It was somewhat of a gloomy morning, but not long after the sun came up, the cloud cover began dispersing. These last rains we received were definitely welcomed with open arms, and especially my monster sunflowers which are now starting to create their smiling faces. I haven’t yet gone out and measured the tallest one, but I’m pretty sure it’s at least twelve feet tall, and the stem on it is bigger around than a steel fence post. I mentioned before my having grown them a number of years ago, but this year’s crop is definitely taller. For sure I’ll have to save some of the seeds from the tallest for next year’s crop. There’s no doubt the honey bees are already salivating in anticipation over the amount of nectar they’ll be drawing from their flower.
Part of my morning was consumed with meeting up with, and then waiting for workers to replace four panes of glass which were purposely broken over at a building on which I keep a watchful eye. What had me seeing red, was the fact that two of them were purposely broken during daylight hours yesterday, and the other two were smashed sometime between five p.m. and six a.m. this morning. I had one of those ‘feelings’ there’d be more broken by the time I arrived at office this morning. There’s no question in my mind, whomever’s responsible for such an evil act, should be taken out and horse-whipped. Yet again I mentioned to the glazier my inability to get my brain wrapped around the reason people willfully do such things. I could maybe understand it if someone had an axe to grind, but as far as I’m concerned, there isn’t one. Since I didn’t have time today, I’ll be calling the police department tomorrow morning and ask if they’d be more watchful in that area.
My out of office appointment was to go and look at a home a seller is thinking about selling, and since I arrived before he got there, I did quick inspection of its exterior. When he arrived, the first words out of my mouth was, “My gosh! You’ve certainly been busy turning this old girl around.” The interior mirrored the exterior in regards to upgrades and quality of workmanship. He had a price in mind, but all I could say at the time, was that I’d do some deep digging for comparable sales, so when I arrived back at office, I buried myself with a deep search for comparable sales, and luckily I found three which were in the same ball park. Once I was comfortable with those three, I placed a call back to the seller and relayed my results. We’ll see if he does decide to list it with me.
Shortly after the hour of one, I headed over to the nursing home to see my dear old friend, and when I stopped at a desk to confirm which room she was in, the clerk sadly announced that she’d passed in the night. I was momentarily speechless, and about the only thing I could say was, “I do hope she passed peacefully.” I didn’t stick around much longer because my eyes were welling-up with tears, but by the time I got to my car, I remembered the number of times she recently told me how much she wanted out of here, so last night, Agnes Lewis finally got her wish at the ripe old age of 101.
There’s no question I’ll always hold the memories of her close to my heart, and in spite of some thinking she was just a bit on the the demanding side, it stood to reason because she had a long and highly decorated career in the military where she worked herself high in the ranks. Oh how I loved to hear some of the stories she’d share about the various wars and conflicts she was a part of. I’m sure there’ll be an obituary posted in the newspaper, but if her many achievements were to be published, it’ll be a long one.
One of her relatives called this afternoon to share the news, but I soulfully interrupted her to say I’d already found out when I went over to pay her a short visit. Since there’s going to be a church service, I offered to sing solo one of the hymns they’d be picking. For sure it won’t be a challenge for me because I couldn’t even begin to count how many funerals I sang back when I was doing a great deal of church soloing. Being fully familiar with the acoustics of her church, there certainly won’t be any need for a microphone. It’ll be an honor to sing for her one last time.
I have an appointment at office tomorrow afternoon to visit with some sellers regarding the possibility of listing a property they own, and since I had some free time this afternoon, I went to work on getting some good comparable sales pulled and printed out for their review. Knowing what they paid for it in comparison to what it’s likely worth in today’s market, I’d say they made a very good investment. Good for them!
Another long-time business owner button-holed me today regarding the willful waste that’s been taking place these recent years by the ‘powers that be’ in our City. He sternly insisted that there’s not one person on the Council or in an administrative position who’s had to compete for business in an open market. I couldn’t have agreed with him more while also adding, “As we all know, money that’s not hard-earned, is quickly spent because they’re of the mindset that if it’s there, they’re gonna spend it.” Since I also worked in the corporate world for over a decade, I can assure you that each and every one of them would’ve long ago been given their walking papers, because poor judgement calls and chronic mistakes were definitely not tolerated. Yes, there’s much good to be said about those who’ve developed critical forward-thinking from an early age.
He also asked me why the City hasn’t re-installed the lamp post across the street from my office which is still laying flat at the curbside since May, which I couldn’t answer. I’m also getting tired of seeing all those suckers that have started growing from the stump of a Locust tree across the street from my office which the fire department cut down when the Kirk Apartment building was on fire. Yes, I got an earful today.
Tonight’s One-liner is: We should all be ashamed to die until we’ve won some small victory for humankind.
