A Put Up And A Put Down

7 December - No new trainees today which I welcome somewhat, however, not overly busy either. Now we've got six of us in downtown and there's someone else starting this week and Crystal, who hasn't been here for a while, is coming back next week. I'm starting to think that the story of her losing her job because of her injury was more due to the imagination of some of my co-workers rather than having any real basis in fact, but i'll probably find out next week anyway. I don't really know much about the logistics of this business beyond doing the stuff on the street but it appear to me that they've certainly overhired. We really don't have the work to justify so many people in downtown, Granted, it was ridiculous to have just two bikers downtown but eight (or even six) is excessive. I found myself sittingaround waiting quite a few times during the day and because i've not had these dead zones before i've not catered for them by bringing a book or anythingto better myself while i've got the free time. The only thingavailable to read are crappy free local newspapers. However, thedispatcher has told me that their plan is to have most of the bikers servicing downtown and one of us beingthe 'side biker', which means riding on the southside of the bridge. The distances are much longer and therefore it's physically harder and you do less jobs but they pay considerably more. And, according to what I was told today, it looks like i'm going to be the side biker initially. So, in a manner of speaking I may have had a bit of a promotion. Had a bit of a run in with some of the old bitter couriers in the past few days as well - yesterday, one of the old bastards lectured me about where I was locking my bike, you should never do it on the bike rack because you'll get boxed in and you'll wreck your cables and I could break your lock in two minutes (after examing it and finding that it was the same brand as his he admited that it was the right kind of lock) and other rants that I smiled and nodden at. Today, I had a lecture about riding on the sidewalk by one of the long timers ... I'd almost bumped into him at snail speed and later in the day he lectured me about the ills of it, saying i'd did it too much and the reason we now have to have licenses is because a girl (who they all knew from a mailroom no less) was hit and killed by a courier and it's not fair on pedestrians. I agree that it's not the right thingto do and I onlydo it when absolutely necessary and then I go super slowly, usuallyjust rolling or even half walking it at times, but, the reason we almost bumped into each other was because he was on the sidewalk too!!! A few hectic periods did keep the day reasonably interesting, the awful movie 'Stealth' that we watched after I returned home made the night reasonably dull.