So here we are again at the crossroads of nature’s yearly tug-of-war between night and day. With this being the day where we have the least amount of daylight during the entire year, beginning tomorrow, the hours of sunlight will once again steadily grow longer which is just fine by nearly all of us.
As was expected, it was quite the busy day for me which began by having an earlier than normal appointment and then others quickly follow. As I was driving home this evening, I suddenly realized I didn’t have lunch today because of appointments I had over my normal lunchtime, but what kept me going, was randomly munching on about three or four homemade oatmeal raisin cookies out of a large box an absolute dear one gifted me this morning. I’ll have to get the recipe from her and share with you all because they really we quite good. The next time I talk to her I’ll have to mention they were even better than what my mother used to make.
Around mid-morning, I opened a sold home for a buyer’s final walk thru before we went to closing. I mentioned while walking thru it that if I had a dozen of homes like it on the market, they’d all be sold more sooner than later because of its location, the updates, and its price. But as far as I’m concerned, it was also due to how clean the home was which is highly unusual considering the age of the seller. As I’ve said a hundred times, “A clean home will sell the fastest.”, and if only all our sellers would fully understand it’s on-going confirmation, they’d be scrubbing their homes from stem to stern before listing them.
My closing today had a very soft landing and I’m hoping to keep in touch with the buyers and sellers because they really are the most wholesome people. I was almost teary-eyed when it was all over because that sale was a near perfect match-up of a darned good buyer purchasing a home from an exceptionally good seller. There wasn’t a hitch to be found in the whole process other than an over-sight on my part which was quickly remedied this morning.
I’d promised to have my new listing posted online today, but with my stacked appointments, I didn’t have time to get out to the home and get the photos taken until mid afternoon, and then wasn’t allowed time to get it posted because of additional phone calls to return and errands to run. Believe it or not, I even had a few moments to run and purchase several more small Christmas gifts.
You know that Christmas tune that has the words, “And he knows when you’ve been naughty or nice..” which is about Santa and his gift giving. Well, yours truly was naughty enough this afternoon to where I’ll likely get a big chunk of coal in my Christmas stocking. It all started when I was in a drive-thru banking lane where the person ahead of me was taking way too long, so I backed up and pulled into the “air tube” lane. After I deposited the checks in the tube, there I sat all the longer waiting for another teller to complete the transaction, and again there I sat with car running. The teller finally sent the tube back and waved at me. Since I’ve known her for a good many years, I couldn’t help but loudly say, “Can’t you get any slower?” Oh Mercy! The look she gave me! Of course she then replied while shaking her finger at me and saying, “I was going to ask you if you wanted a Christmas cookie, but I don’t think you deserve one.” Naughty me had to have the last word by replying before driving off, “No thanks, because I’m still not over that dented day-old donut your bank gave me!” Now see, I really am deserving of a chunk of coal.
A very historically-minded and life-long resident of Mason City called this afternoon to tell me a home in the Historic Downtown that we’ve both admired for years has suddenly disappeared. That historic stucco-over-limestone home was located at 130 – 2nd St. NW and was likely the oldest home still standing in Mason City because it was built in 1870, but I believe it was even earlier than that.
How can our so-called “City Fathers” have agreed to such destruction? When I looked up the property transfers, it appears our “wonderful” County purchased it and likely for a few more un-necessary spots for parking cars. What a terrible loss!
There’s no question in my mind that the reasons so many historic buildings and homes have been demolished in our City is two-fold. Firstly, many of our past and present elected and appointed officials aren’t originally from Mason City, which for better or worse, they have no warm and fuzzy ties to our historic buildings. And secondly, there are always those single interest groups who want to make a name for themselves by possibly lining their pockets along with getting the general public to believe they’re being progressive by making what they think are good changes. Irregardless of their reasoning for tearing down that prime example of an early frontier homesite, what they did was very wrong and whomever gave the nod to do it should be shamed.
The City Assessor has already removed all the photos of it from her website, but I did find one which is on the following Zillow link, and I believe tonight’s one-liner is most befitting.
Tonight’s one-liner is: It is an unscrupulous intellect that does not pay to antiquity its due reverence.
