The Side Hustle Thread (split from Bees with AZD)

July 30th, 2015 at 2:31:42 AM permalink
Fleastiff
Member since: Oct 27, 2012
Threads: 62
Posts: 7831
Quote: buzzardknot
Wonder if there is a study about heart attacks and guys who drive for a living.
Lots. Long haul truck drivers usually have kidney problems, then they develop sleep apnea and radically altered hormone levels and set points.

alot depends on a variety of often unknown factors. start with your genes add or subtract environment insults (nutrition, viruses, bacteria, parasites) and you get a chronic disease that doctors try to "manage" but usually with a myopic focus, often unrelated to the actual underlying disease and your body's battle with prolonged inflammation.
July 30th, 2015 at 4:10:43 AM permalink
AZDuffman
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 135
Posts: 18136
Quote: Evenbob
I never failed to find a house because I
had good maps. And there were payphones
everywhere if I got lost. I don't remember
ever taking a bag to a hotel. The hotels
had vans at the airport and the airlines
gave the bags to them. I worked for
NW and they lost a lot of bags in the 80's.


In NV you will have better maps. Out here too many small towns to have all the maps you would need. On paper it would be impossible, If it was it would still cut your deliveries in half actually having to find places. As a PCO finding a place probably added at least 10 mins a stop. Way more when the place was hard to find. Then there is the fact that the GPS will use a back way to get there not obvious on a map.
The President is a fink.
July 30th, 2015 at 9:35:36 AM permalink
TheCesspit
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 23
Posts: 1929
Course gym rats drop dead. There's no magical cure all. There's just shifting the percentages a little to the left and the right with actions you can take. Genetics is much the same, it shifts the odds a little one way or the other (in some cases a lot). But you are not pre-determined by your genes.

(In most cases, some rare genetic alterations have massive effects on lifespan, but these are direct effects, like production of the incorrect protein inside cells due to the mutation).
It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die.... it's called Life
July 30th, 2015 at 12:42:04 PM permalink
rxwine
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 188
Posts: 18556
Quote: TheCesspit
Course gym rats drop dead. There's no magical cure all. There's just shifting the percentages a little to the left and the right with actions you can take. Genetics is much the same, it shifts the odds a little one way or the other (in some cases a lot). But you are not pre-determined by your genes.


Sometime after moving to Vegas (about 14 years ago) I swore that I would resist buying a power chair /hobble-round chair as long as I can, if not forever, or until I'm hit by a bus, if that's how it ends.

I'm still not anywhere near needing one. My brother is 10 years older and uses a cane now, so maybe that is my baseline.

I saw so many people using them there.
You believe in an invisible god, and dismiss people who say they are trans? Really?
August 6th, 2015 at 7:04:37 PM permalink
AZDuffman
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 135
Posts: 18136
NIGHT LIFE


There is a slight chance I might make it from floater to regular on the deliveries. Or at least get more regular shifts than just being on-call. One guy's car broke down and may not be back. He works nights. It was the head night guy that told me. It would be kind of nice.

I have to say, I never minded working graveyard. It is a weird world. People working it are usually a little sharper than the average person and are good at working independently. OTOH they (including me) are a slight tad antisocial, preferring solitude to the crowds.

It is different from days. For the first thing, more bags got to hotels for some reason. These are supposed to go first. They do somewhat. Downtown has several hotels. What is nice about nights is you can more easily park and get around. Last night I parked on the side of a main road where during the day it would be impossible. No traffic. Very peaceful.

OTOH, parts are strange. It takes guts to walk to a house at 4:00 AM to leave a bag. You first have to find the right house, not always easy. Some are down private roads. Some are down long driveways. Some you have to walk up to so you can see the number not visible from the street.

Last week I went to a BSA Camp. Got there middle of night. Five miles down a dirt road. No activity. Everyone asleep. Had to turn back on that one. Hard to describe how surreal it was. Open lodge, nobody there. Waiting for Morgan Freeman to pull me into a room and tell me the zombies will get me out there and I was the first person he saw in a week.

Time has a weird flow. We get there at 12 and load by about 1 ideally. First few stops are usually hotels, in town. BANG-BAG-BANG. But by about 2 we are headed to the further out places. BY 2:30 if you are going to get tired you are doing so. But you must keep pushing. By this time the bars are closed and there is next to zero activity going on. People are asleep so easier to drop bags. Still, you always wonder if people are noticing you. If you go down the wrong drive, what happens if you get a real upset person?

My body "resets" between 3 and 4. IOW, at that point I am up early and not late. Part of that I think comes from my first night job when that was the time I closed out the day for the store. Part is that this is when early-morning workers start to stir. Newspapers, bread, and milk trucks move at this time. Gets you in a new gear. By now I have usually delivered the close bags and am hitting "money bags," high dollar deliveries further out. Some of these are way in the country, like the aforesaid BSA camp.

Eventually you hit the last delivery, right before or after dawn. The sun part wakes you and part drains you. I might be 150 miles from home. Just drive, drive, drive. My pillow is calling.

A vampire life? Maybe. But days free is nice. No traffic is great. Night shift workers get a strange bond when they see other night workers. You know they are a bit like you, taking a job when normal people sleep.

Wondering if the guy quits. Back to the life. Keeps the fridge full.
The President is a fink.
August 6th, 2015 at 7:54:13 PM permalink
Evenbob
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 146
Posts: 25010
Quote: azduffman
It takes guts to walk to a house at 4:00 AM to leave a bag.


I wasn't lying that one of my guys was
shot in the knee with a 22 delivering
a bag way out in the country. They
didn't know we were bringing his
bag because he didn't have a phone.
3 am and he shot somebody coming onto
his porch. The driver is crippled for life
and the guy got 3 months in jail and
5 years probation.
If you take a risk, you may lose. If you never take a risk, you will always lose.
August 6th, 2015 at 10:36:25 PM permalink
Fleastiff
Member since: Oct 27, 2012
Threads: 62
Posts: 7831
Happens.
best thing is to come in openly... bright flashlight. Noise is safe, but in a wrong address might get you a few dogs or a few stray rounds.
Its like running out of gas in the deep south... you knock on a door at 4:00 in the morning they will think you are the Klan.

better gps to confirm addresses??
August 7th, 2015 at 4:41:59 AM permalink
AZDuffman
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 135
Posts: 18136
Quote: Fleastiff
Happens.
best thing is to come in openly... bright flashlight. Noise is safe, but in a wrong address might get you a few dogs or a few stray rounds.
Its like running out of gas in the deep south... you knock on a door at 4:00 in the morning they will think you are the Klan.

better gps to confirm addresses??


GPS is good but not perfect, you still need to verify by good, old-school checking it out. Google Street-View is a help in the burbs. I am glad that RDs are no more in these parts. They were always a pain.
The President is a fink.
August 7th, 2015 at 6:49:46 AM permalink
odiousgambit
Member since: Oct 28, 2012
Threads: 153
Posts: 5032
Quote: buzzardknot
Wonder if there is a study about heart attacks and guys who drive for a living. My Dad thought all that hitting brakes every time you got cut off, plus all the anxiety had to take its toll. All I know for sure is he had to quit when he got cataracts and a lot of his buddies dropped dead in the next 10 years or so.


In my day I used my car plenty. Towards the end I really got tired of the noise of the other vehicles; I used to like to have the windows down when possible, towards the end I couldn't stand to have them down. I'm pretty convinced my tinnitus largely comes from the road noise I endured, since I started noticing it got worse when I had a hiatus and then went back to it.

Any longer at it and God knows ...
I'm Still Standing, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah [it's an old guy chant for me]
August 23rd, 2015 at 8:04:37 PM permalink
Fleastiff
Member since: Oct 27, 2012
Threads: 62
Posts: 7831
Quote: odiousgambit
I'm pretty convinced my tinnitus largely comes from the road noise I endured, .

For an unusual view of tinnitus, may I recommend windytan.com for Oona Raisenen's views. She is a very young digital signal processing expert in Helsinki so her analysis of her tinnitus is from an unusual viewpoint.