Driving Down Memory Lane

Hello friend and greetings from Bar Harbor, Maine!

You may or may not remember this, but before my life as a shady guy, I had another life as a truck driver. I was living in America for only two months and working in a car wash barely making $250 a week. I was not too happy about it and wanted a change.

Back then (September of 2000), they had a thing called a “newspaper” and while I was looking for potential jobs with better paying opportunities to fulfill my dreams, truck drivers were the most sought out positions. It was my a-ha moment.

To me, it made perfect sense: I am not that smart, but I figured that I could travel across the country for “free” and even make some money while doing so. I quickly asked myself “why not”?

I got my CDL license and off I went to discover beautiful America. It was definitely a great experience. This country’s landscape is just amazing, the regional cultures are unique and the accents and ways that people talk in different parts of the nation are very distinct – in many cases, funny!

Perhaps not as funny for a rookie Brazilian immigrant (me) that could not carry a conversation in English for more than two minutes (if I was stretching hard). Also, not as funny to stop every ten minutes to check on this thing called a “paper map”. Thank God for technology, GPS and Google translator right?

Fast forward twenty years, this week I drove six hours to Bar Harbor, ME for a project. I brought my wife along to make a long weekend. Driving on the highway for hours and watching the landscape and color changing leaves brought me back to Memory Lane…Good times!

Back to reality: On Friday, I spent about five hours measuring a house for drapes and Roman shades with my colleague and workroom fabricator Julie Thome from Reading, CT. The funny thing is that I have been working with Julie on different projects for years but never had a chance to meet her in person until this week.

This summer home sits on a cliff with a spectacular view. The installation is scheduled for May 2021.

Out of this whole experience, I was just contemplating how much our lives have changed over the years: mobile phone, GPS, virtual meetings.

It will be interesting to see what my next twenty years will look like.

If you want to share your thoughts, please use the old fashioned way aka a “phone call” and dial 508-520-6700 or email me here .

In case you did not understand half of the terms presented on this blog today, you can hit me via Zoom, Instagram or Tweeter.

Now, please excuse me because I have a very important old fashion meeting awaiting called having breakfast with the wife before she gets angry!

Have a great day!