Unlikely Improbabilities

I just watched an episode of 60 Minutes which helped to put things in a little perspective for me.  Here is my current situation…

I voluntarily left my job, that was okay, to try and start a business.  I have spent about the last 5 years or so looking and thinking about starting a business so this is clearly something I want to do.

I have moved to Oregon, a beautiful part of the country.  Why?  I wanted a change in scenery, I wanted the experience of living somewhere new and different.  I wanted the challenge of building a new life.

I have friends, well more like family now, that are here to help and support me.  They are letting me live in their house and working with me on this project.  They feed me, they put up with my incredibly hilarious sense of humor and they have allowed me to intrude into every aspect of their lives.

I have an amazing wife who also has enabled me to chase a crazy dream and who has pledged, perhaps to her own chagrin, to come with me on this insane journey.

I have a loving and supportive family who I know miss me but really do wish me the best and I know are pulling for me to be successful.

I have a group of friends back in Indiana that are helping to take care of my wife and who are helping me to maintain my sanity by just being themselves.

I have some great pups that love me even when I don’t take them to play disc golf.  Every time I come home it’s like it’s the best thing that has happened to them all day.

There are a few details of my situation that aren’t ideal, but by and large I am a very, very lucky person.  I know there are many, many people who are in much worse shape than I am who didn’t put themselves into that situation voluntarily.  I am going to try to keep that in perspective.  I am, in actual fact, living the life!

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I just made up a word.  What does it mean?  Um, something about writing things and then un-writing them.  On a friend’s facebook page someone posted something and I wanted to type a response.  I typed it, but before I submitted it I decided not to.  Not because what I wrote was offensive or angry or anything, although I did disagree with someone, it was more because I was simply unable to put my thoughts accurately into words.  That is scribidiciousness (scrib – not scribe).  At the moment.

So I’m updating again because I’m not doing anything else at the moment.  Certainly not that I don’t have anything else to do, I’m simply choosing to not do any of those other things at this time.  Lucky you!

I miss my friends, I miss knowing how to get everywhere without having to think really hard about it, I miss my family.  I even miss my job, or at least the daily interactions that I had with my co-workers.  Also, apparently my leaving the state of Indiana was more than the Colts could handle and they have literally physically begun to fall apart.  Sorry kids, it turns out that this one is going to be a bit of whiny self-pity.  Didn’t know that when I started…

I am very excited to get to see my wife and family for Thanksgiving.  I am excited to get the shop open and see if people are going to respond to what we are trying to build.  I am anxious to see how I’m going to like this life I’m trying to build once we get beyond the transitional stage.  I really hope that I don’t look back and realize that this was a huge mistake.  Let me clarify something, the one thing I’m concerned about, really, really concerned about is that at some point in the future I’m going to look back at this time and really regret having left my wife right after we got married.  That may not have been the best decision ever made, although I did suggest we get married a little later than we did.  Shrug, nothing to do about it now.

I am looking forward to Monday Night Football.  I’m going to meet some new people and watch the game at Northern Lights, which is a theater turned pub.  No idea if any other Colts fans will be present, but I will be representin beyotch!  Go blue!  Don’t get hurt!

The shop is starting to come together more and more, from a physical layout perspective, but we have a ton of work to do to be “operational”.  One really great thing is how supportive everyone has been, even people (or perhaps especially) who have no real reason to be particularly supportive.

We are going to hang with our neighbors tomorrow evening, have a drink or two.  That should be a good time.  I’m kinda out of stuff for tonight.  I did update though, so don’t hold it against me that I ran out of steam. 

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Well once again a month has flown by without an update.  I clearly suck at making this a priority although my wife has suggested I try to do better, so I shall try.  I make no promises because as it turns out, starting a business takes a fair amount of your time   When you aren’t actively working, you tend to be passively working (basically thinking about all of the things you need to work on) and when you aren’t doing either of those it’s probably because you are unconscious.  I’m really enjoying being at “The Shop” now, I feel like it is really coming together and that we are building something good.  Sometimes we tend to get a little overly concerned with minute details, such as what shelves we should have (which has been a complete pain in the ass).  We are trying really hard to build the look and feel of the shop to match some idea we have of what it should look and feel like, but honestly if I was required to describe what we are aiming for in detail, I couldn’t do it.  It’s one of those things where when we see something that “fits” we know it, and we also know when it doesn’t.

We finally have taken a big step and introduced ourselves to one of our local “competitors”, and it feels great to have it out in the open.  The owner of the shop was very gracious, and it is sincerely our hope that we can be on good terms with the other local shops.  We honestly feel that the market is big enough for everyone here and our goals have nothing to do with the other shops in town.  We are trying to create something of our own, not destroy something that someone else is doing.

I’ve been really stressed out lately and sometimes it’s getting to be a little difficult to deal with.  I’m trying to manage without snapping, but I really miss my wife.  I need her to be here, I desperately want her to be a part of this, to have input and to see what we are building here.  This is as much a part of her life as it is mine, and I can’t wait for her to get to be out here with me.  I knew that this was going to be the hard part of the “adventure”, but it’s getting to be more difficult as time goes on.  It is hard for me to look at her picture, I can barely keep it together when we talk/skype because at the end we have to say goodbye.  I won’t get to see her in person for another 29 days and I don’t know how I’m going to manage that.  It’s harder than I thought it was going to be, and I thought it was going to be pretty damn hard.  I hope it’s not as hard on her as it is on me.

I’m starting to see the end of the path of things we know how to do and have control over and the beginning of the part that throws in a lot of unknowns.  That is a scary prospect.  What we are doing now, while it takes a fair amount of time (and a shit-ton of money) is relatively easy stuff.  The hard part, from a business perspective, hasn’t really started yet.  Once we are open for business, well I just have no idea what that is going to be like but it’s a bit scary.

I clearly need to find more time for myself to have a little fun.  When I get burnt out and overstressed I get a little bitchy.  I’ve seen that happen a couple of times and I try to take a step back and relax but it is difficult.  Scot and I went out for dinner on Friday evening and had a few beers, we spent an hour or two just shooting the shit and not talking/thinking about the business at all.  It was great and definitely helped me unwind.  I need to make sure I find time and a way to do that.  I need to interrupt the constant barrage of thoughts going through my head about all that needs to get done.  I also need to try to find time to make some friends.  Our neighbors across the street are great and we are going to try to hang out this week at some point, I met a couple today up in Portland and we spent an hour and a half chatting away, and I met Amy’s friend tonight.  It’s great getting to hang out with some other folks (not just Scot and Amy – no offense guys).

It appears that most people who meet Scot and I think that we might be gay/bi/more-than-friends.  I told him I could feel his desire.  Turns out it was a desire to hit me. 

I am saddened by the lack of crap I got from the people I do know out here.  Last week I posted some stuff on Facebook talking smack about the crappy football teams they have on the west coast.  That very week, my Chicago Bears got beat.  By Seattle.  In Chicago.  NOBODY GAVE ME HELL FOR THAT!  I totally deserved it!  Also, the Bears lost again today.  At home.  Bastards.  Apparently my absence from the state of Indiana has caused the Colts to completely fall apart physically.  At the rate they are getting injured we’ll get to see Peyton Manning making sacks instead of taking them.  Ick.

I have a heating pad on my bed now.  Warm…

Shadow and Pepper are doing pretty well.  We haven’t had any more incidents between Pepper and Marissa, so that’s excellent.  We took all four dogs out to play disc golf the other day.  Marissa ate through one of the flexi-leashes in about 200 micro-seconds.  That is her third leash, and apparently she has also chomped through two harnesses.  You can only HOPE to contain her!  I kept Pepper on leash and we practiced her sit-stay and down-stay, she did really well for 1) not having been asked to do that much sitting and staying in a long time and 2) for not actually getting any treats as rewards.  Next time I’ll remember some yummies for her.

I’m trying to read another book by Terry Pratchett, this one is called The Light Fantastic.  It’s slow going because I usually read at the end of the day and by about 5 pages in I’ve fallen asleep.  I don’t *think* that’s a commentary on the writing so much as a comment on how exhausted I am by the end of the day.

I have a variety of *life* things that I should be taking care of, but I don’t want to take the time and I don’t want to spend the money to do them.  I need to go establish a new physician, eye doctor and dentist but yick.

Well, that’s my heavy duty update for now.  I’m going to make an attempt to do more frequent updates with a bit less content from now on.

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Hey kids, a lot of things have been happening in the last month (since my last post).  Here is a summary…

1)  The “secret” is becoming less and less of a secret by the day.  Which is great and will be a huge relief once we make an announcement and get it out in the open.

2)  I got so pissed off at a driver the other day I gave chase and stuck my head out the window and yelled and challenged the guy.  At that moment I was ready to beat him to death.  It has been a long time since I felt that kind of pure rage.  Was it really that big of a deal?  The guy called me an idiot because I didn’t go when he wanted me to or something.  My reaction was completely irrational and atypical (I hope at least).  This told me that I was very stressed out and I wasn’t really handling it well.  It was an eye opening moment, and frankly embarrassing.  I’m glad the guy didn’t get out of his car because that wasn’t going to be good for anyone.  I owe him an apology, but this is going to have to suffice.

3)  Preceding the “car incident” I had been pretty down, ever since I left Indiana this last time.  I think it’s that I know it’s going to be a long time (close to 3 months) before I’ll see Leslie in person again.  I’m also missing my friends, and missing significant events in my friends’ lives (Congratulations to Mike and Brooke on getting married and it looks like your wedding kicked ass!).  I also realize that part of my problem is that I don’t want to share my doubts, fears, frustrations, etc with Leslie when we have our webcam chats or talk on the phone.  I think there are two reasons for this, first that we don’t get to chat nearly as often as we used to so each moment is precious and I don’t want to ruin them by bringing up negative feelings, and second that I have CHOSEN to put us in the current circumstances so I don’t feel like I am allowed to have negative feelings about what’s going on.  Leslie and I have talked about this stuff a little bit and when I did get some stuff off of my chest, that definitely helped.  It’s a process and we are working on it

4)  We have hit a bit of a roadblock in getting the business up and running.  It’s not a deal breaker, and I am confident that we can come up with a solution, but it’s definitely slowing us down and causing us some stress.  More about this in a future post.

5)  Money.  That’s going to be a problem from now on, or so I’m guessing.  Time to play the lottery.

6)  Shadow is mad at me because we haven’t been out to play disc golf since I got back.  She gives me grief about it just about every day

7)  Why am I doing a numbered list?  I don’t know.

VIII)  Ha!

9)  I read a book by Terry Pratchett thanks to a recommendation (and book loan) by my new friends and neighbors, Johnny and Lauralyn (sp?), and I loved it.  I am anxious to read more of his work, but not sure when I’ll have time.  I read The Color of Magic on when I was traveling recently.  He definitely has the irreverent and whimsical style that I enjoy so much, somewhat not entirely unlike Douglas Adams.

10)  Leslie really wants a new dog that she can start training in agility.  I don’t blame her and I feel bad that she can’t really get one right now because of finances and the impending move and all that is currently going on.  I want her to be happy and I know she is putting that on hold for me.  I can only hope to repay her someday for the way she is supporting me in my foolish endeavor.

11)  I got to experience the joy of the Oregon DMV for the first time.   I walked in, took a number (66) looked at the number board that said they were now serving 22 and went crap.  I then ran to Best Buy to look for an USB – IR receiver (didn’t have one) and ran home to grab my phone.  Got back and they were up to 54!  Not bad.  I registered my new motorcycle (wink, wink, Kat) and my Jeep, plus I got a new drivers license.  It turns out I had to take a written test to get my license in Oregon.  I grabbed their book, studied for about 20 minutes and then took the exam.  I scored 85% and needed 80% to pass so I was happy, especially since I hadn’t taken a test about driving in close to 20 years.  Bah, just writing that made me feel old.

11.1)  At the DMV here in Oregon they only accept cash or check.  I know this because they have it posted EVERYWHERE.  On the windows, on the doors, on big signs and little ones, at every customer service station, on their website.  I literally read it 18 times before I spoke to a single person in the building.  While I was up “doing my business”, a woman came up to the counter next to mine and tried to pay with a credit card.  HOLY CRAP!  I can only surmise that this person was illiterate, which is sad.  The upside is that the DMV thought ahead, and much like a strip club, has an ATM on the premises.

11.1b)  The DMV here does allow you to smile (so suck on that Indiana!).  However they don’t create your plastic driver’s license on site, so you get a paper temporary one, which is a little odd.  Also, when you update your address, you don’t get a new license, they PUT A STICKER ON YOUR DRIVER’S LICENSE.  Can you imagine using your driver’s license in Indiana with a sticker on it?  No way that’s going to be a problem.

12) I have a strong desire to upgrade my vehicle, which is funny since I’ve got no money.  I keep looking for a Grand Cherokee that’s a little newer than my 98 (ideally a 2001) and with fewer miles (mine has 178k) and in a little better shape.  Probably not going to happen anytime soon, but it’s a nice thought.

12b)  The Motorhome is still in the shop.  It took them about 3 weeks to find a place to order some parts from and it’s going to take another 3 weeks to get the parts in.  The upside is that I basically get to store it there for free.  The downside is, well, nothing really.  I was going to register it as well but it was going to cost over $300 just for it.  I’m going to hold off on that one for a little while longer.

13)  Every time I’ve made a trip back to Indiana, I’ve gotten to see my mom.  I think I’ve seen her more since I moved out to the West Coast than I did when I was living in Indiana.  Funny how that works.

14)  Apparently we are just at the beginning of fall/winter here.  It’s started being a little rainy and overcast.  I rather like it right now, I think we had it so dry for so long that just getting to see some rain is rather pleasant.  I sat out on the back porch this morning, after having coffee with my wife, and just watched it rain.

15)  I defeated the carpet, but it did take it’s toll.  I have a little soreness in my everything.  One of my knuckles won’t pop anymore, although I hope it’s only temporary.  My fingers and one of my knees are swollen.  I told Amy yesterday that I was built for data, not labor.

16)  Pepper is still doing awesome with the allergies and whatnot.  She clearly missed me when I was gone, which was nice to see.  I missed her and Shadow both.

17)  Winston isn’t losing weight like I think he should be, I’m beginning to suspect he may have a thyroid or glandular problem.

18)  Marissa is insane.

19)  I’ve actually started being able to drive myself around town without getting too lost.  I haven’t even been taking Maggie (my GPS) with me most of the time.  That’s a nice feeling to start being able to navigate around.  I may not take the most efficient route to get where I’m going, but I can usually get there.

20)  Today I’m home by myself, Scot and Amy are both off doing other things.  That means it’s robe day! 

21)  We (Scot and I) went Kayaking recently with a group called Oregon Active.  It’s a neat concept, they try to do adventure type things (kayaking, bungee jumping, hiking, etc.) and get people together to go do them.  They are building an adventure park with ziplines and whatnot, so that’s going to be awesome!  Good group of people, or so it seemed.  Plus there was beer (PBR and Widmer)!

22)  Long Beach California probably won’t impress anyone.

23)  Fuddrucker’s closes at 9:00 pm.  9!?!?!

Pi)  Cheese pizza on thin crust is yummy.  Pepperoni pizza on thin crust is pretty good.  Double pepperoni on thin crust is TOO DAMN FAR!

25)  Apparently when it rains kinda hard in Portland, the sewers over-flow into the Willamette River.  Not just the storm sewers, but the sewers that are full of everyone’s butt juice.  We went kayaking on the Willamette.  Poop.

26)  Keurig makes a kick-ass milk frother.  It costs about $70.  That’s fucking crazy!

27)  I’ve been watching Top Gear and it’s like car porn.

28)  The Colt’s lost their season opener against the Houston Texans.  It’s my fault, I forgot to wear a Colt’s Jersey.  The games start at 10:00 am here, and no I have no problem drinking a beer that early.  Football and beer go together like penis and vagina (or other penis, depending on your persuasion).

29)  I was able to watch 3 games simultaneously on Sunday, two on my laptop and one on the TV.  New England won (shit), Colt’s lost (double shit) and Bear’s won but they shouldn’t have (last time they had a season where that happened a lot, they were in the Super Bowl, so yay).

30)  I have to pee after having 3 cups of coffee and a glass of water.  Bye.

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Okay, so I’m slightly addicted to Wipeout on ABC.  It’s the less funny american version of the old show called MXC (Most Extreme Elimination Challenge) which was a Japanese game show dubbed into english (who says there isn’t anything worthwhile in Japanese culture)?  It’s an obstacle course where people, um, wipeout?  Funny stuff happens and sometimes it looks very painful, double bonus!

I’ve become slightly frustrated with my weight loss, I’ve been vigilant about tracking my calories and staying below my calorie goals about 90% of the time.  I’ve also been trying to be more active, so we have been playing disc golf every other day or so, we went diving this past weekend, and if we don’t play disc golf I try to make sure and take the dogs for a nice long walk at a good pace.  I dropped from 188 lbs down to 178 pretty quickly, but now I’ve stalled out in the 178 – 180 lbs.  Not sure why I’m not dropping the weight anymore, but I’ve hit one of those so-called plateaus.  Maybe I need to drink more scotch!

I’m missing my friends from home pretty bad these days.  I haven’t really met too many people out here yet.  On the one hand, I’m a little busy but I definitely have time to meet people.  The biggest problem for me, I think, is that I don’t have any money.  Lots of things that I think of to go do cost money and I don’t have any.  I’m going to keep looking for things to go do that don’t cost anything because I really need to make some friends to hang out with other than Scot and Amy.  Don’t get me wrong, we are still getting along and having fun most days, but I had a few hours to myself today and it was FANTASTIC.  I am going to get a good chunk of me time this weekend as well.  Amy’s parents are in town and the fearsome foursome are going to head to the coast for the weekend.  I’ll probably take the dogs to the park, or to play some disc golf.

I will be making a trip back to Bloomington next week.  We are going to have a huge yard sale coming up, so I’m going to help get that ready.  We need to ditch a good bit of stuff before moving Leslie out west.  I cannot wait to get her out here.  There is so much going on here that I want her to be a part of and that I want to share with her.  Very, very soon now the “secret” is going to be unleashed on a somewhat suspecting public.  We are hearing more and more rumors about things here locally, so we aren’t going to be able to keep it under wraps much longer.  I am going to be very relieved to get it out in the open.  Keeping such a secret is very difficult and stressful for me.

Okay, well that wasn’t a great update, but at least it was an update so quit yer bitchin.

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Ok, I clearly suck at keeping my blog updated.  Sometimes it’s tough to force myself to actually sit down and type what I have to say.  Sometimes I’m just lazy and don’t want to take the time.  Other times I think I don’t really want to write out what I’m feeling for various reasons.  But not today by golly, not today!

So we have taken a huge leap forward down the path to getting our little project up and running.  I think we are going to begin to see some tangible results very soon (weeks and not months at this point).  The “secret” is starting to spread and there are whispers here and there.  As we continue to move forward we have to tell more and more people about what we are up to and so we are just about done with keeping a lid on it, whether we are really ready or not.  The interesting thing for me at this point is that every significant step we take, opening a bank account, starting a company, whatever, is that I simply feel like I’ve removed another barrier to starting to get the real hard work done.  It’s not really like I’m accomplishing anything, just putting myself in a position to be able to accomplish something.  It sounds weird even to me and doesn’t necessarily make a ton of sense, but I know what I mean dammit! 

Same old story on the wife front.  I miss her terribly, I’ve put a huge burden on her that probably isn’t fair (no real probably about it) and she is doing a great job of keeping up the house, the dogs, and running the home front while I’m out “chasing the dream”, whatever the hell that means.    I’ll never be able to repay her for her support.

Some good news, Pepper is doing awesome with her new medication.  She pretty much ignores her feet (no chewing) and scooting her but on the floor is way, way down (much to Scot and Amy’s delight).  Shadow is also in pretty good shape, she tends to sleep in bed with me and usually lets me have almost half of it, which is quite generous of her.  They both continue to shed fur like CRAZY and no matter how much brushing I seem to do is slowing it down.

I’ve gotten back into playing Disc Golf a little bit.  I really needed to get out and be active and so I thought I would check out the scene here in Salem.  It is quite popular here, they have a really nice 18 hole course with baskets that is close to Petwerks World HQ, so we can stop and play at lunch or on the way home.  I also managed to get Scot to try a round with me and he really enjoyed it.  So much so that this weekend he found a course that we went and played (and introduced Amy to as well).  This course was very cool and very challenging.  I’m not anywhere near as good as I was when I was playing several times a week, but I’m not as bad as when I first started either.  Leslie is going to send me my discs so I’ll have the ones I’m used to throwing instead of the used ones that I picked up for $5.

I also discovered I had put on a few more pounds than I wanted, so I’ve been working on that.  I put an application on my phone that tracks my calorie intake for the day.  I’ve been able to manage between 1100 – 1500 calories per day since I started using it and I would say it hasn’t really even been that difficult, at least it hadn’t been until tonight.  We got pizza to celebrate the specific milestone that we achieved today and I ate a little more than I should have (exceeded my goal by about 200 calories).  For the most part I’m eating what I want to eat, just less of it.  The biggest change is that I’m not getting the 500+ calorie coffee every day.  I tried the “skinny” version and while it only contains about 200 calories, what it lacks in calories it makes up for in suck.  I’m switching to making my own coffee at home.  I can get away with a coffee that is pretty good for about 100 calories, maybe 150.  When I started I was at 188 lbs and my end goal is between 170 – 175.  I had gotten heavy enough to notice a difference so I’m going to slim down.

As for the project, I think that we will really start testing how well Scot and I are going to work together.  We have a lot of decisions we need to make and we are not always going to see things the same way.  Scot is used to getting it done the way he want because he hasn’t had to work with anyone in the way that this project is structured.  It is going to be interesting, that is for certain.

That is all for now.  Maybe I’ll post again in a few days (yeah, right).

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Lots of stuff is happening.  I’ve been back in Indiana for the last week, and it’s wonderful to be here.  I get to see my other pups (awesome) and my wife (super awesome) and my btown friends (eh. j/k).  One thing I’ve noticed being back is that I’m not terribly productive.  I think I fall into old habits a little to easily (sitting on the couch watching 24 is one good example).  I’m getting some stuff accomplished, just not as much as I should.

Yesterday we went over to Farm Bonchek and played outside in the rain and went swimming in the pond.  Hanging out with Rob and Fern and her parents was a lot of fun.  They are a great group of people.  We went mushroom hunting and found a ton of Chanterelles that Barb cooked up in some wine, garlic and olive oil and holy crap they were delicious!  We also had some fried green tomatoes, grilled chicken, potato salad, bread, and blackberry cobbler for desert.  What a great meal it was.

The dogs were awesome.  I don’t even know how many were actually there but it was something in the order of 8 or 9.  It was cool, they all seemed to get along really well.  Tasha and Kota seemed to have a blast.  Tasha is a true water dog.  We were out swimming in the pond, just relaxing in some floaties, and Tasha would every little while decide to swim out to the middle of the pond where we were and do a lap around us.  She would swim out, around us, and then back in to the shore.  I lost count of how many times she did this but it was a lot.  She is a strong swimmer, I actually held on to her tail and she pulled me around the pond for a little bit (to the horror of her mom).  I figured if Tasha didn’t like it she would turn around and bite my face or something   Today she is unconscious   Kota also did a lot of swimming.  Most of the time we would have to call him out, but he would swim out to us and climb onto our laps (we were in some floating chairs) and he would just hang out with us.  He was really getting tired by the end of the day, a couple of times he started to swim to us and turned around cause it was too far.

After we got done swimming we were hanging around at the house and at one point Tasha climbed into the van on her own.  I think she was tired and getting a little irritated with the other dogs (or she just wanted to be more comfortable).  Near the end of the day it seemed like the dogs (T&K) were becoming a little “cranky”, they started barking at lots of stuff.  Like the horses.  That had been there all day.  When I finally loaded them up in the van to head home they almost knocked me over to get into their crates.  Tired and eager for bed methinks.

On the business front things are progressing, in some ways a little slower than I’d like, especially in terms of getting the funding in place.  I’m still waiting on some of the money from STC that they owe me from my pension.  I wasn’t impressed with certain people in that dealt with payroll before, and this experience hasn’t changed my point of view.  Hopefully that money will arrive soon so we can make some more purchases.  We have recently spent a good chunk of money on some equipment and other things we need to get the business up and running.  We are looking at space to rent, we found one place that we really were excited about but couldn’t work out a deal for reasons beyond our control.  It was a little disappointing because the space had a lot of things going for it, the owner was pretty excited about having us in the space, but there were some conditions on the space imposed by the other tenants in the location that we couldn’t work around.  We have a spot that we were both really excited about when we first saw it that we are close to working out a deal on, so I think we will be moving forward on that soon.

We also are going to work on “building our brand”, hopefully this week we can start getting a logo and some marketing materials started.  We have a ton of things to get done, and there are a couple of significant steps that need to be accomplished before we can move on the others (getting a space is a big one, it’s holding us up on a couple of fronts).  I’m excited about the collaborative nature of creating the image for our company.  We clearly each work a little differently, so hopefully we are each going to bring something to the table and come up with something we all are happy with and excited about.  Or not. 

Leslie has taken a big step and spoken to her boss about telecommuting from Oregon so that she can keep her job.  Her boss is open to the idea on a trial basis to see how it works out.  That is a huge relief and means that we will probably be able to get her out to Oregon by the end of the year, which is awesome.  We have also decided to sell our house instead of renting it out.  I’m not sure if it’s the right move or not, but it could get us some badly needed cash in the short term, would keep us from having to worry about renters and maintenance and all that, which is good.  I feel bad about making Leslie move again, but I’m really glad I’m taking this shot.  I don’t know how it’s all going to work out, but with a little luck we’ll be in good shape.

If anyone that reads this is interested in buying our house, let me know   The other hard part is deciding what stuff we want to keep and move to Oregon, and what stuff we want to sell in Indiana and just buy new when we get a house in Oregon.  I think we are going to be living in the RV for probably 6 months at a minimum, maybe up to a year (how crazy is that?).  That just means that anything we take to Oregon is going to have to be stored, so it’s going to be somewhat costly to keep it.  On the other hand, we have some really nice stuff that we paid a lot for and we probably won’t spend that kind of money on furniture in the future, so we’ll be replacing it with lower quality stuff.  It’s not as much a problem for me, but Leslie is really the one that spent the money on the stuff we might not keep (she probably has $8k in just the dining room table and chairs, couches, and bed).  In contrast I have $2k in the Bose surround system which is easy to take with us.  It’s going to be an interesting decision making process to say the least.

Well I’m gonna call this a good update for now.  Thanks for checking in.

Shrapnel

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I’ve been doing pretty well so far in restraining my old habits of spending (by habits I mean complete lack of impulse control), which is critical because I am making NO money right now and need to conserve as much as possible.  I had a slight relapse today at lunch where I had a relatively expensive entree’ and two (albeit small) beers.  My portion of the lunch bill was probably $23.  Holy crap!  I didn’t even pay attention to the price of the meal when I ordered it, and I had only intended to have one beer.  The beer was okay but nothing special and I had been torn between trying the Bourbon Barrel Aged Doppelbock and the Imperial IPA (I tried the bock first).  The waitress then started talking up the IPA and I couldn’t resist, although I did request a small one.  I felt bad when I saw my bill (Scot was taking us out to lunch today) so I offered to pay for it.  I’m on the hook for some steaks for us to grill this weekend, so that should work out just fine but I have to stay vigilant because I really can’t afford to spend $20 on a meal.  I’ve been pretty good, I just have to stay on top of it.  Money is my biggest worry right now, I see my credit card debt growing and if the business doesn’t fly, things are going to get ugly.  There is also the possibility that the business will do okay and things will still get ugly from a personal finance perspective.

We just had an unexpected expense for Kota of about $1k, which sucks.  I’m really glad he’s okay and it was the right call to get him checked out, but that kind of surprise definitely adds to the pressure.  I took the West Coast dogs to a new vet for the first time in forever.  Very nice experience at Whole Pet Veterinary Care, very thorough initial visit for my two pups.  I was definitely not rushed in and out.  I was there for probably an hour and 40 minutes, and almost none of it was waiting.  I found all of the staff to be very friendly and knowledgeable, the vet was very personable and they really put in a lot of time in getting to know me and my animals, although the vet was having a hard time keeping Shadow and Pepper straight.  In her defense, they are relatively close in size and both are mostly black.  The room was large and snazzy with a nice couch and a dog bed on the floor.  Shadow and Pepper seemed very relaxed, Shadow chilled out on the dog bed a few times and Pepper was up on the couch with me.  I’ll be going back in a couple of weeks for a follow-up visit.  Shadow has a cruddy ear, so she want’s to re-check it to make sure it’s responding well to being cleaned out.  I’ll continue to evaluate them, but my initial interaction was very positive.

Had a video “date” with my wife tonight.  I miss her very much.  It’s comforting to get to see her, but it’s also hard because I know that she is really having to work her ass off to keep things running at home.  Tonight I felt really guilty about how much she has to deal with and how much I put on her.  I think today was just one of those days where my mind kept focusing on the negative, tomorrow will be better.

The business is still coming along.  The money we are going to need seems like it is in constant flux.  One day I look at things, crunch some numbers and feel like we are in pretty good shape.  The next day I crunch them again and realize how far we are away from really having the resources to successfully put this project fully in motion the way we want.  Wish us luck, we are going to need it.

Hope you all are doing well!

Shrapnel

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It has clearly been too long since I last posted.  Part of that is because my wife, Shadow, Pepper and I took a week-long road-trip across the country from Bloomington, Indiana to Salem, Oregon.

The trip was great, we got to see a lot of amazing scenery throughout the trip.  Wind farms in northern Iowa, the hills and features of the Badlands, Devil’s Tower (which I am going to call Rock Tree), the Plague Bearing Prairie Dogs, the mountains and valleys, rivers and waterfalls, forests and desert, the thermal features in Yellowstone National Park, and all of the amazing wildlife.  I got to experience and see a lot of new things for the first time, and I think my wife really enjoyed watching my reactions.

It was a lot of fun, but it was also stressful.  When you are relying on a couple of vehicles that are 12 years old to get you across the country, and you have had some problems in the past, it can create a certain amount of dread.  We did have a snag when the Jeep’s starter fried on the last day of our visit to Yellowstone.  We got to take a tow truck at night through the park.  It was kind of fun, it was the first and only time when we could both look around instead of needing to pay attention to the road.  We got the Jeep hooked up to the RV with some excellent team-work, and I changed the starter on the Jeep in about 2 hours and for only 100 bucks.  Not too bad.

It was also kind of a bummer to realize that at the end of the trip that Leslie was going to have to go back to Indiana.  It was absolutely fantastic to share the experience with her, and I think we both are recognizing how wonderful a two dog household would be.  We love our dogs very much, but I think 4 is just a bit too much.

We have posted a ton of pictures on our Facebook accounts, so check them out.  Coming up later, I’ll be adding an update on the business plans as they are coming along nicely.  Maybe

K

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So I’m “back home again in Indiana”, at least for a little while.  It’s taken me quite a few days to get back into the swing of things.  That 3 hour time difference is a killer.  Also it has been wicked hot here, in the high 80′s with what feels like 214% humidity.  Ick.

I’ve been able to do some basic housework and create a list of tasks I’d like to get done before heading back to the coast.  One big thing is trying to get our roof to stop leaking.  We’ve been fighting  a roof leak for about 2 years now.  We paid a guy to fix the roof, and he just hasn’t been able to completely solve the problem.  Yesterday they came in, cut out some drywall so they could see the inside of the roof and put the hose test to the roof.  It took about .076 seconds for the roof to start leaking, so they figured it out pretty quickly.  They also had fixed the problem and re-tested and it looks good, so I’m hopeful.  It’s also pretty good luck for us that we had another torrential downpour early this morning, so maybe it’s really fixed this time.

It’s been awesome to be home and hang out with my wife and the puppies.  We took the dogs to Leonard Springs park the other day, they seemed to have a blast running around in the woods and playing in the stream.  They found some really thick mud to get into and Tasha found a shallow little mud puddle to lay down in (see Leslie’s FB page for pics).

The other night I went over to my friend Rob’s house and had a few beers and just hung out and chatted.  When I left, Rob had just bought a sailboat.  Now he has three.  Something is wrong with that guy

Leslie’s uncle Ted (my uncle-in-law?) sent us a DVD of the videos he took at our wedding, so we sat and watched it.  That was a really fun day, and some of the reactions that were captured are hilarious.  One funny thing was when we were sitting here watching it together (Leslie and I) I actually felt a little nervous during part of the ceremony.  What the hell is that about?  I already know how it ends!  Stupid monkey brain.

There have been all kinds of things happening on the business front, most of which I can’t post at this time.  I’m going to write some posts, and once we have gone public I’ll publish them.  I can report that today we are beginning the process of filing our articles of incorporation, which is the second big step toward getting our company up and running.  I count me quitting my job as the first step.  We still have lots of decisions to make and things to figure out, but I’m pretty excited about the progress we are making.

Thanks for checking in!

Shrapnel

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