May 4. Thursday Night.

Hi Journey.

There is really just nothing better than mornings when I go for a run.

I ran through a menagerie of waking birds the first two miles—just wonderful, Journey! Went all the way down 37th, then over to EastWedge and that small strip mall they have tucked in among the ranch homes over there.

Pleasant little mall; a half dozen shops all rowed together, plus a C-store with a detached car wash off to one side. There's a great little dress shop—Claire's. She carries fun skirts and always has my size in stock. Then there's a narrow barber shop for guys, a Gold Crown Hallmark store, and a little ice cream shop that has fantastic mix-ins.

Not that moi would know from first-hand experience, Journey.

And no parking meters; parking's completely off-street.

About a half mile past that strip mall I had to stop and re-tie one of the Nikes and it hit me—our parking is good in front of our shop. Great, really. Guess it's because we're close enough to downtown so that we still have meters but it's not jammed full of cars all the time. Usually there are a few empty slots in front of our store; probably because every meter has an hour time limit. I certainly never hear a client complain about circling about searching for a spot.

But I realized that one of our major time-stops is plugging those meters. I can't tell you the number of times I've sat through a Snapshot Session with a client and she started periodically peeking at her watch after about thirty minutes of sitting with me.

And then right at an hour she'll get up and plug her meter and we'll have to get settled back into the session again and that takes another five minutes. Journey, I bet I waste at least ten minutes of my time and ten minutes of the client's time every hour because of those goofy meters.

Must be a solution. It's just these little time-stops of this sort that kill the flow. That's the main problem. Business interruptus—not good for me, and terrible for the client.

Maybe I'll bring it up at next Bloom Team meeting. Joni could probably set a timer during my client meetings and just go out and feed their meter a few minutes early.

She's back at work. Came in yesterday, looking great—almost glowy. She's always been a bit of a mother figure to me--I guess because she's older but also more buttoned down--but for some reason this week she really reminds me of Carmen.

At least I don't have to worry about her anymore. And of course Shelly was even more relieved than me.

Goodnight, Journey.

Read May 2nd entry.

Read May 7th entry.