by Allen Butler

Realtor, Audio Engineer

Author website

SO. What an entirely eventful week. When I’m done here, you may be shaking your head in disbelief, but YOU JUST CAN’T MAKE THIS STUFF UP. Every single thing contained herein is the truth, and all of it has occurred within the last 7 days.

First, on a routine visit to the doctor’s office with my oldest son Hayden, I am informed by the physician that he has a very irregular heartbeat, and needs to be transported to Phoenix Children’s Hospital by ambulance, immediately, for more thorough testing. Of course, there’s an 8 hr line at the hospital for the paediatric cardiologist.  Both of my sons are my absolute LIFE. You can imagine. . .

I’m happy to report that 48 excruciating life-times (hours) after that, my wife and I were informed that my son is fine. An exuberant new doctor made an overly cautious judgement call on a sinus arythmia (A common and harmless irregular heart-beat  caused by. . .breathing; it is especially common in children between the ages of 3 and 6).  Wow. That sucked. Try to settle in for some seriously needed “do-over sleep”.

Second, my cat Jasper, whom my wife and I picked up from the Humane Society in early January of 1990 passed away. This cat was 18 years old. He had been with my wife and I since just a few weeks after we began dating.  I’d never had a cat like this one in my life. He was the most mellow, laid-back, snuggly cat I’ve ever has the pleasure of loving. Here’s me and him a month or so after we got him.  (Don’t laugh at me. I was 18, and I’m fairly certain I was stoned.)

Eighteen years later, here we both are, much older and wiser. (This picture was taken about 4 hours before he breathed his last in my arms.)

About mid-morning today, as I’m burying my cat in the sunny spot under his favorite tree, my mother calls to tell me that my sister, who is 31 years old, and pregnant, has suffered internal bleeding from a tubal pregnancy. The baby is gone, and my sister comes close Read more

by Jeff Kempe

Realtor, Associate Broker

Author website

Wait…you’re still here?

Why?

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I’m still a blogging outlier. I don’t pay enough attention to my own blog, let alone BHB; I read blogs and love to write, but it’s never been obsessive. I write when I’m inspired, not when I’m on deadline; when I’m short on time I scan enough to get the gist and mostly ignore links. In doing so I occasionally miss the gist entirely. One of the reasons I’m really looking forward to Unchained is to learn from those I like and respect to channel the process productively.

So not until yesterday morning, when I got the feed to Cathleen’s post, did I have any clue as to what was going on in RE.net. Not until this morning did I have a chance to read the more than four hundred comments here, here, and here. I’ve had to go back to the last week’s posts here to put them in proper context. (Russell: My apologies.)

Whew. As I said in my comment to Teri, people love to be offended; sometimes they wallow in it. (Note: I’m a people, too.) It brings the warm glow of righteousness, especially if it can be shared with fellow travelers. Objections to the contrary, ‘mob’ is a perfectly apt descriptor; “they’re a mob, but I’m thinking on my own” just doesn’t wash. Hiding behind the vitriolic din brings the false feeling of no consequence.

Since this is all new to me, some observations:

1. I spent more time on Sellsius this morning reading comments than I’ve spent in the entire last year. Ferrara is a terrific writer, and argued his case well, though I’m not sure it’s the case he meant to argue: The genesis is his snit at being locked out of BHB. Whether or not Greg’s post was in fact offensive, that was only a vehicle to unload.
2. Everyone else – including Dustin – followed. And Dustin – whose sites I like and read and who I’ll continue to like and read – used an approach that was particularly small. Petulance is never a winning tactic.
3. I learned Mike Farmer is a terrific writer as well.
4. One of the things Read more