Nuts to Today

Strange day today...

A ton happened today, and I'm leaving a bunch out. For starters, I had to patch two flats before I even started my route. I'm getting to be a pro at this stuff. So that's one thing.

As a cyclist, I always know that there's a chance I could get drilled by a car or other obstacle and be injured by no fault of my own. 99.9% of the time, I forget about that fact completely. Just FYI, I wasn't injured today...but my friend was.

I had to stop by our bike depot this morning, so I saw him when I clocked in. He went out on the road, and I went to the other plant (see above) where I normally work. In a strange "small world" moment, hours later, when I returned to drop off the dirties, my laundry team manager told me she saw him on the bus with an ice pack while she was on her way to our plant. Apparently he had trouble just walking. Yikes...get well soon, pal.

About an hour later, I was in Northern Liberties on my way back from my last pickup of the day when I happened upon a group of students wearing blue shirts. From living in the area last year, I recognized them immediately as Bodine High School students. They were always kind of annoying, and today was no exception.

So back to that fact I stated above...some joker got the idea that it would be cool to attempt to impress his friends by jumping out in front of me and quickly jumping back. When I swerved, he was lucky I went the OPPOSITE direction. I almost wish I would have hit the little shit. He did slap on the side of the laundry bins as I continued to speed past, yelling obscenities in his general direction. Not my finest moment of representation for the company, but whatcha gonna do? I mean, I did a lot of stupid things when I was a kid, but jumping out into traffic (bikes are traffic, remember?) was not one of them. I think I reacted appropriately.

Just blocks up the street, I came upon another small group of people, this one gathered outside a small row of stores on Girard Avenue. I think there's a methadone clinic there. They all appeared to be recovering addicts, not moving very fast or with much intent. I see them just about every day, and this little story has caused me to think that maybe I should find out what they're doing there...

At any rate, I moved past them and heard the normal things like "Wow, you got laundry in there?" and "Boy that must be hard work!" But then I heard one woman ask "Do you take donations?" I said not really. Now, I don't think I'd want HER donations, but it's a noble idea, and something I might actually bring up to management. I'm not sure exactly what we can do with it, but something about it made a light go on in my head. Onward...

Finally, I was on my way home and I saw this. Just one reminder that today was kinda nuts: