 1946
Marie-France Pisier, 1944
Judith Jamison, 1943
Gary Owens, 1936
Barbara Taylor Bradford, 1933
Pat Summerall, 1930
Ara Raoul Parseghian, 1923
Nancy Walker, 1922
T. Berry Brazelton, 1918
"Mother" Maybelle Carter, 1909
David O. Selznick, 1902
Fred Astaire, 1899
Max Steiner, 1888
Karl Barth, 1868
George Ross, 1730
Emperor Fushimi of Japan, 1265
Emperor Claudius, 213


Debuting/Premiering Today:

Twister(Film), 1996
"The Rest of the Story"(Radio), 1976
Piano Concerto No. 2 in F major(Shostakovich Op. 102), 1957


Today in History:

The Roman armies under Titus open a full scale assault on Jerusalem, 70
Vienna's church orders all Jews to wear a distinctive garb, 1267
Scottish nobles recognize authority of English king Edward I, 1291
Amerigo Vespucci allegedly leaves on a voyage to the New World, 1497
Christopher Columbus "discovers" the Cayman Islands, 1503
Jacques Cartier visits Newfoundland, 1534
Scottish Protestants under John Knox uprise against queen-mother Mary, 1559
England forcefully annexes Jamaice from Spain, 1655
Benjamin Franklin first tests the lightning rod, 1752
Louis XVI becomes King of France, 1774
The Barbary pirates of Tripoli declare war on the United States of America, 1801
New York City banks fail, and unemployment reaches record levels, 1837
In India, the first war of Independence begins, 1857
The First Transcontinental Railroad, linking the eastern and western United States, is completed at Promontory Summit, Utah (not Promontory Point, Utah) with the golden spike, 1869
Romania  declares itself independent from Turkey, 1877
The Supreme Court of the United States rules in Nix v. Hedden that a tomato is a vegetable, not a fruit, under the Tariff Act of 1883, 1893
The first Mother's Day is observed, 1908
J. Edgar Hoover is appointed Director of the FBI, 1924
First successful launch of a V-2 rocket at White Sands Proving Ground, 1946
Bill Haley & His Comets release "Rock Around the Clock", the first rock and roll record to reach number one on the Billboard charts, 1954
The nuclear submarine USS Triton completes Operation Sandblast, the first underwater circumnavigation of the earth, 1960
The Federated States of Micronesia  becomes self-governing, 1979
François Mitterrand becomes the first Socialist President of France in the French 5th republic, 1981
Nelson Mandela is inaugurated as South Africa's first black president, 1994
Deadliest day on the mountain: a rogue storm on Everest claims 8 lives, including experienced climbers, 1996
The Maeslantkering, a storm surge barrier in the Netherlands that is one of the world's largest moving structures, is opened by Queen Beatrix, 1997
Solicitor General Elena Kagan is the youngest Justice and third woman nominated for the Supreme Court of the United States, 2010
Microsoft announces plans to purchase Skype, 2011

8 comments:

  1. awww. glad you managed okay and stayed safe!

    ReplyDelete
  2. That must have been some storm. Wow. I'm glad your son came home. Sounds way to dangerous to do.

    Have a fabulous day and remember, Mother's Day deliveries are almost over. :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. I can only imagine how much more difficult it is to fight traffic and make deliveries when it's pouring rain.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Yes, your days seem as busy, or busier, than mine. We need some down time!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Wait a minute, are you delivering cats or flowers? Or are you delivering cats to the floral shop or maybe flowers to cats in the hospital. I'm confused.

    http://joycelansky.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  6. After spending a month in the city and coping with rush hour traffic a couple of times, you have my sympathy. I don't know how people do it all the time! Recharge those batteries before you go out there again.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Any job that involved lots of driving would ... well ...drive me nuts! It really would.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I'm feeling a bit dog tired myself after a weekend of company and some gardening. And I didn't even do that much actual "work", since hubby and dad took care of my mom and I most the weekend. It's all the socializing! I'm home alone most of the week while hubby's at work and kids at school --- so talking, talking, talking all weekend tired me out!
    I would never have thought it.....

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for meandering by and letting me know you were here!
Comments on posts more than a week old are moderated.
If Blogger puts your comment in "spam jail," i'll try to get it hauled out by day's end.