As much as we needed the rain today, the little drizzle we received this morning wasn’t even enough to get the pavements fully wet. If this dry spell continues, our crops in North Iowa are going to be suffering, and likely affect their end yields per acre. Other than being terribly dry, it was another beautiful day in North Iowa.
My early morning chore was to place a call to a seller regarding an offer that came in on her home late yesterday. Fortunately I was able to catch her before she got to work because it’s always hard to get a message thru when she’s working. We visited about the price and terms, and then she decided it wasn’t enough for the home, so she counter-offered. After hanging up the phone, I did manage to catch the agent and tell him what the counter-offer was. Irregardless what that home sells for, whomever purchases it is going to have one heck of a well-built home for the money. It would’ve been sold months before if we didn’t have a difficult tenant to deal with who used this China-virus as an excuse for not allowing showings.
Speaking of the coronavirus, I just read today that the number of confirmed cases in Cerro Gordo County is now well over 600, which means there are all the more running around in asymptomatic stages. I’m personally working all the harder at staying out of harms way by wearing my mask whenever in stores or contained spaces because you just never know who’s a carrier. Let’s keep hoping the vaccine gets developed and out into the public before there are anymore un-necessary deaths. When I say “un-necessary”, I still blame that totalitarian government of China for covering up the problem where if they’d acted on it immediately, it would’ve been much easier to contain.
When thinking back on the initial infections in our Country, I’m reminded again how globalized we are, and as far as I’m concerned, too much so. Back about 20 or 30 years ago, that’s all they talked about was how much better life would be if trade were on a global platform. Well, we’re now seeing the dark side of it, and we can thank all the greedy corporations in America for sending their manufacturing off-shore to where our industrial infra-structure is near non-existent. Many of the Greens pushed hard for factory cleanups, but in the end the companies won because they simply opened new ones in what were 3rd World countries at the time, which have now quickly adapted to commerce, and beating us on all levels.
As I’ve mentioned, this pandemic is going to re-set the clock on the way we do business, and how we perceive the world around us. Just as one example, I recently sold a small condominium to a young family in a local resort area which they plan on using for their “stay-vacations” because they came to the conclusion that their big pull-behind camper wouldn’t be serving its purpose any longer, so they sold it, and simply because they just didn’t want to be pulling it any great distances and possibly find themselves infected with the coronavirus, or whatever else which may be following.
As much as our City Fathers want to make us believe all is rosy in Mason City, I can tell you it’s not because I’m already seeing the signs of malaise with most of our restaurants, brick and mortar stores, and Frank Lloyd Wright tourists I used to see walking the Downtown every summer. So much for the hotel tax revenues our City had already factored in as being a “sure thing” income. Now please, I’m not being negative, but rather attempting to remain realistic.
Like many of the “old guard” in our governments, schools, churches, and retails who’re pretending everything will be just fine after this pandemic is over, they’ve all got a rude awakening in store for them because we are not going back to the Wizard of Oz “Kansas” we once knew, which means we’d better put our foresight glasses on and start preparing for our “new world” futures. I’m saying this because just these past weeks, I’ve been soulfully visiting with some business owners and religious leaders I know well enough to where they’ve given me their real stories which have me concerned, but not to the point where I’m going to sit around and wait for it to happen because there’s always time to adapt to change unless we’re blind-sighted by something coming out of left field.
I spent nearly three hours showing homes this morning, and only one of them was a possibility. I smiled at the buyer and said, “You have good taste because of all the ones I’ve shown you, this one is the best thus far.” I’m hoping she’ll call for another look because the pickings are getting slimmer as our summer fades.
At one of the homes, I simply unlocked the door for her so she could view it without me because the cat urine was so strong I could almost taste it, and since a tenant had just moved out, I wasn’t going to run the risk of picking up fleas likely living in those filthy carpets because every time I get bit by one, I get a big red welt which takes weeks to heal. No thank you. Unfortunately my sensitivity to flea bites is in my genetic code and there’s nothing I can do other than take proactive steps to remain out of their reach.
I have two closings tomorrow, and as far as I’m concerned, the files are about as ready as they’ll ever be. The sellers have signed all their transfer docs and limited powers of attorney, the buyers have done their final walk-thru’s, utilities are set to transfer, and the homes are now completely empty.
When reading the BBC online news today, I was nearly brought to tears when seeing how many people were killed and injured from that massive explosion in Beirut. My heart goes out to all those families of a tragedy which could’ve been avoided.
Tonight’s one-liner is: Even if you have nothing to write, write it and say so.
