It was quite the windstorm that came up out of nowhere this afternoon wasn’t it? I was waiting for a customer to get off the phone to tell her it looked like there were dark storm clouds moving in from the west, but was interrupted myself by a phone call. We weren’t inside maybe five minutes when the wind started blowing like the dickens. We only got a sprinkling of rain, but sure had a great deal of leaves and trash blown around the Downtown. When we have wind like that in our Downtown’s “bowl”, it always makes me wonder how much stronger it is out in the flatlands.
Most recently I’ve been finding buyers all the more careful about purchasing homes with exceptionally large trees close by. It stands to reason considering how many big trees have been felled by those straight-line winds we’ve had these past several years. Just this afternoon when showing a home, one of the buyers said, “I’m glad there aren’t any tall trees on this property.” With that said, they must’ve had a recent bad experience with one.
Another funny, but really unfortunate story was told me by a couple today about a pair of squirrels that decided to take up residence in their garage, and then moved on to their vehicles. The first car had its wiring harness chewed to the point it took over $200 to get repaired. They then moved on to the other vehicle to where they chewed a big circle in the air filter and started storing nuts in its center. I couldn’t help but laugh when they were telling their story, but then added, “Every time I see people feeding those vile creatures I think they’re nuttier than the squirrels they’re feeding.” As I said before, pan-fried or oven-baked squirrel is quite the delicacy in England, and if only our general public would catch on to their squirrel meat craze, we’d have their populations reduced to more manageable levels. Of all the wild animal meats, lightly breaded and oven or pan-fried squirrel is one I could eat on a regular basis. For me, it doesn’t have that gamey after-taste, but has a wonderful nutty crunch.
I had a closing today, and happy to say there was a soft landing for everyone involved. It was surprising to hear that one of the buyer’s relatives had lived in the home many years ago. It’s always interesting when those rare times occur, and finding a given buyer having a blood relative connection from many years prior, deciding to purchase it decades later. I would say in all my years of marketing real estate, I’ve found such cases only about a half a dozen times. It’s almost kinda creepy when thinking there possibly being some sort of spiritual calling for the return of a native.
I had to stop at Fareway to pick up a few items this afternoon, and while walking thru the produce section, there three little urchins running about and playing catch with those hedge apples. Of course they didn’t even pick the ones up that went rolling on the floor. Of course knowing there are a number of elderly people that shop there, it wouldn’t have surprised me if one of them would trip and fall, so yours truly went and picked them up and put them back where they belonged.
What caused me to internally boil, was seeing their daddy paying absolutely no attention to them while he waddled down the aisle with his drop crotch sweats dragging on the floor. Parents that give no guidance or good examples to their children have no business thinking they’re worthy of creating them. Back when I was young, if I showed any signs of mis-behaving while out in public, I’d pay the price for it after returning home. I don’t know when our society is going to realize that children are not adults, and most certainly their brains haven’t even come close to maturity. I’ll never forget what an exceptionally intelligent, yet guileless old lady once said to me which went something like, “Children are like monkeys because they all have to be trained.” By the way, she had five of her own and did a fantastic job of preparing them for the real world, which they subsequently turned into great achievers who gained much wealth, but also most generously gave back by creating charitable funds. Now that’s an un-told success story for their mother!
I had a very good showing at Prairie Place on 1st today with an absolutely delightful senior. She had one of her family members along which helped with the questions and answers. While there, she met some of the residents who gave their exceptionally positive comments about their units and the management. As far as I’m concerned, when looking for stellar senior housing, you’ll not find any better than Prairie Place on 1st.
Tonight’s one-liner is: The shoe that fits one person, pinches another; there is no recipe that fits all cases.
