I tracked down some old photos from the earlier part of my career with my current employer, all of which seem to make the years previous to my promotion and subsequent demotion look so much better than they actually were. Or maybe it's just that they weren't nearly as bad as I thought that they were. Lesson learned. Here are some photos...
This first photo is (beardless) me posing with the corner home office that I had recently finished. This photo was taken in 2003, I believe. This actual unit was used in the magazine ad photo that can be seen in one of my previous posts. Note the bright light streaming into the room. This is caused by a phenomena known as the "sun". Evidently, the "sun" must cause factory workers to be less productive, therefore it is better to prevent them from seeing or experiencing the sun during working hours by creating factory buildings with no windows.
Here we have Glenn (2004) giving us some 'scale' on the very first kitchen project that our company took on. In fact, I was the project manager for this kitchen. I worked with a contractor named Brian Geremia (not sure if I got the spelling correct...it has been a while). All in all, he was very good to work with. Those curves were very difficult to make at that time. The in-set doors looked great until they were exposed to humid, ocean-side air in an non-air-conditioned house. We have learned our lessons on such things.
Here is the view that I used to enjoy on fall mornings at sunrise. Ah, well...
This is one of my favorite photos from the old studio days. The factory needed a photo tutorial on installing a plasma T.V. mount in a particular entertainment center. So Glenn and I whipped one up. I told Glenn to look as happy as he could. I'm not sure if this is 'happy' or slightly insane. Glenn quit and moved on almost two years ago, but we still try to have lunch together.
It's funny, because he and I would both admit that we both got on each others nerves frequently while we worked together. But to look back now, all I can see is the good times that we had. We had a relationship literally forced on us, but it really turned out to be a strong, positive thing which I will always carry with me. Thanks, Glenn, you're the best! And if I can ever escape from this dusty factory, I will buy you a sub at Subway.
This is my oldest son, who (at that time) was my only son. He was three in the photo, but is now nine years old. He and my wife would visit me at lunch sometimes, and he inevitably would get sawdust in his eyes and freak out. Good fun!
And finally, here is our engineer Tim busily working away, drawing yet another prototype for us to assemble. This man has more experience building furniture in his right pinky than any of us at the factory have in our entire bodies. I believe that he could knock together a beautiful piece of furniture using only a hammer, a chisel and some Elmer's school glue. He really is a talented person.
Many times, I would drift into his work area from the shop to ask a question regarding some aspect of a 'build' that I was working on. I would end up with a twenty minute lesson on six different possible solutions to the problem that I was encountering. I have repeatedly encouraged him to write a book about woodworking in order to preserve his hands-on knowledge of a form of woodworking that doesn't rely on computers to do the work. His response every time is a simple, "Yeah, I should." If he only would. Tim is part of a dying breed.
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