The Arms Dealer:
I just sold 3 guns from my collection. Sold two earlier in the year. My collection was a little bit nuts for somebody who doesn't list "militia" as one of their hobbies. At the start of this year, I had 4 AR-15s (the rifle the Army used to use and that I think the Marine Corps still uses), and 4 Beretta 92FS (which is the pistol that all the services use.)
My Dad wanted an AR and a pistol. So, that's where those went.
How I got all these guns is a bit of a story in and of itself.
I bought a Beretta 92FS pistol a few years ago. They were getting hard to find because Obama had just won the Democratic nomination. All the gun stores were selling out anything they had on the shelves.
Shortly after I bought that, I got a great deal on the same gun, but with an integrated laser sight in the handle. If there's anything better than a shark, it's a shark with a freakin' laser on its head and if there's anything better than a gun, it's a gun with a laser built in.
So, I bought that, and kept both guns. Then, almost immediately after that, somebody was selling off a ton of the same gun, but with stainless steel barrels, for only $399. That's basically plinker-type pricing.
I bought two of the stainless barrel ones, which gave me a total of 4. I've only shot one of the 4 and now, I sold 3 of them off. The 4th one, I'm keeping as a home defender.
The rifles? Same story. I couldn't buy a match rifle and was signed up for a rifle competition. So, I ordered 3 of them from different sources, hoping one would arrive in time. One did, but once they all landed, I had 3 match rifles. I still have two of them, but sold one.
The only thing that didn't sell is my Les Baer match pistol. For those who have heard of it, that's pretty much like having a Lamborghini Diablo. Yeah, they have a market price, but the number of people who will buy one and pay what it's worth is pretty small.
So, anyway, that's 5 less guns in the collection since the first of the year. I still have too many guns and will give some thought to which ones I'll be selling here in a few days.
The Hometownie...
My new hometown is Sylvania, OH. It reminds me a lot of my original hometown of Tallmadge. A little bigger, and not entirely the same, but close. Friday night I went to the Northview Southview game where the city's two high schools play each other. It was a lot of fun.
It was refreshing to see our town's young people. They're fresh faced with their entire lives ahead of them. It seems like just yesterday that was me, but of course it wasn't. In fact, it was almost 30 years ago.
I can see the appeal of teaching school and being around young people who are on their way in life. I feel the same way when I am around young active-duty servicemembers. It reminds me of a time in my life when anything was possible and I had nothing but opportunities ahead of me.
Southview typically has a much better football team, and they did on Friday night. They've competed for a few state championships and people move to Sylvania just for the chance to play Southview football.
Northview has the reputation of being the brainier school, though they also have one of the state's best hockey teams. Logan will attend Northview.
Perhaps one of the more touching things was that at halftime, both High School's bands take the field at once and they play together. At the end, they spell out a script "Sylvania" on the field.
Although there are two high schools and these kids have gone to different schools for most of their lives, the bonds between Sylvania residents is pretty strong. They play sports together almost their entire lives. Logan's travel baseball team has an even number of kids who will go to both High Schools. The town just isn't that big, despite the two High Schools. Our recreation programs are pretty impressive and the kids get a lot of time interacting with each other.
Although it shouldn't matter to me one way or another, I felt a little sad for the seniors who would never march in a marching band again, or play organized football ever again. The NV SV game was a neat little tradition and I know I'll be very emotional when / if Logan ever plays in it.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
The Deal With These Elections
Pretty much anybody who cracks a newspaper knows that election night is going to be bad for Democrats. The only question is "how bad". By that, we're talking complete armageddon, or just "almost complete" armageddon.
It is largely a referendum on Barack Obama and his handling of the economy.
Now, to be fair, even if Barack Obama had masterfully led during the past 2 years, I think he'd be in trouble. I think the economy would still be screwed.
So, to claim that there was much he could have done to avert the upcoming trip to the woodshed that his party is about to face is a bit of a stretch. He was just doomed. He was doomed by events outside of his control, that were created largely by the policy decisions of his predecessors.
That also includes Bill Clinton who presided over the dismantling of Glass Steagall, which was instrumental in preventing another Great Depression for 66 years. Within 10 years of it's repeal, here we are.
There were other things that have worked against him since day one. For instance, Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House. I know she's popular in the Bay Area. For that part of the country, she's fine. For the rest of the country, having her as speaker of the house and one of the most prominent Democrats in the country is about as much of a disaster as one could imagine. The only thing I could see that would be a comparable diaster on the right-wing side of the leger would be to have... I dunno... somebody like David Duke as the pointman for the Republican party.
The Republicans have been relentless as identifying the Democrat congress and Obama with Pelosi and have been able to make that connection in the public consciousness. This might not hurt the Democrats in the Bay Area, but it hurts them everywhere else.
People are angry, and not just because the economy sucks. They're angry at Obama for his what they sense are his priorities, which they largely can't figure out. And the parts they can figure out? That makes the voters furious.
The biggest of Obama's blunders? Had to be the utter ineptitude he showed when he chose to pursue his health care bill during his first year in office.
If there was any other way Obama could have gotten this wrong, I'd like to hear about it. Many independents and moderates (I like to include myself in the "moderate" category) wanted to see some action taken on health care.
We've got huge problems with health care in this country: specifically with health-care costs. Really, when you get down to it, medical technology can solve the problems it can solve. It can't solve the problems it can't solve. People understand this. When they complain about health care, though, the main complaint is that they can't get it because it costs too much.
Obama had a huge amount of political capital when he won the election. His approval ratings were astoudingly high.
The basic theory goes: you use up that political capital to do something good. When something good happens, you get more political capital you can use later.
Bush expended all his political capital on the wars, and when they didn't produce discernable productive achievements, he was out of capital and his party was out of office. That's a case study in how unwisely using political capital can result in having no political capital left.
Obama's health care bill is another.
Had Obama actually produced a good health care bill, I think he wouldn't be in quite the dire circumstances he is in, now. However, he made so many tactical errors that the bill that resulted is almost completely worthless.
First, in spite of being Mr. Hope and Change, the first thing he did was bring in pharma and insurance companies behind closed doors, cut them special deals which would allow them to continue to gouge the American people, and took any meaningful reform of health care costs off the table.
Basically, the biggest problem with health care? Cost? The first thing he did was make sure that costs would not be addressed.
In the end, the bill took much longer to pass than he thought. Largely because the bill really didn't offer much, he wasn't able to garner public support to push it through once it faced opposition by the Republicans whose votes weren't needed, anyway.
Ultimately, the bill couldn't pass, and it only became law through a very, very convoluted use of reconciliation between the house and senate bills.
There is one good thing that came out of the bill: pre-existing conditions can't be excluded anymore. Literally, just one good thing.
Meanwhile, the bill ensured that, for instance, the United States would not be able to negotiate drug purchase prices. Probably the biggest single purchaser of pharmaceuticals in the world is not allowed to negotiate on behalf of the American people for a fair deal.
This bill is so bad that it will, absolutely, make the health care situation in the US worse.
In the end, I suspect that Obama knew his bill wasn't very good. It accomplished very little, and didn't do anything to address the real issues with health care cost. However, he had wasted the first year of his presidency, and all his political capital on it. To walk away with nothing would have been even more disastrous for him, politically.
So, did he take half a loaf when that was all he could get? I'd say more like he took that end piece that everybody throws away.
People detest politicians whose only agenda is to maintain their political power. Obama's final passage of the health care bill was only intended to help 3 types of people:
1. People with pre-existing conditions can now buy policies, which are going to be priced so outrageously expensively that they can't afford them. This is small progress since in the past, they just couldn't buy policies.
2. The very people who are charging the US 2 and 3 and 4 times as much as they charge the rest of the world won big. Obama guaranteed, in law, that nobody will be allowed to stop them from destroying our economy.
3. It helped Obama because walking away with nothing, would have been a horrible disaster, he walked away being able to claim victory. Trouble is, the bill is downright bad. The American people have no tolerance for politicians who do bad things just because it benefits their political career.
Now, by focusing on health care, what he wasn't focusing on was the economy. What if, instead of spending all his political capital on a health care bill of dubious value, he had used it to get Wall Street regulatory reform.
We have regulatory reform? Well... yeah, if you think the health care bill was a victory, you probably love Wall Street reform.
What if he'd used all that goodwill early in his presidency, combined with populist outrage about Wall Street, to re-enact Glass Steagall?
What if he'd used all that to fund a government agency to wind-down the nation's 10 largest insolvent banks. (Right now, if you can name a bank off the top of your head, they're insolvent under mark-to-market rules).
What if he used that energy, combined with a special prosecutor, and the Sarbanes-Oxley law to throw 400 Wall Street executives in prison and ban then from ever working for an FDIC insured institution?
We can only theorize about that because Obama didn't do that. In fact, he did the exact opposite. He continued the Bush Administration's policies of ensuring that the bankers who caused this problem were richly rewarded with multi-million dollar bonuses.
If anything, Obama is WORSE as far as being a Wall Street toady. Bush actually let one of the Wall Street banks fail before Paulson discovered the benefits of a totalitarian, command economic model. Obama? As both a Senator and as President, has put Wall Street first.
Now, again, would this have helped the economy? I doubt it. The economy will fix itself when it fixes itself. If we spend billions, it'll fix itself. If we do nothing, it'll fix itself.
However, right now, the American people are feeling betrayed. They don't trust Obama. They think he only acts to preserve his power and to protect the politically connected. Which means if you're not a Wall Street Banker or a member of the UAW, it's darned hard to figure out any way Obama has done anything for you at all.
The American people believe in hard work and sacrifice. We all know this is going to take a while for us to fix. Trouble is, right now, we don't think our government gives a whit about us. The American people feel, and rightly so, that the only people who have to sacrifice are those who followed the rules and played fair.
The folks who cheated? Who got rich doing it? Deep down, I think a sizeable portion of the population feels that Obama represents them, not the guy on Main Street trying to make his budget work.
Nobody is willing to follow Obama now, and it's his own fault.
Granted, if the economy recovers in the next two years, Obama will get the credit and get re-elected. Though even so, his actions to date paint him as horribly out of touch and completely oblivious to what ordinary Americans deal with on a day to day basis.
Bill Clinton always had the potential to come back because he had the ability to make people believe that he cared about them.
Obama? I don't think anybody thinks Obama cares about them one whit. He needs to connect with the voters. He needs to stop doing what's politically expedient and start figuring out how to do what's right.
It is largely a referendum on Barack Obama and his handling of the economy.
Now, to be fair, even if Barack Obama had masterfully led during the past 2 years, I think he'd be in trouble. I think the economy would still be screwed.
So, to claim that there was much he could have done to avert the upcoming trip to the woodshed that his party is about to face is a bit of a stretch. He was just doomed. He was doomed by events outside of his control, that were created largely by the policy decisions of his predecessors.
That also includes Bill Clinton who presided over the dismantling of Glass Steagall, which was instrumental in preventing another Great Depression for 66 years. Within 10 years of it's repeal, here we are.
There were other things that have worked against him since day one. For instance, Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House. I know she's popular in the Bay Area. For that part of the country, she's fine. For the rest of the country, having her as speaker of the house and one of the most prominent Democrats in the country is about as much of a disaster as one could imagine. The only thing I could see that would be a comparable diaster on the right-wing side of the leger would be to have... I dunno... somebody like David Duke as the pointman for the Republican party.
The Republicans have been relentless as identifying the Democrat congress and Obama with Pelosi and have been able to make that connection in the public consciousness. This might not hurt the Democrats in the Bay Area, but it hurts them everywhere else.
People are angry, and not just because the economy sucks. They're angry at Obama for his what they sense are his priorities, which they largely can't figure out. And the parts they can figure out? That makes the voters furious.
The biggest of Obama's blunders? Had to be the utter ineptitude he showed when he chose to pursue his health care bill during his first year in office.
If there was any other way Obama could have gotten this wrong, I'd like to hear about it. Many independents and moderates (I like to include myself in the "moderate" category) wanted to see some action taken on health care.
We've got huge problems with health care in this country: specifically with health-care costs. Really, when you get down to it, medical technology can solve the problems it can solve. It can't solve the problems it can't solve. People understand this. When they complain about health care, though, the main complaint is that they can't get it because it costs too much.
Obama had a huge amount of political capital when he won the election. His approval ratings were astoudingly high.
The basic theory goes: you use up that political capital to do something good. When something good happens, you get more political capital you can use later.
Bush expended all his political capital on the wars, and when they didn't produce discernable productive achievements, he was out of capital and his party was out of office. That's a case study in how unwisely using political capital can result in having no political capital left.
Obama's health care bill is another.
Had Obama actually produced a good health care bill, I think he wouldn't be in quite the dire circumstances he is in, now. However, he made so many tactical errors that the bill that resulted is almost completely worthless.
First, in spite of being Mr. Hope and Change, the first thing he did was bring in pharma and insurance companies behind closed doors, cut them special deals which would allow them to continue to gouge the American people, and took any meaningful reform of health care costs off the table.
Basically, the biggest problem with health care? Cost? The first thing he did was make sure that costs would not be addressed.
In the end, the bill took much longer to pass than he thought. Largely because the bill really didn't offer much, he wasn't able to garner public support to push it through once it faced opposition by the Republicans whose votes weren't needed, anyway.
Ultimately, the bill couldn't pass, and it only became law through a very, very convoluted use of reconciliation between the house and senate bills.
There is one good thing that came out of the bill: pre-existing conditions can't be excluded anymore. Literally, just one good thing.
Meanwhile, the bill ensured that, for instance, the United States would not be able to negotiate drug purchase prices. Probably the biggest single purchaser of pharmaceuticals in the world is not allowed to negotiate on behalf of the American people for a fair deal.
This bill is so bad that it will, absolutely, make the health care situation in the US worse.
In the end, I suspect that Obama knew his bill wasn't very good. It accomplished very little, and didn't do anything to address the real issues with health care cost. However, he had wasted the first year of his presidency, and all his political capital on it. To walk away with nothing would have been even more disastrous for him, politically.
So, did he take half a loaf when that was all he could get? I'd say more like he took that end piece that everybody throws away.
People detest politicians whose only agenda is to maintain their political power. Obama's final passage of the health care bill was only intended to help 3 types of people:
1. People with pre-existing conditions can now buy policies, which are going to be priced so outrageously expensively that they can't afford them. This is small progress since in the past, they just couldn't buy policies.
2. The very people who are charging the US 2 and 3 and 4 times as much as they charge the rest of the world won big. Obama guaranteed, in law, that nobody will be allowed to stop them from destroying our economy.
3. It helped Obama because walking away with nothing, would have been a horrible disaster, he walked away being able to claim victory. Trouble is, the bill is downright bad. The American people have no tolerance for politicians who do bad things just because it benefits their political career.
Now, by focusing on health care, what he wasn't focusing on was the economy. What if, instead of spending all his political capital on a health care bill of dubious value, he had used it to get Wall Street regulatory reform.
We have regulatory reform? Well... yeah, if you think the health care bill was a victory, you probably love Wall Street reform.
What if he'd used all that goodwill early in his presidency, combined with populist outrage about Wall Street, to re-enact Glass Steagall?
What if he'd used all that to fund a government agency to wind-down the nation's 10 largest insolvent banks. (Right now, if you can name a bank off the top of your head, they're insolvent under mark-to-market rules).
What if he used that energy, combined with a special prosecutor, and the Sarbanes-Oxley law to throw 400 Wall Street executives in prison and ban then from ever working for an FDIC insured institution?
We can only theorize about that because Obama didn't do that. In fact, he did the exact opposite. He continued the Bush Administration's policies of ensuring that the bankers who caused this problem were richly rewarded with multi-million dollar bonuses.
If anything, Obama is WORSE as far as being a Wall Street toady. Bush actually let one of the Wall Street banks fail before Paulson discovered the benefits of a totalitarian, command economic model. Obama? As both a Senator and as President, has put Wall Street first.
Now, again, would this have helped the economy? I doubt it. The economy will fix itself when it fixes itself. If we spend billions, it'll fix itself. If we do nothing, it'll fix itself.
However, right now, the American people are feeling betrayed. They don't trust Obama. They think he only acts to preserve his power and to protect the politically connected. Which means if you're not a Wall Street Banker or a member of the UAW, it's darned hard to figure out any way Obama has done anything for you at all.
The American people believe in hard work and sacrifice. We all know this is going to take a while for us to fix. Trouble is, right now, we don't think our government gives a whit about us. The American people feel, and rightly so, that the only people who have to sacrifice are those who followed the rules and played fair.
The folks who cheated? Who got rich doing it? Deep down, I think a sizeable portion of the population feels that Obama represents them, not the guy on Main Street trying to make his budget work.
Nobody is willing to follow Obama now, and it's his own fault.
Granted, if the economy recovers in the next two years, Obama will get the credit and get re-elected. Though even so, his actions to date paint him as horribly out of touch and completely oblivious to what ordinary Americans deal with on a day to day basis.
Bill Clinton always had the potential to come back because he had the ability to make people believe that he cared about them.
Obama? I don't think anybody thinks Obama cares about them one whit. He needs to connect with the voters. He needs to stop doing what's politically expedient and start figuring out how to do what's right.
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Racial Sensitivity and the 9 year old boy...
I took Logan to the local ice skating rink today. It was a halloween skate and the kids were supposed to come in costume.
Logan's costume this year is Joshua Cribbs, his favorite player on the Browns. Logan wears his Cribbs jersey, his browns helmet and his dreadlocks wig.
I think his mother said it was okay for him to use some brown face-paint. Logan has no real concept of race. A few years ago, he heard somebody talking about black people and he said, "I have two black friends."
My suburb is awesome for a lot of reasons, but racial diversity isn't one of them. I wasn't aware of any African Americans in his class, and so I was a little curious. I asked who the two friends were, and he said they were Rouch and Mohammed. Near as I can figure, Rouch is pakistani and Mohammed is Lebanese.
Recently, when referring to African Americans, I've heard him referring to them as "brown", which is technically more accurate than "black" but I've had to gently correct him by telling him that brown people are referred to as "black".
He gave me the look that says, "You adults really are stupid. Taking something very simple, like what to call brown people and deciding to call them a color that they clearly are not."
He got it, though.
In any event, he was wearing blackface, or in this case, brownface. I am virtually positive that his mother told him it was okay.
I debated whether to say something to him, and decided I had to talk to him about it for a few reasons. One of which is that he really stood a shot at offending somebody. The other is that if he went skating like that, I'd have been a bundle of nerves because I'd be afraid somebody would get pissed off at him and kick his ass.
So, I told him I needed to talk to him. I explained that I knew he didn't mean any harm, but that in the past, some very mean white people would put makeup on their face to make themselves look black. Then, they'd act foolish as a way to make fun of black people.
I explained because of this, if he wore black makeup, it could make some black people angry or hurt their feelings.
He had a bit of a lost look on his face as I was explaining. I could tell that he was a little bit hurt. I reinforced to him that I knew he didn't mean any harm. It wasn't him, or what he was doing. It was the bad behavior of some bad people in the past that caused the problem.
Of course, I was also envisioning myself on CNN explaining, "Really, my son isn't a racist. My family is not a racist family. I'm so sorry that we set off a chain of events that culimated in a month long race riot that eventually destroyed the entire industrial midwest."
I asked him what he thought we should do, and he said he wanted to take the makeup off because he didn't want to risk hurting anybody's feelings.
My son is the farthest possible thing from a racist. I honestly don't think he even fully understands the concept of race. It's just to him, some people have dark skin, others have lighter skin. In much the same way as some people have dark hair and other people have lighter hair.
He wanted to paint his face brown so he could look like Josh Cribbs because Josh Cribbs is his favorite football player. He wasn't doing it to cause anybody any sort of offense.
His mother, as well, doesn't have a racist bone in her body. She married and had a child with an Asian guy. I can vouch for her on this one. I'm a little surprised that she didn't see the potential problem with Logan painting his face, but I think she didn't think about it for the same reason he didn't: it just didn't occur to her that it could be offensive.
I was really glad Logan decided to take the makeup off. He ended up helping a little kid learn to skate. The kid was black. It would have been awkward, maybe not so much with the kid, but most certainly with his mother, if he had been wearing brown face paint to make himself look African American.
Mostly, as usual, I'm proud of the little guy. I explained the situation and he made the right call.
I think this generation is so much more enlightened than mine was. We still had a lot of racism back then, and I can truly say that throughout the course of my life, I've seen it diminish almost year by year.
By the time Logan has kids, maybe it'll be completely in the past. Or, more likely, it'll always be with us in one form or another, but will continue to be pushed deeper and deeper into the margins of society where it can impact fewer and fewer lives.
Logan's costume this year is Joshua Cribbs, his favorite player on the Browns. Logan wears his Cribbs jersey, his browns helmet and his dreadlocks wig.
I think his mother said it was okay for him to use some brown face-paint. Logan has no real concept of race. A few years ago, he heard somebody talking about black people and he said, "I have two black friends."
My suburb is awesome for a lot of reasons, but racial diversity isn't one of them. I wasn't aware of any African Americans in his class, and so I was a little curious. I asked who the two friends were, and he said they were Rouch and Mohammed. Near as I can figure, Rouch is pakistani and Mohammed is Lebanese.
Recently, when referring to African Americans, I've heard him referring to them as "brown", which is technically more accurate than "black" but I've had to gently correct him by telling him that brown people are referred to as "black".
He gave me the look that says, "You adults really are stupid. Taking something very simple, like what to call brown people and deciding to call them a color that they clearly are not."
He got it, though.
In any event, he was wearing blackface, or in this case, brownface. I am virtually positive that his mother told him it was okay.
I debated whether to say something to him, and decided I had to talk to him about it for a few reasons. One of which is that he really stood a shot at offending somebody. The other is that if he went skating like that, I'd have been a bundle of nerves because I'd be afraid somebody would get pissed off at him and kick his ass.
So, I told him I needed to talk to him. I explained that I knew he didn't mean any harm, but that in the past, some very mean white people would put makeup on their face to make themselves look black. Then, they'd act foolish as a way to make fun of black people.
I explained because of this, if he wore black makeup, it could make some black people angry or hurt their feelings.
He had a bit of a lost look on his face as I was explaining. I could tell that he was a little bit hurt. I reinforced to him that I knew he didn't mean any harm. It wasn't him, or what he was doing. It was the bad behavior of some bad people in the past that caused the problem.
Of course, I was also envisioning myself on CNN explaining, "Really, my son isn't a racist. My family is not a racist family. I'm so sorry that we set off a chain of events that culimated in a month long race riot that eventually destroyed the entire industrial midwest."
I asked him what he thought we should do, and he said he wanted to take the makeup off because he didn't want to risk hurting anybody's feelings.
My son is the farthest possible thing from a racist. I honestly don't think he even fully understands the concept of race. It's just to him, some people have dark skin, others have lighter skin. In much the same way as some people have dark hair and other people have lighter hair.
He wanted to paint his face brown so he could look like Josh Cribbs because Josh Cribbs is his favorite football player. He wasn't doing it to cause anybody any sort of offense.
His mother, as well, doesn't have a racist bone in her body. She married and had a child with an Asian guy. I can vouch for her on this one. I'm a little surprised that she didn't see the potential problem with Logan painting his face, but I think she didn't think about it for the same reason he didn't: it just didn't occur to her that it could be offensive.
I was really glad Logan decided to take the makeup off. He ended up helping a little kid learn to skate. The kid was black. It would have been awkward, maybe not so much with the kid, but most certainly with his mother, if he had been wearing brown face paint to make himself look African American.
Mostly, as usual, I'm proud of the little guy. I explained the situation and he made the right call.
I think this generation is so much more enlightened than mine was. We still had a lot of racism back then, and I can truly say that throughout the course of my life, I've seen it diminish almost year by year.
By the time Logan has kids, maybe it'll be completely in the past. Or, more likely, it'll always be with us in one form or another, but will continue to be pushed deeper and deeper into the margins of society where it can impact fewer and fewer lives.
Friday, October 29, 2010
Competitive Sports for Kids: More Competitive than Ever!
Raising my sports-minded boy is really a time-consuming thing. I can already see that I'm going to have way too much time on my hands when he graduates High School and heads off to college.
Last night, I put him and a friend through a basketball workout. They're both pretty athletic, but there are some fundamentals in basketball that aren't that intuitive. For instance, doing a proper layup. I can teach a person how to do it, but I can't actually do one, myself.
With basketball, it's truly a case of those who can't do, teach, at least with me. His friend's dad watched the workout and complimented me by saying I could coach one of the youth basketball teams based on what he saw me having the kids do. I think I could, but with the Navy, I'm gone one weekend a month. So, it's hard to make that committment.
Logan really seems to like the workouts. Like most kids his age, he really needs to learn ball handling. His shooting is actually pretty good, but that's what kids like to do. They don't do dribbling drills unless somebody is guiding and encouraging them.
As I mentioned in another post, Logan didn't make the Junior Cats, which is the best city team he can play for. He'll play rec this year. Another parent of a kid who didn't make the team thought there were some politics involved in the selection process, but I disagree with that.
I have several thoughts on this:
1. Some folks say they like track and field and swimming because those events are not political in any way. It's just the athlete and a stopwatch and that's it. That's pretty true. There are other sports like this. For instance, golf comes to mind. These are individual sports where the score is based entirely on a person's individual effort.
2. I saw the basketball tryouts and personally I would not have put Logan on the team. He was not out of the question. I figured that he and about 8 other kids were in the running for the last 4 spots on the team. However, I would have put him towards the bottom of those 8 kids. Although it went against my boy, I think the coaches made the right call.
3. I also hear a lot of the same griping about the way the Mavericks are selected. (Logan's travel baseball team.) Now, with the Mavs, they select two teams. The A team, which my son plays on, is the heavy travel team and plays a longer schedule, with more out of town tournaments. It consists, at least in theory, of the top 12 kids in the tryout.
The B team consists of the next 12 kids. So, in theory, our worst player should be better than their best player.
I remember the first time our team scrimmaged the B team. I and a few other dads were a bit nervous. What if some poor kid who really belonged on the A team got shafted and put on the B team by mistake? What if our boys really weren't better than the B team kids?
Well, any doubts as far as this sort of thing goes were put to rest in the scrimmage. I think we beat them by about 25 runs. We played them a handful of times throughout the season (twice in the regular season and twice in tournaments.) Our average margin of victory was about 25 to 1.
This was the team where, in order to get out of the inning, our coach told all our kids to bat left-handed. When the kids then had 6 straight hits and scored another 5 runs, the coach told them to not only bat left-handed, but that they had to swing at every pitch.
The difference in ability between the teams was astounding. This is not to say that we might not have a player or two who could be on the B team, or that they don't have a player or two who could play for us. However, generally speaking, the selection process was fair and the better kids made the A team.
I don't know if I'm just more objective about this, or that I'm better at ego-divorcing myself from what I'm seeing, but when I see the kids in the baseball tryout, it's pretty easy to see who is a little better than the other kids.
It works in Logan's favor in baseball. In basketball, I saw the same thing, but again, I didn't think Logan was in that tier that was a cut above. So, it didn't work in his favor there.
The bottom line is that team sports are frequently subjective. The example I like to use is a kid is fielding a line-drive. He doesn't make a clean play on the ball. He gets a glove on it, though, keeps it in front of him and makes a throw that gets the runner out, but it's not a strong throw.
How do you judge that? Do you say he should have made a clean play and a sharp throw? Or do you say he did a great job getting into position, keeping the ball in front of him and made the throw in time? Was the ball a hard one to handle cleanly? Did it take a bad hop? All of those things are things that are subjective judgements that an experienced coach will usually, but not always, make correctly.
Just like bad calls by the umps, I tell Logan all the time that the officials are part of the game, just like the ball and your shoes. If you can't live with the occassional call that doesn't go your way, you can't play team sports.
In the same vein, if you can't deal with the fact that coaches are making decisions and that occassionally, they don't see things the way you do, you can't play team sports.
In any event, I am still kicking myself for not-preparing Logan better for tryouts in basketball. In my defense, I only heard about them a week or two before they happened. Still, I could have done a better job of prepping him.
If my judgement is correct, Logan was in a group of 8 kids who were duking it out for 4 spots. He did pretty well considering I didn't really prepare him. I spoke with Logan and told him the truth: that he has the potential to be a basketball player, but that things are way more competitive now than when I was a kid. If he wants to play basketball, he'll have to start preparing himself and doing a little bit of work pretty much year-round. (The only exception would be during the travel baseball season, where the schedule is so intense, I really don't want him to be trying to squeeze in another activity.)
If we work on it, I see no reason why he wouldn't make the Junior Cats next year. If we don't work on it, he won't. Simple as that. He's on board and as long as he shows an interest, I'll do what I can to help him.
Unlike baseball, where my ability to coach him pretty much ended the day he stopped playing rec, I can probably coach him in basketball at least up to the middle school level.
Also, not to make excuses, but because of his birthday, he will be pretty much the youngest kid at any tryout based on his grade. He's going to have to work to overcome that.
In baseball, it wasn't a factor so much, but literally, the kid worked at baseball almost every night from the time he was 3 or 4 years old. Basketball? Not so much.
On the baseball front, there is a series of pitching clinics I'll have Logan do here soon as well. We'll miss one of them, but the guy putting on the clinics says we can substitute a general skills session for any missed pitching sessions. I like this coach. He's doing a great job on drilling the kids on skills.
As I mentioned in another post, Logan is still one of the better baseball players in his grade. I'd like to introduce him to pitching this year. His hitting technique is very, very good and I just have one more tweak to make in the off-season.
(The same tweak his hitting coach has him working on. He's transferring too much weight to his front foot during his swing.)
We'll try to do some skiing this year if I can afford it. I also want him to pick up golf one of these days. I think that'll be a good thing to have him into once he's older and staying home by himself in the Summer. If business improves, I'd like to re-join the country club and then he can golf pretty much every day.
However, this is the phase of his life where sports will probably never end. As I've said before, basketball was the first sport where it got hard to even make the team, when I was a kid. Looks like it's tougher than ever, now.
Last night, I put him and a friend through a basketball workout. They're both pretty athletic, but there are some fundamentals in basketball that aren't that intuitive. For instance, doing a proper layup. I can teach a person how to do it, but I can't actually do one, myself.
With basketball, it's truly a case of those who can't do, teach, at least with me. His friend's dad watched the workout and complimented me by saying I could coach one of the youth basketball teams based on what he saw me having the kids do. I think I could, but with the Navy, I'm gone one weekend a month. So, it's hard to make that committment.
Logan really seems to like the workouts. Like most kids his age, he really needs to learn ball handling. His shooting is actually pretty good, but that's what kids like to do. They don't do dribbling drills unless somebody is guiding and encouraging them.
As I mentioned in another post, Logan didn't make the Junior Cats, which is the best city team he can play for. He'll play rec this year. Another parent of a kid who didn't make the team thought there were some politics involved in the selection process, but I disagree with that.
I have several thoughts on this:
1. Some folks say they like track and field and swimming because those events are not political in any way. It's just the athlete and a stopwatch and that's it. That's pretty true. There are other sports like this. For instance, golf comes to mind. These are individual sports where the score is based entirely on a person's individual effort.
2. I saw the basketball tryouts and personally I would not have put Logan on the team. He was not out of the question. I figured that he and about 8 other kids were in the running for the last 4 spots on the team. However, I would have put him towards the bottom of those 8 kids. Although it went against my boy, I think the coaches made the right call.
3. I also hear a lot of the same griping about the way the Mavericks are selected. (Logan's travel baseball team.) Now, with the Mavs, they select two teams. The A team, which my son plays on, is the heavy travel team and plays a longer schedule, with more out of town tournaments. It consists, at least in theory, of the top 12 kids in the tryout.
The B team consists of the next 12 kids. So, in theory, our worst player should be better than their best player.
I remember the first time our team scrimmaged the B team. I and a few other dads were a bit nervous. What if some poor kid who really belonged on the A team got shafted and put on the B team by mistake? What if our boys really weren't better than the B team kids?
Well, any doubts as far as this sort of thing goes were put to rest in the scrimmage. I think we beat them by about 25 runs. We played them a handful of times throughout the season (twice in the regular season and twice in tournaments.) Our average margin of victory was about 25 to 1.
This was the team where, in order to get out of the inning, our coach told all our kids to bat left-handed. When the kids then had 6 straight hits and scored another 5 runs, the coach told them to not only bat left-handed, but that they had to swing at every pitch.
The difference in ability between the teams was astounding. This is not to say that we might not have a player or two who could be on the B team, or that they don't have a player or two who could play for us. However, generally speaking, the selection process was fair and the better kids made the A team.
I don't know if I'm just more objective about this, or that I'm better at ego-divorcing myself from what I'm seeing, but when I see the kids in the baseball tryout, it's pretty easy to see who is a little better than the other kids.
It works in Logan's favor in baseball. In basketball, I saw the same thing, but again, I didn't think Logan was in that tier that was a cut above. So, it didn't work in his favor there.
The bottom line is that team sports are frequently subjective. The example I like to use is a kid is fielding a line-drive. He doesn't make a clean play on the ball. He gets a glove on it, though, keeps it in front of him and makes a throw that gets the runner out, but it's not a strong throw.
How do you judge that? Do you say he should have made a clean play and a sharp throw? Or do you say he did a great job getting into position, keeping the ball in front of him and made the throw in time? Was the ball a hard one to handle cleanly? Did it take a bad hop? All of those things are things that are subjective judgements that an experienced coach will usually, but not always, make correctly.
Just like bad calls by the umps, I tell Logan all the time that the officials are part of the game, just like the ball and your shoes. If you can't live with the occassional call that doesn't go your way, you can't play team sports.
In the same vein, if you can't deal with the fact that coaches are making decisions and that occassionally, they don't see things the way you do, you can't play team sports.
In any event, I am still kicking myself for not-preparing Logan better for tryouts in basketball. In my defense, I only heard about them a week or two before they happened. Still, I could have done a better job of prepping him.
If my judgement is correct, Logan was in a group of 8 kids who were duking it out for 4 spots. He did pretty well considering I didn't really prepare him. I spoke with Logan and told him the truth: that he has the potential to be a basketball player, but that things are way more competitive now than when I was a kid. If he wants to play basketball, he'll have to start preparing himself and doing a little bit of work pretty much year-round. (The only exception would be during the travel baseball season, where the schedule is so intense, I really don't want him to be trying to squeeze in another activity.)
If we work on it, I see no reason why he wouldn't make the Junior Cats next year. If we don't work on it, he won't. Simple as that. He's on board and as long as he shows an interest, I'll do what I can to help him.
Unlike baseball, where my ability to coach him pretty much ended the day he stopped playing rec, I can probably coach him in basketball at least up to the middle school level.
Also, not to make excuses, but because of his birthday, he will be pretty much the youngest kid at any tryout based on his grade. He's going to have to work to overcome that.
In baseball, it wasn't a factor so much, but literally, the kid worked at baseball almost every night from the time he was 3 or 4 years old. Basketball? Not so much.
On the baseball front, there is a series of pitching clinics I'll have Logan do here soon as well. We'll miss one of them, but the guy putting on the clinics says we can substitute a general skills session for any missed pitching sessions. I like this coach. He's doing a great job on drilling the kids on skills.
As I mentioned in another post, Logan is still one of the better baseball players in his grade. I'd like to introduce him to pitching this year. His hitting technique is very, very good and I just have one more tweak to make in the off-season.
(The same tweak his hitting coach has him working on. He's transferring too much weight to his front foot during his swing.)
We'll try to do some skiing this year if I can afford it. I also want him to pick up golf one of these days. I think that'll be a good thing to have him into once he's older and staying home by himself in the Summer. If business improves, I'd like to re-join the country club and then he can golf pretty much every day.
However, this is the phase of his life where sports will probably never end. As I've said before, basketball was the first sport where it got hard to even make the team, when I was a kid. Looks like it's tougher than ever, now.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
The "not quite so depressing" blog post...
Oddly, I feel pretty good today. Strange. I was up half the night thinking about the biz. So, not only was I stressed out last night, I didn't get much sleep.
I think half my problem these days is just fighting my moods. I've got a business that's struggling, in a state that's struggling, in a region that's struggling, in a country that's struggling.
I try to remind myself that all things considered, I've got it pretty good. I'm relatively healthy. I have a fantastic little boy who is also healthy.
The business has been discouraging, but technically, it will post a profit this year. A modest one, to be sure, but it will probably post a profit.
The issue isn't so much "will the business survive?" Within limits, it can grow or shrink to whatever size it needs to in order to accomodate business conditions. The question really is, "will I survive?"
I mean, the business, technically, is viable if it posts a $35,000 profit. However, that doesn't make for much living on my part.
I keep reminding myself that this is a lot like the end of my first year of business. Things really took off from there. First and second years were draught years. So, just like this past year, revenues were hard to come by because of the weather.
We did $207 and about $330 those first two years. This year, we'll probably be at about $500 or so.
At $330, we were really profitable, but that was because we were adding staff to accomodate growth. Meaning, we were virtually never overstaffed.
The ride down is a lot bumpier because you're overstaffed almost all the time. So, this year, despite not-dismal sales numbers, profits took a big hit.
The silver lining to all this is that we can probably handle about $50-60,000 a month in revenues with our current staffing. So, as we build sales volume, we should be back in the land of impressive profitability.
We also have infrastructure and equipment, now, that we didn't have before. We have a lot more trucks and equipment. We don't have to worry about that aspect of growth for a while. We're well poised.
In the mean time, I have to get us ready to fight another day. We just let go of one employee. It was 50% due to business conditions, and 50% because the employee was an imperfect fit and we didn't have anyplace else to put her.
I posted an ad for an office manager trainee on Monster and good lord. I'm getting about 6 resumes an hour.
We did get a phenomenal sales rep trainee from our ad there. I can see I'll have a great bunch of candidates to chose from for an admin.
Monster has a way to post for certain jobs for just $99. Worth every penny. I don't know why I didn't do this earlier.
We should get a renewed marketing effort, and that candidate seems to have a lot of runway ahead of him. Could be a future GM.
I'm determined to get a cracker jack office manager. We haven't had one since Stacie left 2 years ago. The position is just too critical to have somebody who isn't awesome in it.
Next year, even if it were a repeat of this year, things should be a lot better. A more realistic, but conservative estimate would put us at about $600K in revenues if the weather cooperates at all.
If we get our normal weather patterns, we should be up over $800 again. If that happens, my finances get healthy all in one fell swoop.
It could happen, and I've seen similar turnarounds in this biz before. Our sales increased by $330K between year 2 and year 3. We increased by $220 between years 3 and 4.
Really, in the grand scheme of things, my business' profitability is the only thing in my life that's going poorly. Perspective is in order. Even if the absolute worst-case scenario were to play itself out, I went broke and declared bankruptcy, I still have a lot of talents and opportunities.
It wouldn't finish me. It would make life hard in a lot of ways, but nobody ever said that life was supposed to be easy. Really, if you took the entire population of the world right now, or the total number of people who have ever existed, the number of people who wouldn't trade places with me right now is almost statistically insignificant.
I'm a lucky person and I need to never lose track of that.
I heard this poem when I graduated basic training. The distinguished graduate read it to everybody. I always liked it and it has held meaning for me at so many times during my life:
Don't Quit
Anonymous
When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit
Rest if you must, but don't you quit.
Life is queer with its twists and its turns,
As everyone of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about
When they might have won, had they stuck it out.
Don't give up though the pace seems slow,
You may succeed with another blow.
Often the goal is nearer than,
It seems to a faint and faltering man,
Often the struggler has given up
When he might have captured the victor's cup;
And he learned too late when the night came down,
How close he was to the golden crown.
Success is failure turned inside out
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems so far;
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit,
It's when things seem worst that you must not quit!
I think half my problem these days is just fighting my moods. I've got a business that's struggling, in a state that's struggling, in a region that's struggling, in a country that's struggling.
I try to remind myself that all things considered, I've got it pretty good. I'm relatively healthy. I have a fantastic little boy who is also healthy.
The business has been discouraging, but technically, it will post a profit this year. A modest one, to be sure, but it will probably post a profit.
The issue isn't so much "will the business survive?" Within limits, it can grow or shrink to whatever size it needs to in order to accomodate business conditions. The question really is, "will I survive?"
I mean, the business, technically, is viable if it posts a $35,000 profit. However, that doesn't make for much living on my part.
I keep reminding myself that this is a lot like the end of my first year of business. Things really took off from there. First and second years were draught years. So, just like this past year, revenues were hard to come by because of the weather.
We did $207 and about $330 those first two years. This year, we'll probably be at about $500 or so.
At $330, we were really profitable, but that was because we were adding staff to accomodate growth. Meaning, we were virtually never overstaffed.
The ride down is a lot bumpier because you're overstaffed almost all the time. So, this year, despite not-dismal sales numbers, profits took a big hit.
The silver lining to all this is that we can probably handle about $50-60,000 a month in revenues with our current staffing. So, as we build sales volume, we should be back in the land of impressive profitability.
We also have infrastructure and equipment, now, that we didn't have before. We have a lot more trucks and equipment. We don't have to worry about that aspect of growth for a while. We're well poised.
In the mean time, I have to get us ready to fight another day. We just let go of one employee. It was 50% due to business conditions, and 50% because the employee was an imperfect fit and we didn't have anyplace else to put her.
I posted an ad for an office manager trainee on Monster and good lord. I'm getting about 6 resumes an hour.
We did get a phenomenal sales rep trainee from our ad there. I can see I'll have a great bunch of candidates to chose from for an admin.
Monster has a way to post for certain jobs for just $99. Worth every penny. I don't know why I didn't do this earlier.
We should get a renewed marketing effort, and that candidate seems to have a lot of runway ahead of him. Could be a future GM.
I'm determined to get a cracker jack office manager. We haven't had one since Stacie left 2 years ago. The position is just too critical to have somebody who isn't awesome in it.
Next year, even if it were a repeat of this year, things should be a lot better. A more realistic, but conservative estimate would put us at about $600K in revenues if the weather cooperates at all.
If we get our normal weather patterns, we should be up over $800 again. If that happens, my finances get healthy all in one fell swoop.
It could happen, and I've seen similar turnarounds in this biz before. Our sales increased by $330K between year 2 and year 3. We increased by $220 between years 3 and 4.
Really, in the grand scheme of things, my business' profitability is the only thing in my life that's going poorly. Perspective is in order. Even if the absolute worst-case scenario were to play itself out, I went broke and declared bankruptcy, I still have a lot of talents and opportunities.
It wouldn't finish me. It would make life hard in a lot of ways, but nobody ever said that life was supposed to be easy. Really, if you took the entire population of the world right now, or the total number of people who have ever existed, the number of people who wouldn't trade places with me right now is almost statistically insignificant.
I'm a lucky person and I need to never lose track of that.
I heard this poem when I graduated basic training. The distinguished graduate read it to everybody. I always liked it and it has held meaning for me at so many times during my life:
Don't Quit
Anonymous
When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit
Rest if you must, but don't you quit.
Life is queer with its twists and its turns,
As everyone of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about
When they might have won, had they stuck it out.
Don't give up though the pace seems slow,
You may succeed with another blow.
Often the goal is nearer than,
It seems to a faint and faltering man,
Often the struggler has given up
When he might have captured the victor's cup;
And he learned too late when the night came down,
How close he was to the golden crown.
Success is failure turned inside out
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems so far;
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit,
It's when things seem worst that you must not quit!
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Family and Friends
Okay, first news, Logan didn't make the Wildcats. This one sort of snuck up on us, though. I only found out about tryouts or even that the team existed, about 2 weeks prior to the tryouts.
Only a couple of weeks before that, I heard about the Sylvania Celtics, which Logan will be playing for. So, this year, basketball caught us sort of unaware. I remember basketball being the first sport that got pretty competitive just to make the team. Fewer spots to fill. Lots of good players.
Kids today have a much more competitive atmosphere in sports than I had to deal with. A lot of kids who made the team back when I was young might have trouble these days.
Now, though, we're forewarned. I don't think Logan is a basketball prodigy, but he shows remarkably good skills. If he works at it, I think he could play in middle school and high school. Basketball, I know a little more than I do about baseball.
So, having a warehouse where I can put up a portable hoop will give me exactly what I need to get the kid ready.
Today, I set up some chairs and we worked on dribbling with both hands. Worked on crossover dribble. Worked a little bit on teaching the proper way to do a layup. Reinforced squaring up the shoulders for the shot.
If we had been doing this for a few months prior to his tryout, I think he'd have made the team. We didn't, and that's the way things went. However, from here on out, we'll be ready.
I played him in a little 1 on 1 game. He did a great job of shooting. I still, in my life, have not seen a kid as coachable as my son. You tell him something and he does it. He was working on all the fundamentals we drilled on. I know I'm pretty biased, but coaches who work with him really notice this. In baseball, his coach will use him as an example of the proper technique to field a ball. He isn't the best fielder on the team, but he hustles, gets into position and has impeccable form.
At the end, we did a tabata workout where we just jumped into the air (like going for a rebound.) 8 sets of 20 seconds, 10 seconds rest between sets. We missed one of the sets due to a phone call, but 7 was plenty. I don't want to wear the kid out.
I told him that doing this will let him jump higher. Immediately afterwards, he tried jumping to see if it worked. I had to explain that it'll take a few days for it to show up.
I do love spending time with my son and teaching him things. I've loved every minute of that kids' life. I've never understood about parents who think their kids are a pain in the butt or who can't wait for school to get back in session so they'll see less of them.
It's probably because I had to wait so long for my boy. I wanted kids pretty much my entire adult life, and was lucky enough to finally have one. I couldn't have asked for a better one.
I must have had some down-sounding posts because a friend called me today to make sure I was doing okay. Gotta love good friends. I am fine. Just sorta bummed and feeling a bit worn down. Wistful for the days when I was rich. Those days will come again. Right now, this feels like year one in my business. However, we're poised for much faster growth than we had the first time out. We've got the equipment and the people.
It's just hard to think of a time when buying $1,000 worth of baseball bats in a month wasn't even something that I thought twice about. Plus, belonging to the country club was really nice. I was only a member for a year and a half. It was awesome, though. I'd love to get back to that point.
It also sort of sucks because I want to start other businesses, but that's hard to do without cash. Right now, I need to make sure this business gets going to fund any future businesses. I am hopeful for a day in the future when I have multiple sources of income, preferrably ones that may work counter-cyclically to each other. If I can diversify with several businesses, I won't have to suffer so much when one of them takes a downturn.
Things are still hairy right now. However, if it were easy, everybody would do it. Surviving times like these are what will allow me to cash those biggo checks again someday without feeling any guilt over it.
In the mean time, all the Melancon and Gibson guitars are gone. I just sold a gun and will be whittling down that collection, too.
We'll also be selling off a lot of stuff at work. Whatever it takes to survive. Whatever it takes to be in the game when the tide turns.
I choked on one section of the Arabic test, but I asked another smart girl from the class and she did, too. Maybe the prof will curve this one. If not, no biggie. There are about 1,000 points possible in the class. We've completed maybe 600 of them and even if I get zero points for that question, I'll have about 580 out of a possible 600 points. Well on track for an A. If I get an A or B, I'll be happy.
Only a couple of weeks before that, I heard about the Sylvania Celtics, which Logan will be playing for. So, this year, basketball caught us sort of unaware. I remember basketball being the first sport that got pretty competitive just to make the team. Fewer spots to fill. Lots of good players.
Kids today have a much more competitive atmosphere in sports than I had to deal with. A lot of kids who made the team back when I was young might have trouble these days.
Now, though, we're forewarned. I don't think Logan is a basketball prodigy, but he shows remarkably good skills. If he works at it, I think he could play in middle school and high school. Basketball, I know a little more than I do about baseball.
So, having a warehouse where I can put up a portable hoop will give me exactly what I need to get the kid ready.
Today, I set up some chairs and we worked on dribbling with both hands. Worked on crossover dribble. Worked a little bit on teaching the proper way to do a layup. Reinforced squaring up the shoulders for the shot.
If we had been doing this for a few months prior to his tryout, I think he'd have made the team. We didn't, and that's the way things went. However, from here on out, we'll be ready.
I played him in a little 1 on 1 game. He did a great job of shooting. I still, in my life, have not seen a kid as coachable as my son. You tell him something and he does it. He was working on all the fundamentals we drilled on. I know I'm pretty biased, but coaches who work with him really notice this. In baseball, his coach will use him as an example of the proper technique to field a ball. He isn't the best fielder on the team, but he hustles, gets into position and has impeccable form.
At the end, we did a tabata workout where we just jumped into the air (like going for a rebound.) 8 sets of 20 seconds, 10 seconds rest between sets. We missed one of the sets due to a phone call, but 7 was plenty. I don't want to wear the kid out.
I told him that doing this will let him jump higher. Immediately afterwards, he tried jumping to see if it worked. I had to explain that it'll take a few days for it to show up.
I do love spending time with my son and teaching him things. I've loved every minute of that kids' life. I've never understood about parents who think their kids are a pain in the butt or who can't wait for school to get back in session so they'll see less of them.
It's probably because I had to wait so long for my boy. I wanted kids pretty much my entire adult life, and was lucky enough to finally have one. I couldn't have asked for a better one.
I must have had some down-sounding posts because a friend called me today to make sure I was doing okay. Gotta love good friends. I am fine. Just sorta bummed and feeling a bit worn down. Wistful for the days when I was rich. Those days will come again. Right now, this feels like year one in my business. However, we're poised for much faster growth than we had the first time out. We've got the equipment and the people.
It's just hard to think of a time when buying $1,000 worth of baseball bats in a month wasn't even something that I thought twice about. Plus, belonging to the country club was really nice. I was only a member for a year and a half. It was awesome, though. I'd love to get back to that point.
It also sort of sucks because I want to start other businesses, but that's hard to do without cash. Right now, I need to make sure this business gets going to fund any future businesses. I am hopeful for a day in the future when I have multiple sources of income, preferrably ones that may work counter-cyclically to each other. If I can diversify with several businesses, I won't have to suffer so much when one of them takes a downturn.
Things are still hairy right now. However, if it were easy, everybody would do it. Surviving times like these are what will allow me to cash those biggo checks again someday without feeling any guilt over it.
In the mean time, all the Melancon and Gibson guitars are gone. I just sold a gun and will be whittling down that collection, too.
We'll also be selling off a lot of stuff at work. Whatever it takes to survive. Whatever it takes to be in the game when the tide turns.
I choked on one section of the Arabic test, but I asked another smart girl from the class and she did, too. Maybe the prof will curve this one. If not, no biggie. There are about 1,000 points possible in the class. We've completed maybe 600 of them and even if I get zero points for that question, I'll have about 580 out of a possible 600 points. Well on track for an A. If I get an A or B, I'll be happy.
Monday, October 25, 2010
Now I'm towing my car, there's a hole in the roof
Latest in the days that try men's souls is my car. Although I usually don't buy extended warranties, they had one through Chrysler called the "bumper to bumper wrap". It cost a chunk. (I think like $2 grand), but basically, it extends the manufacturers warranty forever. It's already pretty much paid for itself. I figured I would have this car for 5 years and probably 200,000 miles. So, I wanted to do what I could.
It had been leaking. Not much at first, but now, finally, enough that it's leaking onto driveways, etc. Everybody loves the guy who leaks oil on their driveway. So, I took it today to get it fixed. It only costs $100 for the deductible for the warranty, which is a fraction of the cost of the repair.
My rear brakes needed to be replaced, though. About $400 clams. Yikes. And they say the front will need to be done sometime in the not-too-distant future.
I put a lot of miles on my car, though. So, it only stands to reason that it needs maintenance. Still, I could find other things to do with the money, especially after shelling out $2 grand for a root canal and new crown. If it isn't one thing, it's another.
Work is going okay, but we're going to have to cut back to 4 day weeks here soon. I hate to do it. It really hurts some of the employees. Trouble is, the alternative is to lose their jobs, entirely.
I figure I've got some really hard weeks ahead as I try to keep the business going until the Winter gives us a bump. Again, the trouble this year is that last Winter didn't give us a bump at all.
Historically, we have had about 3 times a year where we have more business than we can handle. We have an employee we hired in Summer of 09, and it hasn't happened once for as long as he's worked for us. It's been a year and a half of unusually mild weather and although a lot of people are happy about it, it's just killing me.
We'll have to start selling things off. That will help us tide ourselves over for a little while. We do have some money coming in, too. In theory, we should pick up a little work. Though, in theory, we shouldn't be in this shape to begin with because in theory, the weather we've had has been exceedingly unlikely.
It's hard not to be discouraged. My house is all torn up and looks like crap. It's got one pretty major thing that need to be dealt with. As-is, it distinctly has the feel of a house that's being renovated.
I've been splitting wood the past couple of days ever since the electric company took down one of the dead trees in my backyard. The emerald ash borer has been killing all the ash trees up here. Bastards. So, they left the lumber and I've been splitting it, which has been a little workout and has been somewhat of a stress reliever.
Beyond that, if things get slow, my guys can work on my house, but the trouble is, I don't have much/any money for materials. So, they'll have to do a lot of painting, I guess. That's been a good luck charm in the past, though. Usually, right about the time they get things all torn up, we get some business.
I shipped off the last of my nice guitars today. I don't play much electric guitar, anyway. I still have my nice acoustic and would prefer not to sell it off. It's pretty beat up. Probably wouldn't go for much money.
It's getting a little discouraging these days. This area is so depressing. My house is depressing. My business is depressing.
I firmly believe that God never gives you more than you can handle but experience has shown me that God thinks you can handle intense agony for a very long time, followed by death.
Really, in the grand scheme of things, I'm still a very, very lucky guy. Just whiney. Things aren't so good right now, but I still own my own business and it still has great potential. Out of the past 5 years, 3 of them were great, 1 was okay, and 2 have been bad.
I wasn't in business long enough to build up some reserves to weather the bad times. I was also way too slow to react when things took a downturn. This will teach me a lesson for next time. I just hope I see some good months again here, soon.
In the mean time, I could really use a break.
It had been leaking. Not much at first, but now, finally, enough that it's leaking onto driveways, etc. Everybody loves the guy who leaks oil on their driveway. So, I took it today to get it fixed. It only costs $100 for the deductible for the warranty, which is a fraction of the cost of the repair.
My rear brakes needed to be replaced, though. About $400 clams. Yikes. And they say the front will need to be done sometime in the not-too-distant future.
I put a lot of miles on my car, though. So, it only stands to reason that it needs maintenance. Still, I could find other things to do with the money, especially after shelling out $2 grand for a root canal and new crown. If it isn't one thing, it's another.
Work is going okay, but we're going to have to cut back to 4 day weeks here soon. I hate to do it. It really hurts some of the employees. Trouble is, the alternative is to lose their jobs, entirely.
I figure I've got some really hard weeks ahead as I try to keep the business going until the Winter gives us a bump. Again, the trouble this year is that last Winter didn't give us a bump at all.
Historically, we have had about 3 times a year where we have more business than we can handle. We have an employee we hired in Summer of 09, and it hasn't happened once for as long as he's worked for us. It's been a year and a half of unusually mild weather and although a lot of people are happy about it, it's just killing me.
We'll have to start selling things off. That will help us tide ourselves over for a little while. We do have some money coming in, too. In theory, we should pick up a little work. Though, in theory, we shouldn't be in this shape to begin with because in theory, the weather we've had has been exceedingly unlikely.
It's hard not to be discouraged. My house is all torn up and looks like crap. It's got one pretty major thing that need to be dealt with. As-is, it distinctly has the feel of a house that's being renovated.
I've been splitting wood the past couple of days ever since the electric company took down one of the dead trees in my backyard. The emerald ash borer has been killing all the ash trees up here. Bastards. So, they left the lumber and I've been splitting it, which has been a little workout and has been somewhat of a stress reliever.
Beyond that, if things get slow, my guys can work on my house, but the trouble is, I don't have much/any money for materials. So, they'll have to do a lot of painting, I guess. That's been a good luck charm in the past, though. Usually, right about the time they get things all torn up, we get some business.
I shipped off the last of my nice guitars today. I don't play much electric guitar, anyway. I still have my nice acoustic and would prefer not to sell it off. It's pretty beat up. Probably wouldn't go for much money.
It's getting a little discouraging these days. This area is so depressing. My house is depressing. My business is depressing.
I firmly believe that God never gives you more than you can handle but experience has shown me that God thinks you can handle intense agony for a very long time, followed by death.
Really, in the grand scheme of things, I'm still a very, very lucky guy. Just whiney. Things aren't so good right now, but I still own my own business and it still has great potential. Out of the past 5 years, 3 of them were great, 1 was okay, and 2 have been bad.
I wasn't in business long enough to build up some reserves to weather the bad times. I was also way too slow to react when things took a downturn. This will teach me a lesson for next time. I just hope I see some good months again here, soon.
In the mean time, I could really use a break.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Money from Strange Places, Deployment and Man Meets Moment
It just dawned on me the other day that self-employment has led to some pretty wierd money coming from some strangely unexpected places. I've remarked a few times that now that I own a business, it seems like people just mail me checks now and then for no apparent reason.
I am going to explain this in the context of the fact that I earned less than $30,000 for most of the first years of my career. Pretty much from 1991 thru about 1995. In 1995, I got a couple of raises and took a transfer and promotion, and that put my salary in the $40K range, where I could afford to buy a house and eat something other than $2.00 meals at McDonald's. Before that, though, I didn't make much money. Not in the Army, not in school (though I did pretty well, all things considered) and not for the first few years as a computer programmer.
So, when it comes to wierd money, the first is the money I get from participating in the Navy Reserve. All told, it will probably mean about $8,000 this year. This, by the way, is not entirely different than the total amount of money I made as an E-5 during my last year in the Army.
Granted, I could have served in the reserves all during my adult life, and sometimes I wish I had. However, it is very, very hard to do so and to keep a demanding career going. Although employers wave the flag publicly, military reservists are discriminated against for promotion and hiring in the real world. I doubt I could have risen as far and as fast as I did if I had been serving in the reserves at the same time.
The next big chunk is from credit card rewards programs. Conservatively, I spend about $200,000 to $250,000 a year on credit cards. If I get a 1% rebate on this, that, alone, is $2,000.
Third, I get a rebate on my royalties paid to Servpro if I attend their convention. This is based on how much I pay in royalties, but on the low side, I get maybe $3,500. On the high side, almost $6,000.
So, even when my company is doing poorly, I can get maybe $15,000 a year just from serving in the reserves and getting rebates.
Granted, I couldn't live on that. However, it's not an insignificant chunk of change. I used to work 50+ weeks a year to get maybe $25,000. So, relative to what I used to have to do to earn my living, I am still more than a little impressed that a part time job and a handful of rebates can be so substantial, financially.
On the deployment front, I just saw a short-fused (meaning they need somebody to pack up and leave right now) opportunity that looked great to me. It was for an assistant supply officer for a seabee regiment. I would love to have volunteered for that. However, there were a few things that didn't work out.
First, I'm not sure the commander of my current unit would approve it because it would delay me getting my DAWIA (military contracting) certification. Also, I am supposed to be deploying as a contracting officer, not a supply officer. I think I could talk him into it, but that's one reason against it.
The second reason is that the business really needs my attention right now. I'm putting in longer hours than I have since year two. I'm also doing things (like finding money) that I really can't delegate. I need to be standing in the middle of this thing if we're going to weather this storm.
Third, I want to wait one more year before deploying. At that point, I will be an O-3, which is a difference of about $20,000 a year if deployed. Granted, money isn't the reason I'm in the reserves, but if I'm going to spend a year away, $20,000 is a not-inconsequential chunk of change.
Funny, but I really could use the money right now because business has been so slow. Yet, that's the exact reason why I shouldn't go. I need to be here to get the business through this rough spot.
It's funny how life is hard to read while you're in the middle of it. It's hard to recognize moments for what they are until years later when you have the luxury of hindsight. Every day, people are bringing out their inner hero to address problems they face.
Years from now, when I'm rich again, I will look back on this time the same way I look back on my first year of business: a trial by fire that separated me from those who failed.
In the mean time, it's not much fun, but this is what I was born to do. I was born to own and run a business, and so long as I have the ability, that's what I'm going to do with my life. I have had many minor callings, but this is the life that has always been on my mind for as far back as I can remember.
Now, things are tough and this is where the really capable guys distance themselves from the folks who were just along for the ride.
Granted it takes a certain talent to run the business in the environment I was in from 2005-2009. I took sales from $0 to over a million. I joined the country club and had money to spare every month.
Now, though, things aren't like that. There's just nothing to be done about that. You play the hand you're dealt.
The fit has hit the shan. I need to be the best man in the garbage can right now.
The survival of the business, the jobs of my remaining employees, and the future prosperity of both me and my son depend on it.
The good news is that, again, this is what I was born to do. I can't guarantee I'll succeed. I can guarantee that I stand a better shot than most.
I am going to explain this in the context of the fact that I earned less than $30,000 for most of the first years of my career. Pretty much from 1991 thru about 1995. In 1995, I got a couple of raises and took a transfer and promotion, and that put my salary in the $40K range, where I could afford to buy a house and eat something other than $2.00 meals at McDonald's. Before that, though, I didn't make much money. Not in the Army, not in school (though I did pretty well, all things considered) and not for the first few years as a computer programmer.
So, when it comes to wierd money, the first is the money I get from participating in the Navy Reserve. All told, it will probably mean about $8,000 this year. This, by the way, is not entirely different than the total amount of money I made as an E-5 during my last year in the Army.
Granted, I could have served in the reserves all during my adult life, and sometimes I wish I had. However, it is very, very hard to do so and to keep a demanding career going. Although employers wave the flag publicly, military reservists are discriminated against for promotion and hiring in the real world. I doubt I could have risen as far and as fast as I did if I had been serving in the reserves at the same time.
The next big chunk is from credit card rewards programs. Conservatively, I spend about $200,000 to $250,000 a year on credit cards. If I get a 1% rebate on this, that, alone, is $2,000.
Third, I get a rebate on my royalties paid to Servpro if I attend their convention. This is based on how much I pay in royalties, but on the low side, I get maybe $3,500. On the high side, almost $6,000.
So, even when my company is doing poorly, I can get maybe $15,000 a year just from serving in the reserves and getting rebates.
Granted, I couldn't live on that. However, it's not an insignificant chunk of change. I used to work 50+ weeks a year to get maybe $25,000. So, relative to what I used to have to do to earn my living, I am still more than a little impressed that a part time job and a handful of rebates can be so substantial, financially.
On the deployment front, I just saw a short-fused (meaning they need somebody to pack up and leave right now) opportunity that looked great to me. It was for an assistant supply officer for a seabee regiment. I would love to have volunteered for that. However, there were a few things that didn't work out.
First, I'm not sure the commander of my current unit would approve it because it would delay me getting my DAWIA (military contracting) certification. Also, I am supposed to be deploying as a contracting officer, not a supply officer. I think I could talk him into it, but that's one reason against it.
The second reason is that the business really needs my attention right now. I'm putting in longer hours than I have since year two. I'm also doing things (like finding money) that I really can't delegate. I need to be standing in the middle of this thing if we're going to weather this storm.
Third, I want to wait one more year before deploying. At that point, I will be an O-3, which is a difference of about $20,000 a year if deployed. Granted, money isn't the reason I'm in the reserves, but if I'm going to spend a year away, $20,000 is a not-inconsequential chunk of change.
Funny, but I really could use the money right now because business has been so slow. Yet, that's the exact reason why I shouldn't go. I need to be here to get the business through this rough spot.
It's funny how life is hard to read while you're in the middle of it. It's hard to recognize moments for what they are until years later when you have the luxury of hindsight. Every day, people are bringing out their inner hero to address problems they face.
Years from now, when I'm rich again, I will look back on this time the same way I look back on my first year of business: a trial by fire that separated me from those who failed.
In the mean time, it's not much fun, but this is what I was born to do. I was born to own and run a business, and so long as I have the ability, that's what I'm going to do with my life. I have had many minor callings, but this is the life that has always been on my mind for as far back as I can remember.
Now, things are tough and this is where the really capable guys distance themselves from the folks who were just along for the ride.
Granted it takes a certain talent to run the business in the environment I was in from 2005-2009. I took sales from $0 to over a million. I joined the country club and had money to spare every month.
Now, though, things aren't like that. There's just nothing to be done about that. You play the hand you're dealt.
The fit has hit the shan. I need to be the best man in the garbage can right now.
The survival of the business, the jobs of my remaining employees, and the future prosperity of both me and my son depend on it.
The good news is that, again, this is what I was born to do. I can't guarantee I'll succeed. I can guarantee that I stand a better shot than most.
Looking Forward to the Weekend...
There's some sort of burrowing animal that's digging next to my house. I probably will call a pest control type person to take care of it. Whatever it is, it's displaced a large amount of dirt. Not sure that it's harmful, per se. I just know I don't want it there.
I can't believe how busy things have been these past couple of weeks. It's just been one thing after another. This is the first time since I went into business for myself that I can remember not having enough time to get around to things.
The cable guy didn't finish yesterday until noon. That was a huge chunk of my day. Though the house really needed it. The money pit is depressing enough as it is, but without cable or internet, it's really bad. Now, I have cable and Netflix on demand.
Of course, while I'm in this Arabic class, that's the last thing I need. I have a quiz I need to take tomorrow. Our 2nd test is coming up on Tuesday. I need to figure out what I'm going to do for my project. Other than that, our teacher is pretty good about grades. If you're putting in the effort, you can get a good grade.
I think all I need is a B or C for the Navy Culture program. That shouldn't be too hard to do. Right now, with bonus points, I actually have more points than I need to have 100% in the class.
Being back in school has reminded me just how little I like being in school. It's not that it's bad, but working and going to school is the pits. I remember when I was young that people would always talk about how working and going to school made the whole experience so much more valuable.
I remember a lunch I had with some executives back in my corporate days. The subject of working your way though school came up. One of the executives said, "I know it's supposed to teach you hard work and time management. Mostly though, it just taught me how to be tired."
I totally agreed with her. Ironically, my business requires more attention right now than it has in years. So, having one more thing on my plate is not something I need right now. It's amazing how utterly inconvenient a night school class can be as far as a person's schedule.
On a tangent, I have decided to start selling off some of the older equipment at the business. It needed to go, and I should have sold it off years ago. Now, there's a bit of necessity behind the decision. We paid off one of our vans early (it wasn't due to be paid off until December), and will be selling that, soon.
Really, all this stuff needed to go. The van is 6 years old, and has had a lot of hard use. The other equipment we're selling is useful, but getting outdated. If I hang on to it for much longer, it won't be worth anything at all.
I also should probably move forward on hiring a marketer. I get resumes every day, but the first guy to apply has been the best fit so far. At the least, I should call him in for a face-to-face interview.
Project e-bay is going really well. My original intention was to find $10,000 worth of stuff that I haven't touched in a year or more and see if I can e-bay it off. So far, so good. The first guitars, oddly, felt like the 10 days of the action just flew by. Now, 10 days seems like a long time. Maybe because, at first, I didn't want to part with my stuff.
Now? I am actually a little relieved to be simplifying and cutting down on all the junk in my house. I am a pack-rat and a collector. If left to my own devices, I'd be filling warehouses with stuff that I never touch.
Then, after a while, I sit and think about all the junk I have, with no need for it, and that I never actually even touch, and wonder what the heck I was thinking when I bought all the stuff.
Not such a big deal when you're rich, but when times are tight, it's time to simplify.
The other day, I figured I'd be able to get through this economic crunch. Someday, I'll be rich again. Building from zero last time took me about 2 years to do it. Now, the business has the basic structure. We can add people as we get busy again.
It's times like these where you pay your dues, and that means you don't have to feel guilty about how well things are going when times get good again. Next year could be a totally different ballgame.
I am looking forward to the weekend. Need to get rested and caught up on things. It's been a busy, busy few weeks.
I can't believe how busy things have been these past couple of weeks. It's just been one thing after another. This is the first time since I went into business for myself that I can remember not having enough time to get around to things.
The cable guy didn't finish yesterday until noon. That was a huge chunk of my day. Though the house really needed it. The money pit is depressing enough as it is, but without cable or internet, it's really bad. Now, I have cable and Netflix on demand.
Of course, while I'm in this Arabic class, that's the last thing I need. I have a quiz I need to take tomorrow. Our 2nd test is coming up on Tuesday. I need to figure out what I'm going to do for my project. Other than that, our teacher is pretty good about grades. If you're putting in the effort, you can get a good grade.
I think all I need is a B or C for the Navy Culture program. That shouldn't be too hard to do. Right now, with bonus points, I actually have more points than I need to have 100% in the class.
Being back in school has reminded me just how little I like being in school. It's not that it's bad, but working and going to school is the pits. I remember when I was young that people would always talk about how working and going to school made the whole experience so much more valuable.
I remember a lunch I had with some executives back in my corporate days. The subject of working your way though school came up. One of the executives said, "I know it's supposed to teach you hard work and time management. Mostly though, it just taught me how to be tired."
I totally agreed with her. Ironically, my business requires more attention right now than it has in years. So, having one more thing on my plate is not something I need right now. It's amazing how utterly inconvenient a night school class can be as far as a person's schedule.
On a tangent, I have decided to start selling off some of the older equipment at the business. It needed to go, and I should have sold it off years ago. Now, there's a bit of necessity behind the decision. We paid off one of our vans early (it wasn't due to be paid off until December), and will be selling that, soon.
Really, all this stuff needed to go. The van is 6 years old, and has had a lot of hard use. The other equipment we're selling is useful, but getting outdated. If I hang on to it for much longer, it won't be worth anything at all.
I also should probably move forward on hiring a marketer. I get resumes every day, but the first guy to apply has been the best fit so far. At the least, I should call him in for a face-to-face interview.
Project e-bay is going really well. My original intention was to find $10,000 worth of stuff that I haven't touched in a year or more and see if I can e-bay it off. So far, so good. The first guitars, oddly, felt like the 10 days of the action just flew by. Now, 10 days seems like a long time. Maybe because, at first, I didn't want to part with my stuff.
Now? I am actually a little relieved to be simplifying and cutting down on all the junk in my house. I am a pack-rat and a collector. If left to my own devices, I'd be filling warehouses with stuff that I never touch.
Then, after a while, I sit and think about all the junk I have, with no need for it, and that I never actually even touch, and wonder what the heck I was thinking when I bought all the stuff.
Not such a big deal when you're rich, but when times are tight, it's time to simplify.
The other day, I figured I'd be able to get through this economic crunch. Someday, I'll be rich again. Building from zero last time took me about 2 years to do it. Now, the business has the basic structure. We can add people as we get busy again.
It's times like these where you pay your dues, and that means you don't have to feel guilty about how well things are going when times get good again. Next year could be a totally different ballgame.
I am looking forward to the weekend. Need to get rested and caught up on things. It's been a busy, busy few weeks.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Basketball Tryouts Day One...
I got to Logan's house a few minutes later than I thought. Pulled in and his mother's car was gone. She took him to basketball practice.
I realized once the tryout started that she sent him in long pants with nothing to drink. Thank god she at least remembered to bring the basketball shoes I bought him last night.
Suffice to say that this sort of thing is an open sore spot and I really don't want to get started...
Logan did just fine in the tryouts. This is how it breaks down near as I can figure.
15 kids, total. 3 of them stand no chance at all. 4 of them are absolutely already on the team.
8 kids, total, will make the team.
Meaning that there are basically 8 kids fighting for 4 spots at this point. Honestly, I didn't see that much difference between those 8 kids.
This could go either way.
Logan is already signed up for rec league basketball. So, worst case, he'll be doing that.
So, a few thoughts:
1. Logan never did like sports like soccer and hockey, both of which he played for a couple of years. He was okay in them, but it was clear something didn't quite click.
I think he doesn't like the fact that you sort of have to get in there and swarm and fight and that once the game is going, you have positions, but for the most part, you get in there and just make things happen.
I used to say that Logan was simply too polite for games like soccer and hockey. He waits his turn. He doesn't push his way into the middle of things.
Basketball is like that, too. A fluid game. So, it already is one that I can see he might not like as much as baseball and football.
2. A few times over the Summer and in the Fall, I asked him if he wanted to go shoot hoops. He said no. In the Spring, I got him to go to the playground and shoot around once or twice. Basically, he didn't put in much work on this in the off season.
The 4 kids who will certainly make the team? They obviously did.
So, now, there will be context next year when I ask if he wants to shoot around. He's going to be able to make the connection between work in the off season and success at tryouts. If he still doesn't want to, that's fine. If he wants to, I'll be there for him.
4. I did get a little overbearing on him. Didn't mean to, but I often forget just how sensitive he is. For some reason, on defense, instead of crashing the boards for a rebound, he was just standing at the top of the key. I kept telling him, "rebound! rebound!" See item #1. It was like he just didn't get it. Might have been that he was smothering in those long pants. His hair was damp and I think he was overheated.
So, afterwards, I told him he did well, but pointed out some things to work on. First, that he needs to square up his shoulders before shooting. The level of competition in this tryout is tougher than anything he's seen and he let people put him in awkward positions making bad shots.
Next, I told him that he can't just stand around the top of the key when the shot is being made. He has to crash the boards. I told him he'd never make the team if the coaches see him standing outside when others are going for the rebound.
I tried not to be too harsh with him. Though, I think I was still a little angry that he was there in long pants and it probably crept into my tone of voice.
He thought I was angry. I could tell that he was feeling a little hurt, and I said, "Logan, I'm not saying this to give you a hard time. You did fine. This is just something you can do to be a little better for the next time."
Looking back, it's been a horrible, frustrating few weeks at work and I'm probably letting it seep into how I talk. I apologized to him later. He was clearly a little down and said that he was a little sad because he thought I was angry. Told him yet again that I wasn't mad. Reiterated that I thought he did just fine. Was just trying to help.
He said I sounded angry and I said that was my fault. I shouldn't sound angry, and I really wasn't.
I try not to be one of those hockey-dads who is always browbeating their kids when the kids are trying to play sports. It's especially not needed with Logan. He's a sensitive kid and is totally coachable. You don't need to yell at him. You tell him, and he does it.
I feel guilty because I should have been working with him on this all year, not trying to cram prep him the day of the tryout. Again, though, I made myself available to him. He didn't want it. I've never considered sports to be something that kids should be forced to do.
5. As Logan goes along in sports, I hope his age becomes less and less of a factor. As I've said before, he's 2 weeks away from the cutoff for his grade. He was also 2 weeks preemie, which means by his insemination date, he's absolutely the youngest he can be for his grade, or the oldest he could be in the next grade.
It didn't make sense to hold him back. He is just fine academically. He's also darned good in sports. However, at this age, some of the kids are 9, 10 or 11 months older than he is. This means that he's playing against kids who are as much as 10% older than he is.
There is a lot of development that happens at these ages. For instance, when you see the 5th graders, it's like they're not even from the same planet as the 4th graders.
Granted, he can usually overcome the age issue, but not always. It may very well be that he doesn't make this team, but if he were competing against kids the next grade down, he'd be absolutely dominating them.
As he gets older, it won't be such a factor. When he's 15, some kids might be 5% older, but at that point, age, alone, won't confer quite the advantages that it does, now.
So, he has one more day of tryouts. He may make the team. He may not. Hard to tell at this point. I'm ready to accept it if he doesn't.
6. Next year, I am absolutely going to put my foot down that Logan won't be at any Fall baseball workouts. Last year, it was ridiculous. The kids were practicing like crazy all through the Fall and Spring. This year, I think the coach got some pushback from some of the parents, and he cut back to one or two scrimmages per week. However, Logan should have been concentrating on football and getting ready for basketball tryouts. A couple of nights a week isn't the end-all-be all, but honestly, I want the kid to have the opportunity to breathe. So, once you get to where you're doing 2 nights of baseball and 2 days of football, I really don't want to try and cram one more sport in there for the other 3 days. He's got homework to do, and he has friends in the neighborhood to play with.
We'll see how it goes. I think one or two of the other baseball parents might have gone on a little protest strike because I swear there were a few of them who never showed up to anything. I'll be joining them next year if Logan wants to try out for this team again.
7. The last note is that maybe he just can't be the best at everything. He shows true talent at baseball. Has shown true talent at flag football. However, he also put a ton of work into baseball, starting at a very young age. Flag football is a rough analog of actual football, but things may change next year when he's in pads.
Although I want him to play as many sports as he can at this age, the reality is that once he gets to high school, he might very well have to pick just one sport and work at it year-round.
So, maybe basketball will be like soccer and hockey: games he did fine in, but didn't quite excel in.
Which would leave him with only baseball, football, skiing and swimming to keep him busy... and if I can get my business turned around, I want him to learn to golf one of these years.
I realized once the tryout started that she sent him in long pants with nothing to drink. Thank god she at least remembered to bring the basketball shoes I bought him last night.
Suffice to say that this sort of thing is an open sore spot and I really don't want to get started...
Logan did just fine in the tryouts. This is how it breaks down near as I can figure.
15 kids, total. 3 of them stand no chance at all. 4 of them are absolutely already on the team.
8 kids, total, will make the team.
Meaning that there are basically 8 kids fighting for 4 spots at this point. Honestly, I didn't see that much difference between those 8 kids.
This could go either way.
Logan is already signed up for rec league basketball. So, worst case, he'll be doing that.
So, a few thoughts:
1. Logan never did like sports like soccer and hockey, both of which he played for a couple of years. He was okay in them, but it was clear something didn't quite click.
I think he doesn't like the fact that you sort of have to get in there and swarm and fight and that once the game is going, you have positions, but for the most part, you get in there and just make things happen.
I used to say that Logan was simply too polite for games like soccer and hockey. He waits his turn. He doesn't push his way into the middle of things.
Basketball is like that, too. A fluid game. So, it already is one that I can see he might not like as much as baseball and football.
2. A few times over the Summer and in the Fall, I asked him if he wanted to go shoot hoops. He said no. In the Spring, I got him to go to the playground and shoot around once or twice. Basically, he didn't put in much work on this in the off season.
The 4 kids who will certainly make the team? They obviously did.
So, now, there will be context next year when I ask if he wants to shoot around. He's going to be able to make the connection between work in the off season and success at tryouts. If he still doesn't want to, that's fine. If he wants to, I'll be there for him.
4. I did get a little overbearing on him. Didn't mean to, but I often forget just how sensitive he is. For some reason, on defense, instead of crashing the boards for a rebound, he was just standing at the top of the key. I kept telling him, "rebound! rebound!" See item #1. It was like he just didn't get it. Might have been that he was smothering in those long pants. His hair was damp and I think he was overheated.
So, afterwards, I told him he did well, but pointed out some things to work on. First, that he needs to square up his shoulders before shooting. The level of competition in this tryout is tougher than anything he's seen and he let people put him in awkward positions making bad shots.
Next, I told him that he can't just stand around the top of the key when the shot is being made. He has to crash the boards. I told him he'd never make the team if the coaches see him standing outside when others are going for the rebound.
I tried not to be too harsh with him. Though, I think I was still a little angry that he was there in long pants and it probably crept into my tone of voice.
He thought I was angry. I could tell that he was feeling a little hurt, and I said, "Logan, I'm not saying this to give you a hard time. You did fine. This is just something you can do to be a little better for the next time."
Looking back, it's been a horrible, frustrating few weeks at work and I'm probably letting it seep into how I talk. I apologized to him later. He was clearly a little down and said that he was a little sad because he thought I was angry. Told him yet again that I wasn't mad. Reiterated that I thought he did just fine. Was just trying to help.
He said I sounded angry and I said that was my fault. I shouldn't sound angry, and I really wasn't.
I try not to be one of those hockey-dads who is always browbeating their kids when the kids are trying to play sports. It's especially not needed with Logan. He's a sensitive kid and is totally coachable. You don't need to yell at him. You tell him, and he does it.
I feel guilty because I should have been working with him on this all year, not trying to cram prep him the day of the tryout. Again, though, I made myself available to him. He didn't want it. I've never considered sports to be something that kids should be forced to do.
5. As Logan goes along in sports, I hope his age becomes less and less of a factor. As I've said before, he's 2 weeks away from the cutoff for his grade. He was also 2 weeks preemie, which means by his insemination date, he's absolutely the youngest he can be for his grade, or the oldest he could be in the next grade.
It didn't make sense to hold him back. He is just fine academically. He's also darned good in sports. However, at this age, some of the kids are 9, 10 or 11 months older than he is. This means that he's playing against kids who are as much as 10% older than he is.
There is a lot of development that happens at these ages. For instance, when you see the 5th graders, it's like they're not even from the same planet as the 4th graders.
Granted, he can usually overcome the age issue, but not always. It may very well be that he doesn't make this team, but if he were competing against kids the next grade down, he'd be absolutely dominating them.
As he gets older, it won't be such a factor. When he's 15, some kids might be 5% older, but at that point, age, alone, won't confer quite the advantages that it does, now.
So, he has one more day of tryouts. He may make the team. He may not. Hard to tell at this point. I'm ready to accept it if he doesn't.
6. Next year, I am absolutely going to put my foot down that Logan won't be at any Fall baseball workouts. Last year, it was ridiculous. The kids were practicing like crazy all through the Fall and Spring. This year, I think the coach got some pushback from some of the parents, and he cut back to one or two scrimmages per week. However, Logan should have been concentrating on football and getting ready for basketball tryouts. A couple of nights a week isn't the end-all-be all, but honestly, I want the kid to have the opportunity to breathe. So, once you get to where you're doing 2 nights of baseball and 2 days of football, I really don't want to try and cram one more sport in there for the other 3 days. He's got homework to do, and he has friends in the neighborhood to play with.
We'll see how it goes. I think one or two of the other baseball parents might have gone on a little protest strike because I swear there were a few of them who never showed up to anything. I'll be joining them next year if Logan wants to try out for this team again.
7. The last note is that maybe he just can't be the best at everything. He shows true talent at baseball. Has shown true talent at flag football. However, he also put a ton of work into baseball, starting at a very young age. Flag football is a rough analog of actual football, but things may change next year when he's in pads.
Although I want him to play as many sports as he can at this age, the reality is that once he gets to high school, he might very well have to pick just one sport and work at it year-round.
So, maybe basketball will be like soccer and hockey: games he did fine in, but didn't quite excel in.
Which would leave him with only baseball, football, skiing and swimming to keep him busy... and if I can get my business turned around, I want him to learn to golf one of these years.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Tryouts, yet again...
I have another thing to be neurotic about. Logan has tryouts for the Junior Cats basketball team. It's one where they will be trying out and there will be cuts to survive.
I wasn't terribly successful at that sort of thing when I was younger. Logan has a lot more athletic ability, though.
I went out back and watched him shoot the other day and he looked pretty good. Better than most 4th graders I remember, anyway.
I know I shouldn't be worried about it. I know that deep down, my anxiety is because I feel that if he doesn't make the team, it's because I have failed him.
I shouldn't worry so much about basketball, though. Baseball, maybe that's true. He always displayed an interest and always put the work in.
Basketball? Not so much. We've got a hoop out back on our concrete pad. I don't push him to practice. I did show him how to do a one-hand set shot. At his age, that's hard, though. He still mostly shoots a two handed set shot.
He did show me the other night that he remembered what I showed him, though. He's a very coachable kid. Always has been.
I just try not to push. He gets enough sports as it is. No need to push more on him. As he gets older, if it's important to him, he'll seek it out more and more on his own. I should provide resources, as best I can, and let it go from there.
In this case, there's a rec league team available to him, too, and the Cats recommend that he play both. Try to get the kids as much basketball as possible. So, worst case and he'll just play rec, which is fine. That'll be enough exposure that if he doesn't make the Cats, he can decide whether he wants to put in the work to make the team next year.
I think most of my worries are normal parental neurosis, though. We want the best for our kids. We want them to be happy.
Still, we can't shield them from everything. He'll have disappointments to deal with over the years.
So far, really, that day hasn't come for him. Some people live such charmed lives. I used to think that in the end, kharma sort of evened everything out for everybody, but now, I know that's not true. Life isn't fair and some folks get to skate through it with minimal pain, while others have to pay through the nose for everything they get.
I almost feel like the folks who get used to the hard knocks, tend to continue to have to do things the hard way all their lives. The folks who just sort of always fell into it, continue to look for ways to fall into it.
This scientific studdy sort of confirms it, too:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/3335275.stm
Now, I really don't like to describe myself as having lived a life of hardship. In many, many ways, I'm the luckiest guy you'll ever meet. However, as I read an article like the one from the bbc, there is no doubt in my mind: I've got the "unlucky" mindset.
There were some formative childhood experiences I had that I believe made me that way. I was a naturally happy, outgoing and gregarious kid when I was very young, but a series of life-events and a few situations really wrung it out of me.
By the time I went to High School, I hardly said a word to anybody. I had almost no happy-go-lucky left in me and was mostly anxiety.
I just want Logan to keep the optimistic, happy side of himself for as long as he can. Though I think, one way or another, he has the basic tools to be successful and happy. Most of all, he's considerate, conscientious and careful. So, he has the basis to be a genuinely good person.
So, does the tryout mean that if he doesn't make it, he'll be unlucky the rest of his life? Nah. And sometimes things that appear to be our biggest failures end up being key, formative experiences that shape our life for the better.
Even so... I hope he makes the team.
I wasn't terribly successful at that sort of thing when I was younger. Logan has a lot more athletic ability, though.
I went out back and watched him shoot the other day and he looked pretty good. Better than most 4th graders I remember, anyway.
I know I shouldn't be worried about it. I know that deep down, my anxiety is because I feel that if he doesn't make the team, it's because I have failed him.
I shouldn't worry so much about basketball, though. Baseball, maybe that's true. He always displayed an interest and always put the work in.
Basketball? Not so much. We've got a hoop out back on our concrete pad. I don't push him to practice. I did show him how to do a one-hand set shot. At his age, that's hard, though. He still mostly shoots a two handed set shot.
He did show me the other night that he remembered what I showed him, though. He's a very coachable kid. Always has been.
I just try not to push. He gets enough sports as it is. No need to push more on him. As he gets older, if it's important to him, he'll seek it out more and more on his own. I should provide resources, as best I can, and let it go from there.
In this case, there's a rec league team available to him, too, and the Cats recommend that he play both. Try to get the kids as much basketball as possible. So, worst case and he'll just play rec, which is fine. That'll be enough exposure that if he doesn't make the Cats, he can decide whether he wants to put in the work to make the team next year.
I think most of my worries are normal parental neurosis, though. We want the best for our kids. We want them to be happy.
Still, we can't shield them from everything. He'll have disappointments to deal with over the years.
So far, really, that day hasn't come for him. Some people live such charmed lives. I used to think that in the end, kharma sort of evened everything out for everybody, but now, I know that's not true. Life isn't fair and some folks get to skate through it with minimal pain, while others have to pay through the nose for everything they get.
I almost feel like the folks who get used to the hard knocks, tend to continue to have to do things the hard way all their lives. The folks who just sort of always fell into it, continue to look for ways to fall into it.
This scientific studdy sort of confirms it, too:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/3335275.stm
Now, I really don't like to describe myself as having lived a life of hardship. In many, many ways, I'm the luckiest guy you'll ever meet. However, as I read an article like the one from the bbc, there is no doubt in my mind: I've got the "unlucky" mindset.
There were some formative childhood experiences I had that I believe made me that way. I was a naturally happy, outgoing and gregarious kid when I was very young, but a series of life-events and a few situations really wrung it out of me.
By the time I went to High School, I hardly said a word to anybody. I had almost no happy-go-lucky left in me and was mostly anxiety.
I just want Logan to keep the optimistic, happy side of himself for as long as he can. Though I think, one way or another, he has the basic tools to be successful and happy. Most of all, he's considerate, conscientious and careful. So, he has the basis to be a genuinely good person.
So, does the tryout mean that if he doesn't make it, he'll be unlucky the rest of his life? Nah. And sometimes things that appear to be our biggest failures end up being key, formative experiences that shape our life for the better.
Even so... I hope he makes the team.
This is the Winter... well... Autumn of our discontent...
I was sort of looking forward to the last quarter of this year because we'd liquidate some debt and go into next year with about $15,000 worth of debt service and cost avoidance that could make things easier.
We're really stumbling into the last part of the year, though. The weather continues to be amazingly perfect around here. Things are really bad for business.
This thing has been sputterring for so long, it's just depressing these days. It's a challenge to work up the motivation to keep things going. Pretty much the only thing I can do to lower costs is to let a couple more people go, but that wouldn't make enough of a difference to matter, much.
I will start looking around for assets to sell. It's a bad time to be trying to sell stuff, but that's just the breaks sometimes. It's stuff I should have probably sold, anyway, though. So, it's not all bad to get rid of it.
I keep holding on in the hopes that business conditions will improve. If we could just get normal weather patterns around here, they'd improve a considerable amount. However, I just can't keep holding out forever. I won't put any more money into the business. It's already completely drained (and imperiled) my finances. At this point, I'll be selling off assets to make ends meet.
Eventually, there won't be enough assets to continue operations. When that happens, I know it's time to hang it up.
So, a year from now, I could be beating the street looking for a job, or I could be rich again because business finally took off.
Of course, there are no jobs, so that's not much of a realistic option. More likely, I'll try to get deployed with the Navy. Someday, the economy will recover, though frankly, the two historical examples of something like this both took more than a decade to get straightened out: our great depression and Japan's "lost decade". So, I will probably be almost 50 before America gets fully back to work again.
I'm selling off a lot of personal stuff, too. The guitars are down to just the ones that really aren't worth that much. I'm selling off guns, now. Will keep a few, but for the most part, anything that I can sell, I will be selling. It makes sense to streamline and consolidate, anyway. I just had too much stuff, and most of it, I never used. It'll feel good to simplify.
I don't see anything that will turn things around for a while. We're probably looking at another couple of months before things get really cold, and payables have really been stretched out lately. So, best realistic case for rescue won't happen for another 3 months.
That's a long time off. In the mean time, this is just miserable. I'm worn out trying to keep this thing afloat.
We're really stumbling into the last part of the year, though. The weather continues to be amazingly perfect around here. Things are really bad for business.
This thing has been sputterring for so long, it's just depressing these days. It's a challenge to work up the motivation to keep things going. Pretty much the only thing I can do to lower costs is to let a couple more people go, but that wouldn't make enough of a difference to matter, much.
I will start looking around for assets to sell. It's a bad time to be trying to sell stuff, but that's just the breaks sometimes. It's stuff I should have probably sold, anyway, though. So, it's not all bad to get rid of it.
I keep holding on in the hopes that business conditions will improve. If we could just get normal weather patterns around here, they'd improve a considerable amount. However, I just can't keep holding out forever. I won't put any more money into the business. It's already completely drained (and imperiled) my finances. At this point, I'll be selling off assets to make ends meet.
Eventually, there won't be enough assets to continue operations. When that happens, I know it's time to hang it up.
So, a year from now, I could be beating the street looking for a job, or I could be rich again because business finally took off.
Of course, there are no jobs, so that's not much of a realistic option. More likely, I'll try to get deployed with the Navy. Someday, the economy will recover, though frankly, the two historical examples of something like this both took more than a decade to get straightened out: our great depression and Japan's "lost decade". So, I will probably be almost 50 before America gets fully back to work again.
I'm selling off a lot of personal stuff, too. The guitars are down to just the ones that really aren't worth that much. I'm selling off guns, now. Will keep a few, but for the most part, anything that I can sell, I will be selling. It makes sense to streamline and consolidate, anyway. I just had too much stuff, and most of it, I never used. It'll feel good to simplify.
I don't see anything that will turn things around for a while. We're probably looking at another couple of months before things get really cold, and payables have really been stretched out lately. So, best realistic case for rescue won't happen for another 3 months.
That's a long time off. In the mean time, this is just miserable. I'm worn out trying to keep this thing afloat.
Monday, October 18, 2010
Sad, Shocking News
I've been dealing with some awful news for a day now. Wasn't sure what to say about it, or even IF I should say anything about it on my blog.
A friend of mine died about 24 hours ago. He worked 3rd shift and died at work. His name was Jon McCall, was a husband and a father of 2 kids who aren't that different than my son in age.
I didn't know Jon that well until a couple of years ago. Once a year, my Dad goes all out and sponsors a trip to Disneyland for all of his kids and grandkids. Jon and I, primarily due to the fact that our boys like to ride the same rides, spent a lot of time together walking around the park, and it was the first time I got to really know him.
I really, really enjoyed his company.
This has been a pretty crappy year for me in a lot of ways. There were some bright spots to be sure: I really like my new Navy unit. My son made a travel baseball team and the season was a blast. An exhausting blast, but a blast nonetheless.
So, the year wasn't devoid of joy, but with the economy, and trying to captain the ship of my business away from the rocks in an increasingly turbulent economic sea, it's been a nerve-wracking year. It's absolutely drained me.
It's been going on for a year and a half now, and I have to admit, it's been wearing me down.
Things like Jon's passing, though? It puts things in perspective. My heart breaks for his two wonderful kids. They are absolutely a joy to be around. Well-behaved, happy, bright, athletic. I just love them to death. He had been married to his wife for almost two decades, and she, just like everybody else in the family, is a remarkable and wonderful person.
How small my trials and tribulations seem in comparison. Every day I live to try and keep moving forward is a gift that I shouldn't ever take for granted.
There was a time, when deployment was a lot more likely, that I couldn't help but think what it would be like for my boy if he were to be handed the folded flag. It was sad to think of. To think that he would grow up with a hole in his heart where my memory would reside. That all his memories of me, regardless of how happy, would be bittersweet in the remembering. I have no doubt that he would have grown up to be a fine, quality young man in my absence.
Even so, there's a sadness about losing your parent that simply can't be reasoned away.
I hate whining, even though I do way more than my share of it. No matter how self-pitying I am, I know that there are people with real difficulties they're dealing with. Life isn't fair, but it's especially unfair to the people who have to deal with losing a loved one.
I remember learning this lesson early in my life. That I needed to appreciate the people in my life while they were around. There's no upside to waiting to tell people how you feel about them. I'd like to say that I hugged my son extra tight after hearing the terrible news about Jon. That's not true, though. I've always hugged him extra tight.
Life is a gift and we should appreciate every moment of it, and every minute we spend with our fellow passengers in time.
In the mean time, there is absolutely nothing I can do or say to Jon's family that will lessen the severity of this blow. The futility of it all is so maddenning.
All I can do is think how fortunate I was, after not-knowing him for so long, to have had a chance to get to know him and to form a genuine friendship.
I'm not a person who thinks there's a silver lining to everything. I also don't think everything is part of God's plan, unless we believe in a god who believes in capriciously killing off his creations and cruelly makes them suffer through war and disease. Sometimes things are just bad, and there's no getting around that.
So, Jon's passing? No offense to anybody's beliefs, but I don't think there's anything good about that at all.
However, there was good in his life. So, that's what I'll try to remember. Godspeed, Jon. You left us too soon.
A friend of mine died about 24 hours ago. He worked 3rd shift and died at work. His name was Jon McCall, was a husband and a father of 2 kids who aren't that different than my son in age.
I didn't know Jon that well until a couple of years ago. Once a year, my Dad goes all out and sponsors a trip to Disneyland for all of his kids and grandkids. Jon and I, primarily due to the fact that our boys like to ride the same rides, spent a lot of time together walking around the park, and it was the first time I got to really know him.
I really, really enjoyed his company.
This has been a pretty crappy year for me in a lot of ways. There were some bright spots to be sure: I really like my new Navy unit. My son made a travel baseball team and the season was a blast. An exhausting blast, but a blast nonetheless.
So, the year wasn't devoid of joy, but with the economy, and trying to captain the ship of my business away from the rocks in an increasingly turbulent economic sea, it's been a nerve-wracking year. It's absolutely drained me.
It's been going on for a year and a half now, and I have to admit, it's been wearing me down.
Things like Jon's passing, though? It puts things in perspective. My heart breaks for his two wonderful kids. They are absolutely a joy to be around. Well-behaved, happy, bright, athletic. I just love them to death. He had been married to his wife for almost two decades, and she, just like everybody else in the family, is a remarkable and wonderful person.
How small my trials and tribulations seem in comparison. Every day I live to try and keep moving forward is a gift that I shouldn't ever take for granted.
There was a time, when deployment was a lot more likely, that I couldn't help but think what it would be like for my boy if he were to be handed the folded flag. It was sad to think of. To think that he would grow up with a hole in his heart where my memory would reside. That all his memories of me, regardless of how happy, would be bittersweet in the remembering. I have no doubt that he would have grown up to be a fine, quality young man in my absence.
Even so, there's a sadness about losing your parent that simply can't be reasoned away.
I hate whining, even though I do way more than my share of it. No matter how self-pitying I am, I know that there are people with real difficulties they're dealing with. Life isn't fair, but it's especially unfair to the people who have to deal with losing a loved one.
I remember learning this lesson early in my life. That I needed to appreciate the people in my life while they were around. There's no upside to waiting to tell people how you feel about them. I'd like to say that I hugged my son extra tight after hearing the terrible news about Jon. That's not true, though. I've always hugged him extra tight.
Life is a gift and we should appreciate every moment of it, and every minute we spend with our fellow passengers in time.
In the mean time, there is absolutely nothing I can do or say to Jon's family that will lessen the severity of this blow. The futility of it all is so maddenning.
All I can do is think how fortunate I was, after not-knowing him for so long, to have had a chance to get to know him and to form a genuine friendship.
I'm not a person who thinks there's a silver lining to everything. I also don't think everything is part of God's plan, unless we believe in a god who believes in capriciously killing off his creations and cruelly makes them suffer through war and disease. Sometimes things are just bad, and there's no getting around that.
So, Jon's passing? No offense to anybody's beliefs, but I don't think there's anything good about that at all.
However, there was good in his life. So, that's what I'll try to remember. Godspeed, Jon. You left us too soon.
Friday, October 15, 2010
Friday... things have settled down...
It was like I got off the plane on Tuesday and stepped right into a storm of craptacular crappularity. Texas was so awesome this time around. When I got back, it was crisis after crisis for the next few days.
We got a few checks in, so we can breathe for a week or so. We'll repeat the entire process in a couple of weeks when the next payroll is due. Such are the joys of small business ownership in the great recession.
The weather is getting cold. It was in the 40s this morning when I woke up. In a way, that's a good sign. We need the bad weather to get us jump-started. In this business, our busy-season starts pretty much with the first hard freeze in December or January and ends whenever the thunderstorms end in the Summer.
Last year, we never had a hard freeze or big thunderstorms. Hence, we had a crappy year. I should be happy to see the seasons change and with it, perhaps, my fortunes.
I'm always sad to see the bad weather come, though. It's depressing here in the Winter. It's dark, cold, nothing much good is going on. Of course, ski season starts. I will be taking Logan to the slopes with his brand-new skis (a very late birthday present.) The ski shop still hasn't gotten them in, but they assure me that in late October, they should arrive. We'll probably get out on the slopes a half dozen times. So, that's nice.
As athletic and active as Logan is, it's good to get him one more sport he can do.
We have the pitching machine in the basement so we can work on his swing to get ready for baseball. I'll also be taking some stuff to the warehouse so I can work on pitching with him.
Next week, I think he's got tryouts for a somewhat competitive basketball team. We haven't worked on basketball at all. If he doesn't make it, we'll sign him up for rec. Tonight, I went in the back yard to watch him shoot some hoops and he did great. Couldn't say whether or not he'll make the team, but he seems pretty good to me.
Pretty soon, I'll start moving sports gear to the warehouse so Logan can work on pitching and shooting hoops indoors when the weather turns bad.
In a way, I guess I'm looking forward to the travel baseball season kicking off again. At that point, the weather will be starting to turn warm again. After next month, I'll have my June and July drills taken care of. So, I'll have those months off from the Navy. As long as I can get May off with my December drill, that pretty much takes care of the travel season.
My bud, Patrick, showed me a Tabata interval timer application for the droid. So, I tried my first tabata workouts. Did push-ups, sit-ups and knee bends. I also did some negatives on the chin-up bar. I need to do that routine once every 3 or 4 days, I think. It's a great way to stay in shape and it doesn't take much time. Of all things, the place where I feel it most are in my legs.
Last fitness test, my push-ups were not very good. Sit-ups (curl-ups for the Navy), were better than expected. The run was about what I would have figured. I also have a mountain of laundry at the house, so I think a rowing machine workout is in order.
My last Melancon guitar got a qualifying bid on e-bay. So, it will sell. They sold for more than I thought they would. My Gibson SG sold for less, really. All in all, I did okay selling off the 4 guitars. Things are going to be tight, financially, at least until January, I think.
I put up one of my guns for sale, and that's what's going, next. Seems like the market for guns is a little soft at the moment. I'll know more after the auction is complete.
Traded some more e-mails with the berthing coordinator and it appears that they will be able to give me a private room with shared bath because I'm flex-drilling. (That means I'm there for more than just the 2 days of a normal drill weekend.) So, that's nice. It's bad enough that I'm paying for airfare and car rental out of pocket. I don't need to be forking out for hotels, too.
Obviously, money wasn't and isn't my motivator when it comes to doing the Navy thing, but I do get about $400 after-tax for a weekend. When I double-up, I get $800 for 4 days work. Not a king's ransom, but nothing to ignore. Even with $300 in airfare and $12 in car rental, I still come out ahead.
I put an ad in the paper for a marketing person. I'm not paying much on this. I prefer to bring people in at a low wage and have them prove themselves to me. I considered doing this job myself, but it's something that really is best handled by an employee who can focus on it.
Football is tomorrow morning. Logan has just 2 games left, this week and next. After that, I will move the basketball hoop to the warehouse, so he can practice indoors in the Winter.
For some reason, I'm really feeling anxiety these days. We've had way too many close calls on payroll lately. Business will probably stay flat at least until mid-December. This has just been the year from hell.
It's hard not to get discouraged. I have no idea how I survived this long, and have no idea how I'll survive much longer if business doesn't pick up.
I really have no choice at this point but to hang on and hope that 2011 has normal weather patterns for a change.
This downturn came at such a bad time. I had started to establish savings and really had a sizeable rainy day fund. Thing is, things just never got better and after a year of this, I feel almost like I did during my first year. I have to re-build this business almost from scratch. Not totally, though. The employees I have left are awesome.
Let's hope we have awesome business in 2011. I've already written off 2010.
We got a few checks in, so we can breathe for a week or so. We'll repeat the entire process in a couple of weeks when the next payroll is due. Such are the joys of small business ownership in the great recession.
The weather is getting cold. It was in the 40s this morning when I woke up. In a way, that's a good sign. We need the bad weather to get us jump-started. In this business, our busy-season starts pretty much with the first hard freeze in December or January and ends whenever the thunderstorms end in the Summer.
Last year, we never had a hard freeze or big thunderstorms. Hence, we had a crappy year. I should be happy to see the seasons change and with it, perhaps, my fortunes.
I'm always sad to see the bad weather come, though. It's depressing here in the Winter. It's dark, cold, nothing much good is going on. Of course, ski season starts. I will be taking Logan to the slopes with his brand-new skis (a very late birthday present.) The ski shop still hasn't gotten them in, but they assure me that in late October, they should arrive. We'll probably get out on the slopes a half dozen times. So, that's nice.
As athletic and active as Logan is, it's good to get him one more sport he can do.
We have the pitching machine in the basement so we can work on his swing to get ready for baseball. I'll also be taking some stuff to the warehouse so I can work on pitching with him.
Next week, I think he's got tryouts for a somewhat competitive basketball team. We haven't worked on basketball at all. If he doesn't make it, we'll sign him up for rec. Tonight, I went in the back yard to watch him shoot some hoops and he did great. Couldn't say whether or not he'll make the team, but he seems pretty good to me.
Pretty soon, I'll start moving sports gear to the warehouse so Logan can work on pitching and shooting hoops indoors when the weather turns bad.
In a way, I guess I'm looking forward to the travel baseball season kicking off again. At that point, the weather will be starting to turn warm again. After next month, I'll have my June and July drills taken care of. So, I'll have those months off from the Navy. As long as I can get May off with my December drill, that pretty much takes care of the travel season.
My bud, Patrick, showed me a Tabata interval timer application for the droid. So, I tried my first tabata workouts. Did push-ups, sit-ups and knee bends. I also did some negatives on the chin-up bar. I need to do that routine once every 3 or 4 days, I think. It's a great way to stay in shape and it doesn't take much time. Of all things, the place where I feel it most are in my legs.
Last fitness test, my push-ups were not very good. Sit-ups (curl-ups for the Navy), were better than expected. The run was about what I would have figured. I also have a mountain of laundry at the house, so I think a rowing machine workout is in order.
My last Melancon guitar got a qualifying bid on e-bay. So, it will sell. They sold for more than I thought they would. My Gibson SG sold for less, really. All in all, I did okay selling off the 4 guitars. Things are going to be tight, financially, at least until January, I think.
I put up one of my guns for sale, and that's what's going, next. Seems like the market for guns is a little soft at the moment. I'll know more after the auction is complete.
Traded some more e-mails with the berthing coordinator and it appears that they will be able to give me a private room with shared bath because I'm flex-drilling. (That means I'm there for more than just the 2 days of a normal drill weekend.) So, that's nice. It's bad enough that I'm paying for airfare and car rental out of pocket. I don't need to be forking out for hotels, too.
Obviously, money wasn't and isn't my motivator when it comes to doing the Navy thing, but I do get about $400 after-tax for a weekend. When I double-up, I get $800 for 4 days work. Not a king's ransom, but nothing to ignore. Even with $300 in airfare and $12 in car rental, I still come out ahead.
I put an ad in the paper for a marketing person. I'm not paying much on this. I prefer to bring people in at a low wage and have them prove themselves to me. I considered doing this job myself, but it's something that really is best handled by an employee who can focus on it.
Football is tomorrow morning. Logan has just 2 games left, this week and next. After that, I will move the basketball hoop to the warehouse, so he can practice indoors in the Winter.
For some reason, I'm really feeling anxiety these days. We've had way too many close calls on payroll lately. Business will probably stay flat at least until mid-December. This has just been the year from hell.
It's hard not to get discouraged. I have no idea how I survived this long, and have no idea how I'll survive much longer if business doesn't pick up.
I really have no choice at this point but to hang on and hope that 2011 has normal weather patterns for a change.
This downturn came at such a bad time. I had started to establish savings and really had a sizeable rainy day fund. Thing is, things just never got better and after a year of this, I feel almost like I did during my first year. I have to re-build this business almost from scratch. Not totally, though. The employees I have left are awesome.
Let's hope we have awesome business in 2011. I've already written off 2010.
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Navy Berthing...
I'm lining up all my stuff for November, and it looks like it was sort of a lucky fluke that I got my own room the first time I drilled in Fort Worth. Getting a room is called "berthing" in Navy terminology. The berthing coordinator said that having a room-mate would be the norm. Getting a single room with a shared bathroom would be the exception.
I'm a total Sally about this sort of thing. There are a lot of things I want to see before I die. Like Nuno Bettencourt playing all the solos from the songs he played on with Extreme.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jrfRp8Tshs&feature=fvw
Of all the things I want to see before I die, another man's hairy butt doesn't make the list. I suppose some folks might say that this makes me some sort of closeted homophobe or something. Personally, I think it just makes me a guy who doesn't want to see other naked guys.
This is one of those culture shock things coming from the Army to the Navy. Yes, in the Army you had communal living and a lack of privacy compared to civilian life, but for the most part, there was a thin semblance of privacy. I mean, yeah, you might have 4 room-mates at a training command. 2 room-mates once you got to your duty station.
Nothing like the Air Force, where pretty much every Airman has his own room.
But also, nothing like the Navy where you are in a berthing area with row after row of bunks 3 deep, or the Marines where they still believe in living in open-bay barracks.
Their seagoing heritage means that they're used to living in areas that most people would consider too small to be a walk-in closet. (One of my favorite quotes about the Navy is that when designing housing, never ask a Navy man what he considers an acceptable amount of personal living space.)
So, to have one room-mate? That's living high on the hog by Navy standards.
The Navy does see the problem with this, though. Mainly that when you treat people worse than you have to, and worse than society at large does, with no good justification for it, they tend to think the job you're giving them is crappy.
In fact, they have launched an initiative that will provide private rooms for various ranks, but it won't apply to junior officers until fiscal year 2012, I think. So, relief is on the way. It just won't happen for another year.
In the mean time, these drill weekends are utterly exhausting, as it is. Starting with my fly-out date, I'm up at about 5:00 a.m. every day and sometimes earlier. With trying to catch up with old friends in Fort Worth, I am usually out until 10:00 or 11:00 every night.
Folks who know me know I'm a very light sleeper. The last thing I need is to have what little sleep I'm getting interrupted by somebody snoring or coming in late. Also, time is at a premium for showering, etc. I just don't want the hassle.
I'm still trading e-mails with the very patient and forebearing berthing coordinator. It looks like, at this point, that I will stay on-post during the weekdays. At that point, demand should be down considerably. It's mostly Friday and Saturday nights where folks need rooms.
I can use the last of my Marriott Rewards points to stay at a hotel in Bedford, TX this weekend. Not ideal, but it works.
I used to think the Army treated it's soldiers really badly when it came to single soldier housing. The Department of Defense has guidelines on the minimum amount of space that each servicemember should get. The Army would then simply declare a "housing emergency" and make itself exempt from all DoD standards. Near as I can figure, the housing emergency on most Army Forts and Bases started in World War II and has continued for the last 70 years.
The Air Force, on this issue and most others, is way out in front. Part of it is that they have a ridiculous amount of money relative to their needs. Contrary to popular belief, the services don't really get money based on what they need. For the past several decades, it basically gets divided 1/3 to the Army, 1/3 to the Air Force, and 1/3 to the Navy.
They try to claim that it's need-based and zero-budget based, but that's a complete fabrication.
This 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 division is meant to keep the services from fighting among themselves for funding.
http://www.slate.com/id/2187616/
The end result is that the Air Force, which has a very small mission, has way more money than it needs. Always has. Probably always will.
The Army, which has to pay the largest number of people, is pretty much properly funded, though the fact that they shoulder the biggest burden in our two wars puts a strain on them from time to time.
The Navy? When you think about it, the Navy has it's own air-force, with all the aircraft and pilots it has. It has its own army because the Marine Corps gets their money from the Department of the Navy. It has ... well... a Navy, too, with ships and seaborne weapons systems.
So, packing people into a room isn't just based on tradition. It's based on lack of money, too. It's not just because of mean-spiritedness that the Navy has, for years, made lower enlisted people live on ship when the ship is in port. They have a lot to do and only a limited amount of money to do it with. They have to be very careful with the funding they have.
The Navy is releasing more funding for this in coming years, but it won't happen overnight. In the mean time, I think it's ridiculous that officers are required to have room-mates. When I went to MEPS for my entrance physical, I got my own room just because I was an officer candidate. When I went to the hotel while reporting for my first drill, and the desk-clerk told me I had a room-mate, I thought this had to be some sort of mistake.
It's not. It's how the Navy does things. Bad as it was that I had a room-mate, imagine how my room-mate must have felt. He was an O-5 (a senior officer) and they were still sticking him with a room-mate.
During a bad economy like this, it's not such a big deal. The military services can and do abuse their people in any way they deem fit when retention is high and applicants exceed available open slots.
However, once the economy improves, people who feel they're mistreated will leave. They always have. The fact that when I was a Sergeant in the Army, I had living conditions that were substantially worse than those in a typical college freshman dorm, played no small part in my decision to get out and seek my fortunes elsewhere.
Right now, the reserves are doing pretty well. Folks need the money in an uncertain economy. Patriotism is still running on a post 9/11 high.
However, things won't stay this way forever, and the Navy is wise to stop treating it's people like cattle when possible.
In the mean time, if I have absolutely no other choice, like if I'm deployed or on orders on a military base, I'll do whatever I have to do, including putting up with a room mate.
Otherwise, though, I'll be doing something else. Actually, weekend hotel rates tend to be pretty good, too. That's generally when hotels are at their emptiest. So, if I can get on-base berthing on the weekdays and go out of pocket on the weekends, that won't be so bad.
I'm a total Sally about this sort of thing. There are a lot of things I want to see before I die. Like Nuno Bettencourt playing all the solos from the songs he played on with Extreme.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jrfRp8Tshs&feature=fvw
Of all the things I want to see before I die, another man's hairy butt doesn't make the list. I suppose some folks might say that this makes me some sort of closeted homophobe or something. Personally, I think it just makes me a guy who doesn't want to see other naked guys.
This is one of those culture shock things coming from the Army to the Navy. Yes, in the Army you had communal living and a lack of privacy compared to civilian life, but for the most part, there was a thin semblance of privacy. I mean, yeah, you might have 4 room-mates at a training command. 2 room-mates once you got to your duty station.
Nothing like the Air Force, where pretty much every Airman has his own room.
But also, nothing like the Navy where you are in a berthing area with row after row of bunks 3 deep, or the Marines where they still believe in living in open-bay barracks.
Their seagoing heritage means that they're used to living in areas that most people would consider too small to be a walk-in closet. (One of my favorite quotes about the Navy is that when designing housing, never ask a Navy man what he considers an acceptable amount of personal living space.)
So, to have one room-mate? That's living high on the hog by Navy standards.
The Navy does see the problem with this, though. Mainly that when you treat people worse than you have to, and worse than society at large does, with no good justification for it, they tend to think the job you're giving them is crappy.
In fact, they have launched an initiative that will provide private rooms for various ranks, but it won't apply to junior officers until fiscal year 2012, I think. So, relief is on the way. It just won't happen for another year.
In the mean time, these drill weekends are utterly exhausting, as it is. Starting with my fly-out date, I'm up at about 5:00 a.m. every day and sometimes earlier. With trying to catch up with old friends in Fort Worth, I am usually out until 10:00 or 11:00 every night.
Folks who know me know I'm a very light sleeper. The last thing I need is to have what little sleep I'm getting interrupted by somebody snoring or coming in late. Also, time is at a premium for showering, etc. I just don't want the hassle.
I'm still trading e-mails with the very patient and forebearing berthing coordinator. It looks like, at this point, that I will stay on-post during the weekdays. At that point, demand should be down considerably. It's mostly Friday and Saturday nights where folks need rooms.
I can use the last of my Marriott Rewards points to stay at a hotel in Bedford, TX this weekend. Not ideal, but it works.
I used to think the Army treated it's soldiers really badly when it came to single soldier housing. The Department of Defense has guidelines on the minimum amount of space that each servicemember should get. The Army would then simply declare a "housing emergency" and make itself exempt from all DoD standards. Near as I can figure, the housing emergency on most Army Forts and Bases started in World War II and has continued for the last 70 years.
The Air Force, on this issue and most others, is way out in front. Part of it is that they have a ridiculous amount of money relative to their needs. Contrary to popular belief, the services don't really get money based on what they need. For the past several decades, it basically gets divided 1/3 to the Army, 1/3 to the Air Force, and 1/3 to the Navy.
They try to claim that it's need-based and zero-budget based, but that's a complete fabrication.
This 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 division is meant to keep the services from fighting among themselves for funding.
http://www.slate.com/id/2187616/
The end result is that the Air Force, which has a very small mission, has way more money than it needs. Always has. Probably always will.
The Army, which has to pay the largest number of people, is pretty much properly funded, though the fact that they shoulder the biggest burden in our two wars puts a strain on them from time to time.
The Navy? When you think about it, the Navy has it's own air-force, with all the aircraft and pilots it has. It has its own army because the Marine Corps gets their money from the Department of the Navy. It has ... well... a Navy, too, with ships and seaborne weapons systems.
So, packing people into a room isn't just based on tradition. It's based on lack of money, too. It's not just because of mean-spiritedness that the Navy has, for years, made lower enlisted people live on ship when the ship is in port. They have a lot to do and only a limited amount of money to do it with. They have to be very careful with the funding they have.
The Navy is releasing more funding for this in coming years, but it won't happen overnight. In the mean time, I think it's ridiculous that officers are required to have room-mates. When I went to MEPS for my entrance physical, I got my own room just because I was an officer candidate. When I went to the hotel while reporting for my first drill, and the desk-clerk told me I had a room-mate, I thought this had to be some sort of mistake.
It's not. It's how the Navy does things. Bad as it was that I had a room-mate, imagine how my room-mate must have felt. He was an O-5 (a senior officer) and they were still sticking him with a room-mate.
During a bad economy like this, it's not such a big deal. The military services can and do abuse their people in any way they deem fit when retention is high and applicants exceed available open slots.
However, once the economy improves, people who feel they're mistreated will leave. They always have. The fact that when I was a Sergeant in the Army, I had living conditions that were substantially worse than those in a typical college freshman dorm, played no small part in my decision to get out and seek my fortunes elsewhere.
Right now, the reserves are doing pretty well. Folks need the money in an uncertain economy. Patriotism is still running on a post 9/11 high.
However, things won't stay this way forever, and the Navy is wise to stop treating it's people like cattle when possible.
In the mean time, if I have absolutely no other choice, like if I'm deployed or on orders on a military base, I'll do whatever I have to do, including putting up with a room mate.
Otherwise, though, I'll be doing something else. Actually, weekend hotel rates tend to be pretty good, too. That's generally when hotels are at their emptiest. So, if I can get on-base berthing on the weekdays and go out of pocket on the weekends, that won't be so bad.
Back to Ohio...
Got back from Texas yesterday morning and jumped right back into things up here.
Texas was so nice, it makes me wonder why I came back.
I've always said that I don't like vacations and this is a good illustration why.
Vacations fall into two camps for me. The first, which is the largest sample group, is the vacation where I can't get my mind off of projects and issues back home. So, all the angst, none of the ability to do anything about it.
The other kind, which is really, really rare, is the vacation where I escape my issues for a little while. Then, I come back home and they hit me full-force. I've been busy as all get-out for the past two days. I feel like if I miss a day at work, it sets me back about a week.
My job is pretty awesome, but that's because once all the balls are in the air, it doesn't take that much effort to keep juggling. Stops and starts, though, are murder.
Payroll is tight again this week. So, I was scrambling yesterday. After some number crunching today, we should be okay. Folks owe us money, but nobody is paying these days. Makes life a little tough. For some reason, the guys I pay bills to don't seem to be as flexible and forgiving. Go figure.
We have still never made a late payment or missed a payroll, but the nail-biting is a lot more frequent these days. In years past, we might have one week where things are a little tight. These days, it's a more regular occurrance.
Part of me feels fortunate that I still have a business, and thus, a way to earn a living in this economy. I know people out there are really sufferring. I've seen it on a small scale all my life: a person loses a job, burns through every penny they had saved for retirement. Usually, sometime down the line, they find another gig and are able to get back to a normal life.
These days, I can't imagine how horrible it must be to try and find a job. Granted, if things don't improve, I may need to find one. I also have one potential position open in my business, which could be part-time until the end of this year, and then possibly a full-time position next year.
I was leaning towards doing the job myself for a few months, but I may try to bring in somebody and train them up so they can hit the ground running when/if business picks up in December. It'd just be an entry level marketing trainee job, but the last good person we had in the position worked their way up to a pretty good salary. Perfect position for a person who needs flexible hours and only wants to work 20 or so hours a week. It can also be a full-time job if the business climate improves.
If I had to get a job, the one that makes the most sense is for me to mobilize. Just got a notification of very few mobilization opportunities in 2011. For a while, there have been rumors that unemployed guys are snapping up these mobilizations. Hey, it's a crappy job in a bad part of the world, but it's pretty good pay, especially for officers, and you get a combat zone tax exclusion from federal taxes.
The recent mob list included an actual warning that if a person is interested, they need to start making calls now because the mob opportunities are going fast. Go figure.
Sort of a downer these days. The biz is challenging. Also, the weather is changing. Although this was truly the cruelest Summer so far for me, business-wise, I hated to see it go. Now, the bad weather comes and we won't have relief until maybe April.
Texas was so nice, it makes me wonder why I came back.
I've always said that I don't like vacations and this is a good illustration why.
Vacations fall into two camps for me. The first, which is the largest sample group, is the vacation where I can't get my mind off of projects and issues back home. So, all the angst, none of the ability to do anything about it.
The other kind, which is really, really rare, is the vacation where I escape my issues for a little while. Then, I come back home and they hit me full-force. I've been busy as all get-out for the past two days. I feel like if I miss a day at work, it sets me back about a week.
My job is pretty awesome, but that's because once all the balls are in the air, it doesn't take that much effort to keep juggling. Stops and starts, though, are murder.
Payroll is tight again this week. So, I was scrambling yesterday. After some number crunching today, we should be okay. Folks owe us money, but nobody is paying these days. Makes life a little tough. For some reason, the guys I pay bills to don't seem to be as flexible and forgiving. Go figure.
We have still never made a late payment or missed a payroll, but the nail-biting is a lot more frequent these days. In years past, we might have one week where things are a little tight. These days, it's a more regular occurrance.
Part of me feels fortunate that I still have a business, and thus, a way to earn a living in this economy. I know people out there are really sufferring. I've seen it on a small scale all my life: a person loses a job, burns through every penny they had saved for retirement. Usually, sometime down the line, they find another gig and are able to get back to a normal life.
These days, I can't imagine how horrible it must be to try and find a job. Granted, if things don't improve, I may need to find one. I also have one potential position open in my business, which could be part-time until the end of this year, and then possibly a full-time position next year.
I was leaning towards doing the job myself for a few months, but I may try to bring in somebody and train them up so they can hit the ground running when/if business picks up in December. It'd just be an entry level marketing trainee job, but the last good person we had in the position worked their way up to a pretty good salary. Perfect position for a person who needs flexible hours and only wants to work 20 or so hours a week. It can also be a full-time job if the business climate improves.
If I had to get a job, the one that makes the most sense is for me to mobilize. Just got a notification of very few mobilization opportunities in 2011. For a while, there have been rumors that unemployed guys are snapping up these mobilizations. Hey, it's a crappy job in a bad part of the world, but it's pretty good pay, especially for officers, and you get a combat zone tax exclusion from federal taxes.
The recent mob list included an actual warning that if a person is interested, they need to start making calls now because the mob opportunities are going fast. Go figure.
Sort of a downer these days. The biz is challenging. Also, the weather is changing. Although this was truly the cruelest Summer so far for me, business-wise, I hated to see it go. Now, the bad weather comes and we won't have relief until maybe April.
Monday, October 4, 2010
A little more positivity
It dawned on me the other day that although this is my worst year, financially, in the last 4, that I stand a shot at making as much money as my best earnings year when I was an employee. I wasn't the highest paid guy around, when I worked for Parker, but I considered my compensation to be adequate, bordering on comfortable.
So, even if things didn't improve in the business, I really should feel pretty good, all things considered. A lot of folks are really sufferring right now. I'm fortunate that I'm not one of them. Folks who know me might mistakenly think that I don't like my franchisor: Servpro. I have my issues with the franchise system, but I am thankful all the time that I bought into this franchise system. They've really done well by me. On balance, the relationship is overwhelmingly positive.
It's not all peaches and light in my life. I've got some things on the personal front that are pretty trying right now, but even the bad stuff in my life could be a lot worse. I'm a fortunate guy.
This week, I head down to Fort Worth for another visit. Jamie Basler is hosting a get-together Saturday night again. I knew her in college and we took some classes together. It never ceases to amaze me how generous some people are. Jamie is a peach for letting us invade her home once a month for the past 2 months.
In a sort of interesting twist, one of my biggest pet-peeves about the Navy reserve is going to be resolved in a couple of months. The Navy, due to its history and heritage, has this bad habit of thinking that everybody could and should live with a minimal amount of living space, and no privacy, usually with room-mates, and if you're lucky and conditions permit, just one. Fortunately, we drill at an old Air Force base. So, the officer bachelor's quarters aren't doubled-up.
In Fiscal year 2012, though, all E-7 and above will be entitled to a private room while at drill. So, that's one pet peeve off the list. Really, that's my biggest pet-peeve and one of very few with the Navy reserve. It's such a significant pet-peeve that I used to pay for my own hotel rooms in downtown Cleveland or stay an hour away with relatives, rather than deal with a room-mate. In fact, on this trip to Fort Worth, I'll be using my Marriott Rewards points to stay at a Courtyard, rather than double up because of a shortage of housing availability.
I can't say often enough what a positive experience the Navy Reserve has been. I look forward to drilling and enjoy each drill. The people are great, and it feels good to serve again. I also got a great benefit when they decided to let reservists buy military health insurance. That benefit, alone, probably saves me at least $500 a month.
Arabic is going well. We have a quiz tomorrow and I think I'll do fine. I don't know if it's open book or not. I'll be studying. It's to the point now where we're memorizing vocabulary. I continue to be impressed and relieved that Arabic is such an orderly language. It is much easy to read and write than English, and although I'm not into the grammar very deep, it seems no worse than English in that regard.
The biggest value of the class, though is that it has opened my mind about the Arabic people and the Arabic culture. Although I try to be fair-minded, in the years since 9/11, I have accepted some stereotypes and views regarding Islam and the Arabic nations that I'm not particularly proud of today. This broadening of my perspective is worth every penny of tuition money and then some.
The changing of the weather has me sort of depressed. This Summer was a good one, with Logan's travel baseball and all. I am in no hurry for this kid to grow up and leave the house. I know I have a long time to worry about that, but I just wish I could make time stand still a little longer. I want to spend more time with my boy. So many things I envisioned doing, but now, life is what it is, not necessarily what I envisioned.
Not that things are bad, but I just thought raising a kid would mean a lot more time with them. For the first 6 years or so of Logan's life, he and I were inseperable, but he's at an age, now, where he doesn't dislike being with his Dad, but he enjoys relating to kids his own age so much more.
An interesting note. As folks who know me know, I'm a big believer in nature over nurture. I honestly believe that most of what we become is predestined genetically, and that the bulk of what isn't genetic is probably determined in the first few years of life.
Recent studies have shown that how thrifty a person is can be determined genetically and that attempts to modify this proclivity, behaviorally, are difficult and with mediocre results at best. The reason I say this is that I recently e-bayed off all of Logan's old baseball bats. I bought a lot of them last year in the search for the perfect bat.
He's outgrown them all, now. He'll probably outgrow yet another one before the next season.
He lost his DSi. I think it happened when we were at a tournament in Columbus. I felt bad for him, but didn't have the money to replace it.
My rule, with his bank account, is that I match everything he puts in, dollar for dollar. So, for instance, if he puts in $50 worth of birthday money, I match it with another $50.
With the $100 I got from selling his bats, I told him I would match the money and that he could use it either to buy a new DSi, or if he didn't want to, the money could go into his bank account for something he might want to buy later.
His decision? Save the money. The kid is a saver and that's a good thing. If ever a kid displayed virtuous character, it'd be my boy. He's honest, conscientious, and apparently also thrifty.
Like any parent, all I really want is to feel secure that when my son leaves my sphere of influence, that he will be able to make his way in the world, be happy and make good decisions.
He's only 9 years old, but every passing day gives me confidence that when the day comes that I can't protect him and provide for him anymore, that he will do just fine with things.
In the category of making good memories and having good experiences with him, it is now October. In November, we do the annual trip to Disneyland, which I look forward to all year. Also, the ski shop should have his skis in. I want to try and find another family to ski with us, though, or at least one other kid.
Skiing is expensive and a little bit dangerous. We took one of his friends last year, and it turned out very badly. The kid didn't know how to ski, and was learning, but couldn't really hang out with Logan all that much. Plus, I have hammered some of the safety aspects of skiing into Logan. The main one being to always ski in control and be able to stop. His friend didn't really subscribe to either of those theories.
Between rental and lift ticket, it's a $75 afternoon for a friend, and throw in meals and snacks and it's probably closer to $100.
So, I'm hoping that we can find one other family with a kid about Logan's age that we can do our day-trips up to Brighton with. There's one other kid on his baseball team who skis. I mentioned it to his Dad, but they don't like Brighton. In any event, if we have to, we'll go ski, just the two of us. However, I hate to admit it: Logan has more fun when there's other kids to interact with.
This is going to be a busy week. I have a full schedule. I hate to admit it, but although I often fantasize about returning to school, I really shouldn't. It's expensive and I will be better served to focus on my business and try to make it grow.
There are a lot of things that are interesting to me, but in the long run, my life ended up with me doing exactly what I should be doing: leading a small business. I have the Navy as my somewhat interesting part-time distraction. Other than that, I just need to focus on being a father.
If the economy picks up, or the weather starts cooperating, I'll be trying to expand the business, again, by diversifying into an unrelated enterprise.
Until then, I need to farm the farm. The grass is no different anywhere else. I need to just water the grass where I am.
So, even if things didn't improve in the business, I really should feel pretty good, all things considered. A lot of folks are really sufferring right now. I'm fortunate that I'm not one of them. Folks who know me might mistakenly think that I don't like my franchisor: Servpro. I have my issues with the franchise system, but I am thankful all the time that I bought into this franchise system. They've really done well by me. On balance, the relationship is overwhelmingly positive.
It's not all peaches and light in my life. I've got some things on the personal front that are pretty trying right now, but even the bad stuff in my life could be a lot worse. I'm a fortunate guy.
This week, I head down to Fort Worth for another visit. Jamie Basler is hosting a get-together Saturday night again. I knew her in college and we took some classes together. It never ceases to amaze me how generous some people are. Jamie is a peach for letting us invade her home once a month for the past 2 months.
In a sort of interesting twist, one of my biggest pet-peeves about the Navy reserve is going to be resolved in a couple of months. The Navy, due to its history and heritage, has this bad habit of thinking that everybody could and should live with a minimal amount of living space, and no privacy, usually with room-mates, and if you're lucky and conditions permit, just one. Fortunately, we drill at an old Air Force base. So, the officer bachelor's quarters aren't doubled-up.
In Fiscal year 2012, though, all E-7 and above will be entitled to a private room while at drill. So, that's one pet peeve off the list. Really, that's my biggest pet-peeve and one of very few with the Navy reserve. It's such a significant pet-peeve that I used to pay for my own hotel rooms in downtown Cleveland or stay an hour away with relatives, rather than deal with a room-mate. In fact, on this trip to Fort Worth, I'll be using my Marriott Rewards points to stay at a Courtyard, rather than double up because of a shortage of housing availability.
I can't say often enough what a positive experience the Navy Reserve has been. I look forward to drilling and enjoy each drill. The people are great, and it feels good to serve again. I also got a great benefit when they decided to let reservists buy military health insurance. That benefit, alone, probably saves me at least $500 a month.
Arabic is going well. We have a quiz tomorrow and I think I'll do fine. I don't know if it's open book or not. I'll be studying. It's to the point now where we're memorizing vocabulary. I continue to be impressed and relieved that Arabic is such an orderly language. It is much easy to read and write than English, and although I'm not into the grammar very deep, it seems no worse than English in that regard.
The biggest value of the class, though is that it has opened my mind about the Arabic people and the Arabic culture. Although I try to be fair-minded, in the years since 9/11, I have accepted some stereotypes and views regarding Islam and the Arabic nations that I'm not particularly proud of today. This broadening of my perspective is worth every penny of tuition money and then some.
The changing of the weather has me sort of depressed. This Summer was a good one, with Logan's travel baseball and all. I am in no hurry for this kid to grow up and leave the house. I know I have a long time to worry about that, but I just wish I could make time stand still a little longer. I want to spend more time with my boy. So many things I envisioned doing, but now, life is what it is, not necessarily what I envisioned.
Not that things are bad, but I just thought raising a kid would mean a lot more time with them. For the first 6 years or so of Logan's life, he and I were inseperable, but he's at an age, now, where he doesn't dislike being with his Dad, but he enjoys relating to kids his own age so much more.
An interesting note. As folks who know me know, I'm a big believer in nature over nurture. I honestly believe that most of what we become is predestined genetically, and that the bulk of what isn't genetic is probably determined in the first few years of life.
Recent studies have shown that how thrifty a person is can be determined genetically and that attempts to modify this proclivity, behaviorally, are difficult and with mediocre results at best. The reason I say this is that I recently e-bayed off all of Logan's old baseball bats. I bought a lot of them last year in the search for the perfect bat.
He's outgrown them all, now. He'll probably outgrow yet another one before the next season.
He lost his DSi. I think it happened when we were at a tournament in Columbus. I felt bad for him, but didn't have the money to replace it.
My rule, with his bank account, is that I match everything he puts in, dollar for dollar. So, for instance, if he puts in $50 worth of birthday money, I match it with another $50.
With the $100 I got from selling his bats, I told him I would match the money and that he could use it either to buy a new DSi, or if he didn't want to, the money could go into his bank account for something he might want to buy later.
His decision? Save the money. The kid is a saver and that's a good thing. If ever a kid displayed virtuous character, it'd be my boy. He's honest, conscientious, and apparently also thrifty.
Like any parent, all I really want is to feel secure that when my son leaves my sphere of influence, that he will be able to make his way in the world, be happy and make good decisions.
He's only 9 years old, but every passing day gives me confidence that when the day comes that I can't protect him and provide for him anymore, that he will do just fine with things.
In the category of making good memories and having good experiences with him, it is now October. In November, we do the annual trip to Disneyland, which I look forward to all year. Also, the ski shop should have his skis in. I want to try and find another family to ski with us, though, or at least one other kid.
Skiing is expensive and a little bit dangerous. We took one of his friends last year, and it turned out very badly. The kid didn't know how to ski, and was learning, but couldn't really hang out with Logan all that much. Plus, I have hammered some of the safety aspects of skiing into Logan. The main one being to always ski in control and be able to stop. His friend didn't really subscribe to either of those theories.
Between rental and lift ticket, it's a $75 afternoon for a friend, and throw in meals and snacks and it's probably closer to $100.
So, I'm hoping that we can find one other family with a kid about Logan's age that we can do our day-trips up to Brighton with. There's one other kid on his baseball team who skis. I mentioned it to his Dad, but they don't like Brighton. In any event, if we have to, we'll go ski, just the two of us. However, I hate to admit it: Logan has more fun when there's other kids to interact with.
This is going to be a busy week. I have a full schedule. I hate to admit it, but although I often fantasize about returning to school, I really shouldn't. It's expensive and I will be better served to focus on my business and try to make it grow.
There are a lot of things that are interesting to me, but in the long run, my life ended up with me doing exactly what I should be doing: leading a small business. I have the Navy as my somewhat interesting part-time distraction. Other than that, I just need to focus on being a father.
If the economy picks up, or the weather starts cooperating, I'll be trying to expand the business, again, by diversifying into an unrelated enterprise.
Until then, I need to farm the farm. The grass is no different anywhere else. I need to just water the grass where I am.
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