1 post from May 2007

Well, I still have a job, for now. I guess it makes sense; people are stocking up on food and supplies in addition to just gasoline, and having your food and supplies delivered right to your door saves gas and neatly sidesteps the issue of going to a supermarket only to find it's short-stocked already. I've also been seeing a lot of orders for bicycles, unsurprisingly.

Shipping costs have gone up, which isn't making people happy, and the free shipping that everyone loves so much has been bumped up from $25.00 to $50.00, then to $75.00 -- I'm sure it'll be canned altogether at some point if the oil crisis continues. I'm thinking I should make use of the free shipping program I'm enrolled in to order whatever I can think of that I might need here soon before they cancel the program because of lost revenue due to the rising jet fuel prices.

One of the things I've decided to order is a tricycle. I've mentioned that I'm useless on a bike, right? Well, here we go. Easy solution. More stable, plenty of carrying capacity if I get the right model, costs only a couple-three car payments (and man am I kicking myself for buying a brand new car this year, alas for perfect hindsight).

There are down sides to still having a job -- for one, having to gas up. I'm coming up on an empty tank, even though I've been driving nowhere but to and from work, and I'm not looking forward to paying through the nose to tank up. Guess it's better to do it now than later. Later will only be worse.

The other major down side is...that I still have a job, and the nature of my job was already dealing with unhappy people even before this whole oil mess started. Before, I hardly ever got the real "screamers," the ones where you just want to put them on mute or hang up because you're never going to make them happy. This week I swear I've been getting at least one or two every couple of hours, wanting to know where their grocery delivery is or why their package is going to the wrong address -- "Because you selected the wrong address when you checked out, moron," I tell them, but more tactfully. Most of the time. Having to deal with these people really puts a strain on my nerves. I already disliked having to deal with people over the phone, especially people with an overgrown sense of entitlement; now I almost wish they would start cutting back, so I could find something else to do, something that didn't leave me such a wreck by the end of the day.