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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Xmas was a little different this year. With starting a new business and not having as much time and money as in the past, we decided to have Christmas “light” this year. However, we didn’t sacrifice “FUN”. Our one big gift to the family and really for Dylan was Rock Band.

Jodi and I spent a few days looking for it only to find it was THE popular game of the season. Just having been released, it was a bit hard to locate. However, at Best Buy in Longmont, the sales guy told us a secret. Best Buy in Ft Collins had a few and that they were sending everyone there. So, off we went and got our copy.

Fast forward to Dec 25, just a few days ago. Instead of wrapping the entire box, Jodi wrapped parts and pieces and on Christmas Eve, we gave Dylan the choice of picking one of the few gifts under the tree. Fortunately, he picked the one small box with the Gave DVD enclosed. After that, we brought out the big guns, err… boxes with the drums and new guitar. Since we were Guitar Hero Veterans, the new guitar was cool to check out as it had more of a “real” look than the old white ones from GII and GIII.

So, after setting everything up, The “Basement Nerds” were born. Well, actually, Dylan and Jodi had formed it in GIII, but they now allowed me to join their band in “Rock Band” and now I get to play along. Such an honor.

Fun doesn’t really describe how that game goes. We’ve had our share of fun, but there’s been some bickering as well. We’re not sure who needs to go to rehab first. It was suggested that I go get clean since I couldn’t keep up last night after a few glasses of Vinno.

Hopefully we’ll stay together and not break up. Wow, our first band and we’re already fighting after just 3 days. Cool! Feels like The Basement Nerds is the real deal.

Posted: December 27th, 2007 under Personal.
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This past Saturday night we threw a Halloween bash. Technically it was in celebration of our first full year in business as we had just purchased the Lotus and the truck last year at this time and already had the business in startup mode. Even though we didn’t technically rent our first car until April, we were still in business prior to that.

So, to celebrate, I brought over our working cars for display. Really just to show them off to the neighbors and friends who were planning on coming to the party. We decided to bring over the cars that worked the hardest all summer. The Lotus, Porsche and Mercedes are all owned by Jodi and I. The Lamborghini was our first “Investor” car and owned by Paul Piciochi. He’s been very generous in letting us use the car and I believe he benefitted from the arrangement as well. I kept the car in Tip-top shape all summer by meticulously detailing it every chance and by keeping it in good shape for when he needed to use it.  Now, it’s for sale. So, to make an offer, shoot me an email. Email Shane.

The Lotus and Porsche were the two most popular cars all summer. The Porsche was great for top down fun and the Lotus was, well, just freakin fun to drive. Our Mercedes made up for a lot of lost time towards the end of the summer and is still Jodi’s favorite car. She refuses to let me get rid of it. In fact, after the party Saturday night, we’re keeping it at the house. It has no immediate bookings, so might as well stay here for her to enjoy.

As far as the party goes, it was another rousing success. All of our close friends attended and many dressed up. We ended the evening by taking the cars back to the shop, slowly. At 11pm, you don’t want to attract any attention by the local police, which were out in abundance. After tucking them in for the night, the party wound down with our closest friends staying until late. (There were a few really close friends that had to leave early, so in case they’re reading this, you’re still the best for coming early and dressing as a  “MEOW”…

Were now into fall and have a few bookings for the sports cars, but it’s winding down. I just acquired a Range Rover Sport from an investor who’s out of the country most of the year. I’m in the process of detailing it and it already is getting booked. Even the H2 is getting booked, so hopefully these two cars will help during the winter.

Until next time…

Shane

Posted: October 30th, 2007 under Personal.
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As we enter fall, which is in full swing here, we’re noticing the rental business start to slow down. Fortunately, it’s not completely dying or we’d have some issues. However, we did save for a rainy day during the summer peak. The hotel Concierge are still a good source of referrals as they are sending fall travel business our way. Weddings and other summer events are slacking off. So far. Truth is, we anticipated the fall slow down, so it’s no shock.

Fortunately, with the slower period, it offers me more free time to work on other aspects of our business that NOT related to cars, building web sites for local small business’s. I have connections in the community that have asked me to revamp their site or get a new one going on/off through the summer. However, with the focus on Altitud Dream Cars, it’s been all about time.

Repeat customers are going to really help during the slower times. We’re finding they’ll call at just the right time to reserve a car. Fortunately, they’re aware of our service offerings and it’s easy to simply update their information and deliver a car. We LOVE repeat customers. I think it lets us know that we’re doing something right and that we’re offering a good service.

We’re all about good customer service and offering a boutique solution to peoples needs and desires. Marketing is still tricky and spending money in the right area can be something that’s a bit of a hit-miss proposition. Operationally, we have our processes & procedures down and of course, our customer service is beyond reproach. Now, to just get more customers to understand and use our service.

As the holidays approach, we’ll be working on several “Gift” campaigns for those looking to give something different to the car lover in their life or for an experience gift. I’m thinking about providing dollar amount gift cards, like Altitude Dollars or something along those lines. We’ve tested packages and they get sticky. Weekend packages and/or more than one day packages never fit anyones schedule and variations are expected. So, we’re thinking about going with denominations that can be redeemed rather than a “day with”. The gift giver buys a day with the “lotus” only to find out they’d rather go with the “Lamborghini” and have asked if they could pay the difference. So, cash value may work better. We’ll see.

That’s business…

Shane

Posted: October 25th, 2007 under Personal.
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I’ve been working on adding more ink to the old bod. Well, actually, I’ve been working on a half sleeve on my upper right arm. I posted the black-out-lining a few months ago. Several weeks ago, I had that colored in.

Before - After with color

Next was the “grime reaper”. Dave, my artist, really doesn’t like reapers in the traditional sense, so he decided to work up a skull with a cape thing and he wanted to hide it under my arm looking up/out depending on your perspective.

New tattoo

Now, that leaves a large gap of skin between his face and the pumpkin/skull art on the side and back of my arm. The plan there is to put in a grave-yard or head stones with smoke etc… We’ll see what Dave comes up with. When we started, I decided to let him “Run-with-it”.

Hope it doesn’t freak you out that a 43 year old is putting ink on his body. Well, frankly, I don’t care. It’s my skin and I’ll have to deal with it as I get older. Besides, when I’m 80, no one will care.

Posted: October 17th, 2007 under Personal.
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Since one of the primary functions of our car business is detailing the cars on a daily & weekly basis, I’ve been thinking seriously about generating a new adjunct business, Auto Detailing.  Detailing is more than washing the family car. Rather it’s making the car show-room ready.

We’ve (Dylan and I) have learned a lot about detailing cars and taking care of them. I’m now looking at the function of “polishing” the paint, which is the task of removing swirls, scratches and other blemishes on a car. This is done prior to applying a top coat of wax or synthetic protection.

For the name, I’m kicking around just using the similar regional identifier, Altitude and adding “Detailing”. So, the name would simply be;  “Altitude Detailing”. Pretty easy and catchy. If/when we do any mobile work and/or pickup cars, I can still use my rental car delivery truck as it has the same logo and name.

Hopefully this will help augment the car rental business and give me some work to do through the winter. It seems like a perfect segway to go since we spend so much time on our fleet now. Plus, I already have the shop, the equipment and the supplies. So, there’s really no new expenses or additional over-head. In fact, this could help ease the current over-head costs.

Posted: August 26th, 2007 under Personal.
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Ever have one of those weeks? Well, we did last week. Turns out that a part of my business name is “TradMarked” on a national basis and I was sent a cease and desist letter by a law firm representing another Exotic Rental Car Company. So, we retained our own lawyer for advice and guidance.

Turns out, it may be more trouble to fight it even though the issue is “shaky” at best. Costs is the main issue for me as a startup, so we’ll look at modifying the name. At first I was thinking about changing the spelling just to “p-ss” them off, but it looked unprofessional and really, modifying the name isn’t that big of an issue.

My company name is “Altitude Dream Cars” and it’s simply a DBA under the LLC we formed. The issue is with the term “Dream Car”. Even though there are several other companies around the country using regional identifiers in the beginning and using “Dream Cars” as part of the name, it’s still a trade mark infringement. Fortunately, the term, Altitude is not in question and it’s the predominant word and image in my logo and brand.

I was thinking about just changing it to: “Altitude Dreme Kars” because words and spelling was the issue and technically, they couldn’t touch this one. But, it looks so unprofessional, that it’s not going to happen. So, now I’m thinking about these possibilities.

• Altitude Specialty Cars
• Altitude Specialty Rental Cars
• Altitude Specialty Car Rentals
• Altitude Exotic Cars
• Altitude Exotic Car Rentals
• Altitude Exotic Rental Cars

We’ll see how the next review and search of these goes. We’ll soon be one of the above names after my legal council researches the names and we get it trade marked ourself.

Shane

Posted: August 15th, 2007 under Personal.
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Well, yet again I’ve not been posting as often due to the new business. June was a bit sparse on car rentals, but July took off. We had some of our best rental stories and every car has been going in & out & in & out of the shop. Which has been great.

Our most popular car, the Lotus Elise, has been a favorite and a show stopper amongst all of our customers. I have yet to hear anything negative about the Elise. Well, except that it’s a little tight on space and the seats could be a bit more comfortable. But, these are all minor complaints since the “FUN” factor over-rides any minor issues. The Elise is hands-down the most sports car, street legal race car you will ever have the chance to drive.

Back on the topic of rentals, the past two weeks have been just crazy, but a good crazy. In the middle of the busy schedule, Jodi and I attempted some “Private” time while Dylan was at Scotts up in Wisconsin. We took a long weekend and went downtown. At The Curtis, we had the perfect room, great staff and could have moved into the bed. Along with good restaurants and great clubs down in Denver, we also took in the “Warped” tour seeing several favorite bands and learning about a few new ones.

And… to top it all off, I’m still trying to sneak in some hours with my old company, Vertis. With all of the days being spent tugging cars around, detailing and preparing cars for pickup, I’ve barely had time to eat, much less work on specialty projects. The candle is getting short and the burning at both ends is about to run out. Well, metaphorically speaking.

Until next time… Shane

Posted: July 15th, 2007 under Personal.
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