Head-Long into the Holidays

Things are getting away from me, it seems. I was in Anchorage for a series of meetings last weekend, recovered from all that on Monday, had one whirlwind day in the office followed by a few whirlwind days with the family for Thanksgiving, and now it's the weekend already.

MMRB had their Bike Blitz on today - that snuck up on me although I probably got an email on it. They have a request for 19 bikes through the United Way Holiday Wishes program. I went over there last year and helped out, and will so again today. It's becoming a Thanksgiving tradition, it seems. They had all but two of the bikes finished by the time I had to leave, so we got something done, and I got to meet a few Bike Lovers I hadn't met yet, so that was nice, too. While I was there, two people came into the shop to claim there bikes. They were both very happy to get them and very appreciative of the efforts of MMRB, so that was rewarding to see as well.

My Decembers have taken a turn for the worse the past couple of years, it seems. There's the holiday chaos and family visits, but on top of that I chair our company's compensation committee, which reaches a crescendo mid-December, we have our off-site planning meetings in early December, performance reviews are due in December. On top of that, several client need early invoices to close the books on yearly expenses. It's impossible to not slip into a reactive, d0-what-happens-next mode during December. Which is too bad, because December is also Christmas, and a fine time to ramp up the bird watching, start a new novel and fix up the bikes. At some point, I'd like to have a quiet, contemplative December, as it was meant to be.