Almost to the Everglades

Saturday I sat through another one of my younger son's anguished Little League games. Despite batting .750 (15/20), Jerry simply wasn't having fun He just doesnt' have a team sport personality, taking losses way too badly.

So we pulled him out of that and put in motion our long-planned shift to road racing (he already golfs) Sunday morning. I had done this with my first two kids at 8 and it worked well (older son Kev still races and runs track and XC). So the boys and I ran a 5k in Lebanon, with Kev finishing top-ten (7:27 pace) out of 60 or so runners and Jerry and I clocking in at 27:46 (8:57 mile pace, for 35/36).

Never had to cajole Jerry once. He's got a natural stride that's very hard to teach, and his intense hatred for losing serves him far better here, because he instinctively fends off challengers and passes people. I never told him a thing, he just naturally did it.

What a joy it was to be there for Jer's entire first race--a real thrill. And so cool to track Kev in the distance. I was really proud.

Naturally, I immediately signed us up for another race.

Then flew AirTran to Fort Meyer FL, jumped in limo, and was taken to nice coastal Hyatt for big company conference (truck/transport tech firm Eaton), where I keynoted opening night to 300-or-so senior staff. The group's top execs caught my act in Vegas a while back (not every grand strategist can say that!).

Next morn Jenn Posda picks me up and we drive up to Tampa to meet up with Adm. Ulrich for an Enterra meet with local, county, and state officials on crisis response and port issues.

Then Harry and I fly to BWI, get rental, and drive to DC hotel to meet Steve and this fascinating guy whose our loafers-on-the-ground lawyer in Irbil, capital of the Kurdish Regional Goverment, where we maintain an office for the Development-in-a-Box‚Ñ¢ projects (B2B, call center, investment centers). This Brit is unreal: after the war (summer 03) and all on his own, he leaves his cushy job in a prestigious London firm and, armed only with a sat phone and laptop and sets up his own firm in Baghdad, now expanded to Irbil.

Is that frontier lawyering or what?

Guy calls it "the best move I ever made."

Meetings with Steve go to midnight (norm) and then I'm up at 0600 to swim laps before flying US home to Indy, where I jump in my car and immediately drive 350 miles to my next gig tonight.