What a week!

This week has been crazy, at the bikeshop we have been short of a mechanic, which is a set of hands short which means more work for the rest of us, so basically me and the other James have been doing everything, ordering, inventory, repairs, merchandising, vendors, invoices the whole 9. On top of that I have had 3 external client project (freelance design work) which have required a large amount of time. Plus, I have been looking after Smokey while Erin is in Mexico. Translation = not much sleep, lots of dog walks in the freezing weather and snow.
The weather has been nasty in Chicago, very cold, then occasionally just getting warm enough to snow, then cold again. - and by cold I mean -20 degrees C.

Then the biggest downer ever came on Friday morning, I got a call from Mum, Nana has passed away. (Nana is Paul's mother). She passed quietly and it was a calm affair, Nana had been getting gradually worse over the last months and was in a elderly care home but was happy. I am glad it was peaceful, I am sorry I was not in the U.K. My heart goes out to everyone, Mum, Paul, Susan, David, Nicola, Claire, Jane, Collin, Matthew.

Some other good news came, some of which I cannot share at this time, just because this blog is public and anyone could read. When I am able to share I will. But there's a change ahead, a pretty big change if all works out - I'll keep you posted.

After all this, next week is going to be designated look after myself week, sleep, swim, gym, ride. I have not done any serious riding for several weeks now, just too busy. the most riding I've done is roughly 15miles a day, which is basically commuting in the nasty snow and what not..etc, not training or making any improvements for my fitness for the upcoming race season.

Still on the bike front, several months back I found out that my race bike was bent, probably from having too many crashes on it. The result is that a bend of 2mm in the rear means that only 12gears are usable out of 20 and it just so happens that the most important transitional gears and pace gears are the ones affected. What does that mean? means my bike sucks! and I need a new frameset. Good job I work in a bike shop. I've ordered a new frameset, the same thing because it's inexpensive and performs well plus I have good connections at Felt. the downside, the new frameset is black and looks ghetto compared to my old white race bike. Oh well at least I should have 20 gears by the time it's up and running.

Ok, back to the PC now, I have to finish some cad models - making arms for chairs! for one of my clients. Hopefully get this wrapped up by Sun afternoon.

Cheers