Category Archives: Don’t keep your day job

So the 40th Annual Lincoln City Kite Festival has come and gone.

The weather was not always conducive. Saturday started out with some intimidating conditions; thick storm clouds on the horizon and strong gusty winds, surf heavily influenced by the previous night’s storm, and a high tide an hour and half into the schedule that left a 40 foot strip to fly in.

I have a durable and reliably stable, single line kite that all the inflatable kite flyers are familiar with. So, I made a point of having the first kite in the air to provide something of a weather vane for my friends.

As the winds began to calm, and the festival was scheduled to begin, folks started to bring their giant inflatable kites out. Between the instability of their kites and how close the fly them to the ground, I proceeded to move my anchor to avoid tangling in their kites or tails.

Just about at the point of high tide, we had an incident unfold right in front of several of us kite fliers. A wave came over the berm of sand, up and around the D River and into a pile of kites that were (too slowly) being moved downwind and higher on the beach. As we were grabbing lines and kites to keep them from being pulled out with the receding wave, part of the wave knocks over a preschooler and swamps a mom (carrying another child) so that she can’t move to assist. Two of my friends leapt into the water to grab the child the was rolling with the outgoing water and assist the mother to dry sand.

After that excitement we all continued to add color to the air as the changing winds and growing room allowed until about 3 in the afternoon. I wound up moving my anchor for the kite I initially launched several times, adding 2 small inflated kites to it. I also managed to get 2 of my Cody’s up, trained together for the majority of the afternoon, and eventually got out a train of six, 4 foot Delta Conynes that I only fly when it is particularly nice.

I think that I may have had the last kite in the air as we all cleared the field to head for dinner. While it started out intimidating and I didn’t get far on advertising my kites, the day turned quite fair and we represented our passion well.

Sunday was a whole other matter.

The forecast missed by a little. The fine rain we had most of the day in place of the overcast skies made it so that very few kites came out of vehicles. Where the forecast was nearly perfectly accurate was the wind conditions. The wind started softly from the East and only shifted to the Southeast.

Again I got kites out as early as I could (and flew them as often as I could), but wind off the mountains is hard to fly in, and the soft wind died every time the wind shifted directions. I vacillated between my stable and reliable Delta Conyne when there was enough wind and an Indian fighter kite when the wind was too low, except for about an hour around high tide (which was even higher) when there wasn’t enough room to work and it was better to make certain the tourists realized that the surf line was not a safe place to be playing.

Toward the end of the afternoon, once there was plenty of sand again, many of the inflatable kiters came out to try, but couldn’t find sufficient stable wind to keep their huge kites up for long and took their gear home to dry. I did have a nice moment with another flier, that was flying two custom Delta Conynes made by my dad.

At dinner that night, I got a “Well, we did the best we could with what we had” from one of the more experience fliers, but my Codys didn’t even come out of the bag on Sunday.

So, no traction on the current steps, but went out and represented (and reminded folks that I really know how to fly).

The last couple days since have been full with the day-job, catching up with homework with the kids, and drying gear out.

I hope to get the latest video up soon.

TTFN

I was hoping to get back into the groove, but alas it appears that I’m going to act as my own gatekeeper.

While I can spout excuses about being tired from the weekend, being busy with Scout meetings and work, the truth is that I’ve just lost my mojo (I’m certain it’s temporary). I’m also (nearly certain) of the exact cause.

This coming weekend is an annual kite event in my own home town. I can whine about how I don’t have enough (or new product), how the event lost my number when I told them that I was done putting in half a work week for free while no one mentioned my kitemaking, how the weather is not conducive this weekend, and fall back on “I’m tired”. However, I’m really just getting in my own way, being afraid to stand up for myself and my work to “older”, more connected members of the local kite community, and wishing that I had new stuff to show off (when I’m the one that hasn’t made the time to complete projects) and the old stuff is fine anyway.

The week hasn’t been a total loss though, I did go by the local gallery and shoot a couple short videos. However, with my current mindset, I was hesitant to even look at them. I know they’re not going to be great, but some stupid part of me wants them to be perfect now. That may have something to do with the kite festival being in town too (the kite getting all the attention are basically giant flying balloons that is not approachable for the average guy, in fact the kite owners chase people away from them).

I promise, I’ll get the video up (but probably not until after the weekend) with notes on artwork that hangs in the background.

ENOUGH

The weekend turned out to be tougher on me than I anticipated, and (of course) not in the ways that I was dreading.

The adult leaders were not the impediment to the Scouts that I was expecting, and my middle son handled his troop reasonably well (despite dealing with a cold).

I, however, didn’t have such a great weekend, and after several days recovering (while being on call with the day job) am looking forward to finding the glow from last week.

Perhaps as a matter of foresight, I didn’t include notes on my progress in that last post. With luck writing about the positive (if, baby) steps toward making my creative passion self-sustaining will get me vibrating near the level I was on last week.

I made another contact at the community gallery, and while I think the facility director looked at me a bit askance, she did pass the message on the the gallery manager, who called and gave me permission early this week. I’ll try to stop and shoot the next video over the next few days. I did make a video using some of my kites and a wall mural at one the local schools for an example, but I look forward to testing this vision that I’m pursuing.

The inspiration that I was receiving from the D(J)KYDJ community didn’t just make me feel good last week, it moved me to break with my standard of quiet reserve. I posted responses to a couple of posts that (I thought) needed my specific light, joined a list of folks looking for accountability groups, and even sent a message to Cathy via her website after a particularly moving episode.

I also started a file based on the concept of a Vision Board.

The highlight of my week (so far) was that in Cathy’s episode this week she made reference to a kitemaker that had joined her accountability list. I was exhausted from the weekend, and not having the day I wanted to be having, so the recognition didn’t carry me far, but it did buoy my spirits.

I’m looking forward to more progress, but I’m less than certain how close the next steps might be. I’m on call until Friday night, another Scout meeting tonight, and the Fall Kite Festival (where I can’t get any public recognition) is this weekend, so I’ll spend the next few days looking for opportunities for progress and promotion.

Smooth Winds

I would love to be posting that I made another kite, or that I have made significant progress on the challenge, but the last part of this week is all about Scouts.

There are unit meetings 2 nights in a row, then I’m off for the weekend with my 2 younger sons to a Scout event where my middle son will be the acting Senior Patrol Leader. My relationship with him has never been what I would like for it to be. I’m afraid that his tagging along to the activities that formed the awesome person that his big brother is may have dimmed his self esteem, and we have been at lager-heads regarding motivation since he was able to learn to do (I’m a huge fan of teaching kids to do it for themselves early and often).

Fortunately he is teaching himself that external validation works to motivate him, so a position of responsibility helps to keep him going. Unfortunately the Adult Leadership for his unit and especially for this outing, is not keen to let youth lead or mentor that leadership. We all know that it is easier to yell at room full of kids, than to help someone learn how to lead, but I would prefer that the Scouts grow as people and have fun doing it.

So while I’m not making the progress that I want, and I’m feeling some trepidation about my plans for the next couple days, my energy level is through the roof. This morning, after staying up past my bedtime, on homework and packing for the outing, my eyes popped open after about 5 hours sleep. Knowing that if I tried to stay in bed until it was reasonable to be moving, I would only lie there spinning the things on my to do list through my mind, I hopped up and started into them. While listening to a podcast from the beginning of the year, I found myself dancing and steadily getting through my list.

This morning is just part of a trend, too. The last couple days, I have felt like there is so much on my plate (a month ago I had 50 things on my to do list, the list has only gotten longer), but my spirits have been soaring to the point where I am contemplating ways to play the podcast in the background at home for the benefit of my kids, and dropping hints to my wife that listening to the podcast is really changing my perspective, not just about my side-hustle, but also about the “day-job”.

I don’t speak much of my wife here, she is a very private person, and I have no interest is exercising any negativity from our imperfect relationship on this audience, but in my heart of hearts I hope that she can HEAR some part of Cathy’s message and let it help her find purpose.

While I’m sharing the love over the Don’t (just) Keep Your Day Job community, I realized that there is a new bright star in my Scouting community as well. Our Pack has some really promising energy right now. While nothing is perfect, with the addition of girls to our unit’s roster and the adults that sometimes register with them, we have some delicious excitement. A couple of our new Cubs received their field uniforms at the meeting last night, and I had the pleasure of giving them woggles and getting to know their mother (who is taking the training for adult leadership) better.

Also, an interaction with another Adult Leader over concerns with the direction the Troop is heading warmed my heart, in that someone who has their hands full is looking ahead, watching for potholes and pitfalls, and looking for tools to send on to smooth the way and make the unit stronger, before the youth in her care move on to a program that is already different enough. I have butted my head against walls for years now, over Adult Leaders that say they are there for the boys, but don’t seem to be able to mentor a Scout toward being a leader. I hold out hope that we may find Adults that understand that telling youth to grow up is not as effective as guiding youth to become adults.

I think that’s enough, for now.

Smooth Winds

Listening to the Don’t Keep Your Day Job podcast, and undertaking this challenge, I find my self very enthusiastic about my kite making at this moment in time. It probably helps that the Fall (Autumn) Kite festival is just about a week away (not that I’m part of their program, which is a story for another time).

However between taking steps to my goal, the day job, family obligations, and scouts, I find myself being kept away from new projects.

So I sit in great anticipation of the next kite I get to make.

TTFN

This weekend was pretty quiet as far as calls for the locksmith, so I managed to expend some energy on the challenge. It wasn’t a surge forward, but some progress was made.

On Saturday, I realized that all of my posts for minis are written with the assumption that the audience already knows what to do with my diminutive works. So I sat down and made a post addressing some of the usual questions.

I was able to get my tools together and made a test video (no I’m not going to post it). The results made me stop off at the community art gallery to try flying in a bright, clean space with beautiful stuff in the background. Unfortunately the space was monitored, so I was deflected before I could make my next video. Fortunately, I wound up talking to nearly everyone in the building, and they thought it was an interesting idea (but couldn’t give me the green light). I’ll be checking with the gallery director later in the week.

I spent too much time (and money) at the craft store on more tools for making the cards work better. Some adjustments that I’ve made to the way I make the kites made the latest one fit in the card better.

I also joined a national kite trade organization and the organization that runs the community gallery that I visited. That last may not actually help with using the gallery for my backdrop, but they may let me display and sell my cards in their gift shop.

I also started re-framing a Cody that I had sold to a family friend before I modified the technique I was using with them. As I was working on it, I was taking measurements (I too often use “That Looks About Right” as I’m building projects) to help with accounting and ordering parts.

Most of Sunday was eaten up working on the new vehicle, as I will need it for commute to and from work.

I’m toying with asking an editor that I’m familiar with to look at my writing, so that my poor audience has something better to read. I’ll probably break down and ask her, I was never really comfortable with my “voice”, and I have faith that she could help me hone it.

More little steps and nothing glamorous, but I’ll try to keep some momentum going.

TTFN

I didn’t manage to continue daily posts. I was surprised that I got three in a row, but not surprised that I let myself get distracted. After all taking up the challenge was something of a distraction from posting the registration details for the kitemaking event I help to run in January. As I mentioned in the first challenge post, I’m really just aiming to post an update weekly.

Last Saturday I managed to knock a few things off that to do list, but between some after-hours service calls for the day job and letting myself be distracted by a game my youngest found, I didn’t make the progress that I was hoping for. Follow that up with catching the sniffles (while being on call this week), and I have definitely stalled.

I did take some steps on the minis (I don’t want to call it progress, but I didn’t move backward), and most importantly my son did wrap up his Cub requirement.

Since then, I’ve filled my time with getting some rest and (mostly) losing the cold, that silly game, adding enough registration info to announce it open, Scout meetings, and making sure homework is getting done for school.

Back to the to do list tomorrow (although I’m still on call this weekend).

TTFN