Old Man Winter

Working at a sandwich delivery shop (Jimmy John’s) quite frankly pits me up against the grips of mother nature, and it is especially awful during the cold, snowy months. Reflecting on my past experiences with this horrendous season we call winter, I recall one very specific night. It was a Sunday night, and I dreaded putting on layer upon layer preparing for work instead of sitting with the family and watching the Sunday night NFL game. From the time I stepped into work until the time I punched out, it was nothing but pure white snow falling and fast, piercing winds howling outside. Every time the phone rang and an order was placed, I threw the layers back on and trudged through the white trenches to my frosty red car barely peeking through the snow on top of it.

A photo of myself with the unbelievable mound of 

  snow in our front yard during this particular winter 

No matter how long the gap was between orders, I would have to grab the scraper and chip off the icy layer atop of my windshield. From then, it was an absolute nightmare as I attempted to squint out the correct addresses through the blinding snowfall. The snow seemed to be coming down in an unbelievable amount, and it appeared to be that the plow trucks could not keep up. My car slid amongst the deep, fluffy flakes and the wind pushed me around like a toy boat in a bathtub. It was truly terrifying, and at one point I had the thought, “Am I really going to die doing this delivery job? Really? This will be my legacy?”.  This continued on for hours, and I thought it was never going to end. I was stuck in some weird warp in time where I had to spend the rest of existence driving my beat up 1999 Toyota through the cold trenches of  the Hell we call Michigan. Fortunately enough, the orders started to become few and far between, and I managed to make it home safely after the shift. While I know this was all quite dramatic for the simple task of driving, it really was a challenge to face “Old Man Winter” head on as he attempted to beat me into oblivion. The seasons change so fast in Michigan, but winter always seems to be the hardest to get through. All we can hope for is that this winter is not nearly as bad as some in the past… although that is almost never the case.