Tonight I received an unexpected text from my friend, Ben. I was seriously engrossed in writing when his text alarmed me to the point that my pen left a long streak across the page. We all know how that goes. I was kind of giggling about that when I found this text had arrived.
Of course, you need to know the back story. When I have cases in Springfield, Illinois, I will often go visit Ben. The first time I visited him in Champaign he introduced me to his pride and joy flock of chickens. He knew their personalities. There were the seven cool ones and the three outcasts. He had made them a coupe. There was one major problem. There was a town ordinance forbidding anyone from having chickens. One fine day, as destiny would have it, the town confiscated his chickens while he was on vacation.
Ben was devastated. He even seriously considered moving.
But alas, it appears that friend Ben came up with a better idea. I'm proud of him.
I am proud of him because it is the antithesis of one of my greatest pet peeves - when people complain about problems they don't have any intention of fixing.
Here there was calculated, intelligent action. I respect that.
For this purpose Ben is stud of the month for July 2013
