Project Closeout

Operation MoonShadow - the acquisition, construction and transport of the Sundance Pre-School is complete.
~
We first started the process in Oct. 2006 looking for a property, found it, bought it, permitted the school use, built it, and occupied it in April 2007 - a six month plus process.
~
By and large, it was only possible because of the people who do work with Mike Rockett. His team of staff and subcontractors made the transition ultimately successful. Virtutally everyone who worked on the project, including architects, lawyers and myself are part of his team, on a formal or informal basis, and work well together because of the catalyst tendencies that he provides.
~
I have yet to hear any negative comments about the facility, which says a lot because the Pleasant Street Building that we originally built for the Van Otterloo's was really nice. Pre-School parents can be particularly opinionated. But this has a better scale and a better location next to the Gerry Park and the Harbor.
~
Joanne is thrilled.
~

Move On

Lots of moving going on. In the last two weeks, both Katelyn and Ryan moved, and we completed the Sundance move. How could people ever be nomads??? Moving is such a pain. I'm sick of lifting stuff. Can't imagine what I'd do without a Ford F150 Pickup.

Ramp Up

Time to shift gears. As much as I have envisioned a scenario where I could keep the Nanepashemet business small and avoid staff, financing and bureaucracy, the opportunities are looming too large, and we are going to have to complicate things.
~
Have to plan a serious staff and resource ramp up. Normally this would have me pretty psyched, but I am haunted by mistakes made in the past and determined not to repeat them. That means meticulous planning and attention to detail - work breakdown structures and projections - daily accounting and review.

Spring Fever

Spring is definitely here.
~
Buds on the trees and all that.
~
Got to make arrangements with Ryan Marine to get my boat launched.
~
Got to finish the Tender.
~
Fish are going to die this season.

Gellin

I'm almost too tired to blog. After concentrating on cleaning up the existing Pleasant Street Sundance School, which incorporated two big dump runs and moving the oak desk and couch, I met with Tyler on the EnerNOC Deal.
~
Also set up meetings with Lec and Sprint.
~
Tomorrow, I'll turn the keys over to Eyk and end the first Sundance phase.
~
Things are starting to gell.

Sports Circle

UMass Track Alumni has been contacting me. Considering that I only ran for two seasons, and not very well at that, I'm surprised that they have a record of my participation. My old coach, Ken O'Brien is still there. I don't think he liked me much, because I started beating some of his highly recruited kids right away, and I was a marginal walk-on. He used to call me "Maverick", ostensibly because I shouldn't have been doing what I was doing. But in Track, they can't bench you. When I saw their email list, it was interesting that not too many of my teammates were contacted.

It was fun to run at UMass, but I was not particularly talented and only had a few races that I was proud of. We won the Freshman New England Cross Country Championship and there were great guys on the team. I lost touch with all of them.

Collegiate athletics is a huge committment. Ryan and Katelyn competed in lacrosse for St. Mike's through their senior year. Mike asked me if I minded if he stopped playing in his sophomore year, and I actually felt a little relief. He had played at Tilton, and had great years at Marblehead High. When he was at St. Michael's on a Friday afternoon, I called him because I was excited for his weekend in college... kicking back and revving up with his buddies. He said that he had Lacrosse practice at 9:00PM that night, and I felt pretty bad for him. Friday nights in college are not for lacrosse.

I missed a lot of Ryan's games because I was in California for GTE his senior year. But I flew back across the country on a Wed. to Bentley College for his last game... an expense that my boss, Art Hadley, wasn't too excited about. I had been tying Ryan's skates and going to his games for 15 years, and this was his last - and I wouldn't miss it, even at the risk of my job. He was the Captain of the team, but they had a poor record, and I think that he missed a lot of recognition because of that.
~
Some of the most exciting games that I remember were played by Katelyn's Women's Lacrosse Team at St. Mike's. It always seemed to be raining and miserable at the games, but she had a very competitive team her Senior year, and we were thrilled when she was named MVP.
~
Now we're waiting for Kid Nestor to emerge in June for Ryan and Courtney. It won't be long before we're tying skates again.

Time for Tender.

By this time tomorrow, all of the heavy lifting to get Sundance Pre-School moved to the new Gerry Playground location will be done. Joanne has done a great job and has really concentrated on the task at hand. I'm proud of what she's accomplished. The site is perfect and the facility is getting rave reviews. It has been exhausting - emotionally, financially, and physically. But it's done.
~
Now I'm going to finish the Herreshoff Columbia Tender and launch in June. The basement tiling job can wait.
~
Sopranos are on. I'll catch you later.

Crazy Boredom

Does this Blog seem boring lately to you? I just read the last couple of posts, and it was tough going if I say so myself. What do you want me to do??? Invent exciting stuff??? Make stuff up??
~
Sometimes life flattens out. It can't be all crisis and triumph.
~
In the meantime, suck it up. Something screwy will happen soon.
~
Apparently, some guy from the Shangdong Province in China doesn't think it's so bad.
~
He or she Googled the blog and had it translated into Chinese characters yesterday. There was no Chinese character for "Nanepashemet" so that stayed in English. The Site looked pretty funny.
~
I was able to tie into this because there are free "hit trackers" out there that can show the IP address of anyone who hits the blog site.
~
The tracker also notes what site it came from before it accessed the Blog. So if someone gets on the Blog after a Google search, you can see what the key words of the search were and what Google results occurred. If a Google translation occurs, you can see that too.
~
Since the Nanepashemet site gets so many hits, it comes up early in a Google search. Anybody checking out a Peep of the Week name always shows in the Google list. For example, I got a lot of hits from people looking for "Kristen Bitter Silk", when Kristen's Boston Globe article was posted on the Blog last fall.
~
If you think that this is cool, then you are slightly more depraved than I am.
~
How's that for breaking the boredom? Time to get back to the cubbies.

Sunday Projection

Big push tomorrow for Monday's Sundance opening. It's supposed to be stellar weather again.
~
First thing in the morning, I have to spray paint the backs of the cubbies because nine of them will be exposed on the floor with coat hooks attached to them.
~
After spraying, I'll install the closet shelves while waiting for the cubbies to dry. Then the cubbies have to screwed in place on the floor or on the walls, after which the coat hooks have to be attached.
~
I'd like to think that this will all be done before 12:00 noon, but nothing has gone according to plan on this project. I'm leaving Monday morning free to get the rest of the bookcases, the desk and the rugs out of the old building, otherwise, I'll try to get this done tomorrow if everything goes to plan.
~
Sound like a fun Sunday to you?? Pretty mundane. I can't wait.

Watching Paint Dry

When I finished cleaning up after two coats on the cubbies, it was 6:09 PM. Emory Glass, the next door neighbor told me I could use his outdoor water spigot because we don't have one at the new building, and I need to fire up the pressure washer to clean the playground equipment.
~
A day of painting behind me. The key to the Wagner Spray unit is to really thin the Latex with Floetrol and water... almost to the point where it doesn't seem like its going to cover.

Spring Weekend

It's Saturday morning and sunny. Time to paint the cubbies. I'm feeling pretty optimistic that the Wagner will do the trick. Otherwise, at 30 minutes per cubbie unit, I'm looking at 7 hours of brushing. That gets me done around 3:00 PM.
~
I still have to hang the closet shelves and get to the Pleasant Street clean out.
~
Katelyn is painting her apartment this weekend. It's Mike's birthday tomorrow. Hope he's having a nice weekend in DC. I hate to paint. Fishing season will start in a few weeks. Ryan kicked in for a new Garmin Fishfinder and I am supposed to upgrade the seat cushions, but I am behind in this. Lyrid Meteor Showers are tonight. 30 shooting stars per minute. I guess it's time to get to the cubbies.
~
How is your weekend shaping up? Mine sucks.

Stymied

I spent virtually all day trying to get two paint spraying systems to work with latex paint. My Fuji HVLP system, which performed so well with the marine varnish on the Yacht Tender, failed miserably with the latex. So I went to Home Depot and bought a Wagner Spray painter, which gave initial promise, but then also shit the bed.
~
Meanwhile the cubbies could have been completed by brushing.
~
The weather was great... what a wasted day.
~
But tomorrow, I'm going to give it one more try by thinning the latex paint. I think that was the problem. If not, I'll be brushing well into Sunday.