You know the ones.. “Hello Sir, this is MICHAEL and I’m calling you for the air duct cleaning service”. You know all the replies people give… “Yes, clean all my ducks. I have 12 of them. They are a bit fowl”, “FUCK YOU DON’T EVER CALL ME AGAIN YOU ASSHOLE”, and of course my personal favorite “Sure thing, come tomorrow! I’m at 6 Tettenhall Road, Etobicoke”. If you Google that address you’ll see why it’s funny – at least it is for me. Any thought of inconveniencing the residents of that home is something I feel warm and fuzzy about.

About a year ago I wrote my initial post shortly after I’d signed up to be an UberEats delivery “driver”, but instead of using a bike or car, I did it on foot. Walking. It’s a much lesser known way and I can tell you the past year has been a whirlwind of learning how challenging of a gig this really is. I’m going to try and remain fairly diplomatic in fear of retribution from Uber – which should tell you all you need to know right out of the gate.

Where I left off was after my second night out delivering. I was in pretty good spirits realizing I could make a couple bucks on the side just for walking around the city dropping off relatively crappy takeout food to people while burning calories. My views now are… well.. far different. As it stands today, I’m up to 1700 deliveries since late September 2020. I stopped somewhere in early May 2021 save for a few days afterwards where the weather wasn’t all that warm. I decided slugging a food delivery bag around town in the heat & humidity just wasn’t for me. As the weather got colder in October of this year, I’ve been back out getting my steps.

Here’s a few things I’ve learned along the way.

I’m a huge proponent that when you want to use a piece of software, you buy the darn thing. All my copies of Windows are legit, my audio editing software wasn’t a cheap license, I have a lifetime subscription to XSplit, and a variety of other things. I pay for apps I like on my phone. However, I’m still running a cracked version of WinRar, because I’m not _that_ dedicated. Almost.

This is coming from a guy who basically pirated everything under the sun from the dawn of getting online (heck, even before). I remember being quite young when Windows 3.11 was the shit. It came on something like 15 x floppies. Needless to say, pirated. I was one of the first kids with a CD burner. Game on.

In a desperate attempt to loose the dreaded “Covid-20”, I’ve been walking a lot. Ok, maybe I haven’t gained 20lbs, but I have become a heck of a lot more stagnant over the past 6 months. Like many, I’ve been working from home since mid-March.

Almost immediately my condo gym was closed, so I figured I’d buy some free-weights. Naturally supply and demand dictated that any fitness equipment tripled in price overnight and paying $300+ for a pair of 30lb dumbells just wasn’t a financial choice I could justify. So, I began to go for 5-7k walks 3 times a week. Looking back, this isn’t exactly a lot of distance, but it was something.

I didn’t realize how much I walk in a day until I didn’t. Nowadays, I get up, walk 9 seconds to my kitchen to brew a coffee, then 6 more seconds to my desk. I walk 6 seconds back to my coffee maker, then 6 more seconds to my desk; where I more or less stay for the next 8-12 hours. I’m a damn sloth.

For quite some time I’ve said I hate people calling me an expert in something just because I know more than they may. It makes me uncomfortable. It’s not that I don’t like to talk about things with great passion; anyone who knows me is aware of my penchant to drive on at lengths about a topic. But an expert? No. I feel that’s a label that should only be bestowed upon someone who’s spent a considerable part of their life dedicated to a topic, likely accredited in the matter from somewhere other than YouTube.

Remember when people such as doctors, scientists, and mathematicians were not only listened to, but respected? It baffles me when I run across people who believe the world is flat, vaccines cause autism, or whatever half-cooked conspiracy theory is popular today. It’s as if peer reviewed science means absolutely nothing anymore. That concept is completely lost on so many, facts are meaningless unless they validate your beliefs, and people are cherry picking and manipulating what they do find. It’s backwards. You should be looking for facts that disprove or challenge your position, and it’s only when you can’t is when you have the foundation of a theory you can present to be peer reviewed.