Hell Aint That Bad as it Turns Out...

It was indeed a very busy week round these parts. With 11 departures in the span of 4 days we set a new record in business for the company.  And I DO MEAN WE!  As much as I want to feel like its us and them, with differences in language, humor, food choices and the general sociological concept championed by Pierre Bourdieu, called Habitus keeping us seperated, this week we ALL got our respective jobs done AND THEN SOME to pull off a feat that will have us all rolling in a pile of green backs in no time.  (not really)  Everyone here went above and beyond this week, and not for extra money, or even extra time off in most cases, but because we are just that dedicated to our customers, and the amazingly high level of service we provide.

you can always find time to make a pedophile joke...

if you look closely you can see we are listening to "a Golden Shower of Hits" by Hayseed Dixie.  This was a delivery of Hungarian beers from the Danube tour by Pia.  She might be in the running for Our Favorite Tour Leader 2012

Am I starting to sound like a company man?  Blame the vodka.  I know I do.  Work hard - PLAY hard! 

Such a busy week was bound to Finire in Bellezza.  For me, it ended with the annual Gagarin Party.  Gagarin is the free paper that advertizes shows, concerts and general artsy fartsy happenings in the local area.  And they throw a pretty good party at the end of the summer.  Last night was no different but because there were like 4 big parties going on all over town, attendance was slim.  Thankfully most of the folks I know in town opted to join the "Cowboys and Aliens" themed fiesta and throw a few back, dance all wacky, and generally laugh our asses off at makeshift costumes.  I constructed myself a giant cowboy hat, and painted it like space, adding at the last minute a "space cowboy" badge while rocking to the Steve Miller Bands "Joker"

My night took a swift downhill turn when Puglia's own Chef Alesandro "SpaghettiMeatBalls" Mirobalo showed up and started buying more drinks, celebrating the opening of a new restaurant in Milan in three months serving nothing but the finest in Miro-Food.  The guy is a genius on so many levels, not the least of which is that he is getting his name on a menu and he only has to spend three months training a staff, and buying supplies.  Some other dude is fronting all the money and Miro will get all the chicks.  Bravo Dude!

GONDOLA!!!!

this is a common descriptive term in Italian Sign Language...

bad DJ's, stiff drinks, good friends, dance moves to tease the ladies... my throat tells me I was yelling louder than the music at one point.

The evening started to wind down, but the party kept going as we hunted the town for a suitable place to leave the giant cardboard hat that was slowly stretching out and slipping over my eyes, leaving black paint marks on everything, and WAY too heavy to ride home with!  With the local garibaldi statue too tall to climb (I tried) the fountains still running, and the clock tower surrounded by a crowd, we opted for the mysterious whale sculpture on the outskirts of town...

its a kid pulling a whale, not sure why, or what for, but its kinda cool...

a perfect fit!

 A Suitable place.  Even the cops thought so as they drove past the traffic circle, honked the horn, and then kept right on driving, never even stopping to ask for ID's.  aaaahahhhh TOLERANT Faenza.

every narcissistic petty criminal has to go back and see his/her work by the light of day...

Next two weeks are chill and then the Fall Adventure Ride Series begins with an idea, no real plan, and a few bucks for coffee and road sodas...keep you posted on that one.

S.

Hell WEEEEEEK!!!!

("adult reading")
 

Everyone around here is pretty amped up these days.  And they SHOULD be!  with over 11 departures in a week we are setting new records.  Thing is it basically comes down to "do we have the bikes?" and "can those two idiot drunken mexicans get them done in time, without going crazy and taking us all down in a blaze of fitful anger...?"

or something like that...

What's funny is that in the shop, despite spending 2 days on prepping a tandem (those things are a bitch!) and having an ungodly amount of bikes to do in the next few days, negotiating a slew of last minute changes and alterations, we are still laughing, having a good time, staying positive and doing what it is we were hired to do.  I mean I'm sure the bosses are still counting the bottles in the recycling bin every morning, and there is no shortage of off the cuff bitchy commentary from stressed out employees, (I was shot the "Stink-Eye" today just for laughing) but the bike shop is full of off colour jokes poppy music, and stories about this and that, per the usual.  Its fun like that right now.

although I have noticed a change in the regularity of my periods...

 For me personally, this week is NO DIFFERENT than most of the other weeks this summer.  Up early to wash a shit ton of bikes, watch the number slowly creep to zero by the end of a long day and do it all over again the next day.  Its kind of how I have been working all summer, and its nice to finally have someone else freaking out about how the numbers don't seem to add up and the bikes are double assigned to tours, and there isn't enough time to take out the trash and unload the dishwasher or fold laundry...which reminds me - my laundry is in a bucket molding as I type.

Not my chair - not my problem.  For reals.   No change in my Human Performance Curve essentially.

 

 

This Friday marks the end of the century here at ExPlus!  We will have a total of 5 tours or rentals coming back starting about mid-day, for a total of about 30 bikes, ALL OF WHICH are being loaded on vans to leave again by mid-day on Saturday.  30 bikes in less than 24 hours working through the darkness.  Might be the final exam for the season, and I know I will get through it with a smile on my face, laughter in my lungs, a cold bottle of beer stashed under my bench, and the feeling that we made it happen in the 11th hour.  Haven't forgotten a bike yet.

Just don't expect me to be at work on Monday.  That's basically what I'm sating here peeps...
S.

Poland I... cause there will definately be a Poland II in the future.

   Straight from the ride journal on the FrecciaRocca train back to Faenza...

     "...dark patch forests of densely planted log pines, barren till the tops, allowing a foggy view through the undergrowth.  Shadows seem to move as my train wisps by.  My eyes dart and follow dart and follow struggling for focus convinced of all sorts of wild beasts and the occasional bicycle leaned up on nearby tree.  Dairy producing country side emerges; cows, farm house,pastures and grain.  Factories declare themselves abruptly just outside the larger villages, the distance of pipe. steam and cables leading the way on the horizon.  Graffiti gets more colourful, bigger, more intense as I get closer to the city, and shrink on the way out.
     "In Lublin, grey skies blend in with centuries of wood heat and rough plaster.  The tops of buildings sooty, streaks running down from window ledges, the men are working, the women wear pretty colours and you can the stylish influences of the 6 different university campuses.  Posters for concerts, symphonies, art shows and gallery openings suggest Lublin's cosmopolitan spirit and its green parks with shooting spraying fountains hint at financial stability.   Roads paved with new tarmac yield to centuries old cobblestones at the edge of a pedestrian central 'Old Town' where rows of comfy outdoor furniture hides under gigantic awnings advertising one of over 7 locally made beers, a young staff greeting cheerily and offering help in English.  Pints are big, food is hearty, meaty and salty.  Dudes are sturdy, stocky, built strong and trimmed of edifice; short hair, trimmed staches, utilitarian clothes.  Dark haired and light eyed for the overwhelming majority.  Somehow I see my Grandfather's eyes and my Mother's thin lips and pointy chin.  I see Cousin's nose, and a can-do attitude of a nation who has rebuilt itself more than once, a nation confident in itself cause its still here.  A nation confident in its ability to survive and preserve.  Women make eye contact and smile back.  Do THEY see my Grandfather's eyes, my thin lips under trimmed stache and my Mother's pointy chin?  Do I look familiar in my dark hair and light eyes strong shoulders and confident attitude?  Do I look like one of them?  Cause some of them look like one of Me.
     "We walk at dusk in a cemetery full of names I cannot pronounce, and I dream up a story of my Grandfather's grandfather re-arranging the letters of his name, making it look and sound more German to preserve his young family long enough to get them to Amerika, a story not far off from the generation-old insistence that it is Weikel, spelled w-E-I-k-e-l.  And my Grandfather's eyes look back at me.  Was it once Wieckl, or Wieckel, or Wieke£** as I saw from the train window?   I certainly don't remember a tradition of any German foods in my Grandfather's house - but Grandma's bean and ham soup was not far from the traditional stew I had on the last slightly colder day in Lublin, a soup that tasted like 'home' especially with my Grandfather's eyes, my Mother's thin lips and pointy chin staring back at me through light eyes and dark hair in the plaza.
     "Maybe I'm Polish? And for the first time in my adult life I am introduced to the powerful curiosity of wanting to know who my ancestors were.  Where are they from?  And can their stories add depth to mine? 
     "I'll Keep you posted on what I find out."


(**editors note: in Polish there is a L with a slash through the middle of it.  Its pronounced like a W but the closest thing I could find on this euro keyboard was the British Pound sign.)

as soon as I landed...not bad though when you think about it, 1 year, 6 countries, 5 Euros

just enough time in Warsaw to run out and snap a photo of the palace

why fight it...sign under the table on the train

with THICK forests in the background

For Taint-Boy...

this is Four Start bike mechanics...

for Suzie...

Ever wonder what Santa does in the summers...he gets RAD on bikes in Europe.  The founder of the company Rick Price

Its amazing to think that a country that was once a hub of Orthodox Judaism now consumes more pork products than anyplace I have ever imagined.  Tasty!

being in a place where you cant even make sense of a sign made me realize how far Ive come...

tall boys, vodka, thumbs up!  We were told the old town gets rowdy but as we sat and talked and drank  Sara and I only saw one group of arm in arm singing drunks, and it was a group of 60-70 year old's singing some local chant song staggering up the avenue, a huge drunk old man let go of the two women he was escorting long enough to blow Sara a kiss.  Not sure about the college scene there but their parents and grandparents seem fun as shit!

a late night shot of a vending kiosk that seems to sell mostly hair dye.

my 13 hour office Thursday

rendered pork fat with chunks of ham, to put of toast of course...

traditional restaurant with a clever drink menu, I'm having a Welcome to Chata as I type this!

mulled, warm beer drink.

pork ribs (skin on), pork pierogi, pork loin, potato pancakes, lentils, ham, and pickles, "best with a liter of vodka" said the menu - it was called the Hunters Platter and it was AWESOME!

and in case you could not tell from the above photo the only green leafy vegetable was a piece of lettuce, which had a flaming sugar cube in the middle of it omitting a blue flame.

last picture before the camera batter died...the next photo caption contest...

off to Poland for the week....

for those of you who dont know...here's a link.
http://polishdatingadvice.com/10-reasons-why-polish-girls-are-the-best/
see you next friday!!!

WOOT!
S.