Riding your bike pays off!

I have started riding my bike to work in these first months of summer. I realized a few simple things about this when I started. One you are more aware of the world in general when you ride your bike. You are experiencing the world first hand: the wind, the ground, the rain, the dust, the dirt. I don't mean to sound poetic, but riding your bike is a poetic experience. Second you are more aware of yourself. Your body reacts to certain conditions: your wet skin in the rain, your taught muscles as your legs work the pedals, and the sound of your breathing. This is what life is all about, I think -building endurance and working toward something simpler, perhaps more healthy while enjoying the planet. Lastly the bike is a simple machine that makes us conscious and responsible for our world and it does little damage to everything else. Think about all the money I save on gas, all the exhaust I do not leave behind polluting the atmosphere, and the workout I get in the process. It's not always easy riding your bike given the weather conditions or how we feel. Our bodies and minds are prone to get lazy, but we must keep pedaling towards something. Here is a story that might make you want to purchase a bike, if not for the health reasons, maybe for the greedy.

Pedaling Pays Off

After a long day at work, I began my trek from St. Paul into Minneapolis as the sun was setting. I ride my bike home on Franklin Ave. this long mountainous street that descends into Minneapolis' Seward neighborhood. This particular ride always makes me nervous given the three facts that I have not purchased a light for my bike, the neighborhood is a bit full of homeless people, and the mountain requires little pedaling and as I descend my road bike becomes a bit wobbly with speed and I fear I may go so fast that my body will fly over the handlebars. But the wind in my hair with light pressure on the brakes and all the neat things I get to look at makes up for it. One thing caught my eye. As I began my descent, passing a red car on the street, I noticed something that looked like a twenty dollar bill rolled up. I noticed it because I was watching for cracks in the road which could throw me from my bike. I pulled a U turn, straining the ascent back up the road and I pulled up. Indeed, a rolled up twenty dollar bill on the ground. Without a second thought about the owner of the money, I scooped it up and descended the mountain. I could try to find the owner, I rationalized, but ANYBODY is going to say they lost it -especially the owner of the red car. I decided in good conscience: Finders Keepers, Losers weepers. And I descended the mountain without a second glance or a look at the money clenched in my fist.

I arrived home and put my bike away and went into my room. I unrolled the money and discovered, no, not one, not two, not three, BUT four twenties rolled up. I just made eighty dollars for riding my bike. Nobody in a car would find a treasure that sweet unless a bird shit money into their open window or they were in an accident and got to sue the bastard that hit them. And when is that going to happen? Not likely and Not in good conscience.

It just goes to show that bike riding is affordable, healthy, economic, and makes one much luckier than those in automobiles. I say, if you can ride a bike and want to make a change for yourself, START NOW. Trust me, you'll feel better in the long run.

Ode to Life: Will Work to Live.

Homeless people. You litter my street corners. On every exit ramp, I see you with a sign: "Please help. No job. Homeless." OR "$$$, please. God bless." OR "Will work for food." How did you get this way? What made you come to this street corner in my neighborhood? Why are there so many homeless people? Are you really homeless? Where did you get that adidas sweatshirt? How about those brand new Nike tennis shoes? Why is there a different one of your posse on the same corner every day of the week? Is panhandling a profitable business? How much Lysol have you distilled? Are you crazy? What is crazy? Maybe I'm crazy, but I will not give your dirty face even a dollar. There is too much dishonesty in this world. Stay on my corner, but ask me for no dimes. I cannot help you. I am trying to live as well. I'm trying to stay sane in this hustle and bustle world while your honesty and dishonesty run rampant. If I gave a nickel to everyone of your kind that I meet, I would be worse off than you, because I cannot ask for help even when I need it. But I will not be poor. I will be rich in mind and spirit and pray that you find yourself something to do to contribute to the society that made you this way. What a conundrum. Catch this, 22!

Servers: America's Punching Bag

Hi there. I know this post isn't original, but I wanted to talk about the serving industry a little bit. I believe that servers -next to slaves, servants, or sweat-shop workers- are the most mistreated employees on the planet. In America, they live off of tips and this tipping policy isn't public knowledge, but floating hearsay. Foreigners who know nothing about this, leave zero dollars sometimes. Servers work between disgruntled hungry patrons and tyrannical bosses and sometimes for crazy hours. (I used to be a server where a 10 hour shift was every weekend night.) Their hourly wage is in some states below the minimum and because of taxes being taken out of that and their tips being taxed, sometimes their checks are next to zero. I just worked a full two week pay period and my check was only twenty dollars. What if everybody tipped me a little to zero? How would I survive? Not to mention the way that servers are treated. They are bullied by customers, because the server in all of his infinite wisdom can not fight back, because according to restaurant and corporate policy, "the customer is always right."

So I have come up with some rules based off of the Golden Rule about dining out. I think American public schools should teach this common sense in a short health unit or food science class or something. It should be common sense, but it isn't:

Server/ Customer rules:

1. Tip according to the service, but never below 15 percent, unless a server is going out of their way to make sure you have a miserable time dining. DO NOT EAT OUT IF YOU CANNOT AFFORD a 15 percent TIP!

2. A server is not leased to you for unlimited banter. Keep conversations light and try to be aware how much time your server can chat with you. A server is busy.

3. Don't ask your server his/her opinion, unless you want to hear it for real.

I believe this deserves some explanation. The other night I was serving a table of three women who informed me that they "would be a difficult table" and they were "mean." I took this lightly since almost anyone who declares this would be joking. However, I came to decide against this later when one of the woman asked me whether I "preferred" the risotto dish or the salmon. I told her that in customer popularity that they were equally liked, however, I would choose the risotto, because I am not a seafood person. She then decided to rebuke me, in her words for my employer, because I should never give my opinion, because nobody cares. My only job, according to her, is to sell the food. I was quite irate inside and kept my emotions below my reddening cheeks. This is what I wanted to say to her: "Okay Lady, I operate according to the laws of making the customer happy and since you had asked me a question, I decided to be honest with you." I wanted to tell her that there is some finesse that comes with serving and that sometimes it's better to be talking to a human who is looking out for your best interest than a commercialized robot, but I refrained. Wouldn't you rather someone tell you something to make your dining experience more pleasurable or would you rather a pushy server steer you into the most expensive dish? I concluded that this woman had some control issues in her own life and took some needless time to make me some sort of sick example for her friends. The long and the short of it is, your server is probably smarter than you and that leads to rule four:

4. Do not make a person who gives you your food angry.

Those are my only rules. If these are followed, all will be happy. Maybe it results in you not stiffing your server, because you only eat out when you can afford it. Maybe the world will be a happier place if all those that could treat others the way they wanted to be treated would. Think if the whole world of employment operated like the service industry:

"Geez, John, you messed up that fax. I'm cutting your wages today."
"I didn't like how you set that report on my desk, Nancy, no check for you."
"You were late, Betty, you aren't getting paid today."
"Why aren't you a perfect robot, Arnold? How about no lunch, I yell at you for a few hours, and we take 20 dollars off of your check!"

But people aren't perfect. They get angry. And they don't learn. Maybe we could do the world a service and stop breeding before we destroy ourselves. That'd be a hell of a tip, if I could give one to the world. But alas life goes on in all it's wasteful, destructive glory.