The Immortal Class?

27 June - Very warm day - not overwhelming except for the fact that I was routed all over town like an idiot - it seemed like half of my trips were late because I was constantly being shifted further and further away from the core. I can only hope that it was because we were understaffed and not because I was being punished for a little note I sent to Cheryl in the morning informing her of my plans to make a move. At least I had a lot of time in elevators to scream obscenities at the top of my voice - i's always very therapeutic to have an elevator tantrum I think and its even better when the doors open suddenly and you iind an office drone looking quizzically at you and you know they heard your screams but nothing is ever said. Also made a return to Port Vancouver, I think its the first time i've been there since January 5th, when I slipped on the railroad tracks and suffered my little injury. I'm not a superstitious guy but I still got off my bike and walked over the railway tracks, just in case. Another incident that reminded me of my mortality happened when I was calling around the other bikers to collect their manifests and ECOs for delivery to the depot and when I spoke to Duncan, one of the finer young chaps in the team, and found he was lying down in emergency at St Pauls, the result of a collision with an automobile. He was riding down one of the bike lines when a car decided to turn into a parkade and straight into his path - didn’t get the full story but Duncan was thrown into the windshield head first and his bike was damaged, probably beyond repair. The one good thing about the incident was that Duncan sometimes wears a helmet and today was one of those days (and I wouldn’t be surprised if most of his future working days involve him wearing one as well). When I told the dispatcher, scott (it seems he replaces Rick in the afternoon's these days), his reaction was to put the SHT that Duncan was carrying on my screen and I had to go to emergency, negotiatt my way through the nurses, to pick up the trip so it could be delivered. Needless to say, I didn't rush too hard on that one. Duncan had mentioned to me yesterday that he wanted to take Wednesday off but I don't think he needed to go to these measures ... The time onoured australian tradition of takinga sickie would have sufficed just as well. The important thing is that apart from a few scratches he seems okay - you can always get a new bike but you can't always get a new head.
After getting rid of Duncan's trip had a beer in the park to commisserate with a couple of other couriers and I let them know what happened and the fact that Duncan was wearing a helmet and they should all think about that for a while - they nodded sagely but I can bet that none of them will be wearing one tomorrow (except for the minority who actually do wear one of course) then went home and OD'd on ice cream and drank a lot of water whilst watching Dune on DVD - f**k that's a weird movie. Good though.