It's been a hard day's night

The long stretch of work days has come to an end -- 11 days at work, 10-plus hours a day. It's not my longest stretch without a break, but I'm getting old and have a desire to spend time with my family. And sleep.

I haven't been working like a dog, as The Beatles say. My dogs don't work. They don't do much but eat, sleep and be annoying by barking at the neighbors or phantom bunnies or whatever they think they see in my unmowed lawn and jungle-like hedges.

I tried to go for a bike ride yesterday. It's been more than week since I've been out, but the cycling gods again played a cruel trick. I was ready to hit the road, but noticed my rear tire was flat. I went to change the tube then saw the tire itself was falling apart. The rubber was peeling off the edges -- not a good sign. I think that's what caused the flat.

So, no ride on Sunday and I have to run the wheel up to the bike shop for a replacement.

Shameless advertisement: I do most of my bicycle shopping at Lakeshore Cycle and Fitness on Riley Street in Holland Township.

All the bike shops in the area are great and will bend over backward to help you. Lakeshore is where I got my Fuji and the owner, Todd Garvelink, is extremely patient with my inane questions and tendency to hang around his store to study the accessories he has and ogle the new bike models that come in. He knows me by sight and doesn't run away. Now that's service.

It's seemed strange to me that neither Saugatuck nor Fennville has a bike shop. The towns rely on tourism and are major thoroughfares on bicycle routes.

I mentioned the stretch of work days: I'm taking this Wednesday off as my holiday (I worked July Fourth) and was planning on a nice day without work, but my boss e-mailed to say the new publisher is going to address the newsroom on, yes, Wednesday. I was strongly encouraged to be there. Strongly. Sigh.

A former boss of mine got tired of me complaining about his meeting schedule. I used to have to come in on my days off for his meetings, or come in to work hours early to be part of his little gatherings. So, to shut me up one day, he asked just what my problem was with these meeting times. No other editor was complaining about 11 a.m. meetings.

My response: David, I said, let's meet on my schedule. No other editor works nights and, since I work nights and weekends, the best time for me to meet is 2 a.m. Sunday morning, after my shift is over. How about it?

Odd. I got no takers on that.

Thought: You know I feel all right.