Family Businesses

Today...

• There is a huge industry around litigating and mediating family business conflicts. My family is struggling through one of these scenarios right now. Because I'm not embroiled in it by living there, it is easier for me to look at the whole thing and simply laugh at how egotistical, greedy and stupid we can all be. It's harder for my father and brother to have that perspective because they're smack in the middle of the conflict. Anyway. I was curious to see how common this is given that our grandparents are dying, leaving their holdings to multiple children, the following generation (our parents) often divorce and now there is our generation who have children out of wedlock or multiple marriages, etc. So I started Googling the topic. You wouldn't believe how many results are returned. Some are lawyers hanging out their shingles. Other results are advice or news columns. Either way it's clear that these kinds of disputes are incredibly common in this country. What a world we live in... If the government doesn't get it all in taxes due to poor estate planning, then the squabbles among family members after the fact result in the remainder lining the pockets of lawyers. This is a recent article in the news. I think it applies to my parents' generation too where there are siblings involved together. My guess is that the younger sibling is typically the layabout while the elder sibling makes the business real.
• I finally spoke with Patric last evening. With his help, I've zeroed in on 3 areas that I'd like to stay in: Perugia, Umbria; Spoletto, Umbria; or Cetona, Tuscany (near Chiusi, Tuscany). I owe him dates when I can travel. I'm running out of time to do this trip before Trek's wedding so even though the plane tickets are quite a bit more money in May, I will likely have to go then instead. Oh ... and btw ... it's "Council Travel" not "Counsel Travel". They don't have a website. They have a few offices in Seattle, one is on the Ave. and the other is on University. And here are couple other tips I forgot to mention. Depending on time, sometimes it is smart to fly between major cities in Italy. Two good airlines for this in Europe are RyanAir and EasyJet.
• I ran into a couple of old friends of mine at Pacific Place last weekend. Tricia and Chris Callahan. I haven't spoken with either of them in at least a decade. I lived with Tricia in the AOII house and later in another house off-campus ... and Chris was a LamdaChi, my own personal set of "big brothers" and where my little brother almost pledged. Tricia and Chris are living here. I had no idea. Tricia still is incredibly organized and is still carrying around her trusty dayplanner. Remembering that endearing idiosyncracy made me smile. I'm glad to have rediscovered a friend. It's a good time for this to happen.
• Speaking of friends, remember when you used to have the summer off? And remember how all of your friends also had the summer off? That was sweet, wasn't it? Being off as an adult is very different, especially if one doesn't have immediate family living with them. I see lots of people everyday but it's just not quite the same as having a friend to sit down and really talk with or to experience something in life with. I miss seeing those folks most of my days.
• I officially gave notice last week on Friday. 4/1/2005 will be my last day at BEA.
• My nephew Logan (a.k.a. Little Monkey), called me this weekend. We were on our way to see Robots at the IMAX. Logan, that devil, tried to tell me the plot before I could even see the movie! I now owe him a phone call. I'm supposed to guess his favorite scene. :)
• Still having wireless connectivity issues with my new laptop. I definitely fixed part of the problem by upgrading the firmware on my router but there is still something funky going on where I intermittently (and frequently) get hangs or "server not found" errors. My other two computers are working perfectly. Hm. I'm not quite sure what to try next.