Back in the mid to late 80's (hey I was young so don't hold me to a date) my old man decided he was going to retire. The very thought of that seems somewhat laughable to me in knowing him personally and what he was like. People like him don't retire... To put it bluntly they can't retire because it isn't in them. That whole subject is another story for another time. So long story short during this period of "retirement" we went to the river quite a bit and my dad bought one of those cheesy hosebib driven misting systems that everybody buys from the hardware store to hang on our awning. I remember he hung it up and plugged it in.. The mist was coming out perfectly, and then in a little while a few of them were "dripping" while they were misting. The next weekend about half of them didn't work because they were clogged with calcium. I remember he was soaking them in what was probably vinegar (I'm not even sure CLR was on the market then?) and after 30 minutes of that he was over it.

He was an engineer by trade, and a pretty odd sort at that. (which again is another story for another time) He did quite a bit of his design work strangely enough when he was sleeping. He used to keep these little pads of paper and a pencil next to the bed and when he would wake up in the morning he would sketch down all the things that he had designed the night before. Well after that night he came out with a design for a mister that wouldn't clog no matter how much calcium or debris was in the water and was maintenance free. He went home and drew it up on his drafting table, and in no time flat got a small building and started tooling up. It was a weird looking thing that I won't pretend that I could understand when I was a kid. I used to call them Canary Killers. Because it looked like a small bird cage with a spinning fan in it. Anyhow as kids we would go down to the building and there was a small production line setup, and me being 4th grade probably, would help to press fit the disc on the shaft of the motor, or the fan on the other end. We'd bend the supply copper supply line in the jig, or install them on the cage. It was all just kind of part of a small family business (which was extremely different then the large businesses that he had previously). I used to bitch and moan about it, but looking back now from what little I do remember of it I am glad I was able to learn somethings from it. The most important thing being I want my kids to take some part in a business that I do in the future as well. It teaches you things.

We went to a few tradeshows, and I even helped worked the booth and sell them to clients. At one of the shows I had sold quite a few of them and my dad said I should get something for it. He asked me what I wanted, and I told him that a few isles over they were selling these "modems" and I wanted one for my computer. I remember him laughing and saying "Are you sure that's what you want?"

At the end of the first summer the sales dwindled because who buys misting systems when it's cold out? I can't even remember how long it was in business for now (I'm guessing 2 years?), but I remember my dad telling me "Screw this.. If I'm going to go back to work, then I'm going to go back to work." Basically meaning as cool of a product as it is, the market just isn't big enough to justify working this hard at it.

So swinging around to our nightime Topock run from the other day. A few years back I ended up selling Chet all the remaining inventory that I had of those misters from decades ago. I showed him what they are, and how they work, and he didn't skip a beat when he said "I'll take all of them." I hadn't heard much since, but a little while back I heard they were building some structure to put the misters under. While we were up there I noticed a new structure along the bar that overlooks the water. I told Stacy "I think this is the one that they are building for those misters I sold him."

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Well I got a text from Chet day before yesterday. Saying "your dad would be proud."

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Truth be told my old man probably wouldn't have cared less at this point, as once he moved on from a biz he never looked back. As for me? I'm VERY PROUD that my old man has some small mark on Topock 66. I'm looking forward to going up there as soon as I can to check out the installation and making sure everything is working perfectly. :)

RD