Knowing all the sounds my Mail Jeep makes doesn’t get me any closer to knowing the reasons for the sounds.

Sometimes, I turn down the radio just to listen to a new sound.

Lately, it’s been kind of a metallic flapping sound going up hills under load.

I don’t know how else to describe it.

It is a soft flapping, though.

Just subtle enough for me to hear.

No one else would be able to discern it…but I know that it’s there.

What did Jack Nicholson run into in the movie The Shining?

Didn’t he start hearing things before it all fell apart for him?

Maybe these Mail Jeep sounds are just a low buck version of that?

Instead of an amazing (albeit horribly haunted) resort in the mountains, I’ve got an old Jeep with about a kazillion miles on it, making sounds that only I can hear and worry about.

REDRUM.

I don’t know if it would be worth it to trade luxurious resort living for driving around in the Jeep…. if the situation turned really scary.

I like luxury….but I don’t like scary all that much.

I have plenty of stations on my radio, though….and I can turn it up loud if I need to avoid listening to the squeaks or whirrrrrs….or new metallic flapping noises….for a while.

An elegant and simple solution to an uncomfortable awareness of impending disaster…..TURN UP THE RADIO!!

EASY.

We get a safety talk almost every day.

Some of the most recent ones have been about paying attention.

They show us videos of trucks with their tops ripped off….vehicles that mailmen have hit when someone ran a stop sign….cars that rolled where they shouldn’t end up….

They tell us that the dogs will bite us.

It’s hard enough to deliver the mail and get back to the office without worrying about all the stuff that’s happening to the other drivers all over the country.

Somewhere, there is something really bad happening because somebody got into a vehicle and drove away from the office….loaded down with mail….overloaded with mail….loaded so full of mail that they couldn’t even see out of their vehicle.

That’s not safe….really. (NO….REALLY….THAT’S NOT SAFE WHEN YOU CAN’T SEE OUT OF YOUR VEHICLE…)

But…overtime is a concern, too….so until we become the subject of another safety talk, I think they’d rather send us on our way…and crucify us if our unsafe situation causes an accident.

They’d rather do that than pay us any overtime to do the job in a vehicle that’s not loaded like that.

HEY!!! THE SAFETY TALKS ARE MAYBE THEIR VERSION OF “TURNING UP THE RADIO”!!

I GET IT!!

The safety talks are a “cover your butt” exercise….a chance to say, “I TOLD YOU not to do that.”

It’s good to be safe.

I know what is smart….I know what is good.

What I don’t know is this: What percentage of all these accidents are in the USPS serviced LLV’s…and what percentage are in the driver owned personal vehicles (maintained by the drivers…with the driver’s money and time and awareness of the need to keep a vehicle on the road so that they can do the job SAFELY)?

And….what is that metallic sound that only I can hear coming from the front left side of my Mail Jeep when I go up a hill lately?

“rock on” David Essex