only one delivery today.
weak. we need another summit consultants.
no big deal. jason kept me busy with the dirty work.
I even got to help sell a bike.

and as always.
got to wash the whole day down with a generous portion of rahr's stormcloud IPA.
wicked.

Yesterday got off to a rough start: 1) I started late because I had to stay and get griped out at my regular job. 2) I couldn't find my first pick up because of a somewhat ignorant security guard's misinformation. 3) Being frazzled from my mounting list of worries and frustrations (not excluding points 1 and 2) I forgot to get the recipients to sign my delivery slips all morning. and finally 4) I went to one drop off location instead of the pick up, and so had to turn around and to the real pick up and come right back. During all this confusion and mess I vented my frustrations by riding really hard, so at least that was a positive way of getting it all out. The rest of the day was pretty pleasant, though bittersweet. This is because that will probably be my last day to do courier work for a good while. I am trying to work my regular job and at the same time get my teaching certification and the workload for the certification is piling up on me quick. I'll miss messengering a lot and I hope I get to do it again. It's the most fun I've ever had "working," that's for sure.

Peace out, Whistler.

busy day today.
got to the shop early so shaggy and me could look pretty for a photo essay.
I think we did a pretty swell job.
did a couple runs, staged some shots. cool stuff.
RJ the photojournalist kept up pretty good on his singlespeed.
you better looks for us in the star telegram.
back at the shop I got to take care of some merch, and learn the mystical secrets of bicycle repair.
finally I got to wash it all down with the always delicious rahr stormcloud IPA.

cant wait to do it all over again.

Sub-sti-tute (Sing it like the WHO song)

SInce Jason is out of town, I gave up my messenger day to help Bernie around the shop and got the Shagster to cover for me. Turned out to be pretty unnecessary though since the only run we had for him was to go get our burger and gyro from Paul's. Shaggy spent most of the day out on his bike though and probably covered more miles than I do when I have a bunch of runs. It's good to be around folks like that who just love riding. Thanks man, sorry it was so dead.

Hey fixed gear riders!

Watch this! I've seen some videos featuring fixed/track riding that are entertaining, but this one got just the right mix of great filming and music in my opinion. Really quite lovely.

Whistler attempts to make his weekly 817 post as boring as his own blog.

If you ever read my blog, then you might know about my frequent changing of pedals, handlebars, and whatever else on my bike to try different things, keep myself from getting bored with my bike, have an excuse to tinker around with bikes, etc. Well I've been riding toe clips for a few days and liking them for riding back and forth to work, however, for messengering they kind of sucked. On my commute I rarely have to stop because there aren't that many lights (and at 2 am, even if they're red I don't usually have to stop). Riding around downtown and picking up and dropping packages though, I have to stop a lot more often - and ride harder and longer. So trying to get that second foot into the clip on the fixed gear can get annoying and my toes kept going numb. I can't figure out if it's from the straps reducing the circulation or just that they're vibrating in a weird way. Anyhow, my feet are kind of sore this morning and my SPDs are sounding really good; but man, I hate changing those shoes. We'll see...

Day off

Wow, this is the 1st day off that I've not messengered in a while, not quite sure what to think of it. Used the time well though, got the new (to me) washer hooked up, and the clothesline up.
No more Barrio washateria...
I miss riding though.

Hey Urban Cyclists!

Check out a new online zine called Urban Cyclist done by two of the guys from Dirt Rag. Word is they've been fired from Dirt Rag though. Hopefully that won't keep them from continuing this publication, because it's pretty cool. You can download and print it too for a hard copy.

Flooding on Magnolia

This is why I was glad to beat the storm back to the shop (besides the fact that I didn't have my raingear with me, and 80mph winds are no joke):



Since the pic was blurry (too long exposure, but when I tried to use flash all you could see was raindrops that caught the light), let me describe what you're looking at. That's the streetlamp post across the street, which is set back three feet onto the sidewalk, which is 8-10" higher than the street. Water was rushing down the sidewalk like a river; it was ridiculous, and I'm glad I wasn't caught out in it.

Storm ride?

Yo, I was eating dinner and the storm sirens went off so we turned on the news and Channel 8 was doing their coverage from Summit Consultants' building. The guy said he saw someone ride by in the storm on a bike. Was that by chance one of the illustrious PCB couriers?! Please tell me it was...