[Elspode]

No, no...bestiality practitioners would be cow *porkers*...

Bruce: no, I'm not really planning on making it general knowledge that I write about these individuals. If I did that, I'd feel obligated to be a bit less...um...interpretive about my views of them. I don't need trouble. As Wolf mentions, few of them have spoken about any particular facility with or addiction to computers and online hobbies, so I'm not real worried that someone will Google themselves and end up here.

I was actually thinking of getting a pic of the bear, Wolf...but before I do, I need to modify my description. Apparently, pizza fumes cause hallucinations...I assume it is the mushrooms (which we actually ran out of tonight...egad). The bear has both arms at its side, and no sign. Don't ask me how I screwed that one up. I'm guessing my weary brain just made its own artistic modifications and reported back to my typing fingers the end result. It is, however, definitely barrel-striped, and it is definitely a fiberglas bear, standing at the side of the road.

Tips have been *awful* the past two nights, as have my routings. Still and all, with my hourly wage and route fee thrown in, I'm probably averaging about $9.00 per hour right now, over the course of my three-week employment history. While that isn't much, it is $9.00 per hour more than I make sitting here typing about it. Extrapolating my earnings over the course of a month, it looks like I should bank about $400 extra after taxes. This is probably worthwhile.

It was a fairly typical evening of pizzary, tonight and last night. All the personalities I have previously described were strutting in spades. I continue to be astounded at the positive, friendly, helpful attitude displayed by my namesake Patrick (aka Rufus). I quizzed him a bit tonight, and found out that he has been doing this in one form or another for *18 years*. It is obvious that he absolutely loves the pizza biz, and it is impossible to avoid being caught up in his enthusiasm. Although he is technically a driver, same as me, he functions much more on the level of a manager, and does everything there is to be done in the course of business with skill, professionalism and joi de vivre. Whether taking a phone order, making a pizza, cleaning a scummy floor or training a new kid, he is utterly enviable, a peson to be admired. I can't even believe I am as impressed as I am. It isn't like I give that much of a care about the whole gig, but working with him, you simply *have* to care. He has an uncanny ability to make you feel equally good about your screwups as he does about your triumphs. This guy should be conducting seminars, not making pizza.

I made my first pizza tonight...for myself. We're allowed one small pizza to eat while at work, although most of us make them and take them at the end of our shifts. Because we were almost out of small regular crusts, I made large thin loaded with sausage, onions and olives. It is damn fine, if I do say so myself. While it cooked, I was treated to a brief study of the Operations Manual, because I have received virutally no training so far. There is much to be learned, and reading about it really doesn't cut it. Learning to make a large variety of pizzas requires hands on experience, as does the entire order-taking routine. While I am (IMHO) highly skilled at customer handling, it is very easy to seriously hose an order being taken if you are unfamiliar with the computer system into which it is input. Even experienced people screw up, as evidenced by an order I was delivering last night.

When someone calls in, they are first asked their phone number. This, if they are a previous customer, results in their information and last order being pulled up. The next thing that one is supposed to do is confirm the customer's address. Unfortunately, this did not occur last night (a new girl took the order...Patrick's niece, as it turns out), and I found myself attempting to deliver a pizza to some seriously confused individuals. A couple of phone calls revealed that the customers who ordered the pizza had moved, keeping their old phone number, but changing their residence on the complete opposite side of Lee's Summit, about as far from their old house as they could be, and still be in Lee's Summit.

The whole episode cost me 45 minutes of jerking off during peak business time, excess driving of about 12 miles (in my Explorer, getting about 13 mpg @ $1.75/gallon), completely eating up the $1 route fee, and preventing me from taking other deliveries during that time. I got a $1 tip out of it in the end. Coupled with lost potential other deliveries, I figure that little fiasco cost me at least $5.00. Pretty disheartening, but then everyone makes mistakes. It is just that this one cost me, and no one else, money.

And so it goes...