January Fourth, 3:36 p.m.

January Fourth, 3:36 p.m.

January Fourth, 3:36 PM
By Don Anderson

My Dad, God rest his soul, I miss him. Especially every January 4th at 3:36 p.m. Dad was a time management machine and how I missed out on all those wonderful time sensitive genes I'll never know. Certainly, a real estate career is a perfect vocation for the talents of the time manager. Many courses and seminars have been offered and are still being offered to help those less talented in the area of squeezing the minutes out of the day. The gift of administration is a great example of the natural ability to manage ones time. No matter what your job or profession, I'm sure you've notice those individuals that seem to effortlessly accomplish more in 8 hours than a rooster in a hen house. You may remember them from school. They were the ones who always seem to have time for extracurricular activities while still making straight "A's". Dad was a lot like that and he seemed to have an innate alarm that went off every year at 3:36 p.m. on the 4th of January. Now in my younger days he realized that I was somewhat impetuous, that I liked to party especially during New Years Eve. I'm sure you can relate.

The holidays around our house were fantastic as the entire family came to town for the annual Holiday Dominoes, Chess, Score Four, and Probe Championships. From Thanksgiving through Christmas, someone, usually Mother, was always in the kitchen cooking something that smelled wonderful while everyone else was enjoying the thrill of victory or the agony of defeat on some sort of game table. It seemed to me like a month and a half of shear delight and happiness and this euphoria caused me to think this was life and it was never going to end. Of course it always did. Relatives began to go home as they realized all the food was gone and the last vestiges of vacation days for the year had all been used up. Game boards disappeared back into the darkened closet from whence they came, likely not to see the light of day until late November.

But for me, I just couldn't seem to snap out of all of that family love when it would surely come to an end. Even if Brother-in-Law Fred beat me at chess, an absolutely horrific event, it was still better than no game at all. One of the greatest benefits of a career in real estate is the fact that you're the boss. There's no time clock to punch and you can do what ever needs to be done at your leisure and at your pace. It's a two edged sword, however, because while you may view all this freedom as a great benefit, it can also be a devastating drawback. I'm sure you've heard the term "Self Starter." If you're not a "Self Starter" then what should you be called? "Waiter For Someone Else to Start Me?" Enter January 4th 3:36 p.m.

Each year Dad would call me at the appointed time and ask, "Do you know what time it is?" How is it that I could never seem to remember this from the experience of years past? How could I fall in the same trap every year? "No Dad, what time is it?" Quicker than he could say "checkmate" (which was pretty fast) he would say, "its 3:36 p.m. on January 4th....the New Year is one percent gone! He loved it. I must have looked like a huge balloon that he had just let go to fly around the room making that familiar noise only to end up on the floor all shriveled and deflated. The holidays were officially over for me. I had been slapped back to reality. How could I have wasted the first 4 days of the New Year? Thanks Dad, I'll see you later, I've got to go to work! I don't have him for that January 4th kick in the pants anymore but my PDA does it quite nicely. I actually have an alarm set to go off at 3:35 p.m. which gives me one minute to announce the annual event to the whole office. It's fabulous watching all those balloons flying around! Have a great year!

Don Anderson is a real estate broker in Knoxville, Tennessee and he can be reached at http://www.knoxvillehouses.com or http://www.atlantahouses.com

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