Did I tell you about the time I was in Egypt?

This picture is in front of the Pyramids in Giza. 1961.

Try to remember back when you were just a tyke. Before school age when you were totally committed to just having a good time, exploring life in general EVERYTHING was new. The whole world is a place of wonder and learning is a natural progression of your day. How fortunate was I to be given an opportunity to not only live day to day learning new things, but to be given the experience of other cultures.
My dad was an engineer for Morrison Knudsen. Although lately we have re-assessed our thoughts on his career and think he really was a CIA operative. He did do James-Bondy things, like travel to exotic places at short notice, his passport - if that was his real passport - had pull-out pages with stamps and visa's from every corner of the globe(even color-coded by continent). He also had the demeanor of someone who had to wrestle with his internal demons while putting on a completely different external persona. He was unapproachable and really didn't do the parent thing too well.
Which made my mom a saint.

One day, at Sand Camp...



My mom re-defined a "stay-at-home mom". My dad provided us the opportunity to travel all over the world and she made sure the opportunity wasn't squandered. By the time I was 10 we had lived in Iran for 3 years, Australia for a year and Singapore for a year. We traveled and visited such places as London, Israel, Egypt, Lebanon, Jerusalem, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpour, Sidney and Perth. So often we would befriend other families of engineers who would just stay where they were put and not explore or experience the culture, then they would complain how miserable the place was that they were. Their loss, a squandered opportunity. Stay-at-home wasn't really in her vocabulary.
You can learn stuff in books, or you can live it. My mom was one who insisted that we experience all that the culture had to offer, wherever we lived or visited. The education my sister, brother and I had first-hand was incredible. It shaped us into who we are.
Memory being what it is, much of what happened between birth and 10 is a blur. The stuff between birth and 3 was REALLY a blur, because they found out I was far-sighted at 3, I got glasses and suddenly the world for me came in to focus. Next post... living in Iran.

Where is the Tie-Dyed Mini?

By now you've seen a bunch of MiniCoopers around and they aren't the novelty they were in 2002 when I bought it. HOWEVER, the unique aspect of having a Mini that is Tie-Dyed is that everywhere you go, people look at the car. I had it wrapped with the Tie-Dye in the summer of 2003 and it remained that way until this summer. It really was showing it's age and I decided to take it off. The color was still bright and vibrant over much of the car, but the hood was really starting to crack (and ultimately was the toughest to remove).Vinyl is designed to be on a vehicle for no more than 4 years, but I had it on there for 6! So the car is still here, (and I still use it) but it's the original Indy Blue. I feel like nobody loves me anymore, because I used to drive around with one hand on the wheel, ready to wave at the many, many folks that would wave at me. Almost EVERY school bus, Police, Sheriff, kids that would stare and point (at least I think they were staring, pointing and laughing at the car and not me). I had the car wrapped with Hullabaloo on it, advertising the concert in Sacramento for a while and that was fun, but it wasn't tie-dyed.
So, I need to know, should the tie-dye come back? Or, should I go in another direction. I now own the printer that will print out the wrap, so it's a matter of design and application.
What do you think, should the tie-dye return?
John

Don't give the USPS a penney more than you have to!

Check this out!
We're saving our customers a ton of dough!
I just calculated the postage savings for the summer (June, July, August).
Out of what would have been regular postage of $56,995.46. Only paying $26,376, our customers on average saved over 51%!
WOW!
Go to mm-press.com to see our killer deal on postcards!

Introducing Minuteman Press, Placerville, California

If Placerville is YOUR town,
Minuteman is YOUR printer.

Being in business has never been more challenging than today.
THAT being said, being in business has never been more EXCITING than today!
I may be crazy, but when backed into a corner, one either fights harder to get out of the corner or gets beat-up. I choose to fight harder. Personally, after this downturn has ended I will be a smarter and more productive business owner. My business has had to adjust to the reduction in business, but my saving grace is my staff. I have the best people in the foothills working for me. Sherry has been with the company 21 years, she's our Graphic Designer who is really good at designing what the customer is thinking. Laura, our Manager has been with us for 15 years and knows the printing business inside and out. Laura is, what I would call a "straight shooter". If something won't work, she'll tell you, straight-up, that it won't work. Sometimes people don't like hearing that the business card that they designed on excell will have to be completely re-designed in an appropriate program for printing, but Laura will give you her honest and knowledgable opinion. Like it or not. Chris is our Pressman. Chris is much more than a pressman, he fills the gaps. When bindery needs to be done or when laminating or tabbing or such needs to be done, Chris fills in. Chris also takes the lead of the Sign department and has become very savvy with the 64" full color sign machine. He's been with us for about 8 years. Shannon, our newest member of the family has been with us for under 3 years. I tell people that if I could clone Shannon, I would. She has a wonderful, positive outlook, her attention to detail is amazing and she is very organized, not to mention she's a human spell-check machine. Kathleen is our bookkeeper and keeps the $ straight. I learned the value of a compitent money person when I had one that wasn't a couple years back.
Then there's me. I've been in the printing industry, in one form or another, for most of my career. I made my first business card in 1971 at Herbert Hoover Jr. High School in San Francisco in Mr. Adams 7th grade printing class. From that experience, I was hooked. I've done everything in printing from driving the delivery truck to running the press to managing a major metropolitan (Long Beach Press-Telegram) newspaper pre-press. All of it in preparation of owning my own business.
This is probably enough to chew on for now, but watch for Blog-only specials.
If there is something you would like to know about Minuteman, Business in Placerville or me, let me know and I'll be happy to share.
Have a GREAT day!
John Zachry - Owner