Musings

This Winter

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I’m not sure if it’s this winter, or just winter in general, but it no longer bothers me. It’s different. It’s cold, but is it bitter? Bitterly cold, that’s what … Read more

Happy New Year

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From my family to yours, best wishes for a peaceful, healthy, prosperous new year. Any year that starts with my family healthy and ends with them healthy is a pretty … Read more

1991

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There aren’t very many things that I can do today that make me feel like I did when I was young. When I was young, I mowed lawns. Lots of … Read more

Happy Holidays

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I’d like to say Happy Hanukah and Merry Christmas and also Happy New Year, but how can that fit in the title spot? And if it did fit, how would … Read more

Demands

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Demands Summer asks too much of me. It doesn’t let me be. It tells me that five o’clock is the time to start something. To go into the water or … Read more

Pier Guy

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My wife tells me I should worry less. She tells me that it doesn’t matter what the forecast says. But next Thursday is a high of 26 and a low … Read more

Pastry

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There’s this thing about the dark of winter that makes me want to do a certain thing that I know to be detrimental to both my health and my rapidly … Read more

Christmas Vacation

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I never met John Hughes. He apparently owned a condominium in Williams Bay and was a frequent breakfast patron at Daddy Maxwell’s, which should put the two of us on … Read more

Knocking

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There’s a summer wind blowing through my October window again. It shouldn’t be, but it is. And it’s not really blowing. It’s knocking. It’s pulsing. And the curtain is dancing … Read more

Prolific

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On the edge of my property, well beyond where the grass turns to prairie and after the prairie turns to a forest, if you can call it that, I have … Read more

Where

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So where would you rather be, he said. If you didn’t have to be here, where would you live? If you had to choose a place, tell me where. There … Read more

Birds and Feathers

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I arrived at my office this morning and read a comment from some person I don’t know who suggested I’m a “chubby bitch” with size 44 pants, which is, in … Read more

Rain

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It rained again yesterday. It would have come as a surprise to me, but it rained a bit two days before that as well. And last weekend we had some … Read more

Benches

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I’ve spent much of the last twenty years working on a theory that suggests the only people who sit on park benches are old men. I was driving a month … Read more

April

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When I was in high school, a friend of mine had a girlfriend named April. She had curly hair and tanned skin and braces, I think. She went to another … Read more

Crypto

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We’re happy to announce that We Are Now Accepting Bitcoin For Payment, the sign read. We also accept Ethereum and Dogecoin and ADA and Shibu. In fact, we accept every … Read more

Herbs

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Herbs The gas station in our town is called Herb’s. I should say, it was called Herb’s. It might have been called something else even when I thought it was … Read more

The Cottage

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The first time I ever saw the cottage I don’t think I noticed it. I drove by it and kept driving, oblivious to the obsession that would soon find me. … Read more

Something Else

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There’s something wrong with you, she said. I know, I said.  The Johnson deal is in trouble.  Not because it should be, but because it just is. The deal is … Read more

The Rink

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In the winter the town would flood the gravel parking lot to give the locals a place to ice skate.  Sure the lake was full of ice, but this rink … Read more

Bridges

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I was down at that bridge again. It was dark and it was rainy and that’s why I was there. Young couples put on their prom best and stand on … Read more

Whataboutisms

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The frothy whip of the real estate market has improved the lives and wellbeing of many, and in that list of many I include my own life and the lives … Read more

Sand

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Thinking about buying a home in the islands? Just say no.

Real Estate Shorts

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Do you know what the word breathtaking means? It means to have your breath taken. Like if you get murdered, that’s a seriously breathtaking moment. Once I was installing siding … Read more

Virgil Abloh

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I never met Virgil Abloh. I didn’t own anything from Off-White, the company he founded in Milan almost ten years ago. I’ve never met his wife, or his children, or … Read more

New Buffalo AirBnB Ban

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New Buffalo might ban short term rentals, which is bad for them. Lake Geneva? We’re a market for owners, not renters.

Back To School

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I’ve been writing this blog with intent for twelve years. Twelve years ago, back to school meant something different to me. Twelve years ago when I dropped my son off … Read more

Just a Cottage

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It was once only a dream. It was once a fantasy. Some day, maybe, but unattainable. Years passed and it become possible. A stretch, but possible. After years more work … Read more

Off White

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Grass is green and the sky is off-white. This is what the children of summer will be tought. Even if we don’t teach them, they’ll learn. How could they ignore … Read more

Lake Geneva For Sale

RIP

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My favorite tree has died. There is nothing more that can be said.

Wind

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The wind kicked up again. It was calm two days ago, and calm the day before that. But then yesterday it picked up and today it’s stirring. The wind is … Read more

Lake Geneva Real Estate

Home

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There’s so much talk about taxes and sunshine, I wonder if anyone remembers the concept of home.

Thanksgiving

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What a curious thing it is, this year. I sit here at this desk worrying about which customer will buy and which customer will sell, worrying about the June water … Read more

Over

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What just happened? Is it still summer? I remember the summer days. I remember seeing them through my car window, and out of this office window. The gas station was … Read more

Endless Summer

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The license plate said that. ENDLESS SUMMER. If you capitalize it, then it seems like some sort of horror film. It screams at you and demands things of you. But … Read more

Youth

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What is it about youth that we so envy? Do we envy youth because of our own cherished memory of it? Is it that we can imagine a time in … Read more

Force

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Years ago, I wrote often about the need to carve out time and dedicate that time to the enjoyment of this place. It was the time of our lives, after … Read more

Lake Geneva Real Estate

If

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This morning, I decided to do the thing I’ve done for nearly all of the past 24 years worth of mornings. I woke up, cleaned up, dressed down, and drove … Read more

Pier Guys

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This morning things seem ideal. I woke up, which is a nice start to any day. My house was warm, my children healthy, and when I sat on the edge of

Sunday

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Just trying to break the habit that forces us to worry about the future more than we care about living in the present.