Hijacked!

I finally figured out the password to this blog and decided it's my turn.. ..In case any of you are wondering what the 'other half' of this blogger is up to these days! I still like hanging out with Kristi... !!

I must say that I really, really miss Shane & Nikelle, and Tristan & Brooke and I'm looking forward to seeing them all at the end of May! And really excited to become a Grandpa!! ( Looking forward to meeting Marlowe too! )

I don't get tired of the weather here at all. As the locals say, "Every day is a golf day". I do get out there once in awhile with these fine people.

I took up Radio Control Airplane flying since moving out here.. In January, I went to an RC show not far from here... One of these gliders is on my 'wish list'... ( I have too many hobbies! )

As most of you probably know Johnson Controls decided to 'farm out' the Solar projects I had been moved out here for. Too many other companies doing it for very low profit margins. So, they decided they didn't need me anymore, and my last day was Oct 3 of last year!
Actually, they did me a big favor! I was getting a bit weary of the huge corporate world and was getting antsy to do something different. So, I didn't have to make a big decision to quit, as they did it for me!! Since I knew this was going to happen, I had been talking to a friend and associate of mine that I have known since the '80's. We did business together at Allen Bradley. He and his business partner were in the midst of starting a company called Wellntel. On October 4th, I talked to Nick, and told him that I had time on my hands... so... by mid-October I started consulting for Wellntel! http://www.wellntel.com/

We are designing a system that will monitor the distance to the water line in a well. It also tells you how far the water goes down when the pump runs, and how quickly the water recovers after the pump turns off. With the water situation here in California, this product is very timely. The garage has turned into a 'lab' ... a messy one at that.. My 'test well' is 40' of PVC pipe across the driveway.

Recently, I decided I should do something about it.. so now its' a bit more organized.

We have 15 prototypes installed on wells up near Paso Robles, CA. Here's Nick and I when we were installing them.

On one of my trips to Paso Robles, I drove along the coast near Santa Barbara.. Not a bad place to have to drive actually :)

Currently, we're working on Version 2, which will be production ready. We're heading towards an October launch and volume production starting in January. It's a lot different than working for a company of 30,000+ employees, but I must say I'm enjoying every minute of it!