It was the first day of school this week. And I just happened to fix up my bicycle. I put new brake shoes on it. And was trying to figure out how to balance the wheel so it does not wobble. After playing with it for a while I took it for a ride. I was just riding around the neighborhood when I was coming up on some highschool kids coming home from school. So I laid on them the customary questions like what school do you go to? And do you take Spanish? They told me their school. And the one student said that he was taking Spanish. So I says to him in como-como te llamas? And before his friend could say he’s a dumb ass he answered the question in Spanish correctly, instinctively. So my hat is off to the Spanish teachers at Allderdice high school. This is one of the better schools in Pittsburgh. Later in the day since everybody has been bitching about the price of gas, I decided to take the bike grocery shopping. The store is about 8 blocks away. Its about a half hour to walk it. I have to admit pulling into the grocery store is a hell of a lot easier on a bike than a car. I bought about 10 items including a gallon of Gatorade. At the cash register I bagged my own groceries because I knew it was going to be a challenge getting these home on the bike. I double bagged everything. I had three bags on each side of the handlebars inside the break handles. A few acquaintances of mine took notice of me on the bike and said hello as they rode by in their cars. Something that would not happen if I were hidden in my car. I took more notice of people walking on the streets. And I acknowledged the people at the bus stop when I went by. There seems to be some social advantages taking the bike to the store rather than the car. At least when the weather is nice. I think I might have even made healthier selections to eat at the store because I was moving my fat ass to carry these food items home. It was a little tricky balancing the bike with the 6 bags at the intersections. It was also a little fun because I could make eye contact with all the drivers there. Any how, after getting home and unloading the food instead of eating like I usually do after shopping, I took the bike to the park and rode around for a while. Then I rode around Carnegie Mellon University. Where I stopped for a rest to watch a women’s soccer match. Then I rode past the outside vending court, where they allow outside vendors to sell food to the students out of trucks converted into little restaurants. I know one of the vendors because he used to have a Middle Eastern restaurant on the main street where I live. He sold gyros and falafel sandwiches. And he is doing the same things from the truck on campus. I talked to him about street vending back when he had the restaurant. It looked like he was doing pretty well. I related to him on this street food because that was a dream of mine to sell grains as smoothies as street food also. I was glad to see that he was doing well. I made a mental note to bring Laura back here some night to get something to eat. Laura always liked his Greek salads. They set up picnic tables next to the trucks to accommodate the students on campus. This University accommodated all these vendors by putting picnic tables around where all the trucks are parked. There is no cost to the University to allow all these street vendors sell their food. There are Indian,Thai,Chinese,Greek and Jewish vendors selling food from around the world in a small corner of this college campus. And some of them like my friend selling gyros stay open in the evenings. It may become a new food experience for non-students. All that they need are some street perfomers and musicians to go with the food.