07/08/2026
It's been a minute since I posted last - here's the latest:
First, the AI receptionist is gone. I feel like Theia was the opposite of our people-first vibe; and I noticed it seemed to confuse more than it help. So I deactivated it. Leave us a simple voicemail, we'll call you back.
Our second round of house-party summer leagues is tonight, 7/8 at 6:30PM. Bobbi has the previous game's stats loaded into BLS, and we can print your standings for you now. I can also export that data and stick it on our digital screens... so be on the lookout for that sometime next week.
We have our v1 laser-light bowling up and running. It looks really cool if I say so myself - but I still need to add:
- LEDs
- Blacklights
- DMX / DJ lighting control
Finally: I'm looking for a new day job to keep things moving forward, and Bobbi has gotten one herself as well. I'll be honest... we're behind on a lot of things right now. This means a few things:
1. Come and bowl with us when and while you can. Our financial situation is rough. We intend to do everything in our power to keep things moving - but we can't promise miracles. Better to be honest about things than surprise anyone. So if you enjoy bowling with us, please come in at least one more time. I can't guarantee 90 days at this time.
2. No money = No staff = weird hours. It's just the two of us and some volunteer help. We didn't intend for it to be this way for so long. Honestly my disabilities and health problems got in our way more than anything; and I should have waited awhile longer to jump into this full-time. As we've battled health and equipment issues both, our hours have been super weird. This is not intentional, it's a side-effect of being a two-person band. I'll hire once I get caught up and stabilized.
3. While I'm searching for a new day-job, I'd like to offer my tech services to anyone who might need them. I'll be standing up my consultancy business while I conduct my job search - so be on the lookout for that if you're interested.
4. I've written a ton of new software for our bowling alley. We have a custom foul unit, league stats dashboards, lane scheduling utilities, and a number of other tools I've built to help us run more smoothly. I think you'll see a big improvement once I deploy them. Oh, this stuff also forms the foundation for some really cool-guy laser light shows we're planning in the future.
5. Lanes 1 and 2 have been offline due to scoring failure. Technically, Lane 2 itself works just fine... we just didn't think it was any fun to do math while you bowl. That's a $2200 replacement, thanks to the rampant power surges we finally squashed last month.
6. We're down, but refuse to give up. We're acutely aware that we aren't yet up to par in terms of what a really good bowling alley looks like. We've fought our facility and equipment the entire way, and now we're facing serious financial headwinds.
We're painfully aware that we aren't 4th Street, Town Pump, Besserman Bowl, Pana Bowl, Olde Bowl, Edison's or Bowl Haven. We aspire to achieve their quality, but... we need funds and staff to get there. I'm working on that, as mentioned.
We only ask one thing: give us the grace we need to get there. If you're coming in to judge our operation or give us a hard time, please skip us (for now) and visit one of our neighboring facilities instead. I would rather you spend your hard-earned money on an experience worth your time than sell you one you won't be happy with. On the other hand, if you're just in for a good time and don't mind a few glitches, definitely come see us!
7. Beer. It just goes with bowling.
I seriously cannot -wait- to get past this hurdle. It's going to be the first thing I do once I have stable cash-flow coming in. I'm ex-Army, guys... of course I intend to serve beer at a bowling alley. I hear you Dads - you just got done with work, you just want a cold one. Trust me, I get it. Like everything else, it's a funds issue.
8. We need pins, a buffer, and a less-broken lane machine. Our lanes need resealed at a minimum. This involves a wide squeegee and a ton of polyurethane. These things, plus some moving deck adjustments on the machines.... we should be ready for certification after that.
If possible, I'll pay a Brunswick-certified pinsetter mechanic to fine-tune everything once I'm back to work. We've finally got the machines to the point of "run each of the adjustments in the book and they'll purr like kittens." I'm very, very proud of this.
I think that's all the major stuff. Come see us, throw tomatoes and peanuts at me if you like. As long as you're having a great time, it's all worth it to me.
