My largest pet rat, Bandit, leapt from the cage onto my husband's face and scurried into the closet. Fortunately Bandit wasn't hurt from the incident, and he was freaked out enough that he actually was fine with us picking him up. Because of that and the fact that it's nearly 80 degrees in the bedroom, I can't sleep. So screw that, I just turned the air on again and I'm blogging.
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| Here is the rodent in question, my 1.2 lb. giant cuddlebug named Bandit. It's not the first time he's fallen off the cage, but after much practice in the art of freefalling, he really put on the dramatics. |
For starters, it's not a good thing when my boss calls both me and my co-worker into the office, at the same time, on the Tuesday after Memorial Day and he doesn't have drinks and a cake on his desk. After declining sales over a few years, my employer, Premier Cycle Accessories is changing its business direction and shutting down its accessory sales division. As a result, my position will be eliminated first and eventually, both of us will be laid-off as merchandise is liquidated and the lease on the building space ends in September. My demise was scheduled to be much sooner, but with the calendar trickling into July and I'm still headed to work later this morning, my eventual departure has been delayed a little bit.
It's so not fun to make graphics for newsletters that look like this:
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| Nothing says "depressing" like designing announcements that foreshadow your eventual offing. |
Crap. What do I do now? Beside the obvious "look for another job" part, this moment in time has given me an opportunity to take a step back and look at all the things I've accomplished as a professional in the motorcycle industry. For the most part, I've enjoyed the ride so far and would like to continue down this career path. The challenge, however, is finding another awesome company who wants to add me to their team. That may require some possibilities outside of Ohio. And as I continue the battle of acclimating myself to the Midwest, I'm realizing that California may not be the most ideal place at this moment in time. As to whether or not I'll still be living in NE Ohio after the summer, I can't even predict my future that far ahead. More to come on that discussion eventually...
In addition to that, Eleanor finally returned to me after a near 3.5 month stint on injured reserve. To make a long story short, what started out as the bike not starting and a "crankshaft position sensor error" (Error Code 12 for you FJR1300 owners out there) later evolved into exploratory surgery, a trip to the mechanic, a bad starter relay, and a deteriorated fuel line. I'm just glad to have her back again and running just as nice as she did before. As much as I enjoy putting around on Matt's 2008 Piaggio BV250 (which was finally repaired right after Eleanor went down), it's not exactly the same thing.
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| Dammit, it's good to have you two back in action again, at the same time. |
Despite all this, I'm still going on "work-cation" and heading back West to the huge motorcycle-induced party that I've helped plan since August 2012. The next few posts will be a lot less drama and a lot more riding as Eleanor and I travel to our 6th WOW International Ride-In™ together. I'm taking a different approach to the route to reach Billings, MT to seek out new sights and also to remember a dear friend who taught me, through example, that the greatest adventures come from roads less traveled. Stay tuned!
Lastly, if you're wondering about the reference to "Another Suitcase in Another Hall," just watch some Madonna. Good morning, people.
