Funny Stuff...
Here are some great posts....
Not bitter angry rants, just the facts. So much of what is said here I have been saying for years. There are a few documentary ideas here that I will never develop that have been bouncing around in my head for years.
Eric Roman rants on his seasonal return to the DC Messenger scene.
Many years ago (perhaps that was 'back in the day') I worked as a messenger. There was a strange glory to this job. It offered a great amount of freedom, got paid to do something that I loved (ride my bike), and again back to the freedom. Showed up at an irregular hours, bailed out at irregular hours, took vacations without asking, it was an effort to be everything that a straight job (coat and tie) was not. And in many ways it was everything a straight job was not....there were not taxes taken out, there was no insurance, there was not a 401K, no paid vacations or holidays, no retirement plan. In the end the couriers who settle in as "set wage" or "guarentee" riders end up working harder and getting less than those people with the 'ties.' Sorta silly. The set wage guys end up showing up at regular hours and leaving at regular hours, but getting paid a substandard wage...
There were great days....Clear skies, warm breeze, and women taking long lunches and basking in the spring sun. Flowers in bloom. But the reality is that this is Washington DC, the land where the first question people ask is...."What do you do?" and if your answer is "Messenger/Courier." the only women who will light up will be the one who wants to get back at her dad, lucky for me there were many women looking to do just that. Date the bad boy, see how pissed of dad can be. DC has cold wet winters, if it were only cold enough for the rain to turn to snow it would be a tad less painful, but that is not how it is, the cold bites through the skin, deep into the bones, the water is colder than ice, the humidity gets the last laugh in the winter as well as the summers....AAh, SUMMER TIME! August in Washington is nothing shy of brutal, three quick steps and your average male is drentched with sweat, so hot, so humid that those roughing it without AC end up sweating in the shower, and when they go to brush their teeth they find that their tooth paste is not tooth paste, but tooth liquid. This is not prime riding weather. Pushing the bicycle through a thick wall of air, thick hot wet air. Drafting behind a bus in the winter may be nice, that gust of warm exhaust can be pleasing, but in the summer each piece of exhaust clings to the messenger's sweaty body....I remember homeless people pointing at me saying, "that guy needs to take a shower!"
back to my straight job
and
back to this blog later
read Eric's Rant
it is more clear than mine
perhaps I will get back to mine later
there is a great deal on this topic that I may want to get out
BLOGGING is cheaper than therapy!
Here are some great posts....
Not bitter angry rants, just the facts. So much of what is said here I have been saying for years. There are a few documentary ideas here that I will never develop that have been bouncing around in my head for years.
Eric Roman rants on his seasonal return to the DC Messenger scene.
Many years ago (perhaps that was 'back in the day') I worked as a messenger. There was a strange glory to this job. It offered a great amount of freedom, got paid to do something that I loved (ride my bike), and again back to the freedom. Showed up at an irregular hours, bailed out at irregular hours, took vacations without asking, it was an effort to be everything that a straight job (coat and tie) was not. And in many ways it was everything a straight job was not....there were not taxes taken out, there was no insurance, there was not a 401K, no paid vacations or holidays, no retirement plan. In the end the couriers who settle in as "set wage" or "guarentee" riders end up working harder and getting less than those people with the 'ties.' Sorta silly. The set wage guys end up showing up at regular hours and leaving at regular hours, but getting paid a substandard wage...
There were great days....Clear skies, warm breeze, and women taking long lunches and basking in the spring sun. Flowers in bloom. But the reality is that this is Washington DC, the land where the first question people ask is...."What do you do?" and if your answer is "Messenger/Courier." the only women who will light up will be the one who wants to get back at her dad, lucky for me there were many women looking to do just that. Date the bad boy, see how pissed of dad can be. DC has cold wet winters, if it were only cold enough for the rain to turn to snow it would be a tad less painful, but that is not how it is, the cold bites through the skin, deep into the bones, the water is colder than ice, the humidity gets the last laugh in the winter as well as the summers....AAh, SUMMER TIME! August in Washington is nothing shy of brutal, three quick steps and your average male is drentched with sweat, so hot, so humid that those roughing it without AC end up sweating in the shower, and when they go to brush their teeth they find that their tooth paste is not tooth paste, but tooth liquid. This is not prime riding weather. Pushing the bicycle through a thick wall of air, thick hot wet air. Drafting behind a bus in the winter may be nice, that gust of warm exhaust can be pleasing, but in the summer each piece of exhaust clings to the messenger's sweaty body....I remember homeless people pointing at me saying, "that guy needs to take a shower!"
back to my straight job
and
back to this blog later
read Eric's Rant
it is more clear than mine
perhaps I will get back to mine later
there is a great deal on this topic that I may want to get out
BLOGGING is cheaper than therapy!