Thank goodness it managed to get above freezing today, which felt oh-so-good, but it wasn’t quite that way early this morning, and on into the early afternoon, and only because when buildings have absorbed all the cold from previous days, the warmer outside air, drives the cold inward, and that’s exactly what it was doing at my office today.
It wasn’t so much the cold, but the radiating chill coming from those stone walls. I’m sure by tomorrow morning, it will have all dissipated.
Most of my morning was spent making real estate calls and running errands, and by the time I had everything accomplished, it was nearing the Noon hour, so I drove down to Hardee’s and purchased a small hamburger for lunch which I took back to office and doctored up a little before eating.
Just after I finished my lunch, I received a call from a friend who lives out of State, and for whatever reason, she was far more talkative than normal, but it was fine by me because she’s normally jumping from one frying pan into another. The subject matter of our conversation was all over the map, and since she lived here at one time, I had to bring her up to speed with the recent news, and especially yesterday’s headlines regarding the parent entity of Affordables, purchasing the old Globe Gazette building, and their planned build-out. Of course her opinions on the matter were mirroring mine. One question she posed, which I also talked about last night was, “How in the world are all the people living in Mason City going to be able to afford your rising real estate taxes when knowing there’s another taxable property going off the tax roles?” My only reply was, “We’ll have to somehow continue making ends meet.” I personally feel sorry for the many senior homeowners we have living in Mason City who’re on fixed incomes.
After I got off the phone with her, I went back to finishing up the cracking of that fourth bin of black walnuts, and believe you me, I was ever-so happy when seeing I was on the countdown from ten to none. After having developed my own little technique in getting their meats harvested, it’s taking me almost half the time to crack them, versus the time I started. My fingertips have become so callous now, I could likely go for hours every day and not be bothered. One more bin to go and I’m completely done with them for another season, and you can bet I’m going to be using a great deal of restraint when I’m back out picking them up this coming Fall. I think by the time I’m finished, I’ll have enough vacuum-sealed packages of them to last a very long time, unless of course I start making more goodies for clients, customers and friends. I did promise today, that I’d send a vacuum-sealed package to my friend living out of State, and only because she loves using them in cookie recipes.
When I did finish cracking for the day, it was nearing the hour of three, so I decided to call it quits for the day, and take a long drive out of town to one of my favorite churches which has a Saturday afternoon Service, so I closed everything down and headed out, and none too soon because the traffic was downright terrible, and so much so, I managed to pull into their parking lot about one minute before they started, in spite my having left office in plenty of time.
Having not attended one of their Services in well over six months, I was surprised to see they’d changed pastors, along with their keyboardist. Even though the church was almost completely filled, I wasn’t moved by anything other than the beauty of that church’s interior. Sounds terrible doesn’t it? Well, if the pastor’s sermon and the music being sung didn’t move me, about all there was left, were the visuals.
While taking my time on my way back to the City, I was absorbing all the the stark beauty of North Iowa’s countryside, and with the sun shining brightly on those fields of snow, everything that wasn’t white, offered stark contrasts. One sight I wasn’t pleased to see, was an acreage I was in some years ago to do a valuation, and believe you me, that whole site was filled with some really bad vibes, and after I left there, I was glad to later hear that it was sold without a Realtor. Oh my goodness, how that building site has fallen into decay. In spite of people living there, some of the windows were boarded up. For a split second, I had a thought to stop and ask the residents if they’d been having some supernatural experiences, but that split second thought was quickly dismissed with an emphatic mental “No!”, as I continued to make my way home.
During my deep thoughts today, I began thinking about, and subsequently taking the long road down ethical seriousness which I believe to be the backbone of conducting ourselves on a daily basis, so in between my nut-cracking, I looked up the six principles that we’re to use as a guide for our ethical behavior, and they are as follows: Show respect for people, because our behavior is mutually reciprocal, thus the more we treat others with respect, the better our lives will become. Tell the truth, as this is another simple idea that grows rather complex on examination. “Do not tell untruths” is a good solid rule that works most of the time. First, do no harm, is a core value, but sometimes we must harm people, as terminating a non-performing employee may be harmful, we must also weigh the costs and benefits of such actions before we act. Practice participation, not paternalism, is one essence of management where it’s better to engage with people, rather than doing things to them. Always act when you have the responsibility to do so, because all that’s necessary for evil to prevail, is for good men to do nothing. Lastly, obey the law, but be careful because there are situations where two competent, well-informed attorneys will give dissimilar advice on a given issue.
Here I’ve given six key points on ethical practices which I’m hoping all of you attempt to put to use on a daily basis. Yes, at times it’s easy to be bad, and much harder to be good.
Tonight’s One-liner is: Bad people obey their lusts, as servants obey their masters.
