As Summer Closes the Fun is Just Beginning

Oh boy, the unofficial last holiday of summer is upon us. Labor Day has come to be known as the end of summer and leads us into the fall. Cooler mornings, crisp evenings, the US Open, and the start of college football. For us in Florida, most of this is true. The cool mornings and crisp evenings are a bit off, but nonetheless, fall is right around the corner. What does all this mean as the dog days of summer leave us?

There are a lot of fun things coming up. If you have kids, you have about a month to prepare for the fall festival season. Right after that comes the Halloween experience. For some it is meandering around the neighborhood, or maybe someone else’s better neighborhood, or hitting up the local trunk-or-treat. High School volleyball is in season and the high school football teams are deep in their seasons. College football teams and their mass amounts of alumni and ravenous fans are clamoring for tickets to the big conference games, and hunting seasons take up the other free times.

Yes, there is more. As soon as Halloween comes and goes the focus becomes turkey with all the trimmings. Thanksgiving, the holiday where families overindulge, watch a parade, then pretend to watch football while sleeping the afternoon away. Sometimes, we even eat leftovers in the evening and we don’t skip the second piece of the pie.

There are many other things that make the fall a great season. The leaves in the mountains and up north begin to change. I think about driving a sports car through a winding road and the leaves twirling up behind me. Wearing a sweater and looking appropriate, drinking a hot chocolate around a campfire during an evening gathering, and having a few pints at an Oktoberfest. I think fall and spring may be the best two seasons of a year. Summer is pretty awesome but that is because there are just some incredible sporting events all over the world during that time. Fall is a fun time. That word, fun, is just going to stay close in my mind for a good period of time.

Enjoy the weekend, thank either Matthew Maguire or P.J. McGuire, yes there is an argument who started this holiday, for wanting to honor the unions with a day. It took awhile to make it a federal holiday, but it really doesn’t matter who started it. For many around the country, it is an extra day off to have some fun. For us in Polk County, it appears it is an extra day running around on the UTV, according to all the trailers I saw heading east this Friday afternoon. Have fun, enjoy the family, and realize that fall is right around the corner and the best or second-best season of the year is almost upon us.

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Still Trying to Figure Out What I Want This to Be

Have you ever seen someone and thought, “What makes them tick?” Well, I do and that is what I am hoping to do over the next few years. I would like to interview people that I find interesting and then share what I find. There are going to post about the former players, people who made a difference in my life, and then those I just find interesting.

If I can video the interviews I will figure out how to integrate them here. If not, I will make sure they are accessible. Others will be old-fashioned transcribed interviews, and others will be synopses of time spent observing the person.
The fun part for me is multiple types of people are intriguing. I have enjoyed having a wide variety of people cross my path during these 46 years and now I want to learn about them and share the insights that they may give.
That is all for tonight. The house is now filled with my lovely family, so I am going to enjoy the rest of the evening with them. As Grant Cardone says, “Be great because nothing else pays.”

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It is Raining: Are Things Growing or Stopping Your Plans?

It was a dark and stormy night in Babson Park. Oh wait, it is dark and stormy, but this isn’t a horror story. This is just a thought about time and the continual passing. Rains come, and rains go. Sometimes it rains a lot and then other times it seems that it will never rain. We get frustrated when it rains too much, most of the time it’s because we have things we want to do. Oh yeah, it stops raining and then we fuss because it is hot. It is hot because it is August and summer. For some reason, this reminded me of passing time.

How many times have we heard people complaining about things that are going to pass, have passed, or cannot be controlled by how much, or how little we complain about them? Yeah, me too. More than likely, it has been me as well. Time is awesome. It is here then gone. Unlike the lost dollar that can be earned back, stolen, or even scammed back, time is gone never to return. Events happen, and they are either good or bad 99% of the time. It is rare that an event is completely non-consequential.

For many years we have been told that each action has a consequence. Most of the time we think about the negative ones. Why is this? If each action has a consequence and 99% of our actions are either positive or negative, wouldn’t that mean that a positive action will have a consequence just the same? I truly think so. All of this goes to the negative mindset that most people have by default. It is simply easier to see the negative than to search for the positive. Don’t get me wrong; there are some bad things that occur and for the life of me I cannot find the positive at all. For other things though I think it is just easier to see the negative around us.

Many people walk around acting like bad stuff is happening all around them. I have asked many of them how their day is going. Rarely do I get told that they got shot, hit by a car, lost their house to a fire, were mugged leaving the store, and on and on. Most of the time they are fine. Yes, they are complaining because someone gave them bad service. That one irks me as well. For goodness sake, if you don’t want to do the job that you chose to do at the highest level then just quit. I know, you are making minimum wage, but I think you knew that when you were hired. Do a great job, put a smile on your face, and do your job, the one you were hired to do, the best you can do. Oops, I digressed but people complaining about having a job just isn’t what this country was founded upon.

Time is the one thing that we have, should cherish, and should maximize as it can never be replaced. I have wasted my fair share and do not speak from a pulpit above the fray. I speak because my daughter is getting to an age that she will create empty nest parents in a few years and I have missed a lot of time with her. Now she drives, has a full schedule, and is giving us the practice we need to prepare once the inevitable comes around. This timeframe that is now available is one that must be cherished when it can be and when there is separation the positive times will fill the void. For sure it could be sad, but really it is another happy moment.

Do me a favor, as you move around tomorrow, count how many good things happen, how many bad things, as told by your favorite media source, and then just how many moments really aren’t worth much at all. Unless you live on a medical television show I doubt the negative truly outweighs the positive. Have a great weekend and it appears you might need your slickers.

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Just Looking Beyond the Curve

Well, my blog took a bit of a vacation. Maybe a semi-retirement. Heck, it could have been pure laziness. Whatever the issue, there is a lot of stuff that bounces around in my head and this space allowed me the option of getting rid of it. Therapy is expensive but since I already pay for internet and have a working computer this seems way cheaper. I used this time to talk about great experiences I had, players that mattered, and they all mattered, and just random stuff that I saw or witnessed during my days out galivanting around. There are still over twenty players to write about, life has had some fun and interesting twists, and I just have a lot to say.

Since I left FSC many things are different. Many of my former players are making their way through their careers, others are knee deep in the next degree, some have gone the distance to acquire, or are acquiring terminal degrees, and others are still working on finding their passion while finishing up at FSC or another school that fit their needs. Our own family has gone through transitions as well. My daughter is now driving, today was the first time in sixteen years that Michelle or I didn’t have to arrange her transportation to school, and to add to that the Pod has chosen to go the dual enrollment route her last two years of high school. This is exciting and nerve-racking. When she graduates with her high school diploma she will also have her AA or be a semester from that goal. Not a bad option for kids these days. They can go to normal high school, do early admissions, dual enroll, or even do collegiate. There still are AP classes and the IB program. Dang, when I was in school we had DECA. Things sure do change.

The Beyond the Curve blog was something I just wanted to do to free my mind. The name is derived from racing jargon. Racers look through the curve. Your eyes take you where you need to go. Where the eyes go the vehicle follows. Brianna rides horses and her coach has told her to look through the corner. She uses this reference to aid the rider to look where she wants to go while going over the jump. As soon as she lands wherever her head is the horse heads that direction. The Beyond the Curve idea is useful for many things. In the real estate world, you never know what will be around the next curve. The blog is still going to be my thoughts, ramblings, praises for former players, and now stuff that makes real estate tick for me.

Tonight, I will close with this: Call your family, check in on a friend, and love your kids with all your heart. They are the ones that will be there when you need them. Have a great Tuesday and go make someone’s day special!

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