7:00 AM Sunday morning. Nursing my first cup of coffee. I sit exhausted as if the 7 hours of sleep the clock insists I had last night never happened. Entering my 10th season at the bike shop, maybe I should be used to it by now.
This happens to me every Spring. The idyllic and quiet bike shop of winter and early Spring will always become a monster once we receive a good run of Sun. I know it's coming, but am always surprised at the intensity of that first rush. It seems that once the waiting time for a bike repair exceeds a week because of the backlog, my energy level is red-lining. Combine the need to find fitness and that slimmer me by my own cycling, and I end up waking up, a Sunday Morning Basket Case. The weeks in a row of two ended candle burning finally come home to roost.
I have been awake, no, make that I have had my eyes open now for over an hour. Mostly, I look out the window at yard work started but not completed. My mind races through the 342 jillion untended fires that threaten to burn out of control at the bike shop.
8 years ago I would be exhausted and stressed out. Now I am just exhausted. The stress level from never being caught up has diminished tremendously. It's still there but I guess I have better control of it now. In the perfect world, folks would bring in their trusty steeds for work early instead of using a spike in temperature, or the first crocus popping up as their signal to call about repairs. In the perfect World, backlogs would not exist.
This World is not perfect though. I have accepted this. Considering that I am not perfect either, I seem to fit right in as if I belong here. Now when I hear the complaints of customers who waited too long to bring me their tired wrecks, I nod sympathetically and let their impatience run off my shoulders. I will always put quality of work ahead of expediency. No matter how backed up I am.
And now I sit here early on a Sunday, physically drained and mentally exhausted hoping to find somewhere the energy to put some hours into the yard, head to the shop for some hours, and then meet up with the crew for a in-town trail ride around 3 or so. The way I am feeling right now, all that seems to be a bigger bite than my body is looking forward to.
Oh well, Sunday is for changing your mind. If collapsing and vegging is what I need, then watch out couch here I come. I'll get something done today, just nowhere near what I planned.
3 comments:
Sooo...what you're saying is that I shouldn't take in my and my husband's bikes right now? ;) Eh, it's not as though we've actually gone for a ride anytime in the last four years. Something about kids and both of them not fitting in the trailer. Oh, and the sheer weight of the two of them in the trailer plus the unholy hills around here. I think they're in good enough shape to get us past the spring rush. ; )
which reminds me, my trusty singlespeed could use some washing. I hope you got some down time!
What? One week? What happened to the one-hour guarantee you offered me this morning?
Post a Comment