30 years ago, during one of my "I think I will once again try to live in Vermont" sojourns, I remember working high on a mountain ridge one cold, wet fall morning pouring cement that we had laboriously carted up by buckets in ATVs for the footings on a microwave tower. It was November and long gone were the colorful fall leaves and smiling tourists visiting the antiques fair down in the postcard-pretty town Weston. It was back to the hardscrabble work of running a commercial masonry company building a series of towers all along the spine of Vermont. That November and December, we worked until the ground froze hard with most daybreaks spent chopping through the ice that had crusted over our water storage from the overnight freeze. It was during that period of what seemed to be a never-ending expedition of increasingly cold, wind-whipped, ugly, steel-gray days that I made a decision that I was moving back to Boston and would do everything I could to avoid November in Vermont.
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Fall is more than in the air in Vermont. It's in my aching back from last weekend's hauling, cutting and splitting three huge trees which fell in my woodlot as a result of the big blow two weeks ago. It's also been in my head all this week as a result of my unexpected discovery just before I left Vermont on Sunday of three more equally big trees that had fallen out of sight on the other side of the ridge. As a result, in my never-ending quest of "a clean forest is a happy forest", I'll find myself back in VT tomorrow, crack of dawn, up on the ridge, steam billowing from the tractor in the 40 degree air, the sound of the chainsaw ripping through the stillness and focused on "gettin' her done" since the seasons in VT and its inevitable snow wait for no one.
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Middle of September. Definitely frost on the pumpkin this morning and, with
the leaves already beginning to turn both in Vermont and on the beach, I realized as I was driving into Boston today, the music switch inside my head
had selected Donovan's '60s hit song, "Season of the Witch" to let me know
that Halloween, the first of the fall holidays, was right around the corner. Yea, good rhythm and mystical lyrics, but more importantly for me that "announcement" in my head was telling me that the fall selling season is well underway.
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Living on the beach and in Boston, I see a fair amount of Mercedes' SMART cars. Cute, clean, fun, and head- turning, many SMART owners go on to accessorize their cars with their personal brands through vanity plates.
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Here in Vermont today dealing with yet another contractor issue. Had to take the day off from work, deal with Vermonters (said he lovingly being a 7th generation Vermonter), and drive 6 hours back and forth. It is what it is, but the trip up late last night did remind me of this summer's hotly debated "Battle of the Winhall River" in the town.
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It's been a really great summer !
Lots of work, lots of time to do "field research", and lots of time to think about the upcoming four months of Sales and Marketing activities between now and the end of the year.
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A couple of days last week I went over to Vermont,
explored the woodlot up on the ridge and basically locked
myself away during all of that rain to do some intensive
work. As I was working on material for the fall semesters at
Tufts and MIT along with the new content for our October
Boot Camp, it led me to really, really appreciate the sun at
the beach. I love Vermont-7 generations and all that-but for
the choice of VT mountains or NH beach in the summa', I'm
choosing the NH beach. Just don't let any of the good ol'
boys on the bench know about this down at the Winhall General Store since I may not be allowed to bring my trash to the dump (sorry, in proper Vermontese, I mean "transfer station").
I've been spending a lot of time this summer thinking through the decision makers on the other side of the table. As a salesguy, coach, blogger, I'm typically focused on "our side of the table"
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Speaking of time, did you notice, it's getting colder and darker
every morning. Can't stop the seasons. Can't lengthen 24 hours.
Can't change the length of the month or the quarter. All we can
do is use our time more efficiently, effectively and comfortably.
"I must govern the clock, not be governed by it" -Golda Meir
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