Long Overdue

Bless me Father for I have sinned. It's been 6 months since my last blog. I guess you can tell now that I grew up Catholic.
This blog is for the handfull of people I know that don't have a Facebook. Ok, really, you need to get one. My Grandpa, who turns 90 this year, has one. Of course I set it up for him, but Grandpa and Grandma both like to check it everyday. There are a lot of great things you can do there, like post videos and photo's, write notes, chat. It's a great way to keep in touch with and actually re-connect with friends and family all over the world. When I post a story, video or picture, my girls (meaning daughter and exchgange students) in Tennessee, Germany, Switzerland, and Tailand can see them immediately. So get hip and get a Facebook.
I haven't written a blog lately because I'm only inspired to write a blog when something out of the ordinary is going on. Really, the last six months I have tried to catch up on things that I'm behind on instead of taking on a lot of new things.
Can you believe I am still working on the "Shout" project? I've been mixing that thing on and off for six months, and it still isn't perfect. I think we are just going to have to go ahead and release it, and not worry about the fact that we don't sound like Rockapella. I think we are learning that we should just record our projects and then give them to someone else to mix. It will actually get done that way. Look for it soon....I mean it this time.
My baby girl Kathy is graduating from high school this year. I can't believe it! I do have a lot of work to do to get ready for her party. Of course I will be doing a video like I did for Kelly, I guess I had better get started on that soon. I also have a commemorative video in the works for my Grandpa Kelly, who as I mentioned above will be turning 90 this year. I'm looking forward to that because he has led a very interesting life. He's a bit video camera shy, so I am going to audio record him and Grandma as they go through the pictures of their lives. They have a lot of great stories that need to be recorded for future generations to hear. Grandpa is a WWII veteran, almost everytime I see him, he tells me something about his time in Germany. I think it's important that these stories are preservered, because, God willing, I doubt that we will fight a war of that magnitude again.
Like most manufacturing in this country, business at United Brass has slowed to to a crawl. We are only operating our machines 36 hours a week right now. As it is, a lot of people here are doing things other than making parts. A slow down is sometimes good for a while, it allows you to catch up on things that have been put off. If any company can survive this recesion, we can. United Brass doesn't borrow money, and they do have a rainy day fund for times like these. My Dad has stepped down as manager and is currently on a 30 hour workweek. That puts Dan and I in charge of things. I haven't really noticed a big change from what I was doing before, I have been involved in the decision making around here for quite some time. I just have to sign a few more papers now and play referee once in a while. I have a lot of big plans for the future and do plan on moving forward with the way things are done here. I have discovered that managing a plant this size is more like steering an aircraft carrier than it is steering a fishing boat. As much as I would like to change things all in one day, people can only deal with so much change at a time. I've come up with a good decision making process that also allows me to stick with whatever I am working on at the time. If someone asks me what I should do about....blah blah, I ask them what they think I should do. When they tell me, I stare for while as if I'm really thinking about it, and then say, that sounds like a great idea, can you take care of it for me? I'm a little tied up with this for a while. So far it's been working good for me, unless their idea is terrible, then I have to come up with an alternate plan. Management is easy.
I am still training for triathlons. I haven't signed up for any yet because I haven't quite planned my summer out yet. I will probably do at least four of them again this year. So far I'm a little more banged up than I was last year, probably because I'm pushing it a little harder. When you are this age, if you push a little too hard, your body lets you know right away.
I will be taking a couple of trips to Tennessee this summer to get Kelly back and forth so she can take some classes here over the summer. I have a whole week off in early August that happens to coinside with one of the trips. I'm going to take advantage of that time to explore some of the trout streams in the area. It's a tough job, but someone's got to do it.
That's all for now, see you on Facebook....right?