Interesting thread.
First off, not every opinion is valid. Here thankfully, most are.
Tony, I remember you catching the LMB at Scott's years ago. I now wonder where that Tony has gone. Is your new job that stressful that it has changed you? I don't know. What I do know is you have changed. I still count you among my pondboss friends, but your outlook has changed.
Sunil, You too are a pondboss brother. Your passion and willingness to help out is admirable. You are part of the family.
John, after you host a "GTG," you will never see things the same. It changes your outlook.
I just spent the last few days with Bob. We had a great time working on a project for our farm. I could have paid someone to do the job, but now the project has a life and story. It is part of our history. I enjoyed the efforts and the lessons. It was good to take the time to work with a friend.
The intangibles, that is the place to look. For me lately it has been sunsets. God is a masterful painter, but you have to look when he does his work, or you will miss it. Pondboss conferences are not that spectacular, but they are fleeting.
Finally,Yes there is a cost to attend a conference. Life costs. I have a pond for my reasons. The best reason I have is the smile on a child's face who has just caught their first fish.
Do I have money to burn, nope, but I wish I did. So for now it will be choices, and I chose to go see my friends and try to learn something else. Like I said to Bob last night, the one thing that humbles me the is the fact that there is way more stuff I will never know than the stuff I know really really well. That is just the way it is, but that does not mean I have to stop trying to learn it all.
Funny, missing the boat is not something I thought I would be writing about on a pond focused forum. Something else I have learned.
