Dog days of winter

I managed to catch a cold over the weekend. Turns out the driver I am working with picked up a cold as well, but we both made it into work on Monday. Neither snow, sleet, dark of night, or green mucus will keep them from their appointed rounds. Fortunately the package count on Monday wasn't much of a jump from last week. Tuesday and Wednesday however...

The Christmas shopping season is alive and well on the eastside. There is Black Friday for in-person shopping, and Cyber Monday that is supposed to kick off the online shopping season. Tuesday's package count was up 25% from Monday, so we really had to hustle. Neither of us were feeling 100%, but we did a great job getting the route done.

Our reward - even more packages today. We had the most in the city even though our route is the most difficult to work. Their reasoning - we were handling the work increase the best. So instead of improving the under achievers, pile on to the over achievers. Reward hard work with more work. I'd much prefer a bonus check.

I came home from work yesterday pretty smoked, only to find someone had pooped in my bed. Not a metaphor. My parents are dog-sitting for someone and the dog had hopped on to my bed to do its business. I imagined my best lament about "working all day, breaking my back and this is what I come home to!?", but I just cleaned up the mess.

As I was getting dressed for work this morning, the little dog came prancing toward my door. I shooed her out, a little anger in my voice. I had not punished her for what she did yesterday. It is said that dogs don't have much of a memory and that it is difficult to correct a behavior unless you catch them in the act. I thought about bringing her up and pointing to the "present" she left me, but I feared she might be the type of dog to pee when she got scared.

Anyway, I relaxed, figuring that I shouldn't treat her angrily in general for something that happened in the past, especially when she has no clue what I'm angry about. It isn't really fair to punish someone for something they are unaware of without giving them a chance to change their behavior, no matter the species.

OK, I may have veered off onto a different subject.

Anyway, my driver told me that overall for the area there were 2,000 more stops scheduled for today than there were for the same day last year. Kind of puts a kink in the whole down economy and people cutting back theory. One thing I thought was that maybe after the snow fiasco of last year, maybe people are getting their shopping done much earlier to be safe. Maybe the last few days before Christmas will be a bit quieter this year.

The weather is freezing but the skies are clear. No snow on the horizon at this point. Hoping for a green Christmas this year.