As we’re approaching high summer, the daily average temps are rising along with the humidity which we can thank the recent storms for creating. There are still people digging out from under the downed trees and broken branches around our City. Just about everyone I talk to about that grand-daddy thunderstorm we had on the 28th of May, all have stories to tell regarding quirky things that had happened when that storm arrived. I’ll never forget telling an older gentleman about ten minutes before it hit, “You’d better get yourself inside because there’s something scary looking on its way here from the southwest.” When I drove past his home the next day, it looked as if there were no big branches that had fallen from several of his tall trees. I wish I could say the same for all the rest of us.
Another scheduled showing took me to Clear Lake again today. Oh Mercy! The prices they’re asking and getting, are beyond my comprehension. The home I showed today which had an asking price of well over $100K wouldn’t sell in a similar district here in Mason City for not even $50K on even a very good day. “And why?” I ask myself every time I’m over there. I understand the “lakeshore” properties selling for horrendous prices, but not homes you’d find in similar neighborhoods here. Are buyers giving Mason City such a bad mark that they’re willing to pay twice as much, along with driving ten miles to work and back every day?
We all know there are neighborhoods here that have been undermined by our rental barons along with their ” I wanna be just like them.” followers. But in reality, there are still a number of districts in our City that out-shine similar ones in Clear Lake. Yes, Clear Lake can be fun in the good season which normally stretches from Memorial Day weekend to Labor Day, but you do know that time period is only a little over three months, so what do you do the other nine months while living there–especially during the winter? Clear Lake during the winter transforms itself into something akin to Lake Superior. I’ve taken a number of winter photos of the lake, and just looking at them, makes me want to shiver.
I only hope for the return of those years long ago when Mason City and Clear Lake were on a parity with home prices. I’m hoping those people who are choosing to buy there haven’t convinced themselves that they’re paying more for some hidden reason that’s yet to be revealed. It’s almost like paying $100 more for a designer handbag only because of the name it has stamped on it. A purse is a purse as far as I’m concerned.
A young gentleman stopped by the office early this morning to drop off a check on a unit he’s renting. I couldn’t help but ask him about a person both he and I are mutually acquainted. I proceeded to tell him about one of many conversations I’ve had with that person, and shared just one example of the direction she always seemed to take whenever conversing with her, which I found to be in micro-aggressive fashions. After I gave him that one example he looked at me and said, “You know, the few times I’ve talked to her, she’d make subtle remarks which I’d think about, and then later believe them to have been in-appropriate.” After his comments, I was then thoroughly convinced that our mutual acquaintance has worked very hard at becoming a master at micro-aggression. What a horrible personal accomplishment. Don’t you agree?
One of my well-knowns made me laugh today when speaking about a pseudo-friend she’s trying to shed. It sounded like that person is one of those who really works at being ignorant to the point where he’s always looking for guidance from all directions. I had to laugh while she was talking about him, because I started remembering too well a person from my past who did exactly the same things to me. She of course had to get me giggling when saying, “I don’t worry a bit about him anymore because I’ve discovered he’s too stupid to fail.” Wow! That was the first time I’d ever heard of such a fitting description.
Tonight’s one-liner is: “New brooms always tend to create more dust.”
