Halloween 2015

I seldom write about work here. Mostly because it’s “just a job”, granted it’s a good job and I get to deal with stuff that I find interesting….for those of you not interested in government finance functions, I’ll just stop there.

I’ve been involved in government accounting now for over 15 years and I’m pretty darn good at it. I guess my point bringing it all up is this….my current employer, the City of Beaverton, is a good place to work. Prior to this I spent just shy of 13 years with the State of New Hampshire. I had some really good bosses, supervisors and mentors while I was with NH. Mary Lu, Tom, Harold, Sheri, Steve, Bob B, Joe, all people I enjoyed working with and for. I also had some pretty horrible bosses there…let’s leave it at that.

Now in the government world we don’t get some of the perks that the private sector gets. I don’t get tickets to sporting events, huge company paid for parties (like I did at Leybold and Amherst Computer), or other perks like bonuses or leaving early because the boss tells everyone to go home. BUT!, there is a certain vibe within the Finance Dept. that really makes it a good place to go. My boss sets a good tone within the department and I work with some fun people.

So I guess my point is this…while I had fun with NH, it was usually bit more formal (uptight?). With Beaverton though, the upper management does a pretty good job of making it a good place to work. For example Friday was the department competition for best Halloween costume. There were some great ideas across the city, and I was pretty confident that it was going to between us in Finance and CDD.

The Finance Director on the far left and my direct boss, the Assistant Finance Director as Bo Peep.

We also had HR as “Human Remains”, some Library folks as Snow White and the 7 Dwarves (they won the voting for best costume), and some peeps in the other Library location as the Peanuts crew. Even the Mayor’s department, including our Mayor himself, all dressed up as Where’s Waldo.

It’s things like this that can make work a bit more fun. Government work isn’t always the most glamorous, but when senior management takes some time to lighten the mood and make it fun, it certainly helps to report for duty day to day.

The other thing I spent the weekend doing was tearing down my commuter, a Soma Groove mountain bike frame and building up a Salsa Vaya frameset in its place. I just couldn’t get the Soma to fit right. I tried longer stem, setback seatpost, and a bunch of other small adjustments, but it just didn’t jive with me. Way back when I bought the Salsa Fargo, I literally debated for about 3 months on the Vaya vs. Fargo. What won out back then was that the Fargo frameset was on sale for like half price……..

I like having a dedicated commuter and the Fargo, Niner, and Soma where all doing duty this past year. The goal was to exclusively use the Groove, but since I never liked how it felt, I rarely rode it. Another “justification” I kept telling myself was as I get closer and closer to retirement from bike racing (I’ve been saying that for awhile now), I’d like to do some more touring. The Fargo is setup as an off road adventure machine and I have some nice bikepacking bags for it, but the Vaya will allow me to do some more conventional road touring, but this bike isn’t afraid of some of the rougher stuff either.