Some folks like to getaway, take a holiday from the neighborhood

As an ultra professional sales person it is important that I get away from the 10am-3pm, 3 days a week of hard graft that I have to put in.  It is tough to find time to really kick back and relax, what with the golf games, wine tastings and obligatory corporate dinners at the local strip clubs.  Not to mention the trade shows that I need to attend in exotic places like Orlando, Chicago, San Francisco and Hawaii. Those are hard graft. I mean you can only talk about the ‘87 Merlots for so long before someone will start jabbering on about some new Pinot they discovered on a client trip to Nappa Valley. The sales profession can be a real pain in the ass sometimes.

It is important to getaway every now and again to recharge the batteries

As my close, personal, Billy Joel playlist suggests some people like to take a break to Miami Beach or Hollywood.  Personally I prefer to getaway from the big cities when I take a break to recharge – often times people will come back from a getaway and need to take a break to recover. Each to their own, I am not one to judge but why the fuck would you take a vacation somewhere were you cannot truly relax – I mean c’mon people.

I recently was fortunate enough to get the chance to recharge on a ranch near Nashville with 2 of my favorite people, 6 horses, 5 dogs and 5 cats. There was also quite an eclectic group that made the trip down for the first annual Halloween party at the ranch and they truly made the weekend awesome. Unfortunately there were a few telecom people so I tried not to talk to them as we all know how boring telecom people can be. The group included a lawyer who threw away his shingle and has written a couple of books, a CEO/craftsman, a travel agent (we all thought they were extinct), a person who worked for the Railroad and a Cowboy to name a few. Throw in a kiwi, a firepit, a few libations and you have the setting for a perfect, recharge your batteries weekend (you don’t always need a kiwi, but I am available as needed).

Getting away with a new group of people can be interesting. It only takes one dickhead to spoil the group; we were fortunate with the group at the ranch that we didn’t have any dickheads (unless it was me). Family vacations can sometimes be even harder to relax in than when you meet an entirely new group of friends, there is no baggage with new friends.  With family or old friends there might be issues that raise their heads, unresolved conflicts can sometimes jump to the fore after 18 pints of lager and sometimes a new partner can cause a fracture in the family/friend dynamic. I have been fortunate that my family is so mega awesome that that would never ever happen to us :)

Getting the right mix of people to take a break with is often even more important than the destination.

Sometimes a getaway can be as simple as just plonking down in front of the goggle box for a weekend of Netflix and Chill. Sometimes it might be a full day shopping at your favorite Home Depot, Target or Nordstrom’s (and then returning everything the next week). It might be as simple as a day drive to the beach or mountains or 6 weeks hiking the Appalachian Trail. Y’all should know by now what you really need to do to recharge. Now what y’all need to do is make sure you actually get to recharge. Sticking in new batteries may keep the device functioning but recharging batteries is generally more cost effective and better for the environment in the long term. Everyone can find time to recharge, sometimes it can just be a single quiet night that gives you what you need, however a long weekend is going to be more sustaining over the long term. A trickle charge is more effective if you choose the 12 hour option over the 6.

Find your happy place and recharge. Engines need maintenance or they break down or just stop, they may not need a complete overhaul but they do need relubrication on a regular basis. If you are fortunate enough to be invited away with a group of people, go. Remember, you cannot be invited to a reunion if you weren’t there in the first place.

Crap, I need to go, it is almost tee time :)

As always the majority of this blog is just a bunch of letters formed together to make words then randomly placed in sentences. Any offense to any person living or dead was completely intended and what the fuck are you going to do about it anyway Randy, you spineless dipshit.

So work hard, play hard and earn your inspiration

Happy Poets Day

Except you Randy, you can fuck off :)