Party's Over

The C-Shop is closed for the season now. Last Tuesday I rode to Birch Bay expecting to work a half-day, but the place was all locked up and forlorn. Instead I spent the afternoon cruising by the bay and walking on the beach, which I'd been meaning to do all summer anyhow. The tide was out and the tideflat was noisy and crowded with feasting geese and gulls.

That's the BP refinery on the horizon (I think)

I had asked for a schedule adjustment at my regular job so I could work at the bike shop as long as the good weather lasted, but now I'm only working three days a week and have a whole month of four-day weekends. This is almost better than taking an actual vacation, which I never got around to planning. I've signed up for a yoga class, in hopes of resting and preparing for the hard winter months, and I'm going to take some local day-trips. Plus getting caught up on much-neglected house-cleaning, and learning to speak French, and becoming more adept with my computer. Busy month.

My Other Job

At the C-Shop in Birch Bay:

Besides a cafe and candy store, the C-Shop (sometimes) has (or had) bike rentals and a repair shop. The owner wants to clean out the old shop and offer new bikes for rent, plus a bike repair shop, next summer. So I've been working a couple of days a week fixing up old bikes for sale, and sorting through boxes of new, used and vintage parts and accessories. It's kind of a candy store for bike geeks.

I'm still a beginner mechanic, but have been able to complete some simpler repairs, rehabs and clean-ups. The shop has new and used kid's bikes, some ugly-but-functional commuter bikes, and some classic-style road bikes that have been painstakingly restored by better mechanics than me, though I have one in progress.

The shop will probably close down when the autumn rains begin and we can't put them outside any more - there's no space to work with all the bikes inside.

All summer I've been meaning to treat myself to a day-trip ride to Birch Bay, but rainy weather, my job, and ordinary daily hassles always interfered. Since I got this job I've been riding from Ferndale two days a week, over a hilly 12-mile route through a scenic semi-rural area, to a sunny, breezy resort village by the bay. It's been kind of a working vacation, but the rolling hills and extra miles are tiring, along with working six days a week. I need to take some time off from everything soon.