John B. Marek

The offices of RS Byrnes Associates, the firm where I worked as a consultant from 1998 to 2004, were located in a two-story office building near the intersection of Carmel and Pineville Matthews roads in south Charlotte. We shared the ground floor with an insurance agency, and the upstairs cycled through a variety of different tenants, including a masseuse, a computer repair shop and an architect. Our suite had previously been occupied by a dentist’s office, which explained why there was occasionally the faint odor of burning enamel. Sometime around 2002, a hypnotherapist set up shop in one of the upstairs office suites, and I struck up a conversation with her one evening on my walk to the car. She handed me a business card that listed the maladies and addictions she claimed to cure through her hypnosis sessions; smoking, overeating, fear of flying, etc. She said if I was interested, the first session was free.  While I didn’t have any of the issues listed, I was kind of curious ab...

You could make the case that fall is the most aptly named season, what with leaves and temperatures both falling, but from where I sit, calling the season we are now in “spring” is just as appropriate. One day things are brown and gray, and then, BOOM, everything springs into shades of green – the Green Bang. Of course, that green is accompanied by an eighth-inch thick layer of yellow pollen on everything, but that’s life in the Carolinas. The first time I ever visited Charlotte was around this time of year, late April or early May, and I was amazed at how green everything was. In Ohio, things green up more gradually, starting in late April and continuing throughout May. For those who love the outdoors, spring in the Carolinas is a beautiful – and frustrating – time of year; frustration born from the realization that the wonder of the season carries with it multiple responsibilities and that those responsibilities are time-sensitive. Over the next few weeks, homeowners will need ...