A phone call came early this morning to my cell from someone wanting to see a property listed with my office. They asked for a viewing this morning and the owner lives there. Fortunately I managed to catch the owner before leaving for work and got the OK to show. When I met them there, I could tell they’d been looking at other properties simply because of the way in which they inspected the home by looking for key updates as well as asking the questions most only seasoned buyers ask. It was a good showing and I think there’s some interest. The young gentleman began talking about how so many men his age don’t know how, and don’t want to learn how to make home improvements. He went on to say that when he was growing up on a farm, his entire family learned how to do things and worked very hard at becoming proficient at given tasks. I told him he’s a dying breed and certainly should have himself cloned. He laughed and said, “I would say the same thing about you since you seem to understand much.” Chuckling I replied, “I don’t think Mason City is ready for a litter of me.” It really brightened my morning having spent time with a mover and shaker from the younger crowd. There have been more times than I want to remember when I hired younger people to help with projects and found too much time being spent on cell phones as well as getting a bit tuckered out before I even caught my second wind. A worker said to me once, “You really seem to have a pace that doesn’t slow.” I said, “We all must learn to gage our stamina to where it’s in a comfortable range of effort and then just place yourself on cruise.” We don’t get tired out when we stay at a leisured pace and stay focused. In performing a good deed today for a client, two hours of my remaining focused without interruption caused my client to believe me a work horse simply because of how quickly the job was completed. Two words we must all remember when beginning a job, and they are focus and cruise.
Every day I’m noticing more and more progress in the Downtown. The two new businesses to the 100 Block of North Federal are a welcome sight along with renewed work on another building in that block which sounds like we’ll be having a new place to grab a cup of java along with a whole lot more. Maybe I won’t have to drive somewhere for lunch anymore. I have absolutely no problem frequenting local coffee shops and eateries as long as they’re kept clean, presentable, and offer fair prices. I was reading an article last evening about a restaurant that was remodeled along with an addition where the owner incorporated very old parts of his structure into a clean modern design in its addition. Just by looking at the photos I could see why it was highly rated and considered the best in the area. The owner mentioned how he believed that not only should the food be good, but also the ambiance of the entire experience was a crucial component for his customers. He was keen to bring in as much fractured natural light into the interior’s design. With the ceilings being very tall, the light was able to travel deep into the interior. I grow tired of business people being so overly energy conscious by making their windows smaller and lowering their ceilings. Every time I go into a public building that has an 8 ft. ceiling, I feel like I walking into a living room of someone’s home and believe I’ve just intruded upon someone. I’d rather like to see more business owners returning to the concept of having tall ceilings and natural light filtering into their shops and offices. Perhaps they’ll find themselves more comfortable in their 8 hr. a day work environments along with more paying customers.
