September 2023

Principle I’m pondering…I was reading “Steal Like an Artist” by Justin Kleon. The subtitle tells you exactly what the book is about: 10 things nobody told you about being creative. In Chapter 1 there’s a section on genetics and in that section the point is made that we can’t choose our family. It goes on to say that we can choose most aspects in our lives like movies we go to, music we listen to, friends we keep, teachers and schools we attend.

Here’s the principle as stated by the author:

You are, in fact, a mash up of what you choose to let into your life. You are the sum of your influences.

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Thoughts…

Summer of 2023 Blues…

As I sit on our pontoon at the lake finishing this blog, I can’t help but worry about what might be next. Do I have a black cloud following me around? I don’t think so. Things are going great with the business. We are having our best month ever and our systems and procedures are getting better and better. We have a great team of professionals who are committed to taking care of our customers. So maybe I deserve everything I have experienced.

So today I’m heading out in the boat to take Zeke to swim. As I always do, I looked to the left. To the left about 30 yards away our houseboat is tied to a buoy and stays there. Today though, no boat or buoy. What the hell? Luckily there were some marina staff coming from the lake and I asked them where our boat was? “Down by the dam bouncing off rocks”. They had gone down to try to get towed out of there, which they were able to do later. The line holding it in place broke and it floated nearly a mile away. Here are the pictures I took.

So now let’s go backwards chronologically of what has happened. They say things happen in three’s right? Well, like most things, it seems rules don’t exactly apply to me.

So on Wednesday of last week I was informed that our jet ski repairs were in the thousands after a preventable, unfortunate accident. Last weekend the toilet on our boat didn’t work after we replaced the pump we thought was broken. We have had to replace two air conditioners and a pump for them on our boat. Oh…and I forgot, we had to replace the blowers which blow fumes out of the engine compartment so you don’t BLOW your boat up!

While a lot of this was happening, Jodi and a friend went to Florida for a week. Upon arrival, the A/C didn’t work in our RV but is now fixed. The water heater still doesn’t work and when leaving, the poop tanks wouldn’t empty, so more money invested in cleaning of the tanks. 

As I write this, a book that was just recommended to me came to mind, “A Whack on the Side of the Head” by Roger von Oech. Also came to mind the name of my son Blake’s & I’s newly created T-shirt company, Gut Punch Tees, which is only in it’s incredible infancy and our site and store aren’t up and running fully.

We’re lucky! I am so grateful to all employees, customers, and suppliers that have helped us create and grow a great business which has allowed my family to really enjoy our weekends out at the lake with friends, family and employees at times.

Although having those problems wasn’t or isn’t fun, let’s take a step back and realize we’re lucky in a lot of ways and a T-shirt we’re developing kind of points that out. I like my hand..

So…it doesn’t sound too bad, right?! So before I type the rest please stay clear of me…there is a dark cloud following me.

Items replaced in the Buresh home over the last 30 days:
Air Conditioner, Furnace, Water Heater, Dryer YEP!!

Stay far away… 

Earlier I said a whack on the head. How about a kick in the head? By the end of the day I wrote this one of the A/C’s in the boat wasn’t working.

Things happen in three’s…not for me! Some kind of Karma I believe, just don’t know what for!