Social Distancing, Day 21

THE STANDOFF

These sweet baby girls

A girl and her Pop Pop

The awesome organizing job Hubby did in the hallway today. Looks so nice!

Hubby's reward for doing a great job:

Outdoor shenanigans:

Mr. H comes home:

And Mr. C gives the grass a cut:

It was a very good Sunday.

Social Distancing, Day 20: Never Before and Never Again

Here's all the heavy crap I lugged around today:

UPDATE: Everyone tipped.

It's 11 PM, I'm lying in bed hurting like a wretched old woman, I'm looking at these pictures and I'm pretty pissed off, actually. 

From now on I will be carefully inspecting the orders to see how much heavy lifting I'll be doing. And I will be doing NO heavy lifting.

I remember reading on a Shi** message board on Reddit that one of its shoppers gives customers exactly one chance. If they don't tip, it's over. At the time it seemed kind of harsh, but now I know exactly what he was talking about. TIP YOUR DELIVERY DRIVERS.

Other rules I've created since starting this gig:

1) No Saturdays (I'd already decided against working Sundays)

2) No Fred Meyer unless it's an extremely small shopping list, like 5 items or less. Whoever designed Fred's floor plan, particularly where cheese and dairy/non-dairy items are concerned, should be reprimanded severely for being an idiot. There's no getting out of there in a timely manner (which is probably the point)

3) I repeat: No more heavy lifting. Today's excursions cured me of ever trying that again

4) Keep a list of the customers, first name and address, who don't tip. Create a Wall of Shame for future reference. "You shouldn't not tip me, Johnny. My first customer didn't tip me once..... once."

5) Pick a store and stick to it all day. This isn't a rule so much as something I've been kicking around for the last two days, as I claimed orders pell mell and ended up doing stuff like driving to Portland twice, then Ridgefield, in one day. Orders come in all day long - I don't have to pack my schedule in advance.

I like delivering, though. I know it's hard to tell from this post. It's (mostly) fun.

Social Distancing, Day 19

I kept busy today. I had five orders, and drove all over the place - twice to Portland and once to Ridgefield (totally fun order; I bought toys and Easter candy).

Between two of them, we went for a drive so C and R could practice their driving. 

Here's something fun: Around here, people are trying to think of ways to keep their little children busy during the day, and someone started a thing called a bear hunt. They're asking people to put a teddy bear in their front window so that parents can take their kids for walks and look for the bears as something to do. Our neighbors had their little girl out on a walk, passing around fliers about it. So adorable and heartwarming.

The CDC now recommends wearing masks when we go out in public. I fashioned one out of my Sundance handkerchief from the bonnet shop.

I ended up wearing it for my fourth order of the day, for about 10 seconds, before I couldn't breathe and it fogged up my glasses. It felt like I was wearing a cloth diaper on my face. Time to figure out something else.

Saw Heather G, an old McWard compadre and fellow Shi** shopper, while filling an order at the Hazel Dell Target. It was fun catching up and sharing trade secrets with her.

Hubby and I did my last two orders together, which was really fun because we also included a tour of all the houses where we've lived here, except one, the one on Mill Plain. It's pretty crazy, how long we've lived here and how many houses we've rented. It was fun thinking about the kids being little and which babies we had at which houses.

Customers continue to be awesome people. I had more big tips today, and a very nice text from a lady in Idaho who ordered medical equipment and mandarins to be delivered to her sick brother (he lives here). She is a nurse and sent some kind words about how much she appreciates what we're doing for people. That made me happy.

And, speaking of the bonnet shop, I heard from my sweet friend Chantell. She has found a new job and is allowed to work from home. She and her new husband have settled into their newly renovated house and are loving life. It was so good to hear from her.

Social Distancing, Day 18

Chilling between orders this morning. I had an early one:

I've been busy Shi**ing all day, at two Target stores, with a Fred Meyer shop and another Target shop happening later today. LOVING this gig. The store employees are so great and the customers are too. 

Things are hard and people are scared and tense right now, but I have to say, they're being so excellent to each other. So much kindness and courtesy is floating around (along with the virus, ha). 

Also, it's a beautiful time of year to be out driving around, delivering things. My dad loved it too. So did his dad (Gran, who traveled the Northwest selling farm equipment). I think his grandfather, my great grandfather Maurice Smith, who owned and operated a dray service, must have loved it as well since it was his business for a long time. Must be a Smith thing.

Social Distancing, Day 17

Chad wants all the snuggles:

Everything is all squared away with Shi**. I woke up with one order scheduled for today and have since scheduled three more; now I have two today, two tomorrow. I'm keeping myself down to smaller orders right now until I know what I'm doing. 

Also, I was noodling around with the Uber Eats app, wondering why they haven't contacted me yet, when I noticed that I hadn't sent a photo of my driver license yet. Oops! Maybe that's why. Hopefully now things will speed up. 

It's kind of funny to feel the difference between all the other mornings of social distancing, and this morning. I'm so excited to have something to work at and can't wait to get started. To quote Phil Connors: "Anything different is good."

C arrived to tell us that Community is now on Netflix: 

This one came in and threw a pillow at us:

What an exciting day. I ran my legs off. I completed three orders and was tipped for two (the other one was for a first-time user, so we'll give her a pass... this time). Two of my customers were moms with young babies, and the last was a visually impaired lady. More on her later.

Hubby was home working all day. R apparently convinced him to leave the house and go play:

Between orders, I visited the bonnet shop. Barbara and Nick were there. It was great to see them and hear of Barbara's shipping exploits of late (all the baby and will baskets are gone now!). Nick was glad to see the finished tags. I took more tag supplies with me. M & L can make those and make that money.

During my last shop, T from the bonnet shop texted me about watching Survivor tonight and said she missed my face. I miss her too!

The last grocery customer lived in a houseboat on the Willamette River, off Hayden Island. FUN. And she was darling. I had fun chatting with her while I shopped:

The houseboat community was cool, but to live there, you'd have to really like your neighbors. Still, it was beautiful:

A family going to the park:

I wheeled their groceries down this bridge:

This customer, the visually impaired lady, was incredibly kind. She thanked me profusely and said that home delivery people like me had changed her life. With the virus crisis, customers are having their deliveries left at their door, so there's little to no interaction with them. But I wish I could have met this lady. Maybe I will someday.

At home, I crawled into bed and didn't move. Heard from Tawnee, who sent pics of the new steps BC built at Dad's cabin; and Mom, who is worried that I shopped without a mask today and ordered masks from Amazon for me in the middle of our conversation. Adorable. My mom is so great.

Tawnee's pics:

 I love hearing from people, but it makes me sad that they're worried that this may be the last time we'll all be talking to each other. It's a very sad, stressful time. Still, we're fortunate in that no one I know, knows anyone who's caught the virus yet.

Spent the evening in bed. Watched Survivor.