Garbage

Joe's company has been working him a lot this year, and I am so thankful for that. We are both extremely blessed, especially in today's economy, to have jobs which we love and enjoy doing. Joe and I are both hard workers and take pride in our jobs. I am proud of him and I know he is proud of me. His grandfather (his Nonno) was a G-man and both his Dad and Brother currently are, so it is extra special to him to swap garbage stories during family time.

I want to publish a book about Joe's work stories (except they are better when he tells them because he acts them out). Joe wants to put a video camera in his hat to record his work on his routes. Can you say new reality T.V. show?! Some of his stories are really funny because they involve people, while other stories are just plain gross. For example, he was recently working in China Town and he ran into a woman holding a tray with a live RAT on it. The rat was squealing, so Joe looked over, and the woman was cutting the back of the rat's neck with scissors! She was trying to kill it and it worked. EEWW! Can you say gross and disturbing?! Joe thought the woman was gonna cook it for dinner. That is only one of many stories he comes home to tell me about.

For the last 3.5 years, he has been working in the position called a Floater. He floats from route to route depending on who is sick, injured, on vacation, etc. He is considered on call. He has to call in daily to see what route he is on, or the dispatchers can call him at anytime to come into work. He gets a little frustrated at times not knowing what route he is on, or where he is going that day, but it always works out in the end. Please pray that someday soon he will get a route he can call his own!

Since a lot of the time he works odd hours, or not in the safest neighborhood, it makes it difficult for Juliana and I to meet him for lunch or come surprise him on his route. Instead, we try and participate in all of the many parades he and his company are a part of throughout the year. He is on the drill team. Their job during the parade is to pump up the crowd. They have a few routines they do with cans. Here are a few photos from our parading adventures.