Welp, it’s Friday. Did it sneak up on you too? Such a tricky day. They ought to put a warning label on it.

I hope your week has gone well. Mine has been … busy. And I’ve been reminded how lucky I am to have my health by a number of folks around me having crashes in theirs.

Smash. Grab.

Last Friday, a little before noon, I returned to my postal truck and had to stare at the cab for a few seconds to register what I was seeing. Someone had smashed the cargo side window and stolen the mail (letters, magazines, small parcels) that were on the delivery tray. I was about halfway through my route at the time so half my mail was ripped off. I wish I could say I was shocked and surprised but West Seattle has been having a run of smash and grabs on mail trucks in the last few months. Unless we’re delivering on a mounted section of our route we’re now required to keep the mail locked up in the back of the truck. This slows down my delivery process.

I had been keeping the mail in the back and had just brought it forward because I was about to begin delivering to series of CBUs (cluster box units). The section I was delivering was a very short walk – less than five minutes from the truck and back. I didn’t see or hear anything. Whoever did it had to have been in a car – you can’t carry that much mail on foot.

Mail theft on this scale is new at our station. In previous years we’d hear about occasional robberies in other parts of the city but, for the most part, thefts were minor, the perpetrators were just stealing from mailboxes. I’m not worried about my safety. I am sad that my customers aren’t getting their mail and, especially their parcels. Mail these days tends to be impersonal bills and marketing. Parcels though, that’s stuff people want and, if it’s medicine, need.

I’m having to drive another truck until the window of my truck gets fixed. This is a pain because there were already five trucks out of commission with broken windows. We’re told that the windows won’t be able to be replaced until July. Bleah.

These Days …

On Sunday, we had friends over to our place for breakfast. Spanakopita. Scrambled eggs. Croissants and fresh fruit. It was kinda sorta a birthday party for me. Just the sort of party I like these days. Small so it’s easy to carry on conversations.

Monday – With a publisher looking at (mostly) taking over the Billi 99 project I’m letting myself give a little attention to other creative endeavors. We don’t yet have a schedule and a definite contract so I’m still keeping my main attention on Billi. I did portraits of the main cast for our Billi99.com site. I’m posting a gallery of those images below. To find out who these characters are, please go to the site.

My actual birthday was on Tuesday. I delivered my route as usual.

Wednesday. Workday.

Thursday – the big news was that an arrest was made of a(n alleged) mail thief. There’s no mention of this year’s smash and grabs in West Seattle so I’m not going to assume that he was the only guy doing this. I’m planning to continue to work out of the back of my truck for the rest of the summer. Once the rain comes back I’ll re-evaluate. Having to sort out of the back takes longer. The cargo sections of our trucks aren’t really set up for carrying trays of mail, trays of flats and a lot of parcels. Yeah, I know that doesn’t make sense.

Friday – today. Yep. More work. More work tomorrow. Then I have Sunday, Monday and Tuesday off. Yay!

The Practice

Last week I posted the raw scans of six pages of sketches that I’ll be coloring as practice. This week I’m posting more cleaned up versions. I’ve removed the blue lines and fixed a few things that didn’t look right to me in the original drawings.

Next week I’ll start coloring.

Thank you!

A big shout out and thank you to Fred Burke and John Bell, my Ko-Fi supporters! You signed on at the beginning of 2023 and, as of next week, you will have stuck around for six months! I really appreciate it. Especially after my original plans got sidetracked by working on Billi. As promised, next week I’ll send you photos of a selection of 8.5×11 sketches and drawings. After you’ve picked your favorite I’ll mail it to you!

Thank you to all y’all who read my ramblings every week. I hope the days are being gentle to you.

See you in seven!