The joy of sons
Years ago, when I first opened a sign shop in Shelley, Idaho, I had an incredibly steep learning curve figuring out all the technical side of things.
One day, not long after I had started cutting vinyl, a customer came in and asked me if I could cut curved lettering for over her archway.
I told her, “You bet!” and I took her order.
She walked out of the door, and I sat down to whatever I used before google to figure out HOW to curve my lettering for an archway. I knew it could be done, and I just needed to figure out how to do it.
It turned out I needed to upgrade my software. I made that investment and within the week I was at her house installing vinyl lettering over her doorway.
I have used that same method dozens of times over the years, saying yes to things I’m not really quite sure how to do.
And for the most part, this method of jumping in has served me well and provided a good education along the way.
In February, I set up a very standard local business website for vinyl and signs. It took exactly two seconds and no creativity to name my new website: Newberg Sign Shop.com.
I just needed something that would come up in google when someone typed in “sign shop Newberg.”
Even with a world pandemic and our town shut down for the last four months, jobs have trickled in, and that has been helpful.
It feels good not to burden my creativity with the need to pay all of the bills and having a little sign gig on the side has made that possible.
Now, I’ve made a lot of signs over the years, but I haven’t really installed that many signs. However, I recently got a request for a job to make and install some larger signs that would require 10‘ posts.
I didn’t want to turn this job away, but really, I had no idea HOW to set posts in cement. I know people do it all of the time, and so I decided to teach myself HOW to do it.
I bid out the job, and they placed the order.
Last week, as a trial run, my son Nate and I installed a couple of ten foot posts in our backyard. We added the gravel, and stirred the concrete and filled in the hole making sure everything was level.
We figured it out, and now we know how to set 10’ posts.
Then we printed a mini billboard for me to see every day as I look out from my kitchen window.
I smile every single time I look out at those tall posts mounted securely in my garden. They stand as a testament that life is a continual sequence of challenges to figure out.
And, somehow, we keep figuring those challenges out and moving forward.