Tuesday: The Lower House

When I started a new indoor soccer facility with Let's Play I lived it. I slept at the facility every night and when people would call at 3am to see what time their game was that day I'd answer and they were shocked somebody would be there 24 hours a day. I had to know the facility, the people that worked there, the people that played there and I had to know them quickly.

When I took over doing the books for Let's Play I got deep down inside them. The financials, cash flow, are the blood veins of the body of the company. Without positive cash flow the body struggles to breath and everyone is in peril. So since it was my job I had to know the financials inside out. I learned every utility bill and all the stats that came with them. I found I could take 12 months of trash bills and if I paid them up front before the year started they'd knock off a payment and my price would go down 8.33 percent, it looked good on my financials to show that I was paying bills way in advance even though in comparison to other bills they were small, and in those days there was no automatic debit of any sort so 12 times a year I'd have to do up a check, put it in an envelope, stamp it, and mail it off. It was time consuming. For years it was just Linda and I in the office with millions of dollars in bills every year so it saved me time to focus on other things. It turned out I could do the same thing with burglar alarm bills every year and so on and so on. Saved dollars, time, and looked good to the banks.

We had a rash of break ins at the indoor facilities and I had all the alarm companies call me when there was an alarm going off no matter what city and then I would call the managers unless it was San Diego or El Cajon and then I would go to them since I was closest. While I slept I could see myself in the dark going from facility to facility checking the location to make sure there were no bad people there. After a few months I could sense when we were going to get broke into. The problem was where we were getting broke into. One night I could feel somebody had evil intent at San Diego Indoor Soccer about a 20 minute drive from the house. I woke up and said to Linda "San Diego is getting broke into right now. I can feel them. When the alarm company calls tell them I'm already on the way and to send the police. At 4am as I got into my car in the driveway I heard the phone ring inside the house. I caught a couple guys that way. Another night I could feel we were getting broke into at a location but I couldn't distinguish it so I sat up and waited but the call never came. I was really surprised that my system had been out of whack and got a false alarm. Two days later Denver called and said they'd been broke into two nights before but they had been closed for two days and didn't find out until today and the thieves had figured out how to disconnect the alarm. 

When I got Base Camp it took awhile to get there but I am in tune with the critters, the sounds, and all that goes on around the lodge. I can be watching TV and still detect the sound of a certain white-tailed antelope squirrel at the bottom of the hill telling me a vehicle is coming. One day sitting on the front porch I heard a oomp, ahh, oomp coming from a human male off in the distance. I knew it was the sound of a male on his bicycle coming down the sand hill and going over the handlebars. I jumped on my trials bike and got to the sand hill while he was still dusting himself off and checking for injuries. I said "Man that sounded bad. I just blasted over here to make sure you were ok." He said "Who are you? Where did you come from? I said "I just live a mile or so from here and i heard you go over the handlebars and hit the ground." He said "No you didn't." I said "Did you go over the handlebars and get the wind knocked out of you." He said "Yes."

Well there's a hundred more stories but this is a blog, not a novel, not War and Peace and I'm pretty sure you get the point I'm making.

This morning when I woke I emailed the title company to see if the docs had been recorded and did I own Last Hurrah. They said they had and I did. Now I have to know it so I gathered up some books and Rachel, Elsie, and I hiked over and hung out in the lower house for the day wandering outside occasionally and getting a little hike in. I read from a couple different couches, went through the bedrooms, the kitchen, and the like. There are some needs but it feels good.