New York is a funny place. There are 8.2 million people in the city. That allows for a lot of variation. Most of those people are ordinary and decent: their lives are okay — could be worse, could be better (could be a
lot better if they were riding a recumbent bike). Meanwhile, the city’s reputation is tainted by several thousand jerks, many of whom drive SUVs and luxury taxis. Working with a bell curve here, my totally unscientific and uninformed rough guess is that 2.2% of New Yorkers are chronically bitchy — 181,388 people who are simply mean. (And another 2.2% — 181,388 — who are chronically giddy. Look out. Either they are doping or they just moved here last week.) Going down this ridiculous path of invented statistics, I’ll estimate that another 13.6% or so, conservatively, probably didn’t sleep well last night. So, 1,121,308 New Yorkers who were nice yesterday, but today, look out.
In my business, I don’t meet a lot of people who are having a bad day. In fact, usually they’re having one of the best days of their life when they come through my door. It’s not because of me. It’s because they’re about to discover the joy of riding a recumbent bike (or trike). But every now and then one of those chronically bitchy people seem to decide that they absolutely must reach out and touch me. Ick. Gross. Yuck. Something like this happened recently and it can really bum me out.
Other times, someone comes along who makes my day and reminds me why I like the city. Case in point, the other day a customer called from Viet Nam just to say thank you for recommending, speccing and selling her what has been an excellent (perfect?) bike for her travels — a Volae Century ES with several special additions. We had a great conversation about what she’s up to, what I’m up to, and whether her Red Hook home was flooded by Sandy in her absence. It was funny how casual it felt even though we were speaking over such a long distance!
How nice! I tell you, that’s why I do this.
Keep on Truckin’,
Robert
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Robert Matson
New York City Recumbent Supply
The Innovation Works, Inc.
copyright 2012 Robert Matson
