Long Hollow

Where seeds of thought have room to grow

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Realtor, writer, blogger in Austin, TX

Category: In the News

  • Harvey’s blowing us a kiss… (and a few recent sweet!s)

        Name the season’s first hurricane Zelda and fool Mother Nature into calling it a year. ~Robert Brault   Throughout the night I woke several times to the sound of heavy rain outside my window. And this afternoon on my back deck, I watched as the wind swooped hard through the hollow every few…

  • Memories, and other sweet!s

      "…remember someone said that God gave us memory so that we might have roses in December…." ~J.M. Barrie, "Courage" (The Rectorial Address Delivered at St. Andrews University, 1922 May 3rd)   There are some days when the not-so-sweet! seems to overshadow the sweet! Yesterday was one of those days. First, I heard of the passing of…

  • Rain. A sweet! for me… a curse for others.

        Our rain started last night. A determined, confident rain that would match any long-distance runner in the Olympics… persistent and focused. I can hear it even now, picking up a second wind, stepping up its pace.  However, except for a few low-water crossings, and unlike poor Louisiana, thank the good Lord there haven't…

  • Finishing a blog post, and other sweet!s from September…

      Tonight there's a super moon and lunar eclipse, all rolled into one event. I planned to take photos as the moon rose above the horizon, but discovered my camera battery was dead! So I charged it some and then made it out in time to witness the eclipse with Daniel, who just arrived home…

  • A Sweet Backtrack through May and June… Part 1

      Holy cow! A month has passed since my last post. How the heck did that happen? It's been a month full of so many things… Mother's Day, a wedding, rain in Austin, and a trip to Florida to name a few… each worthy of their own blog post. But at this late date all…

  • A sweet!-speckled day and SxSW…almost

        Now, as a REALTOR®, this t-shirt from the Etsy shop SpikeStuff goes against everything I stand for. I want people to move here! And I want them to let me help them find a home! Austin is an awesome place to live and there's still plenty of room for everyone! But tonight, as…

  • Reality (or “Why I need you to sign this contract and show me your ID”)

        I worked in a chemical plant for thirteen years, where all kinds of explosive and flammable materials swam through the pipes surrounding us. Propylene, hydrogen, syngas, and methanol, to name a few. For the first decade it was a DuPont plant, where safety and proper procedures were taken very seriously and drilled into…

  • Moving forward, but not forgetting…

      Lord, take me where you want me to go;Let me meet who you want me to meet;Tell me what you want me to say; andKeep me out of your way. – Fr. Mychal Judge, FDNY (died 9/11/01)     Every year in late September, early October, I head to the coast with a group…

  • They’ve landed! (…and other sweet!s)

    For the past week or so I've been living vicariously through a couple of my kids. Again. My son and his wife have now experienced the beauty, beer, food, art, sights and sounds of Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Amsterdam. And through the wonders of technology, I've been able to tag along through their photos and…

  • In Homage to Robin and El Capitan

    I was 19, living alone in my first apartment, relishing the solitude and the freedom of having my own space. Many nights I sat on a second-hand loveseat watching my very own television, bought via the Sears Easy Payment Plan. Thanks to my sister, who worked in the Sears credit department, I was building my…