It evolved into a great day in North Iowa today after the clouds cleared and the streets and lawns began to melt from the light snow shower we had overnight. A newcomer to the area from out of State asked about our weather here in the northland and all I said was that we have pretty much nine months of tolerable weather, and the remaining three are filled with hit and miss days of good and bad. With a wink, I reminded him and his wife that every beautiful rose has its thorns. These are the weeks where female ducks are looking for nesting sites downtown and make me smile when I see them nonchalantly waddling back and forth across streets where they slow cars and get a few honks to boot. One drake almost lost his tail feathers by a faster moving vehicle who’s driver seemed oblivious to his jaywalking. He bolted and flew off quacking back at the driver for nearly scaring the pin feathers out of him.
Since I’ve been noticing more of my competitors business cards on the counters of some of my listings, I’ve just recently noticed a pattern in the way in which they’ve been having their photos taken. It seems there’s some sort of gimmick going on where one sits a bit sideways and leans forward for the photo while looking upward towards the camera. Hmmm, I wonder what that’s supposed to represent. It must have some sort of evocative significance since far too many are doing it. I was showing homes to one of my dear customers who happened to notice one of these photos and said, “Joe. Why don’t you have your photo taken like this?” I rolled my eyes and said, “Well, first of all I would have to get glamoured up and maybe get a few Botox injections on my lips, have some of my gray hair highlighted, and have my eyebrows and eyes sculpted.” He laughed and said, “I’ve got a really good set of chisels in my workshop I can borrow you.” He certainly got the better of me with that said. Yes, we gotta have fun sometimes even when conducting serious business.
While driving out to an acreage today I noticed a beautiful chestnut horse with a blonde mane prancing around in an outdoor horse arena. If there ever was a horse that could have been reincarnated, he was a dead ringer to one I had when young. My stallion’s name was King and appropriately named. Thinking back and seeing him in my mind’s eye, I can’t ever remember a time when he wasn’t royal. His walk, his neighing, his trotting and gallop were always graceful. Even when grazing and drinking water there was always that air of being above all the other animals. He was quite the handful sometimes whenever he didn’t feel like having someone ride him. Several times he’d even get up on his hind legs in defiance pretending he was going to take me down.
Yes, animals are sometimes more like humans than we’d ever want to admit. It may sound terrible, but there are a few people who remind me of an animal or two we had wandering about in the barnyards. An elderly yet quite peppery gentleman used to make a few ridiculing comments about people with overly white and super-sized teeth. Seeing someone walking down the sidewalk with those characteristics would conjure a comment of something like, “There goes a mouthful!” Remember, we gotta have fun sometimes while keeping it all in the realm of spirited grace.
