Need to get to the gym!
The gym may have disappeared since I last cast a shadow. You never know for sure about these things, ‘til you check ‘em out.
After 25 to 30 hours sitting on airplanes, terminals, and a cramped toilet seat 30,000 feet in the air, my back hurt. Hadn’t exercised for two months. ‘Cept for walking. That mostly consisted of walking to downtown Kwa-iddi, where the Toyo guys hung out. To get ice cream. To totally offset any physical benefit from walking. My back hurt.
To be totally honest, my butt hurt, too. Not made for sitting. Not on airplane seats, that is. There’s a bone in each cheek that wanted to get out. A lot like the chickens from their coop, before sunrise.
By the time I got off the plane in Denver, I pretty much ate the airlines out of their food stock. Seemed like it. Four meals, if I counted right, between Arusha and Amsterdam. I dozed between meals. One of the meals might have just been a nightmare. Maybe all of them. Can’t say for sure. But I’m still spooked.
Delta did the same as KLM. Close, anyway. Lost count of the meals and snacks. Must not compete with Southwest Airlines or Frontier. First class, even in the economy seats, as far as I could tell.
Arrived about 4PM, Denver time. Chris picked me up. Told me in the car that he just had his best sales month since joining ADP. Almost made his annual quota, 4 months into the fiscal year. Has a loaded pipeline. Sorry! Just proud!
Unpacked. Made the typical mess. (Sorry, Linda! I’ll clean up. Tomorrow. Maybe. My November resolution!) Went to bed by 7:30 PM. Woke up at 1:00 AM. Crawled out of the sack at 1:30. Went to the office. Started un-piling, phone messages, mail, bills, stuff. 5:00 AM, went to the gym. That’s when they opened. They still accepted my annual pass. They let me in.
Swam for an hour. Took it easy. Out of breath, anyway. A pocket full of excuses, though.
Showered up. Stood there for a while staring at the sign. Bob and Paul walked in, did their showers, walked out. Told them all about Tanzania. The hot water remained hot. Wonderful! More than the excited drip back at my TZ compound. Couldn’t quite read the sign. Didn’t really want to read it anyway. Had it memorized. Said, “Please limit showers to 5 minutes!” But, I was catching up. Who’s going to know?
My back feels better. Went to the gym on Friday. Stretched, a lot. Tested the weight machines. Still heavy. Kicked the leg weights, pulled the arm weights. My back feels even better, now.
The regulars all stopped to ask. “Where were you? Thought that maybe something happened to you! About ready to ask the front desk gal if she knew anything!”
Told them all about it. Told them about my crazy idea, the Christian Enablers plan, the half dozen or so entrepreneurship business plans that warrant investor interest. A few guys just needed to catch me up on gossip. The Colorado Society of CPA president should not have been elected. A bit like the TZ president who shouldn’t have been elected, either. That sort of gossip. Or, just editorial opinion. Everybody’s got one. Friends need to know!
Will need to stay in touch. Will need to follow up. Need to finalize business plans in the quiet of my office. Need to establish a TZ bank account. Need to engage the TZ attorneys with whom I talked. Need to list the elements of investor participation, monitoring, financial reporting, standards of business practice. For any business in which I decide to invest, I will insist on doing the accounting from my office, reconcile bank statements, account for everything that goes on. Will need to engage a TZ monitor/liaison to check on business operations.
I’m thinking that any Colorado investor will require the same things that I will require. Thinking that the best way to invest will be to form a TZ venture capital LLC. Any investor in CO will need to do the same things that I will require be done. So, why not do them together (assuming that one or more investors, other than myself, will want to participate)?
It’s Saturday morning, as I’m writing this update. Just past 7 AM. Got up a 3 AM. Slept in, compared to the night and wake-up time of the last two nights. Washed clothes, ate breakfast, showered. Actually shaved with shaving cream. The kind that squirts out foam from a can.
When I bought shaving cream in TZ, it came in a tube. When I tried to buy it a second time, discovered that you needed to specify shaving foam, if you wanted foam from a can. Cost 15,000 Tsh, or something like that. Knew that I could buy it for about a buck and a half in CO. Told the gal I wouldn’t pay the $7 US equivalent for something I knew cost less back in the US. Soap worked just fine, after that. Now, I’m back to cheap luxury. Razor feels sharper. Foam feels foamy. Go figure. Face – still ugly. Can’t buy my way out of that.
Got a haircut! This morning. While the washing machine washed the clothes that I hand-washed in Arusha. (Got tired of wearing the cardboard underwear that I always ended up with after the hand wash routine. Now my butt feels better, too.) Back in TZ, thought about getting a haircut there. Started out with almost a butch. Came home with a mop. Invested in my own clippers a few months ago. Recommended by one of the locker room guys. From what I can see, it’s worked fairly well. Perhaps from what others can see, maybe not so much. But no one complains. Just look sideways a bit.
Lota told me to go get the haircut. Cost about a US buck. But, principles are principles! I wore the mop back home. Feel better. The back, the butt, now the head. It’s swimming. Literally. Figuratively. Maybe a bit crazy. Maybe a bit over the top crazy.
Started an article on “The Last Mile.” Lota and I talked about the last mile of launching an entrepreneurial idea. Still working on it. Got the first chapter done. May distribute chapters, before the whole thing is finished.
Anyway, I’ll try to keep folks updated. Culturally significant activities. Here in Colorado. Things that people do differently here. The roads generally paved. Auto body repair shops work on serious fender benders, not just the “Oopsies” of TZ traffic drivers who play chicken each time they venture through an intersection.
On Saturdays, the gym opens later. But, it’s about time. Need to go. Need to keep my back from complaining.
John
10/28/2017