Ahem. So, now that September is about, eh, 48 hours away, I am hearby committing once more to keep this bloggy thing updated. It’s not like I haven’t had things that I’ve thought, “Ooh, must blog about that!” I have. But for some reason, they didn’t make it to here. I even have some drafts that I’ve started but not finished. I’ll get there; I always do!

So, here’s what’s been happening with moi:

1. I’ve been biking. A LOT. On Saturday, I biked about 41 miles total. Whew. I was dead tired and feeling a little ill yesterday – perhaps I might have overdone it and gotten a bit dehydrated. Still, I was pretty impressed with the fact that I did 41 miles! It’s been a warm summer, and hopefully it will be a warm fall, so I should be able to get lots more rides in before that Indiana winter slides in.

2. I’ve been reading. A LOT. I go through phases, I think. Right now, I’m in a voracious reading phase. I’m re-reading a beloved series of books called the Amelia Peabody books by Elizabeth Peters. My mom got me hooked when I was in high school, and it’s been a while since I’ve re-read them. I’m on book 7, and I started two weeks ago. Love these books! Think murder mystery meets Egyptology and they have a baby around 1890.

3. Oh yes, I’ve been working and stuff, too. Nothing too crazy happening there. Like most nonprofits, we continue to adjust to a new financial situation. Like home ownership and mortgages, the way nonprofts function will be changed forever from now on, I think. We just have to figure out how to make it work. God is not done with WGM yet!

4. Speaking of God, I’ve been using a new devotional book called In Plain Sight: Seeing God’s Signature Throughout Creation by Charles Gordon. I’m using this as a devotional for the same reason I often tune into Science Friday on NPR every once in a while on Friday afternoons: my knowledge about science is not very large, nor do I have much of an inclination to expand it. But I recognize that it’s an important field, one that is good to delve into. And this devo is amazingly fascinating – the pictures are incredible! The basic premise is that God’s signature can be seen in diverse areas of creation – the iris of an eye looks very much like a gold molecule that’s been put through a particle accelerator, a brain cell carries a striking resemblance to an oak tree, and a spiral galaxy looks just like a hurricane. Each day, there’s a similarity like these intertwined with a biblical truth.

There! Hopefully now I will be once more a faithful blogger.

How are YOU?

I saw my first rodeo (the clowns weirded me out, I felt bad for the little calves, but it was cool to see the barrel races), did bumper cars for the first time (kind of slow, but fun), and saw the world’s – or was it the state’s? – largest pig. Either way, the thing was monstrous.

The animals were fun. It was very much a celebration of rural America. I should have gotten a picture of three good ‘ole boys crashed out in cots next to their cows.

Various fried things for sale. We were already tanked up on fried pickles, doughnuts, and other fried/sugary things. But we stopped to gape. Really?? Butter??

This was by far one of the coolest things at the fair. American Gothic kids went to Bangladesh!

Booyah!

Both times, there were plenty of employees rushing around doing their respective things. Both times, I was the only one in line at the in-store cash register, and both times, I had to wait an (what I thought was) inordinate amount of time to 1)get someone to take my order and 2) give me my darn stuff.

They were too busy seeing to the needs of people in the drive-thru. After I’d ordered at McDonald’s, I heard a customer order two smoothies (I ordered one), and actually saw the workers hand over that person’s drinks before I was given mine.

Are companies forgetting that people who walk into their restaurants deserve good service, too? Are they so focused on getting that time down from when a customer orders their food to when they drive by the pay and pick it up that they’ve forgotten that people who are inside the restaurant matter?

I posed the question to my lunch buddies at work today, and they also agreed that this was a common event. One co-worker even said that she had recently walked out of a restaurant  recently for that reason.

My driver-side car window doesn’t work, so I tend to go in a fast-food place rather than use the drive-thru because I feel awfully ghetto when I have to actually open my door to complete the transaction. So, I tend to see this kind of behavior a lot. And being the activist I am (I’ve sent complaint letters or called David’s Bridal, Kerasotes, Sprint, Axe, Amazon, Olive Garden, and more to bully – er - encourage them to get their act together), I’m trying to figure out how to make it better. I’m thinking a blistering email to CEO’s of major chains I frequent.

A vocal customer tends to get their way. I wonder if the typical drive-thru customer is more likely to complain about a long wait than a walk-in customer. A drive-thru customer is in their vehicle, their domain, and I bet that makes them have fewer inhibitions about telling off an employee. A walk-in, on the other hand, is in the restaurant’s domain. I contented myself at McDonald’s with a few incredulous glances and an annoyed tapping of my foot.

How to fix this? Have you experienced anything like this recently?

I knew I’d have my hands full the second the guy entered my office. I bunk outside of town, but I like to keep my digs open downtown, just so I can keep the bucks rolling in. Ya never know who might come walking in your door. Like this sorry sap; think I worked with him on the Peterson job last year.

“I gotta job for you,” he says. “Only a real dame like you could pull this off.”

With one hand stuck in his pocket and a sneer on his face, I give him a look. “Watch it, buddy,” I says back. “Or I might forget we go way back.” I pull out my gat for effect.

“Sorry, sorry, baby,” he says. “I forget you’re that kind of dame.”

“Attaboy. Who’s the mark, and how much dough am I up for?”

“Well, I’ll tell ya…”

An hour and two cigars later, I’m off. Most of the boys think I’m bonkers for preferring an open-air, two-wheeled chariot to get places, but I say nothing aims better than a bike ridden by an angry doll armed to the teeth. As I ride towards Shelview Drive, the weather turns on me. Felt like I’d been dumped in last week’s giggle water. I pulled off by a payphone to give my assistant a piece of my mind.

“Hey Pally,” I tells him. “Do me a favor. The next time you look out your window and say, “Nah, it’s not gonna do no rainin’, blow your brains out.”

I got a hunch he’s not being level with me, and I hang up, cutting off his blithering apologies. I got no time for apologies. I ride off, and the rain gets worse. Slick streets and foggy nights are a recipe for disaster, I tell myself. Besides, I got a feeling I’m being followed.

I stop at an old church building to take cover from the rain. I realize grimly that a funeral’s just getting out. With any luck, I think to myself as I check the holster for my .38, there’ll be another one starting soon.

This foray into film noir was inspired by my brother’s father-in-law, and is loosely – errm, VERY loosely – based on a bike ride I took this morning. Okay, the only things that are true was that it was raining and I did take cover under a church’s awning for a second.

I don’t know if it’s sparrow season or what, but these guys have popped on by almost every day this week. What’s fun is that my windows are tinted, so I think they think they’re looking at themselves. Or somebird just like them. So I get get really close to them. And, well, I’ve decided that sparrows look pretty raggedly up close.