The Snow Hold Game...

[Aethian]

Welcome welcome welcome, everyone is doing well yes? Let us pretend that we all live in the toon town world where some houses are living with people in them. Got that in your mind? Good...shall we get to our game of the day?

The game of the day is known as Snow Hold, I assume you know how to play? No?! Well then let me go over a few things first. One...it's not imperative you live in a snowy area but it does lead to the name of the game. Second...know what a snow shovel is...these are important if you live in areas of snow. And third...make sure you know how to use said snow shovel.

Are we ready to play? Today we have three contestants, house 1 with two lovely sisters living there. One is in her third year of college and works part time at the university library. Her sister is a senior in high school. House Two has five guys in various years of university classes, one works two part time jobs at night. House three has three first year friends. None have jobs.

Now that we have met our contestants let us get on with the game. Those of you at home please play along or at least pretend to since I know some of you never see snow. *twitches with a big grin* Now I'm sure most of you have figured out that this game now being played is in a snowy area and most of you (those on the card list) can guess where the game is being played.

Day 1 - Snow was coming down almost non-stop for the past couple days.
House 1, steps shoveld and salted. Mail was delivered.
House 2, Nothing done, mail withheld.
House 3, Nothing done, mail withheld.

Now I should point out to you that carriers are given a bit of power of what we do and do not deliver. If we find that steps that are cracked, ice covered, snow covered, bad shape, slanted, or in any other way dangerous, we are told to NOT use them and to withhold mail with a note stating the reason.

Day 2 - No snow fell and it was a little warm so ice formed from dripping water.
House 1, Salted.
House 2, Nothing done, mail withheld.
House 3, Nothing done, mail withheld.

Rules are three days of no delivery in a row and then we can leave the mail at the office to be picked up once someone stops in or calls. Management must be talked to when this is the cause the mail was held.

Day 3 - Bad frozen slush fell during the night.
House 1, Met the carrier while working on chipping away ice.
House 2, Nothing done, mail withheld.
House 3, Nothing done, mail withheld.

Since I have mostly college kids and I KNOW schedules can be weird I give five days total.

Day 4 - Melting with snow fall.
House 1, Shoveled, salted, working on when carrier came.
House 2, Nothing done, mail withheld.
House 3, Nothing done, mail withheld.

When letter/magazines get withheld, so do parcels. Have I mentioned that they are in school? Most of these guys order their books so I'm also withholding their books too.

Day 5 - Okay day...still crappy to walk.
House 1, Shoveled, salted.
House 2, Nothing done, mail withheld.
House 3, Heh...Momma came for a visit. Momma fell on the stairs... Momma's yelling was heard two blocks over. Steps are shoveled, salted, and you can see concrete. Mail delivered.... Momma yelled some more at her baby boy and his friends for not keeping up with the care of the house.

It has now been 5 days and only House 2 has still yet to do ANYTHING to their steps. I would wondered if they were still living but I've seen them come flying out of the drive. Our game has come to it's end folks, was it fun? Did you enjoy yourself?

Oh...

I see...

You want to know about House 2 right? Well lets talk first about 1 and 3. 1 still takes care of her steps, drive, porch, and is instructing her younger sister to do the same. Mail is always delivered and they are a delight to talk to. 3, since the run in with Momma has kept theres looking very nice. We have to work on the ice a bit but they are at a disadvantage with the way their porch is.

2....house 2...it's been two weeks since this game started. I have over 15 different books for them plus a letter from the landlord. I deliver to the landlord...asked the landlord about their snow polocies. I think I got the guys in trouble...yes little ol me was mean and evil to these boys.

Landlord came and cleared out the snow (after letting me know so I could have all the held mail with me) and met me at house 2. The boys are being fined 100 each for their disrepair of the home that they are renting. Boys are mad at me and claim that they are going to call my boss on me. One goes a little farther...

Idiot Guy: You know...it's a FEDERAL offense to delay the delivery of first class mail.
Me: *raises an eyebrow...he going to go there? ok* Yes it is.
IG: You were DELAYING the delivery of my mail.
Me: Was I now?
IG: Yea so I'm going to call the head office on you.
Me: Oh really and what were you going to tell them?
IG: That you REFUSED to deliver my mail. *looking a bit smug*
Me: Lets see, you didn't keep the steps clear. I value my safety and so saw the covered snowy and icy steps as a danger. So instead of risking my health I withheld delivery keeping the mail with me for five days before leaving it at the office. I started holding the mail almost three weeks ago now and you or your room mates have not bothered to talk to me or the office about your lack of mail. So your going to call the office and basically say, "I didn't take care of my steps so I didn't get mail." Right?
IG: Oh...uh...yea.
Me: Okay let me give you my bosses number I know he loves talking to people about this.
IG: Uh...


IG hasn't called to the office yet. I don't think he will... But out of 47 snow holds I only have 4 left. Not bad for the almost end of January.


What does this have to do with toon houses? I dunno I just thought it would be a funny picture.

[persephone]

*blink**blinkblink*

You mean people let ice just sit on their walk and their stairs? They just let it settle there and don't do anything about it?

How do they get in and out? How do they check for mail without slipping? Do they really expect you to deliver mail when just going up their walk, not to mention their steps is extremely hazardous to you?

*sigh* Some people! Good for you for sticking to your guns and taking care of YOURSELF first. I'm sure the post office will back you up -- because you were trying!

[Kiwi]

because Im not confident enough to drive in the snow, I bus if Im to lazy to walk.

did you know if you dont shovel the footpath outside your home and I slip and break my leg

YOU are paying my medical bills and lost income for time off work

that a very expensive lazy excuse isnt it

I feel your pain Aethian

[Broomjockey]

Okay, I laughed, and hard, when you mentioned talking to the landlord. That was awesome.

[Aethian]

Persephone - After two sprained ankles and one broken leg...we all got "The Talk" on how we're more important then the mail. Yea could have told em that.

As for how they are getting in and out...I don't know. I'm betting there is a back door that is kept clean as clean can be. But I don't go looking for clean steps I just focus on those closest to the box. One house of my many many snow holds had the sheer will power to walk in the same foot prints every day for a week after I started leaving it at the office till one got someone to clear off their steps. Now if they stay clear that will be another story.

Kiwi - Tell me about it. One house keeps their walk really clear just because the guy is a lawyer and does know what the fines and fees are AFTER the settlement.

Broom - I honestly don't know why I didn't talk to them sooner. I mean I see them every day when I drop their mail off in the morning. Just took a bit for my mind to go 'Ah ha!'

[CarcinogenCrunchies]

You mean all I have to do to get my carrier to stop bringing me junk mail is not shovel? Excellent. It's snowing right now; I can start tomorrow!

What's the trick for summer?

[Sheldonrs]

You mean all I have to do to get my carrier to stop bringing me junk mail is not shovel? Excellent. It's snowing right now; I can start tomorrow!

What's the trick for summer?

Actually I think the Post Office is cancelling this sytems.
I believe it's called "The Snow Holds Barred" policy.

[protege]

Ugh. *throws tomato*

After falling on my ass *many* times on my parents' driveway and/or steps, I try to keep mine as clear as I can. They simply refuse to lay down any salt or cinders...supposedly it will "ruin" the concrete. Then they whine about how "slippery" it is

Mine is usually cleared when I get to it. Since I don't get home until dark, it gets shoveled then.

[Racket_Man]

at least you, as a mail carrier get the right/privilage to refuse/delay mail delivery.

I as a pizza delivery driver do not have that option.

3 feet of snow gotta make that delivery
an inch of bare ice (streets or walkways) gotta make that delivery
-20 degree temps with -45 wind chill gotta make that delivery

that is until someone gets hurt, then upper management will get all psycho safety for a little while

[Boggles]

I absolutely hate delivering papers when it's icy.

Usually i going round before people are up so the people who would salt their drives/paths haven't started to yet. And everyone else just doesn;t give a toss.

And even worse are those people who live in the back of beyond. Where the snow/ice gets so bad that they can't make it in to work so have a day at home. And are on the phone to me to tell me that i am almost 5 minutes late with their paper.

[protege]

Damn. Reminded of my newspaper delivery days.

There was one family who *always* had ice on their steps. What usually happened, is the snow on the roof would melt, overflow the gutter...and then leak onto the sidewalk/steps below. Why did the gutter back up? Simple, the homeowner was too cheap to fix it or clean it out. Dodging that was bad enough, but to make it worse, they usually had the windows (which tilted *out*) open too! So now I had a choice of falling on the steps and bashing my head open, or slipping, bashing my head on the opened window, and then falling on my ass on the steps

[tigerlily0]

You mean people let ice just sit on their walk and their stairs? They just let it settle there and don't do anything about it?

How do they get in and out?

Depending on how their house is set up, they may just go in and out through the garage. That's what I do. I rarely use the front door. I've got ice (and now snow) on my deck/walk/stairs. Only my cats use it (FYI, my mailbox is on the side of the road, so the postal delivery person doesn't have to come up to my front door, so no worries there.)

[smileyeagle1021]

Aethian, you do much more than my mother's old mail person... she would routinely refuse delivery due to water in front of the mailbox... the mailbox, which by the way, could be reached without leaving the vehicle (we know this because the weekend person would just drive up, open the door, reach out, and pop the mail in the box, close the door, drive on)

[Yurimaru]

We get mail at the curb, and when we were all out shoveling yesterday, everyone cleared a mail-truck sized space by their box... Otherwise, how can we expect them to get the mail into our box? Also, we had to break loose the mailbox doors from the ice. Just common sense... You would think the #2 house guys would have SOME common sense... Or maybe not... Good pwnage!