This article makes me happy, oddly enough someone started cutting onions in my office. I hate when they do that!
I'm going to continue to strive to be a good person, much like Floyd.
Floyd Martin retires after nearly 35 years as a mailman tomorrow
71–80 of 148 posts
Re: Floyd Martin retires after nearly 35 years as a mailman tomorrow
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
Even though I cancel and unsubscribe from everything I can, 95% of what I receive in the mail is paper spam. If I didn't still receive paper paychecks, it'd be even higher. I recognize there's value in having a postal system, but in practice almost everything I receive goes straight in the shredder. It's been taken over by spammers. It's another system that provides real value to a lot of people, but seems to only be…
IMHO regular mail is subsidizing all the junk mail. They offer bulk rates based on the assumption that delivery is already paid for.
It’s common to say junk mail subsidizes normal mail. I don’t know if it’s true, but it makes sense.
Re: Floyd Martin retires after nearly 35 years as a mailman tomorrow
#73Happy story, but I'm also supremely jealous. The thought of retiring after only 35 years of work! That's the outstanding accomplishment here. Either he has a great pension (remember those?) or has been a terrific, disciplined saver over those years. My Boomer parents all had generous pensions and they also retired pretty early. Us younger folks are stuck with crappy 401(k)s that place our futures in the hands of Wall Street and the stock market and other "figure it out yourself" investment vehicles. I feel like this is another ladder that's been pulled up after that generation reached the top.
Re: Floyd Martin retires after nearly 35 years as a mailman tomorrow
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
I disagree, having lived in large cities, everything always feels so impermanent and impersonal. Connections that should be easy to make with neighbors down the hall can feel more difficult than connections with neighbors down a driveway. I'm not sure what causes this phenomenon, but many people report feeling this way. No sources, but I've seen this notion circulate in articles and other forums.
I wonder if it is because YOU are at an impermanent phase in your life. I live in Los Angeles, and would have said the same thing five years ago. However, in the last five years I have gotten married, had two kids, and bought a house. I feel much more connected to my location now. I have met my neighbors more than I ever did before buying a house, and have met many who have lived in the neighborhood for multiple gene…
I've felt some of this since I got married and had kids, but I've chalked it up more to the increased social connections than any kind of 'permanence'. I know my neighbors a lot better because my kids know their kids, or I see them at the school, etc. I owned a house for 10 years before getting married and didn't really have any neighborhood connections, so I don't think that just buying a house is enough.
Also, it helps in a lot of unexpected places, like at work. Now I have a lot more in common with managers and above than when I was a single guy. I'm very convinced that part of my recent jump in career progression has been this additional connection. Suddenly everyone sees me as management material, for better or worse.
Re: Floyd Martin retires after nearly 35 years as a mailman tomorrow
#75I worked as a postman for a bit. I'd wake up at 0430, make a short commute, then sort letters into street/house number order for something like 3 hours. After the first few days this became mindnumbingly dull. It was obvious 90% of what I was about to deliver would go straight in the bin so all this drudgery wad largely pointless. For a while I worked in a pretty rough area (by UK standards, admittedly nowhere in the…
"I don't really have anything to say for myself" Kids. It's amazing how many times people will stop to say hello when a small child says hello to them. We got invited into someone's garden last weekend to feed their chickens. Admittedly we live in a more rural area. Might not work so well on the mean streets of London.
There's no doubt lots of people are closely connected to their local community through kids friends, their kids schools, their kids sports teams, etc. But having kids only as a means to talk to people would be a bit drastic!
Re: Floyd Martin retires after nearly 35 years as a mailman tomorrow
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
Agreed. Sometimes I feel like I am wasting my life solving business problems I don’t really care about and nobody close to me understands even remotely.
There was a local reporter who went undercover to do an expose on the temp-agency market and worked a few days on the factory line at a food supplier. Her verdict: It wasn't very fun. Grass is always greener. People also tend to want their jobs to provide meaning to their lives. That is a luxury. For most people, a job is something you do to enable the rest of your life.
I've worked in factories and greenhouses (they tie for first place in awfulness, in factories it was 12 hour shifts in full PPE dipping steel ladders into hot degreaser - in greenhouses it was 10-12 hour shifts in 50C+ heat).
Neither was fun but they are very different to a 9 hour stint programming, when I worked physical jobs I could go home, have a shower and still had the energy to go out socialising where now when I get in I just want to veg with a book as I'm mentally spent.
Some of it might be to do with age but I switched careers in my mid-20's and it was the same at the start of my programming career.
It doesn't get easier, you just get better.
Re: Floyd Martin retires after nearly 35 years as a mailman tomorrow
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
Indeed, the Grumman LLV is very well designed for longevity! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grumman_LLV
It's a Chevy S10 that was spec'd with the reliable low power engine and a different body. It's not really anything special in terms of reliability. The post office simply committed to keeping them for 30yr then followed through. It helps that they were working with a purpose built commercial body and not an "engineered to a price point" stock truck body. Any other similar truck platform of the era would have fared si…
> The late 80s/early 90s were a time when the electronics of the 90s were coming to maturity but hadn't yet snowballed in sheer volume like they did in late 90s and early 2000s.
A very valid point, the ECU's etc around 1990 got a lot of the benefit of having a modern ECU with a fraction of the complexity and a lot of them where bulletproof in design.
Fascinating read on the history of computers in cars.
Re: Floyd Martin retires after nearly 35 years as a mailman tomorrow
#78I worked as a postman for a bit. I'd wake up at 0430, make a short commute, then sort letters into street/house number order for something like 3 hours. After the first few days this became mindnumbingly dull. It was obvious 90% of what I was about to deliver would go straight in the bin so all this drudgery wad largely pointless. For a while I worked in a pretty rough area (by UK standards, admittedly nowhere in the…
For some reason, your comment reminded me of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MVyQNNFobA
My 2nd ever comment on hacker news, and already someone has managed to segue from my innoncuous comment into an attack on feminism. And further more, they've done so by using a video of someone with schizophrenia, or some other serious psychological problem.
People can downvote this all they like, I'm gone.
Re: Floyd Martin retires after nearly 35 years as a mailman tomorrow
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
There was a local reporter who went undercover to do an expose on the temp-agency market and worked a few days on the factory line at a food supplier. Her verdict: It wasn't very fun. Grass is always greener. People also tend to want their jobs to provide meaning to their lives. That is a luxury. For most people, a job is something you do to enable the rest of your life.
I've worked in factories and greenhouses (they tie for first place in awfulness, in factories it was 12 hour shifts in full PPE dipping steel ladders into hot degreaser - in greenhouses it was 10-12 hour shifts in 50C+ heat). Neither was fun but they are very different to a 9 hour stint programming, when I worked physical jobs I could go home, have a shower and still had the energy to go out socialising where now whe…
"now when I get in I just want to veg with a book as I'm mentally spent."
That's me. I think it's age but a job where I am more active and/or outside would help for sure. When I worked as mechanical engineer I often had to go to the workshop which already was a nice break from the desk. There were also physical things to handle which is good for the soul. Now I am always at the desk or meeting rooms and everything is abstract.
Re: Floyd Martin retires after nearly 35 years as a mailman tomorrow
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
For some reason, your comment reminded me of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MVyQNNFobA
My 2nd ever comment on hacker news, and already someone has managed to segue from my innoncuous comment into an attack on feminism. And further more, they've done so by using a video of someone with schizophrenia, or some other serious psychological problem. People can downvote this all they like, I'm gone.
FWIW I enjoyed your 2nd ever comment on HN. I do find it interesting how quickly polarizing topics will be brought up online.