A Man, A Jeep, No Real Plan

Amazing Stories and Adventures

Christmas Letter

2022, The Year that’s best told in Pictures

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Some stories are best told in pictures. 2022 is one of them.

January 1st, 2022. The truck breaks down 125 miles from home on a 1000 mile drive. Sometimes the Universe speaks loudly.
In 2022, I still climbed on things that I shouldn’t have. Gravity is only a theory.
We also got a dog… the Cats did not approve this.
OK, 3 of the 4 cats don’t approve… Tubby is keeping an open mind.
Grant however found a partner in crime. If one goes to time out, the other does in solidarity.
Unfortunately only one of the criminals could be pressed into hard labor for their crimes.
Grant also got to enjoy some live entertainment this year. Jurassic World Live and Blippi The Musical!
Oh yeah, Grant also started Kindergarten. Here is the obligatory first day of school photo!
DRS started the year by running an 8 week long online course for USITT
We also were one of the Largest sponsors of their 2022 Annual Conference.
Instead of getting a booth at the conference, I opted to walk around with a bag of swag.
I also was featured on USITT’s Technically Speaking
DRS also was a minor sponsor of the New World Rigging Symposium
I also was featured by Technicians for Change during their Rig Safe Day
Things picked up in the summer and travel day Bloody Marias became a thing.
The first adventure was Eric Church for a week with Dad. His ability to sleep any where any time is impressive.
Then Dad got DRS sucked into Rolling Loud Miami. 3 days, 5 stages, 200ish acts, and 120,000 party goers. It was a thing…
After Rolling Loud I got to slow down a bit. DRS was the largest sponsor of the Midwest Rigging Intensive, and I did a 4 hour long seminar on rigging inspections, twice.
I also spent a couple of days as an instructor for the Jay O. Glerum Intro to Rigging Class.
My last big travel for the year was moonlighting for Post Malone. I was their Pre-rig Rigger from September to November. It was honestly the perfect schedule, DRS Monday through lunch on Friday and then fly out to Post Malone for the weekend.
Caitlyn continues to be hard to get photos of. She is killing it at work, and when her boss was out, she ran her branch for 6 weeks and they met all of the branch goals under her reign… something they don’t usually do.

OK folks, some of the things that aren’t pictured include:

  • DRS’s Gross raised 400% from 2021
  • DRS has added two new full time team members, Chris Berg and Bob Brown
  • Lots of weekends spent working as a local for 4 different IA Locals (no one has enough riggers)
  • Lots of training sessions for private groups
  • Lots of rigging inspections
  • Lots of Rigging Repairs
  • More than twice 2022’s gross already approved for 2023
  • Progress was made on the house, still not even close to done
  • A massive garden that got abandoned midsummer due to being too busy

I keep telling people I have all the right problems!

Christmas Letter 2020

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Merry Christmas all!

Time for us to take a look back on the year and share a summary of what we have done this year. My apologies that this is not coming out till 3 days before Christmas. I kept asking Tyler if he wanted me to write it starting like 2 weeks ago but no. Somebody was certain that he would have time. Also couldn’t get past the first line that included the fact that 2020 was a “dumpster fire of a year”.

Now while we all know that this is true, 2020 was a hard year for many in so many different ways. I would like to argue that 2020 was also a good year and had a lot of things to celebrate and be proud of. If you keep up with our blog you probably already know what we have been up to. From the hardship of Tyler losing his entire industry overnight, to potty training in a pandemic, all the way to me finishing my degree.

Tyler and I also got the chance this year to really connect and grow together. We’ve had to learn how to work as a team, how to compromise together, and how to raise a toddler together. We were blessed in that no matter what was going on in the world, even with the chaos, our home was our safe harbor. I had always heard of relationships where it was like that. Where it was you guys against the problem. Not you guys against each other because of a problem. My favorite thing about us is that we can be ourselves unapologetically around each other.

So let me try to sum up some of our biggest things from this year in just a paragraph or two. Tyler created a company with his father in our garage called DeLong Rigging Solutions. Grant was potty trained. Hallelujah!! I managed to finish my degree and will hopefully have a graduation ceremony next year. Tyler and I finally picked a venue for our wedding in July.

The three of us also got to go on some wonderful adventures this year. We piled into Jackson for a two-week-long adventure in Colorado. This was a wonderful trip and I have fallen in love with the Rocky Mountains. This is where I was able to rekindle my love of photography. We also spent some time in the Smokey Mountains this year. Tyler and I did a long weekend together camping. Then me and Grant spent a week down there with my family. This is what sparked my idea of us looking into getting married down at the Smokies!

Well, those are the main highlights of our year. Truthfully, if you want to hear more or get more details, go look through the blog. We give detailed accounts on the blog and they include pictures.

May you finish the year strong. Find those happy memories from the year and cling to those. Hopefully this was the year where you really discovered who your people are and are able to keep them close. May next year be a year of more good news than bad.

Merry Christmas from ours to yours!

Now go have your own adventure and tell us about it!

-Caitlyn, Tyler, and Grant