Oh Crap

I'm recovering from a week long bout with Strep Throat. It's the second time this year that I've had it (it's been miserable) after never having it the previous 32 years of my life. This illness has been inopportune for a number of reasons.

Last time I had strep, it took me about a month to work back up to where I was in my workouts. With my upcoming fitness tests, I can't afford to be out of commission that long.

I don't know where I picked it up this time, but I started feeling the effects of it in California on our mini vacation. Dad made an amazing smelling (and tasting) pork shoulder on our last day there, and I was too out of it to eat more than a scrap or two.

The next day I had to drive back to Utah. Jennifer and I were supposed to work on Saturday, so staying an extra day wasn't really an option. I couldn't drug myself as heavily while behind the wheel, and about 4 hours in I really started feeling the effects of strep bacteria running rampant on my throat and tonsils. We made it back to Spanish Fork and Jenn dropped me off at an urgent care office so I could hurry up and get on antibiotics.

I spent the 25th in bed trying not to breathe or swallow too much. I didn't get to see any of the kids open their presents. I had to call my route regular and ask her to cover my Saturday, she didn't seem too enthused about having to work the day after a holiday, and I don't really blame her, but there was no way I could have gotten around town delivering mail in the cold for 6 hours that day. She told me she would cover it, but that she had also decided to take the rest of the next week off. I thought I might be healed by then, but I would have preferred to have more time to get completely well.

Friday and Saturday were the bad days, and yesterday it started feeling better.

I went to work this morning. There were a ton of stupid magazines that I needed to get sorted out for my route. Experienced carriers usually take 2-3 hours of prep work before they can leave on their routes. I was in there for 6 hours this morning, and left for what would probably be 6-7 hours on the road. I still only get paid for 8 hours. When I left, the main roads were clear, with snowbanks built up on the shoulders, making quick delivery impossible. I nearly got stuck a few times. Once, after pulling up close to a mailbox to deliver, I pulled forward over a gigantic block of ice that I didn't see, and ended up putting a really big dent under the door of the van.

I had been out for about 4 hours and only was able to deliver about a third of my route. I started to think about the rest of the week, and how I wasn't getting any healthier sitting out in the cold, and how I've got to fly to Texas in 2 weeks to take one challenging CPAT and another that isn't a cakewalk. I also thought about how much damage and wear and tear I'd done to the van, and how the vehicle allowance I was receiving wasn't coming close to covering it.

I ended up quitting the post office today. It wasn't a bad job really, I enjoyed doing it. My boss said my timing to start was bad and that he understood my decision. If I had started in the spring, I could have learned a few routes and warranted buying a vehicle with right hand drive and 4x4 in time for winter. Since I was only guaranteed 22 hours a month, purchasing a vehicle would mean that I was only making enough to pay for the car that I delivered mail in once a week.

So my already crappy unemployment situation has somehow gotten worse with no end in sight. I really don't know what I'm going to do.

Dinky Vacation

Since we are very uncertain how far away we will be living next Christmas, we decided to take a short trip to California this year. We're spending 4 days with my mom and dad, and then driving back up so I can deliver the mail on Saturday (should be delightful with all the late packages and After Christmas Sale ads.

I still haven't heard back from Oklahoma City about how my interview went. I was told that they were still undecided if they would be able to budget for new positions. I'm hoping that no news is good news, because if I hadn't done well enough to be considered for a job, it would have been easy to tell me even if they were waiting on budgetary decisions to be made. I'm not holding my breath though, but I'd be happy to work and live there.

I am forging on in the Houston FD hiring process now. I was called 2 weeks ago about getting travel plans there in the middle of January. I'll be taking my fitness test, getting interviewed, fingerprinted and polygraphed. A few days later I will be taking the San Antonio fitness test, which is great because it saves me another plane trip and forces me to spend a few days in the area checking things out. I intend to go to church in Houston and ask the people there where I should be looking to live.

Anyways, thats about it for me. I'll post news whenever it happens.