September 2009

Home Sweet Home

Being a business owner has a lot of challenges that employees don’t have, but one of the perks is being able to make key life choices without a boss or management looking over your shoulder all of the time.  One of my life choices has been not to travel being a father and a husband.  I know many men that have had to travel for business and it takes its toll over time.  There is the allure of seeing new cities and places and people.  However, after a few weeks living out of a suit case either alone or with people you don’t know that well, the toll is taken.  You miss your wife and kids and home.

With the state of the economy and lack of any business activity going on out there, I have had to rethink things and take whatever opportunities that may arise.  I have been fortunate to be doing business with Home Depot for many years and was given the opportunity to do a lot of work in a very short period of time.  The opportunity is to replace all of the air conditioning equipment on the roof of five Home Depots throughout southern California in six weeks.  We will have removed and replaced 150 pieces of equipment in that time.  Our record day, and company best ever, was in Hemet when we craned down 37 old units and 29 new units in one day.  We’ve been on a fast track schedule with cranes, semi’s, forklifts, recyclers, manufacturer’s, plumbers, electricians, sheet metal workers and more for the past month.  The schedule is so fast and so much is going on that I am running all of the projects myself with a crew of ten men.  We have been gone for a month.

It was a close call between staying in a hotel or just commuting.  All of my employees really wanted to start work at 6am, to beat the sun and the heat.  It has been really hot in SoCal the last month.  This put me in the decision of getting up at 3:30 to 4:00am on a daily basis to drive the freeways and then make the drive back in the evenings or just staying in a hotel.  It was a no brainer for me.  If I had to get up at 4am everyday, I could just not function well.  I packed my bags and off I went. 

Here I am, my last night in a hotel for awhile and I’m blogging:)  I am usually on the roof of a Home Depot at 6:00am and usually am not done until three or four in the afternoon.  By that time, the sun has taken the life force out of you and it’s off to the hotel room to sit in front of the air conditioner in your underwear until you cool down enough to take a shower.  I must commend the crew because there has been little to no drama the entire time.  Yes, men can be dramatic.  We finally had some stuff go down on our last job.  We had one guy  arrested and I haven’t heard from him.  I had another guy have a tizzy on the roof today and quit on the spot.  I’ve been doing this so long, these type of things don’t surprise me or bother me anymore.

I can’t wait to get back to San Diego County.  I will never complain again about how crowded San Diego is getting.  You spend a few days in the realm of Los Angeles and there is a density of people that you really can’t notice or comprehend on a day trip or weekend sojourn.  Once you’ve spent a week up here, the crush of humanity is noticeable.  The other thing you notice is the police presence.  I have never seen so many squad cars in my life.  We were hearing sirens going off every half hour up here.

Here I come, home sweet home.

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What I Did On My Summer Vacation

It’s been awhile.  How’s everyone doing?  I haven’t written a blog in three weeks.  It seems that the summer season has gotten the best of me, but with Labor Day being the official end of summer I am ready to put out some blogs.  I did the usual things that I always do during the summer.  We did some beach trips.  We did some surfing and camping.  We attended a few barbeques.  I had my weekly wrestling match with my pool cleaner.  However, there are some other things that happened that are above and beyond the usual.

My son inspired Karen and I.  He was on the swim team this past spring for the high school freshman team.  We saw how exhausted he was and how intense the practices were and then we saw the transformation of his body.  He was already in good physical condition, but the swimming chiseled him like you wouldn’t believe.  Karen found a swim class every Saturday and Sunday morning and off we went.  It has been very challenging for two people who never swam before.  The first couple of weekends wiped us out completely.  We would swim in the morning and then come home and eat everything in the refrigerator and then fall asleep on the couch.  The kids were worried about us.  Lo and behold, after three or four weekends, we were able to swim in the morning and then function normally the rest of the day.  We’re going to continue it throughout the fall.  We definitely feel better and more energetic.

Ever since our dog Domino died in February, my daughter Jennifer has literally been on her hands and knees begging for a puppy.  Her persistence has paid off because I caved in late July and said okay let’s get a puppy.  Well, the conversation turned into how one puppy would be lonely during the day.  One puppy turned into two puppies.  I found them on the internet.  There pictures were adorable (I’m a big softy).  They were cute little fuzz balls, but they were in Arizona.  The breeder was nice enough to drive them to Temecula because she wanted to visit her grandmother.  Chloe and Bear joined us at the end of July.  They are cute and fun and they sure do poop a lot.

The midlife crisis kicked in again.  Just when you think it’s going to subside, it flares back up again.  I’ve always wanted a convertible ever since I can remember.  I decided to sell my truck and buy a convertible.  In this economy, it took two months to sell my truck.  My enthusiasm to get a convertible waned as the summer progressed, but then lo and behold someone bought the truck and I was out test driving convertibles with my daughter Jennifer the following Saturday.  The first car I drove was a beautiful silver Mercedes CLK 55 AMG.  I told the salesman that I was going to go test drive some other cars and that I might be back.  He said there is no might about it.  He said after driving this car you won’t want any other and he was right.  Two days later I bought the car for my 42nd birthday!

Now, for the downer of the summer.  It’s a cool hundred degrees late in the afternoon on a Friday in Escondido, CA.  The RBV, Orange Glen, Castle Park, and Santa Fe Christian football programs come together for a four team scrimmage.  It’s a great format because you get to play against three different teams in an hour and a half.  Stewart got his shot at starting cornerback and on the third play from scrimmage a running play came his way.  He and the outside linebacker made the tackle and then a couple of other players came flying in.  Everyone got up except Stewart.  He has a broken tibia, that’s your shin bone.  Ouch!  Doctor says three months in a cast from his toe to his hip.  He is definitely going to learn the meaning of patience. 

I hope you all had a great summer.

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