As I had mentioned, all last week I was out in Sturgis for an annual office training/meeting period that we do in one of my day jobs. The driving is a drag, but it’s worth it.
It’s a good exercise, as we’re a national specialty insurance agency, with staff from Maine to Arizona, and from Florida to Washington State. And we’ve doubled in size in the last few years, so sitting down together helps keep us in line with the company goals of service and growth, and helps people put a face to the name.
We do a lot of group events, and one of them was a picnic up at Pactola:
I took this last Thursday when I was out at the our office get together. I still need to do some cleaning up on it, as the images have some shading where photoshop stitched them together, but it’s a great panoramic view of the beach area we were at.
Now that I’m back at the SDWC home base in Brookings, it’s probably a good thing it’s a slow time in state politics, as it will be light posting again through the weekend. Instead of being out for work again, after today I’m going to be out for fun.
Since my wife took my #4 daughter out to DC for a graduation trip, I’m taking “the boys” out on a “manly man trip.” Truth be told, we’re going to the place with the mouse in Florida for a few days.
My 16 year old son is aware of it, but my 9 year old thinks we’re going to go digging at Diamond State Park in Arkansas, which we did a couple of summers ago in July sun and heat. We didn’t find anything, and the weather was oppressively hot. So, he’s going with little enthusiasm which will turn out to be a nice surprise for him when he finally figures it out.
In another week or two, so much of summer is going to come to a screeching halt as my wife starts commuting for her new job at Augustana, my older son gets involved into a heavy band practice schedule, and everything keeps driving towards the next school year. So, it’s important to take what time I can with the kids while I have it, something I recognize all the more as the baby birds leave the nest, one after the other.
I’ll be monitoring things by phone and iPad, so if something comes up in this “summer before the election off-season,” I’ll be on it.
Otherwise, I’m going to be enjoying what’s left of vacation time, and soaking up some sun.