Extreme Rural Newspaper Delivery Driving (Part 1?)

So back in December I got a job at the local newspaper delivering newspapers throughout the upper Kittitas County area. Mostly in Cle Elum and the surrounding areas, but as far North as Easton, WA.

I've also been here,
although this is the first
time I've noticed how much
this sign resembles a
certain male appendage.

I've been here minus the moose.

In case you aren't familiar with where Cle Elum is, I'll provide a point of reference: it's about 2 miles from Roslyn, Washington, where the TV show Northern Exposure was filmed. In case you're unfamiliar with Northern Exposure, it's a TV show about living in a small town in Alaska. This should provide a hint as to the typical weather conditions in this lovely part of the country. This can (and sometimes does) make for some interesting driving on bad weather days, especially driving around in a 1981 Ford Escort. This has made me into a super-pro winter-weather driver, which I will discuss in more detail in a
                                                           future blog entry.

Over the next few days (weeks? months?) I will summarize a few of the more interesting aspects of this paper delivery route.

Northern Exposure

One of the great (and unfortunately under-appreciated by the current generation) pieces of American television art is the show Northern Exposure. NE was "indie" before people knew what "indie" was. While most shows were cranking out jokes OR drama, NE was cleverly adapting them to each other, and quite well. I just thought of this because I put in a DVD (that I thought was blank) and it had Northern Exposure episodes on it so I started watching them. And you know what I realized? I have never seen an episode of Northern Exposure that I did not enjoy. That's all.