Time for Review

It's time to review those 2010 Goals. I'll get to this in the next week. We set goals to stretch us, we set goals to focus us and we set them to keep life as fresh as possible. Sometimes they come together with ease, sometimes they are really hard and sometimes they just don't go as planned. The great thing about this week is it will allow me to put down 2010 and get ready for 2011. If you know how my life as a product person goes, I've already started planning product for 2012. So half my battle is knowing what year it really is. More on that later.

An update on the back and stuff. The folks at Wolf Studio have been working hard to get me back to health. It's amazing sometimes what we consider health. For many that means true illness. For me it means running the 10 miles I ran yesterday comfortably. Right now I'm not so comfortable and it's not fitness it's body health. So anyway two sessions a week with them are doing wonders. Session #1 is always strength work. It's not your typical big weight stuff. It's 100% balance and form that then leads to strength. It's amazingly hard and that's because it geared towards my weak points. The other day is soft tissue massage. Today was spent mostly on my left shoulder that is ultra tight thanks, to cars, swimming and life. There was also some work done on my psoas muscles. If you ever want to feel pain have those muscles worked on. There's a fairly good chance yours are tight.

It's a good life....

Dave

Spring 2012 Already

Last night after 6 months of planning and a week of confirming I finished the Spring 2012 product briefs. That's right folks it's August 2010 and we and the rest of the shoe industry have planned out what we are doing in Spring 2012. So last night I sent the briefs off to our ultra talented designer. I expected a response sometime this morning with a plan for a conference call to clear up any questions. What I got instead was this:

"Dave, I'm bubbling up with excitement to start the new season's designs. I just read through everything you sent me and all is well understood. My Pencil is good to go"

I can't tell you how much fun it is to work with someone with that kind of passion.

It's a good life...

Dave

PS. That's the very cool Zoot Ovwa above. Spring 2011

Chasing the Sunrise

By now most people who know me, know that morning is my time. I think I inherited this from my father. He was totally on to something. I get a great deal more done before 10am than I do from 4 to 10pm that's for dang sure. Yesterday found me on my bike at 6am. After a late night for me anyway with some late night frantic text messages to Mary, the morning was here. I could sleep through my plan or just go out there and get it done. It's a good thing I didn't look outside before I got dressed to go. 95% of my ride was done in fog. There was no sun, no sky just a thick blanket of fog. I say 95% because that 5% of sun that I got made up for all the 95% I didn't. As I started the climb up Double Peak I noticed the fog getting thicker. Into San Elijo hills it was about as twice as thick as it was at the bottom. Leaving the village and continuing up it just got worse. By the time I got to the turn off to Double Peak Road the visibility was maybe 100 feet. And then it got real thick. Heading up the first steep part of the road and it looked bleak. I thought to myself, this is one thick band of Fog, even DP is covered. There is a gate that's half way up the DP road. From the Gate to the top it might be a mile but I think less. But I think the average gradient after the gate is 17% so it doesn't really matter how long it is. At the gate it was still foggy and dim. Forty yards past the gate and all of the sudden rays of light began piercing through. 100 yards from the gate and I was in bright clear sunlight. Morning sun light that is warm and inviting. It was simply a beautiful site. I had sun. From the top of DP the view is always spectacular. Looking west you can see the big blue ocean. Looking north you can usually see the San Bernadino Mountains north east of LA. Looking east are just the beautiful valleys of the San Diego coastal range. But yesterday there was none of that. Yesterday everything was covered in Fog except, the big green water tank that marks the "you're almost there" point of the climb. It looked like a space ship hovering in the fog. The the west nothing but white. To the north the peaks of the Mountains were showing through, nothing else. To the east just one peak was showing. At the top of that peak is a house. Wow I know they paid dearly for that house on that space but man do they have the sunrise views.

Two things that will never get old:

Double Peak

The Sunrise.

When they are together it's simply outstanding.

It's a good life...

Dave