THE BLOG

For the past several months much of my time apart from work has been spent readying my recently deceased father’s house to sell. Whereas a sales contract came quickly because his house is in one of the most sought after neighborhoods in my hometown, movement to closing has been a trying experience. Whereas my father was a very practical and careful person overall, one thing I have learned is that for some reason he did not think it important to keep up with termite control. An ounce of prevention (annual termite inspections over the years) would have prevented a pound of cure (expensive and time consuming repairs).

Back in the early 80’s when Lynne and I lived in Columbia with our girls, we came home on a Saturday night after Thanksgiving to discover that our house had been broken into and some personal possessions taken. The best way to describe how that made us feel is violated.

A few weeks ago when it became obvious to Americans that the COVID-19 virus was something to be taken seriously, a most amazing thing happened in the US.  Americans began a run on toilet paper along with other items which each deemed a necessity. At the end of that first week of binge purchases of TP, in his weekly sermon our pastor told of a cartoon he’d seen that week.  In the cartoon a man who had just been told by his doctor that he had tested positive for the virus, declared, “But Doc, there’s no way I can have the virus. I have 300 rolls of toilet paper in my house.”