My bike was stolen last night.

It was an awesome bike, a black and pink beach cruiser that was gifted to me by a good friend. It was not new, but I didn’t care. It had a cool basket with a black and pink zebra print liner that was the perfect size to hold a bag of groceries. I rode it to the beach every week, and some days that was a 20 mile round trip if I went all the way to the Wedge in Newport. I even rode it to work quite often! I’ll never forget to looks on the faces of the warehouse guys when I rolled up that first day. One day I left it in the hallway and Jerry almost tripped over it.

I could ride from my house along the river trail (which is actually a flood control channel – only here in the ‘asphalt jungle’ would we refer to it as a river) and get to our office in about 30 minutes. What a great way to start the day! I was getting exercise and saving on gas money. The time on my bike to and from work was sacred. It really helped me to forget about my stressors for awhile, and just enjoy the fresh air and cool scenery along the way. I rode that bike almost every day, even if it was just around the block.

My favorite ‘bike adventure’ memory was just last Thursday. It might have been the hottest day of the year. I got home from work and my daughter and I jumped on our bikes and rode to the beach for some relief. What started off as a way to cool off ended up being a great bonding experience for the two of us. Soon she will be a teenager and won’t have time to ride bikes with mom!

Maybe whoever stole my bike needed it more than me. I only know they won’t enjoy it as much as I did.

(written by Julie and Jareck)

Jareck and I are off and blogging with the subject “We Care”. Now, Jareck has been here a few years – and being in the warehouse has “hands on” contact with the packages as they wing their way to our customers. I, on the other hand, have only been here a few months and have almost no interaction with customers unless someone wanders in off the street looking for Customer Service. Being in accounting, I deal with vendors, payroll, and banking – the business end. Jareck & Julie….blog buddies? Talk about different points of view…

Jareck has a very ‘Zen’ perspective to his job in the warehouse. He truly cares about each package and wants it to be special. He thinks ‘How does this look to the customer? Does this package represent the company and the service we provide? Will the customer be excited to come home from work and see a neat box outside their door – and, so quickly received?’. To him, each package is a reflection of who we are and what we stand for – and the tangible evidence to our customers of the care and respect we have for them.

I may not deal with customers every day, but I do see first hand how we as co-workers care about each other. Excited for Alea’s trip to Vegas – rallying around Carla & Aaron when he had his motorcycle accident – proud of Jim and his band – everyone taking time for a smile, a hug, a laugh, whichever is needed at that moment. And the birthday cake here? It needs to be a line item in the budget! The love here is palpable.

So, the moral to our story? It’s easy to care about our customers, because we first care about each other. What a great place to work!