If you farm or garden, or even if you just spend a lot of time taking care of your lawn, you’ve probably shared a few choice words for the weeds. They come out of nowhere, and everywhere. You can spend days, weeks or months trying to grow vegetables, crops or grass and sometimes have very little success. But the weeds, well, they always seem to find a way to grow.

I’m not sure who said it, or said it first, but maybe you’ve heard the phrase about noise being like a stench in the ear. When you smell something bad, you know it. When things are noisy, it’s not a lot different. In fact, if you look in the mirror, you probably have a similar facial expression when confronted with either.

I attended the Kansas City Symphony Orchestra a couple weeks ago. It was incredible.

Admittedly, I am not a big classical music fanatic. But I’d rather listen to classical than some of the screechy and screamy things some consider to be music today. I admire the talent it takes to create any music, and the lyrical work necessary to tell a story. But you like what you like, I guess.

As I write this I am traveling in the southeastern part of the U.S. with some personal activities and some business related things as well. First, I was able to spend time with my second son who lives in Tampa Bay, Florida. We explored some of the local cuisine and we had a chance to watch the Super Bowl together. (Nice work Chiefs!)

Like many of you reading this, I’m just back from Shot Show.

It was a great week and great catching up with so many friends and colleagues. It was especially gratifying to see the show floor filled up once again with exhibitors and visitors. From what I’m told by the show managers at NSSF, it was a dramatic increase in attendance over last year, approximately 20% higher. That’s good news for the event and for our industry.

I started and stopped this column approximately 10 times before settling on what you see here now. I was going to write about the market, predictions, forecasts, sales figures, NASGW new projects, thoughts on the New Year, and even some thoughts on the year we just had.