A Little Job Update: Part 2

 Back in March I posted a bit of an informational post to help answer some questions I'd been getting about my new place of employment at Andy's Bike Shop. This was early in March and right when we entered this "new-normal" we have been in ever since. I figured that with all the changes in my life of late, the upheaval in the bicycle industry, and with all the changes in all our lives, I would give a new update on my situation and how it's been going. 

So, yeah......bicycles. As most of you know, this whole deal with the pandemic has slammed some areas of the economy in a bad way and some in a good way. In my view, the bicycle industry got both: Good and Bad. 

First- we sold everything we could get our hands on. Not just at Andy's, but all shops nationwide were in this situation. Then the supply chain was drained. And well......we're still dealing with that. Then people brought out every bike in a barn, garage, or from a dumpster pile that they could find and brought them in to be repaired which drained that supply chain. Try to get a 7 speed shifter right now. Not happening. 26" tires were gone for a while. Chains were too. You get the picture.

This means that we had a spike in sales, then we had a leveling off, and we probably are missing more sales than we made in the beginning because parts and bikes are in such short supply. Now Winter is coming and well, that means even if we get bikes, it'll be next Spring before we can make any headway there. 

In the meantime, specifically for Andy's Bike Shop, we're repairing stuff like crazy and getting the odd new and used bike out the door. I'm busy. No lack of work here, but what I found out the other day about this new gig surprised me. I will share what showed me something I was unaware of here......

The other day, and this happened for the third day in a row, I was all ready to walk out the door, hop on my bike, and make the commute to Andy's. I looked at my watch, and for the third day in a row I was 15 minutes too early to leave. I had to sit down and just relax for a bit so I wouldn't get to work 45 minutes to an hour early. Why was I all jacked up to go already this early? 

Because I am excited about working at Andy's! 

That may seem obvious to you, but here's the thing. I had spent over a decade not being excited to go to work, and that became 'normal' for me. I used to have a hard time getting out of the door to make it to work on time, and I was sooooo frustrated by that! I couldn't figure out why I just didn't get my rear in gear in the morning. I figured it was just 'me'. My issue with being too distracted or something along those lines. Well, it wasn't that. I didn't like working at the old shop and this was my subconscious way of dealing with it- by putting it off till the last possible minute. 

So, when I realized all of this, I was really happy the other day. I now know what it is like to want to be where I work. And let me tell you- it is pretty refreshing! I notice it in everything I am doing there now. So, if you've been wondering how things are going for me at Andy's, well, they couldn't be much better for me personally. Now if we could get a room full of new bikes to sell!