More trials of life and I'm still building boards

Just when you thing you've got things undercontrol, expect the unexpected. If you've been reading my intermittent posts on this blog you would have read about my brothers trials with diabetes, totally out of the blue and in retrospect, his timing was pretty good. My timing was pretty good and we got him the care he needed and now he is doing great. Fast forward another month and a half and Jay is doing great, still needs his insulin, but he up to #170 and feeling good. As all this transpires, I am still finding time to build a board here and there and continue experimenting. The new boards are the best yet and have the MST husk technology which allows me to build a 3 dimensional base contour with a Ptex base and get all the curves right. Then back to my story, we have a great trip to San Onofre to go spend time with family and friends and surfing. Two days later, Anne has to check into the UCSF medical center ICU, her multi myeloma has mutated into plasma cell leukemia. After much soul searching, a roller coaster of emotions and $400K in medical, a good reason to have insurance for all of you who don't; Anne came home, after Chemotherapy, Leukopheresis, bone marrow biopsy, quinten cather, pic lines and a view of the city from her room. Having a loved one home gives me good reason to build yet another board. Tomorrow or perhaps the next day that would be 9/23 or 9/24 she goes back to UCSF for phase two of her Chemotherapy, then in another 3 weeks she gets to come home for another week. Beyond that there is the transplant phase and that will take another 5 months and we need to find a place within an hour of the hospital as she will be undergoing an Allogenic transplant, that is donor stem cells from someone else, hopefully a close family member will be a match. Between visits to the hospital, time alone at home, some of these boards may be my best work yet. Love your family, hug your wife, your kids and cherish every minute. Chief JG

Trials of life

As the days passed by, Jay afterall got better from his unexpected illness. It was one of those trials in life that test what you are made of and with alot of support from friends and family things turned out OK. Now that the tough part is over, we are receiving the bills from the hospital, interestingly enough, when you rack up a $120,000 bill without insurance, they deduct %90. That is still around $12,000. Another thing to consider when you are traveling is travel insurance, but don't let them fool you, the insurance is only good for the dates specified by the initial travel itinerary, if you make a change they don't carry the insurance over to the next leg of the trip, be careful of that.

I am home and I am ready to get back to building boards. With renewed excitement and a trip to TAP Plastics, I can get back to building the next round of MST Husks and Grellboards combo. The new boards are UHMW bases, with an epoxy, carbon fiber, fiberglass construction. The new boards are super strong, lightweight, wider to accomodate a real foot size and flexible the way a modern snurfer should be.

Meanwhile, here in California, it is hot, dry and we need water. People are changing habits to conserve water, the latest thing I heard today is in Cambria, they are renting portable toilets rather than use the water it takes to flush the household toilet. Interesting happenings, this is the stuff that makes California great, alot of innovation ahead.
CJG

Outta there

As each day winds down, I look forward to what the next day will bring.
Today is the day that my brother gets released from the Swedish Medical Center in Denver, Colorado. It all started on Monday morning, what a ride its been over this week. A full range of emotions, anxiety all mixed together. Now my bursitis is back and my right knee is stiff. So if that the worse of it I'm doing pretty good. Jay goes home tomorrow morning, a flight from Denver to San Jose, Costa Rica. He'll be in loving arms by 2:15 tomorrow afternoon. Its been great to spend time with my brother, I know he can't wait to get home.
I feel the same, I get to restart my trip west tomorrow afternoon, my goal is to cross the rockies. After that Utah, then on to California. My route is about 1278 miles. It should take me two days, my goal is to be at the house on Sunday evening. We'll see how that turns out. JG

Road to recovery

What a difference a day makes, we got to the Critical Care Unit at Denver's Swedish Medical Center to find my brother awake, talking and realizing that he is in the hospital. Most of you won't ever know my brother but he is one of the most creative artists around. I don't even know where to start but to say I am relieved, he made it through a tough emergency visit to the critical care unit. It came on gradually and fast together. I didn't read into his symptoms early enough  and could have prevented some of this, if I could do it over... Jay lives. That's the most important thing and soon he will be home in his beloved Costa Rica and I know the country will embrace him and take care of him just like the good people of Denver have.

Once again something came up and we tackled it head on and prevailed. For many of us, we will never know when, where, how or why, just move beyond yourself and reach out and get the job done.
JG

Prayers for my awesome brother

It all started out with Jay arriving at New York LaGuardia, I found him waiting for me at the curb. It is always a great day to see my brother and I knew that we would get to spend a few weeks together in Bridgewater as we cleaned out mom and dads house. As it turned out it was a lot of work and we managed to get it all done. We never had any disagreements and we got it done and were ready to leave to take mom and dads stuff home to California. This past Friday, we had done all the heavywork and manage to hit the road around 10 am. We drove all day and made it to Ohio. Day two we got up early and left Ohio and made it to Illinois. Day three was the tough one and I started out driving. I found we were stopping more often than usual as Jay needed to relieve himself more than what I thought was norma. Anyway, at some point along the way, I realized that Jay wasn't %100, so I took over driving with a destination of Mike Troppman's house in Roxborough Village. I managed drive most of the 800 miles to get us to our destination and when we got there Jay was wiped out.
He went right to bed and I figured that it would pass and in the morning he would be ok, that was my first mistake. He wasn't better, he was much much worse. We managed to get him out of bed and to the emergency room. The Doctor on call did a great job and the next thing we know he was in the Intensive Care Unit at the Swedish Medical Center in Denver. The told me that typically anyone with blood sugar over 1000, should have died. Jay managed to get through that especially tough part and his levels are now under 400. They don't know what caused this and will get to the bottom of it in the next few days. Lesson here is don't wait when your loved ones are really sick, if in doubt bring them to the professionals and those few minutes could save their lives.

Memorial Day 2014

Its memorial day and all day long I keep thinking about my dad and his service in the Marines and all the things has done in his life, I am blessed to still have my dad and mom around. They moved from Connecticut to California last summer after my dad had a knee replacement at the age of 86. It was a long rehabilitation and they ended up a couple of miles down the road from me. I get to seem them every week and enjoy their company. Dad misses Bridgewater, but realizes there is family here and thats important.
I also think of my Grandfather, William (Bill Grell). He fought in two wars, WW1 and WW2. He did incredible things and so of his exploits are archived in books and papers commemorating the contributions made by the likes of my grandfather. Bill, archived his life in photographs, letters to his mom, his exploits.
So yesterday I built a board in memorial of Bill and pulled it off the mold this morning. It has a sweet flex and now I just have to bring out its shape. So fun building these boards. Hope all of you enjoy the rides.





Commemorative Grellboard for my Dad and Grandfather on Memorial Day 2014.

grellboards.,com

On May 7, 2014 we launched Grellboards.com.
It will  be and adventure that will fill the rest of my lifetime.
For all of you who have supported my project and continue to drive me foreward, thankyou.
I built 149 boards leading up to the launch of the new website. They are now all worth $1000 each.
If you have one congratulations. The good news is that the new boards will be the price as shown on the site, until we raise the prices. In the meantime if you really want a board contact GRELLBOARDS distributor at Wave Rave in Mammoth Lakes.
More to come. JG