returned to the islands and built my first business, Good Guys Auto Detail, and got to work. After several years I managed to create a reliable source of income, and at the recommendation of my 64-year-old window tinter, I flew to Houston, learned how to spray truck bedliners and industrial coatings, and opened Armadillo Bedliners out of a tent in a self-storage parking lot. In year one I sprayed 31 trucks, wearing nothing but board shorts, a tank top, and flip flops. I often left the lot after 12+ hour days, covered in black like a chimney sweep. One evening after work I’d gone to the local 7-11 and was sitting on the curb outside, enjoying the warm evening air and a sports drink. A girl walked by, and, thinking I was homeless, handed me a dollar! I don’t know why but at that moment I decided it was time to open a real storefront with a real name. Three months later I opened Hawaii Spray Lining, LLC. In 2014 we sprayed 388 vehicles, and put two of our three competitors on the island out of business. This also led me to create Liquid Floor Hawaii, which focused more on industrial coatings, and with that we worked on projects like The Honolulu Rail, Monsanto Fumigation Chambers, car dealerships, several fisheries, secondary containment fields, and more. My former partner that I ended up selling the business to in 2020 even ended up spraying the floors of both movie theaters at Pearl Harbor to the tune of several hundred thousand dollars—in retrospect maybe I should have kept a hand in that business! I’d met my son’s mother at this point, and our relationship was rocky from the start. As the differences grew, rather than parting ways, we did what every couple with problems seems to do, and got pregnant. After our son was born, the arguments intensified, and in a last-ditch effort, we decided it was in our son's best interest to move to Pennsylvania, where there would hopefully be less transience, and more opportunity for her job. I started a similar coating company here, that failed after two years, and then when I tried to start a bathtub refinishing company, I
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