It was another early to office this morning, and since it was still dark out, I couldn’t help noticing how dimly-lit that whole stretch of North Federal is with those lantern lights not working, along with the other lights which were installed when they re-paved that stretch of North Federal. I’m now beginning to wonder if that fire over at the Kirk Apartments had something to do with them not working now. Thank goodness I have my own very good lighting in the rear of my office, because it’s near pitch-black on the street-side of my block.
After getting myself situated for another day in real estate, I waited until the hour of eight before I started making some calls to various clients and customers. When visiting with one of my clients, I made sure to mention all the recent price reductions that have been posted these past three weeks, just so he would have a good reason why his home hasn’t yet sold. If this continues, I’ll have to be all the more careful when talking about pricing with prospective sellers, because going forward in time, there’s a possibility we’ll end up with pre-pandemic home sale prices.
While on my way to an appointment this morning, I happened to notice activity at the residence of a 90+ year old woman who’s been one of the most wicked gossipers nearly her entire life, and from what little I’ve heard, she’d being moved lock, stock and barrel to a southerly location.
Since my mother was acquainted with her in years past, she would on occasion ask if I’d spoken with the queen of gossip, and of course my normal knee-jerk response would be, “No, I haven’t seen or heard from her.” Finally one day, I came right out and said to my mother, “I really don’t want to have anything to do with her because I really can’t stand listening to her wicked gossip along with telling me how absolutely wonderful her two not-so-remarkable children are.” Thank goodness she finally stopped asking. That whole family is a classic example of how some work very hard at tearing everyone else down, just so they can make themselves appear all the better. I believe that dirty habit of gossiping her two children have, was definitely a learned behavior from their mother. Yes, I will be fully relieved when knowing she’s no longer in our midst.
With some free time this morning, I went out to check on that little painting project on a home I’ll be listing soon, and by the looks of it, it should be ready to go on the market these coming days. I’m confident that as long as it’s priced within reason, it shouldn’t be on the market very long, because it’s very much in move-in condition, which is what most of our younger buyers are looking for.
I thought I’d have the full day of Saturday free, but it looks like I may be showing a home or two to some buyers who’re coming from a metro area, so hopefully they’ll call tomorrow, just so I can get those showings set up. At least the temps will be above average along with no rain in the forecast. Considering the price range they’re in, I’ll make darned sure I’m available the entire day.
One of my sellers called to ask my opinion on some repairs we’ve recently been talking about, only because of the bloated bid he received for the work to be done. I internally just about lost it after being told how much those repairs would cost. After hearing that today, it’s no wonder so many of our elderly homeowners aren’t having any upgrades being done on their homes, and only because they’re already living on shoestring retirement incomes. It seems to be an across the board increase in costs for goods and services in our community, which is why I’ve said many times, we absolutely must have more tradespeople in North Iowa, just so there’d be more competition which always helps to keep their prices down. Just for example, I had to order a large piece of plexi-glass from a glass shop, and wouldn’t you know, the cost of it was close to $200 which wasn’t a surprise, because ever since the pandemic arrived, the cost of it has gone thru the ceiling. The companies making it must be raking in millions by now.
When paging thru our global online news today, I was beyond disgusted with our House of Representatives who’re hell-bent on creating another government shut-down. To this day, I still can’t believe there are so many bat-shite crazy Representatives. The districts they’re coming from, must have some really un-educated voters, or else they’re just plain and simply stupid, which gives me cause again to say, we must never underestimate the stupidity of the general public.
It appears the Ukrainians are now making their moves in gaining back those areas the Russians took from them when they invaded last February. Without question, I pray every single day for their continued successes in ridding their country of every Russian soldier. I’ll be dancing in the street when that day comes.
I try not to read any news coming out of Afghanistan, but today I couldn’t help reading where those international food providers won’t even come close to having enough essentials to keep their starving population fed, but what really goes to my core, is the fact that those radical Muslims who’re now in power, don’t seem to give a hoot over the lives of their citizens. Now where in the Koran does it say it’s OK to treat innocent people in such a fashion? There was a short news video showing those poor people, and some of them definitely looked undernourished. I was once again reminded how many millions of innocent people have lost their lives because of religious differences. Just yesterday I gave a young gentleman a short history lesson on the Thirty Years War which killed millions in Central Europe. Are there any lessons learned from history?
Tonight’s One-liner is: When the full horror of no longer being twenty-something finally hits you, just stay home all day and have a good cry.