A year ago today, I'd convinced myself I was eating near-zero processed food.

When this popped up in my memories just now, I LOLd.

Because I remember what my pantry looked like a year ago.

And what my fridge looked like.

Lots of healthy food, like in the pictures there, yes.

But also:…

Remember the first time in your late thirties, or maybe your early forties, when you looked in the mirror and thought, "Dear God, is that really me?"

You may have noticed another wrinkle.

Or a new patch of gray hair.

Or, like me, you shaved your beard only to realize that —for some time—the same beard had obscured the skin beneath your chin, which had begun to droop like a rooster's wattle.

Then, upon closer inspection, you found more evidence of your impending demise…

Herd mentality - you guilty?

I have been.

And it almost got me this morning…

$250,000 for this?

You’ve got to be kidding me.

I’m no stranger to differences of opinion with other real estate agents. I run my business differently than most and have never been shy about calling out the shady, deceptive, and down right annoying business practices that are pervasive in this industry…

The first time I pedaled to the top of Kitsuma Mountain I seriously thought I would die.

I’d been riding mountain bikes forever but had recently gotten into a type known as “downhill” where the general idea is to barrel down a mountain as fast as you can go.

To this point I’d done this in bike parks where some sort of machinery was responsible for getting me to the top of the mountain.

At Snowshoe Mountain in West Virginia there was a ski lift. At Bailey Mountain Bike Park outside of Asheville there was a big WWII-era truck that carried riders to the top.

On this day, however, I was getting my first taste of trail riding in the mountains where my legs would be the only thing that got me to the top.

I expected it would be hard, but I didn’t know just how hard…

The truck interior is still disassembled, two of three batteries are uninstalled, the engine bay looks like black and red spaghetti, and the compressor is still not plumbed.

But, hey, at least the Kilmat is in, which should make for a quieter ride!

And Starlink arrived.

But it's not quite as plug-and-play as I imagined…

My oldest son wasn't cut out for college.

His younger brother, who might graduate this year, is also [probably] not cut out for college.

Lu and her "twin" sister Lily will graduate in 2026 and are likely college-bound.

Sam, the baby, is three years behind and probably will go to college.

Someone asked me the other day if I was worried about the ones who aren't going to college.

No.

Not even a little bit…

Looking back on the Great Recession, there were signs.

Big ones.

For example, when I bought a house for which I didn't qualify for a loan, I could get it anyway because the bank offered me a "no-documentation" loan where it didn't matter that I owned another house.

That was a pretty big sign that something was amiss.

But I didn't see it.

A year later. . .BAM!

My world changed…

LuLu, the oldest of my two daughters, turned 16 yesterday and became our 3rd driver.

To celebrate, we had supper at The Midnight Diner in Uptown Charlotte.

Afterward, she wanted dessert, so we Ubered to The Yard, a milkshake joint with the best name ever.

As we waited on our order, I thought back to when Lu came into my life.

I was 35.

She was 4.

And she wanted nothing to do with me…

About a year and a half ago, I paused operations at House Partners, my house-flipping company, because I needed to focus on other business.

With the other stuff mostly under control, we resumed operations this past weekend.

In this business, the name of the game is finding the houses.

Not just any house, but one we can buy at a price that allows us to renovate it, sell it, and earn a profit.

Finding houses to look at is easy…

When I left the introductory flight lesson, I was all in.

I'm gonna be a pilot!

Hell yeah!

I knew which airplane I would buy (Piper PA-32 Cherokee Six), what color I'd paint it, and that I wanted the interior redone in vintage tweed.

For the next week, I plotted multi-day trips across the country and daydreamed about global circumnavigation (that'll prove it to those damn flat-earthers!).

Then I decided the Piper was no good. Why settle for fixed landing gear when the Beechcraft Bonanza seats six AND has retractable gear?…

In business, I have a guiding principle.

If I can offend you, we're not working together.

Because being offended is bullshit.

And it's running rampant.

We have become the United States of The Offended…

Saturday, I posted a video about the proposed settlement of one of the class action lawsuits against the National Association of Realtors.

Nobody watched it.

I am not surprised.

Nobody outside of the real estate industry gives a damn right now because people only care about Realtors or the real estate industry when they are selling a house.

That's it.

But from my perspective, the whole thing is interesting. Two parts, especially…

Eighth grade was a long time ago.

Still, I remember when my girlfriend broke up with me. Sitting on the stairs at home, I cried in my mama's arms.

The indescribable sweetness of one's first love is no match for the inevitable pain when that love dies.

Yesterday, as the tears welled up in my daughter's eyes and I held her close, I flashed back some 35 years and found myself surprised that I still remembered…

I got this email (below) from a mentor yesterday. There was a time in my life when it would have pissed me off.

A couple of years ago, I would have been the smug guy in the group.

"Yeah, Fletcher, must be REAL NICE. . .(you f'n asshole)."

These days, I see it way different…

Three years ago

On this very day

I thought up a poem

Because I wanted to say

I thought it was silly

That folks were upset

That people were angry

At a family's request

To stop printing some books…

Years ago, when I lived in Chapel Hill, the Harris Teeter put me in a self-checkout lane.

I hated it.

Raised hell about it.

I had every reason under the sun for why it sucked:

-->People didn't know how to use it, so they were slow.

-->The software ran too slow

-->Job elimination

-->I DON'T WANT IT TO CHANGE!!!!!

At the time, I predicted that self-checkouts wouldn't last…

My regular weekday supper with Sam has turned into a business meeting.

It's cool watching a 12-year-old figure things out.

He wants to work and make money, but he's got a problem.

Baseball…

Y'all seen the Kellogg's thing yet?

Gary Pilnick, the CEO, says if your cash is tight, eat cereal for dinner.

And as to what consumers might think of the message, he had this to say:

"It's landing really well right now. Cereal for dinner is something that is probably more on trend now, and we would expect [it] to continue as that consumer is under pressure."

If you had any lingering thoughts that Kellogg's produces real food or that companies like Kellogg's give two shits about your health, think again…