Masks, at this point in time I was using an N95 dust mask with filter on it. Perfect for sanding.
Monday
Delivering food you don’t get the interactions with people like you do with Uber or any other ride sharing services, but you still see and experience some pretty weird crap. The Monday started with me delivering food to a law firm. The office was at the end of the foyer of a multi story skyscraper. Quite large for Bellingham. It was a round foyer with four hallways leading to other offices and businesses. In the middle was a large table with a plant on it. I avoided it going into the law firm. A lady greeted me at the front desk of the open planned office. Cubicles lined the room. You can sense it was a highly stressful working environment. I gave the lady the food, she thanked me and I walked out the door and looked straight ahead. I was wearing a mask, so as to not get the covid19. My peripheral vision was blocked and as a result the table I had walked around prior to entering the office, kicked me in the shin. Ouch! The plant almost fell off the table. Yet I managed to catch it with lightning reflexes. Phew! My shin aching I hobbled off to my car and got ready for the next order. Rubbing my shin I thought, stupid place to put a table and a plant.
Afterward I took another order across town where I managed to hurt myself again. I tried to open a container while I was driving and subsequently hit myself in the face. Ouch! The universe was making up for lost time and decided to unleash hell upon my body. “Mr Howard, you haven’t hurt yourself in a while, here you go!” Wack and quoobish!
Tuesday
Tuesday I saw some road rage. People cutting each other off and giving each other the obligatory middle finger. Typical Tuesday. People have just gotten through Monday and then there’s Tuesday a non event day. In Australia in November, for one day a year, there’s the Melbourne cup. A horse race that stops the nation. Every other Tuesday is just bollocks. The day after Monday. When you think you have conquered the world Tuesday comes along and says I’m standing in your way to get to Wednesday. Yes for most people Wednesday is the pinnacle of the week. Tuesday is the smudge on your windscreen. The second stop on an 18 hr drive. A broken yolk that you wanted to preserve for poached egg on your brekky, but now it’s ruined. I am not a fan of Mondays, but Tuesdays are far worse in my opinion. Americans try to make it more interesting by having cheap Mexican food in the form of taco Tuesday, but again it’s still Tuesday. You can have an alcoholic beverage or six, but there’s still work the next day.
That day I dropped off Mexican food to a company called 3D Printing. No it wasn’t a 3D printing company. You know the the cool new printers that print 3D objects such as ornaments etc. It was actually called that because the company was started by 3 Daves. Three Davids that print your glossy magazines or brochures. I said to one of the Daves, “So are you going to buy a 3D printing machine? I think it’d be a missed opportunity if you don’t”. He looked at me said “It’s out of our price range at moment”. Perplexed and confused by Tuesdays antics already I left.
I went south to Freddy Meyers on Lakeway and pulled up to the lights where I saw a homeless person run behind a pickup truck aka ute and hopped in the flat bed tray. The pickup drove off, with the person in the back. I couldn’t believe what I had witnessed, but that’s the kind of weird crap you see in films. I felt America was like a bizarre film sometimes, where people just do whatever the heck they feel like without any consequence.
Wednesday
Wednesday, finally hump day and I started to find out more facts about human habits. Did you know that you touch your face at least 23 times in a single hour? As I wrote that I just scratched my chin. Now you’re noticing it. Yes the covid19 has us all noticing things we normally don’t notice. I personally was socially distancing myself before it was cool. If someone is walking directly at me I move the other direction. I personally don’t want to touch, shove, punch, knock, hit or contract a disease from anyone. Growing up men shook hands and women hugged and kissed. Man hugs were not common in my family. Unless you were a child. It was just not common. I for one didn’t care, but if any person touches me who I don’t know unless it’s a handshake then it’s not okay. In a pandemic I don’t want to touch you at all. I don’t want to get the dreaded lurgy.
The Wednesday was rather wet and in suddenly there’s a valley or aka Sudden Valley I noticed that driveways became waterfalls. Torrential rain wasn’t fun when delivering food. At least when you pick up someone when it’s pissing down, you don’t have to get of your car. You just sit there and wonder how muddy their boots are?
Thursday
The Thursday was busy. To the point where I managed to deliver to the wrong apartment. I mistakenly delivered it to 412 instead of 214. The customer texted me and asked where their food was, by then I was already on my way to another delivery. Arghh! I told him where it was and he didn’t want to go downstairs to where I accidentally delivered it to, it had to be redone and redelivered. A moment of dyslexia when you have five orders at once is a strong possibility. I got annoyed at his rudeness and just didn’t care about his food. Look mate I thought be grateful you’re even getting food delivered to your door. Ungrateful twit. I had almost had enough of that week. It was the 5th week of delivering food. How do people do this all the time? I couldn’t help but miss archaeology. All employers had put a freeze on hiring due to the pandemic, so I just had to be patient.
Friday
Finally Friday. Another busy day and my archaeological skills were utilised while I drove past a large stone structure on the way south of Western Washington University. It was an old jail and looked to be built out of sandstone. I got flashbacks of some of the convict structures in Australia. Oh how I miss archaeology.
That same day I had an order out in the valley and discovered another person with exact same name on the intercom system to get into a housing complex. I thought the customer I was delivering food to had preprogrammed my name into the gate. No it was an elderly bloke called Paul Howard. What? It was the third Paul Howard I have spoken to in my life. Fourth if you include myself. The first I encountered was a barrister who settled a case involving a car accident my mum and I had when I was a kid. The second was an engineer from the UK who wanted to find as many Paul Howard’s on social media as possible and set up a group and now this elderly bloke over an inter com system. What a weird week.
Next time I encounter the British homeless bloke again.
