[OT] I'm celebrating!

[Morris Dovey]

Neither gloat nor neener, exactly - but a milestone for my shop. Today I loaded a pallet with three of my passive solar air-heating panels and sent my first out-of-state order off to warm a home in Oklahoma for the next couple of decades.

I'm reasonably certain that at some point in the future today's excitement will strike me as being silly - but that won't happen for a while.

The semi driver seemed to get a kick out of the fact that I'd never shipped anything by truck before and that he was part of a /first/ of something - and he was tickled by the too-pretty pallet assembled with precisely-spaced and counterbored square-drive washerheads.

As he climbed into the cab he grinned and said: "Have 'em there in two days! See ya next time..."

Poetry!

-- Morris Dovey DeSoto Solar DeSoto, Iowa USA

[GeorgeCarlin]

Congratulations! Here's to a long, thriving trade.

-- Kurt

[Mark & Juanita]

Congratulations Morris! Hope this works out for everyone involved. This is the way we are going to solve our energy dependence -- one cost-effective solution at a time.

[mac davis]

Good on ya, Morris...

You'll be filling International orders some day...

Hope ya have a good tax person... *g*

mac

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[Robatoy]

I know you sell heat, my friend, but good-on-ya.

I have been in the transition between proto and market.... Man, you have no idea how much I am rooting for ya!

r

[Lee Michaels]

Congratulations Morris!

I will hoist a drink in your honor this fine evening.

You are one of the good guys.

[Leon]

[Lew Hodgett]

Morris Dovey wrote: > Neither gloat nor neener, exactly - but a milestone for my shop. Today > I loaded a pallet with three of my passive solar air-heating panels > and sent my first out-of-state order off to warm a home in Oklahoma > for the next couple of decades. >

Almost as good as sex.

Congrats, you earned it.

Lew

[Morris Dovey]

| Congratulations! Here's to a long, thriving trade.

Thanks, Kurt. It's been a long, slow (not very thriving so far) haul. I'm getting a bit too old to hope for long, but thriving would be good! :-)

-- Morris Dovey DeSoto Solar DeSoto, Iowa USA

[Morris Dovey]

| Congratulations Morris! Hope this works out for everyone | involved. This is the way we are going to solve our energy | dependence -- one cost-effective solution at a time.

Thanks! I think it'll work out well. I'm hoping that, for a least a few people, it solves the problem of keeping warm in the wintertime.

There are a lot more problems waiting to be solved - opportunities abound!

-- Morris Dovey DeSoto Solar DeSoto, Iowa USA

[Morris Dovey]

| You'll be filling International orders some day...

Strange you should mention that... This sorta ties in with one of your threads - I'd been having difficulty with shipping. Seems like local trucking outfits aren't too enthusiastic about dealing with enterprises as small as mine.

I'd put off two prospective customers - one in Arizona and one in Canada - because I couldn't seem to get any traction on shipping until an outside sales person from an outfit called Unishippers stopped to visit one of my neighbors when I happened to be in their shop. I dropped in at their office and ended up talking to an eager new employee who said simply: "Tell me what you want to ship and where you want it to go, and I'll do whatever it takes to get it on its way in

24 hours or less." IMO, the world needs a few more like him.

I'm hoping that I haven't lost the two customers. If I haven't, my first Canadian order may ship in July. :-)

Much more "iffy", but I've had an inquiry about panels in shipping container sized lots for the Ukraine. An order like that would produce interesting (but *good*) problems.

| Hope ya have a good tax person... *g*

Well, it hasn't been an issue yet - but I'm hoping for the need. :-)

-- Morris Dovey DeSoto Solar DeSoto, Iowa USA

[Morris Dovey]

| I know you sell heat, my friend, but good-on-ya.

Oh here we go again... ;-)

The heat is free. It's there. It's been there. It'll still be there long after we're gone. I just sell a device to bring it indoors. I also try really hard to convince those who have the skills to DIY and drop all the hints I can (without cutting my own throat) to make it easy for them as I can manage.

For those who don't have the skills or don't have the time to DIY, I think I have a pretty good product for the price.

| I have been in the transition between proto and market.... Man, you | have no idea how much I am rooting for ya!

Thanks - it helps. I have a really difficult time turning off the engineer and activating the salesman. Usually by the time the time a prospective customer's eyes glaze over I can recognize that I've provided way too much detail. If I can get this operation to the point where someone else (not involved with design) is selling, I think the business will do much better. I'm probably my own worst impediment, and knowing that is sometimes discouraging.

-- Morris Dovey DeSoto Solar DeSoto, Iowa USA

[Morris Dovey]

| Congratulations Morris!

Many thanks!

| I will hoist a drink in your honor this fine evening.

An absolutely first class idea! I think I'll join you.

| You are one of the good guys.

I'm not sure about good - but sometimes I do get lucky. ;-)

-- Morris Dovey DeSoto Solar DeSoto, Iowa USA

[Morris Dovey]

| Cool, I can relate.

Yessir - I think it was mostly his confidence that there /would/ be a next time that felt so good. :-)

-- Morris Dovey DeSoto Solar DeSoto, Iowa USA

[Morris Dovey]

| Almost as good as sex.

It /was/ good - but I'm not sure it was _that_ good - but then again, I'm a much younger guy. ;-)

| Congrats, you earned it.

Thanks, Lew.

-- Morris Dovey DeSoto Solar DeSoto, Iowa USA

[Island Teak]

Hello Morris,

I ship from Canada to the U.S. and use Roadway (or their affiliates) most often. The rates vary considerably, but you should receive their standard

68% discount. If not, tell them you are going with UPS Freight if you don't get their best rate.

Be careful, especially from 'overseas' requests, like from the Ukraine. One scam is, at the last minute when the truck is loaded, the overseas payment arrives by 'certified bank draft' , which takes several weeks to clear. They will apply pressure to get your product . Just hang tight on the shipping until the coins are nestled neatly in your pocket.

Best of luck ...Ken

[Doug Miller]

Congrats, Morris -- hope this is the first of many.

[Mike M]

Congrats, Morris!!!

[Stephen M]

.....

- and he was tickled by the too-pretty pallet assembled with

They have recently become a favorite fastener of mine.... but the guy in the other end will probably not have made the conversion to square drive and be cussing and your %$#@!!! pretty pallet that he can't get apart ;-)

BTW congrats.

-Steve

[mac davis]

Morris... This is a dim memory from my days as a driver, but...

Talk to a few independent drivers and get the names of a couple of local "brokers"... They're the middle men between the shippers and the truckers and they almost always have either some space left on a truck or one coming back empty from somewhere...

Also, a friend claims that UPS also delivers crates and pallets, but I have no idea if it's true..

mac

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