Made it! Road trip update

First off to those who have been reading - thanks for all the comments. The comments think was a widget that some blog directory required me to use - Blog catalog I think - I'll try to figure out why it will only accept guest. Maybe you have to be logged in to blogger first?

Made it!



We made it. We drove with only short breaks about 1800 kilometres from BC to Manitoba via Montana and North Dakota. It took about 26 hours. I id all the driving and yes, I was very tired, but forced myself to stay awake a few more to visit and get a normal night's sleep so as not to totally mess up my sleep schedule.

So as expected, we did have adventures on the road trip. They just weren’t the ones we anticipated. The car made it fine – still sputtering but no major problems. But the guy at the place I just got my oil changed at thinks I may have to get the timing belt fixed - there goes another $600 down the tube!

The borders both going in and coming out were quick and painless – didn’t even wait in line. Though I got anxious every time I swiped my credit card – fully expecting a decline – it came back approved every time.

Somehow I had completely forgotten about motion sickness – both my daughters spent much of the time looking green and emptied their stomachs a few times. Luckily we always keep some empty yogurt containers in the car just for that eventuality!

The dogs were great except for one error in communication. You see, there was lightning the entire night. At first, River was OK with it, which was a bit of a surprise because he usually freaks out at thunderstorms. So when, after a break in the storm, the lightning came back and he started whining, we assumed it was the storm causing him to be upset. So we just did our best to calm him down, though we puzzled as to why the first storm hadn’t upset him, but this one did. Our discussion was interrupted by a foul smell and our daughters gagging and screaming about the horrible” smell. But River wasn’t whining anymore. I really must apologize to the people who adopted that portion of highway in Eastern Montana. I usually would not even consider littering, but there was no way I was going to travel the next 100 miles with a bag full of dog poop and the baby wipes I used to clean it up riding shotgun.

On another item, I am considering suing whoever at the Montana Department of Transportation is responsible for marking the bumps on the section of road construction happening on the Eastern section of highway 2. The first bump they labelled with massive sign turned out to be insignificant. So too with the second so called "bump". The third actual real bump, which would be more aptly described as the road equivalent of rapids rather than a bump, was labelled as “detour”. We arrived at the detour doing the recommended 35 MPH only to find ourselves flung up and down as if we’d just hit a section of speed-bumps at high speed. I’ve never done rodeo, but I imagine that this is what attempting to ride a bull feels like. My poor wife’s fibromyalgic muscles immediately responded by spasming severely and proceeding to cause her hours of excruciating pain on top of her already considerable pain. So if by some stroke of coincidence the man or woman responsible for labelling those bumps is reading this – I’d like you to do penance by driving that section at 50 MPH at least 10 times. Then your mistake will be forgiven and you can go and screw-up no more.

On the very much positive side, gas was at least 1/3 cheaper in the States versus Canada. Same with food. And that’s even taking exchange into consideration. The change of scenery was nice, though I wish we’d had time and money to stop at some of the attractions – like the “Bear drive-thru” where “your car is the cage.” And the amusement park with the maze and go-carts. And Glacier National Park river rafting.

There are some more details of the trip I will post later - since I'm borrowing a connection right now. My folks are in dial-up land, at Manipogo. So I'm taking advantage of my sister's high-speed while we're here in Dauphin (about an hour's drive from my parent's place). We came today instead of he planned trip on Wednesday because I had to take Niqi to the hospital for a severe fibromyalgia flare. She couldn't walk on her own, her pain was 14 out of 10 and her muscles were spasming and twitching. Not fun. Anyway, we decided to go to the closest hospital in Ste-Rose. The hospital has no Dr's apparently, they're all in the clinic. So after being seen at the hospital we had to go the clinic to see the doc, then back to the hospital. Sounds bad, but it wasn't - took maybe an hour. In contrast I once went to an ER in Downtown Vancouver with severe abdominal pain and was left curled up in a fetal position on the floor and vomiting for 4 hours before being seen. Then they kicked me out while I was still hopped up on morphine and in no condition to walk, because they needed the bed. Thank goodness for small town hospitals!!!


Will post again in a couple of days with pictures and video. Cheers everyone.

Road trip!

The Wedding, the car, the money 

So my younger brother, the airline pilot, is getting married in Gimli Manitoba - about 22 hours east of here (Creston, British Columbia). Flying a family of 4 would cost an astronomical amount, so we're driving instead.  We have a 2000 Ford Focus wagon that we bought used.  This past spring we sunk over $3000 into repairs on this stupid car for the exhaust system etc - money that was supposed to have gone towards home renovations.  Now the car is acting up.  At idle it sputters and a few times it has actually stalled while pulling into a parking spot.  But I don't have any money to get it looked at.  So adventure number one - will the car make the trip?
Adventure number two is, I'm afraid I  can't actually afford this road trip.  My credit cards are at their limit and we'll have to go over limit to pay for the hotel and kenelling the dogs.  So will the cards accept the charges or decline them and leave me not knowing what to do???  We'll see.

We're sick/ the border

Add to that we're all sick.  This of course is nearly a given for me.  Every time I take a vacation from work, I get sick.  Now, we've decided for a change of scenery - and for cheaper food, gas and possibly lodging - that we'll drive through Montana and North Dakota instead of Alberta and Saskatchewan.  Here's our planned route.   We had originally thought to spend a night in Regina visiting my cousin and her family, but we don't want to get them all sick!  Before going to Gimli we'll first be staying at my parent's place on lake Manitoba at Manipogo for a few days.

View My Saved Places in a larger map

Now, another question is - will we be turned away at the border?  Perhaps they will assume we have Swine Flu.  Perhaps they will object to my home-made dog-food or our packed lunches - thinking we'll bring mad cow disease into their country.  If we do make it into the States, will they let us back into Canada?  In my experience US customs are generally much more friendly than Canadian customs.  Not sure why.   Maybe it's just because I'm Canadian, so they're welcoming of my tourist dollars (they don't know I'm broke!).  I've seen them being pretty hard on some returning US citizens.  Worst case scenario we have to go through Canada on our usual route which I'm not very fond of.  But that wouldn't be the end of the world.


Bringing the Dogs



Another challenge is that we're bringing my dogs. You see, to kennel them the whole time we're gone would be too expensive.  There's no one to keep them for us.  And River is neurotic when he's not with me.  So they're coming along and we'll just kennel them near the wedding for the 2 nights that we're in the Hotel.  How do we have space in our car, you ask?  Well, this I'm mighty proud of.  We have a wagon, and the dogs usually ride in the back, and there's a grate to keep them safely back there.  Otherwise River would be in my lap and there's nothing very safe about driving with an 80 pound dog in your lap.  For a long time we had the problem that if we put anything back there with them there wasn't any room for them (or they'd eat whatever it was).  So I solved this by making a smuggling compartment  large enough to fit luggage under them and they still have enough space for themselves - not like they need head room.  Clever, right?  I love being able to make stuff!

 

I'm actually quite excited about bringing the dogs with us.  We're very, very close to our dogs and miss them terribly when we're away.  Plus it's fun to see them get so excited about new places and new smells. And then there's the comfort they give with their cuddles.  They are both very well behaved in the car, so I'm not at all worried about that aspect of it.

We also have 5 cats, a bunny, 2 hamsters, 3 mice, several fish, and a corn snake.  They're all saying home and we're having a friend look after them for us.  It's so good to have a friend we can count on like that.  We actually just met her and her family a few months ago and just clicked.  First time that's happened to us since before we were married 11 years ago.  Friends are a rare and precious commodity for us!

Fibromyalgia sucks!!! 

Probably the biggest and most significant question of this trip is how my wife will handle it.  Niqi has Fibromyalgia and she's been having a very rough summer, with flares worse than ever despite consuming a small pharmacy of medicines.  The last time she drove for an hour it gave her a flare of pain that lasted for a week.  Even being a passenger is painful for her.   22 hours of driving, eating strange foods, sleeping in strange beds, and then the stress of staying at the in-laws and dealing with all the strangers etc who don't understand her Fibro is looking like a scary combination.  Her doctor is very worried for her and so am I.  She's already not feeling well and we haven't even left yet.  But she wants to be at the wedding so she's going to tough it out.  We'll just have to take frequent breaks and relax a lot.

So today is the day for preparation  Packing, cleaning, getting the are ready.  Checking and double checking to make sure we have everything we need.  We'll let you know how it goes.  Lots of adventures coming up in the next few days. 

Red Jade Kung-Fu Store

If you know me at all you know I'm a bit of an artisan. I make stuff. Often I'll see something and say - I could make that. I don't have any training, or any background in any related industry. I fiddle around and things turn out.

So a couple of years ago when started Kung-Fu class I saw these wooden practice broadswords and thought "I can make that". I'd never made anything like it, but I figured I I had the right thickness of wood I could cut the shape with a jigsaw and shape it with a sander. So I did. I made a set of 10 swords with the Red Jade school's logo hand-burned into the blade of each one, and then I made a stand to hold them in. It took me weeks and at the time I was camping and using a generator to power my tools, so it was a real pain. But I learned a lot along the way.

Fast forward to now and I'm currently on a quest to make some extra cash to finance house renovations - we really need a new furnace and new windows. So among my many projects (none of which has made me any real money yet, but many of which have cost me a fair bit - my many talents do NOT include making money, unfortunately!!!) - I decided I should try selling stuff at my Kung-Fu school. Currently anyone who wants something Kung-Fu related has to order it on-line as there's no local resource, and there's no China-town in any of the communities in this area. So I made a deal with my Shifu (That's Mandarin for teacher/master - equivalent to the Japanese word Sensai) if it would be OK to set up a shop and he would benefit from getting a portion of any profits made. I had already sold some other hand-made stiff at a friend's store and the deal there was a 30% mark-up, so that sounded god here. The great thing is I don't have to pay rent, and Shifu doesn't have to do anything except handle the cash when someone buys something. He's already got the space so it doesn't cost him any extra.

So I set o work. First I decided on a list of products I would offer, then figured out how to present them. I decided that since the space is a section of wall it would be cool to make a Chinese style archway and display all the products in the space created inside. So I researched Chinese archways on Google image search and settled on a basic design.  For the sign it was straight boards with a curved horn at the ends.  So I made a template for the horns, traced it on to the boards and cut them out.  Then my daughters and I painted them and after my Wife added the signage and Chinese characters.

The rest was basically making a set of shelves, and cuttig and painting the other components.  Given it's size I had to assemble it on-site.  So off to the school we went and I put it together and then we added the stock we had and realized it was practically empty.  So we had to make lots more stuff.    These pictures are with the current stock after a few days of making stuff.  So far everything I've put in the store is hand-made by myself or my wife and daughters.  I do all the weapons an anything involving wood-working - with some assistance from my daughters.  Janelle especially likes to help with tracing patterns, sanding, painting, etc.  My wife is skilled at copying things, so she's mostly in charge of the Chinese calligraphy.  We get characters from chineseculture.about.com and copy from there.
Eventually I'll also buy things from China or China-towns I visit to re-sell them at a mark-up.  In addition I've provided a space for Shifu to sell some of hs books and DVDs.  As well, my friend, kung-fu sister and illustrator Lorna Foot is making a series of mini-books for the kids.  So far they are cartoon manuals, but she may also do some comics and other things.  She's a very talented young artist.
 

So far in the store we have for sale:
-Pendant necklaces
-Form counters (Boards that are mostly blank with some decorative calligraphy for students to mark down a number each time hey practice a form aka kata or set)
-Sash hangers to display your sash (in other martial arts would be called belts)
-Rocks painted with Chinese calligraphy
-Wooden ornaments with Chinese calligraphy
-Kids 5 foot bamboo spears
-kids and adults pairs of wooden ring daggers
-Kids and adult size wooden Dao (Chinese broadsword)
-And one wooden Wing sword
-Shifu's 16 Dragon manual
-Lorna's White Sash manual for kids
-Seiza meditation benches

I'm very proud of the store.  I think it looks great in the school.  I think I'm offering some unique items that are right for the people that visit the school at reasonable prices.  My family and I have invested a lot of time and energy - and a bit of money - into this little store, so we're very hopeful that it will prove successful.  Now that it's up it should prove to be fairly low maintenance.  I will have to add products to keep it stocked, but since I enjoy making them that's no great chore.
So if you happen to be in Creston, BC, Canada (just North of the Idaho Panhandle and about 3.5 hours from Spokane Washington) stop by the Red Jade school to check it and maybe do a little Kung-Fu while you're there.

We have a money drain

I'm always surprised when I hear people who are laid back about money and comes and money goes. They lose everything and say oh, I'll just make it back. I really don't get it.
To me money is food on the table, a roof over my head, being able to meet my financial obligations responsibly and pay what I owe. It's important. Right now it's a main focus.
But, I can't wrap my head around how it is that the harder I work, the more poor we seem. Payday comes and I take out my calculator and subtract all the bills and such and say OK, we have $300 until next payday for groceries and whatever. Then all of a sudden it's gone. An unexpected bill comes, we need to buy something we hadn't planned on, there's a service fee or something. Like last night, we were down to the last few cents in our account, but payday was only hours away. Paypal chose that moment to try and pull $4 from my account. It wasn't there - it would have been a few hours later, but a the time they tried it wasn't - so bam, $40 NSF charge from my bank because of a tiny little $4 overdraft. It's like 1000% interest charge!
I just finished putting in hours and hours getting all these items ready for the new Red Jade store (selling hand-made wooden swords and Chinese crafts at the Kung-Fu school) just hoping I might make an extra $40 or more. Before I even do, it gets picked right out of my pocket. I'm sure many of you have experienced similar things. Despite reading all these financial and self-help books, and working hard, and trying to make the right financial decisions, we are still in a situation where we have to scrimp and save and sweat for every extra dollar above my normal salary. Yet, these leaks keep happening. Like we're on an ill-repaired boat that just keeps popping rivets and springing new leaks constantly. Why do some people have no problem making money - it just falls into their lap, everything they touch turns gold. They have the Midas touch. I sometimes feel like I have the opposite - the Sadim touch. Everything I touch turns to lead. I work hard at my job to gt a promotion and then they yank my overtime. I invest in an internet marketing campaign selling a proven successful product and yet somehow for me it has a zero conversion rate. It just won't sell. I set up an on-line crafts store at art-fire. Only one sale in 3 months - it cost me 10 times as much to run the store as I've made from it. I just self-published a book - not a single copy sold yet, not even to friends and family.
I don't believe in luck, divine guidance, predestination, fate, karma or any of that stuff - not logically anyway. But I sure can see how easily one could turn to those beliefs. Maybe I should sacrifice a goat to Janus or something - that's what they did in ancient Rome to ask for a successful business venture (we've been watching the Rome DVDs...can you tell?).
A lot of these self-help gurus are very much into the power of positive thinking. I found it so funny when one of them on Facebook posted something to the effect of the greatest obstacle o success is your own negative attitudes. And all the followers were leaving these glowing comments about how he was so wise, and they would teach that to their own students and on and on. And I wondered if any of these people were already successful, or were they among those seeking success and grasping for hope. My own experience is that a positive attitude and optimism are rarely rewarded. I have been very optimistic going into ventures and all of them have failed to live up to expectations. On the other hand, those times that I have been pessimistic, I have often been pleasantly surprised when things turned out. And if they didn't - I was already prepared.

So, since my positive attitude in these past few years has not helped one bit, I'm dropping it. No more Mr. positive. Meet Mr. pessimistic. Things will turns crappy and I'll just have to deal with it. And if by some random occurrence something turns out OK, that's a bonus. And if this whole post just comes off as one long rambling complaint - oh well, no one reads this blog anyway.

Getting the book ready

Somethings things are self-explanatory or intuitive and you just pick them up easily. Until now that was the case with getting my children's book ready. (See previous posts on this subject - I'm getting ready to self-publish a book through Lulu.com).

The idea for the book - one of many stories I've written but the first to be published - came to me from a remark one of my daughters made. Once that seed of inspiration was planted the story sprouted almost of it's own will. Then it sat for a couple of years, languishing. I did send it to 3 publishers, none felt it was a good fit for them. Finally, I asked a friend from Kung-Fu class - Lorna Foot - if she would be interested in illustrating some of my stories. She took up the challenge with enthusiasm and started making pictures right away.
Then I realized that I had to venture away from being just a writer to being an editor/publisher. I had to storyboard the book - deciding which scenes to illustrate, what text to put on which pages etc. My wife Niqi and I did this together and it was a lot of fun. We've both read so many children's picture books to our daughters over the years (librarians know us by name!) that this part of the process was comfortably intuitive. It was easy to envision what we wanted and divide the story up so I could give Lorna direction as to what to illustrate.

Then once we got the pictures, another intuitive creative process came in putting the pictures and words together. Choosing the font, placing the text just so, placing the pictures just so, etc. Again Niqi and I did this together - we make a good team - and it was wonderfully exciting fun and came easily to us.

I also have a marketing and publicity plan that came to me intuitively and that I'm excited to put into motion. More on that in future posts.

But, before I can do that I have a hurdle. The actual publishing is giving me a headache. Now, if I had the capital, I could hand things over to Lulu for a fee and get them to do the rest. But I don't have that kind of cash just now and I would really rather learn as much as possible. But though I can grasp the concept - ISBN number gets you into catalogs and enlarges distribution, hard-cover vs. soft-cover, etc etc. - the details are frustrating. File formats, embedding fonts, binding types, blank page insertions, copyrights, doing the spine for the hard-cover, full-bleed print, non-bleed print, pricing, royalties, mark-ups etc. etc. There's a lot to learn. And none of it is coming with the same ease as the rest of the project has.

I feel I'm so close. If I can just get it on-line in the right format with everything in order so people can buy the book (Lulu is print-on-demand so books are produced as they are purchased) then I can relax and focus on telling everyone to buy my book (hint, hint :o). After that I don't even have to handle any physical sales - Lulu takes care of that. I just promote it and wait for the checks to come in. My Kung-Fu Sifu sells some instructional books the same way and they've provided him with some fairly stable long-term passive income. As he says - once it's out there, it just keeps making money for you forever. That's exactly the type of passive income with low start-up and overhead Ive been searching for. And not only that, but this is just the first book. I have many more already written, and hundreds of potential books in my head. I now have an enthusiastic and talented illustrator I've partnered with who brings the products of my imagination to life on paper. And lastly through the internet and print-on-demand self-publishing the means for a solid, inexpensive, low maintenance sales vehicle. The potential is just enormous!!! It's so close I can almost touch it! And unfortunately that eagerness is getting in the way of me calmly concentrating and learning how to do these last steps.
The good news is once I learn it, I'll have a new skill that will hopefully serve me well for many years to come.

There's an exhilarating sensation of hope and possibility that comes along with this point. I'm trying to savor it and remain confident. Because at the edge there is always some doubt.

Wish me luck. I'm about to push my sled down a new hill and see how things go!

Networking/mentors etc.

I recently read an article written by Robert Kiyosaki of Rich Dad, Poor Dad where he spoke about a friend of his who was doomed to stay poor because she took her advice from other poor people instead of from rich people. He also frequently recommends that people find wealthy mentors. Books can teach concepts. But for advice on specific thing that apply to your situation, you need a person who can give you feedback and guidance.

My question is - where and how do you find rich people willing to share their advise and be mentors (without asking for $400 an hour in consulting fees)???

I used to live in a co-op that was located in Coal Harbour area of Vancouver, BC. It was surrounded by multi-million dollar condos and half a block away from a harbour filled with luxury yachts including the one belonging to the richest man in BC. Most of these things have lifeboats worth more than my car! But I never met a single rich person while living there. Not one. I'm not trying to make some silly point saying that they weren't really rich because I have a different definition of what it means to be rich if that's what you're thinking. I know they were there. I know many of them had loads of money and many were business people. But I just never met any of them.

How do you meet these people? How do you find someone who is wealthy (without being a workaholic) and willing to be your friend and mentor? Anyone know? Because I sure don't.
I often look at people with expensive cars, big homes and wallets full of cash and wonder just what it is they did to arrive at that point. Were they just lucky? Did they work really hard? Are they heavily indebted? Or did they invest wisely and now have consistent passive income.

So, while I'm waiting and watching for someone rich to fall into my lap, I'm working small instead. I don't have many friends, but of those I do I'm finding out who has talents and interests in which areas and partnering with them and bartering with them. I recently made a sheep feeder in exchange for Kung-Fu lessons. I also recently enlisted my kung-fu sister who is an artist to illustrate some of the childrens books I have written and we'll self-publish and sell them together.
I met a woman who runs a store that sells Fairy themed items and have asked her to sell my staffs and wands etc. I have also made arrangements to partner with my Kung-Fu instructor to create a store for Kung-Fu themed items in his school and we'll split the profits.

None of these are big money making deals (at least not yet.) But they are the baby steps at getting away from being completely reliant on a salary and more reliant on a variety of sources of income. They are created opportunities -rather than found or lucky ones - that will hopefully lead to more opportunities.
And one day, maybe I'll be the rich guy offering advice and mentoring others. But I'll let people know where to find me!