Wednesday, November 26, 2008

    The next Leasing News edition will be Monday, December 1, 2008 with the completed stories about Balboa Capital cutting off brokers who were getting up to 20% commissions, more on IFC Credit, Direct Capital, a special article written by the Alta Group principal Shawn Halladay on “Banks and Leasing” plus Mr. Terry Winders #102 “Holding Leases,” and the latest news and features about the leasing industry.

It’s going to get tougher out there. One popular female leasing broker told me, “My business is so dead that I might have to become a lady of the evening to survive.”

Hey, it’s going to get better! It always does. Let’s relax and be thankful for what we have.

This Thanksgiving we should all remember those who can’t join us, who are serving our country away from home, such as my son Dashiell, named after my favorite author Dashiell Hammet. His nickname is “Dash.” I am extremely proud of him. He is on his fifth tour in the Middle East and at the first of the year, goes to Afghanistan. He volunteered for this assignment. When I was in the army, we never volunteered for anything. Shows you the difference in the generations.

Dash did two tours on the destroyer USS Preble, who spent time in the Mediterranean Sea in support and protection, where he primarily boarded ships that entered the waters around military and oil facilities. He then was in the Riverene in smaller crafts, for one, and the last two as a “dirt sailor,” on land and the water, missions, security, and training duties.

He does not like me writing about his duties or locations, and I have stopped doing that, except this is Thanksgiving and I miss him. I speak to him by telephone when he is not on a mission, sometimes once a week. It can be a month, too. He emails me when he can. I send him packages that he shares with his buddies. I even send him magazines and letters. He says most of his unit doesn’t get letters or packages and they look forward to what I send to him.

Dash on his base

This photo is taken at his base.

On land, they secure oil and military installations, he says traveling 110 miles per hour on the sand as they are hard to hit at that speed. He says most of the humvees still do not have armor underneath.
He has other assignments.

When I speak to Dash on the telephone, I am frequently reminded of TV show “Hill Street Blues” when Sergeant Phil Esterhaus ended his briefing to his unit. He always said, “Hey, let's be careful out there.”

Kit Menkin

Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at Leasing News.

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