My day was upended by a conference call last night. My local bank branch manager, patched me in with a supervisor from his bank’s mortgage processing department. Three of us discussed, briefly and quite intensely the status of a certain mortgage application. You probably know from experience that one of the critical dimensions of…
Buying or selling a home is a high stakes proposition. A family needs a dwelling suitable to their lifestyle as well as a neighborhood amenable to all family members. Realtors, bankers, and several lawyers — are involved in the conversation. A home sale cuts wide into the successive rings of society: familial, legal, financial,…
For a few minutes Starbucks is unaccountably quiet. The space is usually a mad-house. The capuccino machine roars, a cacophony of voices rise in the high ceiling room, and sometimes a canine barks from a vehicle into the drive up window. I am acquainted with the staff. They work very hard, professionally competent,…
I wonder why say anything more. Much has been said already, a storehouse of hard earned wisdom, the deposit of ancestors from their trials and errors. Little attention is paid, especially if at first what has been written is arcane, somewhat opaque, less than transparent. Complaints are voiced, and we move on to an…
Another Sunday. This Sunday morning is gray, foggy, cool, and Father’s Day. I asked myself what it takes to become a father. From a biological point of view–it takes very little. Nature takes it’s course,— one sperm finds the egg and resulting from a cascade of cause and effect some months later, a child…
A head-cold continues to aggravate, deep cough and much tissue paper is needed. We are not spiritual beings, the body obtrudes into our preferred idealism. Walked into the kitchen this morning, and turned on NPR. The Saturday morning special programming was an exploration of the ethos, and the lore of Alabama, yes, the State…
I am at a loss for a story this morning. I think this is a second sunny, paradisiacal day in a row absent rain, but I am discomfited with laryngitis which has almost taken my voice. After a review of notes taken many years ago, I will offer some excerpts from Before The Sabbath…
He laughed so hard that he turned a somersault in the air and played trills with his heels. At the same time he shouted at me: “Hey, my young fellow, does your tongue smart, man, do your lungs really pinch, man? You think of your readers, those carrion feeders, and all your typesetters, those…
I remember well, my sophomore year in high school. It was a good year. Somehow I managed to earn As and Bs as a student, enjoyed life with friends on weekends, hanging out at Honey’s drive-in and occasional street racing on I-85 at night. I think it was the summer of 65 that I…
Last night we attended a dinner to celebrate the 50th year wedding anniversary of two friends. Lauretta’s Italian Bakery Restaurant in Mundelein provided the venue for the event. I cannot remember an evening of conversation, good food, wine and much good will, that was more enjoyable. Certainly I will remember the extended conversations with…
