The Best and Worst months of the year.

You know I both love and hate this time of year. I love the season, fall, cooler weather, leaves changing, Halloween candy- leading into Thanksgiving (best holiday IMO) and the great month of November. But the hatred comes from how these two months are for our industry. It is simply the worst 2 months we have. Everyone is swamped. Everyone is pressured. Plus it has been a while since that relaxing summer vacation and the Christmas holidays are way too off in the distance, so everyone is a bit more on edge. And of course, everyone needs their product YESTERDAY. Especially in any region where there is snow, the October/November runs are all extra pressured because everyone wants their buildings closed in before the “snow flies.” Customers and suppliers who get along great for 10 months of the year are at each others throats in these two months and its like this EVERY YEAR and it sucks. Anyway I am counting down the days til December while trying to enjoy the best/worst 2 months of the year.

Elsewhere this week….

-- So the Architectural Billings Index went down again eh? While it’s still above water, the downward trend should be a worry. Now keep in mind this is for projects going 9 to 12 months from now, so it’s a while away, BUT, its also about that time… end of 08, early 09 that the experts were calling for tough times. Next months ABI will be very telling.

-- Big retirement news in the industry as Jack Deyo, President of Mid Ohio Tempering and last I knew President of the UGC East Coast announced his retirement to his folks last week. Obviously I have some history working with Jack and even though the UGC period for me is darker than the color black, I always respected Jack and the way he did things. In addition the way he ran his business was top notch, he treated his folks well and built a company that developed a great reputation in the marketplace. I wish Jack and his family the best of luck and health, we as an industry will be weaker without a guy like that around.

-- Great article on the Silicon Valley boom re-birth. Is it really the “dot com” explosion part 2- well according to this article (click here) it is. It’s a great read and it’s pretty unreal that people can make a ton of money still in the internet world without delivering results. It makes you ask why we are in this business sometimes.

-- Speaking of Silicon Valley, if you are a fan of Apple- makers of the great IPOD and new IPHONE there’s a great book out there on its co-founder Steve Jobs. It’s called I CON and it’s by Jeffery Young and William Simon. It’s a great look at the guy, his history and so on. The man has had his ups and downs, but unlike some of the lucky ducks that you’ll read about in that column above, I believe Steve Jobs has earned every penny of his fortune. Good book if you want to read more.

-- Got an e-mail this week on the fact that the BEC conference is already 10% full- and we are 4 months away! That is incredible. So I would say if you want to be there, and if you have any connection to our industry, YOU WANT TO BE THERE, then you need to get registered.

-- Yes terrible week for predictions.. My D Backs are done (that’s what happens when you mess with the green movement, keeping AC on in 111 degree heat with the roof open) and the football pick of the week failed too. Oh well, lets get back on the horse, for football, New Orleans is favored by 8-1/2 over Atlanta… something is wrong here, as I know New Orleans is better but they’ve only played 1 good game this year, and while Atlanta stinks, I gotta go with the Falcons to cover.

Video of the week- from Saturday Night Live this week making fun of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the fact that NBC is their network… good stuff… (unless you are an ND fan and then this whole season has been a nightmare)