VABuckeye

Check out Paolo Manzone’s vineyard in Barolo. We stayed at the agritourismo there. It’s called Meriame. They were super nice people and make mighty fine wines. Vietti is another good one.

Plus the rail system is so darned efficient and easy to use.

It's interesting how well Norris, Checo and LeClerc drove and waiting one lap to go on intermediates completely fucked them. If they all go on inters at the right time Hamilton and Verstappen don't sniff the podium. Well, Hamilton might have as he was second behind Norris.

Oh, Lando. Listen to your crew.

Ornellaia Le Volte is a great daily drinker by a renowned Italian winemaker. About $30. I’d also look at Vino do Nobile from Montepulciano. Barbera from the Piedmonte region as well as Nebbiolo from the same region. You should also be able to find some nice Chianti Classico wines in that price range.

We stay across the river in Florence overlooking the Ponte Vecchio. We love that side of Florence.

Agreed. We had dinner in Barolo and in a couple of other small towns nearby. Fantastic meals. Americans that think that Italian food is all meatballs and pizza and bolognese need to go to the Piedmonte region and eat. Such great food and the white truffles don't suck either.

vino della casa ftw

Yessir. It’s taken a long time to develop trusting relationships where a client hands a project to you and says to do your thing.

Was gifted this baby recently. This will be a 10 year wait for sure.

Your example that I responded to was 10% net. Hence my reply.

Exactly. Pay $45-$55 an hour and charge $115-$135 for highly skilled labor is what we do. Yes I still buy some materials but my prime supplies the expensive gear. We install and program it. I will admit we are in an unusual circumstance but it took years to build the relationship to get here.

Fuck. I had to ask for rain, didn't I.

Very true. We're also a mostly labor model but I pay and charge a premium for our labor. It's very specialized. Also can be tough to get the right guys but when we do we work to hang onto them.

I operate at gross profit of 65-80% before labor on a project. I'd kill myself at those margins.

Right? There are a lot of business owners here and a very hot topic especially throughout a good portion of 2020 was devoted to saving our businesses, keeping our employees employed and keeping them paid throughout COVID. I'm fairly certain most if not all of us accomplished that. Personally we were then able to leverage going from survival mode to what is looking like a 200% increase in business for 2021 and the sky is the limit in 2022 if I can continue to find and hire highly skilled a certified techs and then retain them. We have been working on a retention plan for our little company for several months now and I'm proud to say that we are now offering a company funded HSA, a 401K plan and a profit sharing plan to be reviewed and implemented after the first month of each year. We are also looking to overhaul our health care plan during the first quarter of 2022 when the plan comes up for renewal. It will still be a high deductible plan but we want to offer the best plan we can for our people. The last thing we are working on is improving the support and information flow to our techs in the field to ensure that they have the tools they need to be successful and to keep our projects on point. As to a path to freedom? The decisions and choices rest on me and my management team but if you think it's freedom you are misinformed. The buck still stops with the business owner and if you are looking for stress relief and shorter working hours I suggest you look elsewhere. It's a labor of love but it's also hard work and sometimes you have to make hard decisions.

Airbnb booked in Barcelona May 20th - May 24th. There weren't a lot to choose from. Now to get tickets to the race.

So first grand prix is Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg (not F1 I know). I live in Naples so I am thinking of going. Miami F1 race is May 8th but I will probably be in Spain. But, but, but! The Spanish Grand Prix is May 22 and I will still be in Spain. So, I'm thinking to plan our itinerary around that.

Rain. The great equalizer. Let's see some.

The first was horrific. You could see his head flopping around before the car came to a stop. It was apparent that he was gone.

It delves into how upset he was with the rule changes in 1994. The part of those changes that made no sense was narrower tires thus less grip. You have drivers used to using assisted controls then you take that away AND make the tires narrower.

Laguna Seca was today. Watching it now.

It is but once you hit September getting on a ferry or booking a boat is hit or miss as the waters start to get choppy and there are a lot of cancellations.

I do and thanks. Didn't see that one pop up in my search.

Watch Senna's footwork on this video. Senna drives an Acura NSX