That'll Work

That was a lot easier and less awkward than I thought it would be. I've delivered pizza through a couple of different periods in my life, and this wasn't so different, excepting the 32-or-so pounds of toddler.

The Volunteer Coordinator told me it would be 10am-11am, so we got there about 15 minutes early, anticipating that the Director would want to go over my paperwork or give me some training. Training took about 45 seconds, and meals weren't ready until 10:20, so we had quite a bit of time to kill. A Senior Center shares the space, so Thumper watched the ladies playing dominoes and did his best to lose all the balls out of the bingo tumbler. He also did his best to get the glitter paint out of the tube, but he was thwarted in his designs. I don't think I was keeping tight enough of a leash on him for the taste of one of the ladies, who seemed quite anxious for his safety, but he survived the experience with no (additional) injuries or marks.

Finally we hit the road with a cooler, a warmer, and a 3-ring notebook that had our client list and route maps. It was all very easy. We were done in about 45 minutes, with 8 total clients, only 6 of whom were actually receiving meals today. Everybody got one of each item, so there was no worrying about accidentally giving the wrong meals to the wrong clients, and no one seemed upset about Thumper tagging along. I tried to be friendly and outgoing, but only one client was even remotely interested in chatting, so the social awkwardness was, as it usually is, far less than I anticipated. And Thumper quite enjoyed the several dogs we met, though he didn't have much to say to the people. It takes him a little bit to warm up to folks, and we didn't stay anywhere for very long.

Piece of cake. We can do this. It was a lot of hoisting in and out of the car, but Thumper didn't seem to mind, and it's more exercise for me hauling him around like that. He's usually napping by 10, and we didn't get home until 11:30. He fell asleep in the car after we dropped our stuff off at the Center, and he was pretty cranky about me taking him out of the car and changing his diaper, but he was unconscious again almost immediately. I don't know what this might do to the rest of our day. Maybe I should start keeping him up later every day so by next week he'll be used to it. Or maybe we'll just play it by ear and see what happens.

So, thumbs up! It was easy, didn't take long, and made me feel good. Can't beat that!