This is a tough post to write because it is full of nuance and and I’m a bit conflicted. But, I’ll try.

First the facts: Yesterday my spouse and dog were walking on San Pedro Mountain trail as we have done 1,000 times over the last decade. A man was walking 3 dogs off leash in the area (this is normal too.) As the groups passed each other, 2 of the 3 dogs associated with the man did the normal dog greeting and passed. The 3rd, viciously and without warning, attacked our dog Gracie. You can see the result in the photo.

The man apologized and inquired after the health of Gracie and stated that “this dog was mostly OK.” He then left without providing any contact information leaving my wife with an injured 80 lb dog on the trail. We took her to the vet, (thanks Dr. McKinney!) and got her treated. Fortunately she has up to date rabies vaccination so at least there’s not this worry. She is now healing though is pretty miserable with a drain in the wound and sutures.

So here’s the dilemma. Dogs want to be off leash. Gracie wants to be off leash and we frequently walk her off leash in appropriate areas like San Pedro Mountain trail. We also monitor her activity, pack a leash, carry dog waste bags, and are very careful about having her interact with humans who may not be dog people and other dogs. 99.9% of other dog owners we interact with in the community behave in a similar manner and so there is an accepted community code about how people and their dogs use the open space.

However, that 0.1% of dog owners create a real problem for everyone, dog lovers or not. When an incident like this happens I can’t help but agree with leash laws. This small % of irresponsible humans, typically young humans who own pit bulls (or other large breeds with genetic breeding for violence) and walk them without leashes or collars (seriously, I’ve seen this,) are the ones who make leash laws necessary.

I don’t believe any dog is “born bad” – human interaction and training play a big role in how a dog develops and behaves over time. But, there are genetic predispositions and sometimes it’s a mystery why things get triggered for an animal. For example, Gracie has a thing about tripods. Anything with 3 legs freaks her out so she won’t go near the object and will bark. We know this about Gracie and manage her proactively as a result around 3 legged things.

Here’s the next incident on a related subject. Disclosure, the “facts” here may be open to debate as the story was pieced together from various sources. The same trail and the piece of land it cuts through has recently transferred from the Peninsula Open Space Trust to the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Which means all of the sudden that US Federal rules come into play about use. One of the consistent US Federal rules is that where dogs are allowed, they will be on leash.

Late in January a local man was walking his two lap dogs (i.e., tiny nearly dog-like things) off leash on the same path. A ranger confronted the man about walking his dogs off leash. The man was apparently belligerent stating that his dogs posed no threat to anyone or anything. The ranger then attempted to detain the man and take him into custody. The man refused to be taken into custody and insisted that the ranger give him his ticket and let him go home.

The man turned and left the scene with the ranger following (imagine a walking slow speed chase is how it was described to me) when the ranger lost patience and threatened the man that if he did not stop, a taser would be deployed to stop him. The man informed the ranger that he had a heart condition and that tasing him would pose a major health risk and asked not to be tased but still insisted upon leaving. The ranger then tased and arrested the man.

I can understand that the ranger was upset about non-compliance here, but come on. This is over walking two lap dogs without a leash in a place people have been walking their dogs without leashes for decades. Poor judgment all the way around.

On the one hand, this whole US Federal stance on dogs in a known dog area is nonsense. There is zero need for public funding to be spent policing leash laws.

On the other hand, I wish that ranger with the itchy taser finger had been on-hand to enforce the leash law on the owner of the dog that attacked Gracie yesterday.

My strong preference is for people to use common sense and good judgment about their dogs with community enforcement of the code of conduct. Having Federal employees administering such minor things seems such a waste and is so heavy-handed as to be laughable.

I’m very conflicted about this whole situation.

Here’s what I do know. When I walk on the local coastal trails I will be carrying some sort of weapon (walking stick, pepper spray, something) to use in the case of another dog attack. I will continue to walk Gracie off leash as conditions allow and will loudly confront irresponsible humans with dogs and rangers.

Most importantly, I’ll nurse Gracie back to health as best I can.

Headed out later today to determine if this (picture right) is our cash register. We’ll be using a modern point of sale system with inventory control for our transactions as a matter of course. There’s something about an old brass National Cash Register (NCR) machine that adds a little something to any store.

Couple that with the fact that it came from Dayton, Ohio – close to the old country for us. It’s something of a connection across distance and time that is nice to contemplate. Clearly there will be some restoration work required and that could be fun too.

If it’s not this one, we’ll find another. But it’s certainly worth a look and the price is “right.”

We managed a little time inside the shop over the weekend. The remodel is going well with the framing nearly finished in advance of putting up the dry wall. We needed to get the top areas of the space enclosed due to the nature of the building to make the space possible to heat. When talking with the owner, it appears this was an organically grown building starting as an office for a lumber yard and then getting bits and bobs added on over time.

The store next door is essentially a box built inside the building which works for them (high end furniture.) We like the high ceilings and want to preserve that loftiness while making the space weather tight. It’s an interesting set of tradeoffs and the owner has been fabulous in working with us to shape the space as we envision.

On the product front, we now have 5 products that we are developing (prototypes at this point.) We have sources established for most of the other products we’d like to carry as well, though the variation is great in suppliers. We’re hoping the San Francisco Gift Fair this coming weekend will help us establish more stable relationships with a number of those suppliers and provide some additional ideas.

On the fixture front, we’ve got one cabinet that is being sanded and refinished in the garage right now. There are a few other pieces we’re working through with a local collector. We hope to outfit the balance of the store with a local artisan who creates distinct pieces from salvaged material.

It’s going to be a busy week!

I felt like Navin R. Johnson when he shouted “The new phone book’s here! The new phone book’s here!” when I saw the package of test tubes yesterday.

But seriously, we’re in the midst of some experimentation for the products for the store as well as getting the physical plant up to snuff. Thus, I came home to 1,000 12x75mm borosilicate test tubes.

Right now, we’re planning up to 6 products that we design and produce for sale in the new venture (along with many others we procure and resell.) Given that we’re aiming for a May/June opening, product development needs to be progressing at a healthy pace. So, we’re putting a few ideas together and testing them out to see if they work with our target markets.

It’s very exciting having innovation manifest in a physical medium. I’ve lived so much of my career in my head, that it constitutes a refreshing change for the better. As we progress a little further, I’m looking forward to sharing the core concept, the name, and the links to the online components of the project.

Stay tuned.

So, I wake up normally at 4:30, as is my custom.

I attempt to get my head spun up and get ready for a busy day.

Here’s the agenda: clear the normal communications backlog from over night, drive to Menlo Park, meet one of my re.vu co-founders to finish an investor presentation and demo, head to Kleiner Perkins for a pitch as part of Venture Beat’s DEMO tour, head back to Half Moon Bay to help my spouse with a task, drive to Martinez to get a look at potential fixtures for the store, pick up the kid from school, piano practice, a call for business development purposes, and then a catch up with the day’s communication backlog. Go back to Menlo Park to the Dutch Goose for a Venture Beat hosted party. Come home to perform the night time ritual before bed time for my daughter.

I think we could agree this sounds hectic.

Here’s what was not on the agenda: The re.vu site became unavailable for me, and all users about 6:30am PDT yesterday morning. Now thread troubleshooting throughout the day with myriad calls and emails to Vanuatu, Ohio, and other locales to attempt to get the site back in working order. Ugh. If you are a curious sort, you can read what happened here. I didn’t make it back to Menlo for the party. The night time ritual was honored.

The results were: We got the presentation together for Kleiner and Venture Beat and delivered it effectively (we think.) We hacked a solution to allow us at least to demo, while the overall site was down, and ultimately managed to put in place an alternative revu.cc and get standard re.vu back up by 6pm that evening. Special thanks to Steve, Bart, Ish, and Bruce as we navigated through this morass. The rest of the day’s events came off without a hitch.

Coming back to our trip to Sand Hill road to talk with the Big Guys, it was instructive. We were coached on some areas we could be a bit more thoughtful about and emerged with a better idea of where, how, and when we are going to take re.vu.

One thing is clear, bootstrapping is great. But at some point if you’re going to go big, you need some cash to make it happen. We’re going for it. Show Us the Money! (If you want to be a part of our funding round, write me a note 😉 SEC Disclosure: This is not an offer to buy securities. Any purchase of securities in a company like re.vu must be as an accredited investor and handled through the appropriate channels and procedures.

Off to a similarly busy, though hopefully not as dramatic day today. Let’s hope it’s a little luckier than Thursday the 9th!