Toys for twats and walking but going nowhere

Sunday morning.  Uusally this would be the time where I would be getting all settled in for today's Steeler game with a second eye focused on how the fantasy football team is doing.  But the Steelers have lost 5 straight games, including the last three to some of the worst teams in the NFL in Kansas City, Oakland and Cleveland, and the defending Superbowl champions are sitting at a 6-7 mark with thre games to play.  Even if Pittsburgh wins their last three to get to 9-7, 4 or 5 other scenarios which I refuse to get into here would have to play out just to get a wild card playoff spot.  Needless to say, I doubt very much that will happen so while I will watch today's game, I am not going to be all rah, rah, rah about it.  I'd almost prefer they lose their last three and get a higher draft pick  than win out and fall down in draft status while still missing the post season.

The fantasy team is on a bye this week, having secured the #2 seed in the playoffs after a win and a loss by Howling Manslayers last week,  Three teams finished with 9-5 records, but since my team scored the most points of any of them (or any team in the league I might add) I have the tie breaker and the higher seed.  No scoreboard watching for me, which is fine, I can always use a break from that stuff.

That being said, since I had nothing planned I figured I might as well enjoy breakfast this morning.  After all, I had an errand to run anyway, I needed a weekly bus pass and it wasn't going to appear in my household magically, I was going to have to fetch it, so might as well take in some greasy spoon food to make the trip more tolerable.  You know what else might be cool?  If the trip turned into a walking tour.  After all, we did get snow yesterday, though not nearly in the amounts those east of us received.  While they are shoveling out of feet of snow, we got a couple of inches, enough to look all Christmas-y without the headaches that go with being trapped indoors.  So quick, grab your cameras and come along, its a walking (and bus riding) we will go.

That would be the view as I stepped out the door this morning.  You'll note the driveway isn't shoveled because a) I don't drive and b) the college students finished their finals for the fall semester this past week so the population and the noise in the neighborhood have decreased substantially.  Not that I have a problem with that.  Still, all we have done to this point is make it to the door and last I checked the places to go and things to do involved going a little bit further than this.

So right turn Clyde and we head out the driveway.  As expected the dreaded storm team coverage that all the news outlets were spewing forth yesterday left a lot to be desired.  More sound and fury signifying nothing.  The only bad part about the snow was that there was some ice underneath those areas that were tamped down from people walking on it, but nothing all that unmanageable. 

At the end of the driveway we make another right turn, as today's adventure is taking us into the heart of the beast known as Oakland, and eventually, Squirrell Hill.  While there is snow on the ground I should note that it really isn't that cold out, probably low 30s or so and an almost clear blue sky and no wind that would make it feel even colder.  Dare I say that this is almost comfortable, not too bad at all. 

Another right turn at the crack alley, and of course it isn't shovelled, it never is and this is probably the most treacherous part of the journey.  Not that there are crack dealers waiting to jump me as I walk by, but this particular pathway is usually the iciest because of the amount of foot traffic it receives and the fact that since it isn't an actual road or anything, it never gets treated, or shovelled or anything of the sort.  Luckily there is enough snow on the sides that walking through the snow is always an option for having some semblance of traction.  Mind you, I don't fall down much but I have been known to slide and what happens is alot like Elaine's dance steps on Seinfeld, a sort of herky jerky motion that has a better chance of hurting me by pulling something than if I just fell flat on my face in the first place.

Be right back, need to fetch more coffee.

There, that is much better.

Finally a left turn on Semple Street.  Now I could go and make a bunch of turns on side streets to get into Oakland but Semple will take me to Forbes Avenue and breakfast, so I will just stick with this street for a couple of blocks if it is okay with everyone.

 

 

And so we make it to Forbes Avenue, where another right turn is made.  The first destination is just a couple of blocks up the stret and on the other side.  So far the main drag looks to be pretty clear, which is far better than last night when I ran to the corner store and Blvd of the Allies, which is a four lane road running from downtown to Schenley Park was pretty much untouched.  That doesn't seem to be the case here, though I don't know how much of that is attributed to road crews, of which I didn't see any in my neighborhood, versus just the amount of traffic that is funnelled through this area.  The Oakland area in Pittsburgh has the third highest traffic volume in the state of Pennsylvania, behind only downtown Pittsburgh and downtown Philadelphia, and that doesn't include all of the Lifeflight helicopters that constantly come in and out of the area, messing with my digital TV reception.

And here is the first stop, Pamela's diner in Oakland.  I was going to get the chocolate chip and banana pancakes but I was Tastycake-d at work on Thursday, getting a free box of donuts and something cake-y like pancakes just didn't seem all that enticing, so I opted for greasy instead, getting two eggs over easy, lyonnaise potatoes, chorizo sausage and coffee.  Later today whoever is standing behind me is going to regret the fact I had the sausage, which is spicy but also very tasty.  As an added bonus I brought my book on Albert Einstein with me, I love to have a relaxing meal where I can sit and read and eat at a leisurely pace.  That isn't always the case at Pamela's, usually during the school year you have to get here relatively early because they open at 7:30 am and on weekends by about 8:30 am they have a line out the door of people waiting to get a seat.  Another of the advantages of having the students out of Oakland for a couple of weeks, no line, no waiting and plenty of time for reading.

I'll admit, I didn't enter into this blog thinking I was going to add a bunch of links, but now that I have started I might as well continue as needed.

And across the street from Pamela's is the bus stop.  I can take any of the 61s on the sign and they will leave me off at the corner of Forbes and Murray Avenues, which is hopefully the next stop.  If I catch any of the 67s I will get off at the corner of Wilkins and Murray, which means I will have an extra couple of blocks to walk, as Wilkins Avenue is a more residential area of Squirrell Hill, whereas Forbes runs through the business district and since I am going to Giant Eagle to pick up a bus pass I would prefer to be closer to the business district.  That being said, beggars can't be chosers and while it isn't bitterly cold outside I alays view movement as preferable to standing still, so whichever bus shows up first is the one I am taking.

As luck would have it the first bus was a 61 B, which means Forbes and Murray is our winner.  Of course after hopping off of the bus I see that the streets in Squirrell Hill haven't been taken care of yet.  No surprise there, the Public Works in the city of Pittsburgh leave a lot to be desired.  Well that is unless you live on the street of a local politician, then your street will be one of the first to be taken care of, the rest of the city be damned.  It is far more important that the local politicos are out spending your tax dollars than it is that you are out buying things like bread and milk.  I would say it is a "Let them eat cake" mentality, but they really don't care if you can get to the store to buy the ingredients for the cake.

Speaking of the store, here it is.  Most of you are unfamiliar, though a semi frequent commenter on this page and good friend, Rich, works here.  This is probably a photo he really doesn't want to see, bad enough to go to work, let alone have to see your place of employment on someone elses blog.  I should note that there is a Barnes and Noble just a block or so from here that I really need to visit in the very near future, just because it is getting ready to close, the last day there is Dec 31st and nothing brings out the shopping vulture in me quite like a clearance sale. 

I mentioned that I had to stop by Giant Eagle for my bus pass and while that is correct it isn't the only reason.  Amazingly I have food in my apartment, so it wasn't for grocery shopping, but rather for use of the Coinstar machine.  For those unfamiliar with the little green machines, they are usually found in grocery stores and places like WalMart and basically what you do is dump your coins into a tray and the machine counts your change and prints you a voucher for the amount you have.  This coin sorting thing is both good and bad,  It is good because you don't have to go through the hassle of counting your change yourself, but bad because if you go for the cash option then then you get charged roughly 9 cents for every dollar the machine sorts.  That being said, you can also cash in your coins for gift cards and certificates at no cost, which was my plan.  I had some coins laying around my apartment and was hoping to turn it into Amazon cash so I was going to dump my coins there rather than have them lay around the apartment.  As luck would have it, I left some of my change at home, I had grabbed the quarters on my desk and had a little bit of change in my pockets, but I forgot to grab the pennies nickels and dimes in my Red Hot jar on my dresser.  Not that it would have made a difference, maybe another 4 or 5 dollars and it wasn't like I had a ton of change, but I just wanted rid of it and after having a good experience with Amazon when buying the new Andrew Vachss novel and knowing I had $15 already saved up there from Swagbucks, adding my change to my account just seemed like a common sense thing to do.  Turns out I still had like $13 and change which I went ahead and cashed in and all of a sudden I have modest $28 there and might be able to get myself something off of my Christmas list since the odd selection of books there aren't ones that I expect anyone in my family to ferret out.  Or I could just save up for the Kindle, who knows.  But that would take a lot more nickels and dimes or Swagbucks. 

Since I am talking money a quick break here while I say that another 47 cents gets added to the change meter and the new total is $137.48.  Okay, back to our journey. 

So I leave the store and head back down Murray to Forbes where I will catch the next bus back to Oakland.  I could have went and taken a picture of the bus stop sign, but the stop is literally right in front of this church and with the snow the quality of picture dictated that I take the shot from a little farther away.  Really, how can you not feel all Christmas-y when everything is snow covered like that?

So I hop a 61 A back into Oakland and get off at Children's Hospital along Fifth Avenue, which is right next to the next street I have to walk down, Oakland Avenue.  Technically this street takes me about a block or two out of my way when walking home, but I remembered seeing a one liter Coke bottle with the cap still on it down this way on Thursday when I was going to the UPS Store.  I had to make that trip because of the fact I am working on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  That means I miss the big family getogether on Christmas Eve where we exchange names and do all of that good stuff.  I have my aunt Valerie's name and I wanted to make sure that even if I couldn't be there her gift could be, so I sat down on Thursday and wrapped it and packed it in a box from work and took it up to be mailed out.  It really wasn't a bad deal, I got free insurance on it and while I didn't sign up for overnight delivery most of my family only lives about an hour away by car so it ended up getting delivered in about 15 hours after I shipped it.  All for roughly $13.  A big thumbs up to UPS for that one.

Anyway, my plan was to walk back down this way and if I could spot the Coke bottle again I would take the cap and add it to my collection.  I have been adding a decent amount to the account recently, I maxed out my points for two straight weeks, 120 each week, and I have over another 100 added this week which puts me over 500 Coke points now.  I am probably pretty close to the point where I could cash them in for an entire free year of Pogo, if I so choose, but I haven't decided just what I want yet.  I may just keep adding points and see what kind of big prizes I can get.  Okay, I piqued my own curiosity, a year of Pogo is 550 points, I have 501 right now and other than the 4 GB video MP3 player at 2000 points, I can't see anything that I am dying for, a couple of things are nice, like the salt and pepper grinders, but not something I am all jump for joy over.

Again I distract myself.  As it turns out I didn't see the bottle, either someone picked it up, or it is covered with snow, in any event it is no more points for me. 

And so we come to the end of our jaunt on Oakland Avenue and hang a right onto Bates Street and we are pratically home.  Just a couple of blocks down this way and we are to the street where the trip began, McKee Place.  And that is a wrap as to what I did this morning.

But that is not an end to the blog however, I still have the first half of the title to get to.  And that would involve Friday at work.  I have mentioned before that Friday is our busy day at work, we get three deliveries, Coke, Pepsi and a grocery order.  That was made worse because since next Friday is Christmas, Coke and Pepsi both bumped up their orders considerably to cover for the week in which they will not be sending anything.  All told in ended up being 250 cases of product.  When I went outside for my first cigarette after the Coke delivery I noticed a throng of people across the street on the sidewalk.  I didn't know what to make of it, at first I thought maybe the Art Institute dorms were having a fire drill or something, though the last school day of the year would seem to be an odd day for something like that.  Then the Pepsi truck shows up and 170 cases of product later I come upstairs and the crowd outside hasn't dispersed, it has gotten bigger.  It now extends from the Art Institute down to the corner across from us, down Smithfied Street and almost to the Smithfield Street Bridge.  The line is almost two blocks long from what I can tell, though it may be even longer.  I still have no idea what is going on, if it isn't a fire drill then maybe it is a bomb threat or something.  It wasn't until about an hour or so later, when our grocery order arrived that I found out that it was a line for a Toys for Tots giveaway.  Apparently the plan was to give away some of the toys that were collected, starting at 11am and going on until 2pm, yet the line started forming as early as 8am.

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against the notion of a charity collecting toys to giveaway to underpriviledged kids at Chritsmas time, ideally the idea seems to be a noble one, but this crowd was every bit the stereotype of people who think that rather than be thankful someone is making this kind of gesture, that instead this was some sort of entitlement that the world owed them something.  Not only were they standing in line outside for free stuff, but they assumed that since we were open, apparently we were handing out free stuff as well.  People were literally coming in our store and rooting through our storage cupboards looking for things to take.  It was so bad that when the grocery order arrived, rather than have Wayne and I both put it away I had Wayne just work security to make sure stuff wasn't stolen.  While this is going on, outside there were fights breaking out among those that were standing in line over just who was where and who should get their toys first.  Even better, still others were coming into the store and buying garbage bags, just so they could turn around and sell them to the people standing in line.  Nothing is quite as impressive as watching allegedly poor people act like a bunch of parasites trying to feed off of each other.  I coined a new term to describe the events, "ghettotastic".

Apparently another giveaway was to take place on Saturday, I said I will make sure my phone is off the hook.  Seeing that once was more than enough, I didn't need to relive it the very next day. 

That being said it is looking like it should be an easy week at work, no students from the Art Institute or Point Park so our business should be slower.  Not that I can't find things to do, there is always something that can be done, I know some shelves that need wiped down, and I have invoices I have to make copies of and some more shelf tags that need ordered and some more stuff from the basement than needs brought up.  Plenty of stuff that needs done and maybe if business is slower I will get a chance to get it done.  I still have a few deliveries coming in, a grocery order on Monday, since we are completely out of trash bags now, a 7 Up order and one from Everfresh on Wednesday,  But Thursday, Christmas Eve, we will have literally little to nothing to do, yet we have a full compliment of people on the schedule, so a few of us are going to go across the street after work, to The 110, for a holiday drink or three.  Not how I had envisioned my holiday a year ago,  but I guess a lot of things have changed in the last 12 months.

Okay, I think that is a wrap.  I have the football game on (some of you may have noticed my note on said game) and it is getting close to halftime and I want to start dinner if possible when that time arrives.