The Bosque

I got to spend all day downtown at jury duty.

I got down there right at 8, with my iPod and cell phone in tow, but I was still bored. Perhaps I should have brought a book.

I wound up seeing several people I knew today--the lady that used to cut my hair (that I now deliver lunch to on occasion), a lady that went to high school with my mom (and whose daughter went to grade school and high school with me), former mayor Clarence Harmon and the manager of the Schnucks that we regularly shop.

I got called about 11:15...by the time we went over to the courthouse and got seated in the courtroom, it was almost noon. So we broke for lunch and got back to business about 1:30.

The state fucking took forever on voir dire...Jesus Christ! They took almost 3 hours interviewing us. And I was pretty sure that I would not be picked based on my answers to the circuit attorney.

The case involved a man charged with assaulting 2 police officers and resisting arrest during an incident 2 summers ago. The evidence was mainly going to be St. Louis police officers testifying to the events that happened.

I'm not the biggest fan of cops. I know that there are many good cops out there, but I guess I just got too much shit from them back in the 90s and have seen some of them do really stupid shit (like flashing their cherries to get around stop signs and stoplights). That, and maybe I've been listening to too much Henry Rollins lately.

So when asked how I felt about the testimony of cops, I told the circuit attorney that I have a general mistrust of law enforcement and could not be certain that I would be impartial in hearing their testimony. Apparently, many of the other jurors (there were 36 of us, mostly black) felt the same way...when I said what I did, I heard comments like, "That's what I'm talking about!"

After sitting through the defense attorney's questions and waiting for what seemed like forever, we were dismissed at 5:15.

I was supposed to see Harry & the Potters with April and her family over at the central library tonight (which is only 4 blocks from where I was all day). But I had a killer headache, and had been sitting on uncomfortable surfaces all day. I made it through most of Draco & the Malfoys, but I had to leave...too much noise to handle.

And so, here I sit, waiting for my Pretty Lady to come home. The headache is getting better, but I still hurt. But at least I have the day off tomorrow to sleep in, relax and do whatever.

Friday is usually both our biggest day and our biggest night at the pizza shop. It's the primary reason I work Fridays...I usually make about 1/4 to 1/3 of my week's pay working from open to second driver out (roughly 10:30am to 8 or 9pm). I even picked up the closing shift tonight for extra money.

But it's been slow as molasses all week. Monday wasn't too bad actually, but the rest of the week has just been awful. I did 10 deliveries between 10:30 and 5 Wednesday...normal is 13 to 17. Today, I've made 6 deliveries since 10:30...normally, I'd be up around 10-15. It's so slow that I decided to come home and chill for a bit. The second driver leaves at 4, so I figured I'd let him make a little scratch, and I'll catch up tonight.

As a whole, we've been slower this summer than the last 2. Not sure why...guess the economy in this neck of the woods isn't representative of the recent big gains on Wall Street. Of course, it was the same way here in the '90s.

If I work until age 70 (which I plan to do, since I'll probably live to be 100 because I'm an ornery fucker), I will get $1208 from Social Security...if it still exists in 2045. I got my annual statement from them a few days ago.

So far, I've paid about $17,000 into SS since 1991. Let's say I pay, oh, another $30,000 into the system before I retire. That sounds reasonable, no? And let's say that my monthly amount jumps up, which it should...let's go with $2000 a month.

Based on these estimates, I will burn through my SS money in under 2 years...the last numbers I saw put the national average at 23 months.

Here's the fundamental problem with Social Security: it was created at a time when the average lifespan was 62 years old in this country. The average lifespan is now 78. My grandmother retired at 72 (1974) and died at 95 (1997).

Also contributing to the problem: it's expected. People should get something back from the government. You worked hard for it for 50 or 60 years…you deserve something back. But no one should ever rely on it...and that's a huge problem. My own stepfather relies on it now...of course, he'd rather have a job, but the job hunt for a 62-year-old that worked at the same place for 42 years hasn't gone very well.

I don't want April or I to rely on it...that's why we're trying to work hard now to put away for that rainy day later. Fortunately, we're not having kids, so that'll help more. But if there's still Social Security when I retire, I'll be more than happy to hold my hand out.

If you're unfamiliar with Henry Rollins, here's a summary from Wikipedia...in short, he is one of my heroes.

While at Monken's house for dinner last weekend, he and I started talking about Rollins and how we would be interested in going to his upcoming show here in town.

"What day is it?" I asked.

"October 20th...it's a Saturday," Monken replied.

There was a brief quiet in the room for a minute, then it hit me like a truck.

"Oh shit! That's the date of the wedding!"

Fortunately, April did not beat the crap out of us.

Then my brain started wondering...wouldn't it be cool if we could get Henry Rollins to come to the wedding? Based on what we know about him and his stories on his spoken word CDs, it seems theoretically possible. After all...his show's in the evening, but the wedding is at 1 in the afternoon.

We just ordered the invitations, and they should be arriving in the next few weeks. One of them will indeed be sent to Henry's offices in Los Angeles, along with a fan letter.

Who knows? Stranger things have happened.

...but I'm trying to do my part.

This article will be in today's St. Louis Post-Dispatch...it's about folks who try to squeeze as much mileage as they can out of their cars. The process is called hypermiling, and I saw a similar article on MSNBC about 2 or 3 weeks ago.

Some of what hypermilers do seems a bit much...and dangerous. But I recently started thinking about how I've been driving as a delivery driver, and decided to try and change my ways. It was actually inspired by the fact that my car will soon be out of warranty--I rolled 87,000 miles Friday. I take good care of Malibu Barbie, but she's taken a hell of a beating over the past 2 years between delivery driving and the 60-mile daily commute I was making when I was working a real job. At the same time, I'm trying to be extremely cost-conscious...the most I've ever been.

So, I started trying to find new ways to get to deliveries. And I started slowing down. It was nothing for me to drive 50 miles an hour down this one major street near the store. Now I drive 30-35 miles an hour. I don't rush as much to deliver as I used to...why should I? It's not like I'm going to get off work sooner, I don't want to hurt or kill myself or others and my bosses are fucking tools that really don't give a shit about me. I'm in business primarily for myself, and as such, that's who I need to look out for first.

How it's going so far? That's hard to say. I'm a generally calm person to begin with...now I'm even calmer. I'm up to $1.89 earned per mile of driving, my highest number since February ($2.10). But I'm working almost 42 hours a week now, up from 31 hours a week in April. And I'm driving more miles per week--70-80 more.

I'll keep up what I'm doing while trying to tinker with my process some more...we'll see what happens.

Okay...in looking back at my records, not quite. But the best Sunday I've had since last fall...over $200. That's a rarity for a Sunday. And it's not like it was even super busy. I'd come back from a run, and there'd be three more orders that were ready to go...orders that were only 20 minutes old. And it was like that from 11am until just after 4.

It was quiet early in the evening. As I was clocking out to go home at 7:15, the orders starting piling up again. I finally left at 8:45...41 deliveries for the day.

I'm actually off next Sunday...only my fourth one off this year. Of course, we're going to pre-marriage counseling with the priest that's marrying us, but it's still a day off. Then jury duty the next day...blecch!

I decided to take a break for a few days. Okay...a week. You all didn't miss me...okay, maybe you did. Fuck...I dunno.

Thursday morning, as I was getting ready for work, there was a knock at the door. I looked out our window (which is translucent) and saw what could pass as a delivery guy...not a big deal.

I opened the door, and a normal guy is just standing there. He told me that he was interested in the apartment that is for rent. One of our neighbors moved out at the end of June.

I'm not sure why this guy knocked on our door. Maybe the Boone board on the door gave him the impression that we were the building managers or something. Granted, we are the building managers...just not officially. I told him that the landlord lives in the suburbs and that he would have to call her at the number listed on the For Rent sign out front. He asked me how much I was paying for rent, then was on his way.

This morning, as April was leaving for water aerobics, a woman approached her asking about seeing the apartment. April told her that she was not the landlord and didn't have a key. Apparently, she was waiting for our landlord, whom I heard walk in shortly after April left.

I should offer to show the apartment for our landlord for a small fee. Of course, I might wind up telling the truth about things...

April and I get to meet my longtime Cellar friend Patrick (Elspode) at the Pagan Picnic at Tower Grove Park (just up the street from our apartment) later today!

Nyah nyah! :)

From Fox News: North Korea has ordered the closure of karaoke bars in an apparent attempt to stem outside influences on the isolated communist country, a South Korean civic group said Wednesday.

Separately, the North's Ministry of People's Security conducted house-to-house overnight inspections in areas near the border with China earlier this month to search for cell phones and illegal video CDs, the Good Friends aid agency said in a newsletter.

The ministry said in a directive last week that the move against karaoke outlets was a "mopping-up operation to prevent the ideological and cultural permeation of anti-socialism," according to the aid group.

"Zeitgeist," the new CD from the Smashing Pumpkins, arrived in stores today. And I was not disappointed. It's a great CD...and it proves that Billy Corgan can still write awesome rock songs after not doing so for the better part of a decade.

Much is currently streaming the entire album here. Good stuff! A review is forthcoming on my MySpace page.

I deliver to Marian and her friend once every week or two. She usually orders a sandwich or small pizza and 4 medium lemonades. Yes...4 lemonades.

She's a little old lady with a very high-pitched voice that can be very hard to understand. Her and her friend (I'm not sure if it's her husband, brother or what) live in a small second-floor apartment in the Bevo neighborhood, not too far from my mother-in-law.

I suspect that they've lived in the apartment for years. The carpet looks old and has various stains. It doesn't look as if the apartment has been cleaned for quite some time, and it strongly smells of (among other things) cat...they have at least one--black with white feet.

They never tip, and I dread going over there because her and her friend freak me the fuck out. But they're always nice, and it's not really that big of a deal to go there.

I've been there twice in the past week, most recently last night. And both times, I've noticed that the AC is not on. It's been pretty hot for the past 2 weeks...yesterday, it got up to 95. The apartment was a hotbox, and all the odors in the apartment stood out that much more. It hasn't been warm enough that a heat emergency has been declared yet...I think tomorrow could be the trigger day.

You hear about this sort of thing every summer...elderly folks that don't want to turn their ACs on because they don't want to run up their electric bills. Some wind up dying due to such concern. But seeing it up close and personal for the first time in a long time just really got to me yesterday.

We had really bad storms today...they dropped the temps 20 degrees in just an hour. It's been 73 since 5:00...that's good.

I essentially worked an open-to-close shift today. I started my regular Sunday shift at the store near our apartment, then headed over to the main store tonight to cover a shift for someone that needed off. I was only supposed to work until the rush was over, but another driver didn't show up, so I wound up being there until just after 10.

I did 20 deliveries between noon and 4, and at least 5 of them involving going up to second-story apartments...maybe more. It got up to 95 today, one of the hottest days of the year so far. I then did 25 more deliveries at my regular store between 5 and 10, and at least 4 of those involved second-story apartments or walking up large hills to people's houses. I got a thorough ass-whuppin...

However, for the most part, I was fine. I got a little winded on some of the jaunts, but on a few of them, I barely broke a sweat...a huge change from just a few months ago. I'm tired as fuck right now...but I feel good.

Time for slumberland...I have to deliver a $577 order early tomorrow...21 serving pans of pasta and wings for some VA folks. I better get a good fucking tip out of it! At least I work with my brother tomorrow...that'll be cool.

There are a lot of things wrong with this country right now. But there are so many things that are right with it. We've weathered many things, and by comparison, almost nothing compared to some countries. And I'm admittedly biased because I'm from here and I've never been to any other country...but I can't imagine any country being better than ours in the end. So celebrate it...wave a flag, eat a steak, tell someone to "Fuck off!"...and remember, we could have it a lot worse.

Apparently, Chris and her son don't know how to use them properly...from the Jefferson County Journal: Police are looking for the identities of juvenile pyrotechnic trespassers believed to have caused a fire at Fox Elementary School early Sunday morning.

As a result of the fire, the affected area of the building will not be able to be used for the coming school year, according to Fox Superintendent Dianne Brown.

(No, Chris' son is not responsible for this fire...he has not moved up that far from slapping ladies' asses.)

April and I were talking the other day about our anniversary, which happens to be today. We were talking about how this would probably be the last year we celebrate it since we're getting married in October, and that the celebration wouldn't be much since we're getting married in just under 4 months.

(Whoa! That's nuts! 110 days away!)

But today is still a very important day. Because on Saturday July 2, 2005, I told April that I wanted her to be my girlfriend. (That's right...I didn't ask her, I just told her what I wanted.) For whatever reason, she said, "OK," and the rest is history.

This is the healthiest and most satisfying relationship I have ever had. And that's how I know that April is the one I'm meant to be with forever.

I love you, Pretty Lady! Happy anniversary!

Love,
Terry
xoxo

No fucking Schuylkill Punch here...from last Tuesday's St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Time to raise a glass to St. Louis water — it's been named the best in the land.

Mayors from around the country declared Monday that St. Louis water rises to the top. The water was judged on taste, clarity and aroma.

St. Louis bested four other finalists, chosen from an original field of more than 90 cities.

I'm surprised I didn't see this last week. And I'd agree with them...our water is pretty damned good.

I wonder if Philly's would be voted the worst...Goddamn that is some awful shit.