Hello Everyone to another beautiful day! Truthfully it is a bit overcast, but beautiful nonetheless. If you have followed past posts, you know that this is the first time I’ve written in almost 5 months. ‘But why?,’ you may ask. That my friends is a long story. Instead let me tell you what I’ve been doing for the last few months.
Summer 2016
First of all, one of the last posts I wrote was that we had planned to go visit my family in Idaho. WE DID IT! It was the first time my little girl had seen free/ clean air. I am joking a little bit, but truly Idaho has a beauty incomparable to the beauty of Italy. I had made all sorts of plans. Surely if I was going to take my family across the world we weren’t going to waste it!
You can see where I’m headed with this right? As is with many plans in our life, they were subject to change, whether I wanted them to or now. Long story, short… the first camping trip we took Keisi caught a cold, in addition to fever (possibly enhanced from teething), and Ela discovered the hard way that WE WERE EXPECTING ANOTHER BABY! So going out wasn’t boding well for her stomach. In the end, we did get to spend a lot of time with family, so it wasn’t a total bust. It still ended up being a great trip.
Oh and here is a photo of our rafting experience on the Hoback near Jackson. I’m lucky to have a friend kind enough to guide us, so all we had to do was rent a raft from the University and off we went. If you can’t identify us in the photo, I’m waving, and Ela is wearing a parka (It was cold for her Albanian blood)
Keisi started day care
The most impacting change for us in these last months is that at the beginning of September, Keisi, has started day care. Previously, I had been taking care of her at home. But, seeing that my wife would be staying home in future months for maternity, it was necessary that I start replacing her income. I also have a lot of projects I wanted to work on so we analyzed our budget and decided now was the time.
At first we were concerned how Keisi would react, but seeing her face as she runs to greet the teachers at daycare, I’m convinced she is having a fun time with the other kids. So, every morning after mom goes to work, Keisi and I take a walk to daycare. She loves stopping to pick up the leaves falling on the ground. But we arrive there eventually.
House Projects
With Keisi at daycare, I finally had the time to finish some things left undone in the DIY category. Don’t get me wrong, there are still things I need to do, but the main ‘eyesore’ is over. We renovated our living room and have a large wall that before was difficult to look at. Now it is covered with white (fake)stone. Fake was cheaper. It looks nice, but whereas I’m no professional I can see all the flaws. At least Ela loves it!
Innovation Collective
About the time of my last post I noticed a friend had posted an image on social media. It was him in a large rustic seeming room. Big fireplace in the back of the photo, I became curious so I contacted him. It had been some months since we last spoke. I came to discover he had started working with a group up in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho that was making a big impact on the economy. If any of you know Coeur d’Alene it is on the flank of a beautiful lake. In past years there were mostly lumber yards and bars, but with the help of some development, more recently it has become a vacation destination for many. Yet it was still lacking job producing businesses.
Steps in Innovation Collective. For the last 3 years the Innovation Collective has led the local economy to believe in change, and that it was possible to create a city where people could live AND work. Today, I could ramble off many statistics on what kind of change they have brought to that beautiful little town, but it would be better for you to see what the Innovation Collective has done and continues to do, yourself.
The reason why I’m mentioning this is we are bringing this change-driven mindset to Italy. One step at a time, we hope to find the right course to take to help local businesses create jobs to stimulate the economy and improve quality of life. I’m very excited about this, we’ve actually already planned a Conference for next May. Even if you are not in Italy or Coeur d’Alene there are ways for you to get involved if it is something that interests you.
Gardaland
As the proverb goes, “All work and no play makes Dave a dull boy,” right? In the spring of this year we purchased some tickets to go to our local theme park. Gardaland, which is situated on Lake Garda (Italy’s largest lake). Instead of Mickey, you’ll find Prezzemolo the dragon. His name means parsley, and he lives in a giant tree. We went in the beginning of October, since our tickets would expire at the end of the month. There were a lot of people, being the only warm day as of late. And much like many other parks, they had a Halloween theme going.
Most of our time was spent on slow moving tractors watching animatronic cows and sheep sing songs. If I’m honest, I’d say it was the best time I’ve ever had at a theme park. Not necessarily for the rides, but being able to watch your kids emotions on each attraction, truly brings joy. I couldn’t leave, however, without trying ‘The Raptor.’
Stay Tuned
So what do I spend my time on these days? Call me a dreamer, but I believe there is no limit to what we can create with innovative ideas, and hard work. Sometimes that has led me to follow a path that has ended less than ideally. Looking back, I don’t have regrets on where I have arrived, just knowing that if I made the attempt to follow my dreams, for me, justifies my actions. Because let’s face it, if I want feel secure in retirement, it is going to take more than a low paying/minimum wage job to get me there. Now with a family, it is harder to ‘pull the trigger’ on following an innovative idea, or in other words, spending a lot of energy on something you have no guarantee will provide for your basic needs.
Luckily, I have an amazing wife who supports my actions, and encourages me to follow my ideas.
My latest idea is in the category of Fin Tech. Sadly, I can’t express all of my ideas here. I am excited to bring what I believe to be a ‘game-changer’ to the market, and if you’d like you can follow the progress as I make updates to the website. As of the day of this posting, following the link will provide you with little information, but you can add your email to receive updates on the progress of my project.
Gotta go
To end this for today, I’d like to share some good news! I passed the driving exam in Italian. Haha.. maybe not such a big deal to some, but I failed once and if I had failed again, I would have had to pay a lot of money just to attempt the exam of theory again. Ela was so happy, we cooked ‘Salamella’ last night (not to be confused with Salmonella). It’s a type of sausage. Big party right? For us it is. We aren’t vegan/vegetarian, but we limit the amount we eat. So when it comes it feels like Christmas!
