Southern Tour

It is great to get away from the “daily grind”. My work is never boring, but it is stressful. The same clients who call daily, or more, are the same ones who are shocked that their bill has inched above the retainer, and, not unusually, they tend not to have any more funds readily available. The clients who constantly ignore, or defy, my advice are likewise often very sensitive about being charged for the time I spend correcting their mistakes. Their cases take twice as much work.

We decided to take a day off, Friday. Day one we were in Asheville, N.C. with our two sons, two daughters in law, and our granddaughter and “grandson to be”. Our granddaughter is a 10th generation Hunter living in Buncombe County N.C.. What a wonderful coincidence that our two sons and their wives decided to raise their families there.

With Buddy (the beagle) and Duffy (the beagle mix) in their crates, we listened to a reading of Jared Diamond’s book on why civilizations fail. Pretty scary stuff since America is avoiding failure by depending more and more greatly on our technology to avoid a collapse.

Today we are with our daughter, Laura, in Atlanta. She works for a company that supports major national bankruptcy law firms. They work her very hard. We also had a reunion with Laura’s cat Tiger who the neighbor girls found in the nearby woods, on Hickory Lane, approx 14 years ago! The animals are very compatible.

Tomorrow we will be with our oldest son and his lovely wife and duaghter and son in Fort Mill, S.C., just South of Charlotte, N.C. We hope to hear about their trip to Fla, and the shuttle launch. Our travels tomorrow should take approximately 15 hours, and we will arrive home tired, but refreshed by the reminder of what a wonderful family we have.

With my Blackberry Curve (“crackberry”), I kept in touch with work all day yesterday, graciously accepted being “fired” by a client I simply cannot reach, and learned that my able staff was keeping things in order. The return of Letetia from materniy leave will be a great relief to us all.

Being one’s own boss has some advantages. I can take off when I want to, subject to court schedules, but I am the “revenue engine”. A colleague/competitor calls it “the treadmill of your own design to which your feet are ‘superglued’ “.

With nearly 40 years of practice, I could gladly move on to other things, but in some ways I feel I am just getting started. Technology is the key. I prepared an order and a petition yesterday using Dragon and Pathagoras, and, I hope, helped a very frazzled, frustrated paralegal catch up a bit. Such weeks are inevitable in a busy trial and family law practice. But, when we help people start anew and protect them from abuse, and watch out for their children, and even get an occasional “big pay day”, the work can be very satisfying.

This week, I shall send out 500 letters to former clients telling them about our “robust” website www.hunterlawfirm.net, my business FaceBook page, and this blog. I hope some will subscribe to the blog, or become “fans” of my Facebook page. and give me some feedback as to how we can improve our service. The future belongs to “social media”, but I am not sure how soon that future will arrive. Happy week-end to everyone!

(Note; as of Feb. 26, 2012, “the future” appears to have arrived. The Internet and Social Media are rich tapestries of connections and information. I will continue to use it for our mutual benefit. J.B.H.)

This post was written by Burton Hunter