Crazy fish, yellow Grandpa, and the naked tree..

Sounds like a Hunter S. Thompson book, eh? Nah, it's just a day in the life of Vanessa and I. Looking out my window here, our tree that but a week ago was full of firey red orange leaves, accelerated the dropping, and just as I wondered, sweaty from raking, where are all these leaves coming from, I don't see a noticeable reduction, it, overnight, goes WUMP! Now there's perhaps 5% of the leaves on there, and it's a peculiar sensation, not having this cover in the front of our house. I typically meditate while sitting in the front window, the trees providing privacy, while still allowing a nice view. Now...you can see to the street, and so can people walking by. Ah well, I still love that spot.

I am in a pretty good spot now, having had a super awesome day yesterday. It started with an email from the folks at Bright Green Talent, a green biz focused recruiting agency I found in London. I found them on the Sustainability Forum http://sustainabilityforum.com/ and was intrigued by their very positive, proactive feel. I enquired about whether they might have some telecommute jobs, or know of some interesting ones in the US. What followed was many emails ping ponged, and during that time I find out that they're going to be opening a US division, in San Diego (!?) where one of the owners lives part time. Yesterday morning I wake to find an email from them gushing about my resume, both the content and the design of it (thanks Apple!) and then proposing four options, including keeping an eye out for telecommute jobs and projects, jobs in the UK, jobs here when they've got things going stateside, and then the kicker - the possibility of helping in getting that stateside operation established! Wow, what a way to start the day!

Then it continued with a meeting with one of my GreenSmith clients. I was working like crazy on this project to do a positioning piece for here business overall, and the multiple parts, existing and yet to exist. I had the same feeling I've had while working on projects at Presidio: Can I do this? Am I making any sense? Is this going to be useful to her? Should I go look up in books from Presidio what to do? A lot of anxiousness to work through. But then, I found my groove, got confident in my own abilities and intuition, and got some good ideas flowing and some organization of my thoughts happening.

I go to meet her, and take her on a tour through what I've done. She looks at me and says, "This is such a relief." She, like many entrepreneurs, is great at what she does, but not so great at explaining it. She then went through the whole thing herself, and over and over was complementing how it hit the mark for what she was looking for. And then I asked if she'd like to continue working together. Absolutely, she said, and told me that she really liked my writing, felt I understood her business well, and wanted me to be the one helping write the material for the revamping of her website. She was heading out for a quick holiday, to the wonderful sounding Yosemite Bug, a relaxed, low key place near Yosemite, with cheap good eats, a spa, and both indoor and structured tent (ie safari tent) accomodations. Vanessa and I just make a jaunt there soon, it sounds great www.yosemitebug.com

Speaking of writing, a few days earlier marked my first post as a regular contributor to Triple Pundit, an integrative bottom line (aka sustainable/green business) blog. Nick Aster, the wizard behind the curtain, said, "This post is outstanding. Really a very good job, I think this is the best I've seen you write. Solid information, totally interesting, and clear link to business/industry." Check it out for yourself, at http://www.triplepundit.com/pages/the-30-year-laptop-battery-fac-002641.php Then yesterday, after a successful, thought provoking first call on the Strategic Sustainability Consultant Network meeting, I was inspired to write another article, which went from the Five Kingdoms model of design, into how those lovely juice pack containers, not typically recyclable, now have a chance, via creative use of natural resources. http://www.triplepundit.com/pages/a-juicy-issue-002662.php

Then Vanessa came home, and we headed out for what we'd planned to do, work out. Needed to get a few groceries, and decided to go for a walk around the area first. We soon discoverd this great trail, which led through this area with the reddest dirt we've yet seen around here. Then we ended up somewhere in the middle of Sierra College, and were walking towards a pond. There by the water was what looked like a quarter operated candy machine. Huh?! Sugar everywhere, geeez! But on closer inspection, it turned out to be Koi food. They seemed to be in on the game, as we soon had a flock of them approaching us. Vanessa got that little girl glint in her eye and asked if I had a quarter. Many, I had.

So we got some, and I took a few of the pellets, leaving the rest for her. Her gleeful enthusiasm got me going. It was amazing to watch in action, like a live video game. There was some huuuuge fish in there, and tiny, thumbnail sized ones too. In between were theses speedy, stealthy orange ones. And, king of them all, this one that Vanessa dubbed the yellow grandpa. He was slow, steady, and boy did he get a lot of the pellets! I felt a little bad for some fo the older, bigger ones, as they were so big, they had to arc their body out of the water to get their mouth at the level of the pellet. Often, the orange ones would zing in, snatching it right in front of the gaping mouth of the biggies, turning in a quick U shape to get out of there. It got me thinking about seeing myself, giving a business presentation, talking about these fish as a metaphor for businesses.

She and I just sat there, continuing to feed the fish, aiming to get them to particular ones, rooting for them, as the sun went down. We had no idea where we were, and how to get back to the market we were meant to go shopping at. But it didn't matter :-) We walked, and came upon a class full of an orchestra's worth of players, the teacher leaning on his desk, furiously conducting. Vanessa and I grinned at each other. Life in this town is sure nice...