My Project Is My Roommate

Time To Move On

What The New Day Brings

Friday things totally flipped for me.

This past Friday I was still on an awesome high from turning in the $27.5MM grant application for the biorefinery company the night before. I have been living and breathing that grant for months now. I can't tell ya how good to have that completely done with six days to spare and I thought that I might have a couple of days to catch my breath. Well it all changed. I was in my normal rotation of Thurs/Fri back at the private equity firm expecting to get ready for the next grant for the compressed air energy storage company that is building its first asset in OH, when I had a planned tag up with the VP that I work with the most. There was no bad news....just different news.

Turns out the next grant has come out and it is due end of August. They are pulling me from the biorefinery company entirely back to the fund. Full court press from here on to have this company apply for funding. I have a leg up in that I have been through this and also in that they have hired somebody to help me out. We can certainly get this done on a short fuse with the man power being thrown at it.

I guess the thing that really threw me is being pulled from the other company. I have grown close to those guys as well as the project so that makes it tough to leave. I am not really sure if I will go back their either as some of the feedback seems to indicate that although they needed my skills for that project, I am probably not a long term fit. One door closes, another door opens.

So much for summer being a laid back time but that is more than fine if this is what I have to do. The alternative of where I was a year ago is still really fresh in my mind.

Tracking Skydives, June 2009

Final Push

It's getting down to the final hour (although it's a couple weeks out) with my grant application. It seems like this thing is pretty much consuming me and my work. I need this win for my current career with the company as well as for the broader picture of my career. This would be a huge win for the company if we are successful in securing funding for this particular project. Even more, this is a company and technology that I really believe in. I think that we are really on to something and it would be good to say to those that doubt the value of ARRA/Stimulus funding that it 1. provided a job for me and 2. the funding was used to help capitalize a company that had an immediate economic impact to a city and state economy.

There is a lot of capital at risk here, and I really need to deliver.

Summer Summer

Well the Texas heat is here and that certainly means that Summer time has arrived. I have always enjoyed the long days that Summer brings, giving you a chance to get things done after a days work. I can't help but want to do something outdoors these days since the weather has been so good here with low humidity. It's kinda funny how your memories of Summer change as you get older. For me growing up it was always about being on my bike or in the pool swimming. I could never get enough of the water and would swim so hard that I always fell asleep in the car leaving the pool. Good times.

I could not help but contrast that a couple of days ago with the Summer the kids at Texas Children's face ahead. As I was volunteering recently I could not help but think these kids should be outside playing or looking forward to some kind of summer plans. But unfortunately it's different for them as many of them probably did not have much of a school year. Would love to see if we can bring some aspect of Summer to the unit this year. We will see.

Work continues to go well for me this month as we prepare to get a grant application in for one of the projects. Can't say that I have absolute certainty that things will continue past the middle of July, but I prayerfully continue to hope that conversation will come soon. I think that it will. I can say that my days are pretty busy, but good for the most part and weekends come as a welcome reward. Wow, I suppose that it was not that long ago that Fridays were the worst for me because the weekend were not really something to be looked forward to....it's like I did not earn a weekend. Those Fridays were the worst when I was looking for a job but let's hope that is all in the rear view mirror.

All growth depends on activity. There is no development physically or intellectually without effort, and effort means work. Work is not a curse; it is the perogative of intelligence the only menas to adulthood, and the measure of civilization. - Calvin Coolidge

The Day's Memorial

Sometimes you just roll out to the DZ with marginal weather knowing you might be grounded. That was kind of my attitude on Sunday of this past weekend. The only reason that I went was on the hope of doing my 400th jump even if it was solo, but sure enough after I got there, the sky opened up and it poured. I have never been one to sit around doing nothing when I could be at home doing something productive or at the hospital volunteering so I was making my plans to leave as the rain stopped and the sky began to clear. About that time I was paged over the intercom to come to the office where I met this really young baby faced guy named Robert. He was showing up to do a re-currency jump and they asked me to help out. Fortunately the weather was not great but improving - it was kinda looking like one of those days where you could end up riding the plane down because of rain or layers of clouds. However, our pilot assured me that we would have a spot and the clouds I saw were going to be above us.

During my pre-brief with Robert we got to know each other as I asked my normal questions to get a feel for his proficiency and if he was going to have any issues in freefall that would need my attention. Well, Robert mentioned that he is in the Army stationed in Iraq and home on emergency family leave after losing his father. Because of the emotion that can come with that I felt compelled to ask if he was sure he was ready to jump to which he replied yes. He is the oldest sibling and just needed some time to get away for himself which I totally understood. So we jump. We reviewed our dive flow and had an uneventful ride to altitude with no weather issues. As we were nearing jump run, I took my helmet off for a sec and told him, "Let's do this one for Pops!" and he gave me a big smile.

We had a pretty good jump, not great from a skills perspective but it was what he needed along with a good landing. It never occured to me through the plane ride up to altitude or during the jump that this was my 400th and it did not really matter. I only remembered after I came back in and took my gear off. But having a chance to give something back to an active member of the US military during his time of need meant a lot this Memorial Day weekend.

Four Hundred

Congrats General Bolden

I can't think of a more sincere, genuine and technically sound person to provide NASA with the leadership that it needs at this hour. There will be a bright future under his leadership. On to confirmation....

Today's Job

Doing today's work today and thankful for every day that God has blessed me with. Today George is "in the moment" and blessed.

W4

Well technically I don't have one.

But it is "looking like" I will have a chance to stay at the fund for the balance of the year. I put that in quotes because it's not quite a done deal yet for me. It's kinda one of those waiting for final approval of funding kinda things. This is still a great opportunity and I don't have to tell anybody how bad the job market is right now. As bad as last year was for me, if I had my choice of when to be without a job, I would much rather have chosen last year rather than this year. It's horrible in the trenches these days.

As for me efforts on the job, well it's still moving forward. Our opportunities have broadened but we are struggling somewhat with the federal bureaucracy that is today's reality but I should not complain. We will make good of whatever federal sponsorship we receive to build some solid assets and put some people to work. Within a month we should have an application in for about $25 MM in funding for one project. We need that to be a very quick road if we are going to get started soon. Stay tuned, I would love to be able to announce that we have secured all of our funding because if that happens, it makes a strong case for my fund raising efforts and long term position at the fund or one of the portfolio companies. Let's hope and pray for good things.