July Update

June brought the Nystrom's unwanted visitors ... termites !

Yes, the scourge of the south came swarming on our house early in June. We have had a service contract with a termite company since we bought our home in 2004, who come and inspect or treat the house each year. We haven't really had any problems until this year. I was traveling when Priscilla called me about it. She was seeing them all around our front windows, on the screen outside as well as in the house and on the curtains. Yikes ! She called our termite people and they couldn't get out to us for 4 weeks, but said not to worry as they should die as soon as they take a bite of our wood. That wasn't very comforting to me, but I tried to maintain a sense of calm while on the phone to Priscilla. Well, the appointment was set for June 27th - they told us that termites are really swarming this year and they were booked up-couldn't get here any sooner.

In the interim, I was home for a week (jury duty, that's another story) and saw the little buggers flying right out of the window holes that the "rope" goes through when we open the windows, I forget what that is called. I freaked out! They were flying into our house!!!!

Well June 27th was this past Friday and I was out of town again. When I called Priscilla when I was boarding my plane in Atlanta, she said they had come out and sprayed us again and checked everything including the attic. Nick said that it may take 90 days for the spraying to get them if they didn't die from the wood that was already treated. He said they will check back with us then.

Well, this is all well and fine, but I haven't mentioned that our neighbors across the street had their house tented for termites on Monday, June 23rd and just moved back home on Friday the 27th. So we aren't the only ones seeing termites in their home. But that doesn't make me feel any better. I just gotta have faith in our termite man, I guess.

So about the jury duty. I was selected to go to a courtroom with about 16 others and we all sat there and listened to the Judge provide an overview of thee circumstances of the court case. Fortunately, this was for a civil case and not a criminal case. It involved a doctor suing his former anesthesiologist group, of which he was a shareholder, because he felt they didn't follow his employment agreement. In short, his agreement said (as did all of the 10-12 shareholders) that if sued, they would all chip in and pay for legal expenses. But the issue was, did he follow ALL the terms of the employment agreement.

You see this doctor was sued by a fellow doctor in the group for defamation of character as he was attacking this particular doctors clinical duties. He even wrote a letter to the head of the hospital where this doctor group was the only anesthesiologists for all surgeries! So the doctor suing him for defamation won, and the loser had legal expenses of over $130,000, and he wanted the doctor group to follow the employment agreement and reimburse him for these legal fees. Well, the long and short of it was, I was picked by the rest of the jurors to be the foremen (I didn't volunteer- all the women pointed at me and said I want him to be the foreman!) I went, darn my signature has to be on the final verdict, so this doctor cam "come and get me" after this trial. It was clear he had an uncontrollable temper. so we denied him in getting his legal fees - rendering our verdict in 40 minutes after 1 day of trial and testimony. I have done my civic duty.

So here we are, preparing to celebrate Independence day. I am taking the week off so look forward to the R&R. We have movies and beach time in our sights. Oh, and will watch the fireworks from our front porch as they are shooting them off two blocks away on Tampa bay at the Safety Harbor marina. They go out on a barge and shoot them off from there. So nothing should catch on fire. We are finally getting rains, 40% forecast for the next 7 days. So that is fantastic !

Have a safe and enjoyable holiday everyone!!!


Calvin & Priscilla