The Last Straw.

Before you jump to conclusions, no, I was not fired.......yet.

A Little Background

The first morning that Ray and I were in AZ we were invited to the staff meeting at the camp to meet people and discuss the new health coverage. When the meeting started Greg Mengarelli, the big boss (being the new guy I have somewhere between 8 and 27 bosses), talked about how bad the economy was and that he hoped he would not have to lay anyone off. Thats a great thing to hear when you just sold everything (again) and spend thousands of dollars to move 12000 miles to a new job and have been living in your new home for around 13 hours. So since then every time something with the camp comes up I expect them to tell me that I'm fired.

To make matters worse, right after arriving, UCYC hired a consultant, Barry (B-Rock as I call him), to tell us how we can improve as a camp. If you have seen Office Space you know how this scenario is supposed to play out. B-Rock shows up, has lots of interviews with the staff and then "consults" Greg to go on a Trump like firing spree. Well, nobody, that I know of, has been fired. I hope that doesn't change.

The Straw That May Brake the Camels Back.

Within the contex of our working/living environment on the camp property we have a saying; God, Family, UCYC. Its a reminder to not ruin your family just to do well at work. However, for several of the staff there are 2 words that aren't included in the cute little phrase and perhaps should be, Mountain Biking. Its kind of an important thing here.

So I am new to this living/working/biking/cute phrase developing world and I'm trying my darndest to understand how everything works, but today I failed and I hope there is grace for me.

Every Tues and Fri we ride at 5:45 from Greg's house. Heres how it works, we wake up, get dressed, ride up to his place, pretend its not cold and continue to discuss whether its really cold or just mildly cold. (For anyone interested, its always cold, you can't always say its cold or you'll be called a puss or something, but believe me its always so freaking cold). We ride up to the trails, ride trails, laugh at me and how slow I am, ride home. Thats it.

Well, Yesterday, OB-K (Obese Kris) informed me that we were going to drive up to the mountain at 5:15 so we could do a longer bit of trail and ride with a guy named Joe. So I thought this meant that we were all informed of this change in routine. So later in the day David, another one of my bosses, asked if I was riding. I told him I was riding with OB-K at 5:15, assuming this was a UCYC sanctioned ride. Well as we pitch up to leave this morning I realized that Greg, the big boss, wasn't invited to ride.

There are only a handful of things that can get you fired around here, but not inviting the boss on a ride is up there.

So as we are driving everyone decides its my fault that Greg wasn't invited. So I hope I still have a job, we'll see.

Dear Mr Mengarelli,

Thank you again for the chance to work in such a beautiful environment with such a great group of people and an even more wonderful group of bosses. I appreciate the way my family and I were accepted into the UCYC family and you are an excellent example of what it means to be a leader and overall perfect man, thank you.

I would like to apologize for the misunderstanding this morning concerning the MTB ride that you were not invited to join. I completely understand if you are furious with me, a humble servant, but I would like to defend myself.

My only life of defense is this, I think the blame for this travesty should not lie on me, but on your brother, OB-K. I am new to The Way Of The Bikers and didn't know that OB-K will not always participate in the routine 5:45 morning rides and that he will venture off, like the prodigal son, to ride with other members of our Prescott community. This was one of those times.

I was approached by your brother not knowing that you were being left out of the picture (a picture that is incomplete without in it). If I had known, I would have contacted you via phone or text to inform you of our cycling plans.

Please accept this letter as an apology and a promise to inform of you of any further malicious actions of your brother. I am sorry from the very bottom of my heart, that deep part that aches only when puppies die.

Please don't fire me.

Your servant,
Christopher Brian Holohan

On a Brighter Note

I bought a bike yesterday. I have been riding one that I stole from the camps stash of bikes, but not for too much longer. It is being shipped today.



Its a Gary Fisher Cobia 29er. Its used so hopefully everything works well on it, we'll see. Cheers.

Chris