It was an unwelcome surprise this morning when finding snow on the ground and our streets and sidewalks exceptionally icy. My very first chore, was to spread a good amount of grit on the sidewalks at the front of my office, and thank goodness I did, because it wasn’t until mid-afternoon when it finally melted off. So much for it being the official first day of Spring yesterday.
For the strangest of reasons, I was exceptionally busy the entire day with all the phone calls, drop-ins, and errands to run, and one of them being a quick trip out to Menard’s to pick up some necessary items. Their parking lot wasn’t nearly as full considering it a weekday, which was likely because all the more retirees are no longer trying to kill time by being out there on a near daily basis, mindlessly wandering their aisles. This business of casual shopping has become a non-productive national pastime, and perhaps once we’ve all survived this pandemic, there’ll be those who’ve decided to refrain from falling back into that dirty habit.
I do wish those many who have too much free time on their hands, would find something more lastingly productive to fill their dead hours, because they’ve got far more to offer the world than they believe. I’m of the opinion, most are afraid to take their first step towards becoming a part of worthwhile causes.
Someone said to me several days ago, “You do know I’m not a joiner.”, which can be a good thing, as well as bad. Unfortunately those non-joiners are fearful they’ll be sucked into something to where they’ll be tightly committed to be doing certain things, as well as being somewhere at strictly scheduled times. Unfortunately, there are all those arenas of charity work that have levels of participation, which means you can be out on their edges, or deeply immersed.
There’s no question I fully understand the taking on of long-term commitments, because I was in the middle of it for a very many years with the music departments of several our churches. Now that I’ve been away from it long enough, I look back and see a more clear picture of that whole paying-it-forward mentality I had back then. Don’t get me wrong, because I have no regrets over the amount of my free time I donated to those communities of faith, but my real disappointment, was the lack of acknowledgement and appreciation I received. It was so much so, that I innocently considered it to be the way it is in all churches. Not so, because whenever I’ve been called to play over at St. Paul Lutheran, they’re always more than thankful for the music I freely provide.
Not too many days ago, I did mention to someone from one of those “old churches” where I used to help with their music, that there’ll be an opportunity in the near future, when I’ll be giving several honchos an earful regarding their dismissive and tribal ways. It seems almost a ritual in certain business and social arenas, where they create a guarded “inner circles” which “appear” to have the best interest of the general public at heart, but in reality, they’re only interested in keeping their personal agendas alive, and most certainly, only in the best interest of their select little groups. I rarely ever intentionally castigate others, but after finding them creating their own rules and getting everyone else to believe them to be for the benefit of all, is when I cross the line and have my words readied.
As I mentioned to a dear one this afternoon, “I’m working all the more at reprimanding those who’ve done wrong to myself and/or others, because they need to know that they’re not invisible, and especially NOT free to intentionally injure others.” I believe that if we get after someone just once, it makes them step back and re-think what they’re doing, and if enough people would challenge them, perhaps they’d finally put an end to their wicked ways.
I received a call today from a buyer who wants to look at the condo I have listed at 422 S. Tennessee Place on Sunday. I called the owner to schedule it, and then given the go-ahead. If that person buys it, my suspicion will have come to pass, because I told the owner just last week that I’m of the belief it’s going to sell soon.
My double-header open houses I have scheduled for tomorrow are all set, and hopefully there’ll be some serious lookers arriving who’ll end up buying the both of them. There’s a second showing scheduled for tomorrow over at 415 – 1st St. SE which sounds promising, and I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed while waiting for a follow-up call from the agent who’s showing it, and just maybe, there’ll even be an offer.
For some weeks, two of my overhead lights in the front of my office have been burned out, and I’d been putting off getting them replaced because those ceilings are very tall, and yours truly doesn’t like being on tall ladders. Well today, I figured it time to man-up and get my exceptionally long stepladder out of storage, and get them changed.
By the time I got them replaced, and then cleaned the panels above my desk, I was vividly reminded of how much I hate being that far up on a ladder. I’m sure all these people who think nothing of being up that high, have grown accustomed to climbing up tall ladders and scurrying around heights like monkeys.
When telling a client today about my ladder climbing, I said, “It wouldn’t bother me so much when being on one, if only I had a monkey’s tail to keep me from falling.” She got a good laugh out of that one. Hmm…It makes me now wonder what society would be like if all men had long monkey tails. Sounds like something out of the Wizard of Oz.
Tonight’s one-liner is: Enthusiasm makes excuses a non-issue.
