Crabcakes and football, Vincent Vega, and other random ideas

Since this has taken over a month to put together and post it is full of apparently random ideas that I will try to tie back together.

Crabcakes and Football. I can’t even think of a going to a wedding without that movie playing in my head, and after all, it is wedding season. I had the honor of attending the wedding of a young couple in May. My wife and I are friends of the groom’s family and I have had the opportunity to watch the groom grow from a high schooler to a college grad who is off to help start a church in an urban area. I would have never thought when we spent a week together in a jungle in Central America many years ago that I would see him turn into such an impressive man who is leading his new wife boldly and following God’s call for their life. What a great model for young (and old) men to learn from.

Why are all those animals in pairs? After several weeks of hot and dry weather, the south has been inundated with rain over the last 10 days. Didn’t Matt do a blog about being proactive? Overall most of our sites and customers came out in pretty good shape but there are a few out there who don’t want to deal with potential issues until it’s too late. The rainfall totals and damage were nowhere near what we have experienced in the not too distant past but were hopefully enough to remind people not to get complacent. Remember to grass early and often- a vegetated site is stable site; we’re here to help before, during, and after the storm- but it’s much easier before…

Friends in deed. In the midst of preparing for the monsoons- you know, when our trade partners need us the most- my bride decided to spend a few days in the hospital. She is recovering well, thankfully, and we have been surrounded by friends and family who have (and always do) step up and surround us when we find ourselves in need. It also served as a reminder to both of us to slow down a little. We have been fortunate to surround ourselves with good people who can help with our children, help with work, and feed us physically and spiritually. I love and am in awe of the people we call friends and family; we couldn’t do life without them.

Why? (why not?) I was recently ‘elected’ as the vice-president to the SE Chapter of the IECA. I say ‘elected’ because I was apparently the only one adventurous enough to volunteer. Erosion and sedimentation control has been a big part of my professional life- ok, almost all of it- and I owe a great deal to those I have been fortunate to learn from. I’ve never served on a board like this before and have no idea what to expect; however, I’m excited to tackle my two year term as a way to further the industry that has done so much for me and to help influence proper soil stabilization techniques through education and opportunity in my backyard and around our region.

Why am I the one on brain detail? From time to time I have been known to get frustrated when it feels like I’m the one scooping up the nuggets of someone else’s things gone wrong or attending to the seemingly small details because I think I am above it; I admit this about myself. If you’ve never been through an insurance audit, imagine reports based on a subset of reports broken down by class and code and any number of other various types of information to present to a third party auditor in hopes that you have interpreted the carriers desires effectively because they each want very specific, but different, information about the business. I complied the information, I patiently waited, I presented the auditor an unrealistic stack of dead trees with words and numbers tattooed front and back, and I forced a smile. Then it happened- I formed a bond with the auditor. I’m still not sure how we ended up down the rabbit hole we found ourselves in- and it doesn’t really matter- but in it we found shared experiences and a shared belief system. For once I found pleasure in scooping little pieces of Marvin out of the back seat for this year’s insurance audit, I just needed to be open to something I didn’t want to do.

You said you were going to bring this all together? Most of what I know and what I have described above was learned through the relationships people have with their dad. Levi learned to follow God and lead his family by watching his dad. Matt learned how to persevere and continue to serve others (even his clients that don’t always heed his warnings of impending storm events) from his dad. The people who surrounded my wife and I- far too numerous to name- have learned from strong fathers and father figures in their life what it means to love and serve others even when it is not convenient. My dad taught me take chances on the unknown to find ways to serve. He also taught me how to take a step back and see commonality when you might not otherwise. Quite the week for a reminder that our kids watch us and model the behavior they see. Thanks Pops, for helping me learn to love God and love people; Happy Father’s Day all.

#thinkgreen