Friday, July 29, 2016

Politics and politicians

Wasn't it Diogenes who walked all around looking for just one honest man?  After watching the two national conventions, I could not help but think of the definition of politics. With apologies to my friend, Allan, who is a former politician, just think about this. " Poly" means "many, and "tics" are blood sucking leeches; so I would have to assume that politicians are a bunch of blood sucking leeches.

I was astounded to read recently that John Kerry stated that our AC units were a bigger threat to us than ISIS. I stayed up three nights in a row watching my AC units. Not a single one of them brandished an AK 47 or made any move to behead me although one of them did sound like it was in its death throes as it tried to combat this heat and humidity down here. Does anyone know what planet John Kerry hails from? He looks a good bit like "Lurch" from the old Adams family dark comedy to me.

We continue to get much needed rains just in the nick of time at Riverview to keep our woods and feed patches looking good. The guys at the kennels tell me that bird dog and Cocker training is progressing rapidly, but we are only able to work our dogs early in the mornings at the moment due to the extreme heat.

Meanwhile, Blake is in charge of going through all of our jeeps from bottom to top. He will soon be finished with that, and we will repaint a few of them again this year. We like to start each season with no bird pellet marks in our jeeps. I've never quite figured out how a jeep looks like a quail to a few of our guests, but evidently they do. It is also the reason we have never been willing to send more than two hunters out on a jeep with a guide. A third hunter sitting on the jeep would make an inviting target for a hunter who loses his gun discipline swinging on a quail.

In closing, let me give you this quote from someone named Ben Witherington III--" God has revealed enough of the future to give us hope, but not so much that we do not need to live by faith." I have faith that this great nation will survive and prosper no matter who occupies the Whitehouse this fall, but it is only because I have faith in the American citizens. I have very little confidence in our representatives. I believe at some point, the silent majority will rise up and take back our great nation !

Thursday, July 21, 2016

Pearls of wisdom

No matter how old we get, wouldn't it be nice if we could just have our parents back for a little while to ask them a few more questions? And THIS time, we would listen to them ! What brought this to my mind is that Martha and I just got back from an annual four day meeting I have at the Ponte Vedra Inn & Club in Ponte Vedra Beach , Florida. Having been in the resort and service business all of my adult life, it's very difficult for me not to be critical of things that I see in the service business.

Well, these folks do it right, and always have. I watched how friendly and attentive the entire staff was from housekeeping on up. That kind of service does not happen by accident. Someone is constantly preaching and training on customer service to achieve that level of service. I'm always an early riser, and enjoyed watching the maintenance people adjusting the sprinkler heads at daylight  because the patterns of spray were not perfect. It is just one of the many things I observed, and is one of the reasons we have held our meeting there since 1994. We also have no intentions of changing locations.

That got me to thinking of so many of the things my parents taught me about the service business when I first came home, and thought I knew everything. I will never forget my Dad saying, " Son, don't worry about the big things. You will never let those big balls drop, but it's the little things that make a difference". Folks have a tendency to notice the little things more than you can imagine. I can't walk by a piece of trash on the ground without picking it up. When your employees notice you doing that, they will do the same thing.

Dad also taught me that the sweetest sound in the world was the sound of a man's own name. From 1971-2013, I could call every guest by name after meeting him. I would learn 32 names, three times a week, and call them by name when they walked in for breakfast. That's Cader IV's job now, and it's a good thing because I think that the hard drive on my brain circuit is full. If I could dump out useless information such as ," Mary had a little lamb, it's fleece was white as snow", I might have room up there to store more information. However, until they learn how to do a brain dump, my storage capacity is full.

From my mother I learned the importance of smiling and laughing. Mom told me years ago, "When faced with adversity, you can either laugh or cry. You might as well laugh because neither choice is going to change the outcome". I firmly believe people who laugh a lot live longer. And in the people business, you sure as heck need to learn how to laugh because some of the things I have been asked over the years reminds me of another of  my Dad's favorite sayings when frustrated with someone--" He's just breathing oxygen that someone else could have used".

But the most important thing that I learned from my parents, and the one that I fervently hope that I have passed on to both Cader IV and his two sisters, is that all of business is about relationships. Your customers have to know that you care about them as human beings rather than as just a potential income source. I told Cader IV when I was running Riverview that I wanted any guest who came here to think of my name when they thought about quail hunting. It was OK for them to think about Riverview in the next thought, but they needed to think about me as a friend first, and then his thought would logically flow to calling here for a hunting reservation.

I have been blessed to have the finest guests and friends in the world. They have taught me a lot over the years--including how to laugh at some really crazy questions and suggestions ! We are having a great summer, and hope y'all are also.

Thursday, July 14, 2016

The power of prayer

Before I start on this short blog, I will say that I remember a line from one of my favorite country music songs that said," Sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayers". I know that to be a true sentiment as I have prayed for some things that I did not need, but certainly thought I did at the time.

However, after keeping Cader IV and Heather's two children from Sunday to Wednesday afternoon, I am certain that God has answered one of my prayers from long ago. When Martha and I were raising our children, at least I found raising a son to be more difficult than a daughter, and Cader IV has two older sisters. Well, my dad told me that I had gotten exactly the son I deserved because he acted just like I did at that age.

So, I can remember looking at Cader IV many times when he was young and praying," God, please give him a son someday who will be as much fun and a challenge to him as he is to me". Well, after this time spent with Caroline and CB Cox V, I think that it's a safe bet that my prayers are going to be answered. Martha and I had a blast with both of them, and loved every minute of it, but I can see those Cox genes coming!!

Speaking of prayer, we are very dry here. I promised myself that I would never pray for rain again after the flood of 1994, and I have kept that promise. However, I did mention to Him that we are getting pretty dry down here in South Georgia last night. I am also beseeching God to raise us up a great leader for this nation. We need one now in the worst way !

Friday, July 8, 2016

Sctor Rotation

In financial terms, I would define sector rotation in this manner," Every stock that I have purchased has suddenly fallen out of favor while every stock that I have sold is suddenly on everyone's buy list". In terms of Martha and I , we define sector rotation as taking turns keeping one of our triplet grandchildren for three days at a time on a rotating basis. This week finishes up the final rotation with Nate being the third and last.

Poor Nate's luck has his week as being the hottest week of the summer. Our temp/ humidity indexes have been 103-106 during his visit. Since his Papa is , shall we say"mature", we have had to revise some of our planned activities. A lot of the things we planned to do, we were still able to do, and we have substituted swimming pool time for the others. Of course the swimming pool water currently feels like a hot tub.

Meanwhile the only happy employees on Riverview this week are the ones on tractors since all of our tractors are air conditioned. As I was riding around on the Polaris with Nate yesterday, he asked me," Papa, where is everyone"? Having years of experience as an employer in South Georgia, I told him that we would find all of the men where ever the most shade was. Since I know all of those spots, we soon located everyone, and I could not blame them a bit.

If there is a slow time at Riverview , it is from early July until the end of August. All of the sweet corn has been harvested, all of the feed patches are planted, and we basically get down to maintenance, and praying for rain. We could use a good rain at the moment even though we know any storms we get with this kind of heat will be violent.

And speaking of praying,let's all pray for the United States. I was watching the news this morning of the ambush and deaths of the police officers in Dallas. Folks we have enough problems with ISIS and Muslim terrorists. We sure as heck do not need to turn on one another in this country. We need to be united as never before !

Well, I need to close for now as I'm certain that I am about to get a text informing me that my buddy is up and ready to spend his last morning with his Papa.