First Post

Hello there. I am a window person. Not the Microsoft kind, but the kind that keeps your house nice and comfy. What you look through every day and not really look at. I have been in the window industry for 10 years now, and boy what a ride! You probably are bored already...but let me let you in on a little secret...the window industry is as dynamic and ever-changing as any industry out there. I should know, I've been in the beer/beverage industry, the specialty coating industry, retail indusrty, specialty catalog industry, and self-employed. I got my start at a Christmas dinner party in San Francisco in December of 1994.

It all started when someone put a piece of bread in my wife's wine.

You see we were there at a fancy restaurant in San Francisco, as part of a reward for hitting our sales goals for the year. I was selling paint/polyurethane coatings to paint stores, home stores, etc. The dinner was fabulous. I was deep in conversation to someone to my right, and my wife on my left was talking to my boss and his wife and two others. Next thing I know my wife whispers "Someone put a piece of bread in my wine!" I looked, and sure enough, a chunk of gourmet sourdough was floating in her Kendall-Jackson chardonnay. Later that night I realized what a child my boss was because he was probably the one who did it! I also realized that a) he really didn't like me or my wife, and b) It had explained a lot of prior behaviour towards me the the last six months. That night was a bizarre. The bread in the wine was the beginning of a strange night and a career change!

That night we also met Tony Bennett in the foyer of the Fairmont hotel in the City. And got his autograph for my wife's parents on Fairmont hotel stationary. Very cool.

We ditched a concert that was $35 a head and two drink minimum featuring Craig Chicquico (formerly of Jefferson Starship) It really sucked.

We crashed our yellow Miata convertible into a ridiculously large curb and bent the front right tire into the fenderwell, and had to wait two hours for a tow truck just four blocks from the hotel at 2 am.

And, was awaken abruptly at 6 am when the fire alarm went off in the hotel. We were very exhausted, hung-over, and still mad about the bread-in-the-wine thing.

On Sunday we limped our damaged Miata home. I was able to drive it with the small donut tire and save the $100 buck towing charge. It was veering to the right, and I could only drive it 55 mph on highway 80 (where people drive 80!) very scary to be in a lowered, small convertible.

I got the message. I started looking at the help wanted section in the Sacramento Bee when we got home. That was a little over 10 years ago. What happened next? Look for the next post!