Believe it or not, I didn’t make any personal stops at stores today since I definitely had no interest in battling crowds for something I really didn’t need. The traffic was pretty heavy which came as no surprise since many of the big box stores were opening early.
Thank goodness it was drizzling rain instead of falling snow nearly the entire day because I would definitely want to see everyone returning safely home from their extended Thanksgiving Holidays they’ve been enjoying with their families and friends.
I ran into a gentleman today whom I’ve known for a number of years and proceeded to ask him how his Thanksgiving went. I didn’t realize he’s been hosting an average of 20 guests consisting of family and friends for years. “How do you manage to do it every year?” I asked. It sounded like it’s been a labor he’s been enjoying and by keeping up the tradition, he’s able to see them at least once a year. I couldn’t help but say, “It sounds more like an annual reunion that’s scheduled for Thanksgiving Day.” He laughed and while walking away yelled back at me, “You can call it whatever you like, but it’s always a blast.”
As I’d expected, a call came in just before the lunch hour from the people I showed Prairie Place on Wednesday and asking if I had time to show them several units again. Less than a half hour later, we were back in the complex and taking second looks at their two favorite floor plans.
There’s an interesting phenomena where about half of the buyers prefer their units to be facing north while the other half find the south-facing ones more attractive. There’s been no rhyme or reason why, because they all have differing reasons for their directional choices. I would guess the north facing units create more distance from other buildings which offer more panoramic views, while the southern units provide more natural light in the winter, but are much closer to other homes and buildings.
There’ve been those asking me what my favorite unit is, and I usually tell them all the floor plans are my favorite for differing reasons. There was one particular unit that’s already sold which I could “see” myself living in because of its location in the building, and its general floor plan. Since I’m a worshiper of natural light, I’d say any of the corner units would be the ones I’d personally be leaning towards simply because they have more windows.
The remainder of my afternoon was spent working in the kitchen of a vacant apartment. Thinking the stove wouldn’t take me long to get cleaned, over two hours later I found I’d been a poor judge of its condition. The drip pans were so bad that I finally decided to go out and buy four new ones instead of trying to get years of layered burned-on grease removed. After the clerk at the appliance store took but one look at them she said, ‘These are coming out of a rental. Right?” I was almost embarrassed to even let her look at them, but forced to in order to match them up with what they had in stock. Thank goodness she had four that matched.
Later this afternoon I had an interesting visit with a client about the results of a DNA test which he sent in some months ago to Ancestry.com. I found it fascinating how in these times they can tell thru computerization, a given person’s ancestral background. It sounded like they even break their report down into two sections; one for the father’s side, and one for the mother’s. I discovered they don’t report by country of today’s European origin, but rather areas of a person’s forefathers coming from areas of like The Baltic, Germanic, Slavic, Iberian, and so on, which makes sense because of all the many times a given country’s borders have been moved–especially Germany’s. They can even tell if a person has Ashkenazi Jewish lineage and the percent contained within a given person’s bloodline. My client informed me he’s got a small percentage of Jewish blood flowing thru his veins, which certainly came a surprise to both him and myself.
As our age of computerization becomes all the more specialized, I’d say in our not so distant future, one drop of our blood will be fully analyzed to the point of telling us all about our past and our projected illnesses, and likely even our estimated dates of death. Sounds a bit scary doesn’t it?
Tonight’s one-line is: In my view, the true greatness of a person is evident in the way he or she treats those with whom courtesy and kindness are not required.
As a footnote, I’d say one of my dearest of sisters possessed such a true greatness, and if only all the many others whose lives she touched would’ve taken lessons from her, they would now be on their own paths of true greatness.
