What a week!

Well... today marks the end of one of the longest weeks of my life.

A month ago I found out that a couple of the director level personnel from my corporate office were coming to visit my store. In addition, my Regional Vice President and my District Manager would be visiting at the same time.

This is the single most intensive visit a store can receive...the store can't just be really clean, bright, and well organized. It has to be merchandised perfectly. And, I mean perfectly. Because, these guys will know the difference. They're the ones who buy the product, negotiate product placement within the store, and determine where things are supposed to be in the store. So, if something is in the wrong spot...they'll know!

Anyway...we made some moderate progress over the last 3 weeks. But, with about a week to go I realized that we just weren't as close to perfect as I'd hoped. So, it was time to go in to full court press. Bring in all the help...management staff lived at the store for the past 4 days. Whatever it took...we needed to get it done.

So, how did it go? Well. We got it done. And, I think it was just about as positive as it could be for us. Our market has some unique competitive challenges. And, for that reason, I need some additional help from the people at my corporate office...but, they don't always understand that. But, this visit helped them understand. Which means I'll get more help. Which means my business will be more successful in the future.

I tallied up the hours for the last week...between Thursday of last week and today, I worked 106 hours. Yikes...that's a lot of time in my building for one week!

Needless to say, I haven't had much happen in the way of riding, running, etc. I'm excited to get going again...I don't think I'm going to ride to work tomorrow. But, I will on Friday and Saturday. JDRF training ride on Sunday. Ride to work on Monday. And...drum roll please...my first Tuesday Night Ride of the season on Tuesday. I'm totally pumped for that ride!

Time to return to some normalcy!