An addendum. I just received a call from my manager about work for tomorrow. It seems Pat Salmon & Sons, a contract over-the-road mail transporter, is refusing to operate their trucks tomorrow morning.

In defense of them, I can see their position. "Tomorrow" begins tonight for the Postal Service and the trucks must be on the road now and all night to meet transportation schedules. That means most of them running out of Jacksonville will still be seeing winds from Jeanne as they operate.

Many of the routes in our area originate in Jacksonville with some of them going into Georgia and they would be heading into areas where the storm is tracking. So I can't say I blame them to awful much.

Since the mail cannot get to the Gainesville plant from Jacksonville they will be shutting down this evening until 7am tomorrow. At that time a more localized contractor, Phoenix Transport, will bring what is available to us arriving at 8:30 am. That's 5 hours later than usual for our first incoming dispatch.

So I get to "sleep in" tomorrow, getting up at 6am instead of my usual 2am. Of course all this means the next several days will be hectic as the plants and local offices struggle to catch up.

Tomorrow's deliveries will consist of only the "essential" mail and most of the carriers will be preparing to leave on their routes almost before we get the mail off the trucks. We will work the rest of the week on getting what the public calls "junk" mail out of the office. We prefer to call it "bread and butter."

The bottom line for tonight is, I get to be one of the "big kids" and stay up late. Woweee!

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