08/07/2026
A FOND FAREWELL!
Well, it’s been almost 20 years since I started at The Perfect Light in Houston. It wasn’t long after that, then I started Arizona Lighting design then over the years transition into Lonestar Lighting audio. With offices in San Francisco, Scottsdale, Tucson, and Houston, I’ve done countless incredible jobs and countless terrible jobs.
We were the first company in Arizona to install LEDs and landscape lighting. If not the first, very early adapters to using color in landscape lighting. And many wonderful changes throughout the decades.
I started back in the day when there wasn’t YouTube Facebook, Instagram, and AI to make websites. I had to use real cameras and no Photoshop and no touchups. There was no YouTube to teach me how to do stuff or to figure out how to on wiring. I know that sounds like an old man,, but you had to make your own mistakes and grow. But that’s what men were men. I love being a dreamer and trying to build what I dreamed. But to say that all 20 years have been awesome would be a lie. I learned and grew in character, my finances Eden flowed, but everything we did was fine!. I have met incredible manufacturers who built incredible product. I’ve used everything from Yari to coastal source I’ve seen incredible innovation over the years. When I started, we were hump Lighting par 36 lamps in plastic tubes. Now through years of innovation there’s color changing lights with IR remotes. There’s Wi-Fi and app controlled systems, one of my favorites is the module system that Patrick has built a designed, but to steal the old saying, everything has a place and there’s a place for everything. I was never married to wood product because every product needed to be specific to the client.
My body is tired. My mind is tired and it’s time. Over the years, many of you have heard me say this quote, “ they will come in time either you’re done with the Lighting business, or the Lighting business is done with you” I think time has run and both are happening at the same time.
There aren’t many guys like me left, and I’m honored to say I know all of you that are left. Tommy Herren, you are my nemesis in California and we became friends. It’s an honor to say I know you and see all that you’ve built. Greg, it’s been an honor to watch you do Lighting and I will still cheer from the stands as you continue to building incredible jobs on the East Coast.
It’s with much joy, my heart and peace in my mind, that I graciously bow out the back curtain and be a fun farewell. The Lighting business is all I’ve known for 20 years. Hopefully I have left my footprint and my fingerprint. But I’ve come to learn that my identity was it what I did and that’s just not true. I’m looking forward to the next season to just meet me.
Today we finish our last install, here’s a picture of the pre-finish… and I graciously bow out.
GOOD NIGHT.
