What is it with the meat theme this week?

Date: March 1
Mileage: 20
Ride type: Commute
March mileage: 20
Year to date mileage: 449

For the first day of March, not bad at all. The promised freezing rain/rain/snow never appeared and even though the day was overcast it made for a nice commute home. I did have one interesting problem getting ready to go home. I normally don't blog about work, but this is related. I've been helping another project manager out with some tasks for her project for the last few months. She keeps telling me that she's going to buy me a steak as a way of saying thanks. One day last week we were talking about brisket, and I honestly couldn't tell you why. But it inspired her. Today, she brought me a brisket.



Now this is a piece of meat. 4.12 pounds. And I'm riding my bike. The single pannier I use for commuting (the other was run over by my wife) isn't the largest bag on the market, but it usually does the job. Though in the winter I'm usually pushing maximum capacity with all the warm clothes. So quitting time rolls around and I go and get my brisket from the fridge. Huh, that's funny. It's wider than the opening of my bag. I had to squeeze it in just so. I could barely get the top closed. And while four pounds may not sound like much, coupled with a full day's worth of work clothes, a repair kit, a 3/4" socket, a spare tube and various other sundry items it makes for one heavy as hell pannier. When I attached it to the bike it caused the bike to lean so quickly I almost dropped the whole thing. I was amazed that it didn't fall off on the way home. But the brisket is now safely in my refrigerator at home. Now I need to figure out what to do with it.

As long as I'm breaking the "don't blog about work" rule, here's what else happened today. A few years ago (this is backstory, hang on) when we first moved into our new building there was a urinal in our bathroom that was out of order. It remained out of order for over 7 months. Dust settled on the thing. The people in charge had clearly forgotten all about it. My friend Tim called building services and got the thing fixed. So I nominated him for an award using our company's internal recognition program. In that nomination, I made sure used the word "urinal" as often as I could. It was a proud moment when our team leader got to read the entire nomination in front of our department. She turned several shades of red. It was beautiful.

Fast forward several years. Tim and I are now in different departments, but we've both moved from the 7th floor to the 8th floor. There was now a urinal on 8 that would flush for well over a minute every time it was used. Once finished, you zip up and walk away. Most urinals are done flushing before you're done washing your hands. This one was still flushing when you walked out of the bathroom. It has the autoflush sensor thing, so there was no avoiding this. What a waste of water. I mentioned it to my buddy Tim at work, and he had noticed it too. So he promised to call building services if I would submit another nomination. The terms were agreed to. He called, it was fixed, I nominated. We have a new recognition program so I was limited to 500 characters this time around, but I think I captured something.

The roar of rushing water. It makes one think of falls. Niagra Falls. Angel Falls. Closer to home, the sound of St. Anthony Falls. It should not, however, make one think of urinals. However for the last few months this has sadly been the case. The #1 urinal in the 8th floor men's room was showing signs of being an overachiever. Most urinals are content to flush for approximately 20 seconds. Thorough, yet not overkill. Once business had concluded at #1 it would begin a hearty flush. Not content to stop at 20 seconds it continued on, recklessly exceeding the advertised 1 gallon per flush emblazened on the top of the unit. Our #1 was clearly going above and beyond the call of duty.

Speaking of above and beyond the call of duty, we turn to Tim (nice segue, eh?). Tim noticed the existence of a problem. Tim called building services. Order (and the promised 1 gallon per flush) was restored. Huzzah!



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