_{We do those other modes too.} 

It's been a little over two years since the GWB economy bit me and mine HARD right on the ass.  That's two years that I hope never to repeat. 

I've considered a lot of options to find my way out of the abyss and tried a few.  I was pretty pumped about joining the green movement when I got Certified by BPI as a Home Energy Auditor and made a not insignificant investment in training and equipment. I soon found that all this rhetoric about a green economy has not, at this point, moved past rhetoric. 

It seems no one is willing to actually part with their hard earned cash for an energy audit, despite the fact that they will get their investment back many times over.  The only real market turns out to be the low-income gov't subsidized market, which government agencies have pretty much sewn up and from which they have managed to exclude the rest of us.  I'm not sure that's how the programs were designed to work but it is the reality.

My local paper did a front page feature on my energy audit business which netted me the one and only inquiry I've ever received for my services: some old fart who thought half-price was too much and really wanted my expertise for free.  This same old fart had already wasted $12K on windows he didn't need but thought that $200 to find out what he really did need was about $180 too much.

I'm on all the energy audit forums so I know that my experiences are pretty much universal.  I moved on.

You may have seen my post from late March of this year in which I rejoiced in having landed a job in my field, air freight.  Well... that didn't work out.  It lasted 8 days.  I'm not at liberty to say what happened so we'll just leave it at that.  It was what you're probably thinking it was.

When that gig went south, I did realize that I should be doing what I do, what I know, what I'm... if I do say so myself... damned good at:  Air Freight.  Just not for anyone who thinks my personal life is their business.

I started talks with several air freight forwarders regarding becoming a contract station owner.  For those of you not familar with the business, this is pretty much how air freight forwarders work: they have a network of contract stations that are all individually owned by the people who run them.  The job from March was with a contract station for Lynden Air Freight.

Anyway, I'll spare you the boring details and get to the point, so let me just say that I am pleased to announce that Global Trading Resources, Inc. and my company, Top Dog Logistics, have agreed to a deal in which I will own and run an air freight forwarding operation in Portland, OR as one of the services offered by GTRI. The new operation will do business as GTRI Air Cargo and operations are set to begin on August 1, 2011.

The beauty of this deal is that GTRI used to be in the Air Freight business (they primarily do customs brokering) and got out of it when their Air Freight guy left a year or so ago and they discovered that he left the TSA compliance stuff in disarray.  They have been getting requests for air quotes to the point that they decided to get back into it. 

I heard about their delimma through my industry contacts and a deal was soon eventually struck. And let me say too, that I am very impressed with Patti and her whole crew at GTRI.  I think this may be the beginning of a beautiful relationship.

If it's true that freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose, then good gawd a'mighty, I am one free mofo.  Like any business, it may not work.  If it doesn't, we're living in our 1968 15' travel trailer and that's not much of an exageration.  Thing is, we already have one foot there but at least this way if I go down, I'll go down swinging.

This is what I do and it feels right.  Only time will tell.