This morning I awoke with a gripping sense of urgency. Ironically, three cups of coffee later my heartbeat had calmed to close to normal. Slowly it dawned on me: spa season is upon us.

Not “coming.”

“Here.”

This is a very good thing. It is, after all, the business we’re in. Never mind heightened stress, sweat and exhaustion. Bottom line is we are fortunate. People still have hot tubs, hot tubs still need supplies, and we have supplies. Period The hustle and bustle is merely an exercise toward growth; both personal and company-wide. I can live with that.

I wrote this thinking about our new President  but it occurs to me that can apply to my life and the life our business as well (or maybe it that just gives me a flimsy excuse to publish it)

Renewal.
Next to Love the word most powerful
Is the word of promise, trust and hope..
A word of singular simplicity
For multiple dreams.

Renewal.

Our unique history built
upon the notion that we can restore our
resolve, our faith and our selves
over and over without question, without end

Renewal.
Sings it’s own meaning
In numberless hearts hungry for change
In those old enough to remember
And those young enough to care

Renewal.
For those who are broken
And those who feel alone
It is the promise of our purpose
And the engine of our repair

Renewal.
The spark of our greatness
The hope for our future
The cure for our fears
The method of our dreams.

God bless our new President. May his vision of American renewal serve us all, every day, one day at a time.

Three years ago I stood at a career crossroads. I had a small web design “business” that was barely paying the bills, I did some sound engineering / recording on the side to help bring the “ends” slightly closer to meeting. Still, it was hard making them meet. Often, they went unmet…not introduced…strangers passing in the night, so to speak. I was the captain of my own destiny (el capitán de mi destino) and was asleep at the helm. One benefit to having so much time on my hands was that I was able to sharpen a skillset based on what I enjoyed doing.

In the greater scheme of things, not much time has passed. (Seven times the time has passed for my dogs.) I find myself largely drawing on that rudimentary set of skills in order to finitely develop a larger muscle than I could have ever imagined necessary had anyone thought to ask three years ago. Thanks to curiosity, an unfulfilled end (…deficiency? exigency? inadequacy? insufficiency? necessity? obligation? shortage? urgency? want?)…and my divine appointment here at Hot Tub Works, I have happened into an opportunity to learn, to grow, to define my strengths, skills, self.

At this stage of the development, ‘twould have been fairly easy to sit back, sigh, and proclaim arrival. (Almost did, in fact.) Ah, but alas, the fates (and my inability to be completely satiated for long) had a different set of blueprints in mind. As a direct result, I find myself interrupting the website launch of our new spa care kits, daily operations, and general lazy well-being, to compose this blog. If you are reading it, more power to ya. I myself almost didn’t make it to this paragraph.

So folks, keep your eyes peeled for future musings from me: your accidental, universe-ordained infant blogger. I’ll be on the lookout for you, too

Early photo of the business geniuses taking a break from the challenging task of assembling a desk chair (L-R Friend Jimmy, Geniuses Rick, Jerry and Chris, Friend Sue...thank God for friends)

Ok, I admit it. When we first talked about creating a company blog, we were thinking about  the potential for marketing exposure. Well, to hell with that.  Writing sales copy has almost no appeal to me personally and I suspect reading it would have even less appeal to you. So we talked it over and we decided to write about our little enterprise differently than most companies with their thinly disguised press release update fluff masquerading as fascinating blog copy. We decided instead to write an honest, running commentary of our business: the good times; the ugly times, even the impossibly boring times and we figured this would serve two purposes: 1. Give our customers a sense of who we are, how we operate and why we care and 2) Create a new way for us to communicate with our customers and amongst ourselves with the supposition that more communication will ultimately lead to fewer mistakes, more efficiency and, well, a better time for everyone. So if you’ve read this far, you might be asking yourself what lunatic would open a Pandora’s box of possible public embarrassment by starting an open blog like this and the answer is me, Chris Tobey, one of the owners of HotTubWorks. But the real question is how could my 2 business partners let me run with this disaster-waiting-to-happen in the first place?
Well, fortunately for me , they are as crazy as I am.
All for now
Onward and Upward,
chris@hottubworks.com

days of yore - White Trash Campfire

So it’s 7:00 Monday AM. I am shuffling around in cutoff sweatpants and a battered CAKE t-shirt, hair in disarray. The days first cigarette dangles from my sleep-swollen lips, a too-long ash hangs precariously from the ember as i squint into the monitor, pecking this slowly with my index fingers. I am tragically aware of the lukewarm cup of coffee in front of me. I have added to it only a scoop of non dairy creamer and a short burst of microwave radiation. No sugar. I haven’t had sugar in my coffee (or anything else) in over a month and a half. I don’t miss it like I thought I would. I suppose I miss it in a pseudo-nostalgic way…kind of how I miss elementary school.

I have a small amount of work to do today, it really shouldn’t take too long. Thats what I usually say, though, yet the workload always seemingly multiplies…like libidinous rabbits. Either way, the rest of the day stretches out before me and I have no idea of what it may bring.

My Mom has left her two dogs to stay with us. They are cute as hell, Shi-Tzu’s. They bring the current head-count in our small two-bedroom house to seven. Two humans, four dogs and a cat. It’s a little difficult to find a patch of floor that doesn’t squeal beneath my feet as I shamble over to refill my sugar-free cup. My dogs are acting surprisingly anti-social. It seems they don’t enjoy the company as much as I thought they would. I guess it shouldn’t surprise me…I can only imagine how I’d feel if Mom had dropped off a couple of strangers with bad breath and underbites who kept trying to crawl into bed with me, and ravage all of my favorite things. Luckily, Mom’s dogs are blissfully unaware of the cold reception. I grudgingly admit that I am a little envious of their oblivion…