It’s so interesting to have spoken about the smell of Lilly-of-the-Valley but only yesterday, when as I was walking up the front steps of a home this afternoon, I could smell them. I looked on the other side of the steps and there they were starting to bloom. They definitely can send out an aroma that extends quite a distance.
I found myself today donning bluejeans and an old shirt to get at some menial work that’s been long overdue. Never liking clients or customers seeing me robed for labor, one of my customers who wanted to meet me at my office on short notice certainly must have considered me looking quite the different from how he normally finds me dressed.
I laughed to myself in thinking he must have considered me looking something like a day worker standing on a corner waiting for someone to pick me up for a hard day’s work. Speaking of day workers, I was contemplating how much our society has changed from say 20 years ago. The only time I would see day workers standing on street corners, was years ago when visiting relatives in Southern California where many Hispanics would come up from Mexico to daily seek out work. Now it seems to be happening everywhere. Too many of the contractors around the country are getting cheap help so they can cut a more fattened hog for themselves when bidding jobs. Back when we had the hail storm of 2001, I couldn’t believe the number of Hispanics crawling around on dangerously tall homes with steep roofs. I had one of my roofs re-shingled by a contractor whom I believed had his own employees working, but found after the fact that it wasn’t the case. Again, it’s all about investing in our community rather than thinking only about how one can get farther ahead of others. There’s a home not far from the swimming pool that was once a very nice home and now it looks like a pig stye on the exterior. Just another one of those foreclosures that an investor picked up for a song and likely bleeding it dry without even a second thought about how it’s affecting that neighborhood. The recent press we’ve been reading about the North End of Mason City needing to be cleaned up is only a small part of what’s happening in other older districts around our city. I’ve told many recently that the North End which made headlines, is the same district that was my bread and butter market area many years ago be those good years or bad. Back in those years, homes up there sold to many first time buyers who couldn’t afford to live in more ritzy neighborhoods, and believe it or not, they enjoyed living there and many stayed for years and raised their families in those very homes. Some of those homeowners are still living in the homes I sold them so very long ago. I do believe something will finally start happening wherein a select number of landlords will be forced to take ownership of their problem properties and deal with them under strict and scheduled time frames. If it happens, the momentum will build and perhaps in several years, we’ll start seeing some good and lasting changes.
Likely all the restaurants were busy serving many of the mothers of our city. I noticed several faces yesterday of whom I know live out of State and for sure have arrived to spend some quality time with their mothers. I took the above photo today as an online living bouquet of flowers for all our mothers. Happy Mother’s Day 2015
