...the 'ol black and white

Do you ever notice when your out driving late at night or even early in the morning that there always seems to be more cops than normal out patrolling? Well I am living proof that that statement is true. I see them everywhere while out throwing papers and I will be the first to say that they are definitely more skittish at night.

One night while my fiance, Adam, and I were doing our normal routine of paper gymnastics driving in and out of driveways and tossing newspapers left and right out the car windows we were about two thirds of the way done when red and blue lights start flashing in the rear view mirror. As the officer walks toward the car Adam and I are both a bit stunned as to why were were being pulled over and quickly tried to determine what exactly we did wrong. The officer walks toward the car, looks in the back seat, only to see the seat piled high with newspapers and signals Adam to roll down his window.

"You guys out throwing papers?" the officer states while shinning his flash light around inside the car. Adam and I both look at each other in amazment since the man had just looked in the back seat and had clearly seen all the newspapers, we together say a polite "yes sir." To our surprise the officer immedietly appoligized for having stopped us on the job and procceded to mention that we should not have our brights on while passing other cars. Adam and I were stunned that that had been the only reason he pulled us over.

As the officer walks back to his squad car I look at Adam and jokingly say "no officer we're pickin' 'em up!" ... "here's your sign."

...unusual encounter

The fact that I do my job in the early morning between the hours of 3am and 6am suggests that I more than likely won't run into anyone. Now with that said I have come across the usual later-nighter that is walking home from the club or the early bird headed off to work. However, to come upon anything unexpected, as you might expect, is a bit of a shock.

Recently while I was on route just doing my job and hitting house after house with the usual news I drive up to one of my usual deliveries. I grab a newspaper, get out of the car and head toward the house. I proceed to throw the paper toward the porch doing my best to aim toward the door. To my surprise, as the paper hits the ground, or what I thought was the ground, I hear a moaning "huhhhh?" I had accidentally hit a man in the head with my newspaper! My first response was a resounding "I'm SO sorry" but the man had already fallen back to sleep. Then for some reason I just stood there looking at the man wondering why a he was sleeping outside on someones deck? He might have come home drunk and gotten locked out or who knows what. Either way that one was quite a shock.

...in inclement weather

Due to the change in seasons, a paper route may be done in many different weather conditions. The worst of these that I have recently experienced would be one inch of ice underneath six inches of snow. Interestingly enough as I have previously mentioned, I have to complete my route no matter the weather condition or the danger that it might encompass. The difficulty in trying to drive a car that is not four wheel drive up an icy hill is frustrating and in the end disappointing. You will either give up and decide to walk up the hill, inevitably falling on your ass or refuse defeat and attempt it from a different route. Either way the attempt is made, the outcome is always the same.

Dispite the difficulty that comes with such a job, there are always times where some fun is bound to happen. Testing out the slickness of the icy road is just a simple pleasure that makes a paper route a little more interesting. With the understanding that safety is always in mind, gently slip slidding around on an icy road is very exciting. Testing small portions of the roads and parking lots is the place to do it, keeping in mind that there are no cars in sight.