Today Russel Boudria, the head trainer from MultiCam in Texas arrived to set up our shiny new CNC plasma cutter and train us to use it. He was eager to get started even though he had spent most of the day in transit. That's dedication! We worked a couple of hours levelling the table, sorting out wires, hoses and cables, and testing things out. We got to the point where we could move the gantry and test fire the machine. Tomorrow we'll begin some serious cutting. As I thought about what the first cut pieces might be I knew we would want to set a fairly high bar as the starting point. From here we will get creative. I knew just the test piece. Phoebe needs a mailbox for their new house. Ordinary just won't do. She also loves dinosaurs. So I thought a life-size velociraptor skeleton holding a custom built mailbox might be about right. Phoebe agreed. I designed the cutting file tonight. This is going to be FUN!
Another OOPS!
I carry a small camera with me at all times to document our work and provide photos for our daily journal. Although I try to be careful it can be risky at times and I have destroyed a goodly bunch of cameras through the years. During my presentation on marketing in my workshops I point out the benefits and pitfalls of always having your camera handy. The benefits far out weight the perils. Yesterday, I had a twelve day old camera in my hip pouch as we raced the go karts in Denver. I went into one corner a little too fast as did the driver behind me. We ended up tangled and slid sideways, hard up against the barriers of the track. Thankfully, no one was hurt but there was a casualty as we discovered later. My latest camera was crushed between my hip and the deep fibreglass seat. Add one more to the long list. I picked up a new one today and this time I promise to be more careful!
Market research
The EnRoute workshop in Denver went extremely well and lots was learned by all. There were many favourable comments at the end. But after three days of being cooped up in a room, sitting for the most part, it was time to get out for some fun. Peter phoned home to check in and Hailey suggested that we go find a go kart track and do some serious (and high speed) research. We threw out the idea to others at the workshop and a group of eleven took up the challenge. Jeff, our host knew just the place. These high speed karts were capable of traveling up to 45 MPH on the tight track! A fun time was had by all. Some useful data was gathered at the same time. I am proud to report that Peter still can't beat his (very fast) dad on a go kart as my times were recorded at up to 1 second faster on each lap.
