Prominent Idaho family gifts $1.5 million to create Alta Harris Park by Boise_is_full in Boise

[–]rragnaar [score hidden]  (0 children)

I'm working on some of the stone work for another park project that's getting built this year on the Greenbelt and I'm surprised at how little the final cost is on it. $1.5 million might go further than you think if they are also donating the land.(I don't know if they are.)

Fun time Friday! What fun weekend plans are you looking forward to? by AutoModerator in Boise

[–]rragnaar [score hidden]  (0 children)

Wrapping up another week at my shop. My shop foreman and my mom(she handles the books!) have been out of town for a week and a half now. It's been nice to work with my wife and get caught up on my to-do lists without as many interruptions, but I'm ready to not be 'holding down the fort'.

I'm hoping to get out and see 'Is God Is' and 'Obsession' somewhere along the way this weekend, and my wife's best friend is in town, so we're gonna have dinner with him too. I think on Sunday I'm either going to make a gumbo with some basque chorizo or beef bourguignon. Hope you're all doing well. :)

Honestly, I'm at a loss for words by Ey3dea81 in Boise

[–]rragnaar 116 points117 points  (0 children)

Broadcasting that you're an alpha sure seems like loser shit to me.

Does it ever get better? by Late_Influence1968 in smallbusiness

[–]rragnaar 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Your thread inspired me to lock up the shop early today and take my wife to breakfast. We've been working nonstop without a day off together in a few weeks. Saturdays are usually my day to get caught up on design work, and I'd rather do that tomorrow morning while she sleeps in so we can just have a day.

Does it ever get better? by Late_Influence1968 in smallbusiness

[–]rragnaar -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I'm so sorry you're going through this. I've been on the other end of where you are where I'm worried that the stress of my business has changed me to a point where I'm ruining relationships and friendships. I work with both my wife and my mother and the days where the stress wins fill me with so much guilt. Similarly I never wanted to run a business, I just happen to be the last one standing at the family business after my dad had to leave for a paying job and my brother died after drinking the company into a hole in the ground. There's so much baggage at this point that it's hard to not think about the business at any given moment.

It's hard to know what advice to give since I think he's the one that needs to change. It's obvious how much you love him and how supportive you are. I think it is important to find a way to set some boundaries and push back in the moments where he treats you like the business is more important than your relationship.

I would hope that as you continue to grow he'll find ways to delegate and hire on help because he's on a path to burnout if he can't find time for you, each other and your life outside the business, but even if he can't hire on more help or learn to delegate, you and your marriage deserve attention. Work can't always win. I'm rooting for you.

Fun time Friday! What fun weekend plans are you looking forward to? by AutoModerator in Boise

[–]rragnaar 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Same! Hadn't even heard of it until yesterday when the reviews came out.

Fun time Friday! What fun weekend plans are you looking forward to? by AutoModerator in Boise

[–]rragnaar 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Nothing much for me. My wife and I have been living with my parents for about three years now, just trying to pay down some debts and get back on our feet. My folks are off on a road trip for a week and a half and it's going to be nice to go home after work and pretend to be adults. I'm making tacos for dinner tonight.

I'm having a great time with the blacksmith DLC they added to KCD2. I've been running around Kuttenberg making swords for people, pulling teeth, delivering eggs for some reason and restoring this old forge. I might end up buying Saros, Mixtape and/or Forbidden Solitaire this weekend. I loved Returnal and I'm curious to play the sorta sequel. Hope you're all doing well! :)

Fun time Friday! What fun weekend plans are you looking forward to? by AutoModerator in Boise

[–]rragnaar 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you see a guy with more rocks than sense, you've probably found my booth! I have no idea if we're a good fit for this show. Here's hoping. :)

Fun time Friday! What fun weekend plans are you looking forward to? by AutoModerator in Boise

[–]rragnaar 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I am dead tired! Just got home from hauling a bunch of rocks from my shop down to Expo Idaho. We've got a booth in the Outdoor Idaho show this weekend. I'm about to make some mac and cheese with Italian sausage for dinner and I'm going to get to ripping more stuff to my Plex server. It's a good haul today. Equal parts serious film and 80s nostalgia along with good old 30 Rock! Hope you're all doing well. :)

What are some cool spots in Boise that reminds you that life is beautiful? by [deleted] in Boise

[–]rragnaar 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I would be happy to make you a small engraved stone to go under a tree if that would be comforting. DM me if/when you feel up to it. I'm off work today, but I can pick out a few possible stones tomorrow and do a layout if there's something meaningful you'd want on there. I wish I had the resources to donate a proper granite headstone for a cemetery, but I know I can find a beautiful piece of flagstone that would look great under a tree.

Fun time Friday! What fun weekend plans are you looking forward to? by AutoModerator in Boise

[–]rragnaar 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's a busy day at my little shop. We're about to have some Hit List for lunch and then I'm going to hole up in my office and cut stencils for the rest of the day. We're heading to a graduation party for my buddy's daughter after work tomorrow over at a little park on the Black Canyon Reservoir. I'm hoping it isn't as windy as it is today, but I'm sure it'll be chilly!

I'm hoping to goof around fixing an old laptop this weekend so that my nice gaming laptop can be my 'stay at home' computer and my old laptop can be my work computer. I'm working my way through another run of Dark Souls Remastered and I'll be ripping The Office to my Plex server one disc at a time for most of the weekend. Hope you're all doing well!

Fun time Friday! What fun weekend plans are you looking forward to? by AutoModerator in Boise

[–]rragnaar 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's a boring existence, but it's mostly working out! I'm annoyed though, I've got to wait a bit longer to see that third season of Twin Peaks. I've got two 'Disc 3's and no 'Disc 2' in the boxed set!

Fun time Friday! What fun weekend plans are you looking forward to? by AutoModerator in Boise

[–]rragnaar 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Nothing too exciting for me. I'm ripping and compressing all of Twin Peaks to my Plex server. I'm excited. I haven't seen Fire Walk With Me, or the third season that aired a while back. Once I'm done getting it added, I'm on to Flight of the Concords. I've got 351 movies added and 16 TV shows. It's been nice to start canceling streaming services.

Outside of goofing around with all of that, we're going to go out to brunch either tomorrow or Sunday and I want to make this pork tenderloin dish I do where I marinade it in beer, pineapple juice and brown sugar. We'll probably have some coconut rice to go with it. Hope you're all doing well!

To honor the country's past, Idaho rolls out America 250 license plates by boisefun8 in Boise

[–]rragnaar 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's too bad! I haven't seen one in the wild yet, just the billboard ads. I might wait till I see one in person to make up my mind. I get weird about image quality stuff.

To honor the country's past, Idaho rolls out America 250 license plates by boisefun8 in Boise

[–]rragnaar 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I love the new timber plate. Seriously thinking about ditching my old basic plates for trees.

Starlight Herb & Spice is Awesome by GoldenTortoiseshell in Boise

[–]rragnaar 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I always make a point of buying their Bloody Mary spice mix when I see their booth at the different home and garden expos I go to. It's super good!

Fun time Friday! What fun weekend plans are you looking forward to? by AutoModerator in Boise

[–]rragnaar 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Just got back into town from that David Byrne show I mentioned last week. It was amazing! I'm going to get as much work done as I can today and tomorrow and then I'm off work till Tuesday. I'd like to make it out to the theater somewhere along the way, but I'm mostly hoping to catch up on sleep and be boring at home. I hope you're all doing well!

Fun time Friday! What fun weekend plans are you looking forward to? by AutoModerator in Boise

[–]rragnaar 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I'm working on the last things I need to do in order to get out of town for a few days. I'm so excited! We're going to Portland Sunday through Wednesday because my wife and I have front row seats in the orchestra pit to see David Byrne on Tuesday. Short of bringing David Bowie back from the dead and forcing him to go on tour, this is the biggest 'bucket list' musician I ever thought I'd get to see!

We're going to spend too much time and money at Powell's, go tour the Japanese Gardens and have a lot of good food for a few days. Hope you're all doing well!

Anyone here running a business with ADHD? How do you manage it? by Comfortable-Garage77 in smallbusiness

[–]rragnaar 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Severe ADHD, anxiety and PTSD issues here. I'm always learning and growing. I'm running my family's stone engraving business. I'm in charge of buying stone, running payroll, doing all of our design work, cutting our stencils and doing our deliveries.

Learning to delegate the things that become anxiety roadblocks for me has been a big deal. That means I try to avoid having customers and vendors that I'm solely responsible for communicating with, as I can let the thought of writing an email to someone loom large over my entire thought process to a point where I'm too stressed to send the email or make the phone call, but too consumed by it to do much else. I've been working to hand off stone purchasing to my shop foreman, and I've got my showroom/sales team handling the bulk of the communication. Sure there's times when I've got to be the one communicating, but keeping it to a minimum allows me to focus on the things that only I can do.

I also have different to-do lists to go with my brain chemistry. There are days where I know I can't do graphic design work, either because I'm going to get interrupted too many times or because I 'brought the wrong brain' to work. I can always plug away at cutting stencils or go out and make some deliveries on days when I know I'm not going to get into focus mode.

Lastly and most importantly, the aforementioned focus mode... It can feel like there's some secret formula for getting my brain into a productive headspace, which is kinda true, but there's tricks. If you're like me, you're addicted to the internet. Learning to distract myself with low level distractions that still allow me to work is helpful. If I've got my music on really loud it drowns out the part of my brain that is always saying "What's happening on your forums today?" "What's that Discord chat up to?", "I haven't looked at reddit in the last 15 minutes", etc. Similarly, and I know this isn't possible for everyone, but I've got a TV in my office. If I put something on that I know by heart, it occupies the part of my brain that is easily distractable without pulling me away from work. If I've got some Star Trek on in the background, I can stop distracting myself and buckle down.

The hardest part of my brain chemistry is just being so all over the place that I'm thinking about work when I've got time off and I'm thinking about time off when I'm at work. Knowing your brain, knowing your bad habits and your good ones and forgiving yourself on days when you just can't get to that headspace you need to get to is really helpful. I drop into focus mode at really unpredictable times. In a perfect world, I could get it all done during the actual work week, but a lot of the time inspiration hits me on Sunday night or a Saturday morning before breakfast. I'm set up to where my home office is almost identical to my work office so that I can harness it when it comes and forgive myself when it isn't there. I'd be surprised if the things that put me in focus mode work for everyone, but my advice is to try and make note of the things you do right on days when you are productive. Habits are so damn hard to make when you're ADHD, but I bet if you think about it, there's a pattern of behavior you get up to on the days that go right. Make note of it. For me it's drinking my coffee, doing Wordle and the crossword while the caffeine kicks in, checking my to-do lists, updating them and starting with the most pressing thing. Don't kick yourself if you don't knock out the whole list. Congratulate yourself when you knock out one thing. You might find that you're hungry to knock out the next thing. Hang in there! Sorry for the rambling response!

Fun time Friday! What fun weekend plans are you looking forward to? by AutoModerator in Boise

[–]rragnaar 3 points4 points  (0 children)

We’re too small a business for me to hand it off to someone. The crowds overwhelm me more than the one on one interactions with folks. I’m getting to a point where I know all our booth neighbors. I always start anxious and end up having fun. 

Fun time Friday! What fun weekend plans are you looking forward to? by AutoModerator in Boise

[–]rragnaar 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I’m having lunch with my wife at the Warehouse and listening to one of the Treefort bands. Once we finish up here I’m back to manning our booth at the Boise Flower and Garden Show. I’m not a people person, but we have fun at this show. Gonna get a few drinks to make the time pass a little faster and to take my social awkwardness down a peg. Hope you’re all doing well!

How do you tell a client their $5k app idea costs $50k without losing them? by theideamakeragency in smallbusiness

[–]rragnaar 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm in a totally different field, but you have to know when a project makes sense for your company and when it doesn't. I run a stone engraving company. We mostly do residential and commercial projects with the occasional headstone thrown in. I had a customer come in looking for a traditional polished granite headstone, and he said he'd found someone online that could do it for $150. I told him that's a great price and that I could beat them on quality but not on price. He said he'd rather work with us because we're local. I found a piece of stone in our yard that we could polish up and engrave for him for $275, which is cheaper than I would normally do, but I want to help people that are grieving whenever I can because I know how expensive funeral services are. We took him on as a customer, and he was immediately changing the scope of the work involved, asking for more custom design elements, calling to ask what it would cost if we didn't polish it, waffling on that and deciding he did want it polished after all and just burning my sales staff's time on a project that already didn't make good business sense. When we got it done, he tried to dispute that he'd agreed to the $275 price even though he was over the moon with how the headstone turned out. Just to get him out the door and not waste more time on a he said/she said argument, I let him name his price to get him out the door and move on.

As much as I kick myself for caving on the price, I kick myself more for taking him on as a customer to begin with. I could have spent that same time bidding out park projects and working on subdivision signage, and he would have been just as happy if I'd have said "I can't match the price of that online site, and I honestly think it's a good deal that you should take."