Being On Boater Time

Back in the 1980’s and early 90’s I worked as a manager in the manufactured housing industry. The Oakwood Homes operation I ran in Hickory and Statesville, NC was consistently in the top five when I managed it. Our top year we closed, set-up, and serviced 222 homes+ warranty work on previous sales. It was a very busy time.

In 1996, when I decided to return to real estate brokerage, it was also a busy time as contacts needed to be made, listings added to the MLS data base, signs to put up ( or take down), post cards to create, etc. And that year I began the Real Estate Feature of the Week for the Hickory Daily Record- a feature that continues as an advertorial, written from Yacht a Fun.

For the past 10 years my real estate work added home owner association and commercial property management . Right up to last Friday when the property management aspect ended- I was a busy man.

And, I was for the most part, in control of my schedule. If one aspect of the day was delayed, another project could easily be put in its place. Most of the work was indoors in air conditioning.

Now, Diann and I are at a wonderful marine maintenance facility and it’s hot. Too hot for a 62 year old to be laboring in it all day. So, we broke up our day and drove 15 miles to a CVS drug store and then visited an adjoining Food Lion.

It was during shopping for groceries at 1PM that I had a surge of anxiety. I needed to be doing something more productive than pushing a rolling buggy. I needed to be back at the boat working. Working on something- but not wandering the isles of a grocery store during the hours when I had previously been wide open DOING.

It’s ironic in a way that it’s 5pm and I AM doing something productive – I’m writing a blog about needing to be productive.

Diann says I’ll get a hang of the boating pace. Perhaps- but over three weeks of emails, I have established a Sales Rep relationship for a quality supplier of butyl tape- something I can add to our Cruising Kitty as we travel. I wonder how much like showing real estate, showing samples of butyl tape will be? Butyl tape is a boater’s friend for bedding hatches, port holes, and stanchions. If you’d like a 50 roll order, I can help.

But right now, it’s 5 o’clock somewhere      here. So I think I’ll have a beer.

It's Miller Time!

It’s Miller Time!