Our Harrowing Journey, Meeting Zach, Summer Concert Series Results, The Law of Change

“If you don’t get what you want, you suffer; if you get what you don’t want, you suffer; even when you get exactly what you want, you still suffer because you can’t hold on to it forever. Your mind is your predicament. It wants to be free of change. Free of pain, free of the obligations of life and death. But change is the law, and no amount of pretending will alter that reality.”

— Socrates

Snowmageddon 2020, as if this year did not have enough weirdness, we are sitting with about 7 inches of fresh snow outside; it’s beautiful, but come on 2020, it’s only September!

We worked at the house until 3:00, headed down the hill to meet Zach, a new friend that was referred by another friend. We met at his wives’ restaurant; the service was excellent, the food was equal, and the drinks were Denver quality.  We knew when we left, the roads might get bad, we underestimated the extent of the snow. 

As we headed back, we got an alert from our community Facebook page; there was a large semi-truck blocking the way up to our road.  We didn’t know another way around, so a young lady in a purple jeep was turning around; I asked if we could follow her up the back way, she said, of course, and we began our new route home. We drive a Toyota Forerunner, we put it in four low and still slid our way down and up the hills to our house; it was harrowing.  We made it home, thank you, purple jeep lady.

I whipped up some quick supper; we dined, had a little wine, and settled in to watch a  couple of episodes of Yellowstone (strongly recommend). We made it to bed by 9:30; we both slept well. My Queen just took a client call at 6:44 a.m. our time; we answer the phone 24/7/365.

Joe Rogan started broadcasting from his new studio in Austin, TX. The studio looks fantastic, no more headphones; it seems like something from Star Trek.  His first guest was the podfather himself, Adam Curry.  Curry was a VJ on MTV when I was a kid and is now an entrepreneur building the platform for Apple to allow the free distribution of Podcasts. It was an interesting discussion; I thought Joe was a little too silly; I understand, I get silly when I’m excited. They talked about cryptocurrency, a possible theory about the pandemic, and many other exciting topics.

We listened as we drove to meet our friend, a 50-minute drive one way, that’s a drive we used to make daily, now it’s reserved for special occasions. I’ll be working from here all day, all meetings are virtual, happy to meet in person, but my question is always, why about a virtual meeting? We met with Zach in person because we first did a virtual call a couple of weeks ago. Zach is smart, accomplished, and motivated; we needed an escape after a long “snow day.”

Operationally, we have some work to do; we are working towards reopening our offices, rotating our staff to meet the needs of our customers that want to return to a physical office. I think this is a passing phase; remote work is the future of our company, but bringing the staff together for a little team building is high on the list; it’s been a hot minute since we were together, time to get the band back together!

Our road was opened about 2 hours ago, meaning the primary way to our home was closed for about 10 hours, it’s another extra ten minutes the back way, and it is again a word I don’t often use, harrowing to get home slipping and sliding. Our kids are coming out today to do some work, run some meetings; hopefully, the road will stay open, and we can get them here safe.

A friend asked me about our summer concert series; he had a band and a non-profit; I learned we are only doing a summer concert series, but we raised over $5000.00 for local charities this past season.  Scott, you guys are up first next year, Dakota will coordinate. Thank you for the idea.  

I thought it an interesting quote from Socrates. It resonates because we are living in a time of extreme change and reprogramming. Many folks are living in fear, afraid to resume life while others are throwing caution to the wind, and living freely. I don’t judge either option, I’m more of a freedom-loving fellow, and this passion for freedom has served my Queen and me well since the pandemic.

The key thing to understand is that change will always occur. You are not living the same life you were five years ago, your life has changed, and if you don’t recalibrate from time to time, life can get boring and or messy. We have to reread the rules of life as things like pandemics and elections occur. The current set of rules will be different in six months, I promise, you might not recognize the world in that short period, I might be wrong, but a major change is coming.

Adapt, pivot, enlighten yourself about new and differing streams of revenue. There is so much opportunity right now to thrive, drive, and not just survive, but grow, but you must get your head into the game and start playing at 110%. The rest of the world is lazily sitting home, waiting for their overlord to tell them it’s time to return to normalcy; why wait, the time is now. There is work to be done, do your part, give of your skillset, adapt to the changes forced and unforced, be your best self.

“If you don’t get what you want, you suffer; if you get what you don’t want, you suffer; even when you get exactly what you want, you still suffer because you can’t hold on to it forever. Your mind is your predicament. It wants to be free of change. Free of pain, free of the obligations of life and death. But change is the law, and no amount of pretending will alter that reality.”

— Socrates