Year of the Startup

Now that I’m back from vacation and VBS is done at church, I now realize that I am once again looking at another radical change in my life.  Change happens — you can either fight it or embrace it.  I like the familiar, but the last couple of years have taught me not to fear change.  I’ve been OK with it; at times I have even embraced it.  After one year, my start-up company is dead.  There have been talks of creating a new one.  After thinking about it, I have no interest (though I might still help those who want to continue on a very part-time basis).  God is sending me in a new direction: Teaching.  Strangely enough, I am qualified to teach at a Community College now.  I lack the in-class teaching experience most colleges require, but I have the right degree.  To teach at the High School level, I’m looking at 2-3 years of study.  To teach at a University, I’m looking at 3-6 years of study.  And while my preference is to teach at the Community College level, to do so, I would almost certainly have to move.  There are no Community College openings available where I live (and the ones around here require a PhD — they have higher standards for a more educated community).  Barb and I are OK with moving, but with one kid in his Senior year of High School, this would not be the best year.  If I pursue a single subject credential, I have a very good chance of teaching here in the Bay Area.  I can then keep an eye out for Community College openings in the area.  I am OK with three more years of study.  I like the academic life.  I could even go for my PhD and teach at the University level.  I’m sure I would have a great time, but I would be 55 when I got out.  I doubt people would hire me.  At least while pursuing a Single Subject teaching credential, I can still do layout contract work and, more importantly, I can substitute teach and gain teaching experience.  Why am I telling you all this?  Because after today, I’m declaring this “start-up” chapter in my life to be over.  I’m doing something new, and along with that declaration comes a new blog:  The New Thing.

Today would be “clean the garage day.”  It was also my Wednesday morning breakfast with the lads, so I got the Porsche out and went to breakfast.  While I was away, a friend of ours (the one who stayed at our house while we were on vacation) called and said that her car had broken down.  She and her family represented four VBS helpers who could not be missed, so my wife went to get them in our Honda rental car.  The kids rode bicycles to church.  This actually worked out great because all this leaving in different directions cleared out the garage so we could work.  The work was pretty dusty, but we threw away a fair amount of stuff, sent even more to Goodwill, and created “themes.”  Now, the things we need won’t be found in three different places.  Barb and I were very happy with the results.  Also during the day, we grabbed a friend’s car (she’s on vacation in Chicago) to drive to church so our other friend could drive home.  We then took the rental to the Honda dealer and picked up Barbara’s van.  The dealership had washed the outside and scrubbed the inside.  Now that’s customer service!  I would expect this treatment at the Porsche dealer, but not the Honda dealer.  Barbara keeps eyeing that Honda Fit – perhaps we will both end up with one.

Yeah, today starts the Olympics (preliminary).  Jeffrey and I watched three women’s soccer matches, and then cooked dinner (Teriyaki chicken and rice).

Someone stop me before I kill my dog.  My wife is working out in the garden and the bunnies are out so my dog is at the back door whimpering and barking.  It is one of the most annoying sounds in the whole world and it penetrates closed doors.

Today was an expensive day; my wife took her van in for an inspection.  We haven’t had it serviced in four years, and for a few months now, there has been this yellow service light on the dash reminding us of this fact.  Nearly everything made of rubber is broken (belts, hoses, tires, motor mounts).  It’s going to cost us $3K.  Hey, at least we get a “free” rental car for a couple of days while they do the repairs.

Now that I’m back in California, I’m beginning to “find myself” again.  I got my finances in order and I’m unpacked; that’s a good start.  Now I’m trying to figure out what I should be doing to make money.  I can say that I’ve been employed for the last year, It sure had the look and feel of regular employment, but since we didn’t make any money in our little start-up venture (lost a lot of money in fact), it’s really no different than being unemployed from a financial point of view.  I want to try the consulting route first if I can… or change careers if I can make enough money at it (which seems unlikely).  Currently, there appears to be no shortage of regular layout jobs, but I’m not interested in something persistent at the moment.  I’d rather “consult” myself into a decent job as a run-in-the-mill employee if the price is right.  Until then, I like the pay and the flexibility that comes from consulting.  Or I could win the lottery and retire.

We did absolutely nothing on Saturday – just rested, but on Sunday, me and four other guys put up this 25 foot tall stage set using our church’s lift for VBS.  By the end, none of us could lift our arms!  That lift weighs about a ton, and it doesn’t go up and down stairs very easily!

The stage included a very realistic looking plane that one of our elders constructed.  It is simply awesome.  Between the set and the construction of the plane, it took us four hours.

Our morning started at 3:45AM.  In order to do all we wanted to do, we needed to leave no later than 4:25.  For the first time at the lake, it was raining while we were up (there was that one mini-storm, but it had happened in the wee hours of the morning last week).  It was an added kink to my driving plans.  Still, at 4:23, we were off.  Within 500 feet of exiting, a low tire pressure warning went off.  I pulled into the one motel on our side of the lake to inspect the tires.  Yup, the right front was a little soft, but it had no obvious punctures.  Rather than head back to my dad’s house to use his compressor, I decided to push on.  If the tire got too low, I’d fill it at a gas station.  The tire was just fine the whole trip.  We blasted through all the back roads to get to Canandaigua, where we stopped one last time at Dunkin’ Doughnuts for breakfast, then headed on to Rochester.  Just before hitting the airport, we topped off the gas, got some bad directions from Greta, then made it to the airport on time despite her directions (hey, I can still read the signs that point to the airport).  The National Car Rental lot was full so we parked it on the Alamo lot and told the guy inside the airport where he could find it.  He said that it wouldn’t be a problem.  As always with Rochester airport, security was a breeze and the TSA folks were downright delightful.  I love this airport!  Gee, we could have had Dunkin’ Doughnuts or Starbucks inside the terminal as well!

Our first flight was nice easy, and low-key.  Hey, we got our assigned seats; that’s a good start!  In Atlanta, we had to walk and train some distance to get from terminal C to the brand-new terminal F, which was stunning.  Not many people in the F terminal, and everything was so new that my airport maps app didn’t even have a terminal F.  The food court upstairs was nice.  We had Chinese rice bowls for “lunch” at 10AM.  The flight to SFO was packed, but once again, it was without incident.  Kristi had gotten trapped in Palo Alto on the way to pick us up so we enjoyed about half an hour of car watching just outside the terminal.  Man, those traffic cops that monitor the pick-up zone are angry all the time.  Their job must suck.  Kristi did eventually get to us, and then we hit Friday traffic on the way home.  Even the commuter lane was stopped.  When we got home, we had a note on our toilet that it was broken, so I went to the hardware store to get the replacement part.  It was such a strange experience to drive in the morning on the East coast, then drive in the afternoon on the West coast.  Alas, the part that needed to be changed wasn’t actually the part that needed to be changed.  I was too tired to go back.  I’ll get the part in the morning.  The evening was spent trying desperately not to go to sleep.  After 7PM, this was hard to do.  Courtney made it to 9PM; Jeffrey to10PM, Barb and I to 10:30.  My guess is that none of us will have an issue with sleeping in tomorrow morning.  We will not be up at 3AM ready to go.

The morning was spent sanding our wood projects.  Jeffrey and I did a lot of sanding!  Towards the end of this, Barbara and Courtney decided to take the kayaks out and go on a long ride.

Barb and Courtney on kayaks

Jeffrey and I decided to do the lawn so grandma and grandpa wouldn’t have to.  Taking care of a one acre back yard with fences and trees is a big job!  Jeffrey weed-whacked; I used the hand mower to get the edges and trees then used the riding mower to get the rest.  It took us two hours – about as long as it took the girls to do their kayak trip.  Meanwhile, a boat repairman was fixing my dad’s speedboat.  Everything came together about 1PM, so we decided to try the boat out by going to “The Swiss,” a restaurant on the lake at the far side of the bluff.  As was the case yesterday, the lake was choppy, but not quite as choppy as yesterday (only 1 – 2.5 foot swells today).  Since this was a speedboat, we went fast.  I’ll tell you, there is nothing like feeling the spray of the boat while getting air force-fed into your nostrils as the wind pushes off the scant windshield at 45ish MPH (the lake’s legal speed limit these days – the boat will do 70 on flat water).  As we hit the bluff, we had to slow down because the waves were too much.  I was on the far left of the boat, the windward side that day, so I got all the spray.  My left side was drenched by the time we arrived.  The food as always was good.  On the way back, my mom drove (slowly), which may have been worse than driving a bit faster.  With so much weight in the boat, the front end was lifting a lot and we were rocking all over the place.  Everyone got wet.  We found a less wavy spot on the side of the lake and mom sped up.  Aah, much better!  In the evening we did laundry and packed.  We’re leaving tomorrow in the early morning.

Courtney and her mermaid outfit (which she made herself)

The highlight of the day for me was doing some woodworking with my dad and my son.  Dad was very patient in teaching Jeffrey some of the more advanced woodworking techniques.  Dad somehow didn’t remember that I had had extensive woodworking experience in my past so he was teaching me as well.  I didn’t say anything because I wanted Jeffrey to learn; that, and my dad had three tools I had never seen before because most of my experience is now 20 years old and a lot of new machines have come into existence for specialized woodworking since then… so I was learning (still, I mentioned to mom that dad seemed to have forgotten my experience, and I know from a later conversation with my dad that my mom had reminded him of the fact.  I was a lot more free to do as I wished after that).  After a couple of hours, Jeffrey and I had a couple of wooden spatulas used for stir-frying – Jeffrey with cherry wood, and me with maple wood.

Dad shows Jeffrey how to plane wood

The other task we did today was to put my brother’s speed boat back in the water.  My dad’s boat had engine issues and if we wanted to do any water skiing or tubing, we needed a boat.  With that accomplished, we took the boat out mid-day to do some tubing.  The lake was rough with high winds – perfect for sailing, but terrible for boating (and yet, there were so many boats out right now that it looked like a weekend… except that these boaters knew the rules).  It got too rough for the kids.  For some reason, my wife wanted to go around the bluff to see homes on the other side of the “Y” of our lake.  Courtney drove the boat.  As we got to the bluff, the swells were reaching two and three feet.  We and the boat were getting hammered.  Once we had accomplished our goal of getting to the other side, I took over the controls and headed back.  I found a less rough spot on the other side of the lake so I went there.  Once there, Jeffrey wanted to wake-board all the way back to the house.  He accomplished that feat, but he was really tired; there were still a lot of waves and many wakes caused by many boats.  In the evening, just before sundown, the lake calmed, so we went out again.  This time, we were the only boat on the lake, and we decided that now was the best time for water skiing.  Barbara got up and did a couple of laps.  Jeffrey then wanted to try, but the sun had just gone down.  Technically, you stop water skiing at this point.  While we were setting Jeffrey up, the Sheriff’s boat drifted by.  He knew we were pushing it (as Barbara was mounting the night lights on the boat), but generally, they will allow a water-skier to ride back to their house.  We waived, they waived, which to me meant tacit approval to go for it.  Jeffrey got up on the third try and we got in a couple of laps.  Just as we were putting the boat away, we could see the Sheriff’s boat blue lights flashing in the distance as it chased down another late water-skier.  You can ski into dusk, but there is an official time that you cannot cross.

Today, Barb and I went on an all-day date to Ithaca & Cornell University for our anniversary.  The drive there was lovely… in our air-conditioned car.  It was due to hit 97 degrees today.  We sure felt it when we got out at the art museum on campus.  The building was modern; the art collection was small but impressive.  There was a realistic (acrylic) life-sized nude sitting in the middle of the room on the American Art floor.  When I went around the corner, I thought a real person was sitting in the chair.  She was gorgeous.  Both Barb and I especially liked the visible veins beneath her skin at her breasts.  The only thing that didn’t look real was all her hair.  It was obviously acrylic and not real human hair.  The European Art floor had two absolutely stunning Bogerau paintings.  I have always liked his treatment of women’s faces – always so tender and lovely.  The guy can paint!

While we still had time on the meter, we took a quick walk down to the nearby gorge.  The suspension bridge was sort of funky looking (utilitarian, no panache), but the views of the cascading waterfalls (by the power plant) were nice.  When we got back up the hill, we still had 13 minutes on the meter.  We guessed that this might not be enough time to walk to our lunch destination, so we decided to drive there.  It was a bad decision.  There is no parking anywhere on this campus except at the art museum (and if you park there, you must register inside at the desk or your car will get towed – even with money in the meter!).  We could not get near our destination (Temple of Zeus eating establishment), so we decided to go to the base of the big hill upon which this campus sits to the Charter House Pub, our possible evening restaurant.  It was closed until 4PM (and yes, Cornell U sits on top of a massive hill.  Anyone who attends this university had better be in great shape.  The parking is at the bottom of the 500’ steep gradient).  It was getting to be around 1PM and I needed food – I was getting cranky.  We moved on to our possible dinner destination in Lansing.  Same story, it was closed until 4PM.  There was another brew pub a few miles away so we went there.  It was closed until 4PM.  I was now very, very hungry.  We finally opted to dine at a Japanese Tepanyaki House.  Wouldn’t you know it, today was their 10^th anniversary as an establishment, so we got 25% off!  The food was excellent, and the hibachi chef was the best I had ever seen.  He could really flip and spin his cooking utensils.  At one point, I was able to catch a flying piece of broccoli in my mouth that he had launched.  Barbara missed her piece.

Ithaca Falls

After lunch, we found the Ithaca Falls and quickly took a picture (we were illegally parked in a teacher’s parking lot at the district office).  We then found some pretty decent parking half way up the cliff face leading to the campus.  It was in the shopping district just outside.  We hiked up a bit and made it to the campus.  The handy campus map pointed the way… except it was the wrong way.  We hiked up to Summit Road and then discovered that we were going parallel with the gorge we were to cross.  We headed back, crossed over the bridge and into the Engineering campus.  Beyond Engineering, we found the really old buildings of the campus.  They were interesting.  No A/C inside though, or water fountains.  We needed water bad.  We got to the information booth just inside the campus and the gal there was very helpful.  We got a map she had highlighted.  We would now go to the campus information wing which would have more info on some things Barbara wanted to find out (AVID program and “Cornell Notes,” which originated here in the School of Law).  The two guys who helped us did not know about either thing, but they looked it up on Wikipedia, then discovered that the professor who invented Cornell Notes was still alive and living in the area (he had taught here in 1940s).  They gave us his home address and phone number, but we opted not to call or see him.  Barbara left the info office with many brochures.  Next up was the campus store.  Barb bought a “Cornell” bag and a “Cornell School of Law” shirt.  I bought a Gatorade and a water near the one water fountain on campus, which was unfortunately not working (a sign apologized for it’s brokenness, but really, with a store selling water nearby, they weren’t fooling anybody).  I was convinced that this was the only water fountain on campus.  We peeked into the chapel, then moved on to the massive art quad.  I didn’t see much art, so my assumption was that this was the School of Arts.  I was correct.  We went inside one of the large buildings to see if we could get a water at our potential lunch spot, the Temple of Zeus.  It had closed at 2PM.  We then went across the quad to the statue of Ezra Cornell, took a few pictures, then headed down the main walkway off campus.  I wanted to see the large cathedral-looking structure by the campus tower, but it had been closed at 2PM due to excessive heat.  It was now 100 degrees outside.  I bought a shirt just off campus, and then we took the car down to the Frats and Sororities so Barb could take some pictures there.  We got a text from my mom – power was out at home, so we should go to dinner in Ithaca.  We went downhill to the Charter House.  It was now open, but there was no parking to be found anywhere within two blocks.  There was another Pub a mile away near the Ithaca College, so we went there and found a large parking garage.  The Ithaca Ale House was rated 4.5 start on  Yelp, so it was bound to be a winner.  It was excellent.  The beer was good, the appetizer (Buffalo Wing Spring Rolls) was excellent, the burgers and onion rings were excellent.  By the time we got home (after another lovely drive), the power was back on.  We took a dip in the lake, watched a little TV, then went to bed.  The house was not cool.  The low for tonight was supposed to be 77 degrees.

Ezra and the tower

The weekend was quite a marathon.  Sure, we did swimming and boating activities (like a two hour sail down the lake and back); we’re on a lake after all, but the big thing on Saturday was to install four fence posts that needed replacing.  Three of the four holes had nice thin holes so getting the cement was not a problem.  Unfortunately, I didn’t get those three holes, my brother Kevin and his work crew of Jeffrey and Courtney got those.  Thomas and I got the one with a massive amount of concrete mixed with large rocks.  It took us over an hour to pick axe through the cement.  We couldn’t dig around the cement because it had bonded with the local flagstone up near the main road.  Kevin’s were all on the gentle dirt slope headed down to the house.  Well, after lunch and a brief swim break, we were able to get the posts in.  Kevin’s three took a bag of cement each, mine took 2.5 bags.  Even though we were pretty much spent for the day, we rallied later on to cook a fine bbq chicken dinner just before the rain threatened to hit.  It missed us, so we took a nice boat cruise around the lake “looking for a home” for me (we were looking at all the new expensive homes on the lake).  Given my sibling’s current finances, only Kevin can afford to buy my parent’s house at this moment; so it’s likely that he will do just that at some point.  I’m currently cash poor, but I have no doubt that I can generate more cash.  I’m looking to buy another home on the lake sometime in the future; a newer home on minimal land would be my preference.  My parent’s home requires too much upkeep for my taste.  Kevin is fine with doing all the upkeep.

There was lots of rain, lightning and thunder overnight.  One exceedingly large bold hit right by our house – the thunder was simultaneous with the bright light.

Big day on Sunday:  I was teaching a class on Jonah, preaching about Jonah, and doing hymns and special music along with Jeffrey, Kevin, Dad and Ade.  Last year was Jeffrey’s debut on bass; this Sunday would be his debut on guitar.  Over the last year, Jeffrey had learned how to practice consistently, so he’s getting pretty good rather quickly.  Ade was really impressed.

Sunday was very early – we left the house at 6:30 to get to my dad’s church by 8AM – the church is 1.5 hours away.  Arriving at 8AM gave me enough time to set up my sermon notes, my class notes, music and instruments.  Because Barbara drove my parent’s Tahoe to the church, I was able to use that 1.5 hour drive to review my sermon and class notes.  I was woefully under-prepared because my Friday and Saturday had been taken up by so much activity.  I needn’t have worried – everything went off great.  Most people liked my children’s sermon the best, which included props (Jonah getting eaten by a big fish).  The class was also well-attended.  I had 17 people there, which apparently is close to record attendance.  After service was over, we went to the same Chinese buffet we had gone to last week.  The gal there gave me “special tea” largely due to my interest in her establishment last week and my (weak) use of Chinese.  I think she was happy we returned for a second week.  I didn’t eat as much as last week – I’m on the road to losing weight.  When we got home, almost everybody went for a nap.  I slept for 2.5 hours.  After that, I watched TdF.  Someone had spread tacks on the road right before the last descent of the race.  I think it ruined anybody’s chances of beating Bradley Wiggins, as I imagine most of the racers wanted to use the downhill on this particular stage to gain advantage.  Oh well.

For some reason, my legs were fine today, but everything (muscular) from the waist up hurt.  I don’t know what I did to get this way.  My dad didn’t walk this morning, but instead took Kevin and the kids on a sailboat ride.  My mom and Barb went walking together.  This left me all alone in the house, so I put my time to good use and wrote-up my sermon for Sunday.  It was good to get that out of the way; now I can concentrate on the sermon’s delivery tomorrow.

Eventually, everybody returned, briefly.  After lunch, the kids went on a long kayak ride with Kevin and my parents drove into town to get some stuff.

In the evening, I cooked some steaks I had bought at the local store (top sirloin for $7 a pound!)  It was pretty much the best steak I have ever had.  It was so tender.  Kevin brought the wine, my mom made salt potatoes (a local favorite), salad and a blueberry dessert.  It was all good.

Many of us took a slow boat ride around the lake in the evening.  It was nice to see all the houses in the area.  Some were old, but most looked very new.  This is definitely becoming a weekend get-away place for affluent Rochester folks.  If I had any money at all, I would buy property here.

Evening boat ride