My paper route

It's been almost four months since I officially retired at age 70. I don't think I was home for three days and I was out looking for a part time job to keep me busy and supplement my income from Social security. I found what I thought was the perfect thing for me to do; Deliver newspapers. Since I am an early riser in the mornings, getting up at 2:30am would be no problem.

They gave me three days of on the route training, which was a big farce. Total darkness and zigzagging up and down the streets not seeing the house numbers at all; Then I was on my own.The next day I picked up my 300 papers and started out. Thought I was doing pretty good, I had only tripped on cracks in the sidewalk twice and was pretty sure I hadn't missed any houses.

I finally finished the route 3 1/2hrs. late with 17 papers left over. I had no idea who I had missed so I just discarded them and waited for a call to redeliver the missed ones. The next morning there was a note in my bundle of papers that 17 houses were missed and their house numbers.

I did not have to re-deliver the papers, just a reminder to check each house off the route roster as I deliver the paper. There was no sequential order to the roster of house numbers. So as I checked off each house and drove to the next it took a lot longer to deliver the papers. I was supposed to have all of the papers done by 6:30am and at 9:00am I still had 45 papers to go. As the week went by I continued learning the route and being late along with a few missed papers.

Monday morning the next week I was called into the office for some additional training and route changes. I had complained about the route having no order to the main and side streets which coordinated with the house numbers. After a short discussion and some training, they printed me a directional map with the house numbers in numerical order.

I thought now I can finally do my job and start making some money. Things actually started going along pretty smooth; I was getting the papers delivered on time and had only a few changes in  subscriptions.  I noticed I was filling up with gas every week; and with gas at $4.00 a gallon it was eating up all of my profit. Then at the end of the month when I received my statement and figured up my expenses, I was earning $2.05 an hr. (Shock )

It didn't take long for me to decide to give the route up. With winter coming on and plowing through the snow this was not for me.

I want to stay busy and active in some kind of Part time employment for seniors. So now I am in search of a new occupation to learn.

Part of keeping fit in the golden years is staying active  whether it's doing manual labor, or belonging to a fitness club and exercising.
A good fitness site that I have found that you can use in your home is thefitnesswiz.com

Cigarette Bums and butts

I've about had it with people ( I'll call them bums) who pick cigarette butts out of ash cans and garbage pails.

My two apartment buildings set on 3/4 of the block with a parking lot connecting them. I house about 32 handicapped residents between the two buildings. Being the caretaker for both properties I am also responsible for the security of and around the buildings.We have a no smoking policy inside the building, so all smokers must go outside.

Two years ago I had a neighbor who was on some type of hardship assistance come by the front of the building and collect any cigarette butts in the ash cans.This soon became an every day occurrence even through the winter. He must of told his friends about his new discovery because over the next few months three more bums were stopping by at different times collecting butts.

I have about twenty different health care staff come and service their client residents on a daily basis so you can imagine how many cigarettes get smoked. Often when they are on a smoke break they will get a call and have to put out a freshly lit or half smoked cigarette.That makes my buildings a prime target for the butt collectors.

Early this spring I noticed a car pulling in and park in the lot and three guys and a lady got out and went around both buildings collecting butts (I have 6 butt cans), got back in their car and left. I decided then I would go out several times during the day and empty them into the trash can under the ash tray. Lately I notice several people riding there bikes around to each butt can. If the tray is empty they will pull the ash tray off the trash can and dig them out of the garbage.

The butt traffic is increasing and causing a nuisance to the residents and staff. Now I go out with a small pail and empty the ash trays, then dispose of them in the inside dumpster. Since my corporate won't buy disposable butt containers, I will just have to keep the ash trays as empty as possible. If the butts aren't there they can't collect them.

Earl Baldwin

Vacation at the end of winter

I was thinking about some relaxing time, but not a whole week of vacation.
At work I was  preparing for an inspection by the Federal Housing Authority in the building that I manage, and getting totally stressed out. It was the first week in February and there was still 5' piles of snow everywhere. In the mornings I would be outside clearing away the snow and ice and in the afternoon inside repairing doors, changing emergency lights and fixing faucet leaks.

 I had 2 weeks until the inspection and just a ton of maintenance work to do. My supervisor from another city called to find out how I was doing  and offered to come down and help me with the work. We worked through the weekends and got things looking good, and then had the inspection. ( It went good)

 During this time I was just recovering from pneumonia and was completely exhausted. My supervisor suggested I take a vacation after all the hard work we had just completed. Great idea I said , so I put in my 2 weeks notice to take a week off.


March 3rd seemed like a long way off now that I decided to take some vacation time. I spent most of the days at work thinking about what I should do and where to go. A birthday party was being planned in eastern part of the state or I could visit my Grandson 2 states away who is going through chemo therapy.  Maybe I should just stay home and work on my TO DO LIST.


The weather was starting to turn nice, it was in the 40's almost every day, so I decided to just stay home and relax. My plan was to play on the computer, do a little cleaning, take a long nap, and snack most of the day. I didn't think I would get much done on my TO DO LIST so I left that out of my plans.

Vacation came and I followed my plan except for 2 days when the temperature got up to 60 degrees. It was so nice that I went out to the flower bed and worked for a few hours.


Taking a vacation at the end of winter just before spring has been one of the best ones I have had in a long time. I never know what the next day or week will bring so, I am going to keep living my life to the best of my ability.


Earl