My New Route

Hmmm, where do I start? Well first of all I should start by saying my new route does not have "flow." Merriam-Webster's 2nd definition of "route" is "a line of travel." And there was no line. As usual, there is backtracking and cross overing which is very annoying. Not only that but my 3rd and 4th stops were in THE APARTMENT COMPLEX FROM HELL:

That's a map of the apartment complex. A map that I stopped and got at the apartment complex office after driving around and around and around and...okay you get my point. Their layout is such that certain buildings, and by "certain" I mean THE ONE I AM LOOKING FOR, are surrounded by buildings so that they can not be seen by people who do not have x-ray vision, those people are called "humans." I am one of those people. Here's a close-up of some of those special buildings:

When I walked into the office this lady asks, "Can I help you?" In some of my best restraint ever, I replied, "Yes I am delivering food for Meals on Wheels and need a map of this complex because I can't seem to grasp your numbering system. The building next to 213 is 225." She smiled apologetically and said "Oh yes, I'm sorry about that. The buildings go in circles." Yes they do. They surely do. Circles of hell.

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And speaking of apartment complex hell, the next one is a classic. I couldn't find the road for my next apartment complex on my Mapsco, but it was in a section of town that I am very familiar with. I thought "Heck. There's mostly stores around there so there can't be that many apartment complexes." And let's say that this particular apartment complex was named "Hanover Terrace." So I head over there and sure enough, there is an apartment complex called "Hanover House." The streets are not named "Hanover" so I figure the odds are this has to be the place. I even find an apartment door with the corresponding apartment number on it that is on my route sheet." I knocked and knocked and was greeted with silence. I went back to my car and per protocol, called the client's number. A man answered and I could hear a loud TV in the background. "How strange that I did not hear that TV," I thought. I told the man that I had knocked on the door and he said, "No, I'm sitting right here. Is there a chance you are at Hanover House apartments?" And just as he asked me that, I saw the street name that I had been looking for on my Mapsco. A few houses later I had one of those streets that stops and starts again somewhere else. Now that should just be illegal. At the very least they should have to name those "East Summerhill" and "West Summerhill." And of course I was on the east side one when I should have been on the west side one. Grrr.

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Today, Sunday I mean, I asked My Sweetie to drive me around my route because I wanted to become more familiar with it and change the order around a little bit and I wanted to time it. Well we timed it at 36 minutes. That's of course without stopping and getting the food from the containers and delivering it to the people, but that's what? Maybe 2 to 4 minutes per person? On Friday it took me TWO HOURS. I had 13 people and apologized profusely to the last 7 people for being there so late. This Friday I will be much faster.

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Arctic Weather Wrap-up: Saturday night was the big ending to the giant freeze-out we've been having. It was 13°. Our spa, with the pump running, had thick frozen ice sheets floating on top Sunday morning:

When running water freezes, it is COLD. But it (the arctic front) is pulling out and it will be in the mid 50's for the next few days. YAY! I am going to go outside and sit in that.