2010 - Day Twenty...

Okay, well, I have to admit, the day did not start out all that great! I was on my way into the office, and driving down IH-35 (minding my own business) a rock hit my windshield and now I am the proud owner of ANOTHER broken windshield. CRAPOLA! I just had that freakin' windshield replaced in October...and that was nothing short of a series of traumatic events! Don't get me started! Not sure how effective this photo of my VIOLATED windshield will play in Peoria, but I AM NOT HAPPY about it.

Okay, then things started to get a little bit better. I was invited to a breakfast meeting this morning at the University of Texas Club. The invitation was from the Texas Real Estate Political Action Committee. This is a very worthwhile cause, and it is something that I believe in totally. It is about more than the endorsement of particular candidates, it is about making sure that we maintain a strong lobby to keep our taxes to a minimum. REMEMBER, a fee is just another name for a tax. In Texas, we had a $1 fee per transaction until recently, and now that fee is $5. That is a 500% tax increase. No big deal you might say, but wait until someone needs more money, and then it will be a $25 fee. There is just no stopping these fees, and as we get tighter-and-tighter with our local and state funds, I expect we will all see more fees (sorry, taxes).
One highlight of the morning was being led in the Pledge of Allegiance by the Austin Board's Governmental Affairs chief, Earl M Hairston (LTC, USAR). When Earl was announced, everyone began rising for the pledge. Earl asked everyone to sit down for a while, and went on to tell us that we should not be in such a hurry to recite the pledge. Take some time to think about the words that we are saying, and to consider the pledge as a living and breathing pledge, not just something that you say in a hurry to meet protocol. That was great!

I sat with Carrie Weikert (see the photo above), one of the usual suspects, and my sometimes partner in crime. It was a very good meeting, and we had a lot of fun. ALSO, one of the treats of the meeting was to go the the bathroom in what (in reality) is the University of Texas House that Football Built. The breakfast was on the 9th floor of the facility, and that is where all the private sky boxes for the UT stadium are. Okay, I have to admit, I have never been IN THE STADIUM before, and I have lives here 25 years. So, if this was my introduction to the stadium, it was pretty darn cool!

I am doing some power-real-estate right now, and I have a couple meetings at the Board for later this afternoon. I am blowing through some stuff, and I need to leave the office at about 1 o'clock, and I have lots of stuff to do before I leave.

I made it to my meeting at the Austin Board of REALTORS (hi Beth) and we were asked to critique the Leadership Training Program we had in 2009. The program was the first at the Austin Board, and overall it was a fine class. We are planning more classes, and we are looking for ways to build on what we did, and make it better. We were joined in the meeting by Deb Waldman, the Director of Education with the Texas Association of REALTORS, and she provided us with an update of the Leadership Program was developed (and is always being tweaked and revised) by the State. I think there is always room to improve, and we were all happy to hear from Deb as well as the other graduates of the program. Look for bigger and better things in Leadership from the Austin Board.

When I got home this afternoon, I spied a great blue heron fishing at the tank behind the house. By the time I got in the house and called Jody to 'come see' he was just taking off. We have seen this guy several times at this tank and at the big tank further back at one of the pastures. They are magnificent creatures. I decided to go back and check on the cattle, and you can tell it is a nice day in central Texas (70 degrees today) by the fact that I can go out in the pastures in my boxers and my knock-off pink crocs. Okay, so I go almost everywhere in my knock-off pink crocs, but it was a beautiful afternoon so I was going closer to au natural than usual. Possibly too much information, you be the judge. ANYWAY, the only challenge was I had no pockets for my camera, phone and other vital electronic embellishments that I must carry everywhere. ANYWAY, as you can see by the photo, you can hardly see any evidence of my knee surgery three weeks ago. Really, all you can really tell is a little bit of swelling still in that left knee. So far, so good.

Deeds, Changes, Actions, Kindnesses, Whirled Peas, FUN!