JediWright.com

Today I took another much needed break from office/computer work to work up the street at the River.

Yesterday I returned to work on one of the many ongoing projects there, picking up this time from where I’d left off before Lee was born in January: the floor installation. So yesterday I hand-carried a truck full of white pine tonge-and-groove flooring half an acre or so to the job site, since I couldn’t drive on the wet, soft ground. I got the job site prepped for installation, my workstation organized and installed my first few pieces, then called it a day. It was a short day at only three hours, but a very busy one.

Today I got in a decent amount of work in only five hours, installing up to nearly 3/4 quarters of the flooring. I also helped Tim install the main, front window, which was really nice as it really brightens the room and makes working amidst stone and block that much better.

Tomorrow, time permitting, I’ll be back to finish the flooring installation. Then it’s on to finishing the window and door installations, the ceiling, the interior wall, wiring, heating, and some other odds and ends.

These last few weeks have been some of the most intense I think I’ve yet experienced. Not like I haven’t been through some bad spells before or anything but this latest round has been really drilling and consistent.

From having had to freeze my DF salary, to filing for unemployment, to continuing to adjust to parenthood, to having to cut my health insurance out, then Tristan’s, to filing for medicaid for her and Lee (which still isn’t sorted out, so he’s still without coverage), to wrangling with two startups, to enrolling back into school (with ITT Tech for computer network systems) with full tuition covered but no way to start due to a complete lack of income.

In addition, I had some issues with communication between family and friends that added to everything else, really put me close a breaking point I’ve not recalled reaching before.

Thankfully, things started turning around a little this past weekend with the arrival of a reimbursement check from my canceled Blue Cross policy, confirmation on the start of my U.I. from California and most significantly, the long overdue activation of my solar web hosting service at SolarHoster.com. Granted, it’s still a far cry from what I envision it to be, but at least I can start hosting sites.

Meanwhile, Tristan and I have continued our discussions over what we’re doing concerning our living situation. She doesn’t want to stay here in PA and wants to move back to Ohio to have the support of her old friends and family there. Admittedly, it’s not a bad idea as it’s much cheaper there, she’ll be more grounded (in theory) with her friends, family and hometown, and we are exploring discussions of renting a house with her best girlfriend, Amanda.

We’ve submitted a rental app on one house so far and are waiting to hear back from the landlord. If that goes through, we’ll probably be moving around April 15th.

What this means for Rivertribe, my other startup exploration happening here in PA, is uncertain. Though it’s uncertain anyway as I’m having a hard time getting movement from my friend with the equipment that would allow startup of operations. This is actually kind of okay with me anyway, as I had only wanted to explore the possibility of starting Rivertribe up. Then I asked another friend to go in on it and things started getting out of control and I failed to manage things properly.

So as I should have learned from before, don’t do business with friends. Period. But if you insist on doing so, be very explicit about every little detail from the get go. Otherwise, things can get twisted fast. Which they have done to some degree in this instance, which is unfortunate, but not surprising considering where my life’s been these last few weeks.

Concerning startups and partners in general, I’d venture to say in some ways business mirrors people’s ways and gives greater clarity into the type of person you are. So maybe business together with friends is not such a bad thing, cause it helps cut away to the truth of things that you might not have otherwise seen before.

Anyway, my real priorities are certainly obvious now regardless having lost my salary. All else gets put on hold when you’ve got to find immediate income. It’s tough times to be job hunting though, especially when you don’t even own your own car and are sharing your partners. And more so in my case since I moved us to a rural setting without any public transit. Doh.

Thankfully, one of my LA contacts recently offered up a freelance gig with his company Ijhana. Hopefully things pan out, they’ve offered a few times before but nothing ever came of it. Hopefully now is the time. I/we can’t afford it to be otherwise.
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Update: We’ve found a house and put a deposit down (thanks Amanda!) and we’ll be moving sometime after April 1st.

While seemingly inevitable, it still sucks to face the facts and have to lay yourself off from your own company.

This is exactly what I’ve had to do this week to keep operations going at Distinctivefabric.com. So I’ve filed unemployment in California, though with their budget issues, my chances of getting unemployment income looks bleak.

Here’s what my resume looks like on the CalJOBS board:

My CalJOBS resume

And on the job hunt front, my options there seem equally dispairing as:

1. I don’t have my own vehicle and since I live in the rural country, public transit is not an option.
2. I have horrible credit and many low-end paying jobs (which are really probably my only option) do credit checks. I know because I’ve been refused a job countless times due to this issue.
3. The economy. Duh.

Oh what a great time to begin fatherhood. Moving here was one of my life’s biggest mistakes yet. A rebound from this would be a miracle.

Sometime last week I started resurrecting the old outdoor adventure company, well at least its services anyway.

I started working at what had been called Schuylkill River Canoe & Tube, then Valley Forge Outdoors, then Hidden River Adventures, and what was to become Rivertribe, at the age of 16, in the summer of 1995. I progressed from in my 6+ years there from the new guy handling equipment at the beach/dock, to serving as one of its general managers. After the company closed its doors in the fall of 2001, I headed west to California, where I spent close to 7-years.

Now back in PA where it all began nearly 15-years later, I’ve found my long-lived hope of returning to the river business as a way of life reemerging stronger and clearer than ever before. I’d been hedging around my interest in doing this with the previous company owner and was getting a lukewarm response. So I decided to step things up a bit and started throwing a website together at my previously registered domain, Rivertribe.org.

I simultaneously emailed a bunch of former employees from the old river days and some new potential teammates while building out the site and renewing my discussions with the old boss. So far feedback has been good and the owner is more cooperative than before.

I’ve also partnered up with an old friend Cory, who has really taken to the Rivertribe concept and so we’ve been hammering away at all the details over the last week. It’s starting to get pretty intense, what with my other efforts at starting up the SolarHoster and maintaining my work with the fabric company, not to mention the still new tasks the baby has brought with his birthing.

Needless to say my time has been nearly completely devoured these last few weeks and I’ve been posting here less frequently than my previous goal, but that’s just how it goes sometimes.

Be sure to check Rivertribe.org and as always, can be found streaming bits away on Twitter.

With the baby’s arrival, there hasn’t been much thought for anything quicker than some quick uploads from my phone, mostly of baby of course.

I hope to be back to my daily posting soon though.

I’m going to try and capitalize on what I forsee as going be a popular interest in the new Sectéra® Edge™ phone that President Obama has negotiated use of, through a sales site at PresidentialPhone.com.

So instead of posting much here lately (as in the last 24-hrs or so), I’m working on this endeavor. It is definitely a get-rich kind of scheme. Hands down, no question about it.

Here goes nothing.

p.s. Yesterday’s comments didn’t fall on deaf ears, but moving cross-country twice in under six months and raising a baby is expensive, not to mention all the biz plans I have that require vast sums of money, that I just simply don’t have.

Several of my recent posts took a downward, perhaps defeatist attitude of sorts. A number of readers felt the need to email directly to share their insights, experience and concern over me/them. So I just want to make it clear that I’m fine.

Things can get intense, as we all know, and recently has been no exception for me.

As a hardcore Capricorn, I come down uber hard on myself. A lot. That’s just how it is. I’m a perfectionist. And quite an impatient one at that, when it comes to certain things. Mostly with regards to my career as so many around me continue to succeed at any number of things.

I have yet to meet any real substantial success in life and it’s just driving me nuts. This is just one of my challenges in life: to be happy where I’m at.

Anyway, thanks for everyone’s support; it is appreciated.