A Very Eventful Week in Pictures

Last week was quite eventful. We held our 55th annual investor meeting for CWS with approximately 400 people in attendance. The night before Heather and I hosted our local employees and those who came in from out of town at our house for a few hours of socializing, bonding, and team building activities. There were approximately 70 people and it was the first large scale event Heather and I had at our home since completing the bulk of our improvements.

I couldn’t have been more pleased at how well it went and I was particularly gratified by how everyone seemed to have a really good time and thought the house was perfect for bringing large numbers of people together without losing intimacy. The attendees were very impressed by the resort-style feel of the grounds and how nice the tennis court looked. 

Here is a shot of some of our associates overlooking the Stream of Consciousness to the tennis court down below.

I had a great tennis player I know come to the event to hit with people and to coordinate a target hitting game in which participants were fed balls by him and Christian, the person who built the court. There were a number of bags lined up on the other side of the net and each one had a gift inside. The goal was to hit the tennis ball so that it could land on one of the bags. Upon first glance it looked quite simple to do. The reality was very different as only a few people were able to succeed at hitting a target.

Here is how the bags were situated on the other side of the court.

Here are people lined up to take their shot at the targets.

I love the spirit and intensity of the participants. They definitely wanted to win a prize!

After target practice, Lisa, the event coordinator, passed out a puzzle to each of the teams that were pre-assigned. Everyone wore a name tag with their team number on it.  The puzzle was invented by a contestant on Survivor and the goal was to end up with a star after it was completed. Boy was it difficult and had I been on the island I would have never gotten off if completing it was a condition of leaving. Here is a shot of a group of teams in action followed by one particular team. I love the focus.

Here is what the completed puzzle looks like. We have Witt, our brilliant head of capital projects and illustrious M.I.T. graduate, to thank for leading his team to the promised land.

After the puzzle was completed it was time for trivia. Towards the end I looked up in the sky, along with others, and we saw an incredible streak coming across and it turned out to be a SpaceX rocket. We were very lucky to see it because it had been scheduled to launch the previous night but due to poor weather was rescheduled just in time for our event. Thank you Elon Musk as your rocket capped off a beautiful evening and CWS event. 

The next day most of the CWS associates worked on setting up the various rooms for the meeting while Steve, Mike, and I prepared for our presentations. Here I am in the middle of giving my presentation.

I’m often asked if I get nervous speaking in front of a large audience. I actually find that it can be energizing for me and a form of therapy. I say that because it feels good to prepare material that I think is important for our investors to hear and then to release it from me to them and out into the world. Preparing for the meeting is mentally taxing because I know how important the event is and there are a lot of things going through my head before I finally winnow it down into what I hope is a coherent, interesting, and educational narrative. And when I finally get to present it I can release it from my mind and subconscious and hopefully feel a little deeper connection with those who heard it because they now have a greater understanding of why we are where we are and what some of the key factors that influenced our decision-making have been.

Here I am with Mike Engels, Bill Williams, and Steve Sherwood at the conclusion of the meeting.

On the following day in the late afternoon some people came over to play tennis. And while watching the match from the viewing deck I saw for the first time birds land on one of the court lights and, upon closer inspection, they appeared to be two love birds who serenely sat there for at least 20 minutes enjoying being together. It was rather beautiful to watch and could be another symbol from nature that Heather and I are on the right path.

Later that same night Heather’s kids and friends played pickleball on the court. Or, to be more precise, they used pickleball rackets to hit a pickleball back and forth over the net. While they were playing I was sitting by the firepit with Harry. Harry was taking in the environment when I took this picture on that beautiful night.

And then it was off to NYC to visit my daughter and to see a play she wrote with a friend of hers that the two of them are acting in. Here is a billboard advertising the play in Times Square. Her name in lights (sort of)!

While in my hotel room working on this blog I suddenly felt the entire room and building shake. I’m thinking to myself, there’s no way this could be an earthquake. And yet, after 40 years in California I definitely know what an earthquake feels like and this definitely felt like any other decent-sized earthquake I’ve ever been in. Sure enough, there was one and it rocked the building particularly being on the 24th floor. Truly anything is possible in NYC!

And I received this on my phone approximately 40 minutes later.

On Friday night Ariella and I went to see Tommy which was Pete Townshend’s 1969 masterpiece for The Who about a deaf, dumb, and blind boy who becomes the messiah for many lost youth. It catapulted Roger Daltrey into the rarefied air of Rock God with his incredible voice and fully open shirts exposing his very toned physique.  It first appeared on Broadway in 1993 and was performed over 900 times before closing in June 1995. It was recently retooled and updated and just opened again on Broadway. Being a huge fan of both The Who and Tommy it was a can’t miss for me. Even better, being the doting parent that I was, I exposed Ariella to Tommy on DVD and she came to like it too so she was very excited to see it as well.

Here we are soon after we got to our seats, eagerly awaiting the start of the show.

If you’re a fan of Tommy then I absolutely encourage you to see the show. Even if you’re not that familiar with the material but like rock music or are just curious in general I would also highly recommend it. The energy in the theater was electric as it was full of people who knew and loved the music. The musicianship was fantastic so it almost felt like you were at a concert. The staging, choreography, and digital props were all outstanding and added a great deal to the experience.

The time in NYC ended on a high note as I got to see Ariella’s play and what a treat it was. She and her co-writer and fellow actor did a fantastic job in their very well written and moving 45 minute play about two sisters trying to come to terms with the sudden loss of their mother in their own ways. I’m so proud of Ariella. She has worked so hard on her writing over the years and has taken an interest in acting more recently and it’s clear she has a talent for both the written word and acting as well.

This is the theater where it was performed in the East Village. It’s located on St. Marks Street which is a really vibrant and happening scene.

This is Ariella (on the left) and her co-writer at the end acknowledging their applause.

Here they are again after the show outside of the theater beaming.

In less than two weeks I got married, hosted 70 CWS associates at our house for a great event, prepared for and carried out my annual meeting presentation for our CWS investors, and went to New York City to see Tommy with my daughter, meet my six month old great niece Evie, spend time with Evie’s mom (my niece), see another niece, and attend Ariella’s play. Last week was quite a week and one that I will always look back upon so fondly.