End of a Part-Time Era

Friday night was the impromptu retirement party for Josh the Wonderboy.

For the past decade, he has been proudly slinging packages in the QC.  Like most messengers in Charlotte, Josh worked for more than one company during his tenure.  Four by my count.  Like most messengers, he took a hiatus from the job at one point to pursue another venture only to return to the trade.  Being that he was a veteran, we do not hold that against him.

At this point in the game, it's odd to lose one of the old guard.  Of the remaining five guys (before he left), none of us had less than ten years on the job.  After the economy fell apart in 2008,  I would hear the typical "How do I get a job doing that?" more often than usual.  I would reply, "There used to be sixteen of us.  Now there are five, and we're basically like the Supreme Court.  One of us has to die and vacate the position."

I'm glad Josh didn't die.

Saturday was spent nursing a small hangover from the night before, taking care of business, spending some time with the family, and stopping at my new shop sponsor (AKA: The Official Shop Sponsor of the 2013 Faster Mustache Charlotte Team).  Unfortunately, I got there five minutes after they closed, but they were kind enough to let me touch shiny objects while they counted the drawer and cleaned my finger prints off said shiny objects.
I can't say much about Sunday.  Why?

Well after stopping at Satan's rest stop...

I rode some new trails with a couple undisclosed riders.  While I do not like to poach hiking trails anywhere (especially in high user-conflict areas), I have nothing against riding trails that don't exist.  If you run into a hiker on a "hiking only" trail, you could get an earful.  They might let the authorities know as well, damaging the reputation of cyclists as an irresponsible user group.  If you run into a hiker on a non-trail, the most that can happen is that you both shrug your shoulders and go on your way... unless you find the "hiker's" meth lab or private crop, and then he might shoot you.

I think sharing information about said trails on the internet is a douche move, so talking about it beyond that is pretty much not worthwhile.  Fun was had, smiles abound, no images were captured, high fives would have been given had we wanted to draw any attention to what we were doing, so they were not.

Since no digital imagery was captured, the question is raised, "If I wear my BkB kit on a ride and I don't take a few self portraits, was it still cool?"

Sure, why not?

The weekend culminated with a Faster Mustache team meeting.  We just took our shirts off and discussed whether or not belts are necessary with skinny jeans.

They are not.