While I was out

Here are a few pictures that I thought I would share with you so that you might understand what I do when I am not on a bike or typing on this keyboard.

in line for take-off

rows and rows of money

I was asked to go to Atlanta, GA to the regional airport PDK know as Peachtree Dekalb.  My company has a location there that was hosting the NBAA.  There were almost one hundred static display aircraft on the ramp.  It was my job to move and fuel aircraft, transport passengers and luggage, and do anything that needed to be done.  We also had to service all of the aircraft that came in to attend the event.  Eventhough I was unable to ride my bike the whole time that I was in Georgia, it was a great experience and I had a great time,.  The people that I worked with were very different from me (non-cyclists), but we all had aviation in common, which pretty much makes us all crazy. 

About 50 aircraft waiting to take-off

Airbus business jet conversion, think of a really nice apartment with wings, and then double the size.



Phone camera, no zoom. From the opposite side of the airport looking at the static display area.



Routine

We go to work, eat sleep, go to school. Routines are a safety net, our Linus blankie. We get used to doing something and it becomes safe, it gets ingrained into our lives. Soon it is your life, you are on autopilot. Then something out of the norm happens and your routine changes, the proverbial monkey wrench. We are by instinct creatures of habit, and when change occurs we fight it tooth and nail, but eventually the new habit becomes habitual...life.



I have been out of town working, I mean working, and it has totally thrown my life into a turmoil of sorts, or out of sorts, however you look at it. I changed my routine to fit my schedule my life changed to accommodate my new surroundings. Get up, work out (pending hangover) get coffee, get ride to work, work, eat, work, eat, work, work, work, go to hotel, clean up, meet coworkers in hotel bar, pickle liver, sleep, and repeat. Six days of this and then catch a flight home. Try to get back into the routine once home.

Life is just a routine that follows a new routine that turns into the old routine. Change, we feel is a negative, but it can be an enormous positive as long as you are able to learn something new with the change. We fight change because it is not part of our routine, it is not safe/easy to change. The benefit lies in the lessons that we gain from our change in routine. The new people, the new knowledge, the growth that we gain by changing ourselves to fit into a new routine, no matter how significant or how minuscule it might be.

Work trip

Sitting at 30,000' is probably the last place one should be thinking about riding, but with a trip to Atlanta in my future, that is all I can think about. Well, that and "what an emergency exit procedure would look like..." I'm thinking that the next seven days I will be bike-less and this can't suck any more than it already does. Traveling is pointless unless it is for a good reason like a trip to go ride, ski, but for work?


So I find myself in the company of several people who have no idea what a peloton is or what the word even looks like. I know that I am sounding one dimensional, and I am. I find it very hard to identify with these people I am sharing a drink. The next seven days are going to be a chore. It is difficult to relate to people who do not share similar interests even when you are in the same industry. This is a personal fault of mine that I hope to work on in the next several days. Right now culture shock is full gas and I am adjusting to the locals.

I hope that the stationary trainer in the fitness center will be enough for me not to get DT's. The weather is perfect here and I would love to go explore what Atlanta has to offer by bike. Lucky for me I am sleeping well and there is no chance that my Tyler Durden will surface, but I will try to make the best out of my "single serving friends".

I don't know how many more nights I will be able to go out with these guys and drink like champions. This is a true sport that is unrecognized by any regulatory body other than the police. Somebody please help me, I am merely a boy and a mans sport. I know my way around a beer tap, but this is criminal.

By the way the weather is beautiful, and it is killing me. I am going to fake an injury to get out of here and back on the bike. Food is good and the people are awesome. Not much more to say, other than I am having a little better time with my co-workers. Must not be so tired.