I can tell I am getting older by the way I check to see if the
iron is on. Now that I am nearing fifty, I have noticed it is too
much trouble to bend down and see if the iron is plugged in. I mean,
it is a long way down there and lots of things can go wrong bending
down that far. Dizziness can set in. You can pull a muscle. Wrench
your back. (I am finally learning not to reach into the back seat
while I'm driving the car for that very reason.) It is also way too
much trouble to bend down and unplug the iron to be sure the iron is
turned off. Besides, bending down that far for one thing is really
not a good use of my time. If I'm bending down that far, I better
have more to do than just check the iron. At my age, you just can't
go around wasting your energy on frivolous activities like checking
to see if the iron is plugged in. Wait until there's a few things to
do down there before you commit—picking up paper clips, dryer lint,
stray used softener sheets, etc. Getting down there to check a plug
is a high-effort activity, so don't waste it. Do a few other things
while you're there. Since it is rare for me to have any other
activities planned that I can do while I'm in the dirty lowdown
position, what do I do? Instead of bending, I feel the surface of the iron with my hand
to see if it is hot or not. You might expect that even though I am
getting old, I feel young when I scream like a girl if the iron is on
and it is hot. That's right, I scream like a girl! So feeling the
surface of the iron to see if it is on works for me, even if I
occasionally scream like a girl when the surface is really hot. Then I whip my hair back and forth, blow on my fingers and palms, and unplug the iron from the socket with my toes. I feel young when I do that too.
We were given a choice whether or not those of us who were having a milestone service year wanted to speak on Founders Day in our department meeting. Since the one consistent feedback I have gotten during my entire 25-year career at UPS was that I don’t speak up enough in meetings, I thought I would make up for the whole thing here today. No one intends to have a long career at UPS. You come to work at UPS as a temporary thing while you are planning your life. Those plans do not include UPS. We come for the benefits, the tuition assistance, the non-standard hours that don’t interfere with classes or our other real jobs. Parents don’t envision their kids growing up and working for UPS. I think these are just the basic realities of life. I worked the majority of my career in Information Services Learning & Development or Corp HR Learning & Development. I would have never lasted 25 years had I been in Operations. I know exactly how long I would have lasted in Operations had I wo...