Stitch together (part 2)

2006 was a crazy year. I went from working on yachts in south Florida and going to school, framing houses in the Outer Cape to living on Horseneck beach in Westport, MA. I began the year at the Miami Ad School. The program ended in April, I moved back to the Cape at the end of the month and started looking for work in Boston. In the meantime, I was building houses with my old company and making the most of the summer. All of a sudden it was August and I was anxious to put my recent education to work.


While checking out the jobs on craigslist.org one day in late August, I read a posting for an entry level marketing associate at an interesting startup in Wareham. They were a growing, dynamic company, a world leader in their field and best of all they were located just over the bridge, off Route 28. I whipped up a cover letter and emailed the company my resume. No more than an hour later, I had an email wanting to arrange an interview. I can't remember, but I think I interviewed that day.

I show up for the interview and the place is located in this big, industrial warehouse two sides of offices and a manufacturing plant in the middle. They looked like they were producing some quality product. I go up to the office and there are dogs running around and a couple people working on computers and listening to music. I meet with the president, who was a young, Gung-Ho type. He was an engaging guy, with a bunch to talk about the history of Minnow Sewing Machines and how his great grandfather started Minnow Machines over 150 years ago and how they had recently moved the operations from Connecticut to Wareham.

I got a callback for a second interview right before Labor Day weekend and I was offered the job. I was taking a pay cut (-) from building houses, but it was a startup with unlimited potential (+), so I envisioned Google type, return on investment (=) $$$

Stitch together (part 1)

The Connecticut River is a meandering river that can trace its roots to a small lake along the New Hampshire/Quebec boarder. Stretching over 400 miles- “the Connecticut” is of great economic and geographical importance. Both agriculture and industry have thrived at the shores of the Connecticut. The fertile, silt laden flood plains provide nutrient rich farming land for everything from corn to shade tobacco. The voluminous waters and swift current provided energy needed for manufacturing and helped create the great industrial cities of Springfield, MA and Hartford, CT.

Companies big and small, grew out of the Connecticut river. One of these companies was an industrial sewing machine manufacturer, founded outside Hartford, that pioneered the garment making industry. Founded around 1838, Minnow Machine Company has remained private for over 150 years. With a history of innovation and better reliability than AAA, Minnow machines were revered far and wide as the best, money could buy.

Saturday

This week was very satisfying, I was able to stave off some impulse moves and keep on track. A few weeks back, I started working with my old company, MJ Dangelo, building houses and doing construction. It has really brought me back to square about what true happiness is.

In all my searching for the "perfect job", I think I had lost sight of what I really enjoyed and what I didn't like about jobs I have held before. I was talking with my brother over the holidays, and we were talking about life and jobs and happiness and he said- The grass isn't greener on the other side. Something clicked in my head when he said this, because I think I have always held- the grass is greener mentality, in my head. I interpreted what he was saying as- sometimes you have to take a step back and look at where you are and how you got there instead of searching for where you're not.

"It is true of the Nation, as of the individual, that the greatest doer must also be the great dreamer."
Teddy Roosevelt - Berkeley, 1911

Truth hurts

When I was a kid there used to be this great public service announcement put out by the Church of Latter Day Saints- the Mormons, . The commercial was catchy and made me think that muggers were going to abduct me if I started lying.

When you tell one lie, it leads to another
So you tell two lies to cover each other
Then you tell three lies and, oh brother
You’re in trouble up to your ears!....

Since you were a little kid, your parents have been urging you to tell the truth. Then why is it, that that telling the truth is so hard? Because nobody wants to hear the truth, it's not politically correct. If you went around telling the truth all day, you would be in some serious doodoo. Jack Nicholson says it best:



Seems to me that everybody lies. I think it's a human behavior. I'm not necessarily saying that everyone is a bold-faced lier. Some lies are confabulations (white lies) and are usually cute and cuddly, because you're just "stretching" the truth. Other lies are more more involved. Some people lie to themselves. This is called denial. And as Mark Twain said- Denial ain't just a river in Egypt. Some people get so caught up in their lies, they believe them. They suffer from Mythomania, or pathological lying. We, in the United States have many of these types running our government.

When people hear the truth, they usually wish it was a lie. Why is this?

Truth Hurts

p.s. happy valentines day!!!

Bang it home

Overboard

Last night, I visited the Bassett Custom Boat Works.


As I walk in their shop, I see this mini, 20 foot down-easter, lobster boat sitting on a trailer. I see a light coming out of the little cuddy cabin up front. Ian is cramped in there, rewiring all the electrical for the whole boat, in a neat, orderly fashion. "Like Cabo, he proclaims" He goes through a checklist of the new upgrades the boat is going to receive, which included a satellite radio, new instrument gauges, new cockpit windows and an LCD, with chart plotter mounted over the wheel.
Although, Ian deemed these modifications as pretty simple, it looked to me like a smorgasbord of high tech that I thought was only relegated to high priced yachts. Even though I had seen dozens of boats revitalized and resuscitated before, something clicked in my head last night. As Ian was bantering about his upgrades. He made a comment that the little boat was getting "hooked up" And I thought, damn, wouldn't this make a great TV show. A cross between Pimp My Ride and Deadliest Catch.

Honorary Lefties

Shout out to two old school nits.

Hi, my name is Polly, but you can call me Elena. Although it doesn't look like it, I have been dancing for a long time.

Hey, I'm Abby. One question I always have on my mind is: "what are you doing?" I've been known to call people and then tell them 30 seconds later: "hey, I gotta go"


These two are classic, the old 1+1=1 analogy. Individually- hilarious: together- insatiable. Like a swarm of locusts, Abby and Polly gobble up any and all attention within their immediate vicinity. When their powers are unified, it's an occurrence known as a COA, which is similar to a supernova.

Learn, live, hope

Now the Patriots loss was a shocking blow to those Pats fans from New England, but life goes on.


"Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow."- Albert Einstein