Let's Talk About Quitting

I have done a lot of things that I really wish that I hadn't. I've taken on a lot of commitments that I really shouldn't have followed through on. I have NEVER actually not followed through on one of these though..... until now.

Sunday I was supposed to run the Portland Marathon. I paid for the privilege, I kind of trained for it, I made the commitment, but I did not follow through. I made up a bunch of excuses at the last minute and bailed on my commitment. "Soy un perdedor" I'm a loser baby, why don't ya' kill me.

I probably shouldn't be beating myself up over this. I know I can finish a marathon and this was going to turn into a "no time goal" marathon. I was under trained and had no chance of a Boston qualification or "personal best". I could have driven down to Portland, hauled my ass out of bed at an ungodly hour, made the trek to the start in a pouring rain, froze my ass off waiting for the start, and then trudged along at something close to a sub-4 hour time (which would have been my slowest marathon of all times), crossed the finish line, and got my medal and finishers shirt. I could have then limped my shivering, cold, glycogen depleted, cramping muscled, barely alive body back to the hotel room to get showered so I could limp my way to the nearest bar to drown the pain in a heavy internal alcohol rub.

Yeah, I really shouldn't be beating myself up. But damn, I'm not a quitter and I am having a lot of trouble dealing with this whole quitting thing. I'm going to sign up for the Seattle Marathon, to be run in late November, and see if I can't redeem my sorry ass.

A little guilt? Maybe?

Until next time.

Cheers!

Cap'n Ron

Climbing the Volcano.

Mount Baker 10,778', in the North Cascades, is the most shoreward mountain in the cascade range. Because of that it gets the most snowfall and holds the record for the highest annual snowfall (95 feet) of any mountain in the contiguous US. Another interesting fact is that Mount Baker is the second most active volcano and the most heavily crevassed mountain in the contiguous US.

This is an interesting mountain and this past weekend I led a small, but dedicated, team to the summit.

Originally I had planned on driving up to the trailhead and meeting my 2 climbing partners on Thursday evening, sleeping in the vehicle, and then hitting the trail around 7AM. Busy schedule and unanticipated commitments caused me to have to leave out on Friday morning. This meant that I had to get out of bed at 3:30AM to get ready and drive up to the trailhead for our meet. I did a good job of getting things ready the night before and made my schedules, meeting my team at roughly 6:30AM.

The trailhead elevation is at about 3,100', the hike in was relatively uneventful and the trail was quite easy. We even had a couple of beautiful waterfalls to distract us from the effort of carrying our over loaded backpacks up the hill.

The crossing of Kulshan Creek was a little tricky but it looked worse than it actually was and we barely got our feet wet.

We worked our way up and onto the glacier, finding a nice camping area at the Black Buttes. Camping was on the glacier at an elevation of approximately 7,200' with wonderful weather and good visibility of the route to the summit.

Some cloudiness did come in overnight but the temps were quite mild and the clouds were high so I wasn't worried about conditions being poor for our summit attempt. As is the tradition, we arose at around 2:00AM to prepare for an early start for the summit. This is generally done in order to do most of your climb under favorable cold conditions while the snow is much more solid. I really think this was unnecessary on this climb because of the warm conditions even at this early hour. Besides, this is what a climbing camp looks like at 2:00AM:

We left our glacier camp at around 3:00AM. As the weather had been quite nice for the past week and many climbers had summitted over the preceding days, the route up the glacier was quite easy to follow. The glacier was in prime condition with the crevasses all well covered and having very solid snow bridges. The lower portion of the glacier has a fairly low angle slope and the early evidence of the sun made for a spectacular horizon.

There is a steep step of about 100' to gain the Pumice Ridge which is snow covered. The climbers that I was leading to the summit did a great job of not complaining and holding a nice steady pace up and onto the ridge.

From the ridge you work your way up and onto the Roman Wall, the steepest portion of the climb. The snow conditions were poor, to say the least, with knee deep postholing on the way up the Wall. As hard as this was for travel, it was probably good for my inexperienced climbers because it feels much more secure than icy conditions through this very steep portion of the climb.

We made our way up over the top of the Roman Wall where the slope becomes less steep and less of an effort.

And a little above this you reach the broad summit plateau. A short hike across the Plateau brings you to a summit cone. We reached the top of the Summit Cone 10,778', at around 7:30AM, not bad considering the experience of the couple I was leading. We met up with another group up there and spent a few minutes talking, getting some pics;

and then promptly headed down. What you can't gather from this summit photo was that the wind was blowing at around 35 knots and freezing sleet started moments after the shot.

The trip down the mountain was quite uneventful other than even worse conditions on the Roman Wall where, if you got off the packed snow, you would sink to your crotch. We were able to get off the wall, down the ridge, and off the step without incident though and made it back to our camp right at noon. We broke camp, loading all of our stuff in our packs, and headed down the trail, making it out to our vehicles by 3:00PM.

Overall, this was a great climb and I considered it a huge success simply because the couple I was guiding thoroughly enjoyed themselves and didn't seem to have any moments where they were wishing they weren't on the mountain. Best of all, Bruce had a nice cold Mike's Hard Lemonade for me at the truck!

Great climb and a great time with some great friends!

Cheers!

Cap'n Ron

Some S'plainin' To Do

This whole motorcycle swapping, buying, selling, trading, acquiring.... thing has really started to make my head spin. I think it's time to try to get things typed up and documented so I don't get confused and ride the wrong motorcycle home from the next gathering.

OK

Two main bikes at this moment are the:

2009 R1200RT

And the F800GS

And both of these are excellent motorcycles, but.....

Let's start with the R1200RT -

The R1200RT is arguably the best sport touring motorcycle on the market. It is absolutely amazing as a 2-up touring motorcycle that still has plenty of performance. This baby has heated seats, heated grips, electronic cruise control, electronic suspension adjustments, adjustable windscreen, traction control, and the list goes on. It cruises beautifully at 80mph and, with the windscreen raised, is almost as quiet as riding in the cage. To ride this gal in the rain is something one has to do to understand the environmental protection this bike provides. Amazing!

But..... it just doesn't light my fire. It's great 2-up but it's doesn't fit my riding style when I'm alone. And I'm alone a lot. I have always been the kind of guy who likes to look on a map and pick the tiniest squiggly line on it and head for it. Therein lies the problem. Lots of those little squiggly lines turn out to be dirt roads, and sometimes really rough dirt roads. The RT isn't really an appropriate bike for that kind of riding.

Next up, the F800GS

The F800GS is another amazing bike but completely on the other end of the spectrum from the R1200RT. This has been a fun bike, to say the least. This is the kind of place this bike feels most at home.

This bike will take you places that just beg for adventure! I originally purchased this for my solo touring bike to complement the R1200RT. Didn't work.

The F800GS excels in the dirt road environment but not so much when you are on the big freeway slab. It has gotten better and I think it could be made even better with the addition of a larger windscreen. I do really like this bike and would keep it under different conditions.... still might.

Bikes recently purged (last 6mos):

Buell 1125R - Sport bike extraordinair

BMW G650 X-Challenge - hard core dirt bike

Now try to keep up here, this is where things begin to get complicated.

Casey bought my X-Challenge to compliment his R1200GS Adventure (the same one that I totaled in a confrontation with a guardrail) and for more serious dirt riding. Well, the X-Challenge didn't work out to his liking and some of his priorities got changed up for him so he started really lusting for his dream bike, the BMW HP2 Super Enduro.

About this same time BMW introduced the 30th Anniversary Edition of the R1200GS Adventure. The 2008 GS Adventure is what I traded for the RT and have regretted it ever since.

I had been half-heartedly attempting to find someone to trade my RT for a GS adventure for several months without any luck so I had been thinking selling the RT outright and just purchasing a USED GS Adventure. BMW did introduce a new motor for the GS this year and it really is "all that" so I was beginning to wonder if maybe I could rationalize the 2010 model somehow and then..... BMW introduced that damn 30th Anniversary Edition.

Casey put the X-Challenge up for sell and began looking in ernest for an HP2. He didn't have much luck selling the X-Challenge but he did find his HP2, set up perfectly, and close by.

He makes himself a deal on this HP2, picks it up and brings it home, and promptly finds a guy that wants to trade a wrecked HP2 for the X-Challenge. Hmmmm...... the X-Challenge cost me $5K as a brand new 07, the HP2 was selling at $20K in 2006. Damage looked pretty minor so, what the heck, let's make this trade deal.

Yeah, the beak is a little busted up, the head guards are a little scraped, and the handlebars are a bit buggered, but nothing a little elbow grease and a little BMW cash can't fix! :-)

Same time all of this is going on I'm down talking to the fine salesmen at Ride West BMW about this new 2010 Anniversary GS Adventure. Yeah, we're talking about how there are only supposed to around 38 of these guys coming to the states with each dealer only allocated one. I'm telling him how lucky I am that I couldn't get one even if I wanted because, surely the one they had coming in was already spoken for. "Oh no" Mr. salesman says, "we just got the word that ours is on the way so, no one has had a chance to put their name on it yet." Damn, these BMW guys are tricky!

OK, I give Mr. salesman $500 to hold the bike for me so I can get a gander at it before giving it up to someone else. About 2 weeks later I go down to look this new bike in the eye and see if she's for me. Wow, she was pretty!

But, it didn't have a couple of safety options I was looking for so, as hard as it was, I turned my back on her. I look to the salesman and say "as much as I am enamored by her looks, she is lacking some key features, sorry." He says that isn't a problem, he has several other interested buyers and my $500 deposit will be refunded. So how about a non-Anniversary model? Well, that could work if we can find one set up the way I want. We get on his computer and start doing some searching. Nothing in his inventory. Hmmmm..... nothing in the western US. Oh well, just wasn't meant to be. I'll wait for the 2011's coming this fall. "But wait!" says Mr. salesman. "I think someone said we had made a trade deal with another dealer to allow us another Anniversary model". Cool, let's see what it's equipped with. Darn, still missing my key safety features. "But wait!" "It hasn't gone into production yet so WE can add whatever options we want." Oh, really!? "Let's get these changes made and get 'er ordered up!"

Born on my lovely wife's birthday:

And scheduled to arrive at the dealer during the first week of August and it has all of the options that I wanted. :-)

This is the motorcycle that I wanted to replace the RT with so the RT goes up for sale in ernest. The dealer has offered me a really good trade deal (might be because of all the money they have already made off of me over the years) so if it doesn't sell I'll just trade her in when the new GS comes in. I do have a very interested party from down in So Cal that is scheming on coming up to pick up the RT though, but I don't consider it sold until I have the money in my hands.

Now the new dilemma, the F800GS. The HP2 is a far superior off-road bike to the 800 and will probably be superior on-road too. I'm thinking the 800 will have to go. I will wait until the HP2 is fully repaired before making the decision but, my guess is that it will end up being a rarely ridden bike and it is just too fine a machine to relegate to garage art duty.

So, this is where we stand..... I think.

R1200RT - To be sold, gone.

F800GS - To be sold, gone (maybe)

R1200GS Adventure 30th Anniversary Edition - coming to a garage near you soon.

R1200 HP2 Super Enduro - Broken but fixable, hopefully in my garage within a week.

I still have some time to let all of this shake out and, who knows? I may end up turning down the GS Adventure (I still can), keeping the RT and 800, and fixing up the HP2 and selling it...... Yeah - right!!!! hahaha!

Cheers all!

Of Marathon Training, Automobiles, and Dogs

Today I went out for my 'Long Run' and noted a couple of things worthy of discussion. First, Long Runs are stupid, especially when 'long' is over 20 miles. Who the hell decided that marathon training should include ridiculously long runs in the first place? Anyway, I digress, the topics I was speaking of are autos and dogs.

Autos:

Why is it that right turners never look right? I know the AUTO traffic is coming from the left but what if??? Say there was a construction zone to your right that was funneling traffic into your lane? Or maybe, just maybe, a pedestrian or runner was coming from your right? Wouldn't it be good to know these things before pulling into the oncoming traffic's lane (don't laugh, I saw it happen) or running over the poor pedestrian or runner who may be coming from your right? Are we so 'anti alternative transportation' that we don't care? "Nothing could be coming from the right besides a stupid pedestrian or even more stupid runner after all", cars are way more important.

Another thing, there are no sidewalks, or even wide shoulders, on any of the rural roads. Don't people in the suburbs walk? Well no, of course they don't walk! There is no damn place for them to walk! My run today involved running on a lot of 'fog lines' through these areas and autos were honking and folks in their F150's were leaning out yelling at me to "get the hell off the road".... WTF? I pay as much, or more, road taxes as anyone, why shouldn't my needs be just as important as anyone else's?

From the United States Department of Transportation:

"It is the policy of the USDOT to consider walking and bicycling as equals with other transportation modes: The primary goal of a transportation system is to safely and efficiently move people and goods. Walking and bicycling are efficient transportation modes for most short trips and, where convenient intermodal systems exist, these nonmotorized trips can easily be linked with transit to significantly increase trip distance. Because of the benefits they provide, transportation agencies should give the same priority to walking and bicycling as is given to other transportation modes. Walking and bicycling should not be an afterthought in roadway design."

My feelings? It's about damn time! This means that new transportation projects that receive federal funding will have to put just as much emphasis on foot and bicycle traffic as the automobiles. Thank you USDOT. Maybe this could be catalyst for change that we need to encourage folks to get out of those cars and do a little walking or maybe get on a bike.

Dogs:

OK, I love dogs, I even have 3 of them myself, but why is it that people can't understand that dogs treat runners different than walkers? A walker comes by and maybe the dog sniffs his/her leg but a runner comes by and as soon as the runner passes the dog bolts for the runner, attempting to immobilize the runner with a quick bite to the hamstring. Come on people! This is a natural instinct of dogs to catch prey. They haven't always been fed "Wagon Train", these critters were once very effective hunters. I really don't appreciate that rush of adrenaline that I get every time I pass you and your dog and he, unconsciously, decides to go for my hamstring. Not his fault but it's still going to hurt mightily if he ever actually connects. Hold that leash tightly please.

Thank you for your time and please look right before turning right and hold that leash tightly as I pass. ;-)

Cheers!

Random Musings:

• Homes and Financing

Over the past year we completed the construction of our beautiful Edmonds home. It is absolutely amazing with a view to die for and a price tag that I almost died because of.

Immediately after completing construction on the new home, we had the comps done on the old Lynnwood home and, based on those comps, did a near complete remodel. Well, in that short time span of construction, the value of the Lynnwood home has fallen about $60K due to short sells and foreclosures in the area.

All of this was done in a struggling economy with a business that definitely suffered from the effects of the poor economy. Try getting financing for a jumbo loan with all of this hanging over your head! Yep, very challenging indeed. I am really looking forward to things actually getting back to normal.

• Business

PGS has actually done quite well over the past 8 months, considering. Profits are challenging but we are eking out small ones. We had gotten so far behind financially that it will take years to fully recover but we are, at least, in recovery mode. This has been a very difficult time and our good fortune is no indicator of the state of economy for our industry.

We are doing well because of extremely hard work combined with the fact that we are the best at mapping in our niche market. We can’t relax though….. we are just the loss of a job or 2 away from another collapse and we don’t have the reserves to survive another so soon.

• Leisure

What I miss most right now is leisure time.

The ability to take off and do a trip on a whim. Even 3-day weekends are hard to come by these days. The effects of all of my personal projects combined with the challenges of running a business at this time, just doesn’t leave any time for play. Not that I could afford to do much anyhow.

• Running

Training for the Vancouver Marathon on May 2 in Vancouver, BC.

Training has been going extremely well and I am at least a month ahead of my training schedule right now. This week has been a very short mileage week for me due to my hectic schedule but I’ll up the mileage again next week. I want to take it a little easy for the rest of February anyhow, just to make sure I don’t peak to early. The goal is first, to qualify for Boston, 3:35:59, with a secondary goal of finishing in under 3:30. I’ve been working on speed much more in this program than past and am feeling pretty confident right now. It helps that I have completed 3 runs in excess of 18 miles, with 2 in the 20-mile range, and haven’t bonked yet.

• Motorcycles

It is really hard to find the right one (ones). In the past 5 years I have gone through no less than 15 motorcycles. Of course 1 of those was due to a catastrophic failure (mine) resulting in the destruction of the motorcycle and a few personal structural features. It’s good to have a dedicated small dirt bike, big dirt bike, sport tourer, performance sport, and adventure tourer. I do believe that I am finally at the point where 3 bikes should be enough and have pretty much decided what those bikes should be:

1. BMW R1200GS Adventure –

This bike is the Swiss Army Knife of bikes. It will do anything you ask of it and do it well. You can head off cross-country with it and ride in total comfort, carrying enough gear for months of living off of the bike, humbling sport bike riders in the twisties, all while not worrying whether the road is dirt or asphalt.

2. BMW F800GS –

Great for around town and commuting but also makes an excellent big off-road bike capable of long days of asphalt to get to the dirt exploring. It has just enough of a hooligan tilt to satisfy the non-conforming side in us all.

3. Performance Sport Bike –

This is probably the only bike that I’m going to have to accept as an ever changing desire depending on the latest/greatest in go-fast technology. Right now my dream bike would be the HP 2 Sport:

This bike is sooooo expensive though that it isn’t even on the list of possibilities.

The BMW S1000RR sure looks amazing:

I have got to get down and test ride this bike!

And the older BMW R1100S Boxer Cup Replica would be really cool garage art:

Any one of these would be a welcome addition to my garage.

You will probably note that all of these bikes are BMW models. Yes, I have drunk from the BMW cool-aid. It’s just that once you have driven the BMW’s everything else just isn’t as inspiring. Kind of like driving a Porsche. If you don’t get it….. you never will.

• Automobiles

The lease term on the Jeep that I use as a business vehicle ends next month so I will be car-less. I have made the decision, in the interest of finances, to borrow Sue’s Smart Car to use as transportation in the short term. After the business finances improve I will need to come up with a different option, as the Smart will not be great for doing project recon…. Sue will shoot me if I damage that little guy! I’m not sure if I want to go with a pickup or a car right now. I do know that I hate the motor in the new Jeeps and would not go that direction again.

I really want to do a full rally conversion on a classic mini if I could find a project car.

That would make a really cool car to show up at client meetings with. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what the year brings.

Enough rambling for now. I wish everyone a happy and prosperous year!

Cheers!

Questions…..

Seems I have a lot of queries concerning the whys of my life of late so I thought this might be a good blog subject. I’m kind of a dense guy, might be senility, not sure because I wasn’t real bright even back when I had a memory…. What were we discussing? Oh right, brain density. Anyway, since I can’t seem to answer my own questions I thought I would throw it out to both, OK fine, my only follower and see if you can answer these deeply puzzling questions.

1.) Why do I run? Not only, why do I run, but why do I run far?

Here I am, once again, training for one of these blasted marathons. On 1-10 I went out and ran 19.3 miles on the Sammamish Trail (at least it was flat). It felt pretty good so, instead of finishing off feeling all strong and stuff, I decided to push the last 2 miles at race pace. Yeah, that was smart. Heart rate shot through the roof and I ended the run feeling completely spent. Damn!

This morning 1-17, I decided to drop a little mileage off and limit myself to 18 miles. Seemed like a good idea, right? The route I chose was challenging, lots of big hills, but I thought I could just take it easy and run something in the 9:30 range. Yeah, right….. What I ended up doing was running this hilly route at only 1 second per mile slower than my 19.3 mile run on the really flat trail last weekend. Dense.

2.) Why isn’t it OK for a run to just be fun and not push my limits?

This one seems like it should be a simple question. It eludes me though.

3.) What’s this whole ‘over-achiever vs beach bum’ thing I’ve got going on about?

I don’t believe I have ever come across someone who was as conflicted over these two traits as I am. I tell you, all I want to do is go play but yet I seem to take on more responsibilities than Mother Theresa. If I’m not excelling at something I feel lost but if I’m not lazing around shirking my responsibilities I feel cheated. What’s up?

4.) Why isn’t one motorcycle enough?

OK, easy…. See number 3.

5.) Why don’t I ‘get me’?

Obviously if I did, I wouldn’t be asking these stupid questions…..

‘Till next time,

Cheers!

Ron

A New Year, a New Opportunity

Good bye and good riddance to 2009. I don't regret having to endure calendar year 2009 but I am sure glad it is over.

2009 was both challenging and rewarding and, while financially difficult, it has been a year of learning and building for PGS, creating a much more secure business. I still have a lot of learning to do to understand why I was hit so hard by the current recession. It is so easy to just say "we have had a hard time because we are in a recession" but that is only partially true and does nothing to help move us forward. I really believe that a good business plan adapts to conditions rapidly and finds new opportunities in challenging economic times, foregoing the big financial hits. It took longer than it should have for PGS to adapt and find these new opportunities causing me to think that some revisions to the business plan are in order.

Things really have improved considerably over the past 5 to 6 months for the business. We are working with a reduced staff but easily keeping everyone busy and chargeable. Profits are still really meager and I need to do more to reduce operating expenses and to improve revenue generation. At this point I am really optimistic about the upcoming year but very cautious at the same time. That is the great thing about the New Year, it gives us hope and a whole new year of opportunities.

And I'm ready for it!

2009 was such a challenging year on so many levels and it is a wonder I came through mentally as well as I did. I don't even think I developed any new ulcers from all of the stress. Here's a quick recap;

• The worst financial year since starting the business…. Let's just say that I don't have to worry about an income tax this year.
  
• Investment portfolio was a complete disaster…. The losses would make a nice deduction on my income, if I needed it, which I don't.
  
• Constructed the mega-home 'El Edmonds Castillo' in the midst of my financial collapse.
  
• Did a full remodel of the Lynnwood home to prepare it to sell for far less than it was worth a year ago without the remodel.
  
• I am boatless in Seattle because I sold Allegro, my sailboat and refuge from reality, to reduce my monthly expenses.
  

On the other hand there were many very positive aspects to the past year and, in some ways, it has been one of my most productive years. Here's a little recap of the positives:

• It is 2010 and I am not bankrupt.
  
• PGS has actually been profitable since August, albeit on a very meager basis.
  
• PGS has developed relationships with some fantastic new clients.
  
• PGS has entered 2010 with the largest backlog of work in the past 2 years.
  
• My investment portfolio still has 'some' money in it and it is slowly getting better.
  
• I completed the construction of 'El Edmonds Castillo' and now live in an absolutely fabulous home with a view to die for.
  
• The bank may even be convinced to convert my construction loan to an actual mortgage on the new home.
  
• I got to do some really fun exploring via motorcycle travels.
  
• I am married to the love of my life…. And have been for over 30 years…. And she still likes me!
  
• It is 2010 and I am not bankrupt!
  

2010! And I am ready for the voyage. I will not allow this year to be negative and I will not dwell on my past failures. What a wonderful, privileged life I have been afforded. 2010, one more chance to get it right!!!

Happy New Year and cheers to all!

Don't Delete Those Links Yet!

I got to thinking last night, "what if some errant reader, who had saved a link to this blog back when I kept it updated, accidentally clicked on that link and happened by". Would they think the blog had been abandoned? Or maybe that the blogger had passed in some gruesome manner via a mad adventure? Well, just to keep someone from wondering what on earth may have happened, I have decided to attempt typing up some coherent update.

I am still running:

I did have to back off considerably for a while due to nagging issues from my little "get off" and subsequent collision with a guardrail at speed. Fun stuff but I digress. So, for the past couple of months I have been trying to rebuild the base miles and seem to have finally gotten over the hump. Now begins the fun of building up to the really big miles in preparation for a spring marathon. Not sure why I do these damn marathons. No matter how much I train they just plain hurt. I use the excuse that it forces me to stay in shape but guess what? I could do just as well holding a steady 30 mile per week base and lifting a few weights. I damn sure don't need to run 26.2 miles in one effort to stay in shape. Stupid, I say.

PGS is still in business:

As a matter of fact, things are actually looking fairly promising for the winter. We have a bigger backlog of work for this winter than we have had in several years. We are a smaller group so it does take less work to create a backlog but we have a backlog none the less. The work we are doing these days is really interesting and ties into our niche market more than in the past. The projects are also larger than they were in the past. What is missing from our work load is the smaller private clients that we used to do a lot of work for and without their return it is going to be hard to truly stabilize for the long term. On another bright note, we have actually been profitable again for the past few months. It is nice to see the bank account balance rising rather than being on the steady decline that we had become accustomed to. Yep, things are looking promising indeed.

El Edmonds Castillo:

Finished! And we have moved in.... well at least mostly moved in. We still have a lot of organizing and figuring out what to do with things and I'm still working on the whole permanent financing thing, but we do live here now. The house really is a work of art and I have come to respect my architect more and more. He and I worked hard to make this house what it is and I believe that there is a big piece of both of our souls in the finished structure. It is so wonderful to wake up in the morning and look out upon the Puget sound and the Olympic mountains from my bed. Everything about this house is just relaxed and peaceful...... finally!

Motorcycle travels:

I was able to get a couple of really fun motorcycle trips in this fall. The first was a birthday trip with my son and Steve over the mountains and a lot of dirt between Leavenworth and Winthrop. Let's just say wet and cold is an understatement but an absolute fun trip with some amazing roads I didn't even know existed. The next one was a 5 state trip I did with a really good buddy, Steve. We covered a good part of Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and Oregon and a good part of that on dirt, A stretch across Idaho and into Montana called the Magruder Corridor which is one of the most remote and longest continuos dirt roads in the US and a big part of the Oregon Desert that was the most deserted piece of road I have ever experienced..... and rough! Another trip was with my son. We used the excuse of picking up a motorcycle lift from my pal JW at the Bearcat lodge to haul the dirt bikes down to Seneca for some dirt exploring. And explore we did! I had a great time just trying to keep that kid in sight. Not an easy task.

Well those are the highlights of my life for the time being. Not much but enough to keep this old dog happy.

Until next time,

Cheers!

Blog Discussion Thwarted

Sometimes I begin a Blog discussion that I realize is probably best not discussed. I just spent an hour putting together a somewhat coherent post only to realize that my thoughts were a little too personal to air on the WWW. Yep, sometimes the thoughts in my head are best left deep within the dark crevices of what little brain matter remains in my skull and not shared. Sorry!? I probably shouldn't have teased both of my loyal readers, (OK, really there's only one) with a post at all but after all that work I couldn't just delete everything..... now could I?

'till next time,

Cheers!

Hmmmm.... 50

So this is what it feels like to be 50. I would say it's a little anti-climatic, really not much different from being 49, to be honest with you.

Yeah, I turned 50 over the weekend. You know, today's 50 is a lot like last years 50. I don't know but maybe I just built it up to something more than it is. Everyone talks like it is such a big turning point in your life but I was a little under-whelmed by it all. Is it because we expect to live longer than our predecessors? Maybe, but all I would have to make it to is the mid 50's genetically, to out live my immediate predecessors so I'm pretty damn near that now.

I'm a little surprised that I don't feel an urge to outdo some past achievement in some way. Or maybe go explore something I've never explored before. Nope.... I would like to do some of the things I was really planning to do sometime in the near future anyway. Maybe sail across the pacific in a little sailboat, or spend a little more time in the canyon lands of southern Utah, or maybe stand atop another high mountain peak, or maybe...... just continue to do what I have always done.... explore!?

50's not any different than any other age at this point.....

Cheers!!!!

Ron

A New Chapter

This past week has brought PGS and myself to a new chapter. One of my key employees and, more importantly, a key friend is expanding and moving on. Bob has been with my company for almost 7 years and has played a key role in many successful projects. We have relied on him when we knew that the job just had to get done. He has always been there for us which we always appreciated but sometimes forgot to make sure he knew (OK, we almost always forgot to make sure he knew).

I know that this new chapter doesn't change anything for PGS other than a few adjustments to the allocations of responsibility but for me it will be quite a different chapter. Certainly, we didn't always agree, as a matter of fact, we seldom agreed but we did compliment each other. I will miss the interaction, the self questioning of ideas brought on by someone who viewed life from a slightly different perspective. As much as we disagreed we also held very similar basic beliefs and always wanted the same end result.... to be our very best at whatever we were doing. In this chapter I will need to remember to question my ideas and beliefs without the gut checks that intelligent questioning brings. I will also need to adjust to managing a business without Bob, knowing that I still have more talent in my office than damn near any company on the west coast!

Bob has a new opportunity for growth with new challenges and I wish him nothing but the best. I have the highest regard and believe that he will be successful in his new endeavors. We will miss him and he knows that he will always be welcome in my office as a friend and colleague!

Adios Bob! Go get 'em!!!

Cheers to all!

Peeking Out From My Cave!

Hello my reluctantly loyal reading fan! Think I had passed? Nope.... still kicking but procrastinating at a level never before achieved. As a matter of fact, I am coming up with excuses to not finish this post already! It will be almost amusing to follow along and see if the "publish post" button gets hit. With that being said, let's give 'er a shot!

First, let's explore my extraordinary procrastination skills and the possible causes. Apparently, I am a perfectionist. Who would have guessed!? Anyhow, because of this, I have no less than 8 blog update posts saved for editing. I seem to get started on posting an update, get most of the way completed, and then find myself being critical of the writing and never go back to finish. Therefore, I get a little anxious to start a new post update for fear of not being able to complete it to my satisfaction. Enough explanation? Are you totally turned off this blog yet? Well, if you have the courage, read on.....

In my last post I promised you some updates that I will try to address in this post and hopefully bring you up to date.

La Nueva Casa (the new house)

We are literally in the final week of construction now. Really it is mostly just cleanup and a few finishes left. We still need to get the fireplace finished, verizon needs to remove that damn pole from the middle of my driveway (apparently a year isn't enough lead time), and we still need to pour the driveway. We are hoping to have a certificate of occupancy issued before the end of next week and start moving in by next weekend.

This house is absolutely stunning, in my opinion. The view, the architecture, the site, the materials, the craftsmanship, the"whole" package is absolutely beautiful.

And I really hope I can like it.

The process of constructing this home has been the most stressful endeavor I have ever thrown myself into. I can very honestly say that if ANYONE involved in the design and construction of this home had been honest I would have never started it. I definitely learned that I have a problem with my voice.... no one can hear what I say! The cost over runs and difficulty in getting the contractor to do what I asked has been trying to say the least. At this point I'm just hoping to get it all behind me and forget about all the stress the process has brought me so I can just enjoy what I worked so hard to build.

And build I did!

My wife will no longer complain about her small kitchen.

The great room is cavernous.

The wavy panel railings we designed have a very nice feel.

Colors seem to work well.

The Patio is going to be wonderful.

The water feature that we fought a huge battle for has a wonderful feel and sound.

And who could ever get tired of this view?

I think that once I get moved in and am able to forget about all of the trials and challenges that have gone into this home maybe I can really begin to enjoy it for what it is, our dream home.

PGS Review and Outlook

Wow! What a year this has been, talk about challenges! Definitely the worst year since starting the business. It has been interesting though.

Things started to really pick up late in June and we've been very busy ever since. This year has brought some of the most interesting work yet, just not enough of it. I have had crews doing some of the most fun projects you could imagine. The guys are coming back with stories of adventure and photos to prove it. It has been a year where when people who are on vacation are asking what you are doing you just exclaim "working! what are you doing?". Every thing we do lately seems to be more like a vacation than work.... and we get paid to do this!!!

With this business I am blessed with the best group of customers anyone could ever hope for. These clients have been so good to us and have done their very best to keep us working in a very trying time and, for that, I am forever in debt! This has also been a year of developing new clients and getting to know old clients better. The efforts of a targeted approach to marketing has gone a long ways towards creating a new and improved PGS!

Things are looking very good for the short term and we are hoping to keep the momentum running right through to winter. We have some very good on-call services agreements with several public agencies and some high potential proposals out there. Billings are back into the respectable range (at least not in a deficit anymore) and should get even better before things slow down for the winter. Cash flow has been a challenge especially with us getting busy and working out of town so much. The cost of doing business has increased but it will be another month before the cash starts flowing in at a rate that will offset these extra costs.

I think this is probably enough rambling for one post (I really don't want to overwhelm my reader). I will do my best to follow through on updating the other items from my previous post in a timely fashion. I think I will just hit that "publish post" button now without proof reading before I get cold feet, so don't judge me too harshly.....

Cheers!!!

Ron

Time For an Update!

Coming soon to a blog near you.....

What to expect?

1. El Edmonds Castillo; details concerning finishes and new challenges.
2. PGS Economics; information on hope and challenges.
3. Smart Car; an exchange and long term review.
4. Travels; reports from a few very different motorcycle trips.
5. Motorcycles; a weeding of the herd.
6. Sailing; Boatless in Seattle.

Yep, I'll be providing updates soon. :-)

Cheers to all!

Ron

My Mama Always Said......

If you don't have anything good to say, don't say anything at all.....

There has been a long silence with a purpose. I made the assumption that nobody wanted to hear anything negative such as:

• Marathon training turned into hell.
• I became plagued with ankle injuries due to totally ignoring my body and adding miles way too fast.
• El Edmonds Castillo has been nothing but a pit of stress for the last few months and construction has been moving along at a snails pace.
• The construction delays are going to cost me a fortune due to being forced to get an extension on the construction loan.
• The beautiful water feature that we spent a ton of money on has to be ripped out because of an obscure code that an over zealous inspector was aware of.
• My business lost more money in the first quarter of 2009 than it made the entire year of 2008.
• Finding a steady load of projects has been unbelievably challenging.

Nah, no one would want to hear any of the negative crap that has been going on in my life so I waited until I had something good to say. Yep, there has been quite a bit of that if you look just a little deeper. Things such as:

1.) I had decided to bail on the Vancouver Marathon but then they gave me the opportunity to change events so I decided to go ahead and run the half marathon instead of the full. It was a good move.

After I blew up the tendon in my ankle I finally wised up and started working on healing instead of training. I began a routine of cycling to give the tendon a break from the stress and mixed in some very short runs just to keep the muscle memory. About a week before the Half I did a test run of about 6 miles that went very well. I could tell the tendon still needed some time to heal but I also felt that I could do the 13.1 miles without hurting anything as long as I ran conservatively. I spent that last week doing some very short runs to keep the muscles loose and also give the muscles a chance to fully recover from some of the heavier workouts from the previous week. By Saturday I was feeling rested and really wanted to run.

Sue and I drove up to Vancouver on Saturday and got a most excellent room at the Pan Pacific. We had to walk all the way across town to pick up my race packet and it felt good to be out stretching the legs. Vancouver was beautiful, as usual, and we spent some time visiting shops along the way. After I picked up my race packet we headed back to the water front to grab a bite to eat. We ended up in the Gastown region and grabbed dinner at the Steamworks Brewpub. They have excellent food and even more excellent beer. If you are ever in Vancouver be sure and look the place up.

I got a good night's sleep in the ultra comfortable bed in our hotel room and awoke at the ungodly hour of 5AM to start my preparation for the 7AM start. I really do wish they would start these races a little later, even 8 would be more realistic. Oh well, I got to the start area about 15 minutes before the start and worked my way through the crowd to the 2 hour pacers. I was thinking that an easy 9:00 pace would be plenty conservative and if I felt good I could pick up in the final miles. This turned out to be a mistake, not the 9:00 goal but the running with the 9:00 pace group.

As the starting gun marked the beginning of the race we slowly shuffled our way to the start.... and continued shuffling for the next half mile or so. I couldn't believe how crowded it was. I was being bumped and stepped on constantly. The first mile was done at an almost 10 minute pace and then the group stopped and walked. I said "what the hell" and walked with them, couldn't hurt. Right?

Mile 2 was only slightly better than mile 1 and was still extremely crowded and I was beginning to get a bit frustrated. At the water break at around 2.5 miles in I had enough of the extremely crowded conditions and decided to attempt to break out of it. I picked up my pace just a bit to get in front of the pace group but not so much as to put me under my 9:00 goal. I had no intention of leaving the group but just to get out of the congestion. It took a while but things did finally start to get a little better by mile 4.

My pace was picking up to more in the 8:30 range and I was feeling pretty good. I breezed through the miles between 4 and 7 stopping to walk through the water breaks just to let the heart rate drop and be sure to hydrate. At around 7.5 miles in you hit a big hill and I took advantage of that to start knocking off runners. I would pick out a runner up ahead and just focus on catching and passing them and then I would select another. I actually kept up this game all the way through the rest of the race. Pick out a shirt, focus on it, and slowly real them in.

Miles 10, 11, and 12 were done at approximately 8:00 pace and mile 13 was done at close to 7:40 pace. I was feeling real good in the final miles and felt I could have held an 8:00 pace through the whole race without much trouble. I did start having trouble with the tendon in my ankle by around mile 10 but the pain was manageable and I feel it didn't slow me down. I finished the final push through to the finish line at an all out sprint and hit my stop watch at 1:53:50 or an 8:37 average. Not bad for an old, broke guy.

The race was great, the weather was great, the city was great, and the event was great. No complaints at all!

2.) El Edmonds Castillo construction has begun to get back on track. Due to all of the delays on the interior, the contractor has been focusing on finishing up as much as possible on the exterior. The house is looking absolutely exquisite. I am continually amazed by the fact that I am going to be living in this house and still have trouble dealing with it's presence of elegance. I just never pictured myself living in a home that showed such wealth. A couple of glasses of wine on the deck looking out over the Sound will probably help me get over that!

They have finished building the retaining walls that hold up the patio and they look great. The decks have been finished using manufactured wood decking. We picked out a color that had been discontinued, saving us a lot of money on the material, and it turned out to be the perfect color for blending with the cedar and red metal siding.

Plumbing is mostly finished now and the inspector gave the contractor the Ok to start insulating which was done over the weekend. We should get the final inspection OK on the plumbing, mechanical, and framing so insulating can be finished by midweek. We should be sheet rocking by the end of the week and the rest of interior walls the following week. We are pretty excited to see things moving rapidly forward again.

3.) Business is beginning to finally pick up. All of our hard work in marketing is finally beginning to pay off with some projects. That combined with the better weather has generated work for the crews and office personnel. April's billing shows real promise and an actual profit for the first time since October. Looking at historical dat shows that this April was actually better than last April. This is a good sign and brings me hope that the remainder of the year has the possibility of being better than '08. All I have to do now is manage our receivables to the point of not totally running out of money before more money starts coming in. Much better than worrying if anymore money was even going to be coming in! I feel confidnet that things are coming back in my favor at this point.

Overall, my whole attitude is getting better. I hate to toot my own horn but I think I have dealt with an amazing stress load fairly well. I think I even have areas of my stomach that don't have oozing ulcer sores on it! Just kidding about the ulcer sores..... I don't think I have any..... yet. So everyone can rest easy and be certain that PGS will be around long into the future especially with the amazing team of employees that work there! I owe those guys a lot after this one!

Until next time,

Cheers!

Ron

Of Economic Conditions, House Construction, and Running....

Economy/Marketing:
Damn.... I am having a heck of a time figuring out the new rules. I'm sure our new President feels that he is doing the right things for our economy, and maybe he is, but his policies are killing me. My market sector has totally disappeared due to the 'Government' deciding that they can do the work themselves. Again, maybe they can, but not as efficiently as we in the private sector can and especially with the 'government employees' that I have experience with. And, why in the hell have they decided to hire additional incompetent personnel to do it?

I don't even mind having to readjust and find a new market but it sure would have been nice if the powers in charge would have at least warned me that my "existing" contracts were not going to be honored. I would also really like a little help in figuring out the new rules of engagement since there isn't any kind of playbook printed out there anywhere.

House Construction:
The new Casa is looking fantastic but the schedule is slipping. Exterior work is getting finished before the interior and that is very unusual. Seems a long list of poor decisions has led to a delay in the plumbing getting finished on time. As a matter of fact.... interior work has come to a complete and total standstill for the past month! Get to work guys.... this is costing all of us a lot of money and we are beginning to push our loan maturity.

The home really is going to be stunning. We stopped by tonight at near sunset and it was absolutely beautiful. Our Architect did an absolutely fantastic job of designing exactly what we had dreamed. The more time I spend at the house the more I come to realize just how perfect the design is. Rooms are exactly in the right position and size to take advantage of the view while at the same time blending wonderfully with the site. Brilliant! Thanks Steve!

Marathon Training:
I have been having a little trouble with my left foot especially since my last long run so I ended up taking a full week off to try to let it recover from my training. Today was my first run since my break and it was a big one, 24.7 miles. The run went well in the early stages but I had a pretty good indication at about mile 13 that it wasn't going to end well. The route ran along the Burke-Gilman trail from Log Boom park in Kenmore to Gas Works park in Seattle.... and back. I was trying to hold to my SO succesful 21 mile run a couple of weeks ago and holding an approximate 9:30 pace but, unlike my last long run, by mile 13 I was noticing that I was having trouble keeping my HR under 160 compare to my usual 140'ish at this pace. Well, by mile 18 I was feeling the bonk and by mile 20 I was a total wreck.

The last 4 miles was a constant transition between running and walking. Walking hurt just as much as running but took longer to cover the same distance but running would lead to cramping. I ended up running until the cramping would kick in and then walking until the cramping subsided and then back to running. That was one of the longest 4 miles I have covered in my life! I ended up with a somewhat respectable training run of 24.7 miles at a 10:03 pace. I guess that isn't bad considering but I hate having tragic runs like this one so close to my marathon date!

Until next time,

Cheers!

Ron

Marathon Training Enters New Stage.....

18 miles is my mental threshold for when the marathon training actually becomes serious. Today was my 18 miler. I was a little torn as to a route and decided the safest plan would be an out-and-back. You know, run 9 miles - turn around - run the same route back. Pretty hard to mess that up.

So, with this in mind, I headed out along a well worn route picking up the Interurban trail at around mile 2. The Interurban is a paved trail that disappears amongst the streets and mysteriously reappears now and then as a trail. For some dumb reason I kind of like the stretch from the Alderwood Mall to Lake Ballinger. It's not flat but the hills are all pretty easy and the grades are minimal. The trail ends on the north end of Lake Ballinger.... I think it continues south but I certainly don't have any clue where the route goes once I get to the Lake.

I know this trail very well because most of my lunch runs follow this route and today's run was very familiar. It was easy to control my speed and I was holding a slow 9:30ish pace and I'm feeling pretty good. My ankles are sore and I'm still having trouble with a fairly painful forefoot on my left foot. Seems that crashing a motorcycle, breaking your leg, damaging ligaments in both ankles, and fracturing 2 vertabrae may not be good for training plans. I don't have a clue what the pain in the forefoot is but it doesn't seem to get worse on my long runs so I'm just going to go with that as a sign that I'm not making it worse.

I reached the end of the trail at the lake at around mile 6.5 and had to make a decision where to go from there and chose to tie into Meridian and continue south towards Shoreline. I'm still holding a 9:30ish pace with a few faster ones thrown in now and then on the declines and feeling pretty good. Well I got to Ballinger Way at the King County line and was still only at around 7.5 miles in. Damn! I didn't think I would still have 1.5 miles to go once I reached this point so I need to make another decision. I decided at that point to wing it and head down Ballinger Way for Lake Washington and the Burke-Gilman Trail.

The run down Ballinger Way was a nice break since it is a long downhill grade to the lake and I just kept holding the pace somewhere just shy of 9:30. I was thinking that I would get to the B-G Trail at around mile 12 but, once again, I missed the estimated distance and was only just past mile 11. (Hey, just because I'm supposed to be a professional at this stuff doesn't mean that I don't get a little overly optimistic just like everyone else when estimating distances in running!) I decided that if I stayed on the trail beyond Log Boom Park to 68th I should be able to make up the shortage. At 68th I thought about just heading north on 68th to Locust and then home from there but I knew this would put me short of my 18 mile goal so I headed back west on 181st to pick up 61st and deal with the hill. Damn, I didn't realize how big of a climb you do on 181st before you drop back down to 61st! This is now just short of mile 13 and that little hill caused my heart rate to shoot way up but I was still feeling fairly good and the HR dropped right back down on the downhill section to 61st.

The Lake is at around 30 feet elevation and you do a pretty good climb up 61st, not steep but steady and I just took a little off the effort to keep the HR manageable. While running up 61st I was trying to do some more estimating and I was pretty sure that if I just stayed on 61st I was still going to be short of my goal distance. Hmmmm. Options..... Well, I could do the big hill, 30th through Brier, that seemed most certain that it would put me at my 18 mile goal. I was feeling fairly good still and felt like I was still up to the sustained effort of a big hill climb so at the Y I headed west once again to tackle the hill.

Damn! That hill is amazingly sustained. The grade just keeps taking you up and up with very minimal short flat breaks. By mile 15, after 2 full miles of continuous uphill running I was beginning to think that this may have been a really stupid decision. I could see the summit of the hill though and just kept a steady 10:00ish pace up the steeper part and finally made it over the top of that damn hill. The downhill was a nice break but it was still steep and wasn't feeling real good on the quads. When I'm fatigued I really don't care for running down hill, I should probably work on that.

After 30th turns into Poplar I picked up Larch way for the final 1 mile stretch home. I picked up the pace a bit and finished the last mile feeling that I had done a pretty good job of hydrating and fueling because I didn't do my usual bonk in the last couple of miles. Even though I was excited to see that I had just busted the 18 mile mark according to my watch when I got home I noticed that I was actually short by .08 miles on the download. Oh well, close enough.

I decided to call the route my "5 City Tour" since the route went through the cities of Lynnwood, Mountlake Terrace, Lake Forrest Park, Kenmore, and Brier. I am always amazed at how far these long runs are on the ground. Before I started this run I would have never guessed that this particular route would only be 18 miles. But, then again, 18 miles is a friggin' long ways!

Here is a map of today's little run. Isn't technology amazing?



As always, until next time....

Cheers all!