Unfortunately we’re heading towards the end of our pleasant Fall weather in hearing how cold it’ll be come Thursday night. I’ve been working to make sure everyone has their furnaces up and running for the weeks and months ahead. I was looking at a rental for someone about a week ago and noticed how unbelievably dirty the furnace filter was as well as the lint trap on the clothes dryer. It’s no wonder the dryer didn’t catch on fire or break down due to the amount of lint lodged in the lint-trapping pocket. Far too many people don’t take pro-active steps in maintaining all the working components of their homes. Perhaps there should be a phone app created for people to be alerted to change furnace filters, clean lint traps, scrub floors, wash windows, and everything else people tend to take for granted as being things that service themselves. Rain gutters are also a pet peeve of mine. I don’t even want to think how many homes I drive past and notice how full their gutters are. Some are so full of wet and de-composing leaves that they’re bending down from the weight of what they’ve collected.
If there’d ever be the perfect part-time job any young person with a good ladder and not afraid of heights, would be the solicitation to clean gutters for fair prices. I called someone about a month ago inquiring how much he would charge to clean the gutters on a small straight-run two story home. To my shock I was quoted the price of $200.00. I thought if it were around $100.00, I would’ve had him clean them. For about an hour or so work, that sounds like a pretty good return for having such a low overhead. A ladder, a pair of strong arms and hands, and not afraid of heights is about as low an overhead one could ever find. Yes, I’m afraid there’s too few general maintenance workers in our City to where there’s not enough competition. Competition is very good in the marketplace because it helps to keep goods and services at fair prices. I also believe we have a few too many retired people who could be getting out and providing services on a part time basis so to keep themselves physically and mentally active. With it being such a dark day, I happened to notice all the excessively large big screen TVs playing in peoples homes which could be seen while driving past. It’s no wonder the dish and cable companies continue to rake in big profits every year. Far too many of us are growing sedentary one day at a time.
A worker from one of the local political headquarters happened to stop by the office today inquiring about available short term housing here in Mason City. I told him we didn’t have anything as short a term, but curious me asked where he was from since I noticed he had a rather noticeable East Coast accent. I discovered he was from New Jersey and he’s a Political Science major in one of their local colleges. I was quite taken by his lilting Coastal accent as well as the way in which he articulated his sentences. There were no “ums” or “yups” in his conversation. I was certainly impressed by the way he dressed by not wearing drop-crotch jeans or a hooded sweat shirt. He did make me blush a little in his being quite impressed by the interior style of my office. It was nice having been given a mental lift when a winsome stranger arrived at the office inquiring about housing on such a terribly dreary day. He’d be another hard-working asset for us should he decide to become a part of our City’s near future transformation.
