FEB-B-10
BREAKTHROUGHS AND SHUT-INS:
ANOTHER WINTRY PERIOD OF HOLED-UP HOME-BOUND,
WORK WITH SOME SPECIAL NEWS OF PROGRESS
FROM AN AWAITED CALL, WHILE AWAITING A VISITOR
FEBRUARY 27-28, 2003
Well, big news! No, not the part about the radio announcement calling for 10—12 inches of new snow on top of the unmelted foot and a half of residual snow/ice. That has me cooped up, still, and doing more in the longer range planning.
But, the call just arrived that the Vander Harts who were holding out for a higher price while under very high pressures for their own high windfall tax liabilities which they had tried to shift over to me, saying that I was the one who needed to quickly resolve this issue since I had to separate my life from their nagging and move on with my own life and plans which included remodeling—which their inflated settlement “offer” would make impossible. In the poker contest that resulted, their lawyer, who is not often available, and mine, entered negotiations with only limits set by me. I was not exposed to the bluster and threats, and my attorney wisely decided to let them feel their own pressure, so he did not call back until Monday when they were hammering as eagerly on the lawyers’ doors as David had been doing on mine earlier when he tried to convince me that there was an urgency that I should be under the pressures of his own liability. In the poker game of counteroffer and bids, they were the ones to blink. So, they have agreed to the terms proposed by my attorney in a contract for a total quit claim, in which I had authorized him to raise the bid only a little if they were out of my hair forever with no follow-up niggling details as thy had been pursuing before, like trying to claim credit for all the property taxes I had paid, and other more preposterous ideas such as “rent” for my solo occupation of my own house. So, they have agreed to the final terms which Dan Kennedy is drawing up as a contract, which I will sign only after they have. Then we will go to settlement before the date they were under by their own worries, and I will write one single check that disposes of any further attempts at a claim they will ever come up with against any interests of mine. It has been along time coming! But, now that chapter is over!
TRIBUTE TO “MY NEIGHBOR” IN THE FIRST “GEORGE AWARD”
Another change of the day is that my fellow George Award recipient, Fred Rogers died today, of stomach cancer at age 74 in Pittsburgh. A Presbyterian minister who was a gentle fellow who said of his 32 year career on TV talking to kids, and outcompeting flashy and violent cartoons on other channels, that fame is just a four letter word, and like life and love and home and cash and work and time it only becomes significant with what you do with it.