Finally Said Thank You

So yesterday was an eventful one around here.  Wifey moved the ancient mother to her new room at the Palace, and it appears the new roommie is less than gracious.  I told Wifey to make it sporting she should give each of them long, sharp knives, and see how things turn out.  Comic tales will surely ensue.

On another front, it appears we may have sold our now suegra vacant condo in record time.  Joyce, our realtor, came by and admitted she had listed it too low, and bumped up the price $20K.  It's not all good news, though, as there is a "40 year" inspection coming, and the management company says each unit may be assessed $3-4K.  Also, they made it harder to rent -- renters have to pay the ASSOCIATION a non refundable $500 fee, which, to units that rent for $1500k per month may be prohibitive.

But, Joyce got an offer, and then our upstairs neighbor Jack called her.  Jack is near 70, a Miami native (Miami High Class of '62) and a retired PE teacher.  He recently took care of his mother's estate, and needs an extra bedroom for the stuff.  He had his Merrill Lynch person call Joyce, and it appears he will buy the unit -- assuming any future assessments himself.  I told Joyce that's the only way I'm selling -- I'm not going to escrow anything to be dealt with months later, when they finally get around to making the repairs.  Still, it appears promising -- I can maybe get back some of the cost of the Big, Fat, Colombian wedding...

Then I headed to Shula's, for Happy Hour, to meet John.  He was running late, but at the bar was my old friend Eddy -- we worked together in 1987 -- he was a first year associate and I had joined his firm after a year working for an anti-semite named, hilariously, Schwartz.

Eddy has his own firm, doing insurance defense work, and has 5 lawyers working for him.  He married Grace, the daughter of a very wealthy broker, now passed away, and they have three kids.  Eddy's one of those guys I see too little of -- I actually run into his brother in my building and always ask after him.

Anyway, I brought up to Eddy a big favor he did for my partner and me years ago.  We were handling a case where a little girl fell out of a ride at a cheap amusement park, and seemed to be terribly hurt, but actually only suffered dental injuries.  We jumped on the case -- had the ride inspected by a national expert a day after the incident, and had the whole case "wired," as we used to say.

Our aggressiveness led to a very high and quick settlement offer.  I wanted to grab it -- Paul voted to push on for even more money.  I suggested we ask Eddy to hear both sides and give his opinion.  He did -- he said the offer was already triple what he would ever recommend to any of his clients -- we ought to take the money for the girl and run.  And then he acted as consultant to the Court to tell the judge the same thing.

I'm pretty sure I thanked him at the time with some fine spirits, but couldn't recall that, and so last night I picked up the tab for him, his wife, oldest son (visiting from NYC where his is a B of A analyst) and a childhood friend.  Eddy was floored.  It was my pleasure.

He's Cuban, and I'm Jewish, and we both love "Godfather" movies.  So thanking another man for a favor, even years later, resonates with us.

It was a fine ending to an eventful Friday...