Nelson's World
September 12, 2005
I haven't been writing like I should. Sometimes I just don't have the energy, sometimes I just don't have the nerve to put 'pen to paper' (okay, I'm out of practice actually writing stuff on paper. I haven't done it much in years. I got the first 20 pages of Book 9 onto a pad when I didn't have access to a computer, but that's the last I did in any bulk. It just doesn't seem normal to write with my hands any more. It's so much easier to do it on a computer {especially one with spell-check})
I've started really editing Book 1. It helps that I haven't read it in a while, so what doesn't work really stands out more. I'm adding a whole lot to the part when they first find themselves stranded in space. I always felt they figured too much stuff out too fast, so I'm redoing it to some extent. It won't change the story as a whole, though I do have to be careful about it.
On to my other love - my bikes. I'm up to 9, though I haven't taken any pictures of the new Rockhopper V2.0 or the new iteration of the Schwinn. Maybe if the weather is good tomorrow I'll do it. Kind of funny that I've rebuilt that bike 4 times now!
August 10, 2005
I feel like I have been banging my head against the wall all day long. Wednesday is, of course, my day to run the shop by myself. Way back in the day that meant getting as much done before that point as possible so all I had to do was check in new work and sell bikes and stuff. Not any more. Waiting for me this morning was a new bike to be put together and a rusted old hub. It wasn't a bicycle hub, it was for something else, apparently with a large, solid axle instead of the threaded axles normally used on bikes. Turns out it was from an adult sized tricycle. I had to figure out how to plug that into the spoke calculator and put it together (after scrubbing all that rust off the old hub - yuck.) Well, I tried and tried to get the damned thing done, but every time I laid my hands on it the phone would ring or somebody would come through the door. Now, if somebody was to come in and want to buy something, that's one thing but today it was a parade of people wanting to know stuff or "Just looking." If my store was in a mall or part of a strip center I'd expect the lookiloos but we are by ourselves. If you park in our lot you have driven here with the intention of doing some kind of business with us. I just can't believe that this many people are driving around and just looking. I finally finished it, just in time for a guy to roll in with his kids bike. Sorry Charlie, that back wheel is WAY beyond my ability to fix. (I am a competition rated wheel builder.) Time for a new wheel. Well, he wanted to leave it, but this kind of change takes 10 minutes and I didn't need one more bike hanging in the back waiting for payment. So I took the freewheel off. Phone rings. Somebody wants me to basically list every freaking road bike we have in stock. Finally got off that one and the back door buzzes. I open the door and the UPS driver has squished boxes that I have to inspect. Grrrr (I'm about to start telling our suppliers to find another shipper!) So I finally get the tire off and transfer the rimstrip to the new wheel. Phone rings again, this time with somebody wanting a recommendation about where to go ride a mountain bike. Now, I'm an expert mechanic and an old fashioned roadie, so I only know the most basic trails in the area. Well, he wants detailed directions to each one. Grrrrrrrr I AM NOT EMILY LATELLA!!! If you want to talk to me, put on your walking shoes and come see me. A 10 minute simple wheel swap ended up taking half an hour. Well, with UPS delivering our weekly parts order, that means I've got parts other projects are waiting on, including another bloody wheel to build. I root out the stuff I need and start taking apart the old wheel, which happens to be covered in brake dirt. Grease is pretty bad in a bike shop, but the one thing that gets into every pore in your skin is brake dust. It's almost as bad as working on a car (at least there's no asbestos to worry about.) Well, of course my hands are now ultra black and in comes a fresh batch of lookiloos! Then a guy comes in with a little kiddie bike. Uh oh. I know for a fact that particular bike sells for $25 at Wal-mart. The back wheel is visibly bent and that usually means a new back wheel. - 16 inch coaster brake back wheels are $30, not even counting labor to change it out. Somehow I managed to get the wheel just straight enough to work and charged the guy $10. The wheel I was building still hasn't gotten well under way (yes, I stopped a $150 project for a $10 project. Sigh.) Don't know how I did it, but the rest of the day was just a blur. I sold a bike and a whole pile of nickel and dime stuff but the bike is still leaning againt the counter, unassembled. I finally got the wheel done and guess what? the guy is out of town until next week. The dent on the desk at work is from my forehead.
Now I get a couple hours to sit in my home office, catch up on stuff, unwind, watch "Lost" and go to bed and do it again. At least we're both working tomorrow.
August 8, 2005
Sometimes I just hate rain. It's been sunny all freaking day long until I get ready to leave work...
...then it's "Pair 'em up Noah, one more time!"
This shouldn't bother me. The afternoon thunderstorms sure cool things down, especially in these 'dog days.' Except for one thing; I don't have air conditioning in my SUV. With it pouring down rain I have to roll the windows up and like most American cars, it fogs up really quick if you don't run the defroster (meaning I don't even get to have warm, moist air blowing on my face from the fan!)
There's one thing I hate about vacations; the first day of work back. For one thing I've been in vacation mode for the last 5 days (the longest I've taken off from this job yet!) and I have to get back into work mode. On top of that, I got to work 15 minutes early and lo and behold - there are half a dozen BSOs (bike shaped objects) clamped into the repair stands. They're not even the good kind of bikes to work on, they're department store garbage. Joy. First out of the block, I had to do what I normally do on Saturday afternoon - that's order for the store (I've finally gotten the place on a single order a week - that really cuts down on shipping expense!) First I gather all the little slips of paper in the two "Buckets" (plastic containers with slips of things I need to order.) Then I wish for a universal translator. I used to be a pharmacy technician, so I have good experience reading freakish handwriting (you can always tell when the doctor, and not the nurse, wrote the prescription - I'll leave it at that!) I couldn't make heads or tails of several of them. I spent from 9:00am until just about 11:00am getting the orders sent off to two of our vendors (three separate orders - Giant requires bikes to be on one order, other stuff on another.)
Then I ventured into the back room. Before I left for vacation I ordered 7 new bikes. I last worked on Tuesday and I expected most of them on Wednesday. You guessed it, they were all sitting there inside our dock, the packing slip still attached. <<sigh>>
Now, I know my title is "Store Manager, Head Mechanic and Webmaster." Don't let that fool you. I couldn't ream the other employees for leaving me this much to do from a standing start. They OWN the place.