Post St Patrick’s day festivities that began at 29 degrees on Tuesday gave way to today where we are expecting temps in the mid 80’s. After a day of recovery from the band mayhem, I am in mood for two of my other favorite avocations: sailing and fly fishing. So my WFH outfit is an ode to both. Orvis has become my Achilles' heel over the past 35 years I have been fly fishing. This 160 year old company beacons me like a sirens song. I am enamored by every fly fishing store I can slither into when traveling. I’ve had two opportunities to buy an Orvis store. But the allure of owning a retail store, was shocked back into reality from my years of working in retail for 10 years (plus my wife’s family owning a venerable institution in the OKC area: Clarke’s Pastry est 1946). Nevertheless there are several items with an Orvis label in my closet. ootd Orvis plaid shirt Orvis heavy gauge 5 pockets (once upon a time they were a deeper shade of khaki perhaps 35 yrs ago) Darn Tough merino wool socks with Salmon Sperry Topsiders in blue Orvis field watch green dial Plus toys including a 6’ one piece bamboo rod manufactured April 6, 1956 (bought at an estate sale) Tight lines AND full sails brothers.

"Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice, and most of all love of what you are doing or learning to do." Pele Have a great day brothers.

Good morning ladies and gentlemen, As many of you recall over the past. Several months I have been de-digitizing myself, and this has been very life changing in beneficial for me. I have minimized the use of my cell phone to basically answering the phone and messages. And this have allowed me to regain my mental cognitive functions and increased my memory and attention to details when I went back you using a notebook for my day to day activities. So yesterday I had a pretty busy day and was receiving phones calls and notifications. But the one thins that I did come to the realization was that most on the notifications were nothing of importance, and the calls that were coming in were calls that could wait till I was free to return them. But here was the issue, when I was with people I did not answer the phone, ( out of respect to the person that I was engaged n conversation with), or did I check the notifications. But what I did noticed was that I was distracted by the phone ringing or the ding from notifications, this would cause me to be distracted from what the person was saying and who knows what I actually missed in that moment. So I decided to remove the notifications, and place my phone on vibrate, now there are certain numbers that was able to set to notify me in the case of emergency but all others goes silent, and the notifications are now silenced. This gives me the ability to put all my attentions to who I am with. It also cleared my mind to focus on things and not worry about the “dings and ringtones “. This morning I had a men’s meeting and then another short meeting and I was not just focused on what was going on but the feeling of freedom, not letting and electronic device control me. I have been in my office now for over an hour and have not worried about or thought about have i missed a call or a notification, but rather, when i had a moment i took a quick look to see was there anything pressing, then back to what I was doing and you know what? I was able to get back on track and continue without having to try to refocus. Just a little win, win testimony for me.