The Launch Pad

4th of July 2009

2009-07-08T21:23:00.001-05:00

This past 4th weekend was pretty low key and uneventful for me here in Houston. No exciting trips or anything for me this year, I just kinda stayed local and enjoyed some down time from the office. I did have Friday off from work so that was cool. I spent part of the day on Friday getting some jumps in and also jumped on Saturday. Saturday was a bid different in that I was invited to join the 10 Way team from our dropzone that is training for Nationals in October. The 10 way discipline is a timed event and is a lot lower stress than the other formation events.

Not much else to report from my fourth this year. I was able to schedule a trip to head back to AL in a couple of weeks so it will be good to get home and spend a little time with Mom and make sure that she is doing ok.

Here is a little taste of what 10 way is all about.

My Project Is My Roommate

2009-06-30T21:05:00.001-05:00

Time To Move On

2009-06-29T21:53:00.002-05:00

What The New Day Brings

2009-06-28T22:23:00.003-05:00

Friday things totally flipped for me.

This past Friday I was still on an awesome high from turning in the $27.5MM grant application for the biorefinery company the night before. I have been living and breathing that grant for months now. I can't tell ya how good to have that completely done with six days to spare and I thought that I might have a couple of days to catch my breath. Well it all changed. I was in my normal rotation of Thurs/Fri back at the private equity firm expecting to get ready for the next grant for the compressed air energy storage company that is building its first asset in OH, when I had a planned tag up with the VP that I work with the most. There was no bad news....just different news.

Turns out the next grant has come out and it is due end of August. They are pulling me from the biorefinery company entirely back to the fund. Full court press from here on to have this company apply for funding. I have a leg up in that I have been through this and also in that they have hired somebody to help me out. We can certainly get this done on a short fuse with the man power being thrown at it.

I guess the thing that really threw me is being pulled from the other company. I have grown close to those guys as well as the project so that makes it tough to leave. I am not really sure if I will go back their either as some of the feedback seems to indicate that although they needed my skills for that project, I am probably not a long term fit. One door closes, another door opens.

So much for summer being a laid back time but that is more than fine if this is what I have to do. The alternative of where I was a year ago is still really fresh in my mind.

Tracking Skydives, June 2009

2009-06-17T19:19:00.002-05:00

Final Push

2009-06-16T00:49:00.003-05:00

It's getting down to the final hour (although it's a couple weeks out) with my grant application. It seems like this thing is pretty much consuming me and my work. I need this win for my current career with the company as well as for the broader picture of my career. This would be a huge win for the company if we are successful in securing funding for this particular project. Even more, this is a company and technology that I really believe in. I think that we are really on to something and it would be good to say to those that doubt the value of ARRA/Stimulus funding that it 1. provided a job for me and 2. the funding was used to help capitalize a company that had an immediate economic impact to a city and state economy.

There is a lot of capital at risk here, and I really need to deliver.

Summer Summer

2009-06-08T20:32:00.002-05:00

Well the Texas heat is here and that certainly means that Summer time has arrived. I have always enjoyed the long days that Summer brings, giving you a chance to get things done after a days work. I can't help but want to do something outdoors these days since the weather has been so good here with low humidity. It's kinda funny how your memories of Summer change as you get older. For me growing up it was always about being on my bike or in the pool swimming. I could never get enough of the water and would swim so hard that I always fell asleep in the car leaving the pool. Good times.

I could not help but contrast that a couple of days ago with the Summer the kids at Texas Children's face ahead. As I was volunteering recently I could not help but think these kids should be outside playing or looking forward to some kind of summer plans. But unfortunately it's different for them as many of them probably did not have much of a school year. Would love to see if we can bring some aspect of Summer to the unit this year. We will see.

Work continues to go well for me this month as we prepare to get a grant application in for one of the projects. Can't say that I have absolute certainty that things will continue past the middle of July, but I prayerfully continue to hope that conversation will come soon. I think that it will. I can say that my days are pretty busy, but good for the most part and weekends come as a welcome reward. Wow, I suppose that it was not that long ago that Fridays were the worst for me because the weekend were not really something to be looked forward to....it's like I did not earn a weekend. Those Fridays were the worst when I was looking for a job but let's hope that is all in the rear view mirror.

All growth depends on activity. There is no development physically or intellectually without effort, and effort means work. Work is not a curse; it is the perogative of intelligence the only menas to adulthood, and the measure of civilization. - Calvin Coolidge

The Day's Memorial

2009-05-26T20:46:00.010-05:00

Sometimes you just roll out to the DZ with marginal weather knowing you might be grounded. That was kind of my attitude on Sunday of this past weekend. The only reason that I went was on the hope of doing my 400th jump even if it was solo, but sure enough after I got there, the sky opened up and it poured. I have never been one to sit around doing nothing when I could be at home doing something productive or at the hospital volunteering so I was making my plans to leave as the rain stopped and the sky began to clear. About that time I was paged over the intercom to come to the office where I met this really young baby faced guy named Robert. He was showing up to do a re-currency jump and they asked me to help out. Fortunately the weather was not great but improving - it was kinda looking like one of those days where you could end up riding the plane down because of rain or layers of clouds. However, our pilot assured me that we would have a spot and the clouds I saw were going to be above us.

During my pre-brief with Robert we got to know each other as I asked my normal questions to get a feel for his proficiency and if he was going to have any issues in freefall that would need my attention. Well, Robert mentioned that he is in the Army stationed in Iraq and home on emergency family leave after losing his father. Because of the emotion that can come with that I felt compelled to ask if he was sure he was ready to jump to which he replied yes. He is the oldest sibling and just needed some time to get away for himself which I totally understood. So we jump. We reviewed our dive flow and had an uneventful ride to altitude with no weather issues. As we were nearing jump run, I took my helmet off for a sec and told him, "Let's do this one for Pops!" and he gave me a big smile.

We had a pretty good jump, not great from a skills perspective but it was what he needed along with a good landing. It never occured to me through the plane ride up to altitude or during the jump that this was my 400th and it did not really matter. I only remembered after I came back in and took my gear off. But having a chance to give something back to an active member of the US military during his time of need meant a lot this Memorial Day weekend.

Four Hundred

Congrats General Bolden

2009-05-24T00:26:00.002-05:00

I can't think of a more sincere, genuine and technically sound person to provide NASA with the leadership that it needs at this hour. There will be a bright future under his leadership. On to confirmation....

Today's Job

2009-05-22T20:57:00.002-05:00

Doing today's work today and thankful for every day that God has blessed me with. Today George is "in the moment" and blessed.

W4

2009-05-18T22:35:00.002-05:00

Well technically I don't have one.

But it is "looking like" I will have a chance to stay at the fund for the balance of the year. I put that in quotes because it's not quite a done deal yet for me. It's kinda one of those waiting for final approval of funding kinda things. This is still a great opportunity and I don't have to tell anybody how bad the job market is right now. As bad as last year was for me, if I had my choice of when to be without a job, I would much rather have chosen last year rather than this year. It's horrible in the trenches these days.

As for me efforts on the job, well it's still moving forward. Our opportunities have broadened but we are struggling somewhat with the federal bureaucracy that is today's reality but I should not complain. We will make good of whatever federal sponsorship we receive to build some solid assets and put some people to work. Within a month we should have an application in for about $25 MM in funding for one project. We need that to be a very quick road if we are going to get started soon. Stay tuned, I would love to be able to announce that we have secured all of our funding because if that happens, it makes a strong case for my fund raising efforts and long term position at the fund or one of the portfolio companies. Let's hope and pray for good things.

What's For Dinner: Mis en Place

2009-05-12T23:06:00.004-05:00

Kellogg 10 Year

2009-05-06T20:19:00.008-05:00

This past weekend was my Kellogg 10 year reunion back on campus at Northwestern in Evanston, Ill, the suburbs of Chicago. What an awesome time. Again I clearly recognize that you just don't realize how much you need to get away until you do it. For me the weekend was a great time to reconnect with old friends, faculty and most importantly with myself and my goals.

I got a chance to see the director of admissions for Kellogg at the end of the weekend and I felt the need to simply say, "Thank you so much for my classmates." Kellogg has the reputation of being all about the quality of people and it is so true. There is a bar set high enough that draws exceptional people. Being smart, successful, involved, connected or of a certain social status will not get you into Kellogg. It's not what is in the application but the entirety of you life, and the result is a community that can perform at the highest levels in the business world and also a community of incredibly exceptional people. I really feel like our class is really involved with improving our world, business community and preparing another generation for the world's challenges with their own families. How in the world did I end up getting such a cool opportunity? Good times, great people.

An Icon

2009-04-30T23:47:00.004-05:00

I went to a memorial tonight for an acquaintance, Ben, who passed last weekend. Our relationship or the circumstances of his death probably are not that important. He is gone and the tragedy can't be unwound.

But tonight they had a table set up at the memorial with different tributes printed out as most memorials do. It was a collection of pictures and different memories of him. One thing stood out to me over everything else and it was not until we all got to talking that it was clear that this same thing stood out to everyone. It was his sun glasses. Ben always wore these sunglasses held by a fabric sun glass tether. They were really nothing special and I can't say that he was ever known for those glasses, he just wore them.

It's interesting the things that we are known for and the things that represent who we are without us ever making an effort towards that. The glasses - they were Ben.

8 Tags

2009-04-22T23:33:00.004-05:00

Hmmm so this comes from Ella. You were the one that could get me to do this.

Eight things I am looking forward to:

TSR this weekend and jumping my face off! Golden Knights, 160 ways, Casa, Helicopter.
Going home to see mom some time this summer
Hopefully a vacation over the next few months if I can find time and money to do it right
The day when (hopefully) I have a have a full time role offered to me at one of the portfolio companies
Continuing to make some rock solid investing choices and executing on a long term strategy
Some near term clarity on my contract role for the balance of the year
Bourbon vanilla porter
Going to Chicago for my Kellogg ten year reunion

Eight things I did yesterday:

Left the garage, went into the building at work, up the elevator only to find I did not have my card key
Went back downstairs, back to my car in the garage, got the card key, back in the building, back up the elevator, only to find out I got the wrong card key
Again back downstairs, back to my car in the garage, got the card key, back in the building, back up the elevator, with the right card key
Had dinner with a key member at DOE that is central to a loan guarantee program for one of my projects
Found myself thinking about a couple of friends that I have not seen in a long, long time. I need to pick up the phone
Purchased Caprica from iTunes to hopefully watch soon
Wished that I had made plans to go to Jazzfest this year
Stuck to my schedule

Eight things I wish that I could do

SCUBA dive
Play guitar as I promised myself that I would do when I stopped drumming
Go home to see mom more often
Travel and just get away without guilt
Wring more out of each day to really make each one count
Come home to hear another voice waiting for me
Figure out what it takes to wind down at night and quiet my voices
Right the one wrong that I can't make right

Stories To Tell

2009-04-20T22:52:00.005-05:00

Well my Kellogg ten year is in two weeks back in Chicago. I wonder what other stories I might hear. This is pretty much mine.

DC

2009-04-12T23:09:00.005-05:00

Made a quick trip to DC last week with one of the teams that I am working with. The purpose of the trip was to meet the staff of a couple senators of influence and others key in federal agencies to introduce our project, and seek new roads towards funding. I suppose the ultimate measure of success would have been us walking away with a big fat check......well I suppose that is totally unrealistic. But all said, we had a good trip and the meetings went well. On the flight in, we flew directly over the Potomac and had a killer view of the District. Below you will see the National Cathedral, Watergate, the Mall/Lincoln/Washington/Capital Hill/Jefferson.

Ten

2009-04-06T22:05:00.001-05:00

Coach Rating

2009-04-01T00:14:00.005-05:00

Well I have finally completed one of my goals in skydiving which is getting my Coach Rating. I finished the classroom part of the training a couple of weeks ago but due to weather, I just finished the in air evaluations this past weekend at my DZ. Over all, I have to say that I was mentally ready and prepared and it went as well as I could have desired.

So before you ask, no, this does not mean that I can take you skydiving. The coach rating is a step on the way to being an AFF instructor for me which is a totally different progression/equipment than taking people for tandems. The coach rating allows me to teach the majority of the first jump classroom lecture, jump with skydivers released from their student program but not yet licensed, and lastly complete recurency jumps for skydivers that are not current with their license requirements and ensure they are ready to be released again solo. It really allows for some cool interaction with new skydivers and students in my opinion.

Both of the eval jumps went just fine. I had Val as my "student"/"evaluator" and she threw some good things at me. The first jump we had a very good exit followed by her just wandering off which required me to go get her. We completed some of our objectives but she did not leave at the right time to track away - I responded correctly by leaving her. The second jump freaked me a bit in that she misrouted her chest strap so that it was really barely being held in place. I caught this on the ground. Over all it went well. During both jumps it was kinda cool to look over and see her deploy and get line stretch looking over at me. You don't see that too often in free fall.

Sure enought I had not competed my debrief for literally five minutes, one of the staff came up to me and asked me to do a recurrency jump. My ink was not even dry so off I went. My jump with my student went well and he did ok when we were done. It was fun. As an unexpected bonus, I even got paid to skydive for once after all this time doing that jump. Hows about that one, cool right?

Thirty Nine: Shelter From The Storm

2009-03-28T22:18:00.014-05:00

36

37

38

And now Thirty Nine. As much as I found 37 anticipating great changes and uncertainty, I can certainly say that 38 will be remembered as the year that brought a storm into my life. And what a storm it was. I found myself in the midst of a financial storm almost exactly 12 months before the same reality came true for everybody. I have made it through.....so far. It's in my rear view for the most part these days and I find myself wonder, "Hey dude, do know how close you were to the edge of that cliff?" However, as bad as it was, it went by so quickly and now feels like a month. Also looking back, I sure did spend a LOT of time by myself last year and I suppose that is a product of the day to day being at home or out somewhere doing the job search. Was that a whole year? I suppose that it was pretty much.

An old friend, Julie, recently had her husband get laid off from his job so he is now at home with the kids as she goes to work. I recall her saying that it is a good thing in that this was "an opportunity to spend time with the kids." I wonder what my opportunity was last year and if I missed it. Was a month in Spain in order and I just totally missed out on the chance to do that? Well I guess we will never know.

Right now 39 is being built and established on faith and there is not much more than I can say about it. I have a contract job that I could be let go from at any time. I have faith that this will become something permanent. I have my health, happiness and a home that I love. I have faith that my job will allow me to maintain my life and maybe I will fall in love along the way. I am blessed with good friends at every turn. I have faith that they will be blessed with good jobs and healthy families. I have seen my mother overcome some pretty incredible things time past year. I have faith that God will continue to bless her to be in my life.

There is so much going on in our world right now and I think this will certainly be a time that I will reflect back on. As shaky as it's all been, I think that I might actually look back and say that I came through this OK. Maybe. What's ahead for 39? I am not gonna guess cause I suppose that would take the fun out of it. But to celebrate, I hope to be able to go jump my ass off this weekend.

Suddenly he turned around and she was standing there
With silver bracelets on her wrists and flowers in her hair
She walked up to him so gracefully and took his crown of thorns
"Come in" she said "I'll give you shelter from the storm"

Jerry's Wedding, Cabo San Lucas

2009-03-22T21:52:00.005-05:00

"That the woman was made of a rib out of the side of Adam; not made out of his head to rule over him, nor out of his feet to be trampled upon by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be beloved."

Head Down And Focused

2009-03-16T23:18:00.005-05:00

That is what I am all about these days. Work hard. Work even harder.

There is so much going on these days in the broader economy and not too long ago I was caught up in the middle of it all looking for a job. I am so thankful now for my contract gig. But it's kinda funny, since starting the job, I have had stumbling block after stumbling block pop up to bite me. And this has happened time and time again, most often it's hitting me in the wallet (like my car getting hit). Car, house, car, house it's just gone on and on. Feb and March have been very expensive.

But you know what, I think you could burn my house down tomorrow and I think that I could find a way to go on and tell myself, "Meh, no big deal. Just gotta go to work tomorrow and be thankful."

Didn't We Go Through This Already

2009-03-11T23:09:00.002-05:00

This looks a lot like

This

Same garage.
Same corner of the car.
No note left.

I walked out to my car this afternoon about 6:30 and this is what I found in the garage.
Thanks.

What's For Dinner: Veal

2009-03-06T22:05:00.001-06:00

Veal chop with mushroom risotto.

My Seat Was Taken

2009-03-05T19:50:00.002-06:00

Stopped by the usual neighborhood coffee spot that I spent so many mornings before I started my current contract role. I always had the same seat at the table right in front of the TV showing ESPN 2......mmmmm Sage Steele mmmm. Anyway. Well there was somebody else sitting there today. A man a few years older than me and it surely looked like he was on his computer looking for a job.

I can't say the the torch has been passed to him yet but I do wish him the best. Somehow I kinda wanted to just say hello or introduce myself, but then it would have been weird. I suppose we figure out our paths in our own way and I hope that his is around the corner.