These are the blogs that try men’s souls.

Ann began the day with wah! wah! WAH! In this case it meant a hazmat discharge from the vicinity of her backside. This effusion was some time in coming, so it was large and escaped the bounds set by her diaper. I got to be the engineer in change of disposal. Yuck.

Human beings are nothing if not versatile. A few hours later, after an hour’s drive northward, I found myself in the conference room of a new office building in north suburban Skokie, exercising a different skill set by interviewing several top executives at the Alter Group, thereby generating material for the next issue of Real Estate Chicago. Among other activities, the Alter Group develops properties in various parts of the country — “big box” industrial for instance. I’ve always liked that bit of real estate argot, the “big box.” It’s as clear as can be, and it usually applies to warehouse/distribution facilities, as in this case, or to monster retailers like Costco or Home Depot. In industrial usage, big box means maybe 400,000 square feet, and if you can't quite picture that measurement, imagine that your house is 2,000 square feet (a common size). Now imagine 200 of your houses under one 28- or 30-foot roof. Those ultra-efficient, computer-operated internal racking systems, and all those fork lifts, will probably keep you up at night.

Alter also develops that odd hybrid property, the call center. It’s a big-box structure very like a warehouse, but meant for people to occupy, those poor souls who deal with mass incoming and outgoing calls — so it might have the parking and communication needs of an office building. Dial up the customer service department for some credit card and you might talk to a part-timer in a call center built by Alter in one of the Great Plains states. Or you might talk to a resident of Bombay. Such is globalization.

After the interviews, I drove to the Pita Inn, at Dempster and Crawford in Skokie, for lunch. This is my kind of place. A fine shawarma sandwich (thin beef, lettuce and sauce in pita), a tasty plate o’ hummos + more pita, and a small, tart lemonade: just under $5. Goodgoodgood. The place had remodeled since I last visited a few years ago, adding seats and windows for a more open effect. But the décor was never the thing. Only the food.

After lunch I went to my office downtown, and since in the evening I had to drive home, via Lake Shore Drive and then the Stevenson Expressway, there was one more skill set to be exercised, while the fresh snow fell — cursing the weather. And the (other) morons driving in it.