Wednesday, September 16, 2009

The Meals on Wheels Thing

I am still a MOW volunter but I no longer have a route. Here's what happened:
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I was on my road trip with my daughter on the 5th and 12th of August and when I went back on the 19th, not only had they added back most of the people they had taken off after I told them last time that I had too many people, but they even added a lady that was way out of the way. I was really really irritated and told them to call me the next day.
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The very head lady called me on Thursday the 20th (on my husband's cell phone which has not been my phone number since maybe 2004!) and I was trying to be very concise and clear and intelligent and she did not listen to a word I had to say. I explained to her that it was too many people and the food was getting cold and that the route was ridiculous. I explained how the route had absolutely no flow and that I had to continually backtrack north, south, north, east, west, east, etc. Then it went like this:
HER: We need more people over there.
ME: What happened to all of the people I have trained?
HER: Most people want to sub and do not want to commit to a weekly route.
ME: I imagine it's because when they sub they have a terrible route with too many people. Why don't you split the routes up and call them back and ask if they would commit to a weekly route if you could guarantee them 8 to 10 people?
HER: Most people don't want to commit to a weekly route.
ME: But if you could guarantee them...
HER: Most people do not want to commit to a weekly route. Why don't you renumber the route sheet so that it flows better and fax that to me.
ME: I tried to tell you before. It goes like this, south, west, north, south, west, south, north, west, south, west, east, south, west, east, north, south.
HER: You can write on your current route sheet to show us the better way and fax it over.
ME: I am trying to tell you the route is very bad. The very best way to do it is still not good. I did it the very best way and the last people's food was cold and it took over an hour.
HER: We need more people over there.
At this point I felt like I was talking to a recording that had only three lines and that was it for me.
ME: Well, I want to transfer to "my town"
HER: So you won't be there next Wednesday?
ME: NO! I would never do that. I will give you two weeks to replace me over there and then I want a route over here.
HER: Well there are no openings there.
ME: Then put me down as a sub and I will do that and take the first available spot.
HER: So your last day over there is September 2nd?
ME: If that is two weeks from now, yes.
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I told Mrs. V and she seemed fine with it because she knows I will still come to visit. I'd like to think they could get better organized over there, but after that phone call I doubt it. It was weird being home last Wednesday and I will be home again today. My whole schedule has been sort of thrown off. But I guess I'll get used to it.
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I was thinking about the whole thing and that I did that steadily for 9 years and I realized that I had never done anything steadily for 9 years except eat, sleep, shower and breathe. My first two marriages lasted 4 years and 7 years and the longest job I ever had was 1 year and 9 months. I guess I have a short attention span. I'm still a MOW volunteer though and I'm sure I'll get a spot over here eventually. And on Decenber 2, I will have been married 9 years. So I guess my attention span is improving.

5 comments:

Jazz said...

Geez, what a bunch of morons!

ticknart said...

Hope the new route happens sooner rather than later.

Anonymous said...

You've only been married 8 months to the current guy??? I always thought it was longer than that. Maybe you could just go around and visit all your regulars on Wednesday nights anyway... maybe bring them some cookies or something...until you get a route

geewits said...

Jazz,
~~I was trying to offer good suggestions but she could not hear them

Ticknart,
~~Hiatuses are always good.

Xup,
~~Thanks for catching that! I went back to fix it. It was a "misprint." Mrs. V is the only one I would go visit. And certainly not once a week. Part of it was I was tired of driving over there. Mrs. V. lives 16 miles from here.

VioletSky said...

OMG, I can so relate to this. it is just this kind of nonsense that caused me to quit one of my paper routes.

I actually really enjoy organizing routes and it frustrates me no end to see the incompetence of the people in charge with little consideration for those of us out driving. It is worse for you as you are driving in traffic.