Realtory Speaking

Lunch With THIS GUY Yesterday Helped So Much

When I got home yesterday I felt I was entering a pristine museum versus my home.  Even Buddy seemed averse to shedding fur which is a sea change in his normal modus operandi.  My wife after three days of Herculean effort had finally gotten the house to a level of cleanliness unseen outside of a surgical clean room.  I was entirely impressed as I nervously brought my clutter prone aura into this immaculate environment (I knew how Buddy felt).

All of this was I preparation for the assessment visit by a realtor we were interviewing.  We’ve decided to put the house (way too big for just the two of us) on the market but the timing is complicated by son’s wedding this summer and the attendant human wave of Panamanian house guests.

The meeting went extremely well.  We liked both the agent and his company’s approach.  He’d done a lot of research and was impressed with all the improvements we’ve made, not to mention how damned clean the place was.  The best news was what he thought we could sell the house for.  I seem to have an inborn ability to only purchase houses at the peak of a real estate market only to watch it bottom out when it’s time to sell.  House prices have rebounded enough that while we may not make all of our money back the hit won’t be as egregious as I feared.  We decided to put the house up in the fall after the wedding.

Three Guesses When We Bought Our House 

My wife, now faced with concrete evidence we’re going to sell the house immediately began doubting our plans and fell in on an off hand comment made by the MEF a couple weeks ago.  My wife said we should just wait and move into an in-law apartment in my son’s future home.  In a phone call later last night my son helped quash that plan and got us back on track.

In recognition of my wife’s phenomenal efforts over the past few days I took her out to dinner following the visit to discuss her evolving vision of our future.  She even said we should abandon our planned second home in Panama.  The stress/exhaustion of the past few days combined with the heavy nostalgia associated with leaving the home we’ve lived in more than twice as long as any other during our marriage caused her some serious heart ache.  I spent most of the dinner talking her off the proverbial ledge of self-recrimination; we had a good time.

I finished another book yesterday.  A few months ago a high school classmate shared her mutual obsession with Brad Thor’s books and recommended I check out Vince Flynn.  Since I’m approaching the end of the line with both Christopher Nuttall and Chuck Palahniuk I finally took her advice and started with Flynn’s first book, American Assassin.

I’m now a little P.O.ed at my friend because she was absolutely right; Flynn rocks!  I loved the book and rampaged through it even faster than my normal Thor pace which approaches the speed of light.  Unfortunately Flynn recently passed away at a young age due to pancreatic cancer so they’ll be no additions to what is currently out there.  Fortunately he was fairly prolific before he died so there’s a lot to get through.

American Assassin introduces Flynn’s hero – Mitch Rapp, who looks to give even Thor’s Scot Horvath a run for his money.  Rapp’s recruitment and initial training as a CIA operative is explored in this first book along with his first couple of missions.  Rapp’s’ fiancé was killed in the Pan Am to Lockerbie attack so he’s extremely motivated along with being a world class athlete.

His first couple missions range from Europe to the middle east.  I’ve been to several of the places mentioned in the book and Flynn does a great job of capturing the environment.  It looks to be a great ride ahead with Mr. Rapp.  A thousand thanks to the friend who recommended him!