Have the winters been so bad here in the past that people have been really well trained that in January and February it's necessary to stay in one's home and not venture out?
This winter has been a dream. From watching the snowflakes float to the ground all day Sunday to the mild temps today, it's been one of those wintry-enough seasons for me. I enjoy four seasons and I really like some snow. I also enjoy some big snow storms, but no one here has forgotten the winter of two years ago yet so not too many people are bemoaning the lack of snow yet (except the skiers, but as I think of it, I haven't heard anyone complain in awhile). It's never been too cold to pedal to and from work.
Today was quiet at the shop. If it were the same temperature during any other month, I'm sure we'd be packed. But people seem to be in hibernation mode and its Tuesday. I had a chance to sit and knock out some work. It took well over an hour to prepare a quote for a fairly straight-forward customer (note, nothing is ever that straight-forward). Quotes aren't easy things, but I find them interesting. I'm still learning so to look up the parts, reviews, prices, etc. is oddly fun. I know soon enough it will become mundane, but the idea of sourcing parts that all fit together and make a system that works flawlessly excites my inner engineer that never got to do what it desired. More often than not, I find my job to be one of applying engineering problem solving or logic of some sort. Trying to figure out employee schedules is another puzzle to solve. It's a bit time-consuming, but fun at the same time. Rearranging schedules for a lot of upcoming travel sank a couple of hours today alone. Submitting hours to payroll: at least an hour and that is mundane and just a pain. I wouldn't trade the mundane, though, it's sometimes nice to do a few mindless tasks that still equal some level of accomplishment.
The rest of my job is a communications one. It's cool to try to figure out better ways of doing all of these things without automating out the human touch. I would really enjoy writing a smart database coded just for our business. I wrote a database for a bike shop once in two gloriously fun hours that would have, literally, solved all of their problems had they had the sense to use it. Maybe someday there will be time...and I can go back to being a developer and not on the receiving end of a database that is exceedingly uncustomizable and rigid. Just not right considering everything else is custom in this business.
Speaking of systems, it's that time of year to get systems in place and make internal improvements so that we're ready for the spring and when it gets insane with a million customers all needing something new. I've had a little more time than usual to work ahead on a few things, but we've been selling bikes at a high rate so it's not like there's that much time. There's never extra time, it's just how much time I let work cut into sleep that's the question. A usual day is 12 hours long, some much more, almost none less. It's nice to be accustomed to the longer days because it's possible to actually accomplish something within that time. Someone told me today that I look rested. That's a first in a long, long time to hear such a thing. And I did, after 8 full hours of sleep last night, feel rested.
On that note, time to wrap this one up. Maybe this blog will find its voice and I can get it on auto-run before too long. Tomorrow I'm starting the day early with yoga (it's better than nothing) though I am feeling guiltier and guiltier for not being on the trainer spinning daily. Once a week right now, not enough. Should be training to race. I want to race, can't wait to race, but am not training to race. To be continued...
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