Year of the Startup

We had lots of visitors at work today; half of them were from my old company.  We had Wes come in to give John and me some consulting work; Danny came by to help us learn how to use a new piece of equipment.  A finance guy dropped by to see if we were a company worthy of funding; we have a second interview next week, so things look good! The last guy who came in still wants to run our company.  Nope, not going to do it!  He really doesn’t really have much to offer us that we can’t already do ourselves, and we don’t want to give away the store in the process.  To me, he seems like a venture capitalist, except without the capital.

It appeared that everyone at work today was “in the zone” – everyone got a lot accomplished today.  Frankly, I don’t remember a lot of what I did, since I’m still sort of woozy from this cold, but I know I was productive.  I wonder if it will appear so tomorrow when I review my work?  Now at the end of my day, I’m simply wiped-out, and I still have band to go.  Maybe I can fit in a nap.

I wish I could say that things were better today.  I’m probably worse off than yesterday.  Last night, my infection grew stronger, and I began to get a temperature.  I don’t really want to go to the doctor to get antibiotics, so I began my regimen of breathing steam.  This works more often than not.  The trick is to keep it up.

On the plus side, I did get to breakfast with the guys this morning, and I was able to work most of the day (between steam sessions).  I actually wound up putting in a pretty long day between my work, my consulting work and my church work.

I also got a potential consulting gig today from my former company.  Gee, just when you think you’ve seen the end of them…  I offered my special former company consulting rate to them (that is, exceedingly high), since I didn’t really want to do the work, or work for them, but they accepted the amount.  I guess they are really desperate.  Fortunately, the time frame is ASAP, and no more than two weeks.  I also get to deal exclusively with a friend  of mine who was smart enough to get out of our former division before the collapse.  He’s now in a much better place, and come to think of it, so am I!

Feeling stronger today; it’s too bad that my nose & eye are hurting so bad.  I suspect I might have an infection.

My son (also sick) stayed home with me today.  We watched some movies, played some games, ate and I snuck in a little work as well.

My weekend started with me getting sick.  I started out OK in the morning, but by noon, it was apparent that I was heading towards a cold.  I took Zicam, figuring that I needed to take something before “babysitting” a bunch of youth while all the moms went out to a play and to a dinner.  I don’t know if the Zicam helped a great deal, but I was able to keep an eye on all the kids without much fatigue.  Truth is, they pretty much entertain themselves anyway.  The ladies got home at 10PM.  They had a great time.  I was ready for bed.

Sunday was hard.  I was getting drained pretty quickly, but I was still in the sore throat phase, and not yet in the stuffy nose and coughing phases yet.  I rested right up until church started, played in the band, then promptly went home.  I avoided contact as much as possible, which is hard because our church is so friendly and social.  I ate minimally and drank no beer (and usually, I would) while watching the Giants narrowly defeat the 49ers.  The 49ers did not look good today.  I guess it’s better that they lose today than to lose in the Superbowl.  On the bright side, I get to see 49ers at the Pro Bowl next week.

This morning was downright awful.  I began to see bug of mine as more of a flu than a cold.  This made me sad – I got my flu shot last month!  I had a fever much of the day, and I was now very stuffy.  Nothing was stopping all the congestion.  I felt like my head was going to explode.  I literally stayed in bed the entire day, watching 12 hours of movies.  In the afternoon, my son came home from school and promptly threw up.  He began to feel bad during sixth period.  I guess I should have wiped-down those remotes!  He either has a worse version of what I have, or he has something entirely different.  I expect that both of us will be home sick tomorrow.

Interesting way to end the week; a potential backer came in today and gave us two really good financial options.  This is what we have been looking for! If either works out, we would get a tidy sum of money down the road.  We need to choose wisely (and make sure one of the two options happens), but this is good news!

Yeah, the rains have finally hit after six weeks.  My commute home was slower, but who cares?  No more spare the air days!  All the allergens will get knocked down!  My blue car will get “washed!”  It’s a good day.

The learning curve for this new process is a bit steep; still, I was able to finish creating the techfile and start some layout.  I’ll learn the rules as I go along.

At lunch today, my partner (who no longer wishes to be called my boss) and I met with a couple of consultants who will, in all likelihood, help us with our business as advisors.  We sort of hope that they will also help us financially, though that may not happen.  They may be able to lead us to finances though.  I’m also starting once again to pursue the EB5 route, since this is a good plan for our company.

Well, off to an evening class.  3.5 hours is a long time for a single class, but I know I’ll learn something… before I begin to fall asleep.

For the second day in a row, I didn’t feel like chipping ice off my Honda, so I took the Porsche.  I really didn’t think I’d be using it this much in the winter.  It’s definitely a weekend/summer car, but you know what, it’s also the best option for cold mornings.  My commute the past two days have been warm and stress-free.  It’s going to cost me in gas though…

The car has another plus – aggressive drivers don’t bother me.  Most won’t even try to be aggressive, and I can leave those who want to be aggressive in the dust.  I have so many more “tools” to play with in this car (faster cornering, more zip).  It is the great equalizer.  I get no respect in the Honda.

My weekend was just hopping.  On Saturday, I had Elders, followed by layout work and preparing for Sunday’s mission team training.  In the evening, I watched the 49ers beat the New Orleans Saints.  Great game!  Sunday was church, the mission team training, and then the family went to San Jose State to look around the campus (prior to my wife’s 8^th grade field trip there in a few weeks).  None of us had been in the new library before.  It was eight floors, so a lot to cover!  Each floor offered some “quirk” that the library had built-in.  What a great place!  I did notice that there were a whole bunch of “academic homeless people” about.  I guess on a cold day like Sunday, an indoor public place was a good place to crash.  I couldn’t find my Master’s Thesis, which made me sad.  The catalog said it was on the fifth or seventh floor – I couldn’t find it on either.  We walked the entire campus after that.  Boy did my feet hurt!  That evening we had dinner and dessert with our friend Maxine.  It was so nice to spend time with her.  We all came home and immediately went to bed after that.  We were pooped – it had been a long day!  My aching feet kept me up a lot during the night.

Nothing special about work today, though my commute was great because so many people were off today (Martin Luther King day).

My son got his finals results yesterday; they were not good.  When will he get at all serious about study… or life?