Aaron Ewer

We are always recruiting for drivers and our best ad responses always come from the Craigslist post that I run every few days. The problem with Craigslist readers is that you have a braod spectrum of applicants, from guys with a masters degree to retired fellows to girls looking for extra money without having to pay for a babysitter. I never know what I’m going to get when I answer the phone.

Tonight I had a call from a young lady that said she had a question to ask before I went into the details of the job. She asked if not having a social security card would be a problem? WTF? So then she goes on to explain that she is here in America on a student visa, and that students are not supposed to work for the first year they are here on their visa. After they have been here for that first year, then they can apply for a social security card. so she’s not supposed to work but she wants a job with my company. Um, no, but thanks for calling.

Actually, I am not that familiar with visas and green cards, but I can tell you that I will never knowingly do anything to try to circumnavigate our immigration laws. I will have to check on that visa stipulation about not working the first year - I’ve not heard of that before and I’m not sure I understand the logic in it. But I do know that if you don’t have a social security card, you can’t work for me.

The “Legally Speaking” show has a variety of legal specialties represented on the show, so callers have a good chance of reaching someone who can answer just about any kind of question. One of the lawyers on the radio show specializes in personal injury cases and he handled a call the other night while I was listening that brought up some issues that I hadn’t considered but he must hear it all the time. What happens after a car wreck and you can’t work and have to pay your bills?

Obviously the common advice is to have set aside savings to carry you through emergencies like this. But I know a lot of people, if not most people, just don’t have the money to put enough away to handle a serious emergency. If the accident is not your fault, then most people are going to want to get a lawyer and sue the other people and their insurance company. But that can take over a year to get to court. So what do you do in the meantime?

What the lawyer suggested was getting in touch with a company that provides funding based on their opinion of whether you have a good enough case to win in court. It;s not that hard to look at the other court cases out there and see what kind of settlements they have awarded and compare the facts of your case to the ones that have already been successful. So if this lawsuit finance company thinks you have a good case, they advance you the money you need to pay your house payment or rent, keep the lights one, etc.

Finished the web site for the lawyers radio show, called “Legally Speaking,” and it’s up!

That was quite the process. I met with each attorney in his own office to write the biography and copy. Then I had a photo shoot of them during a live show. I just took my pocket digital camera, no extra lights, and shot about 100 photos - some posed and some candids.

I think it turned out great. And now I listen to the show as much as I can on Saturday nights, and I’ve even called in a few times to pose questions for my microphone shy friends.

I’ve been working on a web site for a group of local lawyers who have their own radio show on the AM talk radio station here, 1510 WLAC. The cool thing about AM radio is that late at night the broadcast signal goes really far and this show can be heard in 33 states and 3 countries on a regular car or truck radio. Plus it is broadcast live on the internet, so it can actually be heard all over the world.

It’s an interesting show - the lawyers take calls on the air from real people and help them explore their options and explain their legal standing. You can learn a lot from listening every week.

Last night I covered a carrier route for someone who had an emergency and couldn’t report to work. It was an interesting experience to be driving around the neighborhoods in the “Land of Excess.” I have to say that you can learn quite a bit about people by observing their homes at 4:00 am when they are sleeping or away.

This time of year one of the hard parts of a carrier’s job is keeping track of who has gone away on vacation and who has come back. I had to start a chart on a white board to keep up with all these wealthy travelers.

The hardest part of this job for someone new to the route is hunting and finding the right houses and driveways. Even in this “Land of Excess” there are people who use the cheapest stick on numbers they can find to put their house number on their mailbox, and it is interesting to see over the course of a few weeks which numbers fall off and which homeowners care not to replace the numbers.

Many mailboxes, the primary way to determine a home’s address, have vines and flowers growing up and over the the post and the box which completely cover or obstruct the numbers. Some boxes have no numbers at all - the homeowner has chosen to nail individual brass or painted numbers onto their garage door or adjacent to the entrance door. Try finding those numbers from the street in the dark and in the rain!

The state needs to pass a law requiring all buildings to be located on a named street or road (not just a highway route number) and to display their numbered address in a manner that will be visible from the road, in the dark and in the rain. The numbers need to be large, bright, reflective and easy to see by a driver coming from both directions of the road. In case of an emergency, this could easily save lives.