Monthly Archives: December 2012

“I don’t need help from a stupid girl” / The Joys of Retail

The normal day-to-day life of working in retail is pretty good; nice people appreciative of whatever we can do to help them. They like bikes. We like bikes! And we’re appreciative that they choose us for that help.

Today Becky, my daughter, almost 25, who knows more about apparel, accessories and helmets than I do, is helping a guy (with a couple girls in tow) with a helmet. He’s having some trouble with it, so Becky offers to help. “I don’t need help from a stupid girl.”

Becky was dumbfounded. She didn’t say anything, just left the scene. After all, she’s just a stupid girl. What can she do? I told Becky afterward, too bad I couldn’t come up with something to say that might have implied it was her store. That actually wasn’t the first thing that came to my mind; I was thinking she could have replied “Sir, please don’t confuse me with your wife.” But you wouldn’t say that to someone with their kids around. Sometimes you just have to take one for the team.

Some days, you just scratch your head and wonder. Thankfully, such experiences are the exception, and I think we keep such situations to a minimum by being personable. But for some, it just doesn’t matter. Whether just mean or forgetting that their “cloak of anonymity” doesn’t extend beyond their computer, the only way I can justify their right to come into the store is to give us an example of personality and actions that should be the polar opposite of how we act ourselves.  –Mike–

A week off the bike- sure felt good to be back!

You sure dread getting back on the bike after a week off, especially when that week involved getting fattened like a pig by eating… well, pig! Christmas ham, in this case, along with all the stuff that goes with it. A holiday that’s an excess in more ways than one. Normally I would have ridden last Sunday, but that was a wash-out in multiple ways, mostly because we were open that day in our Redwood City store (normally closed on Sundays, but always open the Sunday prior to Christmas) but also because that was the day we got a month’s worth of rain in one afternoon. Oh yeah, also the day I bought my wife a car.

Then Tuesday was Christmas, and the combination of being Christmas and being wet outside kinda killed off any possibility of a ride that day. Wonder if anyone showed up for the morning ride? The ride that I maintain we do, no matter what? Well, there are two yearly exceptions to the no matter what. One occurs when it falls on Christmas day, the other New Years. But New Year’s day it’s because we ride up Mt. Hamilton instead, so guess that counts for something!

So today, this morning, it’s a week since last on the bike, but once out the driveway, it felt good. It felt good to approach the start and see a bunch of blinking lights on each rider’s bike. It felt good even heading up Kings Mtn, at least for the first third of the way, while I managed to try and stay on the fast guys wheels. And it didn’t feel terrible when I got dropped and arrived at the top just a minute or two later. And, at about 40 degrees for most of the ride, maybe 5 degrees warmer on average than last week… well yes, that felt good too!

A few days ago I was really wondering how bad climbing Mt Hamilton next Tuesday was going to be. No more. I know I’m not going to be fast. But I know I’m going to feel good.