It's becoming routine...

Not a lot of exciting things happened today. I woke up and shuffled down the stairs. That's a good sign, means my legs have been getting a good workout. My plan today was just to do weights and maybe swim. I want to hold off on the running and biking until Saturday, in order to give my left heal ankle area more time to strengthen and heal.

I did my weights in the morning and didn't mail it in. I went heavier than I have in a long time, heavy enough to be grunting as I pushed the weight. A major positive is that my upper body felt great. Looks like the chest injury is over. Only took about 3 weeks, looks like Bob does have some power after all. It kind of reminds me of when I was a kid and my buddy who was a Bruce Lee fan would tell stories that Bruce Lee could punch you from 1 inch away and you'd be fine and then the next day you'd drop dead and Bruce Lee was so good that he could tell you what time of day tomorrow you are going to die.

After swimming I had my regular conference call with Poochie and then talked to my buddy Doug Martin and then to my brother Bob. Doug is selling his weekly newsletter online and making about $10,000 per year, which is his total yearly income. He lives in a bachelor pad in Bahama's with his girlfriend and mooches money of friends and family. I got him on the Internet and blogging thing about a year ago and he's making a little money with it.

At one time Doug was a publisher and making decent money, he had a $400,000 home that was paid for, now he's got nothing and lives on oatmeal and cheep food. I like Doug, he's a great story teller, I don't feel sorry for him. I remember him in his heyday, he was a grinder and slow payer. I learnt a big lesson from Doug, the customers aren't always right. I remember him threatening to leave me as a customer if we didn't buy a certain piece of equipment. I was young and panicked and did it and it was a decision that was made in haste and the equipment didn't work properly and in the end it cost me much more money than losing Doug as a customer. At that point in my career I wore my heart on my sleeve and didn't look at customers objectively and put a dollar sign to them. I wanted to please everyone, not good business. That's what happens when your 26 years old and working 7-days a week.

Yes, at one time I worked 7-days a week, actually for a long time, maybe close to 10 years. I remember showing up for work weekdays before 8 am or earlier and if I went to the gym it would be at 5:30 am. I then worked it at least 6:30 / 7:00 or much longer. On weekends I'd go in to do billing or help get jobs through. I MIGHT not go in Sunday, it depended how much needed to be done at work. On top of that I travelled a lot for a number of years. About 3 weeks out of every 4 I'd be on the road for 3 - 4 days a week. My circuit was Denver, San Francisco, New York and Toronto and I'd repeat, repeat and repeat. If anyone thinks I haven't paid my dues, chances are they couldn't hold my jockstrap on paying dues. I'd like to call those my stupid years, I had to learn the hard way. Most people would learn that after no more than a year that this is no life, me it took about 10 years. I eat, drank and sleep work.

My brother is super pumped about being in the hair cutting business. I too like the business, there is lots of upsides. My issue is it would be great to have some of the U.S. franchises that have been successful with Men's only places. Unfortunately they are not coming to Canada for a couple of years and if you wanted to get into that you'd have to do it yourself. That's a lot of work, coming up with the concept, designing the space, the uniforms, creating the culture and launching. My brother doesn't think it's a big deal, I do. I'd also like to take my time and do some business plans before I jumped into it. I'd use Poochie and Abbey to help me. In my area, an affluent part of Ontario with lots of new growth, a men's only place would do great, the only issue is location and the business stuff I mentioned above. I told my brother that for his business plan he should hire some people to sit outside some of the similar salons for a week and count customers to get an accurate feel for how much sales could be expected. Of course, he knows better and just threw a number down. Typical.

He also keeps thinking like this could make millions by growing the business and franchising. I told him he's nuts, if you could make $300,000 plus on a few stores and not have to work that hard and enjoy life, why would you get so ambitious. He was ambitious like that with his printing company and it keeps you focused on the potential of the future and not the present. I too got caught in that trap. I thought my business was going to be a billion dollar business and I was going to be a millionaire by 30 years old and the next Donald Trump. In hindsight, had I done things differently, focused on the current potential and not the future potential I'd probably have a lot more money in my jeans right now. I find it very interesting to go through this with my brother, he helps me identify many of my past weaknesses. Believe it or not, I'm the voice of reason to him and tell him that he's getting way too ambitious. I tell him, lets see if you can make $100,000 with one store. Let's not jump ahead of ourselves.

This afternoon I had my conference call with Admin assistant number two, Abbey. I dropped him an email to call me at 2:35 and I didn't hear from him. I hate, hate, hate, when people don't call or show up on time for a meeting. It shows a lack of respect for my time. I emailed him a couple times, no response and then email and cc'd his bosses. Response. He gave me some excuse like traffic or something, I told him that that's fine but you need to communicate to me, email me or something and by him not doing so it shows no respect for me time. I like the guy, he's doing a decent job, I just need to make sure that he knows I'm not a guy to mess around with. Often I've found if you become too friendly with employees, unless they are the highly self motivated types, they will slide and take advantage of your kindness.

The highlight of my day was putting up Reid's speed bag. He bought it today from Sport Check. It was no easy task. At first we were going to put it up in his room and it turned out that the location he wanted to put it didn't have studs in the right places. Normally they are to be 16" off centre and because it was between two doors I guess they didn't need to do it. I tried to use the stud locator and it didn't work. I ended up using a finishing nail and nailing into the wall to see if there was a stud. I had to, this thing is so heavy that if it's not on studs it's coming down big time. The screws alone to hold it up are near 4 inches long.

Next challenge was to find a place where it would work. We walked the entire house from top to bottom and the only place we could find was the laundry room. Alice wasn't too keen on it, but it is for her number one son. It was no easy task to put this up. It took us three tries. Each time there was a problem. The first problem was it was too high and the screws where hitting metal. The send time 3 of the 4 screws went in and the 4th wouldn't, it hit metal or a nail. Third time was the charm. The only satisfaction I got out of it was listening to Reid complain about his sore arms from holding up the rack while I screwed in the screws. I'd hear "Dad, my arms are burning, hurry".

We finally got it up and it wasn't yet adjusted for height. I started hitting it and was joking around that it was Reid's head and then "whack", my hand his the hard wood of the top. I was in major pain, my hand started to inflate, it felt broken and the pinky knuckle. Of course Reid was laughing. Actually Reid was laughing the entire time watching me put it up. He was calling me Canada's Worst Handy man and I'm constantly curing putting this stuff up, working with my hands is not my strong suit. Normally I have my tounge sticking out like Michael Jordan while I concentrate. It's not pretty.

I figure this bag will be up and he'll use it for a week and that will be it. I hope so anyways. Tonight I went to watch TV upstairs around 8:30 pm and then fell asleep and then woke to the house shaking and a loud thumping sound. It was Reid on the speed bag. From the sound he was actually getting pretty good. It was lasting for a long time. I was in a semi-slumber and figured he'll be done in 15 minutes, I saw him earlier doing it and he was sweating, I figured he couldn't last more than 15 minutes. Wrong. He was on that thing for about 45 minutes before I came down at 9:40 pm and told him he has to stop, that there's not speed bag punching after 9 pm. Alice told me that after we initially set the bag up and Reid started hitting it our neighbour John came out on the deck and was trying to figure out where the sound was coming from. Our laundry room window is about 10 feet from their house. I'm sure he heard the thumping all night too. I'd say it's as bad and maybe worse noise than having a drum set.

Food wise I was a 6 out of 10 today. A trip to baskin robbins did me in. My body was craving it, I went for their version of a blizzard, they call it 31 below, I didn't realize until afterwards that is 1300 calories. Sure tasted good though. I'm not beating myself up anymore. I think I'm going to stop even focusing on food. Yes, you heard right. I need to just do the best I possibly can and let the chips fall where they may. I'm not giving up, just not beating myself up anymore.

On the triathlon front I'm on the fence about doing the Ponono's 70.3. Alice got the visa bill and it was another $4700, mostly Myrtle Beach and $1000 for Poochie and Abbey. Those monthly bills have been like that all year long. I really want to do the race but by the time you enter for $300 and then drive and lodge and buy a shirt or two it's a $1000.

Training
weights - 45 minutes.
3114 calories