June 29, 2005

Going Postal

still life taken at the Dixie Cafe Rodgers Arkansas...I needed one of these after taking the first of two Postal exams...I have ache head.

Im so weary, but glad and looking forward to the "next day". Things are moving along for us. We see our new lives beginning to form. Praying and waiting, not trying to push in any one direction, but seeing what God is going to show us...

We realized with Woody going to start at Wal Mart and my needing to look for work and might end up in the post office here, I needed a vehicle and if we could find a good clean mini van that would be optimum, So we went to a sled lot and low and behold, an older Toyota Sienna Minivan with higer mile than we'd like but it was pristine inside...I dont think the rear seats were ever used...

Woody negotiated such a sharp deal on the van that the owner of the lot hired him on the spot. Its a strictly commission job, but the enviroment is none regimental, shorts and aloha wear. Lots of young people come in there needing a ride and needing help to get one and that is the sort of thing that he loves to do. So he starts tomarrow and they are cool about letting him off for the wedding that he is in next week...cant believe that is comming up so quickly.

I answered a call for testing for Rural Carrier Associates for the Post Office. These are the mostly ladies that sort and deliver mail along the highways and byways of Rural America. These are the mail delivery people that go through the rain sleet and snow to deliver your mail. I have questions about if I can do it, but if I dont pass the test, I wont ever know. The biggest challenge I think is to drive up to a box and sitting in the PASSENGER seat stuff the box. I have watched these gals both in Hawaii and in Arkansas drive in the middle of the van and deliver out of the passenger side. Regular Mail vehicles that can sometimes be bought at auction are not reccomended, but many minivans convert to right handed steering easily, and the one we bought is one of the best for this "surgery". We had no idea.

Now this test was not the big Battery 473 test that is like the Civil Service exam and is given every three to five years. Normally there are not too many openings in the postal service, but here in Arkansas, with the population exploding, there are going to be twenty new post offices opening and most of the smaller ones are expanding. I met people today that were hired by postmasters sans tests because they were so desparate for a pair of hands to help. If they pass the test they can stay if not another of us will get those jobs...

I applied for the 473 for the offices near Eureka Springs, a long drive, but these could be "inside" jobs and not just letter carriers . In mid July the 473 will open this area around Fayetteville and I will be applying for that as well. If I get a chance to interview they will find out that I have used a a number of mail processing devices including the type of machine that puts the barcode on letters,(its the same that puts the amounts on written checks so that amount comes out of your bank account, did that for 4 years in the Credit Union I worked in). Also in post office operations and clerical jobs are open. The pay for entry level is mind boggling. For this woman office worker, whos average hourly wage over the course of her life time is not quite 8.00 per hour... the prospect of 17.00 plus a stipend for the car...heavens I might be able to save a bit for my old age...

I have a sample test, and was going to post some of the interesting, sort of brain teaser questions they had on there, but we were admonished not to do such things, nor to discuss the contents of the test... OK. Oath of Silence for the Secrect Society!

Its going to be interesting to be on my own for a whole day here. My first as Woody and I have spent most of the past 6 months in each other's company, than in and of itsself is enought to make me "go postal" I miss my peace and quiet, and not having to have something to do all of the time... there is no time to think.