Rock Stars

To cap off the end of the week last Friday, at Nanepashemet Telecom, our new mega customer called us "Rock Stars" and said that we had "surpassed all expectations".
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Granted, we are certain to screw up some stuff on this account, and piss people off, but I thought that I should memorialize these comments.
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You don't get them everyday, and you should savor the moments when they are received.
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.... so ..... I'm savoring.

Grateful

I'd be a liar if I didn't admit that I was stressed out by Katelyn's Wedding this summer. I really had no idea how it would be financed.   But God and the Universe kicked in with an answer and I'm grateful that, once again, I've been provided with the resources to pull this off.
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Like I said.... I'm grateful.
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But one of these times, I'd like to be  fully equipped to meet the financial challenges that get hurled my way, rather than relying on the mind over matter deals that I am usually dealt with.
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Chances are... I'll get drunk at the Wedding.... enjoying the open bar a little too much.

Streak Week

It's hard to believe that it was only 7 days ago when Jim Lundgren showed up in my driveway all winded on his bike while in the middle of a Beverly to Marblehead and back circuit. Jim's buffness and discipline was inspirational to say the least, and Monday late morning I decided to drag my sedentary, overweight, Irish-American advanced middle-aged carcass down the street in an attempted two mile jog.

The jog deteriorated into a waddle almost immediately. Seven days later, with the soreness and blisters to show for it, I have repeated this jog/waddle daily... to various grades of pain and humiliation.

I've had to endure the laughter of friends passing by, a bit of hooting and hollering, having firm hard body young females trot past wishing me a nice day, and a few other degrading and annoying incidents which I choose not to disclose here. But not once, have I flipped the Bird to any of these perpetrators. That should count for something....

Today, with my FB Friends as witnesses, I extend the Streak to 7 days in a row. There will be no mention of speed or Lbs. lost for the time being, because those things would probably get my ego in gear and cause me to step things up. Past track team glories can not be recalled at this crucial juncture as the need to take things slow and steady is paramount in an effort to avoid blowing out a knee, or pulling a calf muscle.

I appreciate all of the likes and comments I've received and I'm not even pissed at Lundgren. After all this is not my old college roommate, Robert Towne, running an off road ultra-marathon, or Grade and High School classmate, Christos Laganos, hiking the Appalachian Trail. This is a two mile Waddle/Jog, with a capital WAD.

Day 6 of the Streak

I feel like I've created a Monster. MOAM Style.
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Last Monday, maybe to take the pressure off of the Nanepashemet Telecom pace, and maybe because I was impressed by the biking of my old friend, Jim Lundgren, I went for a 2 mile jog, that was definitely more waddle than jog.   Naturally I noted the event in Facebook.
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And I repeated this for the next four days, creating a streak.
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The remarkable thing here is that I haven't hurt myself.   Normally over the years, I've been injured in these comeback attempts because I would tend to push or extend the mileage, then I would throw out my back or something.  
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But the great thing here is that I feel just like I did when I first started a cross country season in school... real sore and with blisters on my heals.   This is attributed to taking things nice and slow.... accepting the fact that I look like an out of shape blob waddling down the road and not trying to relive past glories.
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Posting the streak of workouts in Facebook has created a whole new dynamic.  It's a great incentive to continue and hopefully create a habit of getting out and sweating off 500 calories or so every day.  Putting yourself out there is a risk of greater embarrassment by breaking the Streak in front of my FB Friends.
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Today is Day 6 of the streak.... a little Saturday yardwork, then a run before getting ready for Kelsey O'Shea's graduation cookout.  If I can keep this up

Lobster Roll

To my friends who like to make fun of my fishing ability.... fair enough.

But Nobody can mock my prowness in pulling lobster traps, and then converting the catch to a grilled and buttered Lobster Roll roll.

Late Summer Work Week

It was a hectic week but we got everything filed by the close of business Friday.   So the weekend is open for a little kicking back, which I'm going to do.

Grandson Will wants to pull lobster traps and that will set the agenda for today ending with a cookout this afternoon.   

Once again, the summer is slipping by.   During a site survey in Hampton Falls Wednesday, I saw trees beginning to change.... always a depressing sight in August.

Reincarnation Rationalizing

Reincarnation.
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I've been thinking about it lately.
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For some reason, I keep thinking that the hostility with the Muslim world and Western Judeo-
Christians is routed in the Crusades and the atrocities perpetrated on both sides in this first global confrontation.
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Could it be that we are playing out issues that began in those ancient times by souls that faced each other in combative situations and are continuing the fray in our present incarnation?
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YouTube is replete with examples of past life evidence and I bet most people have circumstances in their lives that can best be explained by experiences in a past life with manifest itself in our present life.
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When I was in junior high school, I was a whiz at geography and history.   Suffice to say that I was easily the top student in the school at these disciplines and I had no idea why I knew some of the stuff that I did - especially in geography.   What was the capital of Australia?  Canberra.   What was the capital of the province of Newfoundland?   Why St. John of course.   How the hell did I know this stuff off the top of my head when  I never studied about these localities up to that time in the 8th grade?  I used to scratch my head when I would give these correct answers coming out of my mouth.
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Fast forward to a couple of years ago when I was at a psychic reading and the reader told me that I had been a merchant marine in my last incarnation and had extensively traveled all over the world.  Course this is no empirical proof but it gave me a little explanation as to my affinity to intuitively know stuff about geography and also gives me some insight about my love for the ocean and boats.
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Who are we?  Why are we here?  These are the unanswerable questions.  But the fact is that we are here, and the increasing evidence is that we have played out these lives many times before.

Bluetooth Typing

Picked up a Bluetooth keyboard from Brookstone.  This may speed up blog posts on iPhone exponentially.  I hate using the built in text keyboard, but this could revitalize things.

Weak Week

There you have it.
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A whole week without a post.
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Two reasons mainly.
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The first is that Nanepashemet Telecom is on fire... reaching critical mass to expand... picking up new 1st Tier customers and adding staff.  Our need to bust out of the starting blocks and get a lead on our competition is succeeding, but not without some side effects.... namely working to exhaustion and leaving no detail unattended.
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The second is that when I finally get a second to unwind at night, the last thing I'm going to do is to get back on the Web after a day full of spreadsheets, email and databases.  So I've been playing my guitar and actually learning some cool SRV licks....and to be truthful, I've had a breakthrough in my understanding and ability with the guitar.

No, I won't be jamming with the dudes or sitting in on a coffeehouse session, but for personal satisfaction and letting out a little artistic expression, I'm pretty happy with the result.

So much of music is chords, scales, circle of fifths, practice for muscle memory, rhythm.  Each requires its own discipline and awkward practice.  Then when it all starts to come together and make sense from a subconscious level, it is really cool to behold.  I'm kind of getting to that point and experienced it a little this week when I shut down the Nanepashemet factory for the night.

And I can't see a break in sight on the routine.    We have a year's worth of backlog work and it's all on a tight schedule.   Next week, one of the largest 1st tier carriers wants to meet with us to discuss our construction resources, so things will get a lot more hectic than even the current situation.

But if we add that additional major customer, we will be adding substantial staff, buying trucks and equipment..... all of the overhead stuff that I swore that I would avoid when I started this company.

Peeps.... you have to go with the flow.   When the stars align, it's almost like you have no choice but to be swept along in the current.

Molted Lobster

 

On Friday, I finally got around to pulling the lobster traps, and caugt a modest three lobsters out of the five traps that I have dropped.

   

So when I pulled the keeper trap to check on them today, I found three "live" lobsters and one dead carcass.  How the hell did a slightly larger lobster get into the closed keeper trap?   But when I grabbed the newcomer to put elastics on his claws, my grasp  almost penetrated his pliable soft shell, and the elastics would have crushed his claw.   

Then it dawned on me that the dead lobster was not dead at all, but was the discarded shell of a molting.

Pretty cool.... The new softshelled critter in the trap was definitely a size larger than the lobster that I boated a day ago.

Mike and Carlos