I'm still receiving tips in the mail every day! Tip for carriers everywhere: Include your address on your Christmas Card that you give to your customers.
And yes, the Times does pass along the regular tips that are given by customers who pay through the Times. Snippets indicate that not all of the customers were sure of that; but, they need not worry: I see those tips every week of the year on the sheet that the Times gives me, including which customers the tips are from.
12/21 delivery report: I finished the delivery very late, and I can't blame the Times, because the papers had arrived at the distribution center on time; how embarrassing.
The only other time that I'd finished even nearly as late as I did this past Sunday, not counting my early-2007 newbie days, had been on last year's last Sunday before Christmas.
The last Sunday before Christmas is the most time-consuming delivery of the year to begin with, due to all the time of sticking my Christmas cards into the papers and stopping at doors to untape all the containing-of-tips ones from customers. But this time, to top it off, I'd left home at 3:20 instead of my usual 3:00.
I'd been up all night Saturday night fixing up a bike with which to improve the efficiency of certain parts of the delivery. It being the first in-the-snow delivery of the season, I figured that that's the time when it's most likely to be advantageous to have the bike along: With the bike (at least on the route segments on which it's worth the time of unloading it from the pickup truck), I can go up the often-cleared driveways - as opposed to taking my usual shortcuts across the lawns, which the snow is an impediment on - to the customers' doorsteps. It's still an ongoing process to figure out which streets this will and won't save time on.
But the Times vindicated me: I called the Times at 8 am (already a half an hour past the proper finishing time) to let them know that I still had a long ways to go (that way, they'd know what to tell any customers who call saying that they don't have their paper), and what did I get but a recording, telling customers to "bear with us" because the deliveries are late due to the weather!
And I had thought that this business prided itself in not letting weather be an excuse.
But finishing late wasn't the most embarrassing thing that I did that morning. Here's what takes the cake: At one customer's door, I took the tip envelope and forgot to leave a paper! Sleep deprivation, I guess.
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Hey, if you're looking for good tires to use on a bike for deliveries in the winter, I'd like to recommend the new winter tires I got this year: the Schwalbe Marathon Winter; they're available for 20", 24", 26" and 700c wheels, so you can pretty much get a set for any bike. ;)
The unique feature about these is the stud pattern. Unlike most studded tires, they do not have studs in the center. The advantage here is, if the roads are clear and dry, you can pump them up to their full 70 PSI and, when you ride straight, you'll be riding mostly on the center where there are no studs; this cuts vibration and rolling resistance. If the roads are bad, you can lower their pressure (they can run on as low as 30 PSI) flattening the tire out and bringing the studs into contact.
I've already used these tires on bad roads (the north end of Charlotte Street where I live is usually a low priority for plowing and this year is no exception). The traction was exceptional; I'm impressed. I've never had tires handle that well in the snow, particularly on a road bike.
I must admit, these tires give me a whole different perspective on, and appreciation of, studded tires. :)
Hmmm, $75. per tire _and_ I'd have to buy metric wheels to go with them (I took a peek and they don't say anything about 27", the size of wheels that I successfully scrounged an extra pair of from my flea-market junk with which to fix up my new paper-delivery bike that I boast about in "Sunday 1/4/09 delivery report". I think I won't be in any hurry.
About the only time so far this year that I _significantly_ could have used studs, was when I rode that paper-delivery bike not on a paper-delivery, but to Elk Mountain on Christmas Day (largely just to test it for more miles than the paper route provides). The dirt roads that happen to be the most direct way for over half of the distance, were _very_ icy.
The ice melted in time for that weekend; so, I've been satisfied with simply my $10. knobbies - and common sense such as not turning too fast into the still-sometimes-icy driveway entrances - while on the paper route.
But here's another way to ameliorate the need for studs. I discovered it during the above-mentioned ride to Elk Mtn., and it has to do with the fact that this paper-delivery bike is a hybrid bike, i.e. with mountain-bike-style handlebars, a feature that I've detested for decades because I'm used to drop-style handlebars, thank you. So, needless to say, I planned to replace that bike's mountain-bike-style bars with drop-style bars; I figured I'd get around to doing so by the second or third week of using it or something like that.
But then, on the sheer-ice sections on the way to Elk Mtn., I found that I was staying up in situations where with my bike with drop bars I would have had to put my foot down! And then it dawned on me that that must be because the mountain-bike-style bars facilitate more _precise_ control.
So, I'm leaving the mountain-bike-style bars on for at least the winter.
But on the paper-delivery bike _only_, because the paper delivery rides are short distance. A little while after finishing yesterday's (1/4/09) delivery and before motoring home, I launched that bike from the pickup truck again (oh boy, I'm getting to be like a yuppie - I bash yuppies for always taking rides that don't start and end in their driveway) and took a ride to Forty Fort with it (30 or so miles round trip from Newton Twp.) and was reminded once again that _distance_ will make one wish they had drop-style bars _every_ _time_.
Ah, 27" wheels; didn't anticipate that... :P If you should ever decide to outfit a bike with more standard-sized wheels for winter, though, I highly recommend the Schwalbe Marathon Winter; I must admit, having tried them, these are some amazing winter tires.
Hm... you find better stability on snow and ice with mountain bike-style bars? That might explain why I'm having so much trouble handling my bike this winter; I'm using the VFR-3 with drop bars and the Schwalbe's; this is the first winter I've had a bike with drop bars.
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