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It is hard being on the road over 200 nights a year...away from your family, isolated in many ways. It definitely isn't for everyone. This blogs represents the thoughts of just one such person. Read along and find out if the road is for you.
This is my new blogchalk:
United States, Georgia, Gainesville, Unity of Gainesville, English, John, Male, reading, RE Investing. :)
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Saturday, December 27, 2003
Tracking 2003 and refocusing on 2004
Today is a day I have been looking forward to for a long while. While Christmas has been very enjoyable (probably because of the fact that for the first time in years, we actually stayed home), today is actually going to be a larger gift.
What happens today is that we don't answer phone calls, turn the tv off, turn on some music and recap/plan.
I just want some quality time together with Julie that we can count our blessings for what has transpired over the last year (what went right, what we could have done better, etc.) and then make a written plan for 2004.
Some of the things we are going to discuss:
- How long to work for Da Company?
-While I have a definite time table and date for moving on to the next adventure, I want to make sure that Julie understands fully the timing and ramifications.
- Moving to a new house
-The house we have is great. We are definitely going to keep it. While we can see the lake 150 yards or so from our back deck, I want to live on the lake if we are going to continue to live here.
- Moving in general
-We have built up a great network of friends here. Although both of us would prefer to live by the ocean, do we want to start over? If so, maybe we should move sooner and get the process in motion quicker. I must admit though, Julie will find it difficult to leave some of her friends here.
- Pool business
-Expand or just let it build on its' own? I have an opportunity to buy into a pool supply house, but how would this fit into all of our other plans?
- Real Estate business
- I am definitely going to go much harder at this for 2004. I have begun to run the ads, have ordered the signs and have the automated voice mail with scripts running. I am shooting for at least 6 properties next year, but am I shooting too low?
- Julie and her endeavors
-just lately, Julie has given some thought to opening a business of her own. I don't have a problem with that. She certainly supports me on what I want to do, but she also wants to go back to school. I want to make sure that both can mesh together.
- Other plans?
-Are there some other things that we want to get done? How much are we going to save this year? Things like that. I know there are a couple of things that I want to do personally this year and I am not sure Julie will want to participate in those as well.
So we are going to batten down the hatches and plan ahead.
I took care of some of the 2004 plans last night when I booked the last of the required flights to meet Platinum status with Delta. The benefits far outweigh the $200 I am going to put out for this flight. As luck would have it, the cheapest flight I could get before the end of the year was exactly the place I need to go on Monday to visit a client. (Hmmm...maybe Da Company might cover part of this????)
Oh yeah...I am going to be a more consistent blogger in the coming year. This blog is more important to me than I had ever thought. I get to do some rants, share my experiences (I don't keep track anymore of how many folks stop by to read, so I may be just talking to myself..LOL), and part of the planning gets done in this blog. I am saying at least twice a week is a reasonable amount with my schedule.
Enough for now.
posted by John Panico at 7:26 AM
Monday, December 22, 2003
I knew I wouldn't miss it this year...
Or maybe, I just love it when a plan comes together. Every year for the last 25 years or so (kind of dating myself here aren't I??), I have come to enjoy my annual Christmas miracle. Sometimes, I give them (they make you feel awesome!) or sometimes you receive them (not a bad feeling at all) and some years, you get to do both.
This is just such a year. But as usual, I digress. A little background on how this holiday ritual came about. Back in the early 80's, I was a proud owner of a Porsche 912. I loved that car. It was canary yellow and in my opinion, alot of fun. That is not to say that it was the most reliable vehicle (it wasn't), nor could I really afford to properly maintain it. But it was "the car" that I always had wanted growing up and when I had an opportunity to purchase one I did.
As for the miracle, I can remember the day like yesterday. I was doing my Christmas shopping at a mall in California. I had done the last minute Christmas Eve shuffle and really had come away with some good gifts for family and friends. I haul my bag of goodies out to the car and it won't start. Talk about your mood dampener. Worse yet, I really had just blown my wad on gifts and didn't have the dough to call a service, never mind fix it. It was getting late and the parking lot was emptying faster than a glass of champagne at new years.
Then from out of the blue, a guy came up in a pickup truck and asked if he could help. I said I wasn't sure. I told him that the battery seemed dead. He told me that he could help fix it. I wasn’t confident, but was willing to try. After all, I had folks who were waiting for me (long before you could let people know of your dilemma with a cell phone) He ended up pushing me up and down the lot a couple of times and finally it started. When I asked him how I could repay, he said I couldn't and that it was Christmas and for me to enjoy. Obviously, I was thrilled and to make things spookier, the car never gave me another problem starting until I sold it about a year later.
Well, with that act of kindness, I felt like I had just experienced a miracle. And somehow a tradition was born with me. Each year at Christmas, something happens (usually in my benefit I might add) that reminds me of my Christmas miracle. People have provided food and shelter when I neither had it or deserved it, I have folks show confidence in me that I didn’t have and a host of other activities that are truly inspiring. I know it sounds hokey, but it really is true.
This year, I had been so busy that I hadn't gave much thought to a Christmas miracle. After all, I was doing well financially at my job, my pool business wasn't as succesful as I would wish, but definitely was going to be around next year, the home buying was going well and I had some time on Sunday morning to finish off my Christmas buying. I would have had more time, but a cusotmer called on Friday and I turned in my vacation time and agreed to fly out early on Monday morning (I had to get up at 3:30) and was going to a party that night with Julie.
I decided I was going to forego church and finish my shopping. I pretty much knew what I wanted and was a couple of miles from the house when the Trooper started spitting and sputtering. I pulled to the side of the road, threw it in neutral and it seemed ok. Hmm.. dirty fuel I thought. I put it in drive and started down the road again. But I really didn't get too far when it actually got worse.
Immediately, I started thinking about how I was going to have to call Julie, either get a shuttle to the airport, rent a car and head back in the morning, or maybe just have her leave me at a hotel at the airport and have to exit the party early if I went at all. It is truly amazing what can go through your "alledged" mind in 30 seconds.
However, a guy in a truck pulled over in front of me. As I got out of my car, I told him thanks for stopping, but I think it is the fuel filter. He indicated it was much more than that as he could smell gas for the last half a mile or so. As he said that, I looked at the Trooper's hood and could see it was covered in gasoline. Now, I was worried.
I am not automobile mechanical in any way. He asked me to pop the hood. Heck, I hardly ever drive this vehicle (as it is used for the business) and had to look around for that. We both peered under the hood and although I knew most things I was looking at, I couldn't detect anything wrong. But he did.
My new, best friend immediately saw that the fuel hose had somehow slipped off (how does that happen anyhow??) He asked if I had a screwdriver. I went in the back and came back with one. He knew what he was doing and fixed it in less than a minute.
Unlike my original Christmas Miracle, I offered to pay him and he wouldn't hear of it. Nevertheless, I immediatley knew what had just transpired.
I called Julie on the way to the mall and left her a message that it had happened again this year.
On the way to the party that evening, our regular car started heating up. I had some concern, but near as much as Julie. I asked our host's husband if he had some anti-freeze. As luck would have it, he did have some and he let me have it.
As I left the party, I left a check for $50. I wrote on the description "anti freeze & Merry XMAS". This couple could use the money (the wife is our minister) and I know it was a miracle for them. I didn't leave it in plain site, but knew they would find it when they cleaned up and that would be a pleasant surprise.
So there you have it. My Christmas Miracle is in the books for this year with an "*". I got one and gave one. In both cases, I am the better for it.
Blog on!
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