Super Bowl Sunday.
2012. The fluky Giants and the hated Patriots. I didn’t watch. I was near the end of my tenure at my third job at
the time. There was my full-time job in
TV, there was my veterinary lab job, and there was this one. Delivery boy.
It was as an independent contractor.
10-99! I drove my own car and did
not get reimbursements. Just my $5 per
delivery and I could claim miles on my taxes.
As long as my itemizations exceeded the standard deduction (they did
that year). Terrible work. A rip-off.
Barely profitable. I only did
that job for a bout five weeks. I got a
better job to replace it. Telemarketing.
Anyway. There I was. Super Bowl Sunday. Expecting it to be busy. Happy to make half a dozen or so trips from various
restaurants to homes. I didn’t wait at
home though. I live in the sticks. Typically for this job I’d park at a
centrally located gas station or an empty parking lot and just wait it
out. I think I made one delivery and sat
and parked in front of a dry cleaning place that day. And waited. It. Was. Slow. Around 7PM I got a call. Japanese
food in south Tulsa. I was in midtown. Fox Cleaners parking lot. Let’s roll!
Let’s drive a dozen miles and spend 45 minutes to make $5 before
taxes! Mount up!
Click.
Click.
Crap. I guess I had
left my headlights on while I sat in my car and read Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns
Goodwin. It was pretty nasty. The book itself was good. Learned a lot about Salmon P Chase and William Seward. But while delivering barbecue
one day I spilled sauce all over it. And
on my passenger seat. I gave the book to my nephew when I finished it. He eyed the brown stained tome with grave suspicion. Anyway. My battery was dead.
I called my employer, sorry, my “client”. Did I mention that independent contracting
stinks? Most of the time by all definitions
of the word you are an employee. The company
is just cheating the worker and government out of tax dollars. I know, “don’t like it? Don’t work for them!” It’s not really that simple. So, I called the guys that paid me for doing
work with their badge within their defined hours following their protocols and
told them I was stuck. Of course, an
employer would help you. But I wasn’t
employed by them. My shift was
effectively over. I was no longer any
use to them. It was up to me to figure
out my car issue and get home.
I called my wife and she told me to call her brother who was
closer to me. I called my brother-in-law
during the Super Bowl. He arrived at Fox
Cleaners and gave me a jump. I then
drove on to the O’Reilly Auto Parts store.
A few years later my son knew them as “Oh-oh-O’Reilly” because of their
radio jingle.
I asked one of their associates if he could check my battery
for me. Was it any good? It had died recently and now again. He helped and we chatted. I told him I had three jobs and my wife had
one as well and was watching the kid. Then
he caught me off guard.
He put his hand on my shoulder and asked if he could pray
for me right there. I told him sure, go
ahead. And he did. He prayed that my family would be
blessed. That I would get a good job so I
wouldn’t have to have three. That I could
take care of my family and spend more time with my boy. I thanked him.
Within a few weeks I would have a much better third
job. I was an employee (and actual employee!)
and didn’t have to put hundreds of miles on my car. I’d also replace my alternator.
But that was touching.
It was what I needed at the time.
The Giants won 21-17.
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