Behind the strip club, U-Haul and Budweiser trucks came together in a pincer formation. Relishing the challenge, our little red car slid through the gap with millimeters to spare. Making the parking lot, a semi had jackknifed itself into the loading dock.
Deliveries to Canal Park are an adventure!
Around every turn I had the feeling of maneuvering my nimble steed between and around HUGE OPERATORS, toting my cooler from here to there.
It brought a kind of joy. I didn’t envy the semi for backing into the space, no matter how large the delivery. I love being small, and the fact that it works for me. Early in the farm’s evolution, for example, I wrote a cheekily titled post called Mine is smaller than yours.
Incredibly, the same semi truck (a regional distributor) momentarily blocked four lanes of traffic while backing into the Chinese restaurant just ten minutes later. I waited in awe of the driver’s nimbleness in managing the monstrosity. Not everybody can do that!
Moving forward, bound for a really small delivery, I reflected on my continued reliance on big corporations despite a perilous journey out of Cubicle Land years earlier. You-know-who, after all, made our reliable little Prius. It has served the greater good for 15 years (with a little help from a brother-in-law during a crisis).
Arriving at my last spot, with just ten bucks in pea shoots for a friend (oh, but it brightens their day!), I inadvertently blocked a UPS driver who was attempting to sidle a little further down the road. Who doesn’t love the UPS guy????
By that point, I felt he was a brother performing a similar task as me, but resisted the urge to yell an apology out the window. Man, the choreography of deliveries going on out in the world every day is staggering! Lives are touched with every drop-off.
I successfully ran the gauntlet, but finally had a feeling of sharing the road with those guys.
I’m writing a book about our journey OUT of Cubicle Land, and generally choose small whenever possible. Today, however, I appreciated taking some stock in the value that the big guys bring to the table. I reckon there’s plenty of room for us all.
Oddly enough, I shared a bunch of snaps of all this on today’s Instagram story @tinyfarmduluth.
Ed's Big Adventure 