Wednesday, July 23, 2008

End of summer thoughts

I lost a good one this summer. Todd has moved to Maine. His wife Ashly is in the Coast Guard and she has been relocated so off they went. It should be a good move for them. Maine is a slower pace and they were looking for that to settle down and raise their kids. If they love it there, Ashly will not re-enlist and they will stay. Losing one of my employees is always rough. Everyone can be replaced they say, and I guess this is true. But it is never the same. Just as good maybe but never the same. I miss Todd already and his family too. My wife and daughters baby sat for them quite a bit and all three were in tears saying good bye to the Thomas family. Todds presence will be missed around the shop as well. Todd is a great guy and worked into our shop dynamic in a special and unique way. We all wish them the best!
Well, on August 1st my summer officially ends. Shipments start coming, and preperation for the big Fall Parking Lot Sale are in full swing. The store upgrades are just about done. The carpet is in and the entry way has paint drying as I write this. A few more precious days to golf, ride and play and then it all ends. Tonight is a BBQ with sand volleyball. I will appreciate it all the more. Martin is up at Mt. Hood training and racing. The master class kicks off their season pretty darn early and Martin hopes to pick up points so he can go into the winter as the leader in his age group. John and I offered to go up with him and be his personal ski techs. He must have thought we were joking however because he took off on Tuesday without letting us know. Maybe he thinks his skis will be faster if he doesn't let us mess with them!
I got an email from Yelp! last week. This is a site that consumers can go on to rate businesses. I looks like our ratings have been great so they sent me a little packet with some stickers and other promotional dodads. I guess if your average rating is above a certain level, you get this package. I was thrilled to check out the reviews and want anyone that has contributed to them to know that I love ya for it! Thanks! If anyone else cares to add a review I'll love you too!
Sale dates are August 23,24 and August 30, 31 and September 1, 6, 7. Hope to see you there!