“It is better to be prepared for an opportunity and not have one than to have an opportunity and not be prepared.”
Whitney Young Jr.
This 4th of July holiday has not been the break in the action for me that others may have enjoyed on this extended holiday weekend.
As a matter of fact, it has been a little bit of a bummer.
It started on Wednesday, the day before the holiday .
I had received a summons to report for jury duty on July 3rd.
Well in advance of this I made arrangements for a substitute driver for the day.
As luck would have it, the night before I was supposed to report, I was notified that I would not be needed to show up.
Great,I just lost a days pay for nothing!
I still went to work that morning, and assisted the alternate driver (my nephew) as he had never done my route before.
I also had to pick him up at days end since he had no car of his own.
Pretty much a lost day.
Being hourly, not salaried, I lost Thursday, the 4th, as well.
That's 2 days pay gone!
Friday is normally my day off.
However, I had swapped days with the other driver which gave him an extended weekend, and allowed me to take next Sunday off for my fraternity's yearly Summer BBQ.
As I was about to pull out of the parking lot Friday morning, the director of the Senior program flagged me down.
It seems that we had no power....a blown transformer.
The county bus was already enroute,so we made the decision to make our bus run as well. The seniors who normally come by car were all contacted and told that we would be cancelling the program for the day.
After picking up my passengers, we sat around,playing bingo until the lunch for the day was delivered.
We packed a box lunch up for each of the seniors, loaded them back on the bus and sent them home at 11:30.
Because of the early dismissal, the county bus could not make it back for the return run.
Instead we loaded everyone onto my bus, 18 passengers plus a wheelchair, and off we went.
My last drop off was 2 hours after we took off, way too long for seniors to be rolling around Bergen County.
(not to mention that this early dismissal shortened my day by a few hours as well).
Susan had decided that since she had to visit her parents,today would be a good choice.
I was driving,so I would only be around from 12-3,so we wouldn't be spending the day together any way.
Plus,if she left by 10, Dolly would only be left alone until noon.
Dolly has a tendency to get inquisitive (read destructive) when left alone for too long.
When I leave at 3, Dolly would then only be home alone for another hour or so before Susan got back.
Sounds like a plan to me.
As I was starting up my bus to begin my morning route, I received a phone call.
No A/C in the building.
Program cancelled.
And another day's pay out the window.
Susan had already made plans to meet her sister for lunch.
Dolly still needed supervision,so here I am with basically another wasted day.
Did I mention that the A/C repairman will not get there until sometime tomorrow morning so there is the very real possibility that work will be cancelled as well?
So basically in the last 5 days I may lose 4 1/2 days pay and really have not been able to take advantage of the free time.
Sometimes free can be very expensive!
That kind of stinks...........
Shavua Tov!
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