Had a fantastic time car shopping last weekend!

Over the last couple months, my wife has been to several dealerships, looked at many cars, and talked with as many salesman. One gentleman in specific has stayed in contact with her and has continued to let her know when he thinks he has a car just for her (incidentally they have all been out of our stated price range).

Two weeks ago, this fellow said he has a surprise vehicle for her and we needed to come see it.

Ok. I’ll play along.

Harmless as a dove, yes. However, the salesman was NOT expecting me to be wise as a serpent.

Thanks to Jordan Harbinger and Alex Kouts – I have been intentionally practicing my negotiating skills, and stretching the social fabric isn’t nearly as uncomfortable as it used to be for me.

Mr. Salesman used so many techniques on us!

He matched our postures, he excessively doted on our daughter, he made nonthreatening physical contact to press points home (taps on my shoulder), he gave us gifts (made a sort of display of getting us coffees), he told us he thought of us and our situation everyday, he answered the phone and told them he would call back (he then told us it was a very loyal and valuable customer and that he would make them wait for us).

When I told him we would never buy new, he asked if I was a bandit, and then he had us test drive a lovely brand new car. He asked again, and again, what I thought of it.

I praised the car and told him I would look for a used one. He told me I would never find one in our price range, so I pulled up Google and showed him one advertised – in our price range and local.

I can remember leaving the mattress store feeling flustered 2 years ago. But I didn’t have that feeling car shopping this time! I left in good spirits.

The haunted house wasn’t scary once I saw the actor behind the mask.

That is what my clock is reading.

I’m in my truck, parked at the gym and Emotionalism (Avett Brothers) is playing on my stereo. I might exercise, but that will take time and time is oh so precious.

Time is a limited resource.

I will be going home soon to see my beautiful wife and our blessed daughter. My heart speeds up just thinking of them.

Today has been a dance. I’ve been through the OODA loop several times. The first client ran long, and we didn’t get to finish all we wanted – so it actually felt short.

The second client was much more efficient than historically (I have yet to follow up with them over the results).

The blood draws at the calf ranch physically went very well, but we had a mixup with numbers and ended up spending an extra 25 minutes to get it sorted.

Finally got back to the clinic late for a remote appointment. We had prepared a bit of code to help their records program with a specific feature. We ran our code multiple times on our system and had it executing well, but it got a bug when we installed it remotely.

18:31 now. I leave my house at 04:15 tomorrow morning. So I’m going to get off here, shower, and spend some time with my family.

I feel inundated with ideas and protects around the house. Rather than having no clue what to do, I have 10,000 clues what to do.

I want to work on the plumbing, and even just in that project I have three different areas of plumbing around my house that I want to work on; bathroom, garage, and front yard.

The front yard is the simplest of the three. A simple leaky valve. I would have to purchase only one tool and a couple brass fittings. I expect I could also finish the repair in less than 20 minutes.

The garage is going to be a more involved protect. The water pressure is unreasonably low – just a mere trickle from a 3/8″ pipe when the valve is fully open. From the calcium buildup I have found on faucets in the home, I expect that there is an internal mass of calcium restricting flow. Further, the faucets in our home/garage, that have the best pressure, have had the terminal 4-5 feet of their supply line replaced (PEX spliced into the copper).

So, I expect that I also will have to replace the terminal couple feel of supply pipe to get the blockage out.

However, in my two previous expeditions into the atrociously dusty, and spider web laced, crawl space under the house, I did not determine which pipe matched the one in the garage.

So what’s the next best step to move this project along?

I went back to the donut shop this morning and I met Oscar who works in wastewater management systems here in the valley. We talked about the next level of recycling that is coming to California – nearly 100% recycling capabilities for the “flush” (we use water to rinse the manure off the barn floors and the manure/water slurry we call flush).

The solid bits in the manure will be separated, composted, and re-used as bedding. The dirty water will be allowed to sit, in a giant pit, with an enormous balloon over it, to trap the natural gas and used to heat homes or generate electricity. Finally, even the water can be cleaned to a level that it would be potable (but rather than sending it to human homes, it will fill the water troughs for the cows – because cows need to drink a ton of water).

It’s an exciting time for innovation 🙂

They were a mixed success yesterday. I brought 9 of them to the dairy at 0530. When I left at 0900, all but one had been consumed by the men working yesterday morning.

The owner said he couldn’t eat a McMuffin since it wasn’t on his diet. He also said that donuts were not on his diet, but they were good enough to break the diet for.

I buy thousands of dollars worth of donuts every year for my clients (my employer reimburses me and gets a tax break on them as business promotion).

I bought McMuffins, instead of donuts, today. I haven’t done this before, I haven’t asked the client (or my employer) if it would be ok to bring McMuffins instead of donuts. The cost for 9 was less than a dozen donuts.

The fellows might be disappointed, but I expect they will appreciate a little change up.

It’s so much easier to start tomorrow. Is it ever convenient to start today? There are pressing matters, and the clock keeps ticking through it all.

Today is the only opportunity that I have.

I wanted to write here this morning, but ended up rocking my daughter for an hour last night, and being woke up by her every two hours.(Tiffany rocked her much longer than I did last night, and fed her two three times – I’m blessed to have such a wife!).

So anyway, that’s all I’m writing now. Time to head out and get to work.

I had planned to keep writing about work ideas. I thought I would keep this blog semi detached from my personal life.

However, I feel much more comfortable sharing family things here in the complete public side of the internet, rather than Facebook.

Isn’t that funny?

With Facebook, we should remember, if it is free for us, we are the product, not the consumer. The designers of Facebook are looking to change our behavior through carefully crafted advertisements hidden in the free stuff, and companies pay Facebook loads of money to make sure you see their advertisement.

Anyway, it’s Monday and I’m excited to go to work! There’s a lot of opportunity in my field, and it’s just waiting for someone to harvest it.

Last night Princess Katarina slept well. This was a great blessing for Queen Tiffany and me. We have been intentional the last few days to be consistent in our timing of feedings, baths, and bedtimes – and it is really helping us all to be on the same schedule.

Here’s a picture of her getting a little Kat-nap while we get ready for work.

What a delight to have a goal. To look into the future, holding an expectation.

In Hebrews 12 it is written that Jesus “who for the joy set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame”. Jesus looked at that joy during the immense suffering of the cross. I haven’t suffered but fraction of that level that Jesus did, and many times I have felt overwhelmed by it anyway.

As we go through our cold storms. As we suffer in our lives (for that shall surely happen), let us also look ahead to the prize waiting for us. This is not in vain. The seeds you plant in this life will bear fruit into eternity.

The hottest days are now a little cooler. Clouds have moved in for the first time since May. We might even get some long awaited rain in the next 24 hours.

The dust is unbelievably thick this time of year. All summer it’s been building. Covering every exposed surface outdoors in a few hours and indoors a couple hours later.

October has arrived.

It is time for corn mazes in Ohio! Stalking the fat white-tailed deer on the first day of archery season, watching the leaves begin to change.

Mammals all around the northern hemisphere are getting ready for their long Winter naps.