Colorado, winter and change in life can really make life “interesting”. With the life altering change last year of leaving Vertis, “formally”, going into winter was a bit foreboding both financially, socially and “what am I going to do every morning”-ly. After leaving Vertis and going “Independent” our life and routine changed fairly drastically. First, I was home all the time, which drove Jodi crazy at first and then the seasonal car business we started earlier dwindled to a crawl.

After 20 years of trudging off to an office, I found myself waking up, getting my coffee and marching down the hall to my computer and our home office. While I still had several Vertis deployments to wrap up, which requited some travel, for the most part, I found myself at home. With finances tight, I did everything possible to insure expenses were kept to a minimum. Jodi and I refrained from dinner out, extra-curricular activity and the like. Intrusion on Jodi’s space was an understatement, so I mostly went to the shop to give Jodi some breathing room. She’s been a stay-at-home mom for 14 years and the past 2 years working from home as a virtual assistant and bookkeeper for a few local business. So, having me around was a drastic change in her routine as well as mine. I adapt well, but she doesn’t. Although, I have to admit, after 9 years with a nice private office overlooking the Flat-Irons, I also wasn’t use to another “being” just 2 feet away, breathing, much less tapping away on a laptop and drinking coffee. Keeping to myself seemed like a good idea. On the other hand, vocalizing her annoyance was how Jodi coped. And… so it went.

Fast forward to February 2008. Back in January, I started the process of looking for a full time position again after taking a “sabbatical” from October to December, after the projects died off at Vertis through that time period. With that short breather behind me and taking a hard look at my past career and interest, I decided to focus on one particular position that suites me well. Sales Engineering or Technical Sales. My forte’ is customer engagements and since I recognize that I’m a “builder” not a maintainer, look for new challenges, quickly ramp up and engage with customers, build confidence early, work well with sales executives and communicate complex concepts and needs back to development teams, I felt that pre-sales, contract assignment and post sales work is probably best for me and any future job opportunity. Plus, add the fact that I have a very broad base of technical knowledge and interest, I knew companies could use my skill set.

It’s been interesting to say the least after 16 years in some capacity at Vertis getting my assignment changes through internal “who-you-know” processes and communications rather than hitting the pavement. It looks like I stayed with one company doing one job for many years, but in reality, I wore many hats and worked for different bosses, just received compensation from the same “organization”. However, the most recent position was a bit longer than usual.

Now I’m in the “thick” of the process and find myself looking forward to both a new opportunity and more importantly towards spring. Usually, any major move I’ve made in the past was in the fall. Not sure why, but that’s the way it always turned out. Now, I’m looking at a late Winter early spring change and I’m really looking forward to diving into a new challenge.

Why else is spring looking so good. Well, after such a “dry” and fortuitous winter, spring is looking hopeful and I know less stressful. Besides, I’m frankly tired of the cold and I love being outsides in shorts, short-sleeved shirt and enjoying the sun. While winter offers the suns rays, it’s still cold and this year has been no exception. Today, Thursday Feb the 28th was nice and warm and brought the promise of spring. Therefore, it felt like spring is near and I’m waiting for it and a new position to arrive!

Posted: February 28th, 2008 under Personal.
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My “two-hour” wait at Ferrari of Denver turned into about an hour. I’d barely started getting some work done when the service coordinator, Mark, came over and said the car was ready. Of course, it’d helped that I’d taken the entire console cover off and all they had to do was replace the main shifter, reset the shifting cables and voila’. However, they had me come back and gave me a few pointers on exactly how to install the reverse gate lever, the gear ball and boot.

With everything back in place, I took off and really noticed a difference in the shifter. I was stiffer and felt much tighter. Before, I’d had a bit of an issues with 3td and 4th as their dead center of the double H pattern.

Got back to the shop and started reassembling the reverse lever, wiring and cover. It was actually another 2 hour chore as the console fit’s just right and there are two wiring harnesses that have to be reinstalled. One is the emergency flashers, which when disconnected, do not allow the regular blinkers to work. Initially, that entire switch fell apart, springs and plastic bits et al. It was NOT cooperating and kept falling apart. Couple of gluing sessions later and hand wrestling blindly, I was able to get it all buttoned back up and ready to go.

Initial Installation at Ferrari of Denver. They performed the main installation for getting it home. Once back at the shop, I focused on putting the console cover back on the main shifting area.

Various Steps in the process of resetting the reverse shifter lever and preparing the shifter for final console installation.

Finished and ready for a test drive!!! First problem… reverse gate cable needed adjusting. Took it all apart, again. Remeasured the cable assembly and put it all back together.

Second problem… something kept catching during a 2nd to 3rd shift. It worked fine, but I could hear something catch and being paranoid, I took it all apart. Again. This time, it was small piece of cable housing that had cracked. No big deal. Little cutting and it was gone. Just some plastic that didn’t affect anything.

No problems. So, now of course, I’ve had to drive it around for a few days to “check-it-out”.

All back to normal!!!! Well, except for the driver, still abnormal, but with the weather so nice, I can’t wait for spring and summer. Spirited mountain driving is calling.

Posted: February 13th, 2008 under Cars, Exotic Cars, Lotus, Personal.
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Well, I’ve owned my Ardent Red 2005 Lotus Elise for almost a year and a half. Short of the engine issue right after I purchased it, nothing major has gone wrong with it. This past weekend was a different story.

I decided to take it out for a short spin. Several friends of mine were going to be down town having a beer or two and I was invited. So, I figured, I don’t drive the little guy much so off I went. I was running a bit early and not in any big hurry. Sitting in the fast lane on I-25 right around 144th, I down shifted from 5th to 6th to over take a car and found a loose shifter in my hand. Basically during the shift, something had come loose at 75mph and now I found myself with the car coasting in neutral. Fortunately, I was right at 144th exit and took it to coast as far as possible, hoping to at least get close to the Lowes.

Since I had no tools, my plan was to purchase a screw drive at Lowes and take off the cover to see what was up. I wasn’t able to coast the entire way, so after stopping in the slow lane and putting on the emergency blinkers I was about to set off on foot when a passerby stopped to give me a push. That push turned out to be several blocks due to the entrance to the Lowes parking lot not being on the main road. He was kind enough to get me all the way to a location with a light so I could see.

About an hour later and two purchases, screw driver and a flash light to see with, I found the metal (aluminum) rod had actually broken in two. With just the main shifter housing, I was able to shift enough to catch 1st, 2nd and 3rd. Enough to get home.

Next day, I tore into the shifter to see what happened. Photos are more informative than anything.

Long story short, I started doing some research, initially thinking I’d get an after market shifter. Well, turns out, the only shifters available are “performance” shifters and it requires replacing the entire housing and to the tune of $2,500 plus. After more research, I discovered this was a recall item and called Ferrari of Denver.

I’m now there awaiting them to install the replacement kit. Getting down here was interesting. Since it’s nearly an hour drive and using what’s left of the shifter would have resulted in gouging out my palm, I decided to try the ole “vice-grip” shifter method. Worked great. Now, it’s not something I’d recommend for “spirited” shifting, but it worked great for taking it “nice-and-easy”.

Posted: February 12th, 2008 under Cars, Personal.
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