Well, it is a beautiful day. Weather is friendly and is lending a freshness to our exuberant atmosphere of children eating delicious camp cooked food and festivities. Bikes are taking a back seat today to the newness and novelty of better things to do. ??? Not really it's just that the mama and kids are busy with their own pursuit of giddy cooperation among themselves and as it appears to be going just fine I was able to catch a moment with my dog and have a short ride with my furry little friend. Saturdays are good for that. I don't know what I'm hoping to accomplish by having this blog but it's feeling like a good idea for me to recognize and share the abundance of my new found prosperity and freedom here, the kind that can't be bought and is non negotiable. Indeed it will be fun to discuss the bike part of this.
Today's events have me reflecting on the wonderful time I had at bike mechanic school. Personal and professional exchanges were like being a kid at summer camp and preparing for the future without a care in the world. If anyone is looking to invest in a solid foundation for bike repair or maintenance skills visit www.bikeschool.com My first job right out of bike school was running a local bike shop in a popular tourist destination town in Colorado. After just two weeks the owner handed me the keys and was on the road doing his traveling salesman gig. So, I had to learn fast how to keep things going while he would leave for a few weeks at a time. It seemed to me after the first year or so that I was not being paid enough for what I was doing. Some customers assumed that I was the owner and some of my co workers would suggest I get my own shop. Everything was humming along smoothly for the most part until I had some family show up at my home made mountain retreat cabin needing help. With nowhere else to go and not knowing where to turn my dad and my brother who were not in contact with each other, both showed up in the same life dilemma.
So, with my love of bikes, solid work ethic and excellent customer service skills I headed south to open a family owned and operated business. It was a unique idea at the time and is now being done in several areas of combining a bike shop with a coffee shop. Within the first quarter the financial success seemed to affirm my notion that it was a good idea and it was a good idea. It was just one of those situations where I trusted the wrong people I suppose. To make a long story short, after two and a half years the shop was going broke and every time I turned around someone was dipping into my pockets. I had a "til tapper" who would routinely take his beer money from the cash register as he needed. A merchant account company took hundreds inappropriately from the bank account and the old man was skimming off the top very cleverly. Bro stole the old man's car (twice) having hit a deer the first time on his way to returning the car. The second time was permanent. It's been seven or eight years since the closing of the shop and the two of them still haven't spoken. My brother ended up homeless and the old man was having sex with the head of the local mental health facility where I had landed after having had a nervous breakdown, FOR REAL. It didn't help that I leaned on marijuana and hash to help cope and it is very possible if not likely that I smoked some bad stuff. Anyway, after a couple years of my crippled being getting some TLC I was able to land a job slamming wal mart quality bikes together with an impact wrench. Yep, that's how they do that where I worked. Still, I did manage to learn a thing or two and got some good laughs but it wasn't going to pay the bills.
Today, I work with my fiance who I met a couple years ago and we have a different type of business. She runs it and keeps the books. I stay out of that part knowing how to keep an eye out now for too much mischief. I am on speaking terms with the old man however in conversation I now see the subtle tell tale red flags of his manipulation. I was able to see my brother living on the streets in the northwest and wished him well. We went for a short ride together at his pace which was so slow joggers were passing us.
Yes indeed, good old Lady Poverty has been lending her guiding hand as I have made a gentle return to working with bikes again and finding that I haven't lost all the joy and perhaps I'm slowly retrieving it. As I work on finishing some new projects I look forward to showing them here.
Genuinely,
Bike Peasant
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