From Grumpy's Garage

 My family and I have been stranded in Montana for almost a week, now, waiting for repairs on our  Miles City Hotel & Suites , the nicest hotel in town. They feature an indoor pool and spa, guest laundry, a hot breakfast, and, in their words, "ultra hi-speed Wi-Fi." (Fast Internet was an important feature. As a Google engineer, I live and die on Internet access.) truck to be completed so we can finish our road trip and return home to Seattle. We've been staying at We expect our truck to be all fixed late this afternoon. As I consider our departure tomorrow morning to resume our road trip, I got to thinking about this home-away-from-home here at the hotel. I've had a few occasions to chat with Cheryl, the general manager here at the hotel. She covered the 3pm-7pm shift on the front desk this past weekend. From talking with her and the other front desk staff, I gathered that the hotel had recently given up its Holiday Inn franchise. Holiday Inn was being too picky a...

Last week I started listening to the audio book, Guerilla Marketing for the Home-Based Business . At the gym, I got as far as the chapter Direct Mail. I hate junk mail. I expected that chapter to be completely worthless. I was wrong. I Guerilla Marketer doesn't use direct mail to mean mass mailings. The Guerilla Marketer can fine tune their target mailing list to zoom in on key prospects. What's more, since you're not mailing to millions "OCCUPANTs", you can invest more in your message and presentation and even go so far as to make each direct mail piece a little more customized than just the mailing label and salutation. I found myself brainstorming about what value-added content I could fit onto an 8-1/2" x 11" three-panel brochure. A cheat sheet of the most important WordPress command? Wait. No, that won't work. WordPress doesn't have a command line. A checklist that every webmaster should go through every week? That sounds reasonable. Those p...

I've been planning to start a side business for a few months, now. Last summer, I was faced with an imminent layoff (it didn't happen), and I just happened to be reading the book, The Economy of You, by Kimberly Palmer . Palmer's main thesis is that every gainfully employed person should cultivate a side business to diversify one's income and soften the impact of a sudden layoff or other career discontinuities. Sure enough, my job got transferred to another office, and I had to scramble to find a new role or take a severance check. Well, I found another role, but the stress of such a sudden, forced change had me wishing I had other options at my fingertips. In fact, if I had had a side-business idling quietly in the garage, I might have taken that severance check and spun up that side-gig into high gear. But, as it was, I feel like I got caught with my pants down. Now, six months later, the dust still has not settled from my role change. I'm still learning the ...