It appears this is likely the last day we’ll be snowless for some time, and only due to the amount of snow we’re supposed to be getting which will be starting tomorrow afternoon. Five to seven inches is not something I’m looking forward to shoveling, but there’s no alternative when living in the far reaches of Northern Iowa.
Part of my morning was spent working on the final accounts along with those few bills that showed up late. At least I’m good to go for another month with the bulk of it finished, so at least I’ll have that load off my shoulders for one more month.
I had to make a quick call to a dear friend of mine, just to let her know about a recent sale that had taken place. Oh, did she get a good laugh out of the information I’d supplied, but the real kicker will be when I can supply her with the name of the new owner. After passing on that information, we continued to share our thoughts along with doing a little walking down memory lane. It was all good.
There was another call that came in from a client who’s wanting me to take a look at her property tomorrow, just so she’ll have a better idea about what will need to be done before she lists it. I’ll be working on gathering some recent sales to share with her, but unfortunately our sales have been all over the map since the pandemic arrived. There was a $200K sale that was reported today which I thought to be a good $50K too much, and only because of it quirky location. I guess I’ll have to do an averaging of those I find and let her make the final decision.
Oh by the way, while I was over at the courthouse yesterday, I purposely counted the number of foreclosures that are on the board which is now nine. Ok, that means we’re halfway into a market correction because during the height of the 2008 financial crisis, there were on average, about 18 of them posted at any given time. I’m already getting fearful that when it hits, it’ll be worse than the 2008 crisis, and likely even surpass the savings and loan crisis. Believe me, those were some scary times in real estate.
After I had a quick lunch, I spent about a half hour reading the online news, and the headline that delighted me the most, was seeing Hershel Walker having lost the runoff election in Georgia, so it looks like the Republicans will be in control of the House, but the Democrats will hold the majority in the Senate. Now that’s what sounds like a balance of power, so perhaps these crazy alt-right and alt-left politicians are going to have to work together whether they like it or not. I’m sure your read about the German government having rounded up some crazies over there who thought they were going to storm the Reichstag. Yes, the loonies are growing in numbers which is why their plans need to be nipped in the bud rather than waiting to see how extreme them become.
Since we’re barreling down towards Christmas, I’m starting to get my list together of people I’ll be gifting. Most of them are retired and ever-thankful for the little things I do for them. I usually wait until several days before Christmas before I begin making my deliveries. Let’s hope we’re not going to have snowstorms during that time, because there’ll be a quite a few in-coming and out-going travelers on the roads.
With some hours to kill, I went back to my work area and started cracking some more black walnuts, and after finishing up today’s batch, I’d say in about a week’s time, I’ll have over half of them cracked. I’m already starting to believe I harvested more than I should have, but since I did, either sooner or later, they’ll get cracked. Thank goodness I have a vacuum seal machine which I use to seal those nut meats and place them in the freezer for future use. Believe it or not, they can be there for months on end, and still look and taste as good as they did before I sent them to my freezer. I still can’t believe how expensive they are in the store, and that’s even if they have them in stock. One thing I know I’ll have to do, is stagger the days I crack them because my fingertips need a rest from those sharp shells, and believe me, they are stinkers sometimes.
For some reason, I was getting an over-load of spam calls on my cellphone today, and what really got me, was seeing them coming from a 641 area code. It’s amazing when finding the degree they work at getting someone to fall for their crap. What really shocked me today, was after reading the number of scams prospective tenants are getting sucked into with those devils pretending to own a home, and after they’ve paid their deposits and first month’s rent, they discover they’d been scammed. If I’m not mistaken, the statistics are showing the losses to be in the multi-multi-millions. I know there’ve been several times in the recent past when those crooks tried to post my office’s active listings as rentals. Thank goodness the prospective tenants did a little more looking on the internet, and then calling me to verify if they were legit. Each time I tell them to report it to the police, along with those online platforms. I keep asking myself, “Why don’t they just go out and get a real job instead of stealing from others?”
While driving home in the dark, I couldn’t help thinking about those poor Ukrainians who’re suffering from those heat and power outages on a daily basis, when knowing their weather is very similar to ours. It may sound terrible of me when saying how much I wish Putin would be disposed of, along with all his war-mongering cronies, and then maybe Ukraine will be able to re-gain its sovereignty and start rebuilding their ruined lives. My heart goes out to all those thousands of Ukrainian children the Russians kidnapped and sent to Russia, when knowing their lives will never be the same, and mostly because of the traumas they’ve had to suffer at such and early age. There needs to be a sub-Hell created for those who willfully commit such evil deeds.
Tonight’s One-liner is: Those who are proud of their wealth, should not be praised until it is known how they employ it.
