So, we seem to have made it past the summit of the hot part of the season and have begun the descent into Fall. I think I heard we set a record with something like 21 straight days of 90 or above highs.

Anyway, the high today was 88 and a storm blew by just as it got up there. So, I grabbed my book and am sitting on the front porch watching clouds go by and enjoying the afternoon breeze.

Love working for self from home! Time for some water and snack!

Some events in your lifetime pass and are never remembered again. Well, the date anyways. You may remember what actually happened, but the date not so much. Those are not necessarily etched in your mind.

This date however will likely be etched in my mind for quite some time. One year ago today I sat in the office of my supervisor at the company I had worked at for 11 years and was informed that my position was one of three being eliminated to make room in next year’s budget for other types of personnel. I cannot describe the rush of things that go through your head in a moment like that. If you’ve been there you know what I mean.

A folder is pulled out and you go over all the paperwork related to severance and all. How crazy is it that once you are told you will be without a job they go over all these details and expect you to sign a piece of paper agreeing to all the terms right there as this amazing thought-flood is going on. Anyway, I elected to have a lawyer friend review mine before I signed and left the office.

I was told I could go for the rest of the day, finish the week, and then, though I officially was not finished until July 31, if I had transitioned all the stuff I was working on I was no longer expected to be in the office after that Friday. I have to say, all this flexibility and a generous severance package was the bright side of the coin but there still is no rush like being told you are being laid off permanently. (I guess that’s different than being fired. Fired would be if you screwed up or did something immoral or illegal. Laid off is when the type of service you have to provide is no longer needed or organizational changes mean your skill set is no longer part of the mix.) Either way, after Friday the 15th I was gone.

One of the interesting pieces of all this was how Julie and I had already discussed that we wanted to have our own business established by the date the severance was set to run out. Difference was rather than working full time and at the same time laboring to launch a sustaining business, we now had a severance period to concentrate on establishing the new work and would not be looking at a two week notice and transition.

On the way to lunch the next day before going in to begin the transition and cleaning out process it hit me that this was the perfect time to move back to Colorado (where we had lived before going to Nashville). And, if we were going to be working to establish a business, it was better to establish it where we ultimately wanted to live rather than establish it and then relocate later. Hence, the whirlwind escalated. That was June 13. August 1st our house went on the market. August 6th we had a contract. August 26th we were out and on our way to Colorado to find our way. So, here we are. One year later. Since this is getting long, I’ll wait till August 1 to update the status and reminisce about where the business is now.

Thanks to everyone who helped us through the amazing transition train we’ve been on. Here are some of our transition support super stars to whom we are SO SO grateful:

Ray and Katie Carman who helped with the whole house sale/purchase thing (even so far as traveling to CO for a scouting trip Jul 26-31) as well as being amazingly supportive friends to lean on, and were gracious enough to host a drop by for folks who wanted to come by and say good bye before we left. Oh and hats off to Ray who was the packing/loading ANIMAL! We never could have gotten out of there if it were not for you guys.
Todd and Monica (as well as AJ and Ashley) Donaldson who opened their home to us in CO while we house hunted and were here for us to lean on at the CO side of our journey.
Scott Wendland, Chris Papetti, and Tripp Karrh who graciously labored to help load us up, drive out on the trek from Nashville to Denver in the dual-26-foot-Penske-truck-with-car-carriers-Pathfinder-motorcyle-trailer caravan, and unload and stuff all the stuff into storage buildings.
Our awesome kiddos Jes & AK who helped with lots of stuff and checked in on us to make sure we were making it okay (oh and have since relocated to CO as well… what sweeties!). You guys were so strong and never showed any nervousness which helped mom and dad not worry so much about leaving you in TN.
John and Debbie Revell who helped pack and were amazing pillars of support for us when the pressure began to mount.
Denver and Amy Bierman who were the rocks we leaned on. Though we know you were incredibly busy (Denver with the whole Next Great American Band thing and Amy months from delivering London) crushed by our leaving, you continue to be incredibly encouraging and full of support emotionally and spiritually through the transition.
Kathie Hill of Kathie Hill Music who was one of my first clients back in 2005 and who patiently endured during our moving right in the middle of her launching WAM! a whole new revolutionary product line for kid’s music.
And everyone else who encouraged us and whose thoughts and prayers supported us in the transition.

So, we press on in Life 2.0 mode one year later.

Most of the southern folks I know just don’t get it (except you Amy!) but part of what we love about living here in the Denver area is the excitement of having the Rocky Mountain weather makers right in your backyard. It makes for interesting swings and never a weather dull moment.

Today I mowed my lawn in flip flops and shorts and tomorrow they say there’s snow on the way (backed up by the radar image to the left). Mountains are supposed to get a foot of snow and they are saying like 3″ here! Yay! in May no less!

YAY! I know, I know, most people are thinking beach and sunshine on May 1st. But not us. We were delighted to have a Spring snow shower off and on all day May 1. Here’s a glimpse of what it looked like in our back yard early in the day.

Well, sorta anyways. Maybe only the backs of our heads or something. On Craigslist the other day I saw a post for movie extras for a feature film being shot in the Denver area so I replied… and check this out! We got invited to come today. YAY! Have no idea what we are getting into. Hope it’s not some shady film production. We shall see! Heck, we get a free meal out of it and a final copy of the DVD.

Oh, and on a side note, referring back to my post about An Exciting Day for Kendall Media Group while we’re still waiting for expertvillage to get our videos online, I had to get some samples up for another similar service we are working to get set up with so here’s a link to some of the video we shot with Sam Brede of Carver’s Ski Snowboard Sports in Breckenridge CO on Feb 22. You can’t see them, but Julie’s on one camera and Amy Bierman, a.k.a. The Super Amy, who was visiting with us at the time we did the shoot, is crawling around on the floor holding the boom mic pole. Oh, look… I found a picture! Love ya Amy!

So, yesterday Julie and I were out shooting some test footage for a video service we are attempting to get set up to work freelance for when puffs of smoke appeared over our shoulders toward the highway. After finishing up some of the video I grabbed the camera, jumped the fence and climbed the sound barrier mound between our neighborhood and the highway to see a grass fire. Particularly interesting was how fast the fire crew got there and the fact that grass fires were a major problem down south of Denver yesterday. In fact, it seems a few people were killed in other grass fires in CO yesterday. Here’s some of the raw footage I shot while observing the effort to squash the flames.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdSrcDaeHFA[/youtube]

Well, last month I wrote (wow… almost a month between posts) about Kendall Media Group’s first video shoot assignment for ExpertVillage.com and I’m pleased to report that yesterday we were informed they officially accepted our first completed assignment. They had some constructive criticism, which I was hoping for but… YAY! They accepted it. It’s not up on their site yet that I know, but that will be forthcoming. I’ll post something here about it when it goes up. Then everyone preparing to go snow skiing or snowboarding can checkout our work and learn what to wear while skiing or snowboarding as well.

In addition, two years ago I registered a domain with the bright idea of selling high definition stock video footage of the various places we go and stuff we see while there. Yesterday the first videos were officially up. It’s a small library, but hopefully I’ll be able to continue adding new clips every week (maybe every day for a little while) and eventually have enough to generate some portion of our monthly income from the purchases by video editors looking for a quick clip and not wanting to purchase a whole DVD or collection of clips. Check out the three clips up as of 3/19/2008 if you are interested!

Today is an exciting day for Julie and I (and Amy Bierman because she happens to be here at the right time). It’s 4am and we’re getting ready to head up to Breckenridge (yes, again… we were there to ski on Wednesday) to shoot our first of what we hope will become many video segments for ExpertVillage.com - Today we’re teaming up with Carvers Ski Snowboard Sports, a local ski/snowboard/sports store to shoot “What to wear while skiing (or snowboarding)”. Our goal is to shoot on average 3-10 of these how-to videos a week as part of Kendall Media Group’s regular monthly income. If you have not seen ExpertVillage you should check them out. They bill themselves as The World’s Largest How To Video Site and I have to admit, there’s lots of videos on there. We’ll post a link when we have completed the work and it’s available on Expert Village. Then, if you are going to go skiing or snowboarding you can check out Sam’s instructions on what to wear while skiing.

What a GREAT “welcome back to Colorado” we’re getting! Here’s an image I took of snow sections piled up in the outer sill of the window that shows the sections. Old, melted a little, and new since this AM piling up on top of it.

Here’s the radar and forcast for today!

So we had about 8″ the other day. Then it started spitting snow last night and this morning it really started to fall again. We’ve gotten about two more inches this AM. It’s so soothing! Ahhh…

Oh and I shoveled the walks and driveway for the first time and Julie just had to have a picture.