Willy and I made another trip to the Binghamton, New York area and tried again to find a new home! Having divested ourselves of the mortgage broker Ed, whom we mainly blame for the delays and setbacks incurred in this venture, as well as real estate man John, who just didn't have access to the properties we found suitable, nor, seemingly, had a real interest in helping us, we enlisted the aid of a new realtor, James Wright, of the Sidney office of DeMulder Realty. We found Jim punctual, aware of our needs, and very eager to show us his available properties! We had a 1300 hour appointment and by 1700 had visited the countryside and made an offer on this property:

Three bedrooms, 1 and 1/2 bathrooms, full basement, full attic, a great porch AND deck,

a balcony off the master bedroom and a good expanse of property (8 acres) behind the house! Willy climbed up here and envisioned building his "castle" here! Noisy neighbors?

Perfect for us? Yes! Too good to be true? Yes!

Even though I raised my initial offer by $5000, Jim Wright e-mailed me just hours before my birthday that the house was sold to another buyer, who not only outbid me, but offered a cash settlement instead of financing!

So, it's back to square one! We need to start all over, albeit this time with a competent realtor and the financing seemingly in hand. This will necessitate another trip to Sidney, New York to look at some of these properties:

Some of these properties are quite a bit smaller than the 8 acres of our "dream" house, but some make up for it in room number and/or size. All, of course, depends on the amount of privacy! Every day I must suffer through the incessant din of apartment living makes it more imperative that I truly have no other people within spitting (make that shooting) distance!

While on our last trip, I had occasion to visit with my ex-father-in law Charles Schultze on his 80th brthday! He remains one of my few personal heroes and a person to emulate! Consider that he is the father of 9, grandfather of 14 and great-grandfather of 2! He is a true patriarch and clan chief in every way. Aside from the obvious accomplishment of making it to age 80, he has 9 good looking and intelligent children, who are following in his footsteps of being good, inspiring parents themselves! Providing for 9 kids often made it necessary for Charlie to hold as many as three jobs simultaneously! I am proud to be one of his clan; those two great-grandkids of his are my daughter's Erik and Rachel!

Ever since we returned from the Far East in 1984, we have stayed at Howard Johnson's in Vestal, New York when it became necessary to visit the Johnson City area for family visits. And so it came to pass that Willy and I stayed there the last week of July, even though it was a bit out of our way - our appointments with our realtor were in Endwell. We got a good deal and service and had a room with refrigerator and microwave. This really comes in handy when spending the better part of a week living out of a motel room! This month, I made sure I made reservations ahead of time and specified that I wanted the same deal, for 4 or 5 days, as last time! Willy and I had good traveling weather and stocked up on $62 worth of provisions. Although this disabled vet usually has to urinate hourly, we made it to Vestal with only one pit-stop along the way. When we got to Ho-Jo's, I was most assuredly doing the "pee-pee dance!" As soon as I got into the office, I informed the familar desk clerk that I would need to utilize her "little" room. Also present was the dour-looking owner/manager who shot me a snotty: "You know, that is only for employees!" I told that she had a choice of letting me use it or having a puddle in her lobby! I used their toilet and proceeded with the check-in. Although it was a different room number, the clerk assured me all was the same. Poor Willy made several trips, lugging all our stuff to the top floor. Then we found out that this room had NO refrigerator or microwave. I made another trip to the front office and complained. The snooty manager started double-talking about I should not have had that room for that rate and about she always keeps a room like that for construction workers who come regularly and the bottom line was - there was no room with the amenities we had counted on! I canceled my reservation and drove the half-hour to Sidney to stay at the Super-8 Motel! Our sixteen year relationship with Howard Johnson's is OVER! I'll not stay there again and would urge all my numerous friends to do likewise. Having comcluded our business in Sidney, we returned to Johnson City for Charlie's birthday. This time, we found adequate lodging at a reasonable price at the Skylark Inn in Endicott. This is a place I heartily recommend. Good, clean rooms and very friendly management

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY to Henry and Carol and Liz and Jim on Long Island, Levi and Eudene in Indiana, and to my wife Ha-Yo - we've been married 16 years!

Big son Armin was at football camp last month, yet called me to wish me a Happy Birthday! Another great and welcome birthday phone call came from my beautiful cousin Hannegret in Bavaria! My beloved son Willy becomes a teenager this month; here we are right after our New York trip last month:

Please indulge me this one commercial: I bought a copy of "A First Dictionary of Cultural Literacy" for Willy, last year! He took it to school and his teacher promptly ordered a copy! It contains the basic facts EVERYBODY ought to know to function in society. It is kept simple enough for a 12 year old to understand, but contains facts that many of us (shame on us!) have already forgotten! Here is the link you need Literacy Dictionary to learn more about this book and how to buy it online for less than $10. I recommend this book for all your kids.

...once upon a time, in a village in the Far East, we take a break. Of course, I'm the one holding the beer!