Check out this Photoshop-enhanced bike lane art on Vassar St. in Cambridge. I couldn’t believe it either! Somebody’s looking out for us :)
The MetroPed shop is buzzing with activity as the summer farm season draws near. We’re finalizing our lists for our CSA deliveries, training new drivers and picking up some new jobs that look promising. This is going to be our breakthrough summer… I can feel it!
Last Friday was action-packed with deliveries taking me all over, including downtown, where I met my mom for a quick shot of caffeine at the Prudential Center mall. I arrived back at the shop in time for an impromptu Friday afternoon BBQ, MetroPed-style. Witness some of the hijinks on the photo page.

Yesterday morning I got up feeling much better in the ankle department and did my Petsi Pie deliveries as usual. It was gross and sticky out, the weather horrific in humidity because it was supposed to be thunderstorms any minute. I swung over to City Hall afterward and made my appearance for Bike Week Breakfast, [...]

Today took me downtown for some Taza chocolate and Fiore di Nonno mozzarella cheese deliveries as you can see in the reflection in the façade of the John Hancock building on Clarendon Street. Well, you can’t see the chocolate or cheese… and you have to take my word that that’s me on the trike and that I am indeed downtown. You know, with Photoshop these days, you can never really be sure.
I probably rode about 125 miles this week – 50 miles commuting and 75 on the trike, so I was happy to see Wenzday, Erik and Jessie sitting outside the shop entrance enjoying some frosty beverages when I returned from my long and winding route at 6 p.m.
On my trek today I met up with a friend and former co-worker from the Cape Cod Times, Kay, who was in town from San Francisco working at her home office in Back Bay. I called her while I was riding down Boylston, and Kay was able to come down for a few minutes to say hi and catch up. All in a day’s work.
See more photos from today.

Some tidbits from the past two days:
ANGER MANAGEMENT
I was riding west on Broadway in Somerville when a minivan pulled over in the bike lane ahead of me. No problem… as I maneuvered around him, a biker coming the other way yelled, “GET OUT OF THE BIKE LANE, ASSHOLE!” Maybe these two guys had a history, but I think riding around with a chip on your shoulder as if every gas-powered vehicle out there is the enemy is a recipe for early exit via stress-induced heart attack. Sure, that kind of attitude feeds the glorified badass street-savvy maverick messenger archetype, but it also gives bikers a bad name. We’re all in this together. Might as well share the road.
UNION BLUES
I saw a couple of guys wearing sandwich boards on the corner of Potter and 3rd streets in Kendall Square Wednesday, so during a break in the delivery action, I stopped and asked them what was up. They were drywallers who apparently were put out of work when their company, Garcia Drywall, hired nonunion crews to save money. I was going to ask if they wanted to come drive for us but realized that they probably make way more hanging drywall than they could riding a tricycle. Anything’s gotta be better than standing on a street corner, though. So if you have some sheetrock needs these guys would appreciate it if you steered clear of Garcia Drywall
THROWBACK
I had an interesting job yesterday of picking up 6 cases of beverages at the Harpoon Brewery in South Boston and delivering them to the Livable Streets Alliance, a non-profit organization in Cambridge. After several phone calls to clear up some communication breakdowns, I left the brewery with my valuable cargo and made it to my destination in short order with the benefit of some cooling drizzle.
At Livable Streets Zack and Phil helped me carry the drinks into the office and then offered me a drink (from their selection in the fridge). Nostalgia got the better of me as I opted for a Mountain Dew, which to my surprise turned out to be a “Mountain Dew Throwback,” sporting the original logo and containing pure sugar instead of syrupy high fructose corn syrup. I don’t remember Mountain Dew ever tasting like that, but it really was very good. I did the Dew, then hustled out of there to get to my next gig.
The only shot I got yesterday before my batteries died was this building construction at Main and Vassar streets in Kendall. I thought it would be cool to see the before and after shots once construction is complete. Stay tuned for that one…

Damn! It’s been two weeks since I’ve posted anything here. What better way to kill a blog!
I’m covering a few extra shifts this week, so even though it’s only Wednesday, I’ve already got Friday legs.
My biggest problem this week has been getting to Whole Foods by 3 p.m. so I can deliver Taza’s tasty chocolate. In most cases, Whole Foods receiving closes at 3 p.m. I busted my butt Tuesday to get to the Charles River Plaza Whole Foods by 3 p.m., making it by the skin of my teeth… only to find out receiving stops at 2 p.m. there. Dumb luck, that. Fortunately somebody in the store took the order… Meltdown averted.
Well, I have to cut this short. It’s late. I’m tired. And I have to get up early. I hope to have some more photos and some better stories tomorrow. Until then, enjoy this photo of the middle school in Belmont I ride past most days. The school sits at the top of a hill on Washington St. From here it’s downhill all the way home!
One little factoid about Washington Street in Boston I recently read about… Many years ago Boston officials allegedly decreed that every street that intersects with Washington St., with a few notable exceptions, will change its name. For example, Stuart St. becomes Kneeland St… Court St. becomes State St… Boylston St. becomes Essex St., and so on. The exceptions? Mass. Ave., Columbus Ave. and Melnea Cass Blvd. Pretty cool, huh? Go ahead and put that in your pipe.

Sometimes it is hard for someone who makes their living on a bicycle to take time after work or on their day off to go for a ride and actually enjoy riding.  I find that some of the great rides I have been on are at a slower pace enjoying whatever Mother Nature offers instead [...]

This photo was taken on Lowell St. in Somerville looking down to Highland Ave. but doesn’t do justice to the view of the tree-lined street from the crest of the hill. The heat earlier this week really seemed to ignite the foliage and blooms around town. The near-perfect weather seemed to energize people around town, too. Even though I got off to a late start, I ended up stopping to chat with more people than usual…
In East Arlington, I met Jack, an MIT alum who does marketing and sales for a web startup. He seemed like a perfectly normal guy, but I discovered him wearing a goofy “Cinco de Mayo” mask in a video on his Brainyflix website (play the one on the top-right). Students can win iTunes gift cards and cash by coming up with pictures or videos that illustrate SAT vocab words — a clever idea.
Toward the end of my day I spotted a desk with legs walking down Springfield St. Turns out this dude Jason, who had picked up an abandoned desk on the curb, was carrying it home but had about a 1/4 mile to go. Since I had only one box of veggies left in the trunk, we were able to get half of the desk inside. Jason held the other end and jogged behind the trike as I pedaled the few blocks to his apartment. Just wait till our insurance company finds out about that one!

This morning I did my deliveries and then came home to do some Spring Cleaning, the amount of trash and recycling on the curb in front of our house today was at least 3x the usual, I really cleaned out the basement. The only think left to toss out is some rugs and a wheelchair [...]

Meet EriC. He started driving with us yesterday. His first day was, let’s just say, a busy one. I showed him around on our Zigo job — just a day after Wenzday showed me around. We’ve been scrambling a little bit to cover Zigo and some of the other jobs since EriK injured his ankle last week.
The new EriC handled Zigo like a champ and then took on a Taza Chocolate-Fiore di Nonno route through Cambridge and Boston on his own while I took care of a couple Harvard Book Store deliveries. EriK would have normally done all this by hisself!! (I’m starting a campaign to use “hisself” instead of “himself” — I like how it sounds — are you with me?)
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention how bleeping hot it was, but this you already know. You don’t live in a cave. I had to break out the shorts and show off my pasty white legs. This early in the season my legs actually act as reflectors, which is a nice safety feature, really. Not to worry, they’ll burn to a nice dull shade of pink pretty soon.
See the Photo Page for a few bonus shots from today.

This week I am doing Petsi Pie deliveries everyday because Eric is not biking for awhile after hurting his ankle, pretty bad from what I hear. This morning I woke up at 5am and walked over to the MetroPed office at 530 and was amazed at my trike to see what happened to it over [...]