Another exceptionally warm day arrived with more above-average temps for this time of year, but what I’m growing all the more concerned over, is the lack of our normal May and June rainfall. When I was out digging in the dirt yesterday, I was not surprised to find the soil nearly bone-dry, and when discovering it in our lowlands, I can’t imagine what it’s like in higher elevations. If this continues, our lawns are going to start turning brown, which will be a definite sign all other trees and plants are also struggling.
While reading our online morning news, I was shocked when finding how low the water levels have dropped at the Hoover Dam. They’ve now predicted many of the farmers downstream from the Colorado river, will lose possibly a third of their normal crops due to not having enough allocated water to grow them. Get ready for a price-hiking later this year on crops coming from our Western States. Perhaps there’ll finally be more people raising their own vegetables in North Iowa. Now that would be another good weight-loss program for those who’ve added pounds during our pandemic confinement.
My morning started out slow, but when the hour of nine arrived, I was in a non-stop mode up until quitting time. There’d been a little hick-up with a closing scheduled for this Friday, and I fully and completely accepted all blame for it. I did everything I could to accommodate, so I hope they’re now understanding enough when realizing we all make mistakes. It really wasn’t anything serious, but still an inconvenience which I’ll be chiding myself for a great many weeks and months.
I can now proudly announce that we have another unit over at Prairie Place on 1st under contract, which means there’s only 1 unit remaining for sale with 2 bedrooms and 2 baths. The other two units still on the market, are the one bedroom 1 bath’s which I’ve been pushing all the harder to get sold. When considering all the single male and female elderly people we have living in North Iowa, you’d think they’d want to live in a complex where they’d be able to interact with real people, instead of sitting at home alone all day while watching “fake news”. There’s an older gent who’s looked at those units several times, and I believe the only reason he’s not pulling the trigger, is his having grown just a wee-bit too thrifty after his wife died. Oh well, I’m sure there’ll be two other buyers who’ll not be so tight-fisted with their check books.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned over these many months of marketing those units, is the great divide in mentalities of those looking at them. Most of the time I’ve found the ones buying them, being in total control of their lives to where they don’t pull in all their children and relatives in their decision-making processes, while the others who don’t, are steered away by weak excuses that were planted in their minds by their overly-involved children who sub-consciously think their parents are spending “their” inheritance. So there you have it, when saying there are still elder-parents making up their own minds, and others having allowed themselves to be controlled by their own aging children. Oh how well I know the story, and especially if their are children who live many hundreds of miles away who come “swoop-in” perhaps once every four or five years, spend a week attempting to fix something that’s not broken, and then fly-off to their own dysfunctional nests thinking they’d saved the world. Yes, that’s pretty much how it goes.
I still can’t believe those people who bought into the Village Coop have not yet realized how much more expensive their costs are on a monthly basis, and for sure if they should live there long enough, their cash reserves will have been nearly depleted unless receiving residual incomes coming in from other sources. Even if they’re drawing maximum social security benefits, they’d have to be living like paupers to keep their checkbooks in the black. Yes, Prairie Place on 1st requires more up-front money, but the monthly expenses are many hundreds of dollars less. Go figure.
My first appointment tomorrow morning, is to get a home listed in a smaller community near us, and since it has a monster garage, I’ll wager it’ll be someone who’s into working on cars or in need of a workshop. It’s only a one bedroom, but bigger than most you’d find. I did take all the room measurements and photos, so that’s all I’ll have to do tomorrow, is to get a yard sign placed and attach a lockbox to its front door. Since it’s had some recent pricey updates, there’s no doubt our younger crowd of lookers will be wanting to schedule viewings. Every time I’m in that town, I remember that newspaper clipping announcing, “Manly man marries a Fertile woman”. Too funny.
When hearing about the now “old” Globe Gazette building having caught on fire last night, I thought it a bit spooky when knowing its sale just closed last Friday. It sounded like one of the firefighters had to be taken to emergency due to smoke inhalation. But of course, such creepy happenings seem to always take place in our fair City. I’m still of the belief some build-outs in our Historic Downtown were unknowingly planted on cursed earth to where no matter how much various owners would try to make things better, there’d always some intervening circumstance becoming its dark game-changer.
While working outdoors yesterday, I happened to notice a giant snapping turtle slowly moving in a straight-line direction, so I grabbed my camera and snapped tonight’s photo. I approached it closer, and only so I’d be able to get a better shot which caused its instincts to go into a self-defense posture. Most people have no clue how dangerously strong their bites are, along with the speed in which they can spring their long necks into action and bite. Just after I walked away, it was back on its travels. Now if you don’t believe how dangerous they can be, just do a little on-line research, and then you’ll realize they’re nothing like those pet turtles many of our young keep in aquariums.
Tonight’s One-liner is: The size of your success is measured by the strength of your desire; the size of your dream; and how you handle disappointment along the way.
