The Pony Cannot Catch a Break

Poor Pony, struggling through a bout of The Universe serving up crap sandwiches! I think The Pony is due for a platter of filet mignon. Then again, I'm just a hovering parent.

Last week, The Pony encountered a lady out in her yard with her dalmatians. He voiced his concern to me by text.

"These people, insisting their dogs are friendly and fine to deliver mail if they're out. For reference, these are large dalmatians with a habit of jumping up on you, per the resident herself. She even said they knocked her over and she broke an ankle before, and still insisted they're fine to come up and deliver when they're out."

But that's not all. Later that same evening:

"RIP to my NY ice cream, since my freezer apparently didn't close *again* when I got ice for my extra water bottle. Everything else is fine. Just thawed a little."

But wait! Tuesday took the non-existent cake!

The Pony was supposed to be off, since Wednesday, which is the USPS Juneteenth holiday, is his regular day off, and so Tuesday would become the holiday. The Pony volunteered to work Tuesday, to gain extra leave hours. "It will be easy. Only 8 hours for sure, because they don't want to pay any penalty time for going over."

Well. If only. I got another text on Tuesday morning:

"Gonna be a long day. They're strapped for people, and I have three different every door things. Gonna take two and do the overtime. Since it's penalty time to do it on my holiday/day off."

During a break around 2:00, The Pony sent a message about things we read on Reddit on the unofficial post office thread.

"Another burnt LLV on Reddit! Apparently it was 2 minutes start to finish."

"Oh, the MAILmanity! Somebody's bills aren't getting paid this month! Dang. Bless the Metris you drive on your route."

"It makes things more bearable."

"A very thin silver lining."

Until 3 hours and 45 minutes later, when The Pony sent me a video. I won't link it, because I haven't asked permission.

"This is, uh, worrying about the Metris. Uh. It's still running. The key is NOT in it." All shown in the video, the key out, the motor running.

"What are you doing about it?"

"Being careful as I can and getting it turned off however I can with key jiggling. It is getting worse and more regular that it's not shutting off, or where things from turning the key are delayed. Which is definitely worrying because the gearshift is also in that batch of electronics."

"Drive back to the office while you can!"

"Yeah, I'm gonna try to do this next walking bit and then call and ask if I can just finish packages and skip that mail."

"Dad says he can come get you if you're stranded."

"I'll keep you updated."

At 6:22... "Five packages then back, got permission to skip the last bit of normal mail."

Well. Isn't THAT nice of management...

Anyhoo... The Pony was off at 7:15. So much for "volunteering" to take an 8-hour shift.