A lot of catching up to do

August was a blur. I had a trip to Trek's Backstage event in Madison, WI, school started, we had our big Mercy Celebration at church, I made the jump from running youth cold weather at work to running men's cold weather and I'm sure a bunch of other stuff happened.

The highlight was probably the trip to Wisconsin. I got to go ride cool new stuff, meet some folks including Gary Fisher (one of the fathers of mountain biking) and get a first look at the stuff that we'll be selling next season. The demo day that we had in Waterloo at Trek's headquarters was definitely the most fun. We had a chance to ride some killer trails and I took the opportunity to ride a few bikes including Trek's Top Fuel 9.9 SL which is their best of the best, full suspension, race bike. It weighs about 20 pounds and just begs to be ridden faster and faster. We also got to demo road bikes, so I took a Trek Madone 6.9 Pro out for a spin with Bontrager Aeolus 5.5 wheels and Shimano's newest version of Dura Ace (so new the Shimano boys were actually installing it on the frames at the event). I absolutely loved this bike and only regret that I was so slagged from the mountain bike demo that I really couldn't throw too much into the road demo.

Another highlight was our Mercy Celebration at church. We moved the service outdoors, had free food, played about a 45 minute set in the afternoon and had inflatables and yard games. The turn out was pretty decent and the amount of advertising that we did has carried over in terms of first time visitors into September. We're loving things at Mercy and are excited to see what the next season will hold.

The move of cold weather departments at work was one that I had considered previously and when I heard that Kalie was leaving to take a youth ministry job in town I decided to put my hat in the ring. I really enjoyed running the youth section but it really begins to ramp up in late July into August which means that I lose a lot of focus when it comes to running the bike department as well. Men's cold weather really hasn't even hardly started, so in terms of seasonal flow, the switch to men's should compliment bikes quite well. We've had a great bike season although we were playing catch up pretty much all season. Bikes were in high demand between gas prices and stimulus checks so it will be interesting to see how next season plays out.

Xander started third grade and Amy and I are in the classroom again for our volunteer time. Xander's school requires one half day per week per student commitment so Amy and I alternate weeks. It will take a little time to adapt to a new teacher and new ways of doing things, but it should be a good year.

I also started teaching trumpet at the University of Sioux Falls this morning. I didn't have any students last year, so it's been a year and a half since I taught last. I really am looking forward to it as it will force me to practice more and stay connected to that part of my personality. It's easy for me to neglect the trumpet with everything else that I have going on, but it was my first passionate connection to music and it's nice to return home.

Hopefully September won't escape as quickly as August did, but here it is the 8th already and I'm just reconciling the end of August. Yikes!