We packed a newborn and a set of analyzers into an RV and drove to Sulphur, Louisiana. The RV was the first mobile laboratory. Our daughter Elizabeth slept in a suitcase in the loft. People later called her the suitcase kid. She was also the reason the work had a point.
BMR Associates grew on the Gulf Coast by doing what the submarine had taught me: find the trouble before it finds you. Preventative maintenance for plants that could not afford a surprise. In the 1970s the company reached about $500,000 a year. We had a custom trailer built. The air was one hundred percent humidity, and the work did not care.
A second daughter arrived. We named her Linde, after Linde Gas, one of the plants that had trusted us with their machines. Business and family were the same loft. That is what those years actually looked like.
This chapter is part of Failure Is Always an Option. The full book is still a free PDF, and the voice-over still plays on the book page: the book page