Craigslist is awesome! I posted the Front Desk opening this mornining and I've received about 25 inquiries.
The death toll for the tsunami is almost up to 120,000. I donated money the other day through amazon.com. I have had CNN on in the background as I've been working. The home videos and stories are heart wrenching.
After a short three day trip to Anchorage, I came back on Sunday to a lot of work. We placed the order for most of the equipment last week and I had to write a big check for the deposit. Last night I placed the order for the free weights, another big check. We've picked the carpeting and narrowed down the paint colors. I've hired a couple of yoga instructors and one front desk person. So much more to do.
The tragedy of the earthquake and resulting tsunamis in the Indian Ocean is horrific. Here in the US, I think we have a tough time understanding how devastating natural disasters can be. Consider that the current death estimates of 22,000 are equivalent to more than 7 simultaneous 9/11's. Our infrastructure and warning systems help reduce the impact of these disasters.
One story that hit me was how people on the beaches were curious as to why the water rushed out. They wandered out further to investigate. Having grown up in Alaska and learning about the events of the 1964 earthquake, I know that earthquakes can trigger tsunamis and water rushing away is a precedes a tsunami. That would have been my signal to run to high ground. While working on the Valdez Oil Spill, there was a major earthquake out at sea. A tsunami was a major concern so those in charge had to decide whether to move to deep water or get everyone to shore to climb to high ground. We pulled up anchor and headed to deep water. We new when a tsunami should reach us so we sat and waited. The time came and passed quietly. We later learned that a tsunami of 1 foot was recorded in the area.
My new 20" iMac arrived on Friday--it's a beautiful machine. I only had time to set it up before some friends came over to watch the extended edition of Return of the King. After they left around midnight, I started trying to transfer my pc Outlook .pst file to the Mac. To my horror, I discovered that there was no built-in import functionality. Considering all the gym emails I had sent and received, I had to figure out a way to transfer them.
I started to use the Mozilla Thunderbird email client as an intermediate step but things didn't look quite right. And this method still didn't solve the problem of how to transfer my over 1000 contacts. So I decided to try Outlook2Mac. It was only $10 so I figured it was worth the risk--the money didn't worry me as much as the concern that i might not work. Well it did work and I wish I had tried it first, would have saved me a few hours.
Tuesday night, the gym kicked Ward out--he was accused of helping me. I can understand why I was banished, I was soliciting their customers to join my gym. But Ward did nothing wrong and this will just hurt them even more. Everyone at the gym loves Ward, so this won't go over well.
The landlord gave us permission to attach a sign over the lease sign in front of the gym. The lease sign was a 2'x3' board nailed to a 4x4 post and had been there for a month or two. I draped our banner over the sign on Friday night. By Sunday night, the entire sign (post and all) had disappeared. The maintenance guy found it hidden in the bushes. He put it back up Tuesday at noon and it was gone by that evening. I don't think we'll find it this time.
On top of all this, I have heard that the owner told at least two of her employees that we're opening an exclusive gay gym.
I quit my job today. I gave my notice around 10:30am that today was going to be my last day. They took it fairly well as we both new it wasn't working out.
I guess I'm all in now.
Saturday morning as I was walking into the gym, I was congratulated by a number of members who had learned that I was taking over the lease at that location. Their enthusiasm just reinforces that I made the right decision.
But some of that happiness came tumbling down rather quickly. No sooner had I started to work out when one of the owners of the walked in the door and came straight towards me. After verifying that I was one of the persons taking away her lease, I was summarily kicked out of the club. Now I won't have anyplace to work out for a few weeks...
A lot has happened since I last blogged. My life has been very busy as I prepare for some radical changes. This past Tuesday, I signed a 5 year lease on 7600 sq. ft. in Madison Park where my business partner and I are opening a health club. This is something that started about 6 months ago but we kept it under wraps. We take over the space on January 1, assuming that the current tenant is out by then--that is a whole other story...
After a lot of effort and over 100+ names, we finally decided on Denali Fitness. Denali means "the great one" or "the high one" in Athabascan--an Alaskan native group. Denali National Park is where Mt. McKinley is located. Why did we choose Denali? Well, Rainier Fitness and about every other imaginable health club name was already registered in the State of Washington.