Tyler

Well 2020 was a dumpster fire. No arguments there, but if life works on the “f@#k around and find out” theory, 2021 is the year we found out what we’re made of.

The normal type is me, the italics is the Pretty Lady.

I have had one hell of a year. As you may recall, in 2020 the entertainment world collapsed and after a few months of what we’ll kindly refer to as down time, I channeled my anger with the world into starting DeLong Rigging Solutions. 2021 is the year that I more or less forced the company to go from just an idea to a fully functional company. In early 2021 we launched One Shot Training, a free online training resource for people wanting to learn about rigging. In March we were one of the sponsors for the virtual USITT Conference. During the Summer we did our fist run of The Basics, an 8 week long weekly online seminar series designed to introduce individuals to rigging (we’ll be running it again starting in January through USITT). Through all of this we still managed to complete a couple dozen inspections, repairs, and training courses across the state. As a company DRS has done better than I possibly could have hoped for, and 2022 is looking to be even busier.

I also had one hell of a garden going this year. I’ve got 6 raised beds,  2 vertical gardens, 4 berry barrels, a half dozen berry bushes, 3 potato towers, and over 1000 gallons worth of rain catch that irrigates the entire thing. Add in my mobile chicken coop ad it’s 6 residents and I am quite proud of my attempts at a slightly self-sustaining life style. I know my canning, dehydrating, and other tasks have started to annoy Caitlyn, but I think she is too afraid of what the next hobby will be to say anything about it.

My Turn! This year I am the one who is waiting till the last minute of writing the Christmas letter. This is why we work together. 2021 was definitely the year that we found out what we are made of. The building blocks were falling into place, and it makes me so excited for 2022. I love doing life with Tyler. We like to joke that we are a power couple but when we start listing all the things we have done and accomplished just in this year, let alone since the beginning, it really is hard to argue with that statement.

 I graduated from Ivy Tech. Hallelujah!  Got a full-time job at a small local credit union that on my second day there I found out that they were merging with a larger credit union. Where I got a promotion to teller supervisor and am now in the process of loan training to become a loan officer. I am so incredibly blessed and thankful for the new credit union coming in. The work environment did a 180, I have coworkers who are my second family and a manager who has taken me under her wing, training me to take her place one day. I have a job that I love and a career that I can make a future out of.  Took a huge step towards making my mental health a top priority by starting therapy.  We also got married! What an absolutely beautiful day it was. Everything about the day was perfect for us. Walking down the aisle, saying vows, and the bliss of being in the Smoky Mountains my favorite place was unbeatable.  Then left the kid with family and enjoyed a week of us just doing whatever we felt like doing.

Grant has just been a long for the ride. He turned 4 and we had a great day at the park with family. He continues to learn daily and is very excited to start kindergarten next year. I think he wants to read just as badly as I wanted to learn when I was his age. As I just had to stop typing this in order to read him a book. All around he is a typical 4-year-old who loves chicken nuggets and thinks bedtime is the end of the world nightly.

Well Gang, that’s a very short summary of our year. So, from our family to yours, HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

It has been noticed by more than one person that I have been quiet since getting back from Colorado… Well, I have embarked on a new adventure and the time has finally come to make it public knowledge. I have registered the LLC, filed D.B.A paperwork, went through several drafts for boiler plate contracts, done market research, created a business plan, got drunk with my father while discussing the business plan, started a business bank account, secured the correct types of insurance, had a website built by SaltGlow Media, secured all of the social media handles, all while working as a third party contractor for another company…

So, without further ado, I am pleased to announce that DeLong Rigging Solutions (DRS) is a thing. We are offering both on-site and off-site consulting, rigging inspections, training, designing/problem solving, and third party crew supervision.

What the hell does all of that mean? I have spent most of the last 2 months figuring out exactly what DRS is. The entire premise is that there is a lack of qualified riggers out there answering questions and doing inspections without trying to sell you something. The priority at DRS is making sure our clients understand exactly what is going on with their systems. It doesn’t matter if you are just trying to figure out what the new sound is you hear when you’re bringing in your LX baton, or if you are doing an entire renovation of a theatre and rigging is Greek to you, we are here to help you.

DRS also does both level 1 and level 2 inspections in accordance with ANSI Standard E1.47-20. There are literally thousands of small theatres out there that either don’t know, or do know and think they can’t afford to have the required yearly level 1 inspection. We are going to reach out to these venues and not only offer our services, but educate them on the ANSI/ESTA standards so they are empowered to keep everyone in their facility safe.

As part of this commitment we offer custom training sessions at DRS. That’s right, we aren’t going to just give you a cut and paste training. We are going to train people on their systems in their venues. it doesn’t matter if they just need a refresher or if they have had a complete turn over and trained from scratch, DRS is ready to facilitate.

DRS is also ready for your hard to solve problems. Are conventional rigging methods failing you? Let us put our vast knowledge, collective 50+ years of experience on 5 continents, and love of “out of the box” thinking to work on it. Solutions is in our name because we are committed to collaboratively finding one with you.

Speaking of collaboration, DRS also offers third party supervision. Do you need oversight of and coordination for an install contractor, coordination/scheduling between a general contractor and a theatrical rigging subcontractor and/or direct supervision of local labor during either of these scenarios.  We have you covered. Have you ever had a moment when you realized that your team needed some outside support. It doesn’t matter if it’s a complex load in for a road show or a permanent installation that is more than it first seemed… We are more than happy to bring our experience running crews all over the world to your project and collaboratively guide your team to a successful completion of the project.

And now that you have all suffered through my informal sales pitch, here is the other reason I am so excited about this. I have partner in this endeavor. John DeLong, the man, the myth, the legend. The man who downplays his resume, and just happens to be my father, has agreed to come onboard. So now the company is run by not one, but two dual certified ETCP Riggers.

So, what are my next steps with this venture? Well the first thing is asking that all of you click at least one of the links above and check out the site. The more people who look at the site the easier it’ll be for search engines to find it. Once you’ve done that, go search for DeLong Rigging Solutions on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. The final thing I’m asking people to do is make an introductions! I am about to hit the ground running on building up a client list, so if you know someone who runs a facility that has a theatre, send them my way. I am looking at schools, colleges, community theatres, regional theatres, road houses, if its a stage with some form of rigging, introduce them to me. I am also reaching out the various production companies in the region and making sure they know about our services. So I guess one could say my next step is to peddle my services and see where this goes.

Hello All!

So there are a lot of things changing in the coming weeks with A Man, A Jeep, No Real Plan. There will be a brief break in content while we get everything squared away. 

The website is getting an overhaul courtesy of SALTGROW MEDIA. It’ll still have the same great content you are accustomed to, but it’s getting a new layout and all around facelift. I’ll make sure to let you all know when it goes online.

In a few weeks we will be adding an online store to the website for those of you who want to purchase our photography. It’ll be small at first only carrying prints of our favorite photographs, but with time it’ll grow. 

Also, obviously since you’re on here, we have set up a Patreon account for those of you who want to contribute on a regular basis. Please expect this to be updated frequently once we have everything up and running.

We may never be able to quit our day jobs to travel the world, but the more support we get, the more content everyone gets.

Enjoy the Adventures!