Getting Into the Game!

Some call it “The Scavenge Scramble”. Others call it “you snooze, you lose”. We call it “Getting into the Game”.

It started several months ago when a storm had knocked down a couple of nice trees near my parent’s farm. On the opposite side of the road, but close enough that I felt that the spoils were within the “Forrence domain”. And I’d ride out and gather the loot in the next couple of days. Well, my downstream neighbor Dave is recently retired, yet still in his mid to late 50s. So he is young (relatively), heats with wood, has time on his hands, and is on the prowl. And he beat me to it.

As we walked out to get the mail this past Friday, a pickup with trailer rolled by. The cargo was three nice sized logs. Then Dave drove up, rolled down his window, pointed at the receding trailer and said “How do you like my find?” “There’s all kinds of stuff up there” as he gestured up the road. County work crews had been making noise all day – the sounds of chain saws and backhoes echoing up and down the mountain. And now we BOTH knew what that meant. And he had a head start. Game on!

One of the benefits of running your own business is that you can set your own priorities. The morning was spent configuring the best way to route a large customer’s inbound and outbound call traffic over a variety of TDM and IP trunks. So, a Friday afternoon with mid-winter temps in the 40s, and deciduous road-kill available for the taking, ranks fairly high on the priority list. Fire up the tractor.

There is really only one rule - you can’t take wood from in front another “wood burner’s” property. Fortunately, we all know who we are.

I know that it sounds like something a bunch of hillbillies would do - poaching roadside lumber after every wind storm. Dave is retired after a career of managing the voice and data infrastructure at the Nation Fire Academy. And I spend my days providing voice, data and video design and support for customers from coast to coast. But maybe we are hillbillies. Anyone who saw me with a company van two weeks ago would have surely wondered. They would have said to themselves, “…the van says ‘Voice, Data & Video Distribution Solutions’ – why are they driving up the road with a twenty foot log chained to the trailer hitch…” Well, I’ll tell you why. It’s because I’m in the game!

Recent haul

When life hands you lemons

When life hands you lemons

You cut firewood.

Although it wasn't enough to equal the $2200 damage to the car, it's something. A surprise two inches of snow made the task a bit more interesting. I know that Chris would be distraught if he learns that he missed this "Character-building" exercise - so please don't tell him. Surely he'd then know that Alex may edge him out on the Character count.

Something about snow

View from the deck

There is just something about snow that makes the world beautiful. Here in north central Maryland, Mother Nature has mostly forgotten how to snow. Rain, cold rain, freezing rain, heavy sleet are what we get recently. I know, be careful what you wish for...a business colleague is in Minnesota where they had below freezing virtually every day of December and regular snow measured in feet. She would trade places in a heartbeat! But a little bit of snow and I'm a kid again. No matter how old I get, the words "Frederick County Schools are Closed" remain magic. Best heard from Tommy Grunwell on WFMD, but I'll take "Find Out First" on my cell phone.

Last winter it snowed in Atlanta and Chris said professors let class out simply because the attention of students was lost with the first flake. He enjoyed showing his Georgia friends the finer points of making a snow angel.

So, even though the shed isn't exactly overflowing with wood, I say "let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!"

Mornings with Alex

The dawn of a new day

Remember being a kid? Say sixteen years of age? Remember what you liked to do? Say at 5:00am? Did you enjoy getting out of bed so you could go work out with your dad before school starts? What started last year as a combo "Morning Tennis Practice" and "How can I avoid the big yellow school taxi" has continued into a "we'll get some exercise, occasional tennis or weight room time then you'll go your way and I'll go mine" time. And as the parent of that sixteen year old, all I can say is... it is good. And when we leave the Mount around seven, we share the spectacular view of dawn. And it too is good.