It was a bit of a whirlwind day with setting appointments, showing homes, and working on more correspondence that I needed to get finished and sent out. I’m still in disbelief it’s already the end of Thursday and still not completely caught up from the extra workload I had two weeks past.
While driving out near the hospital this afternoon, I noticed Willow Creek was over its banks and still rising. The City even had several streets blocked because of the high water. I’m holding my breath to see what it’ll be like tomorrow, but I think it’s going to be a little cooler, so perhaps the snow won’t be melting so fast and hopefully the rain will have ended.
I can imagine what’s going thru the minds of those homeowners who live on the creekside of Crescent Drive. Their homes have been flooded more than once over the years, and seeing how the direction our recent weather patterns have been taking, there’s always that possibility of another flood similar to that of 2008. We don’t seem to have mild storms anymore, but rather all the more violent ones. I’m sure those living in Colorado were fit to be tied with that mega-storm that brought them to a screeching halt.
We certainly have people living here that have interesting jobs that most don’t know about. I ran into an acquaintance at the Post Office today who retired from flying normal passenger jets for the major airlines, and now flying to exotic destinations delivering new planes and re-tooled ones to all corners of the globe.
He mentioned that in several days he’s flying an airplane to a smaller European city where he’ll pick up another and deliver it to a South American island country. I teasingly said to him, “May I ride along? I have my passport.” He looked at me while shaking his head and said, “You’ve got to be kidding! You wouldn’t believe the amount of paperwork and inspections and rules that have to be followed, and not to mention the liability insurance.” I then asked. “Do you fly alone?” “No, I have a co-pilot.” he answered. My last little dig at him was, “Well that’s just fine. Tell your co-pilot he’s been grounded, and I’ll take his cockpit position.” He didn’t think that was very funny. Oh well, you gotta have fun with these people who have unique jobs that most would salivate over.
My out of State buyers were a delight to work with today, and hopefully I’ll find something for them before they have to leave. While visiting with them, I discovered how many words and phrases people from the South use in conversation that are foreign to us Northerners. While putting my rubbers on before going outside, one of them said, “I’ve never seen anything like those.” She asked what they were called and I said, “Rubbers.” The next question was, “Do they make them for women too?” “Of course.” I replied. I then went on to tell her where she could likely purchase them. It sounded like she would like to have a pair so wouldn’t get her good shoes wet while out in the rain.
In spite of many of our metropolitan areas being considered homogenous, I’d say when you get out in the hinterlands of different areas of our Country, you’ll see some great differences with the dynamics of everyday life in comparison to other regions.
Even here in Iowa we find subtle differences with speech, food, and societal mores. In years past when I’d spend several days out in Eastern Iowa, I personally noticed their “tribal” differences. One thing I was warned about, was never to look someone in the eye while at a bar because that was a precursor to asking for a fight. I also noticed in those bars that if some gent had to relieve himself and the WC was occupied, he’d wander out the back door and relieve himself along the side of the building. Oh Mercy!
Once again I have my early morning chore already laid out, so when I arrive at the office, I can start working on it. I’d like to have it finished up before the phone starts ringing. Phone calls can certainly cause one to be distracted enough to where you have to re-track where you left off.
Since I hadn’t recently used any of those post cards I purchased last year for my evening photo, I went digging and found the above. I thought it was good enough to get some grins. Can you imagine that cartoon was copyrighted in 1908? I like the caption on the front, “Nobody ever rocks me to sleep.”, while on the back, someone had written in pencil, “How would you like to be a dog?”
Tonight’s one-liner is: He who seldom speaks, and with one calm and well-timed word can strike dumb the loquacious, is a genius or a hero.
