back on track

I'm taking lunch at home to ice my back.

It's my first day back on the Hummingbird Wholesale route after a strain put me out for over a month. I live just a few blocks away from my last load, Capella Market and I have half an hour before I have to start the Green Gear (better known as Bike Friday) route.

So I stopped at Humble Bagel. Micah made me a sandwich and a latte. He said he'd just perfected his Latte method after watching a how-to video. I'll admit I was impressed, especially considering the beans and machines he was working with.

Sitting here with a bag of frozen peas strapped to the small of my back with an inner tube, I don't feel sorry for myself at all. It's good to be back on the Tri-Hauler, seeing the folks at Hummingbird and their various customers around town. Everybody I see on the route has been supportive and sensitive to the fact I'm still healing.

Doug in sales reminded me to load 25lb sacks one at a time. Charlie, the director, wanted to know if I was wearing the back brace they graciously loaned me.

At the UO central kitchen, I delivered 975 pounds of rice, quinoa, beans and chocolate:


As the receiver, John, signed the invoice, the head chef told me to slip into the kitchen and grab a power muffin. It was fresh, hearty and sweeter than most.

At Capella, somebody on her break chatted me up while I loaded raisins from the bike to the hand-truck. She even held the door for me.

When I called in to Hummingbird to say I might be late dropping off the invoice from Capella, Julie said it would be fine to bring it tomorrow.

It's also been really great to have all those little anonymous interactions one has, being on the street, cruising around on an enormous tank of a bike at walking speed.

Little kids stare, point, tug on their mothers' dresses. Other cyclists smile, nod, or shout "hullo!" At a stoplight, some woman in a minivan leaned out her window to tell me my tarp was coming loose. At the next, a bewildered tourist asked me how to get back to I-5.

Finally, a few photos. These cute his+hers folders were parked outside the Mediterranean diner on campus:

This is Anthony, with Hummingbird's Tri-hauler:He had his hands full today, taking care of three deliveries my gimpy back and I couldn't.
And oh yeah me:
Photos today were taken with a Lomo Fisheye. It's the camera I had on me when I decided to start the blog. It's ideally suited for photo students experimenting with narrow apertures and parallax — not blogging bike-messengers.

Someday, I'll have an iPhone 3G that will automatically geo-tag every photo I take. Until then, I'll post the best pictures I can with what I have.