What's in a name?

As we shut the door and closed Sunday afternoon I breathed a deep sigh of relief. It was a long week. With Ali out sick most of the week my brain was working overtime, and by Sunday afternoon I was forgetting customer's Oreo milkshake and americano orders. There have been times when I have felt more physically tired, but this past Sunday my brain hit a wall. Like I mentioned in a previous post, we are extremely dependent on the help of family and our amazing employees, but when half of the "we" is out sick, then the other half has no choice but to try and pick up the slack. I tried to do my very best, but that best was pretty tapped out by week's end.
Today has been everything I hoped it would be. Ali and were able to sleep in 'till 8:15 am, which for us is pretty late. I am feeling rested, and she is feeling better than she has...well, in about a week. Its amazing how just a little rest can transform one's outlook. With my partner back at my side, I am hoping that this will be a productive week. I hope that we will be able to get around to many of the "to do's" that we haven't had time to get around to doing in weeks past. I am itching to do more baking at the cafe. Pot Pies have been in the back of our collective mind for some time now, and I am thinking now is as good a time as ever to start experimenting with recipes and employing you, the cafe customer, as our official taste tester. In addition, I hope to start preparing variations of an Anzac Biscuit recipe I have enjoyed making since high-school. These little Australian cookies are pretty simple, but make for a tasty and not-so-unhealthy post meal dessert option.
Yes, I hope its a week of getting around to things that we have been putting off until now. Which brings me to our name. Among the questions we are often asked at the cafe, many people want to know where we got our name. This is a difficult question to answer. Initially, the name was inspired by Ali's sister, but over time we have realized that there are many different reasons as to why we chose to name ourselves the Little Red Bike Cafe. Some of which we didn't even realize until after the cafe first opened its doors. One such example, the old man who rides his red bike by our cafe every day. Though we have not yet met him, Ali and I see this man nearly every day as we close up shop. He rides by the cafe going west bound, and rolls past again a little while later, presumably on his way back home. We don't yet know his name, his story, or why he rides. But he rides on a classic red bicycle, and after weeks of passing by without a glance in our direction, we now make eye contact on a regular basis, and sometimes smile and wave at one another. We can't help but feel as though, in some way, we named the cafe for him. Perhaps it is time we all meet and exchange our stories. Undoubtedly it has been a long time coming. Perhaps this week we will get our chance.