Grandpa Gotta Work—What I Like And Don't Like So Far

I'm in my second week of being by myself on my own route and I'm starting to see the things I like and don't like about this new job. Some of it I kind of knew going in, so those are just being reinforced, while others have taken a while to manifest. I thought I might share at least some of them with you all now.

Things I Don't Like

I'll start with those so that this post can end on a positive note.

• I don't like how my knees feel after kneeling about ten times. I really don't like how they feel after fifty times. Unfortunately, it's either get on my knees or virtually stand on my head, because most of the money and meters I need to read are below knee height.

• Locks that don't open. These generally fall into two categories—a) the key doesn't fit, or b) the key fits, the lock turns, but the door, side, whatever, won't open. I've wasted a lot of my time and the company's time trying to get into locks that I either don't have keys for, or that for one reason are another, refuse to budge.

• Trying to do more than one thing at a time. I am not currently, never have been, nor ever will I be, a multi-tasker. Some say they can. I can't. So, when I'm trying to get money out of the machine, but I also need to restock the prizes in it, and someone's losing money in another machine, or something else is going wrong—it's time to do one thing at a time. Let me collect the money first. I'll put it away and then go on to the next task.

• Feeling pressed for time. This is mainly me since I don't have any idea how long any of this is supposed to take me. Yesterday, I was in a relatively nearby town with 11 stops to make, with a total of 52 machines to collect from. Today, I was over an hour away on the coast, with five stops and 30 machines to get money out of. Today I spent more time driving than I did collecting, but I ended up taking more or less the same amount of time both days.

• Working with people around. I've posted and commented many times that crowded places are not my forte. I do okay, but there are times where they can be overwhelming. I really need to concentrate on what I'm doing, and so if someone wants to ask me a question, or a child is watching my every move, it's easy to get distracted.

What's sad is, yesterday, I was alone in most of the places I worked. That didn't stop me from forgetting to back out of pinball counters. Instead of being a little analog meter on the inside of the machine, these you have to look up on the pinball's screen by pushing some buttons. It's not that hard to get in and out, but for some reason, I left three in a row in counter mode, which means no one could play pinball, unless they had a key to get in and back out of it, which, as far as I know, no one at the establishments has.

That meant back tracking to where the pinball machines were, and getting out of the counter. I did it a fourth time later in the day, got paranoid about it and returned to find that sure enough, I'd left that pinball machine in counter mode, too.

• A lack of communication. This is pretty common in small businesses, where there's just enough people to get the pressing work done, but there's always more work than people, especially when problems arise. It could certainly be improved, and I think once it was, some of the other work occupying people would go away. I don't have any proposals yet, but I can see it's going to be an ongoing issue.

There are probably more, but those are the main things I don't like that are weighing on me at present.

Time to move on.

Things I Do Like

• Setting my own schedule. Sort of. I'm really only shackled by when the businesses are open or will let me in. Like today, I could have been on the coast at 10 AM (or maybe even earlier) to get started there. I'd like to do that, because even though it was only 10:40 when I got there, people were already around. The place I went to first is a tourist attraction and so the sooner I can get in and out of there, the better. Between collecting all that I could, messing with stuff I couldn't get into, helping people with a machine that stole their money and adding plush toys to the crane games, I was there for over two hours.

• Working alone. I've been my own guy for over 20 years, either as a company owner, an author, a student or blogger. So, it's nice to be able to work on my own. There is the downside, though, that when I run into trouble, I don't have someone readily available to walk me through it. However, once I get beyond this stage of not knowing where things are or how to get into things, it will be better.

• It's okay to fail. I don't know how much of that I'm really doing, but from what I've heard, the company acknowledges that mistakes will be made. I think that's as long as I stay within certain parameters of failure. Like, don't lose my keys, or close leave any machines open when I go, or don't let a bunch of money go missing, and don't wreck the van. As it is, I'd rather keep my mistakes to a minimum, but I'm making them and hopefully I'll learn from them.

• Driving. I've always liked to do that to a certain degree. I'm sure even it will become routine and boring the more I do it, but for now, it's cool to leave the house and drive through some of the most beautiful areas of Western Oregon.

• Some structure, but some change. I had that with the newspapers, and I think I have it with this job. I don't go to the same place every day, and as I may have hinted at above, I never know what I'm going to find when I get there. I like having a routine, but also having things vary enough to make it seem fresh. As long as that doesn't mean attempting to solve a bunch of problems. I'm kind of over that, though I actually enjoy it still, in very small doses.

• It gets me out of the house. I haven't had much of cause for that the last 16 years, give or take. The 16 months I was away at school needs to be subtracted, but the idea is, if I can be, I'm a homebody. The work gets me out and about, and while it takes me away from STEEM, it also gives me some things to write about.

• The paycheck. It's not what I was making before as a newspaper owner/publisher, but I feel it's an honest wage for an honest day's work. Plus, I'm getting paid a dollar more than I was told I would be at the start. Supposedly, a raise would come if I survived 90 days. I'm not sure if that means another raise is forthcoming or not. I think I'll just be happy and thankful for what they're paying me now and not get too far ahead of myself, since inevitably I get somewhat ahead of myself.

I think that gives you an idea of where I'm at with the pros and cons of my new job.

Tomorrow, unless something changes (which it can, has, and will again—I'm just not sure how I feel about it yet, or I would have included it on a list), I'll be going to another part of my route I've not yet visited. I know the towns, but that's it. I don't know when I'll be starting, either, but my guess is, I probably won't leave any sooner than 9:30 AM, but probably later. Because my boss gets busy in the mornings, I need to be prepared to remind him around 8 AM about giving me route information, if it doesn't magically appear before that.

_{All images—Pixabay}