Everything is the same as it ever was, at least for the past year. Well that is not quite true--I am currently fighting some sort of illness that has made it difficult to do anything without hacking globs of phlegm up and has me addicted to Dayquil/Nyquil in order to make through the day. Nevertheless I haven't missed work--instead I insist on working so that all might partake of my nasty germs. I tried to bail out of work yesterday, but I could feel the stress on the on the other end of the phone so I manned up and came in anyway. Today I felt worse, but showed up anyway and just sat in the back building up new bikes. Just wait until people buy these bikes--HA HA HA (evil laugh) and my illness will be strewn throughout the community!!! Then all will be as miserable as I, and I rule the...nevermind that was a lame schtick, enough of that.
Anyway, what the title says is true, there is nothing new here. Same lovely job at the bike shop. Same lovely law school loans awaiting repayment, and still no information on whether my best job prospect at a firm downtown will work out. I am leaning heavily toward betting that the job will not be a possibility. I called them up yesterday and I was told that I will be hearing back shortly, but the call did not have a real positive vibe to it. This of course blows, but at least I still have the big bucks coming in from the bike shop...or rather at least we are able to pay our bills with what the wife and I make. At least for another 6 months until more of the loans enter into repayment. I have been out of law school for a year. At the end of the month it will be a year since I took the bar exam. It has been about almost 10 months since I found out I passed the bar exam. Still I have had no luck finding an acceptable job as a lawyer.
Part of it is my doing. I am picky. I don't want to work in some area of the law that doesn't interest me. I don't want to move out of the PDX area. I also need to make a certain minimum amount once the loans do start coming due so some jobs are not possible even if they are of interest. The job that I may soon be passed up on--if my gut is right--fits everything perfectly. At least it seems to...but what ever will be will be.
The bike shop is the same as ever was. People still want silly things done and want their tubes changed. We are still understaffed. And the store is still a mess, though worse than normal because we are more understaffed than normal. But I can only do what I can do and since I have no authority at all there. I take some solace in the fact that even if the company as a whole acts half-brain dead it is not a reflection on me. I just do as I am told and state any disagreements as pleasantly and factually as I can and then let it go. No biggie. I have realized that I am pretty much done being able to work that job anymore. I need to get back into the legal field even if it is just working as a clerk somewhere doing the type of work I did during law school before I passed the bar.
Family life is the same, mostly great. The wife is pregnant and so there is that sort of hanging over my head in the near future, but life here is pretty good. Friday we are travelling out to see Thomas the Tank Engine in Hood River, Oregon. That ought to be fun for all of us. We went to this event last year and our family had a good time.
The one other downer is the fact that I have a lingering cold that has disrupted my training, sleeping patterns and robbed me of energy for the past few days. I missed swimming and I have not been able to ride to work because my lungs are filled with some mucus crap. I have to lay the blame for this illness on my boys--I think kids are generally dispersers of disease. They are great otherwise, but every illness that I have had over the past 5 years is probably attributable to them. Not amount of handwashing, bathing, or sanitizing seems to quite do the trick--they always find a way to infect me somehow. I guess that is what family is all about--sharing everything, germs included.
Anyway, so without working out I have put back on a pound or two. Hopefully just a pound. This morning it was 197.0 and if that is where I can keep it that will be great. The pounds will come off again once something more than my nose can be running.
Ok so there is some news that is new. Neil at the shop, and my bike builder-de-jour, received his Mavic R-SYS wheels today. They sure looked sweet. And even with the employee purchase they sure are spendy. They weighed in at 1400 grams for the wheelset. He has some the nicest Neuvation wheels and they weigh only about 110 grams more. But the Mavics are supposed to be stiffer, stronger, better, lighter, blah, blah blah...they better be he paid over 3 times as much for them.
Neil also started working on a lugged stem. I need to bring a camera to work and get some picks of it when he is finished. It should be pretty cool. He is still tinkering with what the first bike is going to look like. He says he has done drawing after drawing trying to maintain a traditional--non compact geometry, but he is having a hard time doing so and still having any standover. The bike is going to be a commuter/cross bike with canti's. He says it will likely never see any off-road use though. Anyway part of the solution he says is to build himself a shorter fork. Just about all of the cross forks he has found have a length of about 400mm. He figures that if he builds himself one that is 375-380mm he will be able to build the bike he wants. This means he is going to have to build himself a jig for building forks and something to bend the fork legs the way he wants them. He problem is my gain, because I was really wanting him to build me a custom steel fork anyway and this will mean it won't be as big of a deal when it is my turn for a bike. Anyway, I will try and get some pics and post them when I can.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment