Henri - the Great Communicator

September 21, 2006

Henri is in animal ICU tonight. He wasn’t supposed to see the doc until tomorrow but this morning I heard Henri throwing up downstairs. Then he went outside and laid on the cool cement. I could not get him inside but the minute I opened the van side door he was up and crawled in. He would not get out so I took him to drop my wife at the Park n Ride. He just sat quietly on the seat behind me and watched instead of his usual habit of trying to climb over the seat to sit in my lap.

I went home to shower and he still wouldn’t get out of the van—he was still sitting in it when I was presentable, so I drove him to the vet where he promptly jumped out and went in to see the doctors.

That Henri knows how to get things done. He knew he couldn’t wait until tomorrow to go in -- and he figured out a way for me to "get it." I have learned some valuable lessons about life from Henri, like being persistent.

The doctors won’t know for a day or two if they can stabilize him. We’ll treat him as long as possible, and as long as he isn’t suffering.

After dropping Henri at Gulf Coast, I went --for the first time-- to the Bay Area commercial real estate lunch (BACREN). The speaker was Luke Romero, an international real estate broker, who gave a great talk on international investors who make up of a huge percentage of investors coming into our markets – and are rapidly growing. Over 1/3 of our loans now come from foreign capital! Americans are going overseas to invest and foreigners are coming here to invest. It’s a global economy. Today I met Americans setting up deals from Costa Rica to Panama, Americans building condos and resorts.

Between Henri, lunch, phone calls and a run to the courthouse, I didn’t even catch the news. I have a portable TV in the car so I can listen to it when on the road. But once you have a cancer patient in your family, the news doesn’t seem to matter all that much. The only news that matters is how your family member is doing day to day.