Quick Update

Hello!

So things are moving along. I have some pictures I want to post but they remain on my camera, and will have to wait until another time.

Some cool stuff is happening though, so I thought I should write about it.

A. We've had customers at the shop. This is really both a blessing and a curse. The former because technically, it means I have fulfilled my goal of starting a shop. This is a great, semi-magical/astonishing feeling. The latter because for some of the customers, we have been less than ideal mechanics.

Several of the repairs have gone quite smoothly, which is fantastic, but a couple have been semi-disastrous. They took a long time, we left out a part on one guys moto, etc.

The guys from school aren't as well prepared as I had hoped, so it's going to be an interesting 3 months until I depart, trying to get them squared away for the future.

Fortunately, they seem to work pretty hard, which is critical. Hopefully as we all get more experience, they will work more smoothly and consistently, and we won't destroy our fledgling reputation.

Also under this group of "A" should be that we bought some more shelves and have a very minimal and basic inventory of parts, which is cool. These will be some of the pictures I throw on a later post.

B. We finally named the shop and a sign is being made. We are "The International Moto Shop."

Leb Ke suggested the friendship moto shop, but this seemed like we should all be wearing tie die t-shirts and flowy cotton yoga pants, and being really groovy. I decided against that because yoga pants aggravate me.

Sai Ha suggested the forever moto shop, which I was hesitant to approve, it sounded like a sequel to Highlander or something else involving immortal people.

I couldn't think of anything besides the Tramoung Chrum moto shop, but the guys from TC shot that down because they were afraid if they did a bad job it would reflect poorly on the whole village. So that was out. This was sort of unfortunate because i had always assumed we would name it that, and It was annoying that this reasoning was so pessimistic. I tried fairly persistently to use that name to encourage doing a good job, so as to ensure the name of TC would not be slighted, but they weren't having it.

Finally, the sign maker suggested international, and we all agreed it seemed excellent. So we went with it.

C. My bicycle got stolen about 30 minutes ago. Broad daylight. Pretty lame. Generously and somewhat oddly, the thief declined to take the rubber bungee cord in the bikes basket, and placed it on the ground before riding off. I was sort of baffled by this. It would be like stealing a car, but leaving all the contents inside the car on the ground where you stole it. Anyway, my naive optimism about the impossibility of my bike being stolen is gone.

D. I have three months left! I am alternately very pleased about this, and confused about what to do before I go. I'll be traveling with my sister for a few weeks in April, which makes me feel like I shouldn't travel now. But I don't want to be annoyed with myself for missing opportunities. Also, returning to the US is going to be bizarre.

Traffic laws, what? Hot Water? etc.

Also connected to this is the search for a job. So I'll go ahead and capitalize on my audience. If you know anyone who works at an engineering firm, please ask them if they need an entry level engineer with lots of odd skills. I would be most appreciative! Thank you kindly.

OK.

That's the story. Hope everyone's well.

Ned.