Back when I started this blog, I had a theme for each day of the work week. Tuesdays were called Story Time Tuesdays. I had started a mini-series within this theme called the "Work, Work, Work, Edition". I will now continue this series with my experience working for Paris Uniform Company. The picture above is Gabe with some of my equipment on. I used to load my truck on Saturday or Sunday so it was all ready for Monday. Sometimes Gabe came along to help.
I named this one "From Paris with Lumps" because it always seemed I had some kind of bump, scratch, bruise or injury while working for this company. I started talking about this job in this post if you want to catch up.
I started my day by waking up around 2:45am. I'd drive to the warehouse and load up my 16' box truck and try to be on the road by 5am. I delivered to an average of 20 customers a day so I had about 100 customers total throughout the week. After delivering everything and picking up the dirty uniforms, mats, and other products that needed washed, I'd return to the warehouse and unload my truck and then do a bunch of paperwork. For the first few weeks this took me about 14-16 hours to complete. I wouldn't get home until almost 7pm some nights. This is probably the main reason why I stopped blogging. When I became more used to the job it only took me 10-12 hours to complete a day, once in while only 8 hours. This job was very physically demanding and I lost about 30lbs. while working for Paris. Regrettably, I have put that weight back since then.
That's pretty much the short story version of what my job was like. Now I'd like to share a few stories about my experience at Paris. I got to know quite a few of my customers well and built good working relationships with them and had some fun joking around with them sometimes.
One morning I was driving to my first stop and it took about 45 minutes to get there and I enjoyed listening to podcasts and music while driving. I was listening to a podcast called "We're Alive" which is like one of the old time radio dramas, only newer. I mentioned it in my zombie post. I had just finished listening to one that was pretty intense when I arrived at my first stop. It was still very early in the morning and it was still very dark outside. As I stepped out of my truck I heard someone come up behind me and yell "RAAAAAAAAHH!" It scared the living bejeepers out of me. Normally I don't scare that easily, but I was already a little edgy when he did it. The guy that scared me was one of the workers at the plant I was delivering to. I usually talked with him when I made my stops there. I liked to play jokes on him too. All the workers there were supposed to get new coats from Paris and I delivered a few at a time each week and this guy in particular didn't get his coat for a long time. So he would jokingly act like he was really upset when he didn't get his coat. The first time I thought he was serious. He asked me if his coat arrived yet and he got this worried look on his face and looked like he was going to cry. He said, "I just know the reason I haven't gotten my coat yet is because they're going to fire me" and he turned away and acted like he was crying. I started to feel really bad for him, but then he turned back around with this big grin on his face. His coat did eventually arrive. I put it in his locker and I later ran into him and said "Hey, your coat showed up. I put it in your locker. Your name is Mike, right?" which wasn't really his name. When he told me it wasn't his name I told him I was sorry and said maybe he'd get his coat next week. So the next time I saw him he realized I had pulled one over on him and he told me that was a good one.
I also delivered to an Italian restaurant. The owner didn't speak much English so his son would usually translate for me. But one of the things he liked to do was come up to me, look in my shirt pocket and say "Where's the money?" One time I bought some fake play money and put it in my shirt pocket so when he asked me where the money was, I gave that to him.
I also delivered to one of the Kellogg's locations in Muncy, PA. So, if you've ever gotten a hair in one of your pop tarts, it might be mine! Just kidding. They didn't mess around when it came to sanitation. Your pop tarts are safe. Here's what I had to look like before entering Kellogg's:
I look like Ronald McDonald and Bluebeard the pirate had a kid. Hairnet, Beardnet, earplugs and safety glasses. While I was still training with Paris, the route manager and I went into Kellogg's to deliver when a woman stopped us and yelled, "You can't wear shorts in here!" So They went and got us a couple of while plastic full body jumpsuits that we had to wear while we were there. Sorry, I don't have a picture of that. The best thing though is that the contact person that I met with when I was there was named Tony. I'll let that one sink in for a moment.....
...still don't get it?
There you go.
Anyway, where was I? Oh yea. One more story from working at Paris. I delivered to a large warehouse and I had to back my truck into one of the loading docks that are usually used by tractor trailers, so the back of my truck wasn't high enough to line up with the door leaving more than a two foot drop from the dock into the back of my truck. I must have stepped up and down into and out of the back of my truck at that loading dock hundreds of times, but this one time in particular I stepped down into my truck the wrong way and as I went down on my face all I heard was a *pop*. There was no snap or crackle, just a *pop*. I didn't know what happened at first but I knew my foot was in a lot of pain. I sat up to take my boot and sock off and as soon as I did I knew I was going to have the rest of the day off. I crawled up onto the loading dock and flagged someone down for help. They sent a little motorized cart for me to ride on and then one of the people on the safety team took me to the ER. While I was sitting in the ER I decided to take a picture of my foot. WARNING: not for the squeamish.
No, that big bump is not my ankle. the little bump under the big bump is my ankle. Yea, ouch, I was thinking the same thing. Actually I was feeling the same thing. By the way, do you like my tan line from my sandals? I was off work for the next three days and then I was on light duty for the next two weeks. Light duty consisted of me riding in the passenger side of my truck and playing games on my phone while the route manager did all the work :)
The only reason why I had to ride along is so I would get paid.
Okay, that'll do it for this post. Sorry it took so long to get this one out.
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