Hitting the Floor. Really.

This past week, I was invited to Splendor Glass outside of Toledo, Ohio. I was so excited to visit and hit their manufacturing floor. That was until I actually hit their floor.

The day started with me getting some work done and then hopping in my car for the hour and 45-minute drive south. I was so pumped that I just grabbed an energy bar and went. I arrived at Splendor, found a parking space, and went in on time for the tour. The floor was impressive.  Zero waste of space, so much happening, and pristine fabricated material all over. In the center of it all was the new JRS Drilling and Milling Machine that came from the great folks at IGE Glass Technologies.  It was something to see. Sleek, smart, and contained. Just a stunner of a machine that will be a massive difference-maker. Seeing it next to the old technology operating on the floor was like looking at an iPhone vs an old fashioned landline phone. Just a huge difference in real time. 

Anyway, as I was taking it all in, I started to feel a little off. Since starting my health journey 5 years ago, I had moments like these. I exercise vigorously daily, and if I don’t eat and hydrate, I can get a bit woozy. The icky feeling was gaining on me, and I turned to Tom Wanamaker, the incredible President of Splendor, and said, “I need to find a bathroom,” my thinking being, I slap some water on my face, maybe drink some, and I’m fine. Well, that plan didn’t fly. The next thing you know, I am out cold, falling flat to the plant floor and landing on my left side and face. When I came to, I was propped onto an A-Frame with a few people around me. Tom told me that I said, “I think I’m going to faint” (I don’t recall this), and down I went. 

Thankfully I didn’t land into anything there and Splendor’s extremely clean floor made it for the best landing spot concrete could be. Tom and the team took me to the lunchroom where, within a minute of being there, four of the area’s best paramedics were on the scene. They started to poke and prod, get blood pressure and so on. I thought, “Give me a Snickers, and I’m good to go,” but after they took my blood pressure and it was stupid low, it was off to the hospital for me. All the while, the legendary Manny Borda of IGE was keeping the mood light, which was needed because I was both hurting and super embarrassed to go down on that floor. 

The paramedics took me away and off to the hospital I went for a few hours of tests, a few IV’s and a shockingly good Turkey sandwich. The tests all came back as me being severely dehydrated and super stupid for not eating or drinking in the AM (the 2nd diagnosis was mine). The penalty I paid in addition to my now painful face and head was that they had trouble getting different readings for my heart so I had 12 very sticky buttons on my chest and a couple more on my arms. Now while I have no hair on my head— I have way too much on my chest. Or at least I did. As after they were done and I was cleared, removing those buttons were pure brutality. The awesome Todd Schulz of IGE came to the hospital to hang and see me cleared and brought me back to Splendor where I could catch up a bit with Tom before heading home. So, I guess I should be careful for what I wish for when I say “I can’t wait to hit the floor.” In the end, I am OK, still kicking myself for not taking care of myself and putting myself in this deal. I am super thankful to Tom and his amazing people, Manny, Todd and then all of the medical pros who had to deal with me. And I can say seeing Splendor and that JRS machine was so good it knocked me out! (Good marketing spin, right? But seriously— both so dang impressive.) I always say “never a dull moment” and now I can add this one to the list. 

Elsewhere…

The latest pod

ICYMI, the latest From the Fabricator podcast has had awesome traction and I am so overjoyed. It featured Cal Beyer and David Argus talking mental health, well-being, addiction, recovery, support, love and so much more.  Overall it was heavy subject matter but so important and I am glad so many checked it out so far. If you missed it, please give it a whirl. Thank you!

Listen here, or search “From the Fabricator” in your favorite podcast outlet— Spotify, Apple etc.

Click here for Cal’s site with resources.

The latest ABI

The next Architectural Billings Index will be released this week and there’s a lot of buzz out there that it may be a positive one— meaning a score over 50. While I’d love to see it, I’d be surprised. I think it’s going to be level with last month which was 49.2. We shall see though, these indexes have been hard to figure, so anything could happen!

Battle for the wall

I’ve always been a fan of Dr. Helen Sanders of Tecnoform and recently she delivered a must-read blog post on the “battle for the wall” and where the low-cost imports come into play. It is a strong deep dive into a big-time issue in our space and of course Helen handled it with her typical class and style. Check it out!

Workforce development story

How about this? Very neat success story in getting some solid young talent into our space. Grand Rapids Community College (GRCC) had a blog post announcing one of their recent graduates in their job training program joined up at the new state of the Thompson Innovative Glass plant in Jenison, Michigan. It is something you want to see more of!  More young folks coming from 2-year programs or technical schools into our world! Kudos to GRCC for pushing this forward and promoting it with a PR and to the always on top of it Tom Donovan and team at Thompson for jumping on a great candidate. We need to do more of this wherever and whenever we can!

No blog next week

Last this week… No blog next week, with Canada Day and Independence Day, many are off as for instance no Glass Magazine Weekly, so I’ll follow suit. Please celebrate responsibly (and care for your neighbors with the fireworks, in moderation please…) I’ll be back week of July 7th with a new podcast episode and tons of other content…and also hopefully no adventures on the floor of incredibly cool players in our world!