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.

What's For Dinner: Mis en Place

Kellogg 10 Year

This past weekend was my Kellogg 10 year reunion back on campus at Northwestern in Evanston, Ill, the suburbs of Chicago. What an awesome time. Again I clearly recognize that you just don't realize how much you need to get away until you do it. For me the weekend was a great time to reconnect with old friends, faculty and most importantly with myself and my goals.

I got a chance to see the director of admissions for Kellogg at the end of the weekend and I felt the need to simply say, "Thank you so much for my classmates." Kellogg has the reputation of being all about the quality of people and it is so true. There is a bar set high enough that draws exceptional people. Being smart, successful, involved, connected or of a certain social status will not get you into Kellogg. It's not what is in the application but the entirety of you life, and the result is a community that can perform at the highest levels in the business world and also a community of incredibly exceptional people. I really feel like our class is really involved with improving our world, business community and preparing another generation for the world's challenges with their own families. How in the world did I end up getting such a cool opportunity? Good times, great people.