I am flogging my guts out for pennies at the moment. Tough stuff when there is such a horrible job market. I have spoken to one who has put in 70 job applications and heard nothing back on any. Missus knows of another who has done 300, and it’s the same. No job to speak of. The whole job market seems to have evaporated. So, I am lucky to be able to do delivery driving, and I do enjoy it. I deliver in a university town, and I wonder what will become of all the young people studying there if things continue on like this? Maybe they will be okay at first as “young talent” has been the hot thing for years now? I am not advantaged with youthfulness. I am doing well after a lifetime of poorliness. I am doing something that comes easy, has no difficult hiring process, and is sort of on demand. I get work when I get it, and it is at the moment it is required.
So, yesterday I started out on Uber and things were good for a bit, then it got quiet, so I put Door Dash on, and it soon sent me from Logan to Smithfield for $4.50. It’s a long drive at 6 miles and takes up a lot of time when I could be doing shorter runs for the same amount in the city. But I took it because the apps don’t like to be ignored. Seriously, people! If you live in one town and are ordering food to another one three towns over, pay the driver a few more bucks to make it worth the time they are losing in the actual market. Make it ten, and it’s not bad. But this person is using their own fuel and car and time and trying to feed a family or pay rent or whatever. If you can’t butter your own bread for a sandwich, then pay appropriately for delivery.
I returned to Logan and went deep, almost to the other side, where there are a load of restaurants, and thought I would avoid doing that again. Boom! Another order to Smithfield, $5! Oh, thank you! So, I go. Get up there, and now I have wasted well over an hour messing about to try to get $9.50. Mind, I will be fueling up after, and then paying taxes. I am lucky to see a bit more than half minimum wage and less than that when I have to do repairs and buy tires, and take into account the high risk of the poorly laid out city I am driving in. But, hey!
While I am up there, I get an sandwich order, and I go to pick that up. They are not done making it, and it is going slow. The girl at the counter finally askes me to grab the customer’s drink from a cooler, then looks and decides that they are out, and she will check in the back. Nope. So, can I get hold of them and see if they will take a fountain drink instead. By now I have already noticed the bracelet on her says “WWJD?” Okay. Customer is okay with the fountain drink and Miss WWJD wants to give them a medium. I am like, “hey, you guys didn’t have what they ordered, at least let them have a large.” She is reluctant but says “okay.” Man, do the customer a solid, especially at the amazingly low cost of upgrading the size difference on a drink when you don’t keep your stock properly supplied. What has customer service come to? You want people to come back!
So, finally it’s back to Logan, and I am getting really pissed off now. So, I put on Uber, too. Uber offers me a quick $2.75 run, and I accept. Door Dash then sends me a $9. I have to reject it. Then, before I can do Jack-diddly-squat, here comes a $7 on Door Dash! WTF!? Where were all these when I was being hauled up to Smithfield for less? I do the Uber, and then log back in, and Door Dash has put me on probation for rejecting, and does not offer me anything for an hour. Unwritten policy, according to Reddit. I was probably screwed in all out of about $20-$25. That is a hard thing when I have busted my ass all day from lunchtime till after late supper just trying to break $100. I finally went home after ten with a couple of groceries that cost me more than what I have earned for the day, and I had to fill the tank. Even with this work, I am going backwards!
Is it worth it? I have not had a major repair yet. Ask me then. It feels like a drug addiction. It is not worth it, but I cannot live without it. It wants to punish me for not doing what it says, so I am being totally manipulated by an algorithm. This is not living. Yes, it can efficiently deal out the orders. But what does it do to deal them out fairly? This whole situation was just after earlier in the afternoon I was told by the app that Door Dash was happy with how many orders I have taken for them, and it would be prioritizing me for higher paying runs. Seriously? So, it can manipulate me! But then it sticks me with crap.
And I will be down in town around lunchtime today to do it all again. Just run with it? Trust the system? I suppose I will try and not think about it. But I can assure you that a person trying to survive in this town may only succeed because they would have to live in their car to do so and could be unburdened from having to rent a place. That would be alright.
Sarcasm aside, It is cutting it like a rusty, dull knife through a hickory stick. If there is progress, it is hard fought for. I forgot over the past several years what it was like to struggle.
Now, on the lucky side! The diet must be working out. I am doing pretty good as far as my joint pains go. I am not suffering the way I did over the past forty years or more. So that is a positive! I mean, it is not grueling work, but I am out of the car a lot doing pick-ups and drop-offs. It would have killed me a year ago. Inflammation would have knocked me off my feet after yesterday. It is six the next morning, and I feel like another nap, and I will be ready for another day of it. Impossible with the old me! The old me? The one from before, not the old one I am now. You know, me from days of yore!
So, I am going to try to get those last few Z’s in, and then get up, do some chores, drink some coffee, spend a little time with my wonderful family, and then get ready to vanish off from them and chase pennies, again. There are bills to be paid. Most of them probably subscriptions that were started years ago, and we have no evidence of except when the money vanishes. I do wonder how many people are broke off these stupid subscriptions and don’t even know it? Modern society is all about screwing people, making slaves of them, and them not even knowing it. The plug into the Matrix slips in unconsciously, and unconsciously do we endure it. I feel like I am being simultaneously stabbed by the needle at both ends. The money just goes, so I try to restore it working for an algorithm and doing drone work. There is no boss, no HR, and no complaints department. There is no care if I am coming up short, so long as there is someone who will hit the accept button and do the job in the moment. I have no Union. I have no recourse for any dissatisfaction. It’s just work, work, work. Or not. I don’t like it, lump it on home.
I take slow days off to make in my shop. I definitely need to up that ante. It’s my best hope! It’s that or try enjoying hunger.
I feel very fortunate this morning. It is below 5 degrees F out. Yet the house feels no less than mildly cool. This could be a lot worse. The forecast says we will be in much warmer temperatures by Monday, with them climbing still in the days after. Well, that’s great news as the firewood pile is pretty damn low, and I am cutting up wet wood to keep us fixed. I have some bigger logs, but the appropriate saw is not functioning properly, even with the newer chain on it. I need to get it fixed and ready to work. I am not well educated enough to do a proper job of it myself, but I have some ideas on what to try. It seems to be hanging up at the sprocket, and the chain seems to need a good proper sharpening, even if it is by hand. It is a pain in the butt, so is not having it working properly. I could really use it to produce wood from those big dry logs I have got outside.