Well, That was Easy...

I thought that being home from the hospital was pretty much the end of the 'procedure'. I was very wrong. I got much worse for about three days. It felt like I had been beaten with a bat or pipe from just below my ribcage to just above my knees - Front and Back. I didn't even have anything done on my back that I am aware of, but my lower back was screaming.

I think it was mostly from doing the whole anesthesia thing that they do to put you out in the hospital - like the drugs that put you out, the IVs, the dreaded catheter, and whatever else they want to do when no one is looking...

My nose is also almost finally feeling OK. Now, how did my nose get sore? I told the anesthesiologist that I was a neckbreather and even a story about a previous operation, where the idiot anesthesiologist started putting tubes up my nose, and there is no way to get past my throat with any type of air stuff, but somehow something happened and it was sore.

He also said that the the catheter from hell was installed with ease and there was no reason for any pain from it - Yah, right. I think they all get together after you are put out and beat you and laugh about all the money they are getting for all the fun...

So, to get back to the story, after I wrote my last blog entry, I thought I was done and all was good, then the next 3 days just kept getting worse. I could barley move. Pam was great in taking care of me in my time of need. Without her great help, the cats and I would have starved.

I tried to get up every day an check email for a little while, but that was about it. After about 5 days, we went into town to have dinner and I barely made it home. A couple more days of getting better and I finally was able to limp around a couple of hours a day.

Then, it all got much better all of a sudden and I feel pretty good now. My groin area, just below the belt line, I have a 1 1/2" incision with stitches on each side and the whole area is swollen badly, but is good unless something messes with it - like being used for a cat launching pad.

So, looking back on it, either the doctor lied about the recovery time, or all the hospital operation fun hits a 'older' person much harder than it use to...

Anyway, I am glad it is over now and I can feel comfortable being out in strange remote places fishing without worrying about the whole thing blowing up.

During this whole process, and for a week or two before, I have been working on an instruction booklet for the new and larger needle tubes. It is 8 logical pages that fits onto 2 physical 8.5"X11" landscaped pages. It is finally be printed on really nice 60# paper and will be rolled up and put into every one of the large outer tubes for the new needles. I was just going to have it copied, but went to 4 different places and none of them could do it worth a darn. So, now its being printed and I pick it all up today. It is amazing how much time such a task can consume. Almost every sentence was rewritten many times so it would fit just right with all the instructional pictures that are embedded in the document. And I had to do all the pictures 4 different times to get something that could be seen and understood in the 2"X3" sizes on the booklet pages. Pam finally suggested that I use a black felt background and white lines for the pictures and that worked great. They really 'POP' now, as they say on HGTV.

So, while I was recovering from the operation, I decided to quit making needles. It was fun and we made some money from them, but I give up making them ever again. So we are closing down the 'factory' forever. That is the good news, the great news is that DaHo Products is reinventing itself as a world wide supplier of our new partner made needles.

Speaking of needles, I received the final 5 sets of samples from our new vendor and they are great. All of the feedback I received this last year from all the experts that I have been working with has paid off in Spades. These new needles are the best ever made and are vastly superior to the competitions ,or even my handmade ones. I couldn't replicate many of the features that they were able to do without problem. So, the first 100 sets show up just before Christmas and another 400 sets in the middle of January. Yesterday, went down to the bank to have the first payment transferred to the vendor. I have full trust in the vendor at this time. He is a good person and really create exactly what I want.

I think we can pretty much take over the worldwide hollow Spectra needle market in the next year or two. I will foresee us having employees, gulp, within the next 3 months or so. We are almost done with all the collateral materials for the new products and from now on, the job is acquiring new dealers and distributors, the bigger the better. I can have new supplies of needles made in a few weeks and I just don't see any roadblocks in the way of making this all happen and happen pretty quickly. But, as always, time will tell the real story...

I did go play pool last night - the first time in two weeks. I played well, but the results were mediocre at best. I had another break and run for one game, which keeps me up there on that stat. I was playing one fellow that was not very good, and gave him a chance. He ended up making 4 of the most amazing shots in a row and won the game. We were all stunned, including him. That is just how it goes sometimes.

Our local pool hall, The Pocket, is changing their tables to be all the little bar 7 foot size. They only have two 8 foot tables left and our team was suppose to play on one. Just before the game, the owner came over and told us that he was switching the table on us, so we had to play on one of the new small ones. I was really frustrated by the ensuing conversation, where he told us all about the migration to being all the small 7 foot tables. I said when it was all finished, he should also change the name of the business from 'The Pocket' to 'The Small Pocket' - grumble, grumble...

The new tables are pretty good. They are the new bar tables that are used in tournaments that use 7 foot tables. They have a large rail on top and are much better than the 7 footers from the past, but still very small.

Well, I have a lot of stuff to do now, that I am sorta back online again, so I must stop writing and get to work. Besides, that is about all that is going on here in DaHo...