Good morning and happy November!

Yeah, November. How did that happen? About 11 months ago I was furiously working on an “MTB Expansion Plan” in my office at my last job. And then there was this hot, bright flash which turned out to be summer. And then one day it was gone, and I had to put long pants on because the air was crisp and there was dew all over the yard, only to fry in the afternoon when it got hot again.

And now they’re advertising for Christmas crap.

I do enjoy living in a place where there’s different and distinct seasons. The trick is to slow down enough to notice them.

I guess it’s natural to muse broadly at the end of the year (or the end of life). But it’s more than just idle musing for me — I’m astounded at how fast this year has gone by. To be sure, there have been some really, really slow grinding days, but I’ve always known that  we would reach the end of the day eventually. It really does seem to me that I’ve tunneled through a wormhole and stepped into November 2009. My body says that something happened in that allegedly instantaneous leap, though: I have a crushed fingernail on my left hand, I’ve lost a ton of weight (not literally, of course), my pickup truck is beat to hell, and I have all these guys asking me for work every day? How the hell did that happen? The last time I really paid attention, I was an overpaid, balding, overweight drone stuck in an office wondering when they’d finally do the right thing and fire my butt.

Meh.

So, here’s an MTB status report:

May have had a record month in October. I couldn’t have predicted that. If you’d asked, I would have said we’d be starving in October. I said the same thing about November, and we’re holding steady. A little slow, but steady.

I’m training about seven guys with their own trucks and crews to be Truck Buddies. Scheduling these guys adds a whole new dimension of complexity to the game, but it’s absolutely essential that I get some backup. I WILL take a vacation with the family in 2010.

I hired a marketing company to drive leads to my site. We’re having some technical issues, but I’m still optimistic that we’ll be able to work together. Basically, they want to move my site, which is more than just a flat page on the Internet, to some kind of WordPress platform. I thought that might be okay for a little while, but then realized that it would be fatally stupid to ditch all the systems and processes that make MTB work just so some Internet marketing guys can better track which leads they send my way.

On the home front:

Grace, my wife, is pregnant. She’s been fighting the puke fairy for several weeks now.

Joe, our son, is learning new words all the time. This morning he had what we think was an actual conversation with Grace. I kind of wish he’d stay this age forever, though. He’s heart-breakingly beautiful.

Obviously, there’s more. I really want to take some time out and write about it. This has been a trip, maaaaan. “This” being building MTB, of course. Maybe I’ll just have to talk about it in the book, which, you might have guessed, I’m also NOT writing.

But I plan to…oh yes…I plan to…