Holtz Realty

The hoar frost this morning was quite beautiful to where I was compelled to take the above photo of a clump of trees I happened upon while on my way up to Worth County this afternoon.

I was out at my sidewalks with a vengeance this morning just to make sure all the light snow and sand was cleared off.  One of my neighbors down the block must’ve decided that sawdust was just as good as sand, and I hope they don’t continue using it because it’s sticky enough to where it attaches to the bottoms of footwear and then gets tracked indoors.  I’ve personally never before heard of people throwing sawdust on ice, and certainly in hopes it’s not a new fad.

From before the sun arose, I was randomly asking people if they knew the name of the frost that was covering our trees and shrubs.  To my surprise, I found that nearly 90 percent of them didn’t know the name of it.  I can’t remember not knowing what hoar frost was.

A dear elderly client at my office told me that our younger crowd has re-named it as being freezing fog.  We got a good laugh when I told her that I’m certainly at least a 100 years old considering how many old words I freely use while writing and speaking.  I’ll never forget the look I got from a young woman this morning when I said, “It looks like we’re going to have hoar frost today.”

Over the lunch hour, I changed into my work clothes to help a gentleman move a stove which I purchased last week.  Thank goodness he had a mover and a pickup truck.  It was another reminder that if you have the proper tools and equipment to do something, it makes any given job much quicker and easier.  Since that stove was in such good condition, I figured I’d go ahead and buy it because I’ll be putting it to use in the near future.

It looks like my extended-term sale file is finally going to get closed this week, and for sure, everyone involved in that transaction will be glad it’s over.  When you come to know the buyers and sellers phone numbers without looking, it’s pretty much a given you’ve been spending some extra time with them on the phone. I’m exceptionally thankful that both the buyers and sellers remained patient thru this marathon process of procuring a loan.

This afternoon I ended up in conversation with a gentleman who was on a bit of a rant regarding our systems of government.  What got it started was when we were talking about how the drug companies in the past having been able to push so many now questionable drugs onto the general public.

I went on to tell him that this is not something that’s recently happened because there’ve been special interest groups swaying government policy since the time our country was founded.  As long as there are big businesses with war chests full of cash, their lobbyists will continue in their attempts to “grease” the palms of  Congress and everyone else holding any sort of governmental seat of power.  Grass roots movements are oft times the only outside voices that politicians keenly listen to, and that’s usually because they’re afraid of being booted out of office for not following the will of the masses.

I’m sure you’ve all heard of PACs which is the acronym of a Political Action Committee which is an arm of associations, unions, and any other special interest groups.  People belonging to those groups give donations to their PACs so to insure their voices are heard on their State and National levels.

I believe my gentleman got an information over-load from me because he just shook his head while exclaiming, “We’re living in an illusion of democracy!”  All I could say was, “There are times when a person would rather not know what questionable deals are being made behind closed doors because it would cast all the more doubt on the integrity of our elected officials.”  I gave him a good pat on the back before he walked out while saying, “I’d still rather be living here than in China, Russia, or any other country that’s being controlled by one man’s rule, because that’s where real corruption takes hold.”

Tonight’s one-liner is:  Nearly everyone’s been so wrongly programmed since very little about what they can’t do, as well as what’s impossible.