It's Not Rocket Science: Week 4

I had a good week, because I have a great life. Sure life is stressful now and then, but as a an engineer from my past once told me, "anything you want to be good at will be stressful sometimes." However, I know I am so incredibly fortunate, spoiled, blessed, sheltered, and taken care of by my family and friends that even things that are terribly stressful for me are not nearly worth the worry I put into them. I know enough to know that I have never had a hard life. If I ever get to the point where I can not get any food, have no access to clean water, having nothing to sleep in (including a van), no family or friends to help me out, life threatening diseases, and some huge majority of the population is trying to kill me. Such as many people in other areas around the world. Until that point, life is good.

I worked a whole bunch of hours. Saturday had 230+ customers in addition to the usual watering, spacing and filling a truck. Thursday we filled five trucks. Filling trucks is about the most physically intensive thing I do at the green house. It involves lots of walking and carrying things. Each truck is probably over a mile of walking for each person that helps. Half of that mile carrying flats of plants or hanging baskets. It is constant too. In most cases moving plants or other jobs after a few trips there is a few minutes of lull. Filling trucks is quick and intensive.

Money, money, money, money. With my next paycheck (today) I'll be in the black on everything. That is to say I'll be able to pay at least a dollar more than the minimum payment on everything and pay my cell phone bill. I am living rent free right now and will be this summer, which is a huge help. The pay is less but just thinking about where I will live this summer it is more than justified. I feel that I will probably be a millionaire some day and that the relative little that I am in debt now will be an experience I smile at. In fact, in the last four weeks I have not spent any of my money. I bought one song on iTunes from a gift card I had from Christmas but besides that I have only paid my bills. A new life stage for me? No coffee, books, shoes, clothing, gear, food, and whatever else I spend my money on. Elimination of the excess in my life. I like this trend.

I finished the personal application (contacting a specific person) and official application for the position I talked about last week. Besides that I didn't apply for any more jobs. One of the companies I would like to work for just landed a huge overseas contract and is hiring. That is this week's job hunting goal.

I laid out some basic pencil sketches of two non-safety products, an ultralight tent and some mittens for running, which I might purchase the fabric for and try to make prototypes as soon as possible so that I can test them this summer. So Janzen Gear... I don't know. I just can't turn my brain off. I mean I checked the Cilogear website and blog for the first time in six weeks and then Golite and then I went to Tarp-Tent and Gossamer Gear. Next thing you know I'm not listening to the conversation around me as I try to create the lightest tent in the world. Well, I've designed it now I just need to make a prototype. Condensation will be a problem and durability but we're talking on the order of a pound for a two man tent and less than two pounds for a free standing two man tent. Unfortunately the material costs $30 a yard and needs special tape instead of stitching. The mittens are fairly simple. Like I said, I can't turn my brain off.

I ran every day this week. That makes it every day in April to make up for two day off in March that's seven days off of running in seven months. A lot of triple bogey sort of days, but four miles is four miles closer to the olympic trials than a day off. Two tempos this week both about C level.

I went to the Mayo Clinic Monday to see what was wrong with me. Again no clear problem, but it could be kidney stones. However, I just decided on my own diagnosis. I'll write about it later this week. I have most of the article already written.

In short, on a percentage scale of how my life is going, taking into consideration the stories I have heard from Africa and Asia I'd rate my life about 87%. I mean I'm aiming for 100% but just getting into the upper 90s would be nice until I have paid my personal debt and helped out those who have helped me and then I can take those risks to get the last few percent.