A Bit of Musing……

I've got a lot on my mind these days and thought I would muse a little on the ol' blog.

El Edmonds Castillo:

The house is coming along great. The metal siding mixed with the natural cedar shakes and cedar soffits combined with the mass of the concrete makes for a beautiful visual impression.

Interior finishing's should be getting started any time now. It will be interesting to see how each of the rooms feels once you can no longer see through the walls. The fireplace looks like it is going to be massive now that they have the basic framing for it completed. It didn't look nearly so large in the drawings. It will be an interesting feature and the focal point of the great room. Rock, glass, and copper…..

I'm still struggling with whether I want to add a steamer shower or not. I think if I had one I would use it but, if I didn't I wouldn't miss it. Adding the steamer would change the whole feel of the shower, it was designed as an open shower and if I add the steamer I will have to add a door. ??? I just don't know, but I need to decide soon.

We have settled on the Control4 whole house electronics control system. This will allow us to start with a fairly simple audio-electronics control system that can be upgraded in the future and still give us some pretty cool features right now. This system will allow us to control music/lights/thermostat/security for each room individually from anywhere in the house and eventually from remote locations through the internet.

We visited with the water feature contractor who will also be designing/building our patio fire pit. This guy is quite the artist with natural stone. His work looks so natural. He is working on putting together final costs for the pondless waterfall and the fire pit. Lucky for us, he is slow right now and is going to give us some price breaks from his initial estimates.

Allegro:

I got all of the new instruments installed. I washed the decks. I began doing a deep cleaning of the interior. My back hurts! One more long day on the boat and she should be ready for cruising once again. It is amazing how much less stressful it is to sit in the cockpit of a well sorted boat!

The Economy:

It sucks…. For me anyhow.

Business:

It is SLOW! I have got to figure out a better marketing plan. Mine doesn't work anymore. I'm not worried about staying in business but I am worried about how much more of a hit I'm going to have to take financially. I am also worried about how negatively my employees have been, and are going to be, affected and when they will give up and bail. At least I do have a couple of decent projects that kick off next week that will keep most of the guys busy for close to 2 months. Maybe in that time I can get some back log worked in and that will help carry us into the summer and busier times.

Personal Finances:

No…. Let's just not go there. In a word: Ugly.

Until next time:

CHEERS!

Touching the High Points

Damn! Has it really been a month since I have updated this Blog thingy? Hmmm..... Let's just hit some high points that have occured over the last month.

1. PGS, Inc. is slow. I'm doing everything I can to bring in work to keep the guys from losing too many hours. It's hit and miss. Someone said it might be tied to this sucky economy.... maybe?

There were 121,000 job losses among professional and business services providers
in January on top of 106,000 that were eliminated in December.

That's even more jobs than the construction industries lost in the same time period.

Or maybe I just need to take responsibility and work harder at bringing in business through creativity and superior service.

2. Casa Edmonds is coming along nicely. We now have the home fully enclosed with all of the windows and exterior doors installed including those fancy glass garage doors. The mechanical ducting is completed, most of the electrical wires are run, and plumbing should be finished with the roughing by the end of next week. Exterior siding and soffits are going up and is looking fabulous. The flat portion of the roof is finished and they flooded it yesterday to check for any leaks. It passed.

We should be getting started on the large retaining wall extending north from the house for the patio area next week. The PUD will start removing the power pole and dropping the lines underground in the next week or so. And no, they don't do that for free! As a matter of fact, it costs way more than if you were to hire a private contractor to do it but they won't let you do that. Gotta keep all those PUD workers employed. Insulation will be going in and interior walls should be getting their finishes soon.

3. The KTM 990 and 530EXCR are gone

and are now replaced with the BMW F800 GS and G650 X-Challenge

Got a good sell on the KTMs and got a really good deal on the BMWs. Hopefully my stable of motorcycles is now complete, especially since I couldn't find enough money to buy a bicycle much less a motorcycle at this point.

4. Marathon training is still moving forward albeit not at the level that it should be. I've been definitely fending off injuries and I am still not totally healed from the little "incident" that took me out last year. I really do need to get serious about the miles now or I will have to blow off the Vancouver Marathon in May. It would help to shed a few pounds too but that would require a decrease in alcohol consumption..... damn, that's some kind of drastic options.

5. I can feel the days getting longer once again. That helps keep the blue periods shorter. I can't wait for summer.

I probably should spend some more time getting everyone up to date on my life happenings but it has been a long day and I'm going to have to work tomorrow so I think I'll just call it a night.

Cheers!

Ron

Marathon Training!

Sucks!

Not really.... ;-)

I've actually begun a real training program a mere 7 months after destroying my major pedal structure.  After spending several months struggling toward building a decent base mileage the time has come for focus on the big miles once again.  I am actually looking forward to the buildup over the next few months and plan a Boston qualifier at Vancouver in early May.  Not so much to the plans for a long run in the range of 30 miles in March.

I am going to take a training plan that I have always resisted, running further than the goal race distance in training.  I have always been one to take the stand that if you can run 80+% of your race distance you can certainly run the full distance with the added motivation of race conditions.  The problem is, I keep running into the 'Wall' at around mile 22 and I want to try to break this block.  I keep thinking that if I can run a bigger distance in training maybe I will have the confidence of breaking through that 'wall'.  I guess we'll have to see if I can actually survive a 30 mile run before I can actually cross the confidence barrier.  We'll see.... good training or just stupid?  Tough call.

Stay tuned!

Recap of 2008

Well.... the end of 2008 draws near and I am compelled to reflect upon my achievements and shortcomings of the past 12 months.

2007 was a fantastic year for PGS.  2008?  Well, it pretty much sucked.  We finished the year with some money left in the bank accounts and most of our team still intact, so you can't say it was a failure.  Other than that?  Let's just say we are looking forward to a much better '09.

On a personal level?  Even that was a bit negative on the financial side.  Seems like everything I invested in during the year went bad.  I had a couple of gems, like betting on crude oil prices falling (made good money on that one), but most were like my bets on grains (lost a lot of really good money on that one) and just left my accounts drained.  I did have a busy year on the personal level and I would have to call the year a success on the personal growth and experience front.

Let's recap:

• January - Purchased a really cool (read - expensive) new piece of survey equipment elevating us to a level of technology that very few small business ever achieve!  The 3-d, High Definition, Laser Scanner is probably the coolest piece of equipment to come along in surveying since GPS.
• February - Sent 2 of my employees to sunny California for advanced training in the Laser Scanning technology.  It was actually sunny for them!
• March - I took 9 days with my best friend to explore the desert southwest by motorcycle.  I went to enjoy the camaraderie of a friend and absorb some warmth and sunshine while enjoying life on 2-wheels.  The camaraderie worked out just fine but I definitely got cheated in the warmth and sunshine part of the trip.  We froze our butts off.
• April - Kokua! Where I got cheated of the warmth and sunshine in SoCal I definitely made up for it in Honolulu.  I also got to enjoy the likes of Dave Matthews and Jack Johnson in concert at one of the coolest venues possible.  And all for a good cause! (As if I needed an excuse!)
• May (early) - A failed attempt at qualifying for the Boston Marathon but a valiant attempt none the less.
• May (late)- A trip to Infineon Raceway for Superbike racing with the greatest group of friends possible.  These crude, rude, insensitive, redneck.... (you get the picture) bunch of guys are probably the most sincere bunch of people you will ever meet.  We got to experience partying at a level that few college students ever achieve.  Complete with scantily clad (sometimes unclad) girls, unrecognizable alcoholic concoctions, a swimming pool, an unbelievable estate in the hills overlooking SanFran, sleeping on floors, and not-sleeping.  Wow!  This ultra-married OLD man was a little overwhelmed by it all (scared!).
• June - A crash and a wedding in Mexico!  The crash was somewhat tied to the wedding.  My son decided that he wanted a motorcycle trip in lieu of a bachelor party.  I gave him the added excitement of watching his pops do a high speed, low side, in a sharp corner in heavy rain.  "Limit of Traction".  A broken back and leg was the final cost of that little "hey, watch this" incident.  My son was married to our absolutely beautiful daughter-in-law in Puerto Vallarta later in that same month.  Spending a long week in the sunny warmth of Mexico with the 2 families in a single villa was priceless!  I now see why our new daughter is so special.... her whole family is!!!!
• July - Recovery and healing from my accident and the joys of Mexico!  We get building permits for Casa Edmonds!  We begin construction on the home we began the permitting process on 3 years ago.  Unbelievable!  Oh, and another trip to California.  This time to bring back the replacement GS and enjoy Moto GP at Laguna Seca.
• August - More recovery and some good work from the Bureau of Reclamation and Olympic Pipeline.
• September (early)- A fantastic trip covering Washington and Oregon with my wife, son and his wife, Mike and Melissa, on motorcycle.  What a wonderful chance to spend time with the people I love dearly.
• September (late) - A solo trip covering 5 states in 5 days on a new motorcycle!  Wow!  Some absolutely beautiful country under absolutely beautiful conditions.  There is something about traveling alone on a motorcycle that very few understand.  My time!
• October - A missed marathon but running actually begins in earnest!  Construction continues on the Casa el Edmonds and a home begins to take shape.
• November - Wow!  Another anniversary, another year with my very best friend!  My wife is everything that makes me what I am.  My soul mate!  Another trip to Infineon, this time with my son and some really crazy motorcycle friends to attack the track on a personal level.  Very fast - very fun!
• December - The year draws to an end.  Very little work and lots of really bad weather.  

All of this bad news at the end of the year pales in comparison to the positive aspects of the amazing people that make up my life and my team at PGS.  We enter the New Year with more positive contracts and more of a backlog of work than we started this past year.  The home in Edmonds is really beginning to look like a home and we are a little overwhelmed with the sheer elegance of the home we will soon be living in.  It's a long ways from the migrant worker camps I lived in as a kid.  Life looks good!

I love my family!  I love my friends!  I love living!

Cheers to all!!!

Casa Update and Request for Opinions

Casa Update:

We are nearly dried in.

The doors and windows have been ordered, colors for the metal siding and roofing have been chosen.  We went through the house with the electrician to review lighting and outlet requirements.  We have selected all of our plumbing fixtures - what a nightmare that was!  Wood flooring has been chosen, still working on tile and carpet.  We also need to finalize a selection for kitchen cabinets, we had the appliances chosen long ago.... did you know you can spend $10K on a simple fridge?  It doesn't even have fancy controls on the outside of the door!  Completely floored me!

Of course, everything we picked out has caused us to be over budget in almost every category.  I keep blaming the builder for not allowing for quality materials but in actuality, maybe I should be blaming the builder for not allowing for my wife's good taste?  We did do OK on our wood flooring selection and, after brow beating the builder, it looks like my garage door selection is going to just fit in the budget.

The house is going to be beautiful though!

I really don't think our neighbor to the north (Snohomish County Parks) is going to be much of a problem.

Request for Opinions (I know, none of my friends have opinions!)

The garage doors is what I am soliciting opinions for.  Narrowed down to one of these 2 doors:

I think the tempered glass would look really cool but I wonder if the paneled door wouldn't be a more practical door?  What say ye?

Cheers!

Cap'n Ron

Was GS Now RT

Damn.... I sure hope I didn't make a mistake.

I went from this:

To this:

Looking at the RT I already feel older..... it's a pretty bike but doesn't have the youthful energy of the GS.

Let me explain the rationale; My wife and I have found that she really enjoys accompanying me on long, multi-day, road trips on the motorcycle.  While the big GS is a beautiful bike for solo touring and not bad for 2-up travel, there is no way it can compare to the RT for eating big miles in real comfort for driver and passenger.  I mean, the RT actually has real cruise control and heated seats!  I also recently picked up the KTM 990 Adventure which gave me a huge overlap in capabilities with the big GS.

So, I guess if I need to get my 'youthful energy' feelings I'll just have to jump on this bike:

Or maybe this:

I think I'll still be able to get into trouble and not act my age.... just sayin'

Cheers!

Cap'n Ron

Of Bikes, Race Tracks, Speed, and Longevity

Twenty-nine years on Nov. 17; That's how long ago my spouse and I were married. I would have to venture that I am one lucky SOB to have found someone who would put up with my moody ass for this long. My wife is one of the best people I know and she accepts my shortcomings with such grace. She is what defines who I am. God I love her.

As a testament to how generous and accommodating this woman is, she gave me the opportunity to spend a day racing my motorcycle at Infineon Raceway on our Anniversary! Not only that, she also put up with traveling almost 2000 in the company of 2 of my crude riding buddies (love you dopes!). My son and his lovely bride also accompanied us on the trip and my son joined me on the track.

The Bike:

is the Buell 1125R. The only real American made sportbike. A full 145 horse power Superbike capable of racing, in stock form, against the best bikes in the world. The first non-Harley and water cooled engine used by Buell. A wicked, fast machine!

The Track:

Infineon Raceway in Sanoma California at the south end of Napa Valley and just north of San Francisco. This is a very technical track with lots of elevation changes and tight, blind corners.

To say we had a good time would be a complete understatement. The weather was beautiful, the track was clean, the event was very well organized, and I didn't crash!

The track was set up with a tightening of turn 1 to keep speeds down just a tad so the track run was something like this:

Turn 1 set up as a sharp right-hander then a hard acceleration uphill into a blind right-hander that you start your turn before even seeing it. You are also cresting a hill so your tires are a little unweighted so you have to be gentle with your braking. Out of turn 2 accelerate hard into turns 3 and 3A, a fast left-right chicane where knee dragging is easy. Hard acceleration and then hard braking at turn 4, a hard right-hander. This corner was giving me trouble the whole day, I kept entering way to slow which led to a bad line. Accelerate hard out of turn 4 through a very fast turn 5, up hill into turn 6 'the carousel'.

Turns that have a name always have a bit of fame attached to them. They are either dangerous, technical, fast, fun, or all of the above. The Carousel is a hard downhill left-hander that is taken at very high speeds with an extremely wide exit. It is a great place to pass but it is also a little unnerving to be doing nearly 100mph leaned over so far that your knee is almost scraping the pavement. I loved that turn!

Accelerate very hard coming out of turn 6 up to turn 7. Turn 7 is a double apex corner that can be taken as a single radius or, a little faster, 2 hard radius turn. I always came into this one a bit hot and had to work hard late braking. the curves making up turns 8 and 8A are mostly straightened out apex to apex and are very fast. Out of 8A you accelerate hard and the track drops leaving you with the front wheel off the ground accelerating at over 100mph. You brake hard coming into the chicane at 9A causing the back end of the bike to fishtail like mad! Lay the bike over hard right and flop over to a hard left. This is a really fun chicane that if properly executed you can carry pretty good speed through it.

Then it is hard on the throttle through turn 10 and, once again hard on the brakes for the hairpin right-hander at turn 11. Turn 12 is taken on hard acceleration and as you shift up through the gears in the front straight you are generally wheelying as you pass the grandstands. Then you're hard on the brakes again to come into turn 1 and do it all over again..... but faster!

At the start:

Coming into turn 3:



The Carousel:



My lovely wife here to watch ME have a good time:

Coming out of turn 9A, the chicane:

Accelerating in turn 10:

A happy kid:

A fried tire:

Yep, a good time was had!

Cheers!

Ron