Yeah, they've come to snuff the rooster . . . No he ain't gonna die

The holidays are much less stressful for me these days than they used to be. The semester just ended, and while I still have some grading to do, I'll be finished with everything by Tuesday. Of course, that just opens up a bunch of time to work on other things, like manuscripts that need to be written, but I'll be free from other distractions (except blogging of course) and should be able to make some progress in that area.

However, such was not always the case. When I was going to school in Utah, I worked part time for a major shipping company. The job sucked, but it paid better than most part time jobs, plus I got full medical ad dental benefits so I stuck with it. I got up in the wee hours of the morning to go load delivery trucks and was finished with my shift by 8:00 or 9:00 a.m. This made it relatively easy to register for classes every semester since I didn't have to block out a chunk of my day for work (I did, just not when classes were being offered), another reason why I stuck with the job.

During this period of my life, the holidays were my most stressful time of year. First of all, I'd have finals week to get through, but once that was over, instead of getting a break like many students, I had to work the craziest time of the year at the part time job. The hours would always increase with the extra Christmas volume because it provided us with different opportunities to pick up extra hours (which was actually kind of nice because it helped pay for Christmas). One of the ways to get extra hours was to go out with the drivers during the day and run packages to the door while they sorted through the rest of their deliveries.

One day I was out helping one of the drivers whose truck I loaded, and saw one of the funniest things I've ever seen in my life. She delivered in a somewhat rural area, and one of the houses we had a package for was out by itself down a dirt road. She pulled up to the house and handed me the package to run to the door. The yard was filled with various farm animals. I remember there being goats, ducks, chickens, geese, dogs, cats and small pigs. There may have been others, but that's beside the point.

I should probably take the time to point out that since this was in Utah, and it was Christmas time, there was ice and snow everywhere, including on the sidewalk that led up to this house. I carefully ran up to the front door, and as I did so, the farm animals scattered. They probably weren't used to sudden movements and thought I was attacking them or something, but as they tried to get away from the menacing figure coming at them, they were running in various directions. A few of the chickens, being as stupid as they are, ran straight toward me, but then one of them saw me and hurriedly tried to change direction. It was then that it happened, this chicken slipped and fell on the ice and squawked as feathers flew.

Ladies and Gentlemen, you haven't truly lived until you've seen a chicken slip and fall on the ice. I urge you to find a henhouse and try it for yourself this winter.