The Paper Route

        Well I never expected to be what they call an independent contractor for a newspaper. What this means is I am doing a paper route. I have a route for the Odessa American of approximately 200 papers. It's funny, but I needed a job that would pay a few hundred extra a month and not be to time consuming. The time could be spent in more productive pursuits. Like writing or working on programs. Plus it is so hot here that if I worked I would need to keep the air-conditioning on the whole time I was gone so the cat's would be comfortable.
        So with the paper route that materialized before me it seemed to be the logical choice for work right now. This will suite it's purpose all around and I will be home before the air-conditioning needs to be on. I get up at 2:00 am and am home by 5:30 am or 6:00 am. Sometimes on Sunday's since the papers are so large it takes longer so am home just after 7:00 am. So far everything is working out.
        The plan is to look for good full-time employment. So I can do this. I have been doing it now about 3 weeks. So far so good. I did get a flat tire the other day. I changed it and took the flat in to repair. After about 5 minutes the guy fixing it calls me over and his boss was looking at the tire as well. I thought oh no it's not fixable. His boss said that I had to see this before they worked on it. They were both smirking. Well they had the tire open and you could see the inside. It seems that I ran over a fork and the whole for from the eating end was inside the tire. The handle had broken off. Now that was nuts. My tire got forked. Ha ha!.
        I went to the town of Big Springs yesterday. I had to go to the Veterans Hospital there. It was about an hour drive one way. Maybe a little longer then that. Big Springs is a lot smaller then Odessa and Midland. But it houses the VA hospital. I thought perhaps the whole town worked at the VA hospital. Their kids worked at Wendy's or McDonalds or some other fast food place. I guess they just went through a scare with the government wanting to move the VA hospital to Odessa. That would have been good for me, but horrible for the town of Big Spring. I am happy for them that they made the decision to stay there. There is a VA clinic here in Odessa. That is fine for me.
        Different animals seen here in the area. I saw a porcupine yesterday and have seen a fox while delivering papers. Kinda neat. I have seen fox's before but never a porcupine. In Florida it was Armadillos. In Oklahoma I had seen bobcats.
        I belong to the church called Eckankar. http://www.eckankar.org is their url. Well recently I finally had my path cross with another Eckist here in the area. He lives in the same town. There are only four of us. One in Big Spring, one in Ackley and two of us here in Odessa. I was pleased to hook up with another Eckist. We have talked a few times on the phone and we hope to have lunch together soon.
        Life is a journey....you never know which way it will turn! All you can do is handle it and adjust.