When it rains it pours and leaks!

Do you ever feel like Job? The old testament fellow who Satan convinced God to let test. Somedays I think I am a recreation of this. Amongst everything else we are fighting, closing the business, bad back, bills to pay, etc. we find out that the roof on our rental house has a leak and we will have to make a priority to fix it. Unfortunately, it isn't a little hole the entire rubber portion will probably have to be fixed. It seems like we are in a pattern of alternating crap with blessings, crap and blessings. Personally, I would like to cut the crap and stick to the blessings.

Oh well enough whining for tonight. I am seeing some advantages to my new approach to life. Having the business in the house instead of a retail establishment is going to give me a flexibility I sorely missed. Take tonight for example, all my family is gone so I am sitting in my new basement "store" watching a movie, engraving medals and blogging all at 8 PM. I sure wouldn't be doing that if I had to go to the store to work.

Keeping positive as always,

Go COLTS!

On Haiti and Massachusetts

Ok, two major tremors today. I don't have much time but I can't let two dramatic events go uncommmented on.

First, Haiti. They had another quake today. Almost 6.0 but fortunately it looks like damage is minimal compared to the original and its aftershocks. My in-laws have spent the last 28 hours working their way from Indiana to Titayen, Haiti to provide some much needed physical relief to those on the compound they used to serve on. Our prayers go out to them for their safety and that they can provide some relief.

Second, Massachusetts. I don't care what you say, if Massachusetts elects a Republican Senator it is a referendum on Obama and the current policies of the Democrats in charge of Congress. It seems Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi are just too arrogant to realize that the American People for the most part do not want a trillion dollar public health care program. Health care reform, yes. New uncontrollable spending absolutely not. Part of me hopes they get the message and the other part says keep going. At least if they keep pushing this falls election should be historic in the turnover.

I would love to see an election that puts people in office that want to adhere to the constitution and reign in spending. I don't care what party they are as long as they don't want to do business in secret or keep finding ways to protect their own self interests.

TaTa for Now

On traveling and toilets

January 13, 2010

Been absent for a few days as I am in the midst of traveling. Trying to find the right time to write and be connected to the internet is a constant challenge so my apologies for an early breakdown in my regular posting.

Starting with some reinforced lessons from the past few days: Lesson #1 – whoever invented the self flushing toilet needs a serious lesson in the average size of people. I really appreciate his/her efforts to keep my hands off the bacteria infested areas around a public toilet. I think their ideas are noble. However, and I don’t know about you, but I at least seem to have a love/hate relationship with this modern marvel. At 5’6” with stubby little arms I, evidently, have to contort my body a little bit more then most people when I go to clean that area we don’t discuss in polite company. This usually results in the magic sensor deciding I have vacated my position on the throne of glory and instigating the cleansing process. This usually results in me giving my hindquarters a shower that is not needed. Sometimes, two or three of them. Would it be too difficult to lower those sensors a few inches so they have a wider or more accurate view? I would be ok if it didn’t flush until I left the stall entirely. What is the rush?

On the job front, I was hoping my next report would be positive with the development of a wonderful contract facilitating opportunity that would allow the family to take a collective sigh of relief. Unfortunately, news is not good on that front as I didn’t get that contract. It sounds like I may have had a different perception of their needs then what they actually wanted. This is always a risk when the RFQ is vague. Oh, well God is still in control and we haven’t gone any further backwards then we were before so we take the lessons learned, thank God for the opportunity and keep moving forward. What else can we do right?

Working for the Weekend

January 9, 2010

Another day of craziness in the life of Kirby. Good news this time it was single project not trying to fit thousands into the day. The wonderful wife had a houseful of friends over for a Mary Kay promotion last night and me and the girls were exiled to the parents house for the evening. This is normally not a big deal as they have a very nice house with great guest quarters.

Unfortunately, I was relegated to the basement bedroom without any audio sleep aids (my sound machine) or enough blankets. It was much too noisy and cool to get any quality sleep when you aren't used to sleeping alone. Consequently I spent the bulk of the day playing dj in a half stupor. On the plus side I have given myself permission to enjoy an evening of mindless television and a chance to watch my dear old Hoosiers give it a go.

In the process I saw the newest commercial for Lens Crafters. Under the category of what were they thinking the people in charge of their advertising should either start paying attention to what their ad agency is doing or maybe look for other work. This commercial has a lovely young lady discussing how excited she was that she was able to update her look before her upcoming class reunion by getting new glasses. Really? New weight loss system, sure. Fitness center, possibly. Styling salon, believable. But really, glasses are going to make the high school reunion perfect. I find this very hard to believe.

In the words of Tigger: "tata for now!"

January 8, 2010

Ok, I have never been as busy as I am now that my store is closed. It seems like I just keep running and running and running. The good news is this means good things are happening. The bad news is this is making it extremely difficult to get my growing list of things to do finished.

By now I should have the old store cleaned out, the new office put together and I should be starting on the next great addition to the annals of American Literature. The only way that seems to have a hope of happening is if the sun stops at high noon and I can get an extra five hours in during the day while the rest of the world stands still. Since that is unlikely to happen I guess I will just keep plugging and chugging.

On the job front I keep talking to people and have several feelers out there for positions that might fit my skill set and still allow me to keep up my awards and promotional products business. The downside is they are just feelers, but the silver lining is that I am not sure I would have time to work for anyone else right now.

To say today was an adventure would be an understatement. I got out of bed running and haven’t stopped until I get done with this! And with that I am at the edge of exhaustion and need to go to sleep in preparation of another couple of days running at full power. Hopefully life can get completed before I head out of town on Monday to warmer climates. One of these days I have to take time to discuss my opinions of our global warming situation, or maybe Cap and Trade, or maybe property taxes in the State of Indiana. But if I am going to do that I will have to wait until I have a full brain. Maybe blogging at night isn’t the best idea :)
Good Night!

January 7, 2010

Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow. Much more global warming and I won't be able to get out of the house. I did discover another bright side to life in the "unemployment line," too much snow is kind of nice. Once we determined getting the kids to school wasn't going to happen it felt good to not have to worry about getting into the store, making sure the walk was shoveled, and then sit and wait while the rest of the world chooses not to get out and buy anything. I could instead stay home and make some money.

On another note I read today that $3.00 gas is on its way back and we are likely looking at a return to $4.00 by summer. I wonder what that will do to the election cycle of 2010? I am not sure the economy can survive another round of high fuel costs. What do you think?

January 6, 2010

Well I keep plugging and chugging as the old saying goes. The good news is I had a great interview last night with a local school board for a 6 month facilitator position which would be a great fit I believe. The bad news is I won't find out for another week if I was chosen. I think that may be the biggest challenge of looking for a job, or being an independent contractor, or doing anything where you are constantly in need of others to make a decision.

God uses those times more then others it seems to teach us patience. Life sure would be easier if we could just sit down, have the interview, and bam get an answer.

Regardless of what happens with that we are progressing quickly to get the new shop up and running. I have my laser engraving chugging away as we speak engraving plaques for one of my customers. That is definitely a relief as now i think I might get all the customer orders done before I have to leave town next week. It is amazing how much work can pile up in two weeks for a business that was "going out of business."

The blessing is definitely that the reputation of Success Express (our trophy business) is so strong that it looks like we just may be able to keep going for awhile. It remains to be seen if this will be enough to pay all of the bills or if I will have to pursue other employment but at least I can have income coming in. My heart goes out to those who lose a job without any idea where money might come from.

I may not know much but I do know how to work and therefore no matter how unemployed I may get I can always find something to sell.

May God Bless you and keep you warm in the midst of this Global Warming heat wave that is encompassing the state of Indiana!

Day 3

January 3, 2010

Day 3 of the decade and the work keeps going. Today was relatively uneventful from our current standards of excitement but it did have hits high points. Our church welcomed a new senior pastor and it is always great to worship. Other then that the day was duly filled with a Sunday afternoon nap and more time preparing the new shop for business. Hopefully we will be up and running by Tuesday to start filling orders again.

Since today was pretty mundane I thought I would take a few minutes to elaborate on an incident from yesterday. When emptying our store we had some fixtures that had been sold to a dear lady down the street. This woman is indeed one of God’s Angels on earth. She runs a hospice out of her house. She invites terminally ill people to come live with her and she cares for them until they pass on. It takes a special person to do that kind of work. Anyway the couple she asked to pick these up was attempting to use a small pick up truck and it was going to take hours to get all of the pieces taken care of. Therefore I volunteered to use the rental truck to assist them. After loading up the truck and driving a couple of blocks to the house, we unloaded and I headed off ending a very long day. Unfortunately I failed to notice that the tree growing in the neighbor’s yard had taken a meandering growth pattern across the alleyway and proceeded to drive the top of the truck right into the tree.

Proving that no good deed goes unpunished. Needless to say, the cost to fix the truck will more then outweigh the money made from the sale of the fixtures. Oh, well life goes on and at least I can take solace in the fact that I was trying to be nice.

January 2, 2010

Ok, here it is day number two of my new life and adventure. Of course one would expect that I was quickly perfecting the necessary disciplines associated with new beginnings and great plans. Unfortunately life remains less then clear cut. Today was another day spent cleaning up from the previous life. We had lots of large equipment to clear out of the store and much cleaning to do.

It is times like these that you truly understand who your friends are. I cannot thank enough the dear friends who came over to help me not only relocate two extremely heavy pieces of screen printing equipment but also hauled ten heavy filing cabinets into the basement with very little complaining. Of course the real test remains. Will they remain my friends after they realize the agony and torture I put them through? Who knows, maybe they will take pity on me and understand I wouldn’t do something like that without a lot of personal distress watching them heave and ho and sweat. (At least that is my story and I am sticking to it!)

I would like to report that with all of this help we are finished but that would be just a little premature. There is probably another day or two before we are out of the store and much more then that to get all of our necessary equipment and inventory in the right place of our new shop. We are going to set up a quasi business in our basement to generate some income while we look for other opportunities. The one thing both Paula and I usually agree on is that sitting around feeling sorry for ourselves is counter productive. Instead we just keep looking for ways to keep the inflow into the checking account to exceed the outflow.

With that said after a day of moving in arctic conditions (I will save my tome on Global Warming for another day!), followed by an abrupt meeting between the top of the rental truck and an awkward leaning tree (yes, God does have a sense of humor!) we journeyed to the one little bit of paradise in all of Indiana. God’s gift to pizza, Mother Bear’s in Bloomington. With all we have going on a trip south to indulge in the world’s greatest pizza was just what the doctor ordered to keep a positive outlook in the face of some rather challenging circumstances.

God Bless and Good Night!

In the Beginning

Here we are. At the beginning of a new year,a new decade and for me a new adventure in writing.

Let's start with the basics. Who am I? Isn't that the magic question we are all faced with. In its most carnal form I am of course Kirby Kirkpatrick, husband of Paula and father of two wonderful teenagers Kayla and Kori. I am extremely blessed to have a house and a family who loves me and I have no doubt that I am daily wrapped up in God's love.

However, I am also recently unemployed. Ok technically I have been unemployed for the past ten years but I have filled my time as a small business owner and instead chose the moniker of self-employed. At the end of last year the years of working, investing and toiling while trying to build a successful retail business caught up to us and we had to close the doors of the business leaving me "unemployed" and the family in a less then wonderful financial position.

Like the end of any long term relationship there has been a lot of lost sleep and grieving over the decision to lay off employees and admit that our dream business was no longer going to work. Any time you engage in the adventure of entrepreneurship it is a gamble. Just like the Vegas card shark you are throwing your chips on the table and hoping the cards will come up in your favor. Sometimes you take the pot and sometimes you get taken. For us it just didn't work out. A worldwide recession was not in the business plan.

So that brings us to the new year and the new decade and I am faced with a new adventure. How do I put the pieces together, build an income that can support my family, remain dedicated to being a great husband and great father and continue to have faith that when I am through this season I will be better off the before. I invite you to join me on this journey for at least the next year as I share what will certainly be a roller coaster ride. Not because I want you to feel sorry for me but because we can all take comfort knowing that life isn't about the problems we face but about the way we choose to face them.