Wednesday, April 29, 2009

attaining self sufficiency

skill training: removing stuck bottom brackets.

ken: "ok, then you turn the tool counter-clockwise."

youth: "here, hold the bike for me."

ken: "no. you need to learn to do it by yourself, without help. you aren't going to have a personal assistant every time you do this."

later:

ken: "the whole point of your internship is to help you become self sufficient and productive at your job, and your life. its ok to ask questions, but you aren't always gonna have someone looking over your shoulder to help you do every single task. there are certain basic things you gotta learn to be able to do yourself."

youth: "ok, cool. (while filling out timesheet) can you hand me a pen?

Friday, April 17, 2009

today i love:

working with at-risk youth.

i spent almost the entire day working with 2 interns today, building/fixing bikes- and they both did great. it was one of those days where you are glad that doing your job is more important than just a paycheck. at times this aspect can be frustrating, but today was golden.

Thursday, April 2, 2009

epic sf -> sc ride

a group of us rode from san francisco to santa cruz today, along hwy 1. it was beautiful. the fog kept us cool till we were in SC county. we took old san pedro mtn road, which is a 100 yr old semi-paved wagon trail that goes around devil's slide. it was like nothing i've ever ridden on, especially on a road bike.