Wheels.

Made more money this week building them than riding them. Slow time for packages this summer, fast season for the spoke wrench.

Dispatchers

Now that I have a well intentioned dispatcher it is a little bit harder for me to draw upon the anger present in the normal courier/dispatch relationship. I have to draw upon long forgotten wounds. My current dispatcher rides into work which is a pleasant change of pace. Instead of a fat slob pushing me harder and harder on a rainy day. I now get to smile knowing that he is about to get his. In factor should really be a requirement for anyone whom dispatches cyclists to ride in A couple days a week.
And don't forget that no matter how many times you help them out of a jam that when the axe falls they will let it fall down to you.

First day back

After a long trip, the first day back is always a little strange. Your tires allways seem a bit too low and slow. Or maybe your chain is too tight. Soon you fall back in the rhythm and everything clicks back in.
Pretty soon you feel right at home with oncoming traffic taking lefts into you. Pouring sweat pushing into elevators with perfect perfumed suits.
Receptionist, "Is it hot out there," well honey it ain't raining, and you're not the one getting me wet.
Which brings me to another little known fact. Bicycle couriers are also amateur meteorologists. Even in the digital age nobody trusts a weatherman if he isn't on the street so people come straight to the source. Usually with startling stupidity. Couriers worldwide come into offices pushing soaking manifests toward receptionists, lawyers, doctors, and every type of people far too educated don't catch such a subtle nuance as the trail that soggy vans leave on expensive carpet. Clever answers include things that you would never say like, "No It's not raining took a swim with all my shit including your package before I rushed your package over." Who knows how I would explain away the snow in my hood if I worked in a colder city, and maybe my lack of tolerance for dealing with,"Is it snowing?" is half the reason other than just not enjoying it.
The thing you have to remember though is that these people are presumably more educated and certainly make more money than we do. All the while they can't remember to put an address on a package, or bother to look out their windows with beautiful views. No, we check the weather for ourselves, because we have to deal with it. Before we head to work, at the office, and on those nifty weather updates they've got on the elevators now, it matters to us. Slipping out an hour early before the downpour means one more day you can wake up and put on a dry bag, and thus one more day before you go ahead and do something worthwhile with your time. So if you ask nicely we'll clue you in, and quite likely we've got a better chance at predicting correctly than Al Roker.