Buffett Batteries

Something I noticed after Jimmy's passing is that many concert-only Buffett fans who aren't familiar with the formal parrothead clubs and regular phlockings we hold are suddenly looking for ideas how to keep the Buffett lifestyle going, whereas PHIP-parrotheads have been keeping the Buffett lifestyle alive year-round for years now. Did they not have interest in all of these events before? Did they just not know about them? Will there be more or less interest in them going forward? Will they keep looking until they find them?

A big part of why we do this is for charity, as well as to express love and support for Jimmy, and we did amazing at that. But it's also for ourselves. If that weren't true, we could all simply write checks to charities and Margaritaville and move along. We also want to have fun, experience new things, and meet new people. I think of that as recharging our parrothead batteries. The monotony and stress of everyday life drains them, then at our phlockings we recharge them with fun and excitement. Sometimes it's just a happy to top us off a little, or sometimes it's a larger event to fully recharge us. Some of us are lucky enough to recharge frequently, some at a few events per year, and some only had that opportunity once per year - and now they're not sure when they'll get that chance.

Whenever I'm at a phlocking I appreciate not only the event, the people, the music, the scenery, the food, and the drinks, but also the opportunity to recharge my parrothead batteries until I'll get to again. I just finished of of the largest phlockings of my year, the Atlanta Parrothead Cruise 2024, which left me fully recharged. It will be a while until my next - almost half a year. After that, hopefully I'll be able to recharge every few months. I consider myself lucky for that. A lot of my friends are similar. If not, look around, ask around - there's probably a phlocking nearby that can help you recharge, and we'll be more than happy to help you find it.

When they end, hopefully we aren't sad that they're over, but recharged and happy we got to experience them so we can look forward to the next ones. Life can't be constantly ups and moving quickly - our batteries need to drain before we can recharge them. Luckily we've had and continue to have an abundance of entertaining, charitable, and fun opportunities to recharge our batteries as often as we're able to.