Day 128 – Return to the Driveway

Sometime today it was known that my girlfriend Chris’ driveway was going to be resealed. After my walk and breakfast I spent a couple of hours getting weeds out of cracks in the asphalt and then fighting back several feet of grass and dirt that has encroached on one part of it. It felt good to help make the driveway wider and also to do some manual labor with shovels and other implements that would have been impossible to do 6 months ago. My upper body is still out of shape but I just felt normally tired as a result of it vs how bad I was feeling before surgery.

When I got to my office (spare bedroom) in the early afternoon, I connected with a potential client on Twitter and we had a good 45 minute call about what he is looking for. He is going to check some of my references and we have a follow up call scheduled for next Friday to talk again. I like the sound of him and what he wants to do. Having fixed price products on my website made the sales part of the conversation straightforward. This is what I do, this is how much it costs. Since you want two of those, I’m willing to waive set up on one of them. That sort of thing.

I’m also very comfortable not thinking about the outcome on this between now and our next meeting.  My price is fair.  If he can’t/won’t afford it, then we weren’t a good match and it is ok.  Not being attached to outcomes is useful in many situations.

And I keep reminding myself that I have a LOT of experience that sets me apart from the run of the mill “web developer” and that is where my value comes in. I can make sure that things run smoothly and have fun taking care of details that drive most sane people crazy.

I wonder where “run of the mill” comes from. Especially having recently visited a mill in Tennessee.

Chris and I went over her notes for a presentation she and I are doing at a teacher conference on Monday. She is doing most of the talking and I’ll be covering some of the more technical sections, translating to a lay audience and adding additional color. I’m looking forward to it and hope our audience is more than the two people who have signed up through the confusing website for the conference. (We believe it will be more than 2 and the website is actually confusing.)