(72nd Entry) What a three weeks…

It started out with a simple, but hard fall. I was moving out of an apartment that I had lived in for three years. There was some construction being done on the street in front of the apartment. I stepped onto the side walk from the street. The sidewalk had this coarse, dark sand that was invisible to my eye. My right foot went sliding down the incline to the driveway like it was on ice. I fell with my arm against my ribcage. I hit hard, bouncing over on my side. At first I thought I had broken my ribs, but I had simply knocked the air out of myself.

It took a few minutes, but I soon realized that it was my right arm that hurt so bad. To make a long story short, I needed two stitched in my left leg and I fractured the bone in the end of my right arm. That was towards the beginning of the week and then over the weekend we watched Hurricane Ike destroy Galveston.

We’re coming up on our third anniversary of moving our offices to Mexico from Galveston. We still have a warehouse with inventory and all of our mail goes to Galveston, but all of our operating facilities are in Mexico. We moved our offices three years ago when Hurricane Rita was to have hit Galveston, but at the last minute turned towards Louisiana. After that getting trucks, 18 wheelers, from Mexico to Galveston was impossible due to the back log.

We opened a couple of weeks later in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Five of our original employees are still working for us today. Actually 5 out of 7 are working today. Of course today there are 22 or 23 people working. We’ve added two factories and are still growing.

Back to my arm… It’s better. Not quit so painful. If they had put it in a caste I would have been severely limited in what I could do, so we’re letting it heal naturally. I actually did this before when I was 13. I had a bicycle wreck and hit my arm head on into the curb. I saw the fractures in the x-ray and they’ve healed nicely. This to will heal.

Back to Hurricane Ike… I’ve talked to some of my friends in Galveston. All had damage to things that they owned. All are ok. BUT.. they all sound different than they usually do. It’s that sound of despair, of being over-whelmed. As one friend of mine said, “Remember what we thought Rita was going to be? This was it.” My thought and prayers are with them.

Both of those events happened three weeks ago. And now the last two weeks… They can wait for another entry.

(71st Entry) Why I do…

Recently I was asked, “Why do you do the things that you’re doing?” I ask myself this question quit often as well. I most often ask on days when things are difficult and seem almost impossible.

Then there are days that surprise me and all my doubts subside and the reason that I do what I do is simply obvious…

We had a birthday party last Friday. We opened our Mexican office three years ago. We started with six employees. In those days the parties were quiet. Not these days… with twenty-four employees, we had someone playing a guitar and lots of folks singing. It was a joyous event… at least for me… and I think for Mary as well.

It’s one of those events where you’re glad you have hot, spicy food, so that people don’t realize that those are tears of joy and elation.

We’ve worked so hard and sometimes lose sight of our true reason for doing what we’re doing. I gave Mary a ride home that night and said to her, “you have to be proud of what happened today.” She readily acknowledged and agreed that we had created something special. Even a week later as I write this, I find myself emotional. We have 24 people, 8 of whom are disabled and yet there were just 24 employees sharing in a party… not 8 and 16… but 24.

Of course a week has gone by and all the stress of work, of running factories and operating in a bad economy weighs heavily so… It's nice to look back

And now a few pictures...

This is Juan... Our Grabado muestro... It was his biurthday this month as well... He a great individual. When Mary and I first approached him about teaching... He said absolutely not. He had good reasons, but today he is as commited to the dream as Mary and I. And of course Krispy...