In spite of it being a foggy, damp and cold morning, the hoarfrost covering the trees, bushes and rooftops was definitely a spirit-lifter, because it’s always been one of my very few ‘likes’ about winter. I suspect we’re going to be seeing more of it before our bitterly-cold days arrive.
Most of my morning was spent traveling around and checking vacant homes, along with making several stops at banks and insurance companies. I also had to go out and open up a home this morning for a buyer who was wanting to do some checking on the existing flooring of the home he’s purchasing.
One of my dear clients arrived to drop some keys off for a closing that’s coming up, and knowing I’ll likely not personally see her again, I’d decided over the weekend to gift her a remembrance I’ve had in my possession for a very long time, because I believed she would appreciate it just as much or more than I have. When I handed it to her, she became teary-eyed, which likely meant it was being well received. After she left, I was convinced it went to the appropriate person. Knowing all she’s given and done for me, that keepsake was the least I could give her. Yes, it’s always good to gift from the heart.
I’ve been on a burn to get all the documents readied for a closing we’ve now got scheduled for mid-week, and just shortly before closing time, the last documents we were needing finally arrived, so I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed that it gets closed without any more intervening circumstances.
One of the workers I’d hired last week stopped by my office to pick up a check as an advance on what work he’d already done. Unfortunately for him, he was the recipient of a strong reprimanding from me regarding his jumping from one un-finished project to another, and in spite of him wanting to fill me with some lame excuses, I simply said, “I’m not going to listen to any of your excuses, and from here on out, I don’t ever want to catch you starting something, and later leaving it half-finished, and then running over to work on something else.” You may think I was a bit hard with him, but I’d already told him up front when he started, how much I insist on completely finishing something before starting anything else. I hope after today, I’ll not have to do any more ear-chewing with him, and if I do, he’ll soon be history.
Once again, my office’s mail was a good two hours late, so when I caught the delivery person, I asked why our mail’s been so late. Well, according to him, they’re not only short-staffed, they’re also having to fill in for those who’ve been calling in sick. He said there were some days where he didn’t didn’t get finished with his route until after seven. My gosh! Delivering mail in this town in the dark, would be something they couldn’t pay me enough to do, and especially when having to deliver on foot.
I’m slowly but surely getting the components of my Christmas gift packages for my group of seniors rounded up, and hopefully by the end of this week, I’ll have everything I need with the exception of the things I’ll be creating. Yes, we’re only two weeks away from Christmas, so I’ve gotta keep on track.
For whatever reason, I found myself watching various ‘train wrecks’ on and off today, and I use the expression ‘train wreck’ when looking as something so out of the ordinary, you just can’t stop watching, and the first one happened to be a very out of place character who was standing outside my office this morning who seemed to be talking to himself while poking his nose in the public waste bin out near the curb, but what bothered me the most, was the number of times he’d walk over to that bin and start rummaging again. He must’ve done it at least five or six times until he finally walked off as continued talking to himself.
Another sight for sore eyes, was seeing an older guy blocking traffice with a beat up pickup truck, parked alongside the dumpster that construction company has parked at the curbside where they’re building that ticky-tacky apartment house at the corner of 2nd St. NE and N. Federal. I kid you not, he was standing on the the tall side of his pickup bed, and then reaching down into that dumpster and grabbing discarded pieces of plywood, and to make the ‘train wreck’ all the more crazy, he climbed up and straddled the side of that dumpster, just so he could dig out more. I thought for sure he was going to fall, and by that time, I had to stop looking and keep driving. What in the world is getting into the brains of some of these people running around our city?
As if I didn’t have my fill, I decided to go online, just to check out some videos which were taken in our city over the past four months, which had me doing more than one jaw-drop when seeing how those people were dressed, how they were singing, and they way in which they were carrying themselves. One of them could’ve been a clone of Charlie Chaplin, and one could’ve been a living and breathing Humpty Dumpty, and several other males were looking like they’d just returned from a month-long mountain man excursion, and yet another having a proudly displayed dowager’s hump, but the one that creeped me out the most, was this guy with very dark circles under his eyes who looked to be a modern-day survivor of a concentration camp. Don’t those people realize those videos are out in the cyber universe for all to see? Truth to told, most would laugh when watching such stuff, but for me, it’s plain and simply pathetic. Well, I guess that guy some years ago was right about living in ‘the last outpost’ when saying, “Considering where we live, we get what we get, and that’s all we get.” In light of the number of ‘train wrecks’ I watched today, I’d say I’m good to go for another six months.
Tonight’s One-liner is: Neither a wise man nor a brave man, lies down on the tracks of history to wait for the train of the future to run over him.
