Friday, April 8, 2011

Punctuation


I went home over spring break to stay with dad while he was in the hospital for surgery. But he was in the Veterans Administration hospital system, so the diagnosing hospital forgot to send the orders to the surgical hospital, so I was there a week early. Since I already bought the ticket I spent a week with dad outside of hospitals.

We had lots of great time to talk. We went to the Vicksburg Battlefield National Park with by brother. I saw the restored ironclad warship, Cairo (pronounce KAY Ro). It looks like a neat little model in the picture. It was wonderful to walk around inside, getting a feel for how it would have been to work on one.

We also went to Colfax, Louisiana, sight of the Colfax Massacre, the most violent episode during Reconstruction. 150 to 250 blacks were killed, along with three whites, during a contested election in 1873. The citizens of Colfax erected a marker dedicated to the three whites "who fell in the Colfax Riot fighting for white supremacy." Stupidity and hate is great fodder for stories.

The week after I left, dad had his operation. Where his : was, now he has a ;

At this date, he is home, eating solid food, after spending around two weeks recovering. He is my hero. I feel blessed that he is doing well.

Friday, April 1, 2011

A Fable

Biff said, "Diamond Point will never be as rich as Arrowwood unless we stop paying poor people to do our landscaping!" Ted agreed. They convinced the homeowner's association, overriding Chuck's objection that hiring landscapers was charitable to the poor. So Diamond Point would only hire residents. Here's what happened.

Ted said, "Biff, I gave up $40K in legal work this year because I was landscaping. Would you do my landscaping for $10K?"

Biff shook his head. "No way. I think I'm down $30K from last year. I would hire you, but your lawn sucks. Man, take some time off to figure out how to balance your ph."

"Time off? Can't I just hire somebody to do that? I can't afford more time off."

Biff rolled his eyes. "Read last year's agreement, man. We agreed not to hire out for ANY landscaping services. I hired a Diamond Point accountant to spread lime for $2K. He said that getting a landscaping education cost him $60K's worth of business so he had to charge."

Ted said, "Maybe Chuck was right. Maybe we should be charitable to the poor folks in Jones Ford and hire them."

"Get real, dude. That subdivision is so poor that they're full of free trade economists."