beBetter 

What a beautiful day on Eagle Lake with my fishing buddy Bruce. The sun has peeped out and we have a slight southwest breeze blowing about 6 mph. I’m smiling as I’m looking into the live well where we have put 19 slab crappie over the last few hours. I’m adjusting the depth on my Live Scope as we are moving around to locate another spot holding baitfish. Today, our pattern has been finding big crappie just beneath the schools of baitfish in about ten feet of water.  

When the weather starts to get cold, heaters crank up and I spend time at deer camp where the water is hard and my skin begins to get dry. After five days at camp over Thanksgiving, I’m worn out and headed to bed early. Last thing I do is put some lotion on to help my skin because I know CeCe will ask.

A few weeks ago, we discussed the importance of getting off-road more to see and find our clients new and changing needs. In essence, doing many things that we haven’t done before. It requires us to get muddy, get a scratch or two and even assess what we are driving as a firm. Are we getting off-road enough?

As we come upon one of my favorite holidays, Thanksgiving, it always helps me reflect on how much I have to be thankful for.

We are still experiencing the waves of disruption caused by the hard trend of baby boomer retirements. Companies and firms are feeling the void as they watch the mass exodus of knowledge, wisdom and experience walk out the front door into retirement. This baby boomer hard trend, as all hard trends do, provides us opportunities also. Besides the opportunities for so many team members to step up in roles and grow exponentially, we have the opportunity to listen and learn as these valuable team members hang up their cleats.

As we watched the first two episodes of the new season of Yellowstone, you could hear a pin drop. Season three ended on a cliffhanger with multiple lives hanging in the balance and finally, it was time to get some answers. I’m not going to ruin it for those of you who haven’t caught up yet. But if you haven’t seen this series, my advice is to start at the beginning and turn off social media. 

We just checked into the Old Edwards Inn in Highlands, NC, and the rain is pouring down. In fact, it has poured for the last three hours since we landed in Charlotte and started our drive over.

CeCe and I have signed up with a group of friends for an outdoor excursion that involves riding in all-terrain army vehicles, hiking and some mountain top sightseeing. Unfortunately, it has been raining cats and dogs for three days. We meet for lunch together before heading to the excursion and our conversations turn to the rain.

I’ve just finished lunch with my partner and good friend before he leaves for a week-long Disney trip with his family. He shared some of the activities they had planned and how some things had changed due to COVID. It sounded exciting for someone who loves Disney. (Not me, but my grandkids are anxiously waiting). I know I’m going again, but I’m holding out for fewer restrictions and for the younger ones to get a little taller. Hey, if you have to go, go when you can knock it all out — rides and kids!

CeCe and I have just landed in Charlotte, grabbed our rental car, and are headed towards Highlands, NC, which is a little more than a 3-hour drive. My Waze app tells us the interstate is SLOW in several places and as we look around, we are traveling about 20 MPH right now. So, I pull up an alternative route. It’s longer with many twists and turns, but it might get us there 20 to 30 minutes sooner based on traffic flow.

Finally, we are having some cooler weather. I make my way to our backyard to pull these five tomato plants up, throw them over the fence and stack my wire supports for next year. It’s going to be slightly more difficult than I had planned as CeCe has her Zinnias planted right next to them and in fact, they are intertwined and growing together. Now I know this is sacred ground as many of these are in full bloom, plus it saves us a little money as CeCe always finds ways to have fresh flowers in our home.

About once a quarter, I hire Tony to completely detail my SUV. He always comments on how dirty it is. Today will be no different as he drives up to pick it up. I know it is muddy as I have been over at camp and had it off on a trail looking to fish our oxbow lake.

Walking into the sunglass section of this nice sporting goods store, I’m stopping at the Costa sunglasses. As you know from previous blogs, I’m down to one pair and I really want a pair for driving and as a spare for my next moment of stupidity which seems to follow me around.