It was a cloudless day on the patio of the General Store where the temperatures were 65 wonderful degrees....a far cry from the single digits being experience in the midwest and east. The big news today is that Dennis Pierini got his first hole in one this last week and it must be true because Gary Castle was a witness....Gary also witnessed my great accomplishment. Dennis was attempting to down play the event and act like those types of things happen to him several times a day. He made a necklace out of the golf ball and was walking around with the golf club, pretending it was just another walking stick. It was a little wearing that he kept playing the video of him removing the golf ball from the hole...regular speed, slow motion, fast speed...you name it. Congratulations Dennis...fun stuff. Lee Hoekstra came down from the mountain and was talking about the new house he purchased in South Dakota.....after quite a bit of haggling he bought it for $10,000. It sits on 1.5 acres and he did some remodeling, which raised his property taxes up to $258 per year. I think he said it was a 2 to 3 bedroom 1 bath estate. He was also talking about White Eagle in Naperville and indicated that increased property taxes and other tax issues have had a profound negative impact on property values....a once $1.5 M property is now $900,000...ouch. Illinois is truly struggling. Lee also indicated that a lot of the property in Prescott was being purchase by Californians. Dick Davis was talking about his 7 holes in one...sorry Dennis....and the great courses where we got them while he was enjoying his patty melt. The weather back in Michigan now is in single digits and he is happy to be on the patio. Frank Stock took a break from the market and, as a result, the indices were responding by showing a red face. He and Wes were going to hit golf balls after lunch in hopes to ride Dennis’ coat tails on getting the ball into the hole. Jerry Ostermann was saying he had run into Dick George several times, at the dry cleaners of all places. Jerry has lived in his home in Elmhurst since about 1987. That is quite a stay.....and a very great village for sure. We did talk about the gravitation of residents from Illinois and California moving to other areas for one reason or another and they are taking their voting habits with them changing the political climate of the states they are relocating to. Thats ok as long as the taxes, homelessness and hesitancy to address hard issues do not become the side effects at their new digs. Here is hoping everyone is enjoying every day and taking bumps in the road with a level head. Gerry