summer this go ’round
as we began summer in 2005, i was looking at a lightnin’ salvage that looked like this….
THIS summer i have hurt my knee, which could be related to the incredible charlie horse i got also on my left leg, during the fire remodel, when i was trying to push the shed over… my knee has been injured for going on 3 months now and wow. funny how the physical body can put a guy in his place so quick, how the fire can throw a guy into a complete hurricane full of emotion and fatigue and depression and mental exhaustion…
my personal writing has slowed quite a bit. my time for art diminished but i feel a change coming in that regard. my new kitchen is really a thing to behold. my trauma is waning. my apprehension is lessening.
i’d like to get over my fear of public speaking. i was considering working up to a story at the conch as a way of addressing that fear. i’ve been approached about a tedx story and feel honored but also unsure if i am ready for that stage…but maybe it’s something i could challenge myself toward.
i think that, for now at least, this is my favorite part of the new kitchen. i won’t lie that the 4 ovens in the corner are about as cool as a pizzeria can get, but this area we designed, where we set the clean dough trays to dry, is a daily sculpture. each day we fill all the empty trays and each night we have a new stack of clean trays waiting for Shon and mike.
i planned it down to the inch. the two stacks of cross stacked trays is 52″ wide…. and we planned 53″ for this to happen. i don’t think i ever realized how revolutionary it would be for us.
i’m truly happy. i feel like i have a pretty incredible hold on the concept of happiness. this thing, this machine, this “satchsquatch” … it is a performance piece. it has it’s many flaws. it is imperfect. it is so much bigger than me….
i have a renewed appreciation for my community.
i have a new respect for my customers.
i have an ongoing debt to my employees.
i have an unpaid debt to my contractor.
my family didn’t miss a beat which speaks volumes. my sanity seems almost intact. my resolve is even stronger to continue to improve and invent something new something changing something alive and thriving in a potentially bleak world outside (think media onslaught)
so danny at LSE, he is full of good ideas. he designed our retro Op shirt from the last couple years, with the silhouette of the oak trees and the cool yellow and orange stripe with the words, satchel’s pizza, written small and in cursive. he drew the awesome design of the pizza cutter in tattoo style with the satchel’s pizza wrapping the pizza cutter handle in a banner… my 7 year old wears this one in red with 3 color ink and it is just as classic as can be. it was danny’s idea to just put flames on the existing van shirt and call it the fire shirt. my brain was fried and i had given up any hope of a fire shirt and danny saved the day. anyway, he’s got a bunch of ideas in the works that i can’t even divulge here (like the ninja design and the van idea….) and i can’t forget to mention the “drop in for a slice shirt” where the kid is dropping in the bowl that is a slice of pizza and his wheels are holding on the crust…. he found and commissioned the art on that, and the employees only hoodie from a few years ago…. but what i was trying to say was….
his latest t-shirt related idea is satchsquatch. he has found the artist, josh, and is getting the image together. while i can’t leak the entire design at this point, i have been authorized to release it in part….
are you kidding me? what kind of a crazy world are we living in? i seem to have founded a company where the employees are helping to grow and shape the company in amazing ways. am i lucky? the luckiest. am i happy? you betcha. am i special? not really. well, i AM special in that i get to enjoy this life. i guess i MIGHT BE special in that i really love the people i encounter every day. I’m totally NOT special in the sense that i didn’t graduate from college and i never studied any business models…
geez. tedx. i’ll admit i have been watching ted videos since i was asked and am very conflicted on how to find an idea worth spreading, and turn it into a 15 minute talk that could inspire and resonate with someone. and then also match this with the theme presented and then stand in front of so many people and not shake and stutter in fear…. anyway, it feels like an honor to be asked. it feels like an opportunity waiting. it feels like a challenge to be met. i guess my favorite part would be getting slides together to share. i love images.
my friend peet:
