Marked

There once was a walnut tree in my front yard, long before it was my front yard. As a point of fact, where there is one walnut tree there are … Read more

Ice Cream

I read a headline the other day that said if I eat a lot of ice cream I’m going to die soon. But a different headline on a different day … Read more

Frogs

My older brother is, and was, a solemn type of guy, unable, or unwilling, to get uniquely excited about anything. This is why in, or around, 1988 I told him … Read more

Corn

There are men and women in suits who trade in the futures markets. Some trade oil and some trade hogs and some trade wheat and others trade corn. If you’re … Read more

Lake Geneva AI Launch

Well, I can’t keep it a secret anymore. It’s time to share with you the thing on which I’ve been working. It’s groundbreaking. It’s transformational. It’s otherworldly, really. And lest … Read more

The Work

It’s the middle of May now and in five months it’ll be the middle of October. The bright green lawns of May will be replaced by the dull lawns of … Read more

Wisconsin flowers

Science, Pfft.

In a matter of days, they’re coming. I mean, they’re already here, they’re just sleeping. Or they’re not even alive, but they will be, and soon. Any day now. The … Read more

The stunning pastels of a Lake Geneva spring

Favorites

A long time ago I decided my favorite bird was a particular variety of duck, the specific variety of which doesn’t matter to the story, which is good, because I … Read more

Salesmanship

I once wrote a description about a house that angered the owner of the house, my client. He read my description and told me he was disappointed in me. Mr. … Read more

It’s Time

I took a drive this morning. Down a road I know and around a corner onto a road that’s familiar but still unknown to me. As I drove from one … Read more

Sometimes

Sometimes spring arrives in February. The ice breaks and the wind blows and the snow melts and the grass greens and the street sweepers sweep to rid the roadways of … Read more

Kid From The Bay

When you’re a kid from the bay you ride your bike to Geneva Street but never across it. You visit Lake Geneva when you’re 45 and still think of it … Read more

Happy Thanksgiving

My deaf, blind dog woke me up early this morning. She wakes me up early every morning, though lately it’s not as early as it was this past summer when … Read more

Novembery

I’m not like you. You’re dreaming of bright skies and blue waters. I’m driving through this mist and this gray with my windshield wipers on intermittently and I stop to … Read more

October

On Sunday I boated and maybe you did, too. It was that sort of Sunday. If you could boat, you did boat. One last ride, we all said. The skies … Read more

Time Zones

I’m in Spain right now, sitting in a home crammed perilously into the side of a very old cliff, perhaps 500′ or more above the Mediterranean Sea below. It’s quite … Read more

Cover

On a Thursday it’s cloudy and it’s rainy and the men hurry to work with their shoulders hunched forward and their eyes towards the ground. The rain wets their hair … Read more

September

There was a battle yesterday. While you were busy driving to work or to school or to coffee or to the store to have your fall pants hemmed the battle … Read more

Flagstone

In the town where I’m from there are all varieties of stone, but only one variety that matters. You call it Flagstone and I call it Lannon Stone and in … Read more

Pool Time

I’m sitting at a pool now trying to find the motivation to become a pool person. I can imagine being such a person. Me, sitting by this pool, reading a … Read more

Changes

The way things are now is no longer the way things used to be. That’s what I told him when he asked. I leaned in and explained some more. Golden … Read more

April

There’s an interesting breeze blowing in Lake Geneva today. It stormed the other day. And then it stormed again a day later. And then it stormed a bit more. Once … Read more

Aspen Lakefront Realty

I suppose my lifelong love of Aspen started last March when I visited for Spring Break. In Aspen, we capitalize Spring Break, because it is nearly everything to us. And … Read more

This Winter

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Real Estate Shorts

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

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

Back To School

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

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

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

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

Wind

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

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

Thanksgiving

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Battle Royale

You think your life is difficult? Ha! Try fighting my battle, and then you’ll at least be happy that you’re not having to walk a day in my pollen covered shoes.

Just A Kid

It’s raining again, and this time it’s getting to me. The sun shines, but then it doesn’t. Here, then gone. Like a rising fish in that corner pool, dark and … Read more

Memorial Day Weekend

Well, here we are. On the cusp. Don’t forget, this isn’t it. This is the cusp. This isn’t summer. This is a dress rehearsal. This is the weekend where you … Read more

Lake Geneva For Sale

May Flowers

In between the rain drops, the trees of May strut their stuff. Pay attention, because these flowers are fleeting.

Major Storm

I’m not sure why you’re spending the time to read this. It’s coming. Can’t you see?  It’s not far away now. Last night, it wasn’t even close. No one cared … Read more

Cool White

( A rerun from 2017)   The problem with this tradition is that it’s based, at least somewhat, on emotion. On feelings.  Which is why I told my daughter on … Read more

In Between

I’m sitting here again. Like Groundhog Day, without the square. Just me and this computer, this desk. This street. A few snow flurries outside, just a dusting I’m guessing. It’s … Read more

Happy Thanksgiving

There’s nothing more to write. It’s just Thanksgiving. We should be thankful. I am thankful.  We should also be aware that on our list of things that matter, real estate … Read more

Cold And Frosty

What a mundane life it would be if we missed mornings like these. Mornings like this. The cold morning where you’re not really cold. The foggy morning where nothing is … Read more

Decisions

On a day last week, in the afternoon of that day, there was a choice to be made. The sky opened after a period of rain and a period of … Read more

Wish

I used to wish for things. Lots of things. In the third grade, I wished that a girl I liked wouldn’t move away. She did. Later, I wished that the … Read more

Seasons

In the northern reaches of this state, where monuments to large men and larger fish draw worshippers and summer starts and ends in the span of barely more than a … Read more

One Last Summer

Somewhere, sometime, there was a decision made. It was a decision based on indecision, really. This would be it. A lifetime here, in this place, but the times had changed. … Read more

Glenwood Springs Fontana

Gone

This week wasn’t like the other weeks. It wasn’t like the one before it, or the two before that one. It’s been a week unlike any since this week last … Read more

Not The Same

I don’t really know exactly how Hamburger Helper works. I assume it’s just a powder mix, with some starch to bind and some salt to flavor. Maybe a dash of … Read more

Today

It’s another nice day here. The sky is calm and the birds are chirping.  Some water from the sky would be nice, but that’s an opinion only shared by the … Read more

Scarred

It’s still not clear to me whether or not the air conditioning worked. I remember a serviceman arriving in his rusted Suburban, the smell of his cigarettes, the sound of … Read more

The stunning pastels of a Lake Geneva spring

Municipal Musings

Last weekend, it was hot. You know that. I know that. It was super hot. Smoking hot. Summer hot. If you were here, then you were less hot than the … Read more

Lilacs

There was an old Lilac outside my childhood bedroom window. It wasn’t a great bush, or tree. Whichever it was, it wasn’t the finest specimen. It was just a bush … Read more

Forty

This weekend, I’ll turn 40. It’s no big deal, really. No feat, nothing particularly impressive about passively allowing time to be measured. I’m probably an old 40, if there’s such … Read more

Along The Way

I love my kids. I really do. Of the few things in this life of which I’m certain, that condition is firmly assured. But I can’t stand driving anywhere with … Read more

Walk This Way

Somehow,  someway, someone once decided that walking was a nice thing to do.  Let’s go for a walk, someone once said. Others joined in. Those weary of walking likely declined, … Read more

Selling Season!

It’s here. The time of year Any Lake, Wisconsin has been waiting for. This is their time. It’s all Any Lake, all the time. At least it is for now. … Read more