Two more tidbits

I went into the middle school office this week for some paperwork. They asked which grade my child was in and then his name. As soon as I said "Robert", the woman said, "Oh! Robert! Of course." Then, when the school counselor came down to deliver it, she talked about Robert as if she personally knew him. I was befuddled. How could office personnel and a school counselor assigned to hundreds of 8th graders not only recognize my child's name but act like they liked him? I was too curious to keep it to myself. I asked the counselor, "How do you know Robert?" She looked at me a little weirdly and said, "I'm his school counselor." 

"Yes, I know, but you have hundreds of kids assigned to you. How do you remember Robert in particular?"

"Oh! He's one of the higher performing students," she nodded, "And when I substitute in the classroom, I try to get to know everyone. Robert is just fun."

My confused look prompted her further...

"And I'm a lunch monitor, too. I see him every day and we know each other. He's so funny."

There you go, folks. The boy who regularly grouches at his unbearably annoying younger siblings AND aims to blend in and not get noticed by his peers somehow feels comfortable enough around his friends and teachers to show his funny and smart and just plain fun side. I love that side. I'm glad he shares it.

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Since getting home Sunday evening, I've been searching for my notebook. It's a tiny little notebook where I keep track of the bikes I'm refurbishing and all the repairs lined up for each one. I have 15 bikes in our garage right now in various states of disrepair and a pile of new parts ready to be installed, but only the notebook knows what goes where. I've been searching for that thing for days! This morning, I got desperate/creative and looked in places it really shouldn't be. Then, in a moment, it suddenly occurred to me that I could pray for help. Why didn't that occur to me 4 days ago?! As soon as the idea struck, I saw my notebook. There it was in plain sight but not where it was supposed to be. What a tender mercy. Of course I offered a heartfelt prayer of gratitude and shouted through the house with glee. Everyone was off to school and work except Robert. He raised only an eyebrow and then went back to whatever he was working on. I would have been okay without that notebook. I could have started a new notebook and figured it all out again. I didn't have to, though, and that was tender mercy.

Can't wait to get back to work!

Update Galore

A few items I'd like to record here:

--We hired a new employee at the shop just before I left on my trip. He had worked in another bike shop for a few years, so he had more experience than I did in many things. He also had a friendly history with the new owner AND he was hired as a full-time employee. Soooooo, I was feeling pretty insecure right off the bat. What would he be like? He'd probably be an awesome mechanic. Would they like him better than me? Would I be relegated to flat fixes forevermore? I was dreading going back to work today, but most of those fears were resolved within a couple of hours. He's a regular guy with strengths and weaknesses. I love that he's already capable and trustworthy enough to share the crazy work load that my other co-workers have been carrying on their own. No more 50-60 hour work weeks for them! And you know what? He's willing to learn and he's good with customers. He works diligently and does good work. I respect that. He's not a superstar mechanic, which brings me a shameful sense of satisfaction (Mind the pridefulness, Susan!), but he's confident in his abilities and doesn't mind asking questions. I will gladly work with someone like that!

--I was called into Federal Jury Duty this month. They didn't want me on this week's jury, but I get to call in every Thursday evening through April to see if they'll need me later. When the judge was asking me questions as part of jury selection, he asked about my profession. I told him I was a mother of 4 kids and a part-time bicycle mechanic. He chuckled and asked about the bike mechanic part. Maybe he thought I was being funny? I know it's not a terribly common profession, especially for a middle-aged mom of four, but some people are truly shocked to hear about it. Later, while we potential jurors were waiting outside of the courtroom, another woman asked me about it. Turns out, she's a professional assembler for Wal-Mart. She travels the region assembling all sorts of things for them, including bikes. And I'll tell you what...she's no slouch. I wish every Wal-Mart hired professional assemblers to put their bikes together! Just a couple weeks ago at the shop, a customer brought in a brand new bike they had just purchased at Wal-Mart. They had bought it for their kid who tends to thrash things, so they didn't want to spend a lot of money on a bike for him, but they brought it to our shop for a tune-up and assembly check before giving it to him. I'm so glad they did! That bike was functional, but a mess, and not as safe as it should have been. It was clearly assembled by someone who didn't know how to assemble bikes.

--Our river cruise in Europe was excellent. My favorite parts were 1) the style and culture of the cruise line itself (Viking River Cruises), 2) going with my parents and ALL of my siblings so there was always someone available that I wanted to chat with or eat with or sit by or go on an excursion with, 3) grocery shopping with Bobby in 3 totally new countries, 4) doing laundry with Bobby at a laundromat in Bratislava, Slovakia, 5) 3-course meals every lunch and dinner, 6) a diligent and experienced maitre d' who understood my dairy sensitivity and worked with the chefs EVERY DAY to modify or create delicious food that I could enjoy with abandon, 7) active shore excursions like hiking and e-biking, 8) being introduced to a refreshing Austrian soda called Almdudler (pronounced ahlm-doodler), 9) running into Austrian school children on field trips and seeing what they ate for lunch, 10) spending Easter Sunday with Bobby's cousins who currently live in Budapest (I have always been impressed and enamored with Bobby's cousin culture, this time was no exception, and it simply felt genuine and home-like and normal), 11) realizing my parents are 86 and 81 years old and STILL in really good health.

--Bobby's parents came to Illinois to care for the kids while we were away. Neither party will say much about the experience. I've only been able to glean bits and pieces. Alex tells me dinners were dead quiet. James and Matthew said they did a lot of reading. Robert tells me he let Grandma and Grandpa do things their way, even though he could have told them how to do it our way. Bob tells me it was good to come and get to know the grandkids better and that sometimes the kids drove them crazy. Loretta tells me they looked at a map of the Danube River and talked about some of the countries we were seeing and introduced the younger boys to "The Danube Waltz." Matthew showed us a really nifty Easter Week presentation he worked on with Grandma and James. Bob and Loretta diligently took the kids to their appointments and attended their parent-teacher conferences and did everything on the schedule. They cooked, they cleaned, they cared, and they patiently got through the day. I get the overall impression that adults and kids alike were tolerating a lot of discomfort to get through it together. Bob and Loretta did an excellent job, though, because all the kids seemed just the same as when we had left them. No one was angry at us leaving or too freakishly excited to see us come home. It was fine. They were fine. Now we're all fine together. 

--I finally made a big enough mistake at work to get the big boss's attention. I have been waiting for this milestone. I wondered how they would let me know about it and how I would take the news. Well, the mistake happened in the last hour of my shift the day before our trip, so no one caught it until the customer picked up their bike the next day and I was long gone. It was a major safety concern that I just didn't catch while doing the repairs. And somehow I didn't notice it on the test ride afterwards, either?? Anyway, it was a big to-do. One inexperienced person had ordered the wrong part and I was the inexperienced mechanic who didn't notice that the new part was the wrong size. It was an easy fix once discovered, but a huge embarrassment to the owner and a mark on our reputation as a reliable shop. Well, when I realized this was not a mistake of laziness or sloppiness, but inexperience, my shame evaporated. I just wanted to learn how to do it better in the future! So, not too shabby for my first big mistake, eh? :)

--The garden is underway! Asparagus harvest has begun, strawberry plants are in bloom, and the spring garden is almost completely planted. 

--My family kept pointing out bikes and bike shops on our trip. They helped me realize that I'm not a bike junky. I know a little about brands and components, but that's not the fun part for me. I'm actually drawn to the beat up and abandoned bikes...the ones that I can transform into useful, practical, and efficient modes of transportation. The sleuthing and healing bits are way more appealing to me than the parts themselves. That's my nurturing streak, I think. That same undercurrent propels my interests in food/nutrition and gardening. And it supports my investment in my kids.

I'm going to be a mechanic!!

Ok, after that horrible day at work, I decided I wanted to reconnect with my coworkers and talk through things a bit. Food helps with stuff like that, so I brought in sub sandwiches for lunch. Really, really tasty ones 😋 

And since no customers or new owners were there at the moment, we could talk for real. It felt like we were all on the same team again. 

My managers met with me and we figured out some things together. First off, they really do appreciate me as a mechanic and want to encourage me in that direction (Yay! Yay! And a great relief!) and the new boss agrees. Second, their other part-time mechanic is cutting back their hours and my managers would really, really like to see me take up some of that slack. And finally, because of all that, I'll be working directly with and under the constant tutelage of our service manager (i.e. the most experienced mechanic). 

Up until this point, I haven't had to do tricky repairs. I've just been doing pretty routine stuff and they've trusted my work to be good enough without too much checking up on me. Now, though, all my work will be checked by the service manager until it's consistently to standard. And, he'll be tutoring me on the more tricky stuff as it comes along. I'll be sacrificing independence to gain a higher quality experience...pros and cons...I'm going to need more patience, for one, and a thicker skin. 

I also learned that the new boss's only criticism of me so far was that I didn't say hi to him. He'd like me to be more friendly 🤨 Hm. Okay. I'll be a whole lot friendlier when I feel less threatened. Let's start with that 🤔

Things are getting better, I can tell. 

Worst Day

Today was easily the worst day I've ever had to  work at the bike shop. The new boss and his operations manager were on site all day. They're normally 2+ hours away running 3 other bike shops. The boss has meticulous and high standards, but is tactful and forgiving. His operations manager, however, spares no feelings and pounces like a hawk as soon as the customer leaves the building. That made for a very tense and high stress work environment. 

All of us employees were on edge and hurriedly doing our assigned tasks. It didn't help that the operations manager went through all the store's stats with us first thing. He talked about hourly revenue and the importance of add-ons and showed us where they literally calculate how much money each employee generates for the shop that day. We all looked terrible. We haven't had much business yet, so everything looks terrible. 

It was also pretty demoralizing to have the operations manager publicly dismiss part-time employees as lazy, ignorant, and unreliable. Um. Thanks.

I snarled inside when I was described as having "great potential" but "still pretty green." Even though it's true, it was spoken in a way that dismissed my questions and subtly nudged me out of the conversation at hand. It was spoken from my service manager to the operations manager as if I weren’t standing right there. I'm pretty sure my service manager was trying to stick up for me or save me from something he thought was coming if I persisted in asking my quotations, but it still stung. I'm feeling really insecure right now, so it's easy to get under my skin. We're all feeling insecure.

One more thing that I found unsettling today was how quickly the operations manager could switch from 'excellent customer service' mode to 'hard-nosed, judgemental manager' mode. With a customer, he was all helpful and conversational and smooth. When the customer left, his pleasant expression and friendly voice just disappeared. Was he lying to the customer?

And all of that together meant work today was painfully competitive, rushed, impersonal, and no fun at all. I assembled 2 bikes in 4 hours. I could hear the operations manager breathing down my neck. 

I kept thinking to myself, "I am what I am. This is how I mechanic and how fast I can go right now. If he doesn't like it, he can fire me." I don't need the income or the harassment. He won't fire me, though. They're really hurting to staff the place as it is. And, as my service manager pointed out (probably to help me feel more secure in my job, but actually making me feel pretty angry), I'm 'good for diversity.' (So much more internal snarling!). 

What will actually happen is I'll get assigned the low level tasks until I'm really good at them, then I'll keep getting them because I'm really good at them. There isn't much room for personal development in this model. 

Who wants to work in a place like that?!

Come to think of it, I've been awfully lucky this far in my life not to have experienced this before. My 72yo service manager has never had benefits or vacation days or a salary. This is how a lot of people make their way through life. I can't complain too loudly, right?

We need more people to work at the shop, but I honestly can't recommend the current working environment/culture to anyone I know :( 

Here's hoping we survive this transition intact. 

Hello again

Hi there! It's been a little busy for me lately. I'm kinda running from one thing to the next with very little processing time. I'm working on an awful lot of goals! It's awesome, I love it, and it makes me tired. 

Work has been different lately. There was all the extra work getting everything cleaned out and sold before the owner retired, and now there's all the extra work getting everything set up and ready to go with the new owner. We're all kinda weary. There's a lot to learn still since the new owner is a rip roaring business guy with 3 other successful bike shops. I'm still learning how to assemble and repair bikes, but now I also need to learn how to SELL bikes to customers and meet sales goals. 

Maybe they'll hire some awesome sales people so we wrench monkeys can just work on bikes without interruption...maybe??

*sigh*

I'm super insecure about it all right now. I have this deep down fear that my manager will want me more on the retail side of things than on the mechanic side of things. The previous owner assigned mechanic work first-come-first-serve. Each mechanic got to pick and choose their work for the day. I could crank out easy things or take all day learning/practicing a new skill. This boss, however, prefers a more efficient method where specific jobs are assigned to specific mechanics based on their time and expertise. It makes sense. I can't blame the guy for wanting an efficient and productive business, but those priorities don't leave much room for learning, y'know? I'm not the fastest mechanic, and clearly I'm the least experienced one, so, when peak season hits...will they give all the mechanic work to faster folks? Ugh. Super insecure about this.

In related news, my goal to refurbish 45 bikes by mid-August is going well! I got in contact with a local charity-owned thrift store and they're letting me refurbish any bike donations they get in. I just fix them up, make them safe to ride, and give them back. I'm using my wages from the bike shop to pay for the parts. James and Matthew love working with me on this stuff. Actually, I'm pretty sure it's James who likes this stuff and Matthew just comes along for the company. I've refurbished 9 bikes so far! James and Matthew test ride all the kids bikes for me, any size. I can tell that I'm getting better and more confident with the basic stuff. That feels good. 

Sometimes the donated bikes are in rough shape. This is Bobby cutting off a lock so I can work on the drive train.

James was really, really, really excited to get this donation to work on. He's wanted an adult trike since he saw one in the bike shop. I've got it up and running for the most part, but I'm waiting on a new rear brake. Luckily, the front brake is AWESOME, and it's safe to ride. James has gleefully ridden it to school already. He'll be sad to see this one go. Yes, Matthew made that face on purpose.

My test riding team. They really put the bikes through a lot, which I appreciate. 

Another goal I've got going is for physical activity. I joined an event at my gym called "Survivor". You sign up to do a certain amount of exercise each week for 7 weeks, each week getting more and more demanding. It's taking effort and planning to fit it all in. I'm counting anything I do at the gym and anything I do at home that replaces a more sedentary activity. For example, riding my bike to work instead of driving or going for a leisurely stroll instead of napping on a Sunday afternoon. 

I've got seeds planted indoors now, too. Gardening has begun! The community garden folks I work with want to scale things back this summer. I'm okay with that. 

I'm taking guitar lessons with Erin again. That's been great! I love it! I just wish I loved practicing. 

Rachel and I rode 50 miles in 2 more states this month: Texas and Louisiana. I got to spend time with my parents and sisters in Houston, too. That trip helped me decide that I want to travel to see my parents at least every 6 months now. 

It's too bad it's a mirror image :( This sign was a really fun one in Louisiana.

Pedestrian overpass on our Texas ride.

I didn't write this in Texas, but I like the sentiment :)  And if you look really closely at the top, someone wrote my name. Not me. No one ever has my name, so I thought it was extra cool.

We've had a couple sunny days and a 5-day weekend for the little boys. I took Alex, James, and Matthew to the Gilmore Car Museum near Kalamazoo, MI. It was fancy schmancy! No one got sick or threw up on this trip. Huzzah!

Matthew learning to drive a Model A. Wow, that was a complicated task.

A brick replica. The museum had loads of pristine vehicles of all sorts of upscale makes and models. Cool to look at. I really liked this sculpture, though, and liked it even more after reading its story. A small family had a real version of this car that they used and loved through many significant milestones in their lives. It finally gave out and the parents bought another car, but the mother always said this first car was the absolute best and nothing could truly replace it. The daughter had this sculpted for her mother's 80th birthday or something like that. The car was probably dependable and everything that the family needed at the time, but I suspect that this mother's love for the car had more to do with the life they lived in and around it than the mechanics themselves. I can relate.

This is Matthew photo-bombing a picture I was trying to take of James giving wheelbarrow rides during a play date with a young friend. That's a complicated sentence. 

The kids were drawing portraits of each other on the Etch-A-Sketch. Yes, I have better pictures of the kids and their artistic end-products, but this photo captures Alex in an all-out laugh. It makes me happy.

Our stake has decided to emphasize service this year. The whole stake was invited to volunteer at the Eastern Illinois Foodbank last Saturday. Bobby, Alex, and I went to the morning shift where we got to divvy up potatoes into smaller portions. 

Is my hair actually THAT grey? Wow.

Photo op at the end. During our labors, we discovered potatoes that looked like several vital organs. Alex found a kidney and a heart. I found a stomach and something that vaguely resembled a brain. I was hoping to find a liver, but we ran out of time. 

Alex and several of his youth leaders from church. He has a really good time with them.