My New Route

DHL is downsizing, scrambling to find ways to hang on to some money.  if you read the previous blog about my job, you remember that my route was cancelled recently and i was placed on the dock.  Sticking around and waiting for something to happen paid off… sort of.

A few weeks ago Rich informed route 301 that he was going to be taking over route 335s area on top of the area he already had.  That driver quit the next day.  plan B was to get the driver from 335 to do it.  He took everything out, delivered everything on 301’s side, and wasnt able to deliver anything on his origional side of the route.  Rich told him at the end of the work day that he had to take all that other stuff out, and he refused to, (mostly cuz they were all businesses and they closed at 5) so rich fired him haha.  So Rich finally turns back to me.  ” do you think you can handle it?”  he says… to which i replied, YES!!!

so i come back in Monday morning ready to bust out this monster route… this picture does not do it justice but heres basically what it looks like.

i deliver inside the green lines

on a slow day i take out 70 stops.  the route doesnt seem like its that hard, the tricky part is figuring out how to make it flow.  i can practically do the downtown side with my eyes shut, but the area in the heights is messing with my head.  i cannot seem to get the order of the streets down, and it seems like i’m only making left turns.  its a Race with the clock.  i have to have some things off my truck by 10:30 am, some other things off by noon, and some other things off by 3:00.  in the middle of all that theres ground pieces that can be delivered whenever, as long as they get delivered, and i have a pick up route on top of all of this.  Some places want their stuff picked up by 1:00 pm, which throws everything off.

The first day i took over this route, my gps unit got smashed in the back door of my van.  That messed everything up for me… making me resort to the ever confusing map book. Thats too hard for me to use, so i actually resorted to google maps.  When i had the gps, i would enter all my addresses, and when i’d get to a stop, i’d look to see what the next closest one is and go there. it saved me soooo much time.  so when the gps broke, i had to come home and google all my addresses and write down directions to each place- sounds like alot of work, but actually it saved my butt haha.

the old Gps after gettin smashed in the back door of my van

the New GPS

i went out on wednesday and bought a new gps unit.  this one is a lot different from the one i had before… better in a lot of ways, and at the same time, trickier to use.  i havent figured out how to make it route for me like the other one did.  i’m sure i’ll get it, but its gona take some experamenting, which requires time, which i dont really have while on route- but i am getting the hang of it.  The last 2 days of my route, i got attempts on every piece of freight in my van, and brought back like 5 peices that could not be delivered because of things like signature required or a COD payment.  when i master this route, im hittin em up for another raise, and then im gona take a vacation.

i will say this… I’m not bored on this route. LOL

The Mustang

more about “shane’s mustang“, posted with vodpod

Back in February i bought my dad’s 1988 Mustang 5.0 from my mom. At the time i bought it, it had been sitting in mom’s garage since my dad passed away 4 years ago. Everyone who knows my dad knows that this car was his pride and joy, and I am honored to be the new owner of such a special car. Here’s the story behind it.
back in 1996 when i was living in Seattle, my dad called me all excited to tell me that he bought this mustang out of salvage. he said it was hit in one of the fenders and it got totalled, so he bought it for like 3000 bux. at the time it was like a forest green- pretty average looking car. my dad was a top of the line auto body man, so fixing the damage on it was nothing to him. I moved back to albuquerque before he was finished working on it, and when i got back here, the first thing he had me do was take the Mustang out for a spin.  I remember the feeling i got- i believe its called Giddy.  At the time, he was busy scraping all the green paint off of it with a razor blade. a few weeks later, he pained it blue, and a couple more weeks after that, he added racing stripes to it. he didnt have to do much to it to make it faster- the engine was in perfect condition. I do not have any pictures from when my dad was working on the car, but maybe my sister can find some?

I remember when we would go out to eat with my parents at Henrietta’s there was a couple there that would sing every friday night, and they would sing “Mustang Eddy” for my dad.  At that time he had it all painted up and he was taking it to the racetrack to put all the beefy muscle cars to shame.  I think the best time he got was like 13 seconds on the quarter mile, which isnt half bad.  i kept asking him to let me race it, and he always said no lol.  I havent taken it out to the dragstrip yet cuz i want to give it a tune up and make sure its ready to woop some ass- and when i do, i’ll have videos for u all.
When i bought the car it had a couple minor, yet very aggravating things wrong with it. the starter would get stuck when trying to start it, and then it started in with this thing where the fuel pump wouldnt shut off when u turned the car off. i went thru a couple months of unplugging the battery everytime i had to park the car- and then i found a website that solved all of my problems. i went to http://www.allfordmustangs.com , joined the site and made a post about everything that was wrong with the car. about an hour later, i had an answer to all of my problems, and it cost me 50 bux to fix the whole thing… 2 relay switches. right now, the car is running cherry… i still have to replace a power steering pump that burned out a long time ago, but i have to find the time to get that job done.

heres some of the pix i took-

the plates my dad had on the car- i had to change them out since i put the car in my name. If i can get them back, i will… if not, i think the new plates might say “EMMAS PONY”

isnt she gorgeous?


i wanted to add a video here but wordpress will not let me… anyone know why? o well heres a pic from the vid lol sorry its blurry
youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNRVQJxuVRQ

photo Friday… er Saturday

hey Friday got a lil hectic for me so we have to do this a lil late… Heres all the food pix i can find

everybody loves chicken, right? this ones just a lil raw thats all

who wants a slushpuppy?

Eggcident (not my photo… but i love it)

buncha sucka’s

Saggio’s pizza… arguably the best in Albuquerque

everybody’s favorite section at the 7-11

i got the…

theres alot more pix of food around here- if i find em i’ll update this stuff