Breukelen Calling

A few years ago I bought a bicycle – a 21 speed mountain bike type thing.  I had tried a few similar bikes and liked the fit and ride of this one.  It’s a great bike, and I amazed myself at being able to ride it up a steep hill at my crappy fitness level – the only thing that stopped me from reaching the summit was S pooping out on her bike in front of me. But I didn’t like riding it to work (I got to work sweaty and angry) and didn’t like riding it on weekends (I’d have sweaty helmet head, and whenever I got where I was going I had to bring my seat and light with me after locking my bike up two ways).  Plus, that style of bike has the rider resting her weight on her wrists and girl parts.  Overtime, riding the bike became a generally unpleasant experience.  So – for the past year or so I haven’t touched the bike.

The thing is, S loves going for bike rides and would love it if we could go bike riding together.  So I examined my options — I could try to retrofit my bike so it would have a more upright  sitting posture, or I could find a bike that was built that way from the start.  I surfed a bit and saw that the granny bike was alive and well, and going by the title Omafiets.

A couple of days ago I stopped off at curbside cycle, which predominantly stocks this type of bicycle (and was having a sale!), and took a couple of bikes for a test drive.  I chose the Pashley Sovereign and the Batavus Fryslan – both 5 speeds to help me deal with small hills (vs the more common single speed or 3 speed).  The Pashley has all you could ever want including a lovely Brooks sprung saddle.  The Fryslan has a similar look, white tires, and a cheaper price tag.  Reading cycling blogs online – people love their Pashley and Batavus bikes.  Unfortunately, neither of the two I tried did anything for me.  The upright posture was definitely an improvement, but neither had a sweet spot for me in those 5 gears.  I hadn’t used a coaster brake in almost 40 years, so there was a learning curve with the Fryslan.  The Pashley felt more familiar, but left me flat — which was a shame because I really wanted to like it.

There was one other bike they suggested, but I didn’t have time to try it out, so I went back today.  It’s the Batavus Breukelen – and it’s a more modern looking version of the classic Omafiets.  It has 7 speeds and drum brakes on both front and rear (like the Pashley)- so no coaster brake to get used to.  I took it for a spin and it felt remarkably better.  Just to be sure, I tried the Fryslan again.  And to be doubly sure I tried the Breukelen again.  Yep – definitely more to my liking.  The fit was good (but the handlebars are narrower than the Fryslan – and felt almost too narrow, but I’m not sure if that was only in comparison),  the ride was nice, and the gear ratios had more of a sweet spot for me.

So I bought it.  They’re going to assemble a new one for me for pick up on Thursday.  Let’s hope I can now make S’s dream of taking bike rides together a reality.

The end is near

I’m a week and a half away from starting my parental leave. I can’t believe it’s coming up so quickly. I’ve been so busy at work, a week and a half doesn’t seem like enough time to get my files ready for someone else to take them over for a few months. Maybe I will need to pop in to work for an afternoon on the weekend before I leave – take a stab at getting stuff organized. Yikes.

Not that I’ll truly be done work, because I will have to keep working on the LEADS final project. Graduation in May! Woo! It will be sweeeet to be done with that program.

Not management material

S and I were visiting friends and I was asked how I like my temporary gig as acting manager.  When I laughed and said I didn’t, I was asked what about it I didn’t like.  I gave the example of being told we had a briefing at 5:30, so staying late for it, then being told it’ s moved to 6:15, the 6:30, then 7, then we go up for the meeting at 7:30 and after sitting there for 10 minutes are told the guy we needed to meet with can’t make it.   Not only is there no overtime, but this is taking up valuable time I could be spending with my family – especially knowing that S has been with the Li’l Peanut all day and probably could really benefit from another set of hands.

Although it’s a great example of why my job sucks, it’s not necessarily a good example of why I don’t like  being a manager.  T mentioned a few managerial concepts like delegation and coaching.  And I offered that the manager I’m filling in for is very hands on.  She’s able to  see the bigger picture, but also has a great understanding at a practitioner level.  Unfortunately her style may have encouraged people to do half-assed jobs because she’d be there to fix any problems.  I know I have written briefing notes any old way for her in the past, knowing she would just rewrite large chunks of it anyway, regardless of the effort I put into it.

So, I wondered if staff are accustomed to having someone go over their work and fix any problems.  And I just don’t have the energy to redo people’s work.  I want to be able to trust that when they’re fact checking something, they’ve actually done it right.  I don’t want to have to second guess them and go back and ask if they’ve done the work.  I don’t want to read their briefing material and ask how they came up with the estimates, or whether what they say is the treatment in other jurisdictions is thorough and factual.  I don’t want to already have to know the answers myself.

Basically, I want to make sure they’ve addressed the issue and as long as the note makes sense – then I’m happy. But then my boss reads it (the one I’m replacing, who is now my Director) and asks questions.  And I feel like a failure because I hadn’t asked for this extra information.

And that’s the crux of it: I feel like a failure because I have the mindset of a worker, not a manager.  Plus, I really don’t deal well with being jerked around by my higher ups (i.e having to stay at work for no good reason). Overall, though, I think I have to make note of things when they occur to me, so that when asked if I want to be a manager again, I can review and remind myself of why I think the job isn’t for me.