The Name

The story of the name "Red Sky Manufacturing Solutions" starts with a brain storm (pun intended). There were many names that were floating around. Turney Solutions, like Turn Key but more winding. From our address of course. Algonquin something, after the park I most frequent. Seemed to un-related. Some gibberish names using the initials of some irrelevant people. Corny. etc, etc. There were some better candidates, but alas they are lost.

Red Sky was always a front runner since it conveys a sense of good things to come. Obviously the saying can go both ways, depending on the time of day, but let's ignore that for now. The story becomes personal. My family and I were starting a canoe trip in Algonquin park. It has become a yearly destination for me, and all my kids had been there at least once before, however this was my wife's first trip.

It was early August in 2011, just as I was deciding to start this company. I am not sure what the weather forecast was, but going by past camping experiences that included both my wife and I, there was probably going to be rain. But a little rain never killed anybody.

Just after the only portage that would take us to our lake, as one of my daughters boarded the canoe, the skies opened up. We could see the line of rain, in large drops, as in approached from the other side of the lake.

The rain slowed at one point, enough for us to start paddling, but we didn't get very far before the buckets dropped again. Luckily, and I use that term in the loosest of ways, there was a bridge that we could hide under until the rain slowed. It was a very leaky bridge, and sitting in a canoe for half an hour is not fun, but the alternative was worse.

After the rest of our canoe in scattered showers we finally arrived at our campsite later that day. We set up our tarp and were ready for whatever came next. Unfortunately that was more scattered showers for the next 2 days. It never rained hard like it did on our canoe in, but the days never got nice.

Then on the third night, like it was destiny, at about sunset, there was a slight break in the clouds way off in the distance. Our campsite faced West, which was not entirely by chance, and we could start to see the sun. And as the sun set just below the trees in the distance, it lit up the clouds in the most brilliant red that I have ever seen. The sky was a crisp blue in the distance, but it was the red of the clouds that lit the world, and the water that sent the sky right back. At that moment I knew that tomorrow would be a good day, and that Red Sky would be the name of the company.

The next day was a good day. It was warm enough, and dry enough, for some of us to go swimming without being damp for the rest of the day. It was one of the happiest days of camping that I ever had. The next day, when we were to canoeing out, it drizzled on and off for the whole day.

My one regret is that I did not have a camera. But as my wife reminds me, it probably wasn't as good as my memory makes it out to be. So maybe it is better that the only image I have, is in my mind.

2015-08-26 Next Chapter

After a long and successful contract with one of the best companies I have ever worked with, I am now moving on to the next chapter of my career. It is always a bittersweet ...