Morning greeted us once again with single digit temps before the sun started coming up. Even though it was sunny, that cold northwest wind managed to keep our afternoon in the 30’s. Looks like we’re going to have to brace ourselves for another round of heavy wet snow that’s going to get dumped on us tomorrow.
While visiting with one of my dear friends this morning, she mentioned how quickly her bird feeders were emptied by all those hungry birds living in our area that aren’t getting enough to eat due to the snow cover, along with it being abnormally cold. It looks like global warming is evolving into more of a climate change. Perhaps Mother Nature is preparing us for another ice age. You know that’s all it would take is for something natural or manmade to darken our atmosphere, and then the chain reaction would begin. An eruption of a super volcano would be the natural one, and I’m sure you all know what man has created, which with the push of a button would start the other. Let’s hope neither happens, because if it does, we’ll be seeing some sweeping changes that would last for a great many years.
One of my of my pending sold listings has me worried a bit due to the slow progress of their lender in getting it approved. Every time there’s a buyer wanting to use an out of State lender, I grow all the more worrisome. There’s several online lenders people use who also make me cautious. When I’ve had to deal with them, there always seemed to be un-necessary duplicity taking place. I think it’s because there are too many fingers in the whole process. The days of one banker making the final decision on a loan with only two requirements being, an acceptable appraisal and a clean title, are just about gone with the exception of what still takes place in smaller hometown banks.
Personally, I’d rather pay a little higher interest rate than be run thru a grueling mill, along with being asked a thousand questions and multiple requested copies of financial and employment verifications. Sometimes I think the bigger banks look for the smallest of reasons to hold up the processing of loans. Even after we’ve closed on them, we get call backs. About a week ago, I had to drive to a bank with my notary seal and re-stamp a transfer document simply because when they e-filed it, the courthouse couldn’t read that internet-filed document clearly enough. I couldn’t help but be a little sharp-tongued by saying, “So your closers don’t even get in their cars and drive to the courthouse and personally file them?” The weak answer I got was, “Well you know, our processing center isn’t in Mason City.” Pretty weak answer don’t you think?
After reading an article about “artificial intelligence” and “the internet of things” in The Economist this week, we’re all going to be living in a world far more controlling than what we long ago read in George Orwell’s “1984”. As I grew closer to the end of reading it, I felt myself becoming nauseated. There’s no other reason anyone can give me for why this is happening other than those handful of mega-corporations and big governments greedy lust for power and control over all humankind. It brought back to mind once again when my mother while she was alive fretting over the ways in which our world has turned. As I said before, all I told her was, “You won’t see the worst of it because you won’t be here to see it.” Now please, don’t think me one of those religious crazies, but I still sometimes think her great power of prayer kept her “finger in the dike” of today’s technological evils from being flooded upon our world.
Yes, we’re always concerned about ourselves, and that’s human, but we must become all the more so for our following generations. I believe even the innocence of childhood will be destroyed if our world’s “powers that be” continue forward with their research and deployment of these two very dangerous fields of computer technology. By the way, Amazon is now at the forefront.
I’ve decided to finish off each one of my evening’s article for the coming days ahead with a thought provoking one-liner. Tonight’s is, “Abuse of power comes as no surprise.”, and do please watch for tomorrow’s and those following. I believe all of them will put your lazy brains, as well as mine to work. Have yourselves a delightful Saturday evening.
