Howdy, y’all. As you can see from my newly acquired accent, I was just in Texas. Beautiful country, full of friendly folks fond of staring at strangers, but hot as all get out. I saw one cyclist in the small town where I was visiting. He was riding the white line on a road with no shoulder, baking under 97 degrees of full sun, looking positively wretched. I felt deep empathy.

The next day I was back on a plane. The captain announced "72 and clear skies" as we began our decent into MSP. I could practically sense all the backyard bar-be-ques happening below as suburban Eagan scrolled past and we glided into the airport.

Summer’s been good to us this year. Temperatures have been down, rain comes when it’s supposed to, and though forest fires have been raging through Voyageurs National Park, the wind’s been blowing the smoke over that pesky Canada. If anything it’s going by too fast -- again. My beshorted and unsocked days are numbered but my tan is looking good. Now more than ever people are looking past that tan and eyeing-up my job instead, thinking I could do that -- I want to do that!

My co-worker, Anna, received an email this week from an ambitious, strapping chap in western Michigan who offered to deliver our coffee by bike in his community. We’d ship the beans to him and he’d take it from there: his idea. Anna’s idea: let’s keep shipping directly to these stores via UPS and forget the liason approach. My idea: hmm, what if…

What if he bought himself a trailer (www.bikesatwork.com) and began putting up fliers to promote his friendly, reliable, and environmentally sound distribution service? What if he went to the local newspaper and offered to drop papers every morning? What if he could deliver groceries to his busy neighbors and they’d pay him for his time? Plants can be delivered from nurseries, fresh baked goods from bakeries, prescriptions can be delivered to the elderly, harmful prisoners can be strapped in and given a ride that’ll scare’em straight, voting machines (the good ol’ manual variety) can be wheeled to the homes of handicapped voters. With enough foresight, creativity, and time-management, it shouldn’t be too hard to turn a modest profit.

Given that the cost of a bike and a trailer combined is cheaper by far than what the average American pays for automobile insurance alone each year, our hypothetical entrepreneur shouldn’t have to work too hard for a return on the initial investment. Given also the minor celebrity status ("You know, that guy") and the word-of-mouth business connections, work shouldn’t be too hard to find.

All this is strictly conjecture, I’ll admit. But I like conjecture, it keeps the "what ifs" buoyant. I also like knowing that another person, a sane and rational person, wants my job. They see some kind of future in human power and a two-wheeled contraption, and I don’t want to be the one to say no.

You can’t have my job though, but you can make your own. To this end I would recommend the book "Cycling for Profit" by Jim Gregory of Bikes-at-Work. He offers plenty of advice on how to get a bike-oriented service rolling and making money in this business specifically. It’s worth checking out.

To the rest of you who don’t want my job, I apologize for the digression. Enjoy the rest of your summer though, it’ll go fast. For Pete’s sake get outside as much as you can, drink plenty of iced lemon tea (or iced Peace Coffee), soak up the late afternoon sun, and enjoy!

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