The think tank

Since I didn't hit the 550 million dollar power ball, I thought it prudent to meet up with my old business partners (John and Brian) and discuss some new business models for the future. These were the guys that made Genesis successful. These were the giants upon whose shoulders I stood to get to where I am in life. John was instrumental in Getting Genesis off the ground in those earlier days. Brian, was the director of sales whose tenacity and hard work propelled us  in the later years.

All three of us have the same restrictive covenant (non-compete) and it is up in June of 2013. None of us are sure what we want to do next, so we are bouncing around some ideas for the future. It is hard for us to formulate a plan for the future without discussing our past at Genesis and we are going to also find it hard to stay out of the biological marketplace. Many of our ideas come from that market, since that is what we know so well. We can't do much except discuss that until June, but after that...watch out! We are also going to try to market some car care formulas that are aimed at some of the higher end car owners. There seems to be a lot of marketing hype in that arena and maybe we could try a no nonsense line of products aimed at actually cleaning and polishing. There are products that do that now, but most seem to have another focus like environmentally friendly or hypoallergenic or some other such nonsense. I think there is a time and place for all of that, but sometimes I just want my car/stuff cleaned. For instance, there are several products out on the market aimed at treating and or killing mildew. Many of them are registered with the EPA and are quite effective. However, it is hard to beat .49 cent bleach. When you have a mold or mildew problem, do you want the safest, latest, greatest, friendliest product or do you just want the mildew gone? When you clean your windows do you want the latest window cleaner with super foaming action, or do you just want your windows cleaned? The most recent line of products may seem to be super politically correct and "safe for everything", but as we say in the lab, "Green doesn't Clean"!!

We will see what our first couple of products are, and I will keep you updated. I don't want this journal/blog to be an advertisement for anything I do, I just want to try to document as much of my life's journey as I can. I am not sure how much good it will do, but maybe some people can benefit from my experiences, wisdom, successes and mistakes!

Christmas in Crazy Town

Well, it is getting to be that time of year again. Toni and I love this time of year. For some reason it just seems more peaceful. We have a good time decorating our home both inside and out. Thought you guys might like to see some of the inside.

My son's first deer....Sorry Mr. Bambi, but we do like venison.

From left to right Sassy (our oldest), Bailey (our smallest) and Roscoe ( our youngest and largest handful).

Those are really big chairs, not a small tree!

Ghost of Christmas Present

I am not sure if blogging is the cure for insomnia, but is working for me so far.
I am going to ramble a little bit more about me and where I am at in life. For any of you that have read my earlier post this may be a small review. Presently, I have three or four main areas that occupy my time.
For those that don't know, I am a microbiologist and a chemist. I sold my company and am currently restricted from working in my field until June of 2013 due to a restrictive covenant in our sellers agreement. I am pondering several avenues once this restraint is lifted. The first and most obvious question is...should I start the exact same company again and build it up from the ground up. This is definitely my field of expertise, but it will be no easy task. A lot of money needs to be invested and I have been away for a little while. Some of the customers would come back easy and some maybe never. There would also be considerable satisfaction in taking business from my former company. I did not leave on good terms. At All! In fact I can not stand several of the people that work there and I would love to cause them some sleepless nights like they have done to me! I am also considering starting a new company that would specialize in some formulas for auto care. I know this has been done to death, but I think there are some niche markets that I could capitalize on. I even have the name thought up ...Origin Car Care! Catchy huh? I am now in the process of figuring out digital marketing and nailing down some of the formulas.
The second area involves where I live. I live on about 70 acres in west Georgia. I have a lot that needs caring for out here. I own about 17 head of cattle with about 5 more on the way any day now. Maintaining the pasture, woods, fence and the livestock takes up quite a bit of time. I also have a couple of horses that basically serve as pasture ornaments. Their names are Buckshot and Cisco. I don't name the cows.

Cisco is on the left and Buckshot on the right

The third area involves a hobby of mine that has evolved into a business. I like old cars and I am very mechanically inclined. After I sold my company, I had to find something to do with my time and I started restoring some old cars. I have restored several and in the process started selling some cars as well. I have a show winning 1970 chevelle convertible and a show winning 1969 camaro. I have a couple of 1955 chevys that are in process as well as a 1941 ford. I started a used car dealership, because in Georgia you can only sell 5 cars personally before you have to get a license. Last year I sold over 100. The problem is that to maintain this operation and keep up a decent reputation, which is hard in the used car business, I have a ton of overhead and I am not sure that it is worth the trouble. I may ride this out through tax time and make a slow but steady exit. I do enjoy working on the cars as projects and seeing them through to completion.
The fourth area that gets my attention is cycling. I know I will never make a living at cycling, but as I have posted before, I love the community and lure of road cycling. This has occupied a lot of my time over the last 3 or 4 years and I am slowly getting better. I don't really have to work and I could just retire and cycle. While this seems like a viable route to some. I am not sure I can quell my entrepreneurial spirit. There is something inside of me that needs to build something, then grow it and then sell products from this. Both of these endeavors take a lot of time and I am not sure that I can do both. Building a business is not conducive to good health. My former company had me stressed out, drinking too much, overweight and just not pleasant to be around. Cycling is the complete opposite. I wonder if I could find a balance between these two?

Lance Armstrong....My Hero

I know I can't write anything about Lance that has not already been written, but I wanted to put my thoughts down so I can reflect on them later. This is a major event in our social conciousness today, and it has had a definite impact on me as a person. After much thought and reflection, here are my views.
I started following bike racing in 1999. At that time Genesis was getting started in Europe and I was traveling over the pond quite frequently. I also was following formula 1 racing at that time and watching Shumacher (aka, the stig) win everything he entered. Cycling was and is a major sport to Europeans and I became interested to fit in. Well of course that is the year that Lance won and the fact that an American was beating these guys at their own game was cool for me. I tried to follow cycling back in the states but back then it was hard. The Outdoor Life Network showed a 30 minute synopsis of the day's events every night but that was about it. Even that was just an abbreviated showing of the French feed. There was no U.S. coverage or leader of the race. There was only the tete de la course, and it always seemed to be Lance. Subsequently, I started following cycling more feverishly as I struggled to find relevant discussions and coverage back home. People did not even understand what the Tour de France was. The idea of a month long race escaped them.

I attended several of the major stages for all three of the grand tours. I saw Marco Pantani win in Milan. I saw several stages as the riders flew past in the Vuelta. Yes, I even spent time on the Champs-Elysees. I saw him win on the Champs twice. The atmosphere was great especially after the 3rd win. The crowd in Paris was becoming more American and Lance gave us something to cheer about and it seemed the French people gave us a little more respect. There is nothing like sitting at a streetside cafe, casually drinking wine and eating cheese as Lance rode by time after time to finally capture his prize.
I have a lot invested in Lance and for a while I feel he let me down. I was hurt and as I wrote earlier I didn't even want to get on the bike. It is a weird feeling. However, as I look over the situation I keep coming to the same conclusion, and I know that a lot of people will not agree with me. Lance is still my hero. I am not going to get into the rights and wrongs of what he has done. I think that is for each person to decide individually including Lance. What he has done for me is beyond measure. He has taught me work ethic (he still put in those long training rides), and he inspired me to get on the bike originally. I still want to get in better shape and ride the same training rides that he did. I want to climb better and go test my skills on Alp dHuez or Hautacam or Sestriere. I know I will never be as fast as him, but I still like to think I can. I have logged over 6000 miles on my trusty synapse and I would not have even ventured into the cycling culture had Lance not beaten the pants of the entire peloton. Did he do it fairly? Were they racing fairly? That is for them to decide. As for me, I saw him win. I was there and there is no governing body that is going to take that away from me. They say there is no winner for those 7 years in the tour. HA HA. Lance won and because he did, so did I.
Many people that meet him, I never have, say that he is an @$$ hole. He has a domineering personality. Wait a minute. The guy who was the boss of the peloton for almost a decade. The guy that spent countless hours alone on the bike and pushed himself beyond his limits and ours just from his own fortitude has a strong personality. No Shit!!! Thats why we liked him. The fact that he backed down from no one got us pumped up as fans. Yes, it appears he went overboard on several occasions, but we can't applaud him for his actions and then turn on him when we see him in action. I am not glad Lance "cheated". I wish he could have all of his accomplishments without any stain on his record, but that was not possible. Simply put, if he had not doped, i fear he would have had no impact on me and many other Americans. I am not glad that he did, but I favor the results that he got. These latest revelations do not detract from his commitment to his sport and his legend. For me, they only add to it. The results are almost secondary. They only brought the man known as Juan Pelota to the forefront of our public conciousness. I am extremely grateful to him for what he has done. I am sad at what he had to do to win and I am sorry for what we are all going through. All things considered.......LANCE IS STILL MY HERO!!!!!

Lees family

Some of my Dad's family in Florida. My dad is in red on the right.

Headed to Florida for Thanksgiving and tried another mobile blog from a restaurant in Alachua, FL. This is not a bad result for my first go at the mobile thing.

Back on the Bike

Thanksgiving day and we traveled to Lake Butler, FL. Most of my dad's family is here (relocated from Miami).  The weather down here is fantastic, and I was looking forward to getting back on my trusty Cannondale. I started biking shortly after I sold Genesis and the cycling was a great way to channel my thoughts and emotions during my transition. It took my mind off of the stock market and all of the money that was owed to me that would never be repaid. Anyway, after I changed my diet and started my cycling I lost close to 100#.

I have been cycling for just over 3 years now and I love it. I have raced in several races (Cat 5) and participate in local group and charity rides. I am still a big guy and not your typical cyclist. I can hold my own on a bike, but I still fall short in competitive races. I gotta get my watts per kg up. In other words lose more weight! All that being said, I rode so much that I burned out about 2 months ago and could not even imagine riding. Not even for short rides at low intensity.
Well this trip to florida I started thinking it would be nice to ride again. So, I brought my bike and I headed out this morning. Florida is not known for the best bike riding due to the lack of hills but it brings about it's own set of challenges. First, it is almost dead flat which sounds great but it kinda sucks. You gotta keep pedaling and pedaling there is almost no coasting and it is very reminiscent of riding on rollers. You take it for granted how much you use hilly terrain to your advantage and take small coasting breaks. Second, I have ridden down here many times and I swear it is always windy as a mutha! My luck dictates that I rarely encounter a tailwind. I am a headwind both ways kinda guy!!
I headed out early this morning and it felt good to be back on the bike. I was nervous about how much fitness I had lost. I noticed that my top end has suffered quite badly. I could not manage much over 25 for any length of time. During one of my peaks in the summer I could easily maintain 18-19 for a couple of hours and brief sprints up to 30 were pretty fun and standard to most of my rides. Today, I averaged 16-17 and that was about all I could muster. I only did about an hour worth of riding, but it did wonders for my state of mind.  My state of body is hurting more than I want to admit , but that comes with the territory.
I headed out of Lake City towards Lake Butler, hitting mostly county roads with great scenery. Namely, CR 251 and CR 245. Like I said earlier, less than 2% grade for the entire ride and really windy but if anyone wants some unique riding with some amazing views I suggest this area. The roads are great and where the traffic gets heavier the shoulders get wider. The shoulders are clean too so not much worry about the debris puncture scenario. I may go out again tomorrow depending on how I feel. Is it bad luck to ride on Black Friday?
BTW....I forgot my heart monitor (told you I was out of practice) so I don't have any HR data. My moving speed was 17.1 and my avg power output was 247 watts.

Moultrie Car Show

Today I decided to go to the car show and swap meet in Moultrie, GA.

Got up early and headed south on I-75. My dad and son (Randy and Jason) are with me. The drive took about 4 hours minus the brief stop at Cracker Barrel.

I am not sure how many acres the swap meet and car corral actually are but this thing is huge. In years past (before I lost the weight) I brought one of those handicap scooters because I could not see everything without it. Once we got here today, we only had about 4-5 hours to cover as much ground as we could.

Jason found a complete gauge cluster for his 69 Camaro for $100. The only thing it is missing is the clock for the center. I found a Matco tool man that was liquidating all of his inventory for 50% off because he was retiring. I probably spent too much money but it was such a good deal I had to. Right?

There are a lot of cars here and we will try to see most of them tomorrow. We looked at several today and while there are not as many cars here it appears that the prices are finally coming back up. If anyone ever wants to buy a muscle car , this is a great place to start. You can find cars at any stage of completion that you desire. Rust buckets to completed show quality cars. They are here!! Do your homework before you come. Everybody here thinks they are experts and I would estimate that only about 10% of them actually are. There is a lot of knowledge to be discovered, just bring your shovel 'cause it gets deep at times.

I also used today to reconnoiter some of the waxes and polishes that are being offered. Why? I am thinking about releasing a line of car care products aimed at some of the higher end show cars and production cars that we all drool over. I saw about 5 different companies showcasing their products. They seemed to be focusing on their metal polish products. The demo of choice seems to be polishing old fire extinguishers, quarters and the bottom of soda and beer cans. Most of them looked effective. I think that I will purchase some of them tomorrow and do my own assesment. I will put the results in a future post. I suspect that the demonstration is misleading and overly exagerates the capabilities of the product. Time will tell. I only saw one car wax demonstrtation and it was just a guy waxing a hood and he was talking about the benefits and longevity of carnuaba. I will get some wax tomorrow as well and see how they perform.

Diesel Injector Repair (Chevy 2004)

Today's post will be a parenthetical from the historical story line. One of the many cars that I own via my car lot is a 2004 chevy 3500 with the LB7 Duramax motor. I loaned the truck out to some "friends" and rumor has it that they were quite upset when I asked them to return it. Rumor also says that they tried their best to sabotage the truck. When I got it back it appeared that the tires had been switched and the truck was smoking quite badly. I put the truck on a scanner and did a power balance and it showed that some of the injectors were bad or going bad (I wonder if this was the rumored log cabin maple syrup that was added to the fuel tank?). I have no proof that any of this was actually done, but the circumstantial evidence is quite incriminating. I have not accused anyone and I wont. I am trying my best to be the best possible person that I can be and I pray for these "friends" on a daily basis. I started my relationship with these people in an attempt to introduce them to Jesus and the right way to do things. This is becoming a very hard endeavor for me and my wife. There is a part of me that craves the revenge path, but the small voice still yearns for them to see the better way. The RIGHT way. Anyway, today I wrapped up the project of installing the new injectors. It was a pretty large project, but the funny part was that I actually enjoyed the project. If anyone wants some pointers on this I would be glad to help them. It is not a hard project, but is somewhat time consuming due to the amount of stuff that has to come off the engine to get to the injectors. Once the injectors were installed I had to take some time to prime the system, but once it primed it fired up and voila....no smoke and the power balance showed normal on all cylinders.
Duramax DIY
Try the link above to see some pictures on an install for the passenger side. The driver side is easier to get to but some of the bolts near the firewall were a real pain. Some extensions and a swivel worked wonders. 1. Remember to label the hard fuel lines when they come out and you will be thankful when you go to reassemble. 2. When you put the wires back on the injectors, make sure you only snug these up. I twisted one of the little studs off and unless you are real good friends with the parts store this will cost you another injector and they are not cheap. 3. Take some pictures of the wires and hoses with your smart phone during your disassembly as this will help you out a lot if your memory is like mine. 4. I used the proper torque values and torque sequence for the valve covers because I did not want to do this twice, however I am thinking that you could probably use some common sense and not have to worry about this. To me there is no better feeling than the successful completion of a big job. Now I have to decide what to do with the truck. Should I sell it? Keep it? Customize it with some cool looking wheels? Whacha think?

This will be more about me from a historical perspective. I graduated from Georgia State University and started my professional life as a bench chemist at a chemical compounding company called I.Schneid. I held down many jobs as I worked my way through college. Some of them were Restaurant Manager, Bouncer, Bartender, Mechanic, Sales associate at Sherwin Williams etc... Being a bouncer was the most fun, but I learned the most from Sherwin Williams and being a mechanic. After working at I.Schneid for a couple of years, I started developing a plan to start a company that would grow and sell bacterial cultures and enzymes into the industrial market place for remediation of various waste streams. I actually offered the idea to my boss (George Rosenberg) but he wasn't interested. He told me to start a company and he would buy from us. Actually, he said that he would be my biggest customer and he wished me lots of success. He lied! He would eventually become the source of much stress and uncertainty in my life as he tried to take over my new company and attacked me with his lawyers. I was young, naive and very scared. Because of George and his questionable ethics I depleted most if not all of my money and had to take on a partner to survive. The name of my company was Genesis Technologies and my new partner was John Kubiak. We eventually grew Genesis to a very successful multi national company. I will fill you in on many of the details later. There are a ton of stories, there are even more that concern George and the many people that tried to (some accomplished their goal) screw us over. We sold our company in June of 2008. We did pretty well (I guess). Sometimes I regret selling it and some days I am grateful. I am 45 years old and I am trying to figure out what to do with the rest of my life.

The First Circle of West Georgia

This blog is my first attempt at connecting to the world wide web. it will be basically a journal about my super hot smoking life ( such that it is) in the thriving metropolis of Temple, Georgia. I will bring all of my readers (my mom and my wife most likely) up to speed on all things relevant in my life such as religion, business, finances, farm life, alcoholism and other elixirs, fathering a teenage son, retirement and possibly fine dining. However, the fine dining will have to venture somewhere east of our home so as to avoid the 7 or 8 mexican dining establishments located near us.