Tripping with my Queen, Queens Gambit, Learning Chess at an Early Age, Reflecting on 2020

“The real man smiles in trouble, gathers strength from distress, and grows brave by reflection.” Thomas Paine

Greetings from Columbia, Missouri. We are in the basement of a woman named Candy’s home; it’s charming, we have our own entrance, Parker Van Halen has a fenced back yard to run her program of sniffing and chewing on walnuts. There is a fireplace warming the space, a Pac Man video game to my right.  We watched a movie on Netflix about a young lady and chess. It’s called Queen’s Gambit, a good show if you are looking for something new.  

This home will be our second stop from Denver to Indy or our first stop from Indy to Denver; it’s a 5 hour and 25-minute drive from our Indy home; we have figured out that we can take 7 hours a day over three days to traverse the space between our houses.  It’s an excellent road trip; we stop, get coffee, gas up, let the dog out, we have a working routine. It’s fun tripping with my Queen!  I have refound my passion for tripping.

As a child, my aunt taught me how to play chess. I was maybe 7 or 8, I then introduced my friends to play, and we had tournaments in elementary.  Since I was a “master,” I usually won. It was the one thing I could do that my friends couldn’t do better. I was average in sports but very good at chess. I think chess taught me at a young age how to consider 2 or 3 steps ahead. When my son was young, I taught him the game; we spent a few nights playing. I hope the game had the same effect on him as I; he seems like a bright young man. If you have young kids, teach them the game.

We bought an ORVIS crate to transport the pup; it’s collapsable, easy to carry, and fits in the back of our forerunner, another recommendation if you have a dog.  As I type these words, a bundle of energy is dancing all around the room. I let her out, she sits by the door, then bounces back in. We should have named her Mayhem.

We arrive back in Indy about 3:00 or so; we will not go home but to our friend’s medical office to get our antibody test. Until the vaccine is readily available, we will do the one thing to help protect our families and friends. We had them on the last trip home; it will be interesting to see if we retained our protection.

I’ve got a busy week of meetings, connecting with clients; it’s a busy time of the year. I’m doing some work on my new company, planning a marketing campaign to begin to grow my client base. I’m hiring to use one of our TTG teammates to help me get my Sherpa Brand fired up. It’s time to move this idea from a hobby to a full-fledged business. 

We are having a tree cut down at hour Indy home and keeping the stump. We are looking at various metal art pieces to put atop the stump. The clubhouse leader is a bust of a naked woman; we shall see what artist wins the prize of adoring our front yard with their art. We do have another piece in the front yard. It’s called Beer Money; it was bought at Grody’s Art in Muncie, IN. We were looking for a large piece, and this young lady had pulled together large amounts of old farming metal and called it beer money. It was $350.00 as best I can recall, and I sadly forget the young lady’s name, the last time I saw her, she was working at the famed Muncie Coffee house Caffernia.

The older I get, the more I appreciate art; as an “artist” penning my thoughts daily, I think we all can create something for others to enjoy. My Queen is a hell of a painter, but she doesn’t scratch that itch much; maybe once our home construction project is over, she can get inspired to begin painting again.  Her major at Indiana University initially was art; she used to draw nude guys and gals.  She discovered that it was not a financially viable career and switched to business. Thankfully for me, her art career fizzled; I doubt we would have met if she chooses art as her vocation.

The last thing she said when I got out of bed this morning was, “can you get her? I was up two times last night.” It was 6:30, I was awake, ready to roll, and so I got up and tended to our fur baby. I let her out, she did her business, and now we are sitting here waiting for Mom to get up and feed the beast. PVHT is now resting to my left on top of the crate mentioned above. As we like to say, she is a “good girl.”  When we say those words, she cocks her head left and right; I think she might understand English.

2020 has been a hell of a year. Maybe the most memorable of my life, it’s had it’s up, and it’s had its downs, but overall I like how we modified our existence to slow down and enjoy the fruits of our labor. I don’t see us ever returning to the flying once a week program choosing instead to slowly roll from home to home, sharing space with our dog. How did you look at this year, the rules, the loss of life and business? How did you fare?  I feel bad for many, and we are fortunate the company we created is pandemic proof.  Our sales are up this year over 2019, not a lot, but we grew in this unique time. Did your firm grow?

We are well-positioned for the future. We have built a reliable team, excellent policies, and procedures, and our operations manager is 30 years old, has been with us for 15 years, and is one of the main reasons for our continued success. He gets under the hood, messes with the dials, support our team, and is the end all be all to the quality service we offer our clients. I’ve said before, we have built a glistening machine; now it’s time just to turn the dials and push a button now and then to keep it humming along.  Cheers, I’m in a good place, and I hope this soup warms your belly; I’ll be back home tomorrow writing in my purple writing chair; I’ll share today’s adventure and whatever else is cluttering my mind.

“The real man smiles in trouble, gathers strength from distress, and grows brave by reflection.” Thomas Paine