Therapy for the Mailman Going Postal

I am Bob. Bob the Mailman. And I have a package for you.

Where the hell has my BENDING STEEL update been?

I’ve been around, but not really doing the blog thing. Been really busy. The post office (my employer) has experienced the smallest volume ever. That hasn’t stop this job from sucking. With injuries galore and the supreme commanders of this small district doing everything they can not to pay people, we are regularly short on carriers. They expect me, as well as my fellow non-overtime workers, to pick up the slack. (interjection: The contract signed between the PO and the National Association of Letter Carriers [NALC] creates an “overtime volunteer list” for employees that want to work extra. They are not allowing those volunteers to work their days off, thereby violating the contract by mandating non-OT List carriers such as myself to work what the OT carriers would work.) The problem is I still have to walk the same amount of steps as if I had a lot of mail and the mail is not sorted out to us on time. They cannot capture this thing they call “Undertime” from me to do the extra work. Management ends up paying me overtime and I file a Grievance. If the Grievance works, I get an OT lister payed and I’m supposed to receive compensation of some sort. But it doesn’t always turn out that way. We have some bodies in the higher up of the NALC who can’t seem to do their job right.

I’m not even going to get into the PO threatening to cut routes to give us more to do.

In summation, There is no mail, so they want us to do more work. The PO is violating the contract left and right to get the work done as “cost-effective” as possible. The Union doesn’t seem to have our back. And tomorrow, the prediction is 95 Degrees. I think I’m going postal.

(interjection: I don’t like unions. I’m a member because I’ll get harassed if I’m not. I do support the idea that your company signs a contract, they best be willing to adhere to that contract, no matter how sucky that contract may be. This company [the post office does not take in tax revenue from tax payers, we are a government-protected monopoly that makes its dough off the stamps] is hemorrhaging money due to bad business decisions.)

Thank God for Bob.

Who’s Bob? Bob is a letter carrier in Paragon City that became fed up with the criminals, mutants, aliens, robots and all the other freaks running around the city interrupting his delivery route. So he got himself an assault rifle and started cleaning up Paragon.

Yes… I’m talking about City of Heroes.

A couple of months ago, I was in Big Lots looking at some stuff. As I was leaving, I saw a display for some DVD movies and computer game software. I spotted a City of Heroes/City of Villains 2-pack for only $10. W.O.W. I always wanted to play CoH, but never had a computer I could do it on. Thanks to my tax return this year, I do now. I started out making a couple of heroes and a couple of villains, just to try it out. I got Arkham to get the game and now he’s going crazy on it, too.

Then there is Bob. When I started making Bob the Mailman, I was going for a really fat, gross guy, but that didn’t work out. I played with the create mode for a couple hours, piecing the costume together out of the parts available. I even found a white eagle to put on his vest. He isn’t perfect, but he’ll work.

At this point, Bob the Mailman is a Level 18 Blaster/Tech with an assault rifle. He looks like an old man with a white mustache and a grumpy look on his face. Other players have commended me on my toon. But it was never about that. It was about shooting things. Oh yes, I will go postal through Bob, and through Bob, my anger has found peace.

If you ever find yourself on Protector server in CoH, look up Bob. If I’m on, let me know you know of me from BENDING STEEL. We’ll go kill things together.