Another pleasant November day happened with our above-freezing temps this morning, along with near-cloudless skies. It this weather keeps up, I’ll have to re-adjust my thoughts about November, and only because for years I’ve very much disliked this month, and mainly because of the cold it delivers and the many overcast days there are.
Yes, climate change/global warming is definitely creating some noticeable changes in North Iowa’s weather.
I didn’t arrive at office as early as normally, only because I had some drop-offs to make and a home to check on, so when I did get there, I got busy with preparing myself for some phone calls to service providers, and one of them being my long-time insurance agent, so when the hour of eight arrived, my call to her was the first one I placed.
As I suspected, some of my insurance is getting moved over to another provider, and only because the company has decided to leave Iowa. I dared not ask how many insurance companies have left our State over these past two years, and from what I’ve been told more than once, is mainly due to the high number of storm losses they’ve had to cover. It really comes as no surprise because over these past ten years, I’ve noticed more violent storms hitting Iowa. I’m sure that monster derecho that hit Cedar Rapids about five years ago, slugged a number of insurance companies under their belts. Of course I’ll never forget that early December storm of two years ago which spun off a number of tornadoes in Iowa, which pulverized some rural areas in North Iowa. We also mustn’t forget the number of hail storms North Iowa’s had this past decade.
Another suspicion of mine was confirmed when seeing what some of the new homeowners are paying for their yearly premiums. It’s pretty common to find their yearly premiums, well above a thousand dollars. I point blank said to her, “I’m almost positive the insurance companies are looking at credit ratings and prior losses when calculating a given insurance buyer’s premiums.” Of course I was right, so just be prepared to pay dearly should you have a hickey or two on your credit report, along with possibly having prior claims. With tongue in cheek I always say, “Insurance companies are good at taking your money, but create hells on earth when it come time to cover losses.” I do try to encourage people to fix the little things themselves, because in the end, their premiums will end up ballooning more, than simply going ahead and fixing something out-of-pocket.
I had another pleasant encounter this morning with my ‘neighbor’ Jenn Pope who is the owner of Roots which is next door to my office. Having become more acquainted with her since she moved in early this year, I’ve come to believe she’s an exceptionally hard-working person who exhibits a passion for what she’s doing, which is something we rarely find in these times. Because she’s a certified nutritionist, you can count on getting the hard facts regarding eating habits, and especially being brought up to speed on recognizing the various ways in which our corporate food producers can so cleverly conceal the types of sugars they’re loading up the foods our average consumers are buying. A number of my clients mentioned having used her services, and all have given her high marks. I soulfully wish the absolute best for her growing local business.
Just today while at Hy-Vee, I had an inkling to buy a can of soup, so I went thru nearly every can I thought would be worth having for lunch, and each time when reading the ingredients, I came across a type of sugar they’d included. Fully remembering my mother making various soups when I was growing up, never once to my knowledge, did she put sugar in the pot. I did end up going over to their organic section and found a can of vegetable soup which had no sugar in it, and of course I had to pay nearly double the price. As I’ve mentioned before, it’s all craziness with a person having to pay more for less ingredients, and even if you want less sodium, so don’t tell me there’s something drastically wrong with our corporate food producers. Maybe it’s all part of the big ‘plan’ to make us unhealthy, and end up having to start taking corporate drugs for diabetes, cholesterol issues and list goes on. When you step back and look at the whole picture, it appears to be one vicious circle. Doesn’t it?
We’ve been getting some good interest in my listing over at 1859 Springview Drive these past several days, and there’s a repeat showing scheduled on it for this Wednesday afternoon, so hopefully we’ll end up with an acceptable offer. I absolutely love that twin-home’s floor plan. Now we need to get more interest created on my remaining active listings. Yes, I can be a bit impatient at times.
With election day tomorrow, I strongly encourage each and every one you to get out and vote your consciences, but before you do, just remember all of the millions of dollars our City has thrown away with that crazy ghost hotel, decaying mall and the bridge to nowhere.
While in conversation with one of my colleagues today, it came as no surprise he also being yet another resident of our city who didn’t know about a councilperson getting a rubber-stamped grant from our city which was partially used to put a new roof on a ‘non-historic’ building, along with also not knowing that our city co-signed on the loan David Rachie used to purchase that defunct mall. I still can’t believe they did that. Talk about poor financial management of our taxpayers’ dollars! I’m sure Kevin Jacobson has rolled over in his grave more than once since his death. Every time his name is brought up in conversation, I always insist he’ll go down in history as being Mason City’s all-time finest Financial Directors. I still miss our little ‘accounting’ chats. Yes, he was quite the numbers man who always placed our city’s fiscal stability above all else.
Tonight’s One-liner is: We must always turn our wounds into wisdom.
