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June is always like that. You freeze your ass off all winter waiting for it, then its gone in a blink.
ITS HISTORY JOE, FORGET ABOUT IT, MOVE ON!
------------------ Steve Barba is the proud owner, president, & sole employee of Sturgis Sign Works. "B0LT" on the chat room thing. 209 Oak Drive Sturgis SD 57785 sbarba2616@dtgnet.com 605-720-7667
Posts: 768 | From: Sturgis South Dakota | Registered: Nov 1998
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Ive' been coaching two baseball teams this spring and summer. My two yongest sons are 12 and 14 and in different leagues. So I head coach for my 12 yr old and ass. coach for the 14 year old...
I have spent more time on the ball field than in the shop. My biz has taken a nose dive because of the distractions. Made some customers mad, AND lost more than a few jobs.
Before long, these last two kids will be asking for the car keys, and then I won't see much of them after that. Life works that way.
In baseball we ask a kid to sacrifice an out so we can get a kid home. In real life we have to sacrifice some time and opportunity to give a kid(s) a happy home.
Time has a way of slipping by. You can never go back and make up a lost opportunity with a child. In business, if you lose an account, you can get it back or get a new one.
I had the opportunity to become a product demonstrator at the upcoming sign show in Orlando, Florida this coming mid July. It would have interfered with the last few games of the baseball season for both teams.
After much soul searching, and corporation pressure, I politely declined. My kids are more important than the profit margings of any mega sign supply corporation.
I can only hope another opportunity will present itself to me at a better time period. Maybe it will and maybe it won't. But what will never leave my mind or my heart is seeing both of my boys hit in the park home runs, the joy on their face and the special bonding we developed in the past few months.
I notice the other parents dorp their kids off for practice or for a game, never stay to watch their kid, then always bitch and mone that their kid doesn't pitch or catch or play 1st base. They never practice with their kid at home, they yell at them when they miss an easy catch, while I am there to pat them on the back and put a smile back o their face. Their jobs are too important to be at all the games and to work with their child at home. Sometimes they are just too busy to get their kids to a ball game.
Then they seem to find time to curse at me when we lose a game. I got reemed hard by several parents this year. I was told I was a bad coach, we lost because their kid should have been pitching or catching and I didn't place him in that position, train him properly, yada yada yada.
In all honesty, I have a better bond with these kids than their parents do, and I think they resent that. It makes you really think about what is important.
Time keeps on slipping, slipping, slipping, into the future.....
------------------ Draper The Signmaker Bloomington Illinois USA
Get To A Letterhead Meet This Summer! See you there! 309-828-7110 drapersigns@hotmail.com Draper_Dave on mIRC chat
Posts: 2883 | From: Bloomington Illinois USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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I can sure relate to your baseball scenario. I don't coach but I never miss a game my son plays in. It's obvious that the kids whose parents stay for the games outperform those kids whose parents drop them off.
Last year I had to miss the International Letterhead Meet because the boys had a great extended season. And now it looks like I'm going to have to miss the Milwaukee Meet because my son's other activity, his rock band, will be participating in a high school battle of the bands at the local Buffalo Days Exhibition on that same week. It's a no-brainer for me to be a cheering in the audience but I'm sure needing a Letterhead Meet fix as well. Maybe Pat's meet in September. Sure looking forward to the Route 66 Meet you proposed. Is that still a possibility? God, I hope don't have a conflict for that one!
Happy Signing.....Marty
------------------ Marty Happy Signmaker Since 1974 Happy Ad Sign & Design Regina SK, Canada S4N 5K4
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You have your priorities right, Dave. If you think time is slipping away, time to access what is important. Some will look inward and find and fix the important personal relationships, and others will look to aquiring more. It depends what you value.
------------------ Wright Signs Wyandotte, Michigan Since 1978 www.wrightsigns.outputto.com All change isn't progress, and all progress isn't forward.
Posts: 2785 | From: Wyandotte, MI USA | Registered: Jan 1999
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posted
In my BC days (before Cody), I worked nonstop and had an employee to boot. My biz absolutely soared. Some big wigs wanted me to join forces with them. I chose not to join up with anyone.
When Cody arrived in our lives, everything changed because I wanted it to. Making bucks was ok if I had nothing else on the go. I now had the biggest most exciting challenge right in front of me. I switched gears.
Big wigs told me I was crazy to go homebased, that I should sell my company instead, or grow it to a higher volume to get the best selling price. Who said anything about selling it?!?
I didn't listen. I had my homebased shop built as most of you know. My main reason, I just wanted more access to my son. I didn't want to be away from him 5 days a week all day long.
The strange part is this. Biz isn't declining. I'm having to turn down work in order to spend the time I planned to with Cody!
I'm also ticking some customers off with some projects I turn down. IMHO, if I'm not able to schedule a project that's also convenient for me, I'm simply NOT INTERESTED. I do no midnight specials, no weekend work and take every Wednesday off, and sometimes an extra day here or there during the week if I can muster it. I had a family for a reason and I refuse to have my workload consume my family time completely.
Now what my post has to do with the month of June flying by so fast, I have no idea! I'm following Dave's lead. LOL!
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Well...let's see...... It started with a trip to Albany, NY....then on to Cornwall, Ontario with the Balch's for the WallJam meet, from there to Ottawa for three days, back to Cornwall for a day, then to Montreal and back to Albany where I did a mural for the Balch's before heading out with them on thier family vacation to Nova Scotia...where we traveled for 6 days...returning on the CAT (high speed catamerand) to Bar Harbour, Maine and back to Albany...from there i traveled by bus to Rochester, met up with Michael and Shirley Boone and spent the week at thier place out in the country where I did a mural in thier nearly 200 year old house before traveling West with them to the wedding in Buffalo before being wisked off to the airport to catch the three flights I would need to get me to where I am now in Detroit!!! WHEW Yeah...where does the time go??? Now we are into July....I still don't know when I will actually head for home! i think I'm going to Steve and Barb's next.....Yo Canada! A
------------------ Adrienne Morgan Splash Signs www.splashsigns.com "Rainkatt'on chat
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