Even after many decades of business travel, I am amazed at the ability to have breakfast at home, have lunch many hundreds of miles distant and then supper with a client on the other side of the continent. Modern travel is simply amazing and easier and quicker than it has ever been previously. For me it never gets old. I am off to the Denver, Colorado area for a few days to visit with a new client and dream of the possibilities on their property through the coming years. It is exciting. As I made final arrangements for my trip yesterday and discussed our current and upcoming projects with Peter, his parting quip made me laugh. He told me he would see me again when I came home with at least a thousand dollars. The sentiment dated back to when he and Becke were very young and Janis & I first were first starting to make a livelihood being self-employed artists. As we built our fledgling business it was often a scary and precarious time with uncertain and wildly fluctuating income as often as not. Each time I left on a business trip Janis would give me a fond good-by with a kiss and a hug and that same joking but somewhat serious comment. ‘Hurry home as soon as you make a thousand dollars’. Most often that amount was what we desperately needed to make our commitments at the rapidly approaching end of the month. Thankfully, over the decades our financial security has improved immensely but that same underlying urgency to make my time on the road worthwhile never changes. As always, I’ll be working hard and having fun.
